Up in the Clouds

Its always been a childhood fantasy for me to be among the clouds... I think that fantasy was more powered by the fact that somehow the clouds would remind me of the pinkish looking cotton candy that some vendor would sell outside of our school, and i never could get to taste them, and i always thought the clouds would be exactly like them.
However time goes by, and most people mature naturally...guess that process never happened with me. Of course, i matured enough to realise what the clouds were really made up of... (thanks to the mindless education i received from my science and geography teachers) ... but the feeling to be among the clouds still persisted. And that fantasy is what we all set to look to turn into reality.... and thats what probably led me to agree on Malshej being the place to go for the weekend, the place where clouds mingle with us mere mortals. Have been hearing that Malshej is the place to go during monsoons, and looks like people may not have been way off the mark.

Its a nice Saturday afternoon and as per our unplanned plans - we are 6 of us and 3 bikes(a CBZ(mine), a pulsar 180 and a splendor ) - yo it was to be a bike journey all the way- we were supposed to leave latest by 2 pm onto our destination with just a Outlook weekend traveller handbook for guidance and no reservations for accomodations. Inspite of the utter disarray of our travel iterinary, the guys were cool and landed up at the usual expected 3 pm. Rakesh Shetty, Arvind Shetty and Deepak Rao (fellow Tulu guys) and Tapan (gujju seth) were the partners in crime conspiring not be in time, and then we had to halt at Thane to pick up another guy I had never met...Hilary Lasrado. And Hilary is a guy...contrary to the name sounding like the wife of a famous ex-US president(who became known for his other life than his presidential actions).And Hilary, who turned out to be Tulu speaking as well turned out to be a saviour in disguise...coz he seemed to know the road to malshej from the back of his hand. Th outlook book was keen on sending us in a longer circuitous route.... and Hilary guided right all along way to the straigher route. Initial roads out of thane were bad with major traffic, but slowly the roads opened out, and so did the engines and their horsepower...and we were off flying.. but making the occassional stop to let Deepaks splendor catch up with us. I could see that my bike was enjoying it... it was purring so smoothly. Inspite of all that huffing and puffing, by the time, the ghats came up ...it was dark and wet and soggy and foggy...all thanks to my much fantasised clouds... u couldnt even see 5 meters ahead and with Deepaks splendor not having any headlight...biking then soon became a real challenge.
And just when things looked lost..out of the blue, came this guy in a maruti who thought we were being too sissy ,and overtook us to lead the way.And that turned out to be the best thing for us...coz his headlights were much brighter... and the guy pretty much realised his folly some seconds later. After a couple of near misses with the cliff edge, he had taken us across to the ghats safely.
As usual we didnt book our accomodation... as a result we still had the added chore of findinga place to stay. In the fog, we missed the MTDC resort(we realised it the next morning) which boasts of a great view but pathetic service, and instead landed up at Sushant resort, and fixed up a small cottage with attached toilet for 1200 bucks with additional mattresses thrown in. The toll of travelling 150 kms showed, and sleep was soon the preferred activity post dinner.

Next morning, after a lovely breakfast, we were out on the road again on the way back... and the fog was still at its peak with intermittent rain.We couldnt see anything for some metres and had to lumber down the road at not more than 20 km/hr, wit the headlights on as a warning for any incoming vehicles. And soon we came across the waterfalls, one of the prime reason for
visiting Malshej. And to tell the truth... i really dont think the waterfalls are any better than else where... so kind of disappointed with the hype surrounding the same. So a quick dip under the waterfall and we are back on the road again.... and down the ghats.
And this time we realised how much of stuff we had missed in the dark.... the ride and the view from the top was simply amazing....we switched the engine off and started our descent.... and the scenery down below in the valley is undescribable (if there is a word like that), so is the view of the clouds against the peaks. Simply supra....The ride down was easy, and better since
we could see and avoid the potholes now, and also could stop at vantage points where some Kodak moments could be captured.

Journey post climbing down the ghats was a pure bikers pleasure...reasonable roads, no vehicles in sight and a strong desire to crank the engine to the hilt. So off we went at 80-100 km/hr on those roads with the wind in our face.And need less to say journey time on the way back drastically reduced, and we were flying back. The funny part was that we must have encountered intermittent rain now and then..atleast 8 times. And everytime we got wet,
because of the speed we were travelling, we got dried up in 10 odd mins, only for another bout of rain to start again and get us wet. And the raindrops at that speed felt like needles poking at us...but it was fun neverthless.
A long lunch at one of the resorts, and then we were ready to head back and we were in Mumbai in good time.Surprisingly the strain of having travelled 300 km in 26 hrs didnt show on me....neither physically nor mentally...whereas my co-members seem drained out. Looks like finally my gym work is paying off.... :)
Next trip should also be pretty soon.... so keep watching this space.