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By now, all plans of Goa had vanished and all I (and I'm sure Satya & Dharam) wanted to do was rest and sleep. Just to get away from this madness. Ajaz/Wasim still had no accommodation done and we weren’t sure how far would we reach before it gets dark. Ajaz wanted to stay at Tarkarli MTDC since it was where he had stayed earlier and it was good. I wasn’t sure we would make it that far. Nyways. We just pushed on now on a new route that Ajaz’s friend suggested at around 4.30pm! As per him, the fastest way to reach Malwan was via Radhanagari-Phonda-Kankauli. That’s what it had come down to, lets just get there. But can it be easy? Ajaz just fell of his bike and sprained his ankle and with tensions running high, the Ambition & ZMA decided to stop a while for tea while we went on. Thankfully Uparwallah had finally noticed that we were getting pissed off by all this and he set us on a course that surely was what the entire ride would be about.
***
The road from Kolhapur took us through a small ghat first where we passed the Radhanagari ghats and the Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary, a place that figures on the UNESCO site's list of probable future World Heritage Cluster.
My bike decided to get thirsty and give me a few creeps but thankfully we found a Petrol Station in that midst of nowhere right after the Radhanagari ghat. While having tea and talking to the villagers on the virtues of the new Bullet over the old, they mentioned that Phonda Ghat that lay ahead was infamous of dacoits stopping and looting vehicles after dark. That’s never good news when dark is only minutes away. All we could do was gulp the tea and gun our bikes. Satya for once gunned his bike as if there was no tomorrow and this was gonna be his last ride so fk the engine! Just as we moved on, the Ambition and ZMA caught up. We decided to stick together but not before long, Me & Satya were the only onces riding together under the canopy of the trees. It was slowly getting dark and the tinted visor on my helmet was hampering my visibility. As soon as I stopped the bike in the already scary jungle (remember it was a wildlife sanctuary!), Satya just screamed ‘Don’t Stop! Don’t stop!’ scaring the shit out of me! Trust me, I’ve never ever panicked so much! I just plopped the helmet on my head, started the bike and rushed of with Dharam sitting behind. It was dark now and though scary (I don’t ever ride in the night!), the roads were empty and the ghats beautiful. The whole experience then on was in a single word ‘MINDBLOWING!’. Doing 60’s on smooth ghats with no oncoming traffic, darkness all around, trees above & head lights dipping, we went on riding like never before. All we could hear for a long long time was the exhaust notes of our bikes! It was as if we were in the Bikers Heaven!
***
Well, all the Bikers Heaven stuff is more of a hindsight. Back then when we were actually riding, we were just riding on and on scared to stop and looking for signs of civilization cause for close to an hours ride that felt like a lifetime, we barely saw a light. But finally, it (literally) dawned on us and we saw a few bleak lights in the distance. Phew! We had reached the Dajipur Bison Wildlife Sanctuary ( not its not on UNESCO list but features quite prominently on tourist websites) and there was this MTDC camp there. We stopped for tea and the other two bikes with their lunatic riders soon stopped as well. The tea was more of a lets-pop-a-toast-coz-we-r-alive thing! The stress of a boring ride had blown away and everyone looked quite cheerful. No place in the Dajipur MTDC so we had to move on further. Another ghat section soon followed albeit we were all pretty comfy by now and I looked forward to riding now.
Some super nice curves later, we were on NH17 and at Kankauli at around 9pm. Finding a place to stay turned out to be an ordeal with no neat hotels that would fit in our budget. Finally we found this manageable little place called Hotel Anant right on our way for the following morning. I was absolutely pooped and didn't even have the patience to have dinner or lock my bike! Just ate the awsome Tandoori Surmai and went to bed!! Had been a terribly long day! Started with a whimper but ended with a bang!!
***
Random Snaps -->
You don't wanna caught like this on the ghats and definitely not in the dark!
Sun setting in the Radhanagari Ghats...
Me & my Bull..Ya ya..I'm hitting the gym these days!
Creatures of the dark - Satya & Ajaz 
Dinner menu at Hotel Anant...
Thats the villagers right before Phonda ghat freaking us out with Daku stories.
Hotel Anant, Kankauli -- 5 Star Super Delux. Thats how it felt after a long hard day! 
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