Rainy Ride to Karpewadi

It was Monsoon. And in Maharashtra.

We had planned for a drizzly ride to the coast from Pune. And my friends, who were planning to join for that year’s ladakh ride, had signed up for this ride as well.

And there were a bunch of new riders who also signed up. The plan was to ride for breakfast and be back home by afternoon. Or that’s what I thought.

It had been raining heavily the day before. Still, we were positive that the drizzly ride won’t be hampered. The next day, at 4:30pm, no rain & clear skies. It was like the scene from Everest where on the summit day, there were clear skies. And that the gods above had mercy on us.

 Although it took some time for everyone to assemble. But by 5:15, we were ready to roll.

170-200kms ahead.  First two hours were so beautiful. I can never describe in words how scenic it was. You can understand only if you have seen Sahyadri in monsoon. If you haven’t, then that should be your next bucket list item.

After we hit midway, few of the riders turned back to Pune, as they wanted to ride for a short distance. Fifteen became ten now. And now is when the ride got interesting. It started raining. And oh dear god, it wasn’t a drizzle. And we hadn’t reached port yet. We had to ride back to pune as well. The very same day.

Somewhere along the road, we had a flat tire. I sent other riders ahead. I stayed back to fix the bike. No bike breaks down as often as Royal Enfield man. Pathetic

Crazy Rain, group split in two, heading unknown. Oh, did I mention, Karpewadi was an offbeat destination. And as usual, we were mapping the route on our own.

It was afternoon. We reached the destination, which was supposed to be a beach resort, fully drenched and hungry.

What was the point of this ride? Oh that’s right. We were training for Ladakh Ride. The scenario was perfect.

We had a meagre meal and started riding back again. The rain hadn’t stopped even for a minute. High tide, so no beach. Rain, so no outdoorsy fun at resort. All we could do was to squeeze the dresses we were wearing hoping to dry it a little.

We were numb from the constant pricking sensation of the rain.  I had tea, after years. It was essential to generate heat. 

When will this ride end… Khandala. A breather. The rain finally stopped.

We could finally take pictures on road. 400 kms in one day, in heavy rains.  Back to Pune, with zero incidents!

It was one of the rides that trained me by inflicting physical harm on myself. And the funny thing was, I convinced other riders that this was the best ride there ever can be. That’s when I knew I was born to blabber crap and convince people to go with it.