It can be very frustrating to drive a bike in its run in period and I wanted to shorten that time as quickly as possible. So I though up of this idea of going to treks on Bike. Sachin supported the idea and Sachin, Sanket, Chaitanya and I took off for a trek to Kothligad on August 18.
As usual, Google earth was referred to and I decided on the Kalyan- Ulhasnagar-Ambernath-Badlapur-Neral-Kashele-Ambivli-Peth-Kothligad (61 km) route. The bikes go only upto Ambivli. However... the road was all potholed and dirty. Would have suited a dirt bike rally. From Neral to Kashele is awesome with the Wakas bridge in between and some lovely green field and all the farmhouses.
The climb from Ambivli was a bit tiring with all of us now hitting thirties and hardly exercising. In Peth we met Sawant who provides lunch and accommodation for trekkers.
We met a group of young boys who introduced us to their delicacy, the core of the stem of a Banana plant. did not look appetizing to eat, but was refreshingly tasty. Now we know what to eat if lost in the woods.
Nothing had prepared me for Kothligad. I had expected it to be a run of the mill fort. But the carved steps in the rock were breathtaking. They are also so well preserved that you can imagine yourself going a thousand years back into history and imagining how life must have been than.
We met some BARC guys who told us of a route from Peth to Bhimashankar. I can't understand why Bhimashankar has to figure in the list of "faadu treks" Ahupe Bhimashankar brings back terrible memories of fatigue and bruised groins. This one seemed equally bad. It has been put on the agenda, but I doubt we will do it before Ajit comes back into trekking, ( he has been recently married and hence he has been missing a lot of action... experience tells us that he will return in six to eight months)
On the top we met some Crest guys. Funny... earlier we used to meet a lot of IT guys.. now guys from animation also seem to have a lot of free time. Lots of funny events.. we saw a huge snake and it dissappeared before anybody could flip out a camera. Sachin's D40 had a drop of water drop on it in the cave, much to Sachins' chagrin. We found a Nikon D40 lens cover on our way back only to find out later that it did not belong to Sachin. Perhaps it was those BARC guys.
Sachin suggested we go back by the Ambivli-Kashele-Mhasa-Murbad-Kalyan route which is slightly longer. The route is amazing but it was night and we hardly got to see anything other than what was visible in the headlight. Chaitanya had me switch off the headlight a few times because he wanted to see the fireflies. The road is a billion times better than the route we took in the morning. Total kilometrage was 138 km.
Sachin showed us the route that goes to Siddhagad and I think our next bike trek will be there. My bike is past its run in kilometrage and now I can ride it no hold barred.
