Tapola with Mahabaleshwar's Tadka

12th-13th November 2016.........Winter Ride-2
It's called as Mini Kashmir of Maharashtra. Tapola with Mahabaleshwar's tadka.
Almost everybody was excited for this destination. Let's see what we cooked up there.

Pre-Ride Foodies

Briefing

10 Bikes ready to roll for Long Run. Riders reached Kalamboli Mcdonalds (Assembly point) on time and started having light snacks.
Just before leaving Akim informed us that he will be late and will catch us directly at Lonavala. We left assembly point around 7:30 AM.
One bike (pulsar 150) was giving problems and we decided to leave that bike in Lonavala. Lucky to have Sais with us. 

Breakfast Halt

Fuel tanks were full but our tummy were expecting a grand breakfast. Unfortunately the breakfast point which was pre-planned was located on express highway.
Then we decided to hunt any dhaba on highway which was just 30 km before Pune. Coffee & Tea were very tasty. Rest were just ok-ok. Temperature started rising and we resumed our ride. We were desperately waiting for Vrooom Vroomm in Katraj tunnel, length 1 km.

Tail of TRC (Kapil Vig)

Smooth & Flat Roads with Formation

It's our moment...Katraj Tunnel 1km

After crossing outskirts of Pune, the tricky part came into picture. We took little breather, fueling n photo-shoot session before hitting ghats of Wai. If you are traveling towards Mahabaleshwar then you have to keep one thing in mind that don't get lost on Satara Highway.
There are so many diversions. Take right towards Wai and proceed with Wai-Panchgani route. This time we were disappointed with roads of Wai Ghat, too many potholes roughly rocky condition. After reaching Panchgani excitement of stepping foot at resort was killing us.
We were late and decided to skip our evening's tour to Mahabaleshwar Market and we purchased all goods there itself (Hookah, cake & Booze).

We followed GPS and followed a narrow and different path to reach Tapola and we skipped Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar route.
After 5-7 kms it almost broke our heart, roads were in extremely bad condition. "Esa laga road pe nahi khade meh road hai". 25km total off roading/ bad roads. We felt like we should have left our bikes in Mahabaleshwar. Wrist and Palm had never ever experienced such situation like this before. There is one more sad part about Tapola that there is "Zero Network".You have to borrow phone from locals to make a call to your loved ones.
Roads were getting narrower, valley with view of large lake on the right and forest on other end. We sensed that we are getting closer to our destination. Finally few steep/inclined followed by red soil and here we are at "Tapola Agro Tourism". It was almost 5pm and we postponed our water sports activities of lake to next morning. After freshening and chunking lunch we started setting up mood for party night.
 
Almost 15 people & night was all ours. Afternoon ka mood off, dukh-dard sabh bhaag gaya botal khulne se.

Cheers to Life and let's forget about bad roads

(Mood Setter and Khusbudaar Dhua ne maahol bana diya). Rahul ne hasa hasa ke sabka peth dukha diya.

Hehehe hahaha Various Hilarious acts

Hook Hook Hook Hookah hai yeh

Also few acts by others made us crazy Primetime 9 and mood was absolutely beyond expectation.
It's time for Birthday Bash of Dude "Aniket". (People are so lucky that their bday falls on ride day). He told us it was the best bday ever in his life. Couple of days back our Baba-Admin "Niranjan" was on red carpet.

Aniket & Niranjan

Yummy...Attack

Click from Extreme Angle

It's prank time

Dual celebration followed by Classic Kiddo game "Musical Chair". Loser can walk out only with hardcore & hilarious dare. It made our evening special and after few clicks, we had dinner. 

All eyes were open till 11 PM as resort folks told us we can arrange a camp fire only after 11 PM.
Raat Baaki and Baat Baaki....Jaagte Raho.....Chairs wali Tribes.
Yeah one by one we started gathering near camp fire and started conversation with usual automobiles, reptiles, destinations, horror stories and sometimes emotional talks touching everyone's heart.

Camp Fire with Haunted Tadka

Climate was chilled and Half of the group were already exhausted and sleepy they went to bed and 5 to 6 of us continued. Suddenly our train switched to new track of "Haunted Stories" (esa laga Ramsay ki movie ki shooting ho rahi hai) Dipika was damn scared and we accepted her challenge that there are no such things and they don't exist in this world.

 

Around 1:30 AM we went to lake. Spooky fog was crossing the lake and cool breeze. Couple of people started playing with Frogs and Fishes.
Kapil whispered and told us let's scare the devil out of Dipika. Suddenly we turned off our torch and came up with weird thriller noises.
She knew it was a prank still she was afraid to throw any further challenges on us.
Again we gathered around camp fire and after few chats we realized that it's almost 3 AM. Time to Sleep...Night Night 
Mesmerizing Morning, my goodness temperature was below 11 degree everyone was wrapped in 2 blankets. Couple of riders left early before noon because of some family commitments and rest of us had leisure time on lake.

Breakfast

Heading towards Lake

LAKE PLACID

Rahul, Kapil & Akhil

Harmeet the Swimster

Lake is spread across 90 kms. We got involved in Swimming & Kayaking. For most of us Kayaking was 1st time experience and it was amazing. In house games  "Rahul the Eklavya". Finally time had come to say goodbye to resort, we checked out. We started riding back to home.

EK LAVYA

Dudes of TRC

Check Out

After reaching Mahabaleshwar Market we came to know that this year there strawberry lover's heart will be broken, because production has been delayed and Strawberries will be unavailable till December end. No worries we purchased some raw stuff to please others.

We left Mahabaleshwar and after crossing Wai ghat and at covering good distance we ate snacks with lots of beverages. order consumed plenty of time.Then Jagdeep's thunder bird took us by surprise, some wiring issue with handle was turning off the ignition. Issue was resolved in 30 minutes.Meanwhile couple of riders decided to top up few liters in tank from local HP petrol station. It was getting darker and roads was covered with Traffic and after few minutes Harmeet's Avenger shocked everyone with a problem. Exhaust was throwing flames and engine was cutting off 2-3 simultaneously breakdowns. Damn inferior quality fuel it wasted couple of hours to diagnose and solve the problem. Lots of breakdowns which caused delayed and we finally reached home. But never mind, such unknown hurdle during trip makes the ride more thrilling and adventures and prepare us for future breakdown to handle.

Mahabaleshwar ride was full of excitement, enjoyment, unexpected breakdown, nature's lap beauty, scenic and chilled environment - total mixture of excitement, temperament, patience and nature.

Hope you guys enjoy reading the blog. Kindly don't forget to give your  positive/negative valuable feedback.

Blog Written & Edited by Harmeet Banwait

Pic Courtesy:-
Meghan Bhise
Rahul Patil
Aniket More

Upcoming Ride:-

>>>1 Day Ride to Malshej Ghat 18th December 2016<<<
And Stay Tuned for January's 1 Day Ride........

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