Konkan Fort Trail – Raigad & Pratapgad

Every rider has a story to tell. Irrespective of what you ride, who do you ride with and where do you ride – there is a reason behind sole existence of a rider. For many, its their passion. For many its fascination. For many, its intoxication.

I have met many such riders during my riding expeditions. However, riders on Konkan Fort Trail – Raigad and Pratapgad were very different. You will know why I am telling this when you reach end of this article. Let the suspense begin! Well, Konkan Fort Trail 1 – Raigad and Pratapgad was a very special ride for each of us at Konkan Moto Tours (KMT). We completed 6 months of operations and this was a milestone ride to evaluate our journey so far. Konkan Fort Trail 1 is first in series of rides from KMT, which explores historic forts in Konkan region. Aim is to spread awareness about rich history and culture of Konkan and add an element of adventure to rides. All forts in Konkan are located at strategic locations and it requires some sort of off-roading biking or trekking to reach at top. We chose to visit Raigad and Pratapgad forts in Raigad district, because of its close proximity from NH17.

It was refreshing Saturday morning, with cold breeze and beautiful sunlight around. All riders were instructed to meet at Shree Datta Snacks, Panvel. I along with Aniruddh reached there at 7:15 and by 7:45, all riders were ready to ride. This, time attractions of ride were Honda Valkyrie and Harley Davidson. This time, we had almost all variety of bikes riding with us including Fazer, Pulsar, Royal Enfield, Apache, Avenger and Honda CBR. What a beautiful sight it was to see each of these bike riding together on NH17 for a breathtaking expedition to Konkan Forts. If we talk about age, we had riders from all age groups this time! Starting from 22 years old Karan, we also had Mr. Krishnan – a 59 years old ‘jaanbaz’ riding his passion with us. I can’t explain how ecstatic was feeling of seeing such diversity in bikes and riders. I can now proudly say that KMT is not an age group bounded or motorcycle brand restricted company. Our recognition from passionate riders is biggest appreciation for us and such response within 6 months of first ride definitely makes you feel good.

After a quick briefing session, we all started driving on NH17. Idea was to reach Mahad before it’s too hot to drive. Our speculations were right. By 12, it became really hot to drive. We all stopped at Mahad and decided to head towards Poladpur, where we were to stay overnight. We reached Hotel Balaji in approx. 45 mins and decided to have lunch there only. Everyone was tired after riding close to 150 kms and needed rest. While we rested, hotel guy made delicious food for us. Idea was to have food and wait till climate becomes cooler for bike riding. We enjoyed lunch, rested for some time and at 3:30, we decided to leave for Raigad fort. Raigad fort is capital fort of Raigad district. We reached fort to realize that ropeway service was off due to annual maintenance. We decided to trek to reach fort. It’s a hell of a task to climb those 1400 steps to reach Raigad fort. Half of us realized this fact within first 50 steps and took wise decision to stay back. Rest of us started climbing those irregular and dusty steps to see the fort. It took us approx. 2 hours, lot of limewater and drinking water to reach at top. We were all tired and exhausted. My legs started paining. But once we reached at top, Whoa! It was an awesome sight. Statue of Shivaji proudly sitting on crown, with his head held high and bright forehead was welcoming us to the fort. It was a beautiful moment, sun was setting on eastern side of ghats, very few visitors around (due to unavailability of ropeway) and just few of us adventure loving creatures enjoying serene beauty of this fort. We roamed around fort, checked out all places and learned so many things about Maratha warriors and their war strategies. Fort covers 1280 acres area and it has a marketplace, 6 rooms, temple, watch towers, lake, play ground, deewan-e-khas and everything that a proud and rich king would have in his fort. Beauty of fort is mesmerizing. Interesting war strategies, brilliant administration and faith in god – these three were Shivaji’s mantra for successful ruling. Truly amazing!

By the time we completed site seeing, it was dark. We still had to go back to ground zero where we parked our bikes. Fortunately, we had some torches. We started walking in groups of 2-3. It took us more than an hour to reach back to parking. Everyone quickly refreshed, wore their riding gear and started towards Hotel Balaji.  It was dark and riding was tough due to high beam headlights of trucks coming from opposite direction. We trailed each other and reach hotel at 9:30. Refreshed, rejuvenated and re-energized, we all sat together with ‘enlightenment nectar’ to enjoy the beautiful evening. We started with introductory session and everyone spoke about their background and their passion for bike riding.

This was probably most beautiful part of ride. I was completely awestruck by stories of few people. People really do amazing things to follow their passion. Mr. Krishnan, after retiring from an Income Tax job, decided to ride Himalayas and bought a Royal Enfield Thunderbird. Antony D’souza (50 yrs) is a passionate rider and has been riding since 1974. (Most of us were not even in liquid form at that time!!) Prateek, literaly had to rebel his family to get his first ride. We had Swapnil, who learned his biking lesson when he fell while riding a rented bike. He challenged status quo and bought a bike to prove to himself that he can ride! Rajesh, once a skinny guy, wanted to buy Royal Enfield but his friends advised not to buy RE considering his small frame at that time. Today, he was with us riding one of world’s heaviest bikes – Honda Valkyrie! Aren’t these stories amazing? This is what I call ‘spirit of a rider’! Bike riding teaches you to challenge the status quo and conquering your fears. It’s a dynamic meditation when a rider explores his true self.

We went to sleep at 12:30 am. Next morning was tough. My legs were paining and we had to start at 9:00 am to conquer Pratapgad fort. We got ready, had breakfast and started towards Poladpur. From poladpur, roads are curvy and beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed riding on curves and beautiful ghats. Nothing can compare the pleasure you feel when your footrest touches tarmac while you lean on your bike. In no time, were at fort, ready to visit the place and know more about visionary king, Shivaji. Pratapgad is approx. 320 years old fort, build by Shivaji and it’s a strategically important point for defending territory. It took him just 2 years to build the fort. We decided to have lunch at fort to save the time and avoid afternoon heat. Amazing konkoni food, served with buttermilk and kokam juice made our day. We decided to head back via NH17 only  because everyone wanted to avoid riding in heat and reach early. We started again, in full spirit! We enjoyed non-stop ride till Mahad, where we stopped chai at beautiful Zopdi restaurant. Before mahad, I completed 30000 kms on my speedometer, a personal milestone. From there, Panvel is 85 kms. We started again and covered those 85 kms in 90 minutes.

Finally, we announced end of ride at Shri datta snacks at 6:00 PM. I will remember these 540 kms for amazing riding spirit of fellow riders, some good friends, amazing trekking at Raigad fort and completing 6 months of KMT. Cheers, Signing off!!

About Author: Tanmay Shanishchara, is part of Team Konkan Moto Tours and also a passionate rider. He believes in riding hard and enjoys telling stories about his bike rides. He owns Royal Enfield Bullet, Standard 350 and proudly calls it ‘Ironhide’.

Ganpatipule – Serenity of Ratnagiri 2 – A ride to remember

Serenity of Ratnagiri 2 was supposed to be longest ride of Konkan Moto Tours so far. We had done 550 kms during Ecstasy of Raigad, 500 kms during Tranquility of Tapola and highest 650 kms during Serenity of Ratnagiri 1. However, this time target was more than 700. Moreover, I was supposed to handle this ride single handedly. Abhishek was busy with some business work in Mumbai and Tanmay was busy finding a new place to stay in Mumbai, a real pain in ass!

I had done the recce earlier and was well aware of route. I decided to take Sagar along with me on ride, to manage logistics from service vehicle. This was probably first time, when I got up at time and reached Panvel at bang 7:00 AM. See, sense of duty changes your behavior. As instructed, everyone had arrived to Datta Vada pao by 7:15 and we quickly started riding towards Balaji restaurant, our location for breakfast. Balaji restaurant is situated at Poladpur, on NH 17. Its approx. 140 kms from Mumbai and we decided to make it our first re-group point. These 140 kms were probably the most exotic riding experience I ever had. Early morning breeze, chilling weather and shivering bodies, roaring engines and that cold air passing through your helmet… the whole thing was worth experiencing. There were some foggy patches on NH 17, adding thrill to whole experience. We reached Balaji restaurant at 9:30, pretty fast considering a group of 15 riders were riding together. Everyone was thrilled by this first phase of riding and enjoyed a lot. We had some breakfast while Sagar distributed T-shirts and maps to everyone. I briefed everyone about day’s ride plan and we were to ride again at 10:15.

Though it was a beautiful start, destiny had some different plan for today. We smoothly crossed Kashedi ghat and reached Khed. We took right turn towards western coast to reach Dabhol. We were supposed to take ferryboat from Dabhol to reach Dhopve. Just before Dabhol, Aparajita’s (aka Apa) bike slipped and she fell from bike. Bike’s footrest got damaged and Apa too had some minor injuries. This was first serious fall on any KMT ride. We waited for backup vehicle and gave her first-aid & painkillers.  After some relief and rest, Apa showed her riding spirit and got on her bike again to complete the trip. We were just about to start riding again, when a local guy came to us and told us, if someone is missing from our group. We all looked at each other and found Karan was missing. Then he said, there is guy lying on road and people are helping him get up. I was shocked! This was something!! I quickly asked Sagar to go and control the situation. Karan was safe, he went off-road while negotiating with a local bus and fell on side. He broke his headlights in this minor accident, but came out safe and un-injured. I thanked god and re-briefed everyone to ride with each other. Clear instruction was, ride within ‘Line of Sight’. Meaning, everyone should be able to see trailing rider in their rear view mirror. This helped us get momentum and ensure safety of everyone.

Finally, we reached Dabhol and few of us got on to ferryboat to reach Dhopve. Few of us waited at Dabhol for next round of ferry. It was 1 pm and ferryboat stopped for lunch break in between. We wasted approx. 1 hour waiting for ferry and reached Dhopve at 2. We decided to have our lunch (which we carried in packs from Balaji hotel) there only. I approached a local person, and asked if we could use his verandah to sit and have lunch. He happily allowed us. Not only that, he also arranged for chattai and water for all of us. I must say, local people in Konkan are very emotional and helpful. After nice lunch, we moved on. It was dusty, patchy and stoney road, that took us to Tawsal where we took another ferry to reach jaigad. From there, it was few minutes run towards malgund, where we were supposed to stay over night. We reached Tranquility resort, but our service vehicle was far behind us. It took 2 hours for vehicle to arrive and we spent that time having some tea and good conversations about today’s ride.

Now it was time when all riders got fresh and got together for a good session over drinks. It was Rajesh’s marriage anniversary and we celebrated it by cutting a cake and singing songs. After few pegs, Rajesh started story of his life and marriage. To introduce you guys to Rajesh, he is a successful businessman and family loving person. He rides a Honda Valkyrie, a Suzuki Intruder and a Pulsar. This time, he chose his Valkyrie to ride with us. He told us how important family and friends are in a person’s life. It was really late now and I was worried about next day’s ride. I decided to go to my room and catch some sleep.

Next morning was critical for Apa. She was feeling acute pain and her leg was swollen. We decided to wait for some time while she gets ready. Fortunately, we had a Doc riding with us, Mateen Patel. He helped Apa with some medication and dressing. She felt good and got ready for riding at 10 am. Everyone was up afresh and rejuvenated. We first went to Ganpatipule temple to seek blessings of Bappa. After darshan and refueling, we started on Rai-Bhatgaon beach route. KMT carefully and meticulously choses route of each ride. This route was especially chosen to provide a different experience to riders. It’s a narrow, coastal route, passing through some dense forests and exciting curves. Everyone enjoyed the ride. We stopped at a point for some photographs and a refreshing tea. Zeehan, who rides Karizma ZMR started showing his stunting skills. He tried to show some stunts including wheelie and stoppie, but could not perform and everyone had good fun watching him trying. We started from here at 1:30 to reach Savarde on NH17.

Road till Savarde is narrow, long stretched and open on both sides. We were riding at full speed and it gave us a completely different experience. We reached hotel Abhishek for lunch. They served us best of Konkoni sea food and everyone enjoyed it. I was happy the way ride was progressing. Though we had some setbacks, I was pretty sure of reaching Mumbai on time. Though, it was good 6-7 hours of ride on NH17 from Chiplun. It was 4 and we were sure that it will be late when we reach Panvel. We decided to cross two major ghats, Parshuram ghat and Kashedi ghat before dark. I instructed everyone accordingly and started leading the pack. It was awesome experience to ride along with Aditya (on his Fazor) andRajesh (on Honda Valkyrie). We crossed ghats before sunset. After this, we chose to take Pali – Khopoli route. We knew it was long weekend and we’ll encounter major traffic if we continue on NH17. We experienced something whacky while riding on this route. It was evening time and all insects were coming out in search of light. We saw something, dust like coming towards us and hit on our helmet visors. Initially, we thought its dust and we started wiping it with hands but, to our surprise those were insects! We all stopped at a point, cleaned out visors and had another cup of tea. We started again on Pali – Khopoli route. Apa and Shiv were riding at tail and they were at marginal distance from us. We decided to wait for them. Rajesh was getting late as he had some family responsibilities and he left from there. Finally, we all got together again and started towards Panvel. We reached Khopoli at 11. From Khopoli, it was pretty straight and we took no time to reach Panvel. At 12, I officially announced end of ride.

About Rider: Pratish Ambekar, is Co-Founder of Konkan Moto Tours. Pratish is voracious rider and loves to ride in tough conditions. He handled whole ride on his own and this article is output of his experiences as told to Tanmay Shanishchara.

Ecstasy of Raigad – A complete bike riding experience.

“Riding in rains is a complete riding experience. Cold breeze passing through your body and each rain drop falling on your face makes you feel so connected with nature that your soul thumps on beats of engine.” – If someone asks me about my experience of tour of ‘Ecstasy of Raigad’, I proudly flaunt above sentence. And, each rider will agree that I am not wrong. Before I share my experience of this trip, I would start with a famous biker quote: “Bikers don’t get ready. They just get up and Go!” It was similar situation when we all embarked on our epic ‘Ecstasy of Raigad’ journey. It had rained very heavily previous night and this morning was no different. I got up from my bed early at 3:30 and saw the scene outside my window. There was no way a sane person would think of going on a bike trip this morning. But, we KMT Riders are different. I called Abhishek, my partner in KMT and reconfirmed that we are meeting at 5:45 near my house.

Quickly, I get up and start gathering my riding gears. Gloves, in Cupboard drawers; Knee Guard, on corner table; Riding Jacket, on cupboard hanger! I still had to fix my pillion seat on my Bullet. I go downstairs, get my bike out of parking and start fixing pillion seat. 20 minutes of struggle, and I get completely drenched even before journey starts. Now, it was time to put on all gears and start riding. Me and Abhishek started for our first meeting point, Kalanagar Bus Stop, Bandra. Where Pratish, our partner and few other riders were waiting for us. A quick hello to each of them and Few calls to ensure everyone was reaching Shree Datta Snacks, Panvel by 7 AM. Pratish, who is known as ‘Late Latif’ in our gang, had done a fantastic job of arranging our ride t-shirts, bike spare parts and stickers etc. for this ride. Despite of working till late night, we were all thumping in full swing for our first professionally managed tour.

Komal became my pillion and Abhishek was riding with Shreya as pillion. We all reached Panvel in time, to see our organizer Vishwanath Sawant and his team waiting for us. Quickly, we decided to move towards Kamath’s – where our breakfast and first briefing session was scheduled. Heavy breakfast and some chit chat with fellow riders turned our hectic morning in to beautiful monsoon morning. Once breakfast was finished, Abhishek singalled for briefing session and everyone gathered around his table to listen how our next 2 days will be spent. Abhishek explained route, riding instructions and explained whom to contact in crisis situation. So, here we were, ready to kick start our bikes for a completely insane and one of the toughest ride for each of us.

9 bikes, one Wagon R and one Innova – service vehicle for this ride were all set for a tough day ahead. A flag off signal from Sawant and we all started towards Alibaug, our first stop – nearly 50 kms from Vitthal Kamath’s. Heavy traffic, roads full of pot holes and some water logging made riding on this patch very difficult. Also, it was first time when we all were riding together as pack. It took us some time to figure out tuning between each of us. By the time we reached Alibaug, everyone was sure that day ahead would be full of challenges and unique experiences. A chai break at corner tapri wala and we were all set for rolling our bikes again. This time, Abhishek decided to ride as lead and me, Pratish decided to follow the pack. We encountered few of most challenging water logging villages near Revdanda. Santosh, one of our riders managed to break down his bike as water logged in to silencer of his Electra 350 and it took us some efforts to turn it on again. Me, Delzad and Santosh lifted his bike holding front tyre and took all water out of silencer. Our mechanic then applied few kicks and whew! Bike started. This is one quality of Cast Iron engines, which I like the most. It never lets you down. If you know how to tackle such problems, bullets will never hold you back from riding it.

As we moved on towards Kashid, rain turned mild. Our completely drenched bodies started feeling cold air blowing from western coast of Konkan. As soon as we crossed Revdanda, rain had completely stopped. Bridge connecting Revdanda and Korlai became our first stop for photography session. We clicked a few pics, enjoyed back waters of Korlai and started riding again. Next 15 kms on coastal route, and we were near beautiful Kashid beach. It was awesome scene out there. Covered between rocky hillocks and Casuariana Groves, Peaceful Kashid beach was looking at its best in today’s rainy environment. We had cup of tea again and started sharing our ride experience with each rider. Our next stop, Murud was approx 20 kms from here and we reached Murud by lunch time. Beautiful coastal highways and lush green hills enriched our riding experience. As Shreya pointed it out, riding in rains is like – “Its dirty, but its Beautiful!”

Post lunch, we started again, covering Mhasala, Kolmandale and went towards Srivardhan. Wet roads, slushy water and continuous rains had made our ride very difficult. Everyone was in mood of enjoying this ride to the fullest. We missed some superb photo shots because of evil rain. However, everyone was feeling lucky that they chose to ride in such circumstances and could enjoy beautiful arabian sea in such cloudy, rainy environment.

It was on our route from Aarawi beach to Diveagar beach where we stopped at corner of a cliff to enjoy seeming infinite arabian sea. Beautiful sea was merging in to misty clouds at a distant point gave us a perfect sight to forget all our tiredness. We enjoyed this beauty while we waited for Ketan, Karan and Delzad to join us again. After spending 10 minutes at this refreshing sight, we started again and reached Diveagar where we were to stay for night.

Everyone dried themselves, got in to a relaxed attire and we had superb dinner in Diveagar. One special thing about Konkan Moto Tours is that we believe in giving complete ‘Konkoni’ experience to our riders. Therefore, food that we arrange for is also konkoni. Post dinner, a drinking session and some chit chat made it a perfect evening for riders. It was early morning 7 am when everyone’s cellphone got Good Morning SMS from Team KMT. 8:00 am, breakfast time and 8:30 was briefing session.  Abhishek took the lead again and handled briefing part. It was sharp 9:00 am when we started again for next 225 kms journey, covering Tamhini Ghats, Mulshi dam and Pavna dam. Today was day of Ghats, day of curves, day of enjoying natural beauty to its fullest. Road connecting Mhasala and Morba ghats is dream ride of every biker. Each curve and each slop gives you a completely new experience of bike riding. We re grouped at Mangaon and went towards Tamhini Ghat. Yet again, riders were in full passion and enjoying their romance with rains. On top of Tamhini, everyone had this huge craving for cup of tea. While everyone was enjoying beauty of Tamhini Ghat, I revved up my bike and caught Bala who had started earlier to reach next regroup point. Bala, was riding his R15 in this trip. Being a patience rider, he always takes first start and reaches last at any regroup point. I stopped my bike at a chai stall and signalled everyone to stop over. While we were here, rain had stopped for a while. Bang! Another opportunity for photo session.

After spending 30 odd minutes at this place and refreshing ourselves, we started again. A stop for lunch and we started again. By this time, my body had started feeling cold and I was shivering because of wetness and cold breeze around Mulshi dam. I still don’t know what kept me going but, as soon as I started riding again, I felt enormous rush of energy in my veins to lead the pack. It was a bumpy, curvy ride to Paud, where we encountered some bad patches and under-construction roads. But, beauty of water-full Mulshi reservoir and water falls merging in to Mulshi lake made it awesome sight to visit on bike. From Paud, we went towards Pavna lake. Pavna dam was over flowing because of three days of continuous rain and we saw lot of visitors coming from Pune to enjoy beautiful sight. Finally, we were coming close to day’s ride and we started seeing some civilization near Lonavala. We stopped for one more re grouping and enjoyed what I would say most beautiful chit chat of two days. Some photographs, some tea and we were again rolling towards Panvel.

Roads from Lonavala to Mumbai were full of fog. We were riding in full passion, clearing mist and rains. It was one of quickest journey for me between Lonavala and Panvel this time. After reaching panvel, we officially announced end of our ‘Ecstasy of Raigad’ tour. Chandni, who successfully rode as pillion for two days with her husband Renin, was awarde Pillion of Ride award. Everyone cheered up spirit of riders and thanked each other for being good co-rider along the trip.