Outdoor

Bullet and the beach

Posted On Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 11:33:19 PM

FIRELORDS
Big Wheels Motoring's Royal Enfield Owners' Club wing, meets every Friday opposite Sun n Sand Hotel. To join, email Yogesh at yogesh.jagam@gmail.com
or Nipun at nipuncool2002@gmail.com.

Yogesh Jagam

Nipun Srivastava

Bahut garmi hai yaar,” “Hmmm I know,” and this is how we decided that we would ride to Dahanu. Be it the heat or the rain or anything else, bikers always have their own way!

Dahanu is a surprisingly scenic beach on the west coast of India, famous for chikoos. There are quite a few decent hotels facing the beach, which makes Dahanu a very convenient beach as you never need to walk more than 100 metres to touch the waters of the Arabian Sea.

The exam season was over and every one had time on their hands. Well, we ended up being a group of 12 riders on our Enfields, double the initial count, awesome!

We started riding at 5 am towards Thane. The route took us from Pune through Thane from where we thumped along the Surat Highway (NH8) for an amazing ride through the Sahyadris.

The smooth four-lane highway took us on bridges over beautiful rivers and through the scenic Western Ghats, with our bikes thumping in tandem with our heartbeats.

It was a consortium of experiences, this ride, the temperatures were soaring but all along the highway there was not a single spot where one could sit under the shade and so the sun kept glaring down on us.

But you know what? Wet with sweat, loaded with our riding gear... helmets, jackets and gloves, when a rider gets on to the bike in that state, starts his beast and thumps up to speed, that feeling of the wind finding its way through the jackets and cooling the skin is just awesome.

Shade finally did come, at 1 pm in the form of a toll naka. The Charoti Gaon toll gate was in sight and I decided that we needed a break from all the high speed riding.

We got off asking, “Where’s the water?” As always the people at the toll were wondering what these alien like dressed mortals on a motorbike doing here. Curious glances is something a biker gets used to over time.

The beach wasn’t far, but then our bikes sure know how to make us feel at home. Adil’s bike got a flat tyre and some of us stopped to help him. Then guess what? A bike ran out of petrol! “Arey yaar yeh 500cc ki mileage ka idea nahi hai mujhe,” said Amey while we all tried hiding a smirk.

The last 20 odd kilometres of smooth winding roads under the trees and over small streams was a pleasure to ride through. Cool sea breeze and tall green trees and the sound of a smoothly thumping Bullet... it was an experience for the whole body. Wow!

Finally, riding through the town we reached our place of stay, Pearline Resort — it turned out to be a real rip off as the AC rooms had no AC for six hours each day and the management was ultra rude about everything, the saving grace was the food.

We had our fill, a much needed nap later, Aditi and I took our cameras and went out on the bike, we rode around in the sea breeze clicking photos. Amit joined us after a while, to do what we love doing best, apart from riding that is, photography.

It became dark soon and then the search, the search for Crazy Crabs, a restaurant somewhere in Dahanu for awesome sea food... we couldn’t find the restaurant but we did find awesome sea food back at our hotel. Some riders decided to leave in the night itself and some early morning... they did, but a certain few of us stayed back.

Next morning, it was just six of us on three bikes, Amit and Vijay, Yogesh and Carolyn and Aditi and I. We went to the beach in the morning after a filling breakfast and then it was time to unwind... some chose the pool some chose their room, we chose our cameras!

Photography to our hearts fill and we went back and joined the guys in their room, a couple of hours of jokes and we were ready for lunch. Post which we decided to leave, though I tried convincing everyone to stay another day but in vain.

It struck 4.30 pm and we left, three Bullets and six Bulleteers. On our way back we had decided to enjoy our ride as the temperatures were lower in the evening.

The ride back was way better than I expected — the views were even more amazing. Close pals, a bike ride and stunning panorama of the Western Ghats...what more does anyone need? We were at Thane at dusk and there the traffic got to us, we took a stop mid-city and waited out the traffic... dinner at Mc Donald’s and we were on the home stretch, the trusty NH4.

Buzzing over the empty highway we were home at 1 am, we took our sweet time doing this ride but in the end was worth it.

Every ride or road trip has its own pros and cons, but it is always an experience. Different people and different circumstances, different problems and different jokes it’s all a part of group dynamics, something the Firelords know all too well how to have fun. Aila! Biker!!!

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Outdoor

Bullet and the beach

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