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This journey is one among many of sporadic drives or
taffies which Montu and sheen always had on bikes . It was a cool breezy drizzling Sunday morning as usual all our gang of the
CBD
Belapur bachelor villa had waked up late on Sunday . we were having the customary sit at the Anna’s
Thiya with infamous tea Bhurji paav and there clicked the idea for a drive in rain . Options started pouring from
Thane , Marine drive , Matheran etc and then unanimous decision which we rarely arrive at was
Khandala /Lonavla.
Odds checked in 2 bikes 4 people ( Montu, Seth
Joshi, Sheen) Barve had to go to his relative place hence had to stay back. So next 15 minutes bikers were ready of course this time was used to change from shorts to pants and wind
cheaters. And there we go on wet tarmac two bikes (machismo and samurai) roaring cautiously as we
didn't want to spoil the fun with speed and slipping tasting mud. Drive till foothill of the
Ghat was pleasant the first halt was called upon by Joshi within 30min of the start for his famous drug the cutting chai and this time nobody disagreed as every body fully drenched.
After a 15 min brake of chai and bahjiya we resumed unaware of what’s in store for us. Montu and Sheen had to drive with their
wiser off and on as it was raining and the visibility was near to zero. Both of them agreed that this was their worst driving conditions ever met in their adventurous biking times. The pillions
(Joshi and Seth) were almost besides the drivers neck helping to figure out the road ahead . As we started our accent on the snaky slippery hill road Sheen and Montu did a tricky thing by putting the bike between a truck and Transport bus .with people peeping out in amazement that what these nuts are up to driving in these conditions. At a moment of time we almost felt that we are riding in clouds as both our sides were cloudy and foggy as milky white. Sheen couldn’t see 1 feet ahead of him even with his machismos 2fog lights 1 head light and the indicators blinking the same was with
Montu . The driving was almost like blind folded on second gear for 45 minutes on a twisty swirling road. As we reached the
Mumbai
- Pune express high way we did take a sigh of relief but still could not get to usual speeds as the concrete roads seemed to be slippery. In
Khandala we went to only one place the water falls were every body was enjoying the rain and scenic beauty .After staying there for an hour and sipping a glass full of tea we started our way back we were shivering so badly that we wanted to jump into some fire. The descent was not so scary as the fog had started to recede and the clouds had gone little higher making visibility ok..
We reached Belapur at 5:00 clock and had a hearty lunch. We missed the camera but it was good everybody’s mobile was soaked and
Montu’s mobile had to be put on hot plate to be ok ( incidentally Nokia show room had rejected saying non-repairable)
This trip was exactly opposite to our previous trip to Khandala on a hot summer afternoon when again on 2 bikes minus helmets
(Montu sheen Barve and Seth) had gone returned with burnt faces and boils on the body due to hot summer
firry winds.
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