Mumbai - Shirdi - Mumbai Bike Ride

This post I am writing about a ‘Holy trip’ which eventually turned the 'Best ride of my life' due to the weather conditions. We had been there many times, however, the best trip was this one which we enjoyed the most due to the reason of being in monsoon; our route was predefined. We decided to start on Saturday morning and we planned to cover Shirdi on the first day , following with Trimbakeshwar next day, night halt in Shirdi on Saturday night.
11th July
We decided to start the trip at 6:00 AM or 6:30 AM on Saturday, however, there was no chance we could have start on time.( You may call it as tradition or IST – Indian Standard time ) I don't know exactly by what time we started as I didn't had time to note it down as we were hell late.I think it was 8.00 AM. Initially the plan was to reach Shirdi by 2:00 PM, but due to our 'IST' expected delay, we were not even thinking to make this happen.
Riders Started :
1)Ashish – Discover
2)Umesh Nadkarni – RE 350
3)Dinesh Nadkarni – RE 500
4)D.Prasad – FZ 15
5)Vishal – Pillion
6)Sudu – Pillion
7)Reeto – Blaze
8)Kapil – Blaze
9)Uday – RE 500

So we started driving towards Malshej Ghat. Route was Thane – Kalyan – Murbad - Malshej. Weather was cool and we had our machines ready to roar on the roads. Our first halt was after Murbad. Dinesh stopped his bike and announced “Idhar ekdum mast chai milta hai”. I don't but somehow these two brothers ( Twinsparks ) know all the eateries on all the roads. I'm seriously thinking about awarding them the designation of “Food Ministers” in our group. So we had our Misal Pav as break fast and “Mast Chai” . Started to climb the ghat “Malshej Ghat”
Malshej Ghat
Somewhere down the state highway to Malshej Ghat, Mumbai and everything it stands for vanishes and the show begins to unfold. You don’t need a signboard pointing out the route to heaven, you will know when you have reached Malshej Ghat. You enter a Malshej, and come across all those waterfalls cascading down as if the set designer of the ghats was suddenly overcome with recklessness and decided to see how much beauty one place could handle. The drive up is beautiful enough , the picture has the kind of ethereal quality that makes your breath catch in your throat.
Malshej Ghat is a wildly beautiful haven of towering peaks and bottomless valleys, home to a hundred different kind of flora and fauna, and mountain air so fragrant and pure, you wish you could pack some to take back home. Miles upon miles of rolling meadows and paddies neatly stitched into a huge quilt of varying greens, the peaks hiding behind rolling mists and blue-gray monsoon clouds…all vie for your attention. You almost don’t know where to rest your wondering gaze.
Malshej in the monsoons is sheer poetry. Something happens to these hills when the rains come. The ghats come into their own when the rains begin to lash against them. And the beauty of the drive to Malshej at this time takes a stout heart to bear. Wet bark along the road and soaked valleys that make a long curve towards unmoving distant hills and the unavoidable clichés of mountain scenery, all maintain their own peace in a breeze that is mostly feeble.
Sudu also tried his hands over stretch of ghats on discover. We all were encouraging sudu to ride the bike for distance , but somehow he refused. Very light drizzle and rampaging ST buses in the ghat must have discouraged him.
Our Food Ministers are beaming with enthu again “ Idhar Vada Pav mast milta Hai”, “A baba 7 vada pav de , kaun kaun khayega ? “ now somebody tell me the logic behind asking the group member whether they will have the Vadapav after ordering for them. After Vadapav , Umesh ( second half of Food Ministers ) again shouted, “Aarey Bhuttaaa ! Bhutta Kaun Kaun Khayega ? “ Ha ha Ha ......

So after Vadapav and Bhutta and Chai ( Nothing like a piping hot Chai at Malshej Ghat in that light drizzle and cool wind ) , we were on our way towards Ale Phata.
Second Halt is at Ale phata , just to ensure that everybody is still with us. Suddenly few villagers came to Dinesh, “arrey yeh kya Bullet hai kya ?” “Kitna Average Deti hai?” “Kitna Mehnga Hai ?” too many questions from too many enthu villagers. They were all amused to see that shining 500 beast.
Ok, from Ale Phata to Sangamner . Umesh ( Food Minister ) Stopped at one Restaurant “Daulat”. “Idhar Mast Khana Milta Hai” Point taken sir, no doubts. We all parked our bikes and went inside. Every body ordered for their lunch. Umesh Asked one of the Waiter “Shirdi kitna Dur Hai ? “ He said “Malum Nahi “ Umesh Got Upset, “ Sala Kidhar se aya hai tum ? ORISSA se aya hai tum “ Hahahahahaha, Umesh declared that waiter's hometown before he gives any answer. “Orissa” Umesh's Logic behind that answer was , these days all waiters are from Orissa and they do not know anything.
So Shirdi was about 35 Kms. From Sangamner. After our Lunch and some sutta , we started for Shirdi.
Shirdi --
A pilgrimage for all. Its approx 280 km from Mumbai. It’s a place above all religions, castes and creed. Shirdi is the mystical town fragrant with the devotional intensity that sees devotees from across the world thronging to this small hamlet. Highly placed on the world map of spirituality, Shirdi is located in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra and close to the holy city of Nasik. Shri Sai Baba is revered as one of the greatest saints ever seen in India, endowed with unprecedented powers, and is worshipped as a God incarnate. Shri Saibaba of Shirdi lived between 1838 and 1918, whose real name, birthplace and date of birth are not known. An Indian spiritual guru and a fakir that transcended the barriers of religions, Saibaba of Shirdi was regarded with great reverence by all religion followers.

Back to journey...it was around 5:00 PM when we reached Shirdi, our stay was at “Hotel Sai Amey”. While booking our stay this hotel guy told me that he will book a hall for all of us, so that we can stay togather. Once we reached there , he showed us the “ HALL”........ hahahahahahaha.......... it was a room of 10 x 10. his hall was ending as soon as door opened. It was that small. Moreover this guy was arguing that “Boss yes room me 10 log rehta Hai”... haha..... We had few arguments and then he gave us one more room. Interestingly that room was bigger than his HALL. So my advice to the guys who are booking at Hotel Ameya , that if you are a group then do not believe his word about his BIG HALL and instead book a room. Anyway we accommodated ourselves in those two rooms. Reeto was out , probably he could not take the ride of about 300 Kms. Kapil announced “ we will get VIP darshan ”. He has some “Jack” at shirdi “ Dharam Singh”. Lovely.... We said wow.. we are lucky guys, “Baba Ke darshan, that too without standing in Long long long Q “ Good. Once we reached at the VIP entrance, our entire illusion about ourselves as VIPs came falling down. There were atleast 100 150 people standing at VIP entrance to enter in the temple. Hmmm..... that means we not the only VIPs , others also have some “Jack” in shirdi. We had no patience in standing in the long long long Q, so we decided to take “Mukh Darshan” and leave. It's basically a prayer hall adjacent to main temple, and from there you can see Sai Baba's idol very clearly. Right, so in that case , we also had Darshan. After this Darshan, we bought some prasad ( Laddu ) and then proceed towards “Hotel Moonlight”. We always go at this place in the night whenever we are in shirdi. This place remains open till 1.00 am. We settled down and ordered for our booze. “ DHADAM”... big noise ..... everybody realized “Umesh” had fallen down from his chair...hahaha...this guy has some history, he finds very innovative ways to fall down in every trip. So this time he managed to fall down from chair. “ SALA laga mereko.... SALA tumhara chair ekdum bundle hai ... phek do “..... Booze and food came. After few jokes here and there , we all were in deep discussion about the “Ashvamedh “ and membership criteria. Everybody opened up , there were few good suggestions too. We shall implement them in near future. Ok, so we finished at about 12.30 am or so. Retreated towards our room. Good Night !
12th July :
From Shirdi we decided to take Nashik - Trimbakeshwar – Jawhar – Mumbai road.
Trimbakeshwar --
It is a religious centre having one of the twelve JYOTIRLINGA of the world, approx 180 km from Mumbai and 22 km from Nasik city. Trimbakeshwar Temple was built by Shrimant Balaji Bajirao aka Nanasahib Peshawe in 1788. This Nagara style temple is built with local black stone and the sanctum features a beautiful tower. Out of the four doorways, three have porches which are adorned with arches and pillars. The deity installed here has five heads which faces towards different mountains surrounding Trimbakeshwar. The temple houses three ‘linga' of the size of a thumb and they are called as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Shiva). The Shivling in the main shrine of the temple is covered with a single-faced silver mask which attracts thousands of devotees from all over India. There is a continuous stream of water from the top of the Shivling. There are numerous teerths including the Gangadwara teerth, Varaha teerth and Kushavarta teerth in the vicinity of the temple. The temple is known for its appealing architecture and sculpture and is at the foothills of a mountain called Brahmagiri.

Back to the Ride. Reeto was almost down and out , and he was not at all feeling well. So he decided to end his ride at Nashik and take some rest . With reluctant hearts we bid good bye to Reeto and proceeded towards Trimbakeshwar. Few of us were little skeptical about the Roads to Mumbai from Trimbak. But for our surprise Roads were “Makkhan”, lovely twists and turns. Mountains covered with Green Velvet carpet , blue mountains , cool breeze , almost the perfect setting. From Trimbakeshwar we started at about 2.00 pm after having our Garma garam “Bhaji” and misal with Chai. From Trimbeshwar to Manor via Jawhar is about 135 Kms. It sounds a distance , but sheer beauty of this road and lovely weather forces you to just forget about the distance. For bike Ride “ Journey is important , not the destination” . We have gone for ride on this rode numerous times, but each time this road looks different to me. Each time it talks differently to me, each time this road suggest me about the beauty of the nature we normally miss.
From Vikramgad, Nadkarni brothers ( Food Ministers ) and Prasad took Wada - Kalyan Road , while we continued towards Manor at NH 8. Took halt at Manor. This was our last halt , before proceeding towards our respective roads to hour houses. Because of heavy traffic on NH 8 , there was every chance of loosing each other. So we had our chai and sutta and bid adieu to each other. Kapil , Ashish , Sudu and Me left for our houses. As perceived , we Lost each other in heavy heavy traffic. Our memorable Ride ended finally at 7.30 pm on 12th July. By far it was the best ride we had , without any break ups or hiccups . So Smooth !
We will definitely be back on these roads once again very shortly. Till then Good Bye !