D3: One of the most tiresome day of my entire trip

Difficulty level: high (endurance,Climbs)

Local attractions:

• Passing through the dense forest
• Varandha ghat view point with sunset

Even though I was not having sufficient sleep of last night, I woke up around 6:30, quickly disassembled my tent to go for a sunrise photograph in the beach. Even though Sun rise was not directly reflecting on the beach , but from the backyards of the hill it was looking so beautiful , making a picturesque reflection on the broad beach.

I have observed people from other locations already reached the beach early morning around 4.30 to enjoy its morning view. I also made a ride through the beach from one to the other end on the white sand. People started riding with the motor boats on the low tide  waves.

It was so nice to observe the different art formed by the incoming and outgoing sea tides on the white sands .Beach is so clean that we can clearly observer the creation on the sand .After spending couple of minutes  I planned to leave Diveagar and headed towards Mhasala , as I may need to take deviation from there  either to Pune or Mahabaleshwar based on the road condition. I have a strict duration for this trip of 4 days , so I had to cut down few of the places from my initial pre-plan list.

The road towards Mhasala was almost good apart from few distance at the starting. The ride of around 20km goes through the rolling road around the small ghats till I reach Mhasala with around 1.5 hours.It was sweating a bit as I was feeling humid in that region.

Had my breakfast at Mhasala as there was no such food stall in that patch of the road. Met few bikers coming from Pune towards the beach via Thamini ghat. They told me about the bad condition of the road and asked me to prepare mentally for the climbs in the ghat sections. We left each other after wishing a safe and enjoyable ride.

I started my ride around 9.30 from Mhsala point taking guide about the next part of the road from the shopkeeper in the hotel that I had breakfast.

After leaving the small town of Mhasala around 3 km, I headed towards Goregaon which was around 30 km with full of ghat section and the forests. Initially I have to climb few km then the road was rolling and downhill. It was one of the best part of the ride with the dense forest surrounding and the ghat with hardly any vehicles. The fragrance of the flowers were energizing my mind the soal. So pleasant and lonely  it was although it was a ghat to be crossed. After around 2.30 hr, I reached Goreagoan and then Lonere at 12.30 pm. There were only few food stalls if you want to have anything apart from the small towns in Mhasala and the intermediate villages. So better to keep water and food for that section. Around the road the paddy field were covered with rice grains and you can see the farmers storing rice grains from the farm in few villages. Quite silent road it was.

Still I have to decide where to go further as wherever I go, I need to cross ghat at least 20 KM.As it was 12pm already, I decided not to go through Bahabaleshwar as I have to climb of around 45KM. And planned to go through Varandh ghat via Bhor to Pune.

Taken the Panvel- Kochi- Kanyakumari highway road from Lonere towards Mahad of around 20 km .On few places of the road just before reaching Mahad  you can see Savitri river on you right along the road.

By mistake I entered in Mahad town taken a deviation from the highway crossing a small river called   Gandhari. I could see lots of masjid in Mahdi passed through and a small pond called Chavdar Tale with a statue of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar caught attraction of my eye.Through the city of around 3 km I again reached the highway and had my lunch in a small hotel  besides the highway around 2 pm.

Continued my ride without any further break with an easy pace to save my time instead taking  .After reaching Savitri river twin bridge  I had to take a left deviation from the main highway through 70 no state highway. On the way you can see river Kal on your left. It was around 20km ride till you reach the main ghat sections. Once approaching towards the ghats and looking into it, mind started tickling about the effort needed  to be put while climbing. It was a fully sunny day and the heat was draining my energy though it was pleasant ride through the villages and the rice paddy field around the road.

Soon after climbing few kms in the ghat I stared feeling thirstier. I had only a 700 ml water bottle and only 1/4^th  was left. A car driver offered me water bottle on the way while asking for some water. I had to stop in some hairpins due to continuous climbs and its sudden elevation.

Heart beat was raising gradually with increasing heat in my body.I stopped seeing a small stream and decided to take few min rest .Taken a small shower in that cold water make my body to calm and filled both the bottle with stream water coming through the rocks. Even after that also I was able to climb only a few distance. Gear started decreasing till 1:1 from 2:1.

There was a small school besides the road itself few meters ahead, thought of taking  rest of  half an hour as body was not comfortable to ride further. I tried to slept for few min in a shed under a tree and the time was 4:30. The giant hills were looking gigantic from the road as I was gradually climbing up. Got few clicks of those hills from the hill top. But after few distance, inclination started decreasing and I also started feeling relaxed with the sun set. The other side of the ghat was quite pleasant temperature as sun was opposite side of the hills. Got the water bottle filled from a food stall.  It was becoming dusk and I planned to stay in the ghat only as it might be unfavorable to  ride in the ghats as the road was not good in the downhill.

After few km Varandha Ghat valley view I met an villager asking him for a guide about the road.He happily suggested me to stay in nearby hotel roadside near Nira-Deoghar dam as it was just few km distance away from me.

Downhill was quite uncomfortable with the potholes in the road and I decided to take a stop looking at a hotel.And requested him if I can pitch my tent nearby his hotel. He also suggested me to not to ride further at night due to bad condition of the road .

They even prepared the food that I might like knowing about my trip story and we talked about my experiences  .It made me so happy that people are still ready to help whenever you are in need. Captured some clicks with the hotel guys as a memory and I put my tent near their hotel. They even offered me to take rest along with them as  it would be cold at night .But I preferred to use my tent to get the experience under the blue sky. Those hotels runs throughout the night and day. The vehicles were getting parked just near my tent .Might be I was occupying the parking area.

At night was it was quite chilled and my tent was  covered with the mist at night as the dam was just below the area.