After our ride to
South India in Jan 23, we were itching to get the bikes out for something longer than a Sunday morning spin, and so, the itched was scratched.
I was spending an evening with
JP Singh when he mentioned about the superb, freshly laid tarmac at Anuskara Ghat, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra. I generally don't need much encouragement to ride and, in that way, quite fickle minded. So, a quick phone call to Gurpratap and we were all set to leave April 8th for an overnight ride.
Rajnikanth doesn't sleep, he waits. Thats how I feel the night before each ride. :) We began our ride from Lullanagar Chowk, Pune, Sat morning 5.30am and made tracks for Bhairavnath which is our customary stop for a cuppa chai situated 70 km from Pune at the foothill of Khambatki Ghat.
Fortified after some tea, we tore up the ghat despite there being a fair amount of traffic building up. (
I guess with the onset of summer, the trucks get on the road earlier whilst it is cooler) We pushed on towards Satara after stopping to refuel the bikes enroute.
The Ninja was low on fuel as I had not filled up after the previous Sunday ride. My bad!
It began raining. Shucks! who would have thought? We were not carrying any rain gear, Damn! Fortunately, it was just a passing spell and the roads dried up before we passed Karad. Incidentally, the flyover at Karad has been demolished with something else coming up in its place but for the foreseeable future the road narrows and is slow going.
Just a little after Karad, we took a right turn at Narayanwadi and pointed the bikes West. Here, we stopped for some vada pao and tea. Met some subscribers and some ladies who wanted to pose with the bikes.
The road from Narayanwadi to Malkapur is simply fantastic. Picture this - smooth winding roads, beautiful vistas either side, rustic villages, clean air and a whole lot of other indescribable stuff. From Malkapur, we carried on straight (
the right turn goes to Amba ghat) towards Anuskura (
there is decent signage to indicate directions, for everything else, there is Google Aunty) It began raining again and I immediately reset the Ninja's Power Mode to Low and raised the Traction Control KTRC to 2. Once again, this was a passing shower albeit a more intense one.
We reached the crest of Anuskara Ghat which was super windy and here Gurpratap's lid flew off the ledge and vanished into the steep gorge below. The C3 Schubert lid and Cardo Bold unit "Gone in 60 seconds" was an expensive loss of around Rs.80,000/-.
Attachment 2442711 
The road from the crest to NH66 (
approx 15 km) is patchy with road work going on and becuase of the rain, there some parts which were full of mud and slush. Here KTRC was stepped up to level 3 which is the most intrusive.
Our plans had now altered as the order of the day was to buy a helmet and so we decided to head for Ratnagiri. Man, that stretch between Oni and Ratnagiri on NH66 (old Mumbai Goa Highway) was arduous, tiring, hot, humid, dusty and sweaty. The 4-laning work is still in progress and has numerous diversions with some speed-breakers (
gathi-rodaks) for good measure as well.
Gurpratap picked up a helmet from Bikers Shop Ratnagiri and since both bikes were filthy we decided to go to a washing centre close by. Here we also met with subscriber Mohd Kaif and an hour later we headed for a tuck-in to a sea-food restaurant called
Matsyam
Prawns Masala
Bombil Fry
We got back on NH66 and headed back towards Hathkhamba and after refueling the bikes we headed for Amba Ghat. The first 10 km or so from Hathkhamba are not good (
same story, road construction work) but the rest of the journey was super duper. At 5pm we reached
The Jungle Resort at Amba Ghat for our overnight stay.
I would recommend the AC wooden log cabin should you visit here. The evening was spent chilling out and after some local fare for dinner we called it an early night.
We left at daybreak the following morning and the ride down Amba ghat in all its splendor was on tap and a treat to behold. I shall end this travelogue with the pictures below and to say we reached home 11am after covering a round trip of 670 km.
The video from this ride is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTImE7VjtUM&t=270sGreat trip report Akso and loved the pics. Feel really bad about the double hit on the Cardo / Schuberth - real shame and can feel your friend's pain to lose a high quality lid and comm system. Significant monetary hit aside, its a double whammy given how difficult it is to even repurchase these helmets in India at the moment.
Some of my riding buddies recently did North Goa via the Karad - Malkapur - Amba ghat - Rajapur - Kudal route during IBW and were raving about the quality of tarmac and the scenic beauty of the route (if I'm not mistaken you have some nice windmill sightings also on this route), specially if going into North Goa.
We had been meaning to take this option up during a separate Goa ride in Jan but ultimately ended up taking the conventional Amboli option. Driving / riding on this route is definitely on my bucket list at the moment and seeing this post was a good refresher to hopefully make it happen at some point.
Great Travelogue.
I know this route from childhood and travelling on it every holiday to come to our home.
I will suggest next time when your go to Ratnagiri, come form Sangmeshwar- Devrukh- Sakharpa. The road is fabulous with smooth surface, lots of twisties and very less trafic. Actually I had many fights with my brother so I can get drive from Sangmeshwar to Amba rl:
