7th July 2009, 20:19
| #16 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Is it the one discussed here ?  |
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7th July 2009, 20:24
| #17 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 1,891
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7th July 2009, 20:29
| #18 |
| Senior - BHPian | A close up view of the starting. May be we should recommend a sign board that states the situation ahead of this curve. What say ?  |
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7th July 2009, 22:22
| #19 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Mumbai
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7th July 2009, 22:46
| #20 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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7th July 2009, 23:17
| #21 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
Posts: 7,148
Thanked: 27,189 Times
| Quote:
 again!! And so, I admitted to the fact that my first experience with that curve was almost life threatening. Wagon-R is a tallboy and is to be driven the way it should be knowing its limits completely to enjoy the ride. I dont go with critics who say this handles badly at high speeds as long as the driver knows that its a tallboy which is always susceptible to high winds and crazy over curves. On straights with better ansd wider tires, it performs really well.I have tried many misadventures on my Waggy before only to become a serious and a conscious driver over the years and kilometers which passed by. It always is worth to be safe driver than a fast driver. Of my past 3 trips to Pune, I admit that this was the safest with moderate speeds and an almost zero braking compared to the previous ones which involved sudden braking at higher speeds and cutting lanes to maintain that momentum while overtaking. End of it all, I realised that the time taken was more or less the same and no matter what, but this remains the fact with the present Indian road conditions. | |
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7th July 2009, 23:30
| #22 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
 Hey you forgot to confirm. That is the very curve right ? Or it is someother? | |
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7th July 2009, 23:40
| #23 |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
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| Pune-Mumbai and back and Bangalore return trip If we ever did Pune, we made sure that we visited Mumbai (My sister’s place) as this would also add another feather in my Waggy’s cap that it took us to the city of dreams too, on the splendid expressway.           We start at 10-25am from Anandnanagar, Pune taking the westerly Katraj – Dehu Road bypass to hit the expressway and pay the toll at exactly 11-00am. We are in Lonavala in no time for a quick break with hot tea and Vada Pav due to the extremely hazy weather conditions outside. Had intentions of getting down at the Lonavala exit, take the road to Amby Valley and capture some picturesque shots but it was fog and clouds everywhere and it only made sense to continue to Mumbai. The rain was only getting worse while we were crossing Lonavala town over the elevated highway. Then all of a sudden, we see traffic completely standstill and we had to wait for 20 minutes with windows shut and the AC on till it started moving.We realised that a landslide had caused the blocking of almost 2 lanes and IRB was on the job clearing the mess. Boy-oh-boy, the rains weren’t stopping at all and it was a constant downpour and an almost zero visibility forcing us to play safe with the headlamps and hazard indicators turned on and wipers doing their jobs at their faster speeds. This was the case till we closed in on Panvel. The tale is well visible from the below snaps.    Driving through the tunnels was the best experience with the water droplets creating the magic while these snaps were taken:    We reached Ghatkopar (E) exactly at 1-10pm. A lunch, quick nap and a visit to my friend’s place in Chembur with dinner meant it was going to be night drive on the way back. I would love this again since In my last visit I had done Ghatkopar – Pune in 2 hours between 11pm and 1am. It was time to top up the tank which was previously filled up in Belgaum enroute to Pune. We started from the petrol station at 10-30pm and rain was playing big time on Mumbai’s roads (we only realised it was worse on the next day, Saturday).It was a very heavy downpour all through the expressway and trucks were really struggling to climb the ghats nearing Lonavala blocking all the lanes while most of the fast moving traffic had to tailgate till kilometres. The ordeal ended only after that Lonavala interim toll when the straights began. Sigh!! What a drive that was and we reached the Pune destination at 12-00am. We spent the whole next day touring Pune malls and happening places and call it an early day since we had to start to Bangalore the next morning and there were a lot of things in the agenda. With 40% tank left with petrol, we started at 0525 Hours from Pune and for some reason, The car was simply flying at the press of the throttle and I only realised it much later that we were doing 120kmph which I wasn’t intending. But, for the empty road that was, and for that Village and town waking up in the next hour, I thought It was better to carry on. I feel there was very little air resistance for some reason which is why I was feeling so effortless while driving at such speeds. The Pune – Kolhapur Stretch was good but only for those culverts which were not levelled at par with the actual road surface which made the ride bumpy at times. Nevertheless, we reached Kolhapur city at 0830 Hours after taking directions from locals we were at Mahalakshmi Temple.    It was good timing knowing that its a Sunday and a lot of families would visit this place. Our Darshan was over in about 30 minutes and we again took help from the local for Kolhapuri Breakfast. We had Misal-Paav (spicy it was) at a local hotel which was yummy and then shopped for a few pairs of Kolhapuri Chappals and headed towards NH-04. It took a while till we reached the highway since concretisation of the exit from City to Highway was in progress. We stopped over for another full tank of Petrol at Konduskar and started again at 10-15am. Within no time we passed Kagal and were again experiencing the beautiful stretch developed by Punj Lloyd.  [/FONT][/SIZE]When the clock was 12-30pm, we were all hungry but as we had carried Bhakarvadis and Chiwda and some sweets from Pune, we ensured that justice was done and had a mouthful while we crossed the Dharwad-Hubli bypass. Our next destination was special. So much so that the below photographs will tell it all (Actually, while jotting down this travelogue I realised that I have misplaced the disc which contained these snaps and I will include them in a day). This place is situated between Hubli and Shiggaon and the name is Adoshi. I cant remember the name of the gentleman (or an extra ordinary Artist I must say) who is developing this place into a magnificent galleria of fine arts. I had visited this place 2 months before and I wanted my family not to miss it since it was worth a try. They were all left speechless the moment they entered the shed seeing all those breeds of cows, bulls and calves posing as if they were real and a few bore the expressions as if they would soon attack you. Only the sound was missing. Each of these caricatures are made of cement and brick powder and it takes a month to complete one. What you see below is trying to replicate a cowshed and it is worth to check out the level of detailing each of the breeds had got right from Face, teeth, nostrils , nerves, wrinkles and even facial expressions. On the other side of the wall, is another replica of a typical village market with humans and vegetables (Still in the making). When done completely, all of these will be painted to actual colors. In fact, many would’ve seen that forward long time ago which had the subject line : India’s Answer to Madamme Tussauds. They already have a gallery in Kolhapur (Siddhagiri Mutt) which I had plans of visiting and I skipped only due to lack of time. Another interesting part of making these are that all of the artists who create them are well qualified with a Master Degree in Fine Arts. They usually don’t require any photograph while making one and every detail is pure imagination and partial visualization. Unlike the Wax statues, you cannot reshape them once the cement dries. This makes me believe that India has always had great talent which is still untapped and marketed. Further to this, in another 10 minutes drive we get down at Shiggaon town to reach a farmhouse where my friend Girish’s Dad has a tremendous area where he has not only exhibited his agricultural skills but also yielded great results through organic farming growing every variety of vegetable and fruit. He also showed 2 apples just about the size of gooseberry which were yet to ripen completely. We Spent almost 3 hours here from 1-30pm till 4-30pm exploring the farms and talking agriculture and how it can be one of man’s best occupation in a lifetime. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take snaps as the batteries had completely drained out. We pay the last toll before the bad road starts at Bankapura around 4-45pm and then pass through the Haveri town , Harihar and Davanagere to reach Chitradurga around 7-30pm. Took a small break and cleaned the Windshield and we are on the move. The worst part of the Nh-04 begins from here as there are too many trucks who wouldn’t want to give way to overtake from right and a few would do. As usual, it was a guessing game and a cautious manoeuvre while overtaking these hopeless monsters. And I admit that here at times, there is a need to constant honking and flashing of headlamps till they moved left. Almost 70% of my overtaking from Chitradurga onwards was from left. I still wonder that these were the same trucks which were keeping left and allowing overtaking from right before Hubli and like how they say, Do it like Romans while in Rome, they get at their classiest worst the moment they are in their “Territory”. We had a horrible time with an Innova and a Scorpio who wouldn’t allow us to overtake and nor would they overtake as we saw them unnecessarily hit the brake pedals giving us some anxious moments. Dad advised to let them go (Even while we were doing just 80kmph) and even after I slowed down, I spot them again struggling to overtake. I finally decide to take on these two irritating idiots and get into a rally mode for a few minutes and overtake them together from left while carefully negotiating a slow moving truck on the left lane. After this I ensured to maintain 100kmph till we got them out of sight. We were in Sira (Kamat) at 9-30pm and we thought It was a good time for Dinner and also topped the fuel to another 500 bucks just to play safe. Finally, we were in Bangalore home at 11-30pm after that horrible Nelemangala stretch. I felt, the feeling while reaching Pune was completely opposite to that of reaching Bangalore for two reasons. One, that the trip was coming to an end and a Monday morning was not so far away and secondly for those last 3-4 hours of driving after Chitradurga which usually tests anyone’s patience. In the end, It was one more great drive to remember and what better than jot down the experience here on Team-Bhp and share it. Last edited by paragsachania : 7th July 2009 at 23:55. |
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8th July 2009, 08:47
| #24 | ||
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
It takes a nudge from my better half to ease on the accelerator. Quote:
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8th July 2009, 09:53
| #25 |
| BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Pune
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8th July 2009, 10:08
| #26 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
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Regarding the best time to do this on the bike from Mumbai would be early mornings and this is what anyone would suggest mainly due to the fact that you can avoid local traffic on Pune bypass, Karad, Satara and more of the small towns and villages that you pass by. | |
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8th July 2009, 10:12
| #27 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
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Image that you've sent tells me you might be referring to some other since it is curved LHS, not really sure from the images. Last edited by paragsachania : 8th July 2009 at 10:16. | |
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8th July 2009, 12:44
| #28 |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
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| Finally, I am including the most important pictures of the whole trip which is undoubtedly worth a watch without which this travelogue would not have been 100% complete. To give you a brief about this place, This is situated between Haveri and Hubli bypass (near Shiggaon) and is run by an extremely brilliant and extra-ordinary artist who intends to create this into a world class art gallery replicting a few real life scenes like a cowshed, Town market and a few scenes from the wild. Each of these are made from cement and bricks and would need almost a month to finish. what you see below are not painted and thay are 90% complete. A few of them also show these in the making. Have a look!! Apologies for too many photos but I thought they were worth sharing and I am hoping that you wont mind them.                               |
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8th July 2009, 15:40
| #29 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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8th July 2009, 16:05
| #30 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore
Posts: 7,148
Thanked: 27,189 Times
| Quote:
It is a part of a project and is funded by various organizations. In fact, if you refer this URL, it has been developed by the same people who have a museum situated near Kolhapur on the Bangalore-Pune highway where the sculptures are fully painted to give an almost real life look. This one here near Shiggaon, is another one and the Artist who is making holds the record of making the longest canvas painting (Not sure of its length) in the world. I agree with the detailing part of each of these sculptures as well. Nothing has been missed in any of these marvellous pieces of artmanship. Last edited by paragsachania : 8th July 2009 at 16:06. | |
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