...but after a loooooong time I got the approval from concerned authorities ;-)
Finally I decided to go to Solapur on 2 Dec 2007. The purpose was to meet my collage friend Vishal as he was in town for his wedding and to test my and my bike's stamina.
The road to Solapur is not any attractive, its a plane road without any ghats (twisties) and mostly barran land. But this was not going to deter me from my decision, as I have 2 motivating factors,
1. Its my first alone long ride out of Pune
2. Solapur is my home town. I was there from my birth till collage education...
I decided not to take NH9 (Pune-Hydrabad) as I consider it very dangerous road with lots of trucks causing lots of accidents. So I decided to take another internal road via Phaltan-Pandharpur.
...so I started on 2nd Dec 07, 6 AM, it was cold outside but normally I don't bother to put gloves, shoes etc. Mrunal forced me for that... and later I found them very useful!!!
From Bangalor bypass highway I went through New Katraj tunnel. Now this tunnel is not new for me so I just went fast to cover much distance in less time on NH4. After Shirval I turned left for Lonand and immediately felt a change. This is just a country road but not bad. Before Lonand one can see Veer dam on left.
The early morning cold breeze, view of dam and sunrise on horizon told me what was missing in my life...
After Lonand there are several small towns... the road is very much straight and the land becomes more and more barran as we approache Solapur. I stopped after every 50km or 1 hr, had breakfact around 9AM and reached Solapur at 12:30 PM.
I was in Solapur for exactly 23 hr. Meet old friends, relatives and my teachers, had fun roaming around the city recollecting memories from my wonder years in Solapur. The next day I started return journy at 11:30 AM, followed the same road and reached home at 7 PM. feeling little tired and a lot satisfied...
Total milage (Pune-Solapur and back) 600KM (including Solapur city ride)
No comments:
Post a Comment