The Kambhatki ghats, approx 65kms from Pune, offer pure cornering pleasure to bikers. its a one way ghat, so the chances of oncoming traffic are very less. What a shame, i was riding a moto-scoot, that too without rear brakes, and hence cudnt make full use of the inviting curves
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There is a pole indicating a telephone around, but there wasnt one!
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I tried experimenting by removin the front windshield of the Jupiter but in effect it became worse and kms later, i had it back on!
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Ashish didnt like the fact that i drank too much.... Red Bull!
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Somewhere before Belgaum comes this awesome view. Thats me with the Fireblade and the Jupiter.
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Hi, thats Bunny Punia reporting from the GIR!
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I have started experimentin a lot with takin pics while riding. this one came out real nice @ 80km/h
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The place where we had lunch in Belgaum and Vinayak Jee in the meantime sorted out the Jupiter and Blaze (minor probs)
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Sunil to Sunny : I just cant keep up with Bunny on the Jupiter. What shall i do?
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Minutes later, my Jupiter died..
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It was almost gettin dark and we still had to take out all the luggage, the Blaze and then put in the Jupiter and all the luggage!!
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23rd October : Pune – Panaji via Belgaum, app 500kms23rd October : Pune – Panaji via Belgaum, app 500kms
Break free. Please. Break free from your air-conditioned cars, from world class Volvo buses, from airplanes and trains. Pick up a two-wheeler, be it any, from an automatic scooter to a full blown tourer and set out to discover India. Today was the best day for me here on the Leg 2 of the GIR in terms of India’s beauty and to actually see and feel this beauty, you need to be on a two-wheeler, away from the bounds of four walls of a four-wheeler. From the long sweeping straights to the awesome Kambhatki ghats, the back roads of Panaji to the tight curves of the Amboli ghats, the roads were inviting and so was the scenery surrounding these roads. Highways down south are definitely more interesting than above north and the more I tried to take my eyes off the road, the more I urged to stop and just soak in the beauty around. What a pity, Amboli ghats and back roads of Panaji were done in the dark.
I really wanted to stick to the plan of leaving Pune by seven, but we got delayed by around an hour. Nevertheless, we made sure we made up for it by riding for long durations without a stop and kept our cruising speeds at around the ton mark, except for the Fireblade which was doing double of that! Katraj ghats were in a mess as usual but the roads thereafter were quite nice and I don’t need to pen down words for the Kambhatki ghats – heaven for cornering antics.
The small tank capacity of the Blaze showed its presence again when Sunil went out of gas and I had to backtrack 10 kms to push him till the next pump! My Jupiter in the meantime returned 32.1 kmpl, which included staying on the wrong side of the ton mark for most of the times – blame it on the awesome roads! But we did take a lotta stops too – blame it on the magic of India’s landscape!
Our plan was to take the NH4a from Belgaum to Panaji as we were negotiating Belgaum’s city traffic, the throttle cable of my bike suddenly snapped! Fortunately, a member of our club was riding around when he saw us and volunteered to show us to the nearest restaurant (for lunch) and we called up the back-up vehicle guys to proceed there as they would fix the bike in the time we would be munching on food. We also came to know that the NH4a would be a bad choice due to bad roads and so we took the Amboli ghat route but as had stopped a lot of times, plus Sunil running out of fuel, plus spending over an hour at each meal stop meant that by the time we left Belgaum, the sun had started to go down! The road we took wasn’t too wide, with fields on both the sides and very little traffic but there were numerous bad patches and we just couldnt get into a good rhythm of covering up miles. Seeing the sun go down behind the fields and hills, with lovely songs playing on the Ipod, was an experience that really makes you feel relaxed and rejuvenated and a lot more. Moments like these really last for a long while and depending on the song that’s playing, you end up missing your family, your love, your friends, your home, your machine and stuff.
We tried making up but my Jupiter again gave up on me when suddenly the engine died in the middle of a longish corner! The bike wouldn’t crank and we decided not to spend too much time on it, and instead got the Blaze down from the pick-up and put the mini-ship, Jupiter, up. It good a good half an hour to take out all the luggage and put it back and the place where we had stopped gave a uncanny feeling. Anyways as we carried on, within the first few kilometers, I understood it all. The almighty had done all this to save me! The roads were becoming full of pot-holes and the ghats started too, which meant that if I had been on the Jupiter, which still had no rear brakes, and whose front fairing would be falling apart anytime, there were quite high chances of me kissing mother earth, the hard way! The Blaze, in comparison to the Jupiter, felt too flickable and I was totally enjoying riding her, plus the fact that suspension too felt better! There was no traffic, no street lights and I was taking the curves full-toos scooter style – enthusiasts will understand what I mean. Even managed to out-run the Fireblade on the tight turns! But it wasn’t long before I realized there was no one behind me and as I stopped, the creepyness of the place started haunting me! The place was full of noise of insects, a tinge of fog and cold, and nothing else. Best place for bandits to strike haan.
Anyways moving ahead, we were getting very late wrt to our original plans and when a road diversion came for Panaji, I opted for the one which was around 20kms shorter but in bad shape. In the end I was glad I did it (along with Sunil and the pick-up). The road went through what you can call as the real India. Not a single vehicle came our way in the whole 15-20kms, no street lights, tinge of cold and fog, lot of steep climbs and broken bridges over small streams, isolate mud huts along the road and deep vegetation. Yes, the road was bad, but how I wished I had done it in day time to capture the images and share with you all.
Goa Xbhpians helped us a lot in taking us to Aneesh’s place for the night and rode almost 70kms to Margao along with us! As it was late, there wasn’t too much traffic and we reached his house quite fast. Aneesh’ mom had cooked delicious food for us and we didn’t even bathe (blame it on the hunger) and directly went for the food! I did have a bath, but after dinner and its 1 am right now, my eyes are almost closed, dead tired, but the memories of the day’s ride remain – those roads, those hills, those curves… incredible India for sure! I am in Goa - the all year party place. Tomorrow is going to be great…
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