Hedvi Ride

Hedvi
5am. Got up and was all excited to ride. Shake myself off the lethargy of the warm cosy comforts of the bed, and get up feeling a tinge of excitement about the upcoming ride.

6am. Down in the parking. Got all fixed up with helmets and gloves. The ipod started playing my best songs. Started off for the meeting point-Chandni Chowk in Pune.

There is something exhilirating about an early morning. Some promise of something grand. A whiff of enthusiasm about a new day. I am amazed to see so many people already on the road - the sky is completely dark at this time. Kids in school uniforms waiting for busses at 6:30am near the Pashan circle as I head up towards Chandni Chowk. As I pass the army area, the chill hits the hands. Wow! The drop in temperature was quite sudden!

6:40am and I am at Chandni Chowk. Jay was there. Vibhu, Rishi and Narendra, were about to reach. Tried to call them up, no response - they are probably on the way. The dawn is just breaking ... and everyone was there to get on the road.

7:00am [ 0 kms ] Finally everyone is here, and we start off. I was to lead the way and decided to stick to 80kmph speed limits as there were new riders. The next stop was for the breakfast. The rookies have been let in on the big plan - we ride without many stops! That’s it, No over speeding, no racing, just very few stops. The traffic on the highway is quite sparse, and we make good time.

8:30am [ 52kms] Stop at Ram Vade Waala for breakfast. This place is crawling with people ! I am stumped - why so much of traffic. Thats when Naren says - probably all going to Mahabaleshwar ... aah ! We quickly assess the route again - do we go through mahabaleshwar and head over to Nh17 or go via Umraj and make a turn to chiplun? We decide on the later. The pleasures of riding with a group - new plans made constantly!

The ride after that was pretty simple. Nice straight highways with the run rising over the small hills on the left side. A few breaks for water and we reached Umbraj at 11:30. Hmm, we should reach chiplun by 1, so we decided to ditch having lunch there and directly go to Hedvi . Called up the fellow in Hedvi and asked him to get lunch ready for us.

Umbraj to Chiplun is ghat roads. Till halfway, the roads are bad, but around 30-40 kms before chiplun they become smooth and are fun to ride on! On the left side is a river ( i dont know the name , and google maps does not show the river) .

Chiplun took us some time to get through. The helpful people there pointed us right at the center of the busy weekend market, where progress was at snails pace. Finally out of it and we chugged along ahead towards Hedvi. Rishi was keeping up with me far ahead in the distance, while the others were bit behind. After asking directions again and again, a few turns later, we were at Hedvi.

13:30 [288] reached the resort in Hedvi. The less I write about it, the better - it’s not something I would recommend to people. Just a room to stay in, with common toilets, sigh.

We wasted no time and called for lunch, South Indian style. Finished that off and decided to take a small nap. Vibhu and Jay decided to take a breather and sleep the afternoon off. Rishi and Naren decided to chill out under the trees near the beach.

Finally around 4:30pm we moved onto the beach. It was still quite hot, but Jay and I were hoping for some good sunset shots - the only damper - the clouds on the horizon. However, it was the same clouds which turned the sky into a riot of colors! Check out the pics because I can't describe it in words.

Evening went in gupshup and another round of dinner which was same as lunch. We also settled our bills there to take care of the early start, and also as we could not bear another round of the food there !

Next Day

Jay was to leave really early, and in the process all of us got up :) .. though we finally started off quite late around 8:30am. I took that opportunity to use the public loo before others ( ;-) ), and also to take a few shots of the dawn. Man, it feels so fresh up at that time. Pity, I don't do it more often.



Breakfast stop was at Chiplun. The ghats from hedvi to chiplun are quite good, but this time, for the first time, Vibhu got a backache, gave him a couple of disprins to eat - which lasted quite a bit almost all the way back home.

After that we followed the same route back. At the top of the ghats, we stopped for a photo shoot. At that place is a police check post - where the guy after seeing us stop called us over to the hut and started asking for our identities etc. Then started filling in info in their book. Luckily for us the first person he asked was Narendra...
Officer : Whats your name ?
Naren : Narendra K
Officer : Na... ?
N : Narendra
O : Fullname ?
N : Write Narendra K
O : give full name.
N : Narendra Katlamudi
O Writes down "Narendra K" ;-)
That was quite funny! Then I asked the cops why they are harassing us when we have stopped and they are not stopping the other people who just zoom past. Officer said that tomorrow is Republic Day so he has to do these things, but I guess by this time he got tired of writing down a single name, so he said ok.


The journey after that did not have much to write about. It was a very hot day though, and we had lots of water breaks. The good thing was that all 4 of us kept together almost thorughout the journey, with a couple of dashes to break up the monotony.

4:30pm [588kms] and we are back at my house. I had to depart as had a prior appointment, parted way just before Pune, while the remaining 3 continued together.

Felt good to have a trip after a long time:D

And then in the evening I went out for a short drive ;)

Pune-HYD-RJY-Kakinada

I have finally completed the trip today and reached back pune at 12:00pm. Here is a short trip log along with timings and km's,

PUN-HYD (29/11/2008) (Total 554 kms)
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04:00 am: Everything was set, all bags packed, petrol tank full, started from Pune at the time decided. As soon as I left hadapsar it started raining heavily as though like a bad feeling. Covered 40 kms and I had to stop at Yawat due to lack of visibility. Started again after 1 hr when the situation improved. (Trip reading 0.0)14:25: Reached home, touched HYD outskirts (patancheru) at 12:40 but got caught in traffic. The entire stretch of karnataka was pathetic. The road is full of pot holes, but managed to keep the bike at 100Km/hr constant riding on the skirting.(Trip reading 554.6 kms)

HYD to RJY (30/11/2008) (Total 473 kms)
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03:35 am: Left home and reached suryapeth at around 6 am, had breakfast and then started again. Good road conditions but single lane with rashly driven truck and buses coming on to you. (Trip reading 557.1 kms)08:24: Touched Vijayawada Benz circle (Trip reading 825.7 kms).11:10: Reached Rajahmundry, excellant 2 lane roads, no pot holes and amazing ride. (Trip reading 1031 kms).

Rjy-Kakinada port(07/12/2008) (Total 62 kms)
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15:30 pm: Left Rjy with my sister in car with jiju and family. Amazing roads with nice village side scenary. (Trip reading 1248-1310 kms).

Kakinada to HYD (09/12/2008) (Total 501 kms)
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11:30 am: Started from KKY and took a different route this time via rjy-eluru-vijayawada. Road was bad till Eluru and then it joins the 2 lane highway. Finally reached vijayawada at 15:15pm. (Trip reading 1312-1515 kms)20:17: Finally reached Hyd, it was really a tiring ride due to the heavy traffic between vijayawada-hyd and night riding. Had some snacks at suryapeth at the same hotel I had while going the other way. (Trip reading 1515-1813 kms)

HYD-PUN (10/12/2008) (Total 546 kms)
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03:45 am: Started from Hyd and straight away started rippin the bikeg. Amazing streatch till Zahirabad, covered 100 kms in 90 mins even though it was a night ride. Reached Umarga at 7 had some breakfast and moved on. (Trip reading 2030 kms)12:00: Reached pune, really bad traffic and morning time you can find the villagers running around with cans in their hand. But managed to cover the distance in 8 hrs. (Trip reading 2349 kms)

Route taken: pune-sholapur--umarga-zahirabad-Hyderabad-vijayawada-Rajahmundry-Kakinada
Total distance covered: 2349 kms
Petrol Required: 79.5 ltrs
Avg kms/ltr : 30 kms (100-120 kmph)