The itch grows..

Jawhar via Manor - Perfect ride!


Well, last time I went to Amby Valley I felt that it couldn't get any better. Nothing could better the roads, none that were further than a weekened ride atleast. I went raving about how there was nothing close to those roads around Mumbai. Time for Humble Pie. :)

Starting off from Cine Planet Petrol Pump on Ghodbunder road at 7.55AM. Reached Hotel Fountain in 10 odd minutes. Quick stop for warm-up and then hit the NH-8 for WOT straights. Little traffic, no limits, except the chilly breeze that was numbing my head completely. Suddenly, crouching was not just for attaining top speed. It was necessary to ride. Upright for a second and the chills ran down my spine.

Reached Manor pretty fast, B'bay gang, you have to PLAN to ride here? :p Took a right from there. Right indeed, right to heaven. Tarred single lane, dangerous gravel formed thick inlines on the road. Run an inch wide and you were at the mercy of laws of friction. WOT riding in gear 5 not recommended. Unless you can, unless you dare. Varied beautiful scenery engulfed on either side, dominated by the simplicity of mother nature. It was really distracting, the scenery was so involving, and the curves so tight, it was as if Mother Nature had laid a trap to reclaim her creations. If you have seen an Isle Of Man TT video, you could borrow some visuals to picture the roads we were riding on. Riding full throttle at blind curves with unbelievable crests and troughs of the road. It can be quite scary. And then there was the odd ST bus hurling down at you at exaggrated angles and sparing just enough room for you to pass. Or did it?

Add an odd herd of cows (RaginBull really got excited when he passed these :D), subtract any traces of urbanisation, and sprinkle a hint of Dung on the roads. After stoppin at quite a few places and taking pics generously, we reached Jawhar at 11.30AM. Most time being spent on photo sessions. RaginB knew of this Sunset Resort, (that he claims is a bookmark in the BSMotoring team's travel guides). Hungry as hounds, RaginB and Akshay (non-xbhpain) were cursing me for having an Egg and Coffee in the morning. Their cursing stopped only after some amazing Chicken Afghani and Chicken Chill Dry was stuffed in their mouths. The service was too good to be real, the food too good to be cheap, yet it was. The seating was low and quite relaxing. After quite some rest, we went to sunset point which was just outside the gates of the resort. Some more photos later headed back, this time more lazily. Cruising at 70-80 we reached a point marked for a quick stop earlier. This point was unreal, it was a valley that appeared out of nowhere, and surreal at that.

Leaving the beautiful valley after confessing personal levels of altophobia, lazy cruising became the order of the day. The hungry ride uphill was contrasted by the satiated, downhill cruise. Throwing the bike side to side at 80kph, at 4-5k rpm, is a different sort of pleasure of nailing corners. The roads were beautiful. The sun bothered none, except for the recurring drought in the throat. Fixed by a cool half litre of frooty, apiece :p.

The roads were suddenly becoming straighter beyond recognition. No, this ain't what we took in the morning. There was far too much civilisation to be the roads we were supposed to take. It dawned upon us after reachin a certain village that we actually had taken the road to bhiwandi and bypassed manor completely. This road was good, WOT straights, WOT corners, and a good 15kms shorter than the ride through Manor. We were not disappointed for having taken the wrong road, until we reached Bhiwandi. The only and the really annoying fly in the ointment. Registered in the brain never to go anywhere close to anything related to Bhiwandi. Reached Thane at 5.20-ish.

A little cursing about the irritating end to the trip, but smiling over a great day otherwise, we decided to part ways from the starting point itself.

From Thane it took us 120kms to Jawhar via manor. Through bhiwandi it took us 105 kms.

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Cheers,
Manas Karekar.