In October of 2009, we planned to have a biking expedition from Pune to Alibag, Kashid and Murud which is some 160 Kms away. That time we had to cut short our trip due to an emergency and visited only Nagaon and Kashid.
What couldn’t happen in 2009, happened in 2010. I, Nilesh, Alok and Bhagyashree set out for Road Trip II. The Plan: Pune – Srivardhan – Harihareshwar – Murud – Kashid – Alibag – Pune all in 2 days !!
We started on the morning of January 25th, 2010. After having a sumptuous breakfast of pohe and tea at Chandni Chowk, we set out towards Mulshi. We had decided to take the Pirangut – Mulshi – Tamhini Ghat – Nizampur – Mangaon – Morba – Mhasala – Srivardhan route. This can easily be traced through google maps. This is the shortest route into the konkan plains from Pune. After a few snaps at Mulshi Dam and maneuvering through the lonely but beautiful Tamhini ghat, we reached Morba for some tea. Tamhini ghat is extremely lonely and with no visible help of food/fuel or repairs in sight for a long time, it is advisable to cross this section only during day time.
We finally reached Srivardhan at 12:30 PM after travelling 160 Kms. We checked into a home stay for Rs. 450 a room, had some nice fish thali at a local restaurant (Prasad Vichare) and headed for Harihareshwar which is 20 Kms away. Harihareshwar has a famous temple. While the temple is a simple place, there is way through the temple to top of a hill from where you get a spectacular view of the Harihareshwar beach on one side and rocky formations on the other. We also spotted some dolphins from there! As Harihareshwar beach isn’t safe for bathing, we headed back to Srivardhan before sunset to bathe in the sea and enjoy the sunset. It’s amazing that one doesn’t get bored of the beaches how many a times you see them. As the cool sea winds started to soothe our bruised asses, we knew there’s more coming tomorrow :)
We woke up the next day to the sound of children singing patriotic songs early morning. That is when I remembered that it was Republic Day. It is this law of the land which prevails which is allowing us to make such a trip a success!
There are two ways to go from Srivardhan to Murud. One is to reach Dighi Port (20 Kms) and take a jetty to Rajapuri (20 Mins) from where you can go to Murud (another 10 Kms). This is obviously the shorter route. But because of the uncertainty of timings of the jetty, we took the longer route (totally by road) to Murud which is around 60 Kms. The road from Srivardhan to Murud was the most beautiful road in the whole trip. While the initial patches were bad, later on the road became smooth and with the sea view on the left, the bike ride was fantastic!
Murud is a long beach. While the surroundings are great, the beach suffers from deposits of black silt. I would recommend not bathing in this beach as you would get dirty in the silt as you get out of the beach. We had some refreshing lime soda at the beach and then did some beach biking! Yes, as the beach is long and the sand is stiff, you can ride a bike on this beach. After our outing, we decided to have lunch at one of the beach side restaurants. While the food there was good, the service was pathetic. We started for Kashid beach around 2 PM which is just 20 Kms away.
I was horrified looking at the crazy Mumbai-Puneites at Kashid. While the approach road was chock-a-bloc with MH 01 and MH 12 vehicles, the beach resembled something like Juhu! Inspite of the crowd, the beach was good to have our second dip in the ocean J We managed to climb up a nearby place to have a look at Kashid beach from the top and man, what a view it was! I am sure none of the general public knew about this place and we patted ourselves for how smart we were ;)
Now it was 4 PM and it was time to head back. We went towards Alibag, took the city bypass, fueled up once again and headed back at 5 PM. This time we took the Pen-Khopoli-Lonavala route as it was getting dark. While the Pen-Khopoli-Lonavala route was serene, smooth and full of natural beauty, Lonavala – Pune was an example of modern infrastructure at its best making us cruise past 70-80 Kmph to reach Pune by 8 PM. After having some nice Paratha’s at our favorite ‘Aunty’s Parathas’ in Pashan, we came back to the hostel.
It was a bike trip like I had never done before. We travelled for 483 Kms in 2 days visiting 4 beaches and covering the entire Raigad coast. Yes, we felt the pain in the ass more than once but it was all worth it!!
Acknowledgement: While I keep on hearing stories of how GPS is all so helpful in the US, in the absence of any such thing in India, I must say Google Maps has done a fantastic job for helping us plan the trip to perfection with most major towns, roads, turns and distances mentioned accurately. Our trip wouldn’t have been as easy as it was without Google maps :)
