About Pune to Goa bicycle ride
May 5th, 2020. I have been delaying writing about this trip for quite a bit now. It’s 2:00 AM and I can’t sleep. Hari, who has taken up the reins for WildTents has been writing about his adventures and escapades while encouraging the rest of us to write. Been avoiding the writing because of a medical condition called “laziness” so anyway, here we go:
September 6th, 2014, Prathamesh and I were preparing for our bicycle ride to Goa. Were we biting off more than we could chew? Maybe… only time would tell.
I had been lazy with my physical health. Work had been crazy busy and frankly, I needed a break. After a few Google searches, we figured out a route to Goa. The plan was to avoid highways and take interior roads, mainly not to get trampled by trucks and other highway regulars while taking in some rural beauty. It’s been a while since the trip so the details are a bit hazy…We leave before dawn so as to get a full day of cycling.
Funnily, unlike normal people who practice, I hadn’t cycled for ages. There was a time when I was cycling about 50 km a day but it has been about 12-15 years since last time. It had been just a few days since I had bought my bicycle as I was all excited about the trip. At the showroom I had finalized on a practical bike. While we were at the billing counter I laid my eyes on another bike, it looked awesome. I asked the sales guy to change the bike. It was ₹25,000 more expensive, so what? I’m entitled. I even added on fatter tires. At the time I hadn’t realized that this decision was going to bite me in the ass. Literally!
The route
Here is the route which we took for this bicycle ride.
Pune (Bopodi) – Mulshi – Mahad – Dapoli – Jaigad – Ratnagiri
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Time to ride: 5 days
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Total distance: 324 KM
Day 1: Pune to Mulshi
The morning of September 6th, pre-dawn, we were on our way. It takes us about an hour to get out of Pune from Bopodi. It was all straightforward, a couple of days before, I had practiced cycling about 15 km, though unsure of how or why that would help. It didn’t.
Once moving along, the Camelbak hydration backpack was coming in handy, it felt so cool drinking out of it. We took breaks every few hours, the going was slow but we weren’t in any hurry, it was about noon or slightly later as we reach near Mulshi, there is a ghat (twisty road that leads up/down hills or mountains) that we needed to climb, it’s not much but again, we aren’t Mr Lance Armstrong and it was difficult.
It took almost an hour. We were almost near the top when I get a horrible cramp. My entire leg had turned into a rock as if it had just seen Medusa. I fell in the middle of the road. Prathamesh comes back as soon as he had realized what had happened. Luckily there was traffic so I rolled to the side of the road. I was laughing with pain as I found it funny how bad of a shape I was in. Spent about 30 minutes before getting back on the bike. Going downhill is easy. I had had it for the day, we ate at a shitty dhaba (road-side cheap hotel). Found a place to stay. Since we didn’t know where we would reach each day, we hadn’t booked any hotels, we were winging it. I went to sleep after a hot shower. Planning to start early the next day.
Distance Traveled Day 1: 45 Kilometers
Day 2: Mulshi to Mahad
September 7th: Ass was a bit sore as we got ready to leave. We reached the water as it was a downhill ride. It’s a beautiful sight and the weather is awesome!
We took in the view before leaving. The ride was through Tamhini ghat so there were going to be a lot of climbs ahead. After one of the climbs, came a long downhill ride. Feeling the speed as we jammed was fun since I didn’t have to pedal. I reached and waited to see how Prathamesh was doing, it wasn’t looking good, the road was in bad condition and he went through a pothole puncturing his bike tire!
Luckily, we saw an abandoned hut where we could fix the tire.
We spent about 30 minutes before starting again just to realize that we hadn’t plugged the puncture properly. We were carrying spare tubes so we went ahead changing the tube before starting again.
It was late in the monsoons, the rains had laid a green carpet everywhere while the mountains stood around looking beautiful!
We took a break at a hotel in Tamhini ghat for lunch. It was a small hotel but the food was delicious. We made a note of coming back to this hotel again later. We again rode for 30 mins before beginning our descent. It was all easy going for the next 20-30 minutes. We were going faster than all the traffic. Overtaking cars, bikes, and everything else. On some of the turns, I had to bank hard just to make it. I slowed down a little and kept going. Prathamesh was a little behind so once I reached the bottom, I waited for him. He caught up grinning ear to ear. He tells me about a close call but the downhill ride had been just amazing.
We started again on mostly flat roads. Every now and then, we spotted kingfishers. At first, we were excited to see them but as we progressed, they were getting to be just too common so we tried to unsee or ignore them.
We still had a lot of time to ride so, the plan was to go for a few more hours to reach Mahad. We were keeping a good pace and reached near Mahad just around sunset. We could see the town so decided to take a quick break. It was monsoon so we were ready for the rain but luckily until then, we hadn’t had to ride in the rain. That was about to change, there was a heavy downpour for the last 10 km till Mahad. We scrambled to get to a hotel, in situations like these it best to ask a the locals to find a cheap hotel.
Found one hotel but the owner was a bit rude and didn’t really give a fuck. We requested to be allowed to take our bikes to our room so that we don’t have to unpack, but he refused. So we unpacked and got to our room. I took a hot shower and came out to find Prathamesh dejected. There were bedbugs. It was going to be an absolute nightmare! We contemplated changing hotels but it was raining heavily and we were too tired. We asked to change rooms but there were bedbugs in that room too. We kept all our stuff in the bathroom and let the tap run for a bit so that there was water on the floor. Hopefully no bed bugs would get into our stuff. We slept on the floor only to keep waking up nearly every hour.
Distance Traveled Day 2: 95 kilometres
Total: 140 kilometres
Day 3: Mahad to Dapoli
September 8th: We wake up and left that shithole of a hotel. The plan was to reach Dapoli. Ass was hurting like hell, this was the worst I was going to feel the entire trip. We reached a rural joint for breakfast. It was Missal Pav but tasty. Chatted with a few patrons who were curious to know where we were heading. One of them told us how he had gone to Pune on a bicycle some 20-25 years back. They wished us luck as we moved on.
We had to climb up a mountain again and I was dreading it. The lack of sleep was making me miserable and at one point I was about ready to give up. Luckily there was a small tempo which I was able to wave down. Prathamesh was up ahead, I put the cycle in the back and hitched a ride. Picking up Prathamesh on the way. The tempo took us along for a few kilometres till our paths diverged. This saved us at least an hour. We carried on feeling a bit better after the rest. We were near Dapoli before seeing a small joint barely the size of a telephone booth. There was a lady frying vadapav. We asked for 2 plates. She served us hot and freshly fried vadapav along with wet coconut chutney. It was the most delicious vadapav I have ever eaten in my entire life. I am wondering if that’s because I was tired and hungry or it was just that good. Now I can say that it was genuinely delicious and the best vadapav I have ever had. We ordered a few more and again a few more plates before moving on full tummies and content hearts.
We reached Dapoli wanting a good hotel to stay in. We had reached in good time and still had a few more hours before sundown to actually enjoy the stay. We asked some locals and also saw billboards for The Ferns resort, it looked good so we decided to head there. After a bit of searching, we reached. It was a beautiful resort. We haggled a bit for a discount but he didn’t budge much seeing as we didn’t have options or a vehicle to use for a get away either. We got a room that was sea facing. You could see the sea but since it was cloudy, we barely saw it once or twice. Rooms were good and we ordered a few beers. I was ecstatic to again enjoy a soft mattress after the horrible experience the previous night.
We have a relaxed evening and enjoy the beers.
Distance Traveled Day 3: 65 kilometres
Total: 205 kilometres
Day4: Dapoli to Jaigad
September 9th: It was a good morning! After a comfortable sleep, my ass was hurting a bit less or maybe I had gotten used to the pain.
We were in Konkan now. We planed to reach the Dabhol jetty to catch a ferry ride across. It was only 30 kilometres but we took our time to reach. We had time for lunch so we ordered fish thalis while waiting for the ferry ride. The lunch accompanied by solkadhi was simple but delicious. We kept ordering solkadhi throughout our entire lunch. At least drinking 4-5 glasses each.
The ferry ride was fun. We got across before starting our ride again. It was a crazy steep climb and we immediately started dreading the rest of the day. We kept asking locals about how the road is and most said it was flat but for them flat means something else. I guess if you are constantly going up and down, the ride down is about 15-20 seconds but the climb up took us 15-20 minutes. I realized that I should have bought the bike with the thinner tires. The fat tires were tiring me out.
We reached Guhaghar which is Prathamesh’s native place. While he visited the temples, the atheist that I am, waited outside. While waiting, I saw a big white bird in the tree and was immediately sure it was some cool bird that I haven’t seen before. I tried to get closer to find it was a majestic Malabar Hornbill. I was excited to catch a glimpse before it flew away. Kingfishers had been as common as crows and the asshats we are, we looked away whenever we saw a kingfisher. Prathamesh was back by this time so we went to the beach which was just across a betel nut plantation.
We got back on our bikes to continue. We didn’t have any plans to reach a specific place but at the pace we are going, there was no way we would make it to Goa. Most people make it to Goa in about 5 days. We realized that it takes practice and I suppose road bikes with thinner tires. Yet again I am cursing myself for buying a bike just because it looked better.
I had seen a good hotel near Hedavi so we planned to stay there. We continued riding up and down the supposedly flat road. All along, whenever kids saw us, they were happy and waved at us. It was funny seeing the kids try to say hello in accented English. Most of the time Prathamesh (who is the whitest guy I know) was riding upfront so they thought we were ‘foreigners’ till I went across at which point they realized that we are shudha desi. I was still happy to say “Hi!” to them at the top of my voice.
We saw some directions to the hotel and climbed down to get to it. We reached to find that the resort was closed during the monsoons, disappointment! Grudgingly we climbed back up, it was draining me. I was tired like hell. We needed to find a place to stay. We were carrying a small tent as backup but hated to open it. We asked some locals around before finding an auto-stand. We asked them to drop us at the next ferry which was at Tavasal. Finally, a fellow agreed on a price to drive us the 11 kilometres in his jeep and saving us at least an hour as it was getting dark. We were in time to catch the last ferry. Priyanka was happy to take us across.
It was dark and we had to ride up a steep climb to get to Jaigad where we planned to sleep for the night. There was some procession in the town and there were bands playing and folks dancing in the streets. We somehow get across the packed street and reach Jaigad.
Distance Traveled Day 4: 80 kilometres
Total: 285 kilometres
Day 5: Jaigad to Ratnagiri
September 10th: We planned to reach Ratnagiri. There was no way we could reach Goa. We had spare days, but no will!
We rode to Ganpatipule. Prathamesh went to the temple so, I went to the beach. We met up to have breakfast before heading to Ratnagiri. It was not too far but I felt I was done. We were on the scenic Aare-Ware road. It’s beautiful but mostly uphill.
I was tired and couldn’t go on any longer so I took a break, a pickup stopped by to check if I was okay, I asked him to drop us to Ratnagiri. I load the bike and sit in the back. Just about half a kilometre later, we picked up Prathamesh. He was grateful to be picked up. We rode the next 13 kilometres in the back of the pickup truck. We got dropped off at Ratnagiri. We went to the bus stop to figure out a means back to Pune. We could take a Volvo the next day or one in the evening. There wasn’t much to do in Ratnagiri so we decided to leave in the evening. We still had about 6 hours to kill so we headed to the beach. It was hot and I wanted to sleep so we booked a room in a hotel. It had a nice view.
We ordered lunch and a quarter of Old Monk (black rum). Had a few drinks, ate, and slept. The alarm woke me up. There was still light. It was around 5 PM and we still had a couple of hours before we headed back. We spent some time at the beach before checking out. All packed and ready to head back, we reached the bus stop. Loaded the bikes into the back of the Volvo and we are on our way home. I slept like a log and was woken up in the morning. It was around 5:30 AM as we reached Pune on the overnight journey. We cycled the 12 kilometres back home.
Concluding the bicycle ride
We had about 350 kilometres riding under our belt over the last 6 days. It was not only the end of a wonderful journey but also an amazing experience. Not sure if I would do a long bicycle ride again. Age is catching up to me and after a few surgeries on the knee, it’s a bit of pain in the ass. Cars are so much more comfortable and quicker ;). We plan to retrace our route again in a car someday. We did end up going to Velneshwar and Guhaghar a year later which was also a fun trip but that’s a story for another time.
It’s 4:30 AM and now the coffee is wearing off. Time for bed.
