Saputara – Why do we fall?

Fresh from a ride to Igatpuri over the last weekend, the office bike riders’ gang had united this time, and we were headed to Saputara via a small village called Jawhar which was halfway between Mumbai and Saputara.

               Jawhar is well known for Warli painting by the locals, and it had a palace too. We planned to visit the palace, have our lunch, and then proceed towards Saputara.

The gang!

               There were eight people in the plan – Abhishek, Pranav, Roy, Saurabh, Shukla, Sid and Yash.  And the plan was to start by 4.30 AM. I reached Belapur highway by 4.15 AM, and was joined by Shukla, and Yash arrived soon after. We were supposed to meet Sid at Thane by 5.15 AM, but just before reaching Thane, Shukla lost his way, and the three of us had waited for him for some time. I should’ve realized then that this was going to be the trend through out the day. We reached Virar by 6.30 AM, everyone was there except Pranav. He joined in another fifteen minutes, and we continued to Jawhar. The weather was pleasant, surprisingly, and riding was easy.

The accident spot

               We left the Gujarat highway at a place called Charoti and turned right toward Jawhar. Although it was not a highway, the road was still pretty smooth, but the turns were a little too steep. The three of us were riding up front, while four bikes were trailing a bit. Ten kms before Jawhar, we halted for everyone to join in. But there was no sign of the others for quite some time. We decided to go back and check on them when a car driver stopped nearby and informed us that one of your friends had fallen off the bike. We hurried back to find him and were relieved to find that he was fine. It was Sid. It looks like he went off the road as he misjudged a turn, and the bike’s chain had broken, and there was considerable damage to the other parts.

Journey resumes

               Pranav tried fixing it, but couldn’t, as two guys left to find a mechanic from Jawhar. While we sat down in the shade of a tree nearby, and I got my guitar out and played till the others came in. It took around two hours for the bike to be fixed. Meanwhile, we had our lunch. We had to skip sightseeing around Jawhar as a lot of time was lost.

               There were three routes to get from Jawhar to Saputara, the distance was around 160 kms. There was no network for most of the journey, so we couldn’t rely on GPS. On the way, we lost Sid again. So, me and Pranav decided to go back for him, while the others were to proceed to Saputara. After going back for around 10-15 minutes, we found Sid, and we resumed our journey. The road condition deteriorated consistently, and at few points, there was no road. I was still speeding along, and I lost Pranav and Sid on the way, coz I missed a turn.

Sunset

               I asked a local on a bike for the way. He asked me to follow him and got me out of the village place. We reached the top of the nearby hill, and he told me that I had to ride to the top of the mountain on the other side of the hill. He told me how to get there too. With those instructions on my mind, I restarted my journey. I was hoping that the others would reach there directly. The road was smoother now, and riding was easy. I was running low on fuel now, but it was enough to get me to Saputara, if I didn’t take any more wrong turns. The sun was setting now, and I couldn’t resist stopping and clicking a few pictures! I was already late and riding solo, might as well ride at my own pace.

               I reached Saputara by 6.30 PM, refueled and dropped a message on the watsapp group since I was unable to call anyone due to network issues. I had a quick snack at a nearby restaurant, when Pranav called informing he was waiting a few metres away. Since I’d been to Saputara before, I knew my way around.

The road ahead

               Finally, by 7 PM, we all were re-united! After eating for a while, we went off to find a place to stay for the night, and found this place called ‘Poorna Dormitory’ which was handled by Gujarat Tourism. At 200/bed, it was pretty cheap, and the room was in excellent condition. We had the entire 20-beded dormitory to ourselves.

               Freshened up, we left for dinner, and a bit of sightseeing. We had some snacks from the roadside stalls nearby, tasted great! A cup of tea later, we went off to find a spot to sit down near the lake, and I played the guitar for a while. It was past 1130 PM by the time we returned and slept.

Face off!

               Next morning, everyone was up by 9 AM, got ready by 10 to start the return journey. We had our breakfast at a nearby restaurant and went to one of the mountain view points. The view was beautiful, and there was a fair sort of atmosphere. Lot of people, modified little bikes, horses, and food! After clicking a few pictures, we were back on the road to Mumbai, this time, from the highway via Nasik. We left at 12 noon from Saputara.

Temple at Saputara

               The road was beautiful, and riding was fun, except for a few idiots who came in on the wrong side at times. It was a single lane road, but great quality! It took an hour for us to reach Nasik, and we halted for everyone to join in. 3 bikes had taken another route on the way, but eventually, everyone met on the highway. The last halt was at a sugarcane juice stall on the highway, 60 kms from Mumbai. And everyone was home by 530 PM.

               Except for the accident, it was a fantastic ride. Even though it was hot, riding was fun on the highway. And finding an answer to the question, ‘Why do we fall?’ – So that we can stand up, wipe the dust off ourselves, get back on the bike and ride again!