A Donkey's Tales: Destination Goa : Day 1 : Part 1 -- > The “Republic Day” ride that was Hijacked!

Start Time : 8am
Starting Point : Lakshmi Narayan Theater, Swargate
Odo Reading : 3527.6kms (My Bull) & 1551.1kms (Satya’s Bull)
Fuel : Damn I didn’t keep a note!
Distance Covered : 3872.9 – 3327.6 = 345.3kms (Shame!)
Time at night halt : 9:30pm
Bikes : 2 Bullet Electra 5S', HH Ambition, ZMA
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Now if you were tossing in the bed all night worrying about not getting enough sleep, you are sure to wake up all weary eyed and late! Since I didn’t sleep for more than a coupla hours, I just got up at 4.30am to check things once more and get my gear cleaned. Dharam got up soon after and a shower (and a few more things) later, we were both on our way towards Swargate at around 6.35am. Satya, always the first to show up, was there waiting for about 25 odd minutes and as always looked pissed. We were to show up at 7am.

Ajaz always has to be better and didn’t show up even after we had rearranged all the stuff into the Cramster, had tea and listened to Ajaz saying that he had 3 cousins joining us along with him and he will be there in 20mins. Finally it was decided that we just leave and wait somewhere for breakfast after we cross Katraj Ghat and let Ajaz catch up.
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The 2 Bulls with me, Satya and Dharam did the Katraj ghat section in good time and we began our wait for the other two bikes, a Karizma & an Ambition. Both were in supreme condition as per Ajaz. Endless troubles later throughout the ride, Ajaz was proved wrong big time! You don’t take care of your bike, no point expecting it to deliver on a long ride! You just keep it running well all along or keep it in the city. Ajaz met us with Matin, Usman & Wasim for breakfast at around 8.30am at ‘Joshi Wadewale’ on NH4. Half an hour, 3 cups of tea, 2

plates of wada pav, poha twice over each, a failed attempt by me to fill air using the foot pump, and Wasim’s idea of deviating from the original route of Wai-M’baleshwar-Poladpur-Chiplun, we finally started at around 9am towards Kolhapur! We were now heading in the Kolhapur-Amboli-Banda-Patradevi route towards Goa/Panaji. Trust me, I’ve had to add Banda-Patradevi here after Amboli cause Wasim had no clue after Amboli inspite of claiming that he had done the route in 100mins on a scooter with 3 onboard! Such was his conviction and lack of ours that we agreed to the deviation. Beginning of things going away from whatever sketchy plan we had!
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We did the distance to reach Khambataki ghat by around 11am. Dharam had the camera and we were on move so no great pictures! I bear the brunt of the statement but there aren’t really any pictures that stand out. We crossed the beautiful ghat, watched sugarcane fields pass by and generally kept covering the distance towards Kolhapur. I was quite bored honestly cause highways are not where the fun is. We took an unusually long stop for fuel at a petrol station at around 12.15pm, still miles away from Kolhapur and the dreams of reaching Goa melting away. Heated and passionate discussions on which route to take followed again during the stop at the petrol station. I was all for Karad-Umbraj-Patan-Koyna-Chiplun route trying to hit the ghats and get around the boring highway route but Wasim still stuck to his Kolhapur-Amboli route. What later came to light was that Ajaz and setup a meeting with someone in Kolhapur during the after

noon and that was where we had to go. Jeez, the ride was being hijacked and I didn’t like it one bit! So we rode on towards Kolhapur in the afternoon sun when Satya decided to give me a slip about 80kms from Kolhapur and ride ahead while me and Dharam thought he was behind us all the time. A 15min wait and some serious worrying later (Dharam even thought of asking at the Tasawade Toll Naka if anyone had seen a biker down!), Satya switched on his phone and we found him to be ahead of us some 60kms away from Kolhapur. Riding at 80kmph on the Bull, me and Dharam caught up with him and the Bulls hit Kolhapur at around 1.30pm.
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The other two bikes were free to do the max speeds but the Bulls were stuck in the 60’s since Satya’s bike was still under its 2k odo reading. So it was expected that we would find Ajaz and the gang waiting for us at Hotel Opal (pretty well known in Kolhapur for its Tamda & Pandhra Rassa) for lunch. No surprise they weren’t there cause the ZMA was leaking a front fork due to broken seal and a mechanic was to be found, Ajaz was catching up with his friend and a Pulsar was being readied to replace the broken ZMA. Of all the days, it was 26th Jan and a public holiday so finding any kind of help for the ZMA was out of question. We (everyone minus Ajaz & Wasim) just had a hearty lunch of Tambda & Pandhra Rassa, Mutton curry, Chicken Fry and were resting our sore butts. I had given up on any ideas of making any further from Kolhapur and just wanted to stay right where I was. Trust Ajaz to turn up at all the wrong times, sacrifice the lunch for the common good, motivate us to just carry on and reach Malwan. We never had any accommodations taken care of since Ajaz was sure of making arrangements, which later Wasim took on. No surprises here that they were never done! So we started towards Amboli but with a catch. We had to pickup the Pulsar from Ajaz’s friends place! Gawd, this was killing me!
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