4 days: December 23 to December 26, 2017 (Christmas long weekend).
3 riders: Yogesh, Rahul, and Sachin (me).
2 destinations: Shirdi and Aurangabad.
1 goal: Enjoying the ride.
“Everything begins with a thought, thoughts are turned into plans, and plans into reality.” – Marshall Sylver
This post is to share the experience of the first multi-day, multi-city bicycle tour of 3 amateur cyclists. I have tried to keep it raw and include everything — our planning, the route, destinations, emotions, hurdles, and mistakes.
a thought
December – 1st week
With the long Christmas weekend around the corner, we are thinking to plan a getaway. It’s not very surprising that we zeroed in on – a bicycle tour. We all recently bought the bicycles and super excited about it, like kids.
A bike tour has all the essential ingredients for an incredible getaway — travel, spectacular views, new cuisines, camping, meeting people, exploring places and of course, get to ride for long distances. Any destination within 400–500 km distance would be the ideal choice, for a 4-day tour. For that distance, it makes sense to keep the destinations within our state of Maharashtra. Also, our knowledge about Maharashtra is much better than it is for other states.
Circuit : Mumbai – Kasara – Shirdi – Ellora(Verul) – Daulatabad – Aurangabad
(Originally, Mumbai – Kasara – Shirdi – Ellora(Verul) – Ajanta – Aurangabad, had to drop Ajanta to make up for delays)
Riders’ profile:
- Rahul: A few 100+ km rides. Longest ride: 300 km.
- Yogesh: A few 50+ km rides. Longest ride: 75 km, a year ago.
- Sachin: A few 100+ km rides. Longest ride: 300 km.
the planning
December – 2nd week
None of us have done long rides for consecutive days, and this route will require us to ride around 100+ km for 4 days back-to-back.
Rahul and I had some experience of riding for some long distances & climbs, all thanks to the BRMs we had done, but Yogesh surely needs some practice for long rides and on elevations. He had sort of not touched his bike in the last couple of months.
Knowing that we all require practice, with all the enthusiasm, we started doing small rides during the weekdays and slightly longer ones on weekends, to prepare our bodies for the tour.
Preparing a checklist of Travel Essentials is the important next step. We collaborated to build a checklist on Google Keep, a simple yet powerful checklist mobile app. Our checklist is an exhaustive list containing around 50–60 items of all sorts like medicines, food, tools, servicing & repairs, clothes, personal care, etc.
December – 3rd week
We all had a fair idea of our route, distances, and places we can opt for night-stays after riding for 100-120 km daily but things got precise and clear when Rahul prepared an itinerary with the exact distances, halts, the ride timings, and agenda, which included “meeting with locals” too :). It’s then, we realized we will need to make some changes in our plan as a few of the halts are quite long to cover in a single day. With some research & brainstorming, we decided to travel initially some of the distance by local trains. Finally, we have – the plan.
We divided the responsibilities for arranging all essential items from our checklist among the three of us. The tasks/items on the list are arranged as per priority and we revisit it daily at least once a day. This kept on almost till the eve of the event.
By this time, Yogesh’s consistent practice has shown good improvements. He could reach a maximum distance of 80 km by now and although 100 km was our target, 80 km is certainly not bad. The real concern is that he couldn’t do any elevation practice and there are few ghats (mountains) to conquer along the route. However, the time for second thought has gone. Once we had decided, our mind was made up: The plan must go on.
Bikes are serviced, bags packed, and all riders are ready for the D-day.
transforming into reality
December 23 – Day #1: Mulund (Mumbai) to Sinnar
5:00 am – We are at Mulund station and waiting for the first local train of the day to Kasara. As we are carrying our bicycles with us, we have to travel by luggage coach. On arrival of the train, we boarded easily to a luggage compartment, as it was completely vacant. We settled our cycles properly to ensure they’ll not move and locked them together. On the route to Kasara, the train passes through the creeks, the grasslands, and the forests. The December morning breeze entering from the wide doors of the luggage coach is making it freezing inside. After two hours, the train reached Kasara station. It is the last stop for the train, we get enough time to offboard our bicycles. We tied our backpacks and sleeping bags on the carriers of our bicycle with the bungee cords and started our ride towards the famous Kasara ghat.
Kasara ghat is around 8 km long with a gradient of 4%. I feel it is a decent challenge and exciting for someone who is climbing ghat for the first time, it is long but not very steep. The road is well maintained, surrounded by lush green forest, You get beautiful views of the valley from the mountain all along the route. For the cyclists, it certainly gives a 550–700 ‘elevation gain’ boost to your Strava profile. Strava is a social networking platform for cyclists, runners, and a few other sports.
It’s a pleasure riding on Kasara ghat in the morning. The morning golden rays from the sun have begun to light up the landscape in the valley. The fog in the valley is slowly getting cleared. The scenic beauty from the ghat, the serene atmosphere, and the pleasant cold wind made our climb easy and fun. Yogesh is super excited but extra cautious, this being his first ride on a ghat. As far as I know, Yogesh had never climbed a flyover until now – Helmet’s off to you dude for the ease with which you are riding on the mountain. About Rahul, he is far ahead of us, we get a glimpse of him when he takes a brief halt to capture us on his camera :). Finally, the Manas Resort is in front of us – a landmark I always remember as the end of the ghat and the start of the tourist town Igatpuri.
Continuing on the same road, very soon we passed a toll gate, indicating that we have crossed Igatpuri, and around 2.4 km after the toll post, we took a right turn for Ghoti-Sinnar (Ghoti-Shirdi) road. It started becoming nice and warm with the sunrise, and the smell of hot batata-vada from a roadside stall forced us to stop. We had a breakfast of delicious vada-pav and hot beverages at the Ghatandevi tea stall and replenished our water bottles. Before starting again, we enquired about the road ahead. I always feel locals give you the best information about road’s quality and safety in India.
As we have been told, the road is well maintained and nicely suited for the ride. It’s a wonderland with short ascents and descents throughout, views of hills covered with trees, lakes with blooming lotuses, and windmills spinning far ahead on the mountain. Everything looks so fresh and glowing under the soft morning sunlight. The joy ride on this wonderful patch took me into my thoughts which suddenly broke as Yogesh got a cramp on his right leg.
After applying pain relief spray and taking a little break, Yogesh is feeling better, so we started again. However, he couldn’t ride long stretches as the pain keep coming back, forcing him to take small rides, followed by walking or a break. With our limited knowledge, we knew cramps happen due to dehydration or lack of salts in the body. Yogesh has been drinking enough water and Enerzal throughout the route, we had salted lemon juice too, but not much of relief. (Lesson: We started keeping black/rock salt.)
As we crossed noon, walking became more tiring with the sun shining in all its glory. Adding to our troubles, a ghat started which we have not expected or rather I would say we are completely unaware of. Yogesh was unable to ride the elevation with his pain, thus we just kept walking slowly. Fortunately, the ghat wasn’t very big (approximately 4 km) and not much elevation either.
When problems come, they don’t come in installments. While walking ahead, we saw Rahul far on the road, inspecting something in his bike. Basically, he is not able to shift his front gears. After some inspection, we found that the front gear cable had been broken. We had experience with fixing flat tires and broken chains, but a broken gear cable is new for all of us. Neither we are carrying spare cables and the required tools to fix it. The worst thing with a broken cable is that the bike comes to the lowest gear, generally meant for elevations, and this requires the rider to pedal as fast as he can even to move a small distance. I bet, Rahul has certainly made his personal pedaling cadence record in these 4 days. Yes, we couldn’t get it repaired during the whole tour! (Lesson: We should keep spare brake & gear cables and learn how to fix them too.)
We keep riding on the route alternating rides and walks, crossing those “windmills far on the mountain”, we had seen in the morning. I’m not sure if it’s due to the harsh noon, a couple of uninvited problems, or our fatigue, the windmills looked like mechanical ugly metal giants now. With no sign of any town, we keep up our journey in the hot dry climate. A couple of times, we feel that the ghat has ended since we get long flat roads, but then another mountain begins. It’s almost late noon and all of us are very hungry and exhausted. When we reached the peak of the mountain, we saw a couple of dhabas and took a break for lunch.
After some food entered our stomach and with some must-required rest under the shade, our brains start functioning again and we begin to think about what to do next. With the sun going down and about to set for the day, the temperature also started to drop. We have come around 75 km till now which is a little higher than half of our targeted destination for day #1 – Shirdi, but now we will not be able to make it there. We talked about staying right here for the night. We were on top of a hill with a nice green open area around us, and a couple of dhabas. We found an abandoned shop with a tin rooftop in a decent condition to stay over for the night. After around an hour-and-a-half of breaking for lunch here, the sun is almost set and it has started getting colder, signaling that night is going to be extremely cold in this open area.
I guess, the long break gave us some strength and courage and we thought to move ahead for a town – Sinnar, around 10 km away. Yogesh is also fine with it. The temperature plays a big role in our strength to ride and breaks always act like catalysts. Our new plan was to reach Sinnar before it gets too dark, get Rahul’s bike repaired, and find a nice place for a night\’s stay.
Sinnar wasn’t far and we reached there by around 7:00 pm. All our inquiries lead us to this one name – B.G. Kshatriya Cycle Store. We reached the main market area standing in front of the cycle store. The shop looked decent with two mechanics busy fixing bikes and a variety of cycles kept for sales. Our eyes started scanning the handlebars of all the cycles, to locate gear shifters. Our hope faded as they were all single-speed cycles, without gears. Well, the confidence of the mechanic restored some hope for us. He tried his best to fix it, but couldn’t even manage to unmount the shifter for changing the cable. He certainly has the right commitment but lacked the proper tools. Losing this battle, we started preparing for the next – night\’s stay. Mechanics and locals at the cycle store suggested a nearby temple- Kal Bhairav Mandir.
We took a small casual ride across the market area. Due to our late lunch, none of us felt like having dinner. There were few nicely decorated Masala milk stalls in the market. Being foodies, we all thought to try masala milk and other milk products. Unfortunately, I would say that their stalls looked far better than their products tasted.
There was a risk of the temple getting closed or if the priest didn’t allow us there, we need to find an alternative, so we started towards Kal Bhairav temple. The temple compound has many small temples within it and a few big ones of Kal Bhairav, Shani Dev, and Durga. Shanidev temple is pretty crowded with people who came to offer oil, it symbolizes relieving pain when we massage oil. Shanidev is linked to the planet Saturn – is a god of Karma and justice. It’s fascinating that God has their days in India and today is Saturday (Shaniwar), the day of Shanidev.
We requested the caretaker of the temple for the night stay. He enquired about us and our journey and couldn’t contain his excitement. He told us that the temple gets closed at 10:00 pm and we can get the place to stay only after that. We freshened up a bit and visited the temples in the compound. After 10:00 pm, the caretaker gave us access to a hall adjacent to Shanidev temple. We locked our bikes to the railings and got our sleeping bags ready. All of us fell asleep as soon as we got inside our sleeping bags, only to wake up the next day at 6:00 in the morning.
Distance traveled: 85 km
December 24: Day #2 — Sinnar — Shirdi — Vaijapur
Due to some construction work, the water supply of the temple has been discontinued for the last four months. It’s difficult to find a hotel so early in the morning, especially in this small town, so we all went to the bus stand to use the facility there for our morning ablutions and quickly started for Shirdi.
A person going in the same direction on a motorcycle, well versed with the city roads, led us to the highway for Shirdi. He literally took us through the inner roads and bylanes, surrounded by houses, which gave us a nice mini-tour of the town. Women are cleaning the courtyard with water and decorating it with beautiful patterns of Rangoli (colored sand). After a glimpse of the town, we reached the highway. Before a word of adieu, our so-called guide suggested a restaurant that is situated a bit ahead on the highway for a nice breakfast.
The road is one of the best roads I’ve ridden and the climate is just wonderful, making our ride a pleasure. The road has certainly raised our hopes to cover yesterday’s shortfall of 20–30 km, but even if both Yogesh and I were at normal speed, Rahul is trying hard to match pace with us. It is not like we suddenly become faster than him, he literally had to pedal faster due to the broken gear cable.
About after 30–40 minutes, we stopped for breakfast at the restaurant suggested by our guide. It was surprisingly a nice upscale restaurant. We ordered some choice south Indian & Maharashtrian cuisines, accompanied by hot beverages. There was some time for the order to be served, so Rahul tried to fix the gear. With some adjustment to the position of the front derailleur, he successfully managed to bring it to second gear – a big relief. After finishing our tasty breakfast, we started again.
On the way, we saw an unusual scene which left us puzzled. Hundreds of people walking on the side lanes of the road, many of them even barefoot. After inquiry, we came to know they were Sai Bhakts (devotee of God Sai), going with Palkhi to the holy town – Shirdi, which was our next halt. After casual talks with a few of them, we came to know that they had been walking for many days now. Though they are very thrilled to hear about our bicycle ride, we know they are the real heroes. Faith gives strength to achieve the impossible.
We continued riding towards Shirdi taking a couple of small breaks for enjoying the local snacks/fruits from roadside stalls, water refills, and taking some photos to capture these memories. We reached Shirdi by around 1:00 pm.
We were expecting it to be crowded due to the long weekend but what we saw was beyond our imagination. Shirdi was just flooded with people, everywhere. I’ve never seen Shirdi so crowded that there isn’t space to walk on the roads. Shirdi was just a halt for us, thus we wanted to quickly freshen up, visit the temple and restart our ride asap. Our previous day’s experience had taught us that destiny has its own flavor to add to our plans, filling it with surprises and adventures.
Bhaktaniwas (temple’s accommodation) has long queues, people waiting for hours for a room and thus completely out of question for us. We tried to find a room in many of the hotels but all were packed. Rahul, Mr. Jugaad, came into action and our search ended on Shri Sainath Mukteshwar Dham. The caretaker first strictly refused us, saying that the facility is only available for the members of this trust, but later their respected Guruji came to our rescue. Not sure whether he find cyclists interesting or is moved by our efforts or something else, but we get a nice clean room with a hot water facility. We really felt like it is a miracle, and thanked Guruji for his help.
The room hunting had taken up a good share of our time. By the time we finished the visit to the temple, followed by lunch, the clock was showing 6:00 pm. We are already running short on our distance goals due to yesterday’s incidents. We need to cover a good distance today to get back to our plan. The fact is that in two days, we have only covered the distance that we had planned for our first day, in two days. This really is a matter of concern. For safety, we had originally decided to not ride during the nights. An option was to cover at least 40–50 Kms more today and halt at some town midway but there is no consensus on this. It wasn’t really night yet but due to the winter, the days are short and it gets dark really soon. I strongly wanted to cover some distance but Yogesh was against it and Rahul is neutral. After some discussion, we decided to ride for a few hours. We assembled our belongings and arranged our bags again on our bicycles by around 7:00 pm.
Guruji insisted that we stay tonight and start again in the morning. We got into a short conversation with him, which extended a little longer especially considering the time we have at hand. He is very interested to know more about us and our ride but also understood that if we have to leave it’s better not to delay. He asked the caretaker to take some photos of ours with him and took our visiting cards. We also captured some moments in our camera and got back on the saddle by 7:30 pm.
Our new destination for tonight is Vaijapur, around 40 km from Shirdi, estimated to take 2.5 hours during night hours. We did some inquiries with locals regarding safety with a majority of them indicating that the road is safe but a couple of people cautioned us. The majority definitely wins when you have made up your mind to go ahead. For precaution, we informed our family members about the route. We went ahead on the Shirdi – Nagar highway and then took the Nagpur – Aurangabad highway after around 6 km. The road is absolutely bad with big potholes and pitch dark with no street lights; fortunately, our headlights are pretty bright.
The road is getting worse with every kilometer we covered and deserted as the night grew. We never expected a highway to be in such a condition and it started raising doubts in our minds. We felt what if those couple of people who had cautioned us were actually proved right? There is absolutely no one on the road to turn to for advice. Luckily, we saw a passerby and he also suggested that we stay at a nearby village temple rather than moving ahead at this hour. We found another person on a bike and he also said this road is certainly bad and unsafe and suggested another alternative: To take the inner village road, something which he himself normally do during the night hours. We are in two minds – whether to trust a stranger or stay here?
After some discussion, we decided to take the internal road, taking a detour from the highway to the roads going via villages like Kasoli, Sirasgaon. Ukkadgaon etc. This road is certainly much better than the highway but is equally deserted. Our mobile phones have no network, fortunately, we have access to Google Maps, as we had downloaded this region for offline access. With inner roads, there is always trouble for direction on junctions, and with no one around, we were completely dependent on Google Maps.
Finally, we reached a bigger road again, which was in the same bad condition as the previous highway. It’s around 9:30 pm and as per the map, our destination is still around 10–15 km away. We kept riding on this empty road, carefully cutting across the potholes in the dark with zero expectations of meeting anyone. To our surprise, we heard some sound from loudspeakers coming from far away, which became louder to show we were riding towards it.
We reached a village and from the road, we could see the bright lights coming from an inner lane. This is also the source of the sound, rather it’s dance songs. We thought it’s good to do a quick recheck with people about the road and our destination. We went there to see a marriage party going on with people enjoying food, drinks, and dance. A couple of people confirmed that we are on the right path and will reach Vaijapur in an hour, it is certainly a relief.
Even on such occasions, cyclists in their fancy attires and nice bicycles certainly impress people. They all just assembled around us and started asking questions out of curiosity. Is this a sports cycle? Does it run on battery? Are you in some competition? Does it have gears? Where is the accelerator? and whatnot. I’m sure the bride and groom envied this shift in attention or at least felt the urge to leave the stage to see what’s happening. People were so excited that they offered us the choice to enjoy the party and stay for tonight or to stay at least for a couple of hours with them. Both Rahul and I almost fell for it :), but Yogesh strictly disagreed. So we half-heartedly refused, thanked them, and moved ahead. Certainly, a big sacrifice!
After an hour of riding, we reached Vaijapur. We have to reach Swami Samarth temple, for which we had searched using Google before starting from Shirdi and had decided to approach for our night stay. The town is completely closed and so we kept riding, looking for anyone to enquire about. Near a junction, we saw a handcart surrounded by around 8-10 people. Such things make you crazy. In the last 10 minutes, we did not see any open shops or a hotel nor anyone on the streets and here you see so many people together, late in the night.
After reaching there, the picture became clear. There is a country liquor bar which just got closed and all the people around were its customers preparing to go home. All of them gathered around us as if we are aliens. By now, we are also pretty used to such reactions and attention. Rahul and I stopped at the handcart – a peanut stall, talking with the seller to know about the Samarth temple and buying fresh roasted salted peanuts. Well, he didn’t seem to have much knowledge about the town. Meanwhile, Yogesh is trying his luck with ones under the influence of alcohol ;).
After some time, when we were relishing the taste of hot roasted snacks on a cold night of winter, Yogesh came to us irritated. He pointed towards a man and said: “he knows a temple nearby but not sure if it is the one we are looking for.” He had also offered Yogesh a ride on his motorcycle to check the temple. Both Rahul and I were so into our talks and tasty peanuts that we sort of overlooked Yogesh. It’s when Yogesh sat on his new friend’s bike, I realized something was wrong and stopped him immediately. I just felt it’s better to stay together in this unknown place and anyways it’s not safe to ride with someone who is driving drunk.
Yogesh’s new friend is determined to help us in some way, so he shouted at the peanut vendor to not take money for the peanuts we bought. Well, he didn’t pay him too on our behalf :). He also suggested a Dhaba (restaurant) for dinner, he actually called there to confirm if it’s still open. The person on the other side of the call asked us to come quickly as they will be closing in 15 minutes. We quitely paid the peanut vendor and rushed for our dinner. I just felt my shoes are starting to cause me a little discomfort, looks like the sole is losing out its grip.
We reached this food joint – Rajasthani Hotel Satyam Dhaba. They serve food cooked in Marwari style and it’s delicious. At our request, he made Dal-Bati too, a traditional Marwari cuisine, which extended our time by around 20 minutes. All of us have really overstuffed ourselves due to craving for delicious dal-bati. I just thought – ‘All is well if it ends well’, and this end is certainly delicious. But there is an important thing still pending before calling it a day – shelter for a night stay. We checked with the restaurant owner and he gave us the contact number of a friend who could help.
We dialed the number and reached his place. He tried calling a couple of places but with no luck. He also went with us to a nearby temple where he knew the priest but the main door was closed and no one responded from inside to his knocks and shouts. He told us to try visiting a couple of lodges nearby but warned us that they might not meet our expectations.
Not sure, if we had overestimated this town earlier while checking in Google or we are not able to locate the right places now, we couldn’t find any good hotel or lodge. A few of those we visited, either only allow families or were very shabby and unhygienic. Time has passed quickly and we are already over an hour post-midnight. We settled an accommodation from what was available but the room was smelly and dirty and the bed sheets looked like they had not been washed for a month. One thing we are clear by now, we are exhausted and do not have many choices in any case. We sprayed deodorant in our room and rolled out our sleeping bags on the bed. It’s 2:00 pm and our body is screaming for rest, and we all fall asleep pretty quickly. I’m sure I’ve underplayed describing the room, Yogesh will certainly narrate our trauma better.
Distance traveled: 110 km
December 25: Day #3, Vaijapur— Ellora(Verul)
I woke up at 7:00 am to see Rahul and Yogesh already up and talking. Mr. Jugaad has already fixed a few essentials to make the morning better. No one had the courage to enter the bathroom, so he checked with the lodge owner for alternatives and the owner allowed us to take bath in the open and arranged for hot water too. We got ready as quickly as possible and started our trip again on the road that was suggested by the lodge owner.
After going ahead for some kilometers, we came to know that we had been suggested the wrong route, so we returned to take the right one. The sole of my shoes lost its grip, so when we saw a cobbler on the way, we stopped to get it repaired. To save time, we had our breakfast from the roadside stalls while my shoes are being repaired. It was Harsh’s (a common friend\’s) birthday today, so we called to wish him. My talk with Harsh went on a little longer, it’s almost impossible to finish the call quickly with him. Shoes were ready by the time the call finished, the cobbler has taken a little longer (actually, it is my phone call that added the time), but he certainly did a good job.
We started our journey on the right road this time. The road was fine and we are passing through many villages on the way. As usual, Yogesh and I are riding together and Rahul is ahead but he waits for us at some intervals. It allows him to accomplish one of his planned agenda – “Interactions with locals”. I remember once he casually asked a villager: “Bhaiya, yaha par zameen ki keemat kya hai?” (What is the price of land in this region?). I’m not sure why but the villager got offended, but he replied in anger: ‘Kyun tum humari zameen kharidne aye ho?’(you came here to buy our lands?)
From a distance, we saw Rahul talking to a villager. When we reached there, we also stopped. The elder villager who looked impressed by Rahul’s talk now reached out to Yogesh. He got pretty impressed with Yogesh and started praising Yogesh for riding so long despite his heavy body frame. He told Rahul: ‘Tum kya khaas kar rahe ho? Inko dekho, yeh hai asli himmat’ (You (Rahul) are not doing anything special, look at him (Yogesh), he has the real guts.) Rahul starting laughing as the person had been applauding him for the last 5 minutes but after Yogesh arrived he has suddenly changed the camp :).
The road is decent and our bikes are also not giving us any new trouble. We crossed many small rivers and their tributaries on the way. The bridges on them are pretty low making it a steep descent and ascent on the road. The road in this patch is also not good, completely washed out. We are mostly getting down from the saddle on those patches and crossing them walking. While walking during one such patch, we noticed a 3-wheeler mini-truck for goods is slowly coming down from the other side of the road. On the steep climb upwards, it begins to really struggle with the heavy load that is on its trailer. The load keeps pulling the truck backward and finally pulled it down so much that the front wheel is literally in the air. Fortunately, there is no injury to the driver. This type of scene, we normally see in cartoons or Charlie Chaplin’s movie. Within no time people gathered for help and pulled the wheel to the ground. Two people stood in the front and the rest started pushing the truck from the back to complete the ascent. It is really heartwarming to see how people help others to such great extents in villages.
Our objective is to reach Ellora(Verul) asap so that we get enough time to visit the temple and the world-famous historical Ellora caves. We also have to travel around 50-60 km distance towards Ajanta today so that we can reach there early the next day. Knowing this, we haven’t taken any break after we left Vaijapur. As the sun grows stronger, the day is getting hotter making us tired and dehydrated. We saw Rahul standing on the road ahead, without his bicycle. He was waiting at a sugarcane juice stall, adjacent to a farm. We took a small refreshing break there under the shades of the trees and enjoyed sweet sugarcane juice with lemon and ginger. It was really rejuvenating. With fresh energy, we started again and reached Ellora (Verul) by 1:00 pm.
Verul is an ancient pilgrim destination of one of the 12 Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva known as Lord Grishneshwar. This town is also known as Ellora and is famous for the rock-cut caves complex consisting of Buddhist and Jain temples. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and comes in Aurangabad district, which is also my mother’s hometown. Because of this, I’d already visited Ellora and all the nearby destinations a few times earlier too but it’s always fun coming back with friends this time. We checked the visiting hours for both the temple & the caves and decided to go to the temple first.
We settled in a tea stall near the temple and had hot beverages. The tea stall also has arrangements for hot water and bathing. It’s common in shops near the temple, as the devotees use such services and it’s a good source of income. We left our luggage and cycles at the tea stall and as recommended by them, reached there 30 minutes before the temple opening time. There was not much rush in the temple when it reopened, so we quickly got the darshan. We assembled again at the tea stall after we visited the temple. Yogesh was pretty exhausted and feeling tired, he expressed the desire to drop Ajanta. I didn’t like the idea at first but later after giving it some thought, I understood that it’ll be difficult for him to ride longer. Rahul has excellent acceptance to any situation and he is completely fine with it. It’s decided now that we will drop Ajanta, stay at Verul tonight, and then go to Aurangabad from here tomorrow. We looked for basic accommodation near the temple and moved our luggage there.
We went to Ellora caves and spent a good amount of time there. The cave complex has many temples made by excavating or carving the stones of the mountain. It also features the largest single monolithic rock excavation in the world. It’s overwhelming to see how, thousands of years ago, people had cut the mountains from top to bottom for making temples, rooms, balconies, stairs, statues, and whatnot. We spent the rest of our evening in the cave complex and then had dinner on the way back to our lodge.
My maternal relatives live in a nearby town, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to meet everyone there. Yogesh and Rahul settled at the lodge. I called my cousin and she picked me from Verul. I was so happy to meet her after a long time. The day was pretty relaxed compared to the previous ones and due to the shorter ride, I wasn’t tired, so we stayed up late into the night, gossiping. Lying on the bed, I thought – Tomorrow by this time, our journey will come to an end and we will be on the bus taking us back to Mumbai.
Distance traveled: 65 km
December 26: Day #4, Ellora(Verul)-Khultabad-Daulatabad-Aurangabad
When I came back in the morning, both Rahul and Yogesh were almost ready to go. Without wasting any time, we started our ride for Khultabad. Khultabad is an ancient holy town of Islamic Sufi saints. It is also famous for the Bhadra Maruti temple and tomb of Aurangzeb. Bhadra Maruti temple is unique for its big statue of Lord Hanuman lying on the floor, in a sleeping position. We gave a quick visit to the temple and bought the famous peda (condensed milk sweet) from here. Peda from this place is really delicious and mouth-watering.
We moved ahead for Aurangzeb tomb, but Rahul is not that interested to visit there, so we took a view from our way and went on. There is a small ghat on the way but we crossed it comfortably climbing the mountain before noon. The passage goes from the periphery of the Gautala forest range, it wasn’t very dense and green, perhaps due to the winter season. After crossing the forest, there is a nice long descent from the mountain. Rahul and Yogesh got too excited with it and moved ahead really fast. Rahul’s love for speed made him unstoppable at slopes and Yogesh accompanied him well. I was coming at my casual speed, thinking about my childhood visit to these places. Riding for a few more km after getting down from the mountain, we reached Daulatabad.
Daulatabad Fort is a tourist destination of historic importance. It’s a fortified citadel located at top of a conical hill. It is famous for its three-layered defense system which made it one of the most powerful hill fortresses of the medieval period. I remember visiting this place with my maternal uncle during my teenage years. Even then, I was very fascinated by the various defense and attack tactics constructed in the fort to confuse and conquer enemies.
We kept our cycles and luggage at a restaurant and started our trek to the fort. We thought of taking a guide but dropped the idea later on. I tried to fill in for a guide by recalling the explanations given by my uncle, more than two decades ago. Time was on our side today, so we went up to the top of the fort. After coming down, we had lunch at the restaurant where we had kept our bicycles.
We started moving towards our last destination: Aurangabad. The plan was to go to Aurangabad, check the availability of buses for Mumbai, and only if time permits, we will visit tourist places there. The road to Aurangabad is surrounded by big old banyan trees, and as the day progresses into the evening, the temperature is also dropping, making our ride easier. As we enter the city, we are welcomed by traffic jams. We tried using Google Maps but ultimately took help from the locals for directions. We finally reached the Central Bus Stand by beating the traffic using a shortcut suggested by an uncle.
Distance traveled: 35 km
Total distance traveled in 4 days: 300 km (approximately)
We came to know that the last state-run luxury bus (Shivneri) for Mumbai has already gone for the day. We specifically wanted this bus, as it has big luggage compartments to accommodate our bicycles. Other variants were available but our bicycles would not fit in them. We checked a couple of private operators but they were charging a bit higher, which might be due to the high demand during the long weekend. Right then, we saw a Shivneri for Pune coming out of the Bus Stand, and we just ran towards it and asked the driver for seat availability. We kept our bicycles in the luggage with the best care possible at that time and boarded the bus. Yogesh was feeling a little unwell and feverish, but we all fell asleep in the comfort of the air conditioner.
We reached Pune around midnight, at Shivajinagar bus stand. After inquiring about the bus for Mumbai, we came to know that the last bus, which is about to leave in 15 minutes from the Main Bus Stand, will not halt at this stop. We rushed towards the Main Bus Stand, near the railway station. On the way, I realized that I’ve lost my wallet. It has a handsome amount and credit cards. We have no option but to return and find it. We all kept searching on the road while going back when I got a call from an unknown number. It’s from the bus conductor who found my wallet while checking the bus before closing for the day. We rode back to the bus stand where he was waiting and handed over the wallet to us. We thanked him and awarded him some money as a token of our appreciation which he gently refused.
In all this, we have definitely missed the bus for Mumbai. So we rode towards Wakad, the last stop of Pune where all the outstation buses to Mumbai stops. Yogesh is still feeling a bit unwell but he kept riding, we just didn’t have any other option now. After waiting for around 30 mins at Wakad, we got a sedan going towards Mumbai. He agreed to drop us and carry our bicycles on the carrier. We board the vehicle and fall asleep.
We finally reached Mumbai. The cab driver didn’t agree to take a detour to drop Rahul at his house, thus Rahul had to get down at a location on the way and rode to his home from there. Yogesh is still feeling unwell and riding now would be difficult. Fortunately, the cab driver agreed to drop us at Yogesh’s home. It was 5:00 am when both of us got down from the cab, I accompanied Yogesh to his flat.
We have finally finished something very special, which is making us happy now and something we will always cherish further. This finish today is a seed, the beginning of our bigger rides in the future. We get a call from Rahul, he has safely reached home. We congratulated each other, and Yogesh and I hugged in celebration. With a smile on my face, I said goodbye to Yogesh, knowing we were meeting again in a few hours at the office. It is time to bid adieu to the wonderful tour, “a trip to remember”.
PS: The next day, Yogesh developed severe pain in his abdomen and was diagnosed with kidney stones.
