The thing I like about rides, besides discovering new places of course, is the discovery of new facets to ourselves that we never knew existed.
Like all rides, this one started early on a Saturday morning (6am…yawn!! Atleast that was what was planned…), with three riders, friends and co-travelers in this journey of life. Let’s call them Blake and Dy for good order’s sake. We set off from Malad hungry for adventure and discovery of ways and places unknown… Ok fine… Honestly, we ourselves had no clue what was in store for us later in the day. So we take off blissfully, early in the morning to beat the highway traffic and head towards Igatpuri, a hill station 130 kms from Mumbai.
The plan was take the JVLR to the Eastern Express Highway which would culminate into NH-3, the Mumbai-Agra road... All was smooth until we hit NH-3, where Blake’s chariot decided to play truant and stall suddenly in the middle of the highway. Several minutes and a little tinkering (more like staring at the fuel tap and hoping for some respite) later the chariot was ready to go and so we decided to head out to our destination only to be stopped several more times. According to Blake one has got to treat “her” like a princess else you won’t get the loving in return. Clearly Blake, you do treat “her” like a princess, it’s just that she treats you like her foot stool.
Our first official stop was for breakfast at a Dhaba, Hotel Midland Park, enroute to Igatpuri, where we probably must have eaten the most divine eggs (bhurji and omlette), batata vada and missal pav. Yes yes we did eat a lot... What do you expect from a trio of “uncivilized” bikers?
We reached Igatpuri at about 11am after some really awesome ghat riding through Shahpur and Kasara. We got off the highway at Igatpuri to head towards our final destination- Tringalwadi fort which we thought was a stone’s throw away from us. After enquiring with the locals, we treaded onto a narrow path which led us into the most pristine outdoors this close to Mumbai. So pristine that there were no roads most of the time. It felt like we were straight out of the new off-roader bike advertisement. There were three lakes in all on our long winding off-road way to the fort.
So we finally reach the fort and realize that it’s not bike-able but a trek of three hours. Argh… But nonetheless, for us as bikers the experience was totally worth it. After a few moments by the lake we headed back into civilization not before an honorable mention about lunch at another dhaba where we dared to try the chicken (or at least some weird mutant jumbo version of it) which turned out decently appetizing.
In my opinion, I think we all discover that life is rough sometimes but only to the eye of the beholder. We have a choice of roughing it out only to be disappointed at the end. But like I said, as the beholder, why not enjoy a rough ride once in a while…
