[sarmarishi]

awesome stuff. Great to see a thread like this. Only a few lucky people get to do this and write about it. And arent we glad to have you amongst us. Looking forward to the rest. Great going!

[traveloholic]

WOW!!! What a Travelouge. Never read something of this sort earlier. I salute your courage for shipping The Bulls to Africa and As goes the saying "An Enfield doesnot leak oil, but it marks it territory", you guys have actually allowed your Bulls to mark their territory in Africa too. I never expected this to be a BULLet related Travelouge. Eagerly waiting for more and should commend on the quality of pics, they are mesmerizing.

[padikpanther]

Originally Posted by figo_united

You guessed spot on, I'm a huuge Man united fan. I take great inspiration from your story in accomplishing my dream visit to Old trafford. Hoping that it happens this year!



Ha ha, sorry about that. The resemblance stuck me as soon as I saw him. To make up for it, I will surely make an effort to find a footballer having some resemblance with him and post here



Thanks a lot, and no problems whatsoever if you follow the template, when you are coming up with such 5 star travelogues

Hi Figo – we share the same blood group, I’m also a die hard Red Devils fan. My sincere wishes for your pilgrimage to OT and I can definitely look forward to a wonderful travelogue once again. (and OT experience can nothing be sort of a 10 star rating)

Originally Posted by adg_andy

Hey padikpanther,

You helped me relive my days (actualy close to 6 months) in Tanzania. I was consulting for a local telecom operator( the green one if you know it ) in Dar-es-salaam. The weather is good and people are warm, and the Flora and Fauna are the best I have ever seen(save Trinidad and Tobago). Eagerly waiting for more.. keep it flowing.

Hi adg andy, ‘asante sana’, +1 to the people part, they are really warm and happy go lucky. As far as the flora and fauna is considered, few Ngorongoro pics are on the way. Hope they take you back to your fond memories of this blessed country

Originally Posted by sarmarishi

awesome stuff. Great to see a thread like this. Only a few lucky people get to do this and write about it. And arent we glad to have you amongst us. Looking forward to the rest. Great going!

Hi Sarmarsihi, thanks for the kind words. I agree with the part that a few lucky people get to do this and stay alive to write this - just joking. When one of my friends in IT shared our plan with his colleagues (who had extensively toured this part of the globe), we were advised (through him) to handover our match tickets to them, as they were quite sure that we wont be surviving the 7.5k km ordeal and be victims to either the wild or the human beasts. Unfortunately we couldn’t do the 7.5k km plan, but not a single incident in the 2.5k experience compels us to bad mouth this beautiful continent. Needless to say caution was always the 1st priority.
And by the way pleasure is ours to be part of this wonderful forum as people here can understand the joy (and pain) of planning and attempting something of this sort.

Originally Posted by traveloholic

WOW!!! What a Travelouge. Never read something of this sort earlier. I salute your courage for shipping The Bulls to Africa and As goes the saying "An Enfield doesnot leak oil, but it marks it territory", you guys have actually allowed your Bulls to mark their territory in Africa too. I never expected this to be a BULLet related Travelouge. Eagerly waiting for more and should commend on the quality of pics, they are mesmerizing.

Thanks a ton for the encouraging words Traveloholic and +10 for "An Enfield does not leak oil, but it marks it territory"

[figo_united]

Originally Posted by padikpanther

Hi Figo – we share the same blood group, I’m also a die hard Red Devils fan. My sincere wishes for your pilgrimage to OT and I can definitely look forward to a wonderful travelogue once again. (and OT experience can nothing be sort of a 10 star rating)

That's great! Cheers to a fellow red devil Come over to the Football thread too.
Thanks a lot for your wishes. I need to start planning soon.
Here's something you might like

[padikpanther]

Continuing from the previous post:

The next day we biked to the base of Ngorongoro. Tanzania at that time of the year is relay lush with greenery. Because of the sweet noise that our bikes made and/or the terrain inside, no bikes are allowed inside the crater park. We had prior knowledge about this restriction and had anyway planned a tour inside the crater park for the next day. We did come across a few animals on the way to the base like giraffes, gazelles and few monkeys. Probably that was a trailer of the things to come the next day. The next day along with driver Ziggy, and Defender Land Rover, we left on time and drove slowly the 80 km of asphalt. The park entry fee of $US 25.00 per head seems to be too pricy initially. But it is the wilderness experience that compensates for every dime. The fold back roof of he Land Lover allowed us to stand the entire time comfortably.


About Ngorongoro – The Ngorongoro Crater is a natural amphitheatre created about 2 million years ago when the cone of a volcano collapsed into itself, leaving a 100 square mile caldron-like cavity. This caldera, protected by a circular unbroken 2,000-foot high rim (610-metres), contains everything necessary for Africa’s wildlife to exist and thrive. Game viewing vehicles descend the steep crater wall every morning and spend the day on grass plains that are teeming with animals. However, the dark of night belongs to the animals, and all vehicles must leave the crater floor by sunset. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, and there are an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater with Lake Magadi in the centre of the crater.



About Migration - Wildebeest location updates are available month by month giving the visitors the best opportunity to witness the east Africa’s wildebeest migration. The endless plains of east Africa are the setting for the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle - from the vast Serengeti plains to Kenya’s Masai Mara over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra and gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa’s great predators, migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800 miles each year in search of rain ripened grass. There is no real beginning or end to a wildebeest's journey. Its life is an endless pilgrimage, a constant search for food and water. The only beginning is at the moment of birth. An estimated 400,000 wildebeest calves are born during a six week period early each year - usually between late January and mid-March.



When it came to animal viewing we were probably the luckiest people around getting to see 2 cheetahs within touching distance for about 45 mins. Nothing can detract from the first viewing of Ngorongoro from the rim - 20 km across and the air just clear enough to see animals almost to the other side. A large lake at one end and smaller lakes and streams feed the crater. The air is really cold at 2200m before descending to the enormous hot plains of the Serengeti. Gazelle, wildebeest, zebra are scattered everywhere. The more frequent sightings are - giraffe, jackal, wart hog and hyena along with Ostrich, secretary birds and bustards even the occasional vulture.





Ziggy was a good guide and was providing us inputs about the flora and fauna time and again. The park s really well planned keeping the animals as priority, but even within the park there are two spots – where visitors are allowed to get out of the car, one is the breakfast area and the other is meant for Lunch. Both these spots had clean and well maintained wash rooms as well. Ziggy was taking us through the park and also narrating the history when suddenly the radio crackled (every car has one). Something was exchanged in local language and Ziggy put the monster in top speed. Smiling he just said, “Cheetahs” no doubt we were excited but actually not knowing what to expect. There was a rush of all these jeeps to a particular spot. Interestingly, vehicles from both sides of the road came to a halt at a particular spot.









On our right, in the grasslands we could see an elephant and a herd of wildebeest. But everyone was leaning and looking at the left side of the road. And Lo! Out of bushes emerge 2 cheetahs and the way cattle in India find their way through vehicles, they just ignored these jeeps (around 50 in number) and tip toed to the other side of the road.









This is where we were in touching distance of the cheetahs. Its head is small, its body lean, and its legs unusually long -- all bodily characteristics critical to a runner. This is an animal biologically designed to run. There was something breathtakingly sleek and elegant in the way they walked, the lean rippling lines in their flanks, the sloping spotted back, the slim, quick, powerful legs. Speed personified. They were scouring the plains for their breakfast. They would walk slowly, majestically, for a few paces, and then lift their heads to smell the wind and look at the plains. At one point they froze – the herd of wildebeest was grazing in the near distance. The tusker seemed to be aware of the potential drama, and strolled himself way form the scene.







Suddenly the pair went into stealth stalking mode, sinking into the grass so that they virtually disappeared, slinking forward long taut leg-stretch by stretch, low to the ground, the bellies almost touching the soil, moving ever closer to the herd. A few senior members of he herd got a whiff and almost froze sniffing in the pair’s direction. The alert ones looked up and around, ears twitching, unable to spot the pair but for sure aware of their presence and all this was unfolding within a few meters from us. Our throats were dry and palms wet. Were we set to witness something that’s only possible on Nat Geo/Animal Planet? Only if wishes were horses!!!









The herd now alert moved away from the range of the pairs initial sprint (Ziggy’s inputs) and slowly moved way to safety, with at least 4-5 wildebeest members watching the herds back by lingering behind while others trotted to safety - at least for the time being. We resumed breathing, and continued to follow the pair, who was scouting the terrain for next target. On some gut level we felt simultaneously relieved and disappointed. Life in the wild!!!!!! At the time we realised that watching this drama was a group of nothing less than 150 human beings and you could still experience what pin drop silence meant.. But, it was over all too quickly.

A few other treats -





A Lion resting after a heavy meal -



feathered delights -





Lunch time





A few other beauties







Ugliest creatures in the park then - From L to R - Dinesh, Rajesh, Ziggy & Ajinkya



Thanks to Ronald we spend that night at a small village at the base of Ngorongoro where we had kept our bikes during our visit to the crater. In all we did Arusha – Ngorongoro – Serengeti – Lake Manyara – Arusha on our bikes. Though time didn’t allow us to visit the Serengeti & Lake Manyara parks, Ngorongoro showed us glimpses of what pleasure watching wild life is..

[padikpanther]

Continuing from the previous post:

After the exhilarating experience our eyes were set on the Mt. Kilimanjaro. We could have a glimpse of it while arriving at Nairobi from Johannesburg. So, all set and packed we set out on our bikes toward Machame on the way from Arusha to Tanga. Kilimanjaro's snow covered top peeked out at us through the clouds as we rode towards Machame. We used the snow on the top as a final excuse not to climb (as if we would have climbed) the $US 500.00 minimum price also being a deterrent, apart from the sheer effort needed. We hung around the visitors centre watching the guides, porters and climbers prepare to depart and then left to overnight stay at Tanga as we didn’t want intend to miss the world cup finals, at least on TV.


Machame Gate at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro








The next morning we packed our bags once again (the most tiresome part throughout the journey) & and the bullets were on their way back to Mombasa. We made our way towards the border through the locusts which kept bombarding at us, making us stop some times.

These were the size of a new borns baby's fist and were in thousands.. Our visors were full of them...yuk



Road side Lunch break




Machame to Tanga








We had a bit of tough time at the border on the Kenyan side with the border security. Our mistake - we had our bikes fitted with military ammunition boxes to carry our spares (the ones normally used by the Army to carry bullets). These are easily available at flea markets (‘Juna/Chor Bazaar’ is the right word) & thanks to our intelligence we didn’t bother to erase the details of the military/army codes on it . There had been an explosion at Kampala the day before we arrived at the border, the security persons disliked us carrying those boxes. After a lot of convincing that we were tourists & not terrorists & thorough checking were finally were given a green signal to pass through.

Finally we reached Mombasa again ending our journey and ready to part ways with our sweethearts as they were to be caged/packed once again to be shipped back to India...

[droolingvoyager]

Awesome thread. Your travelogue is inspiring and shows the amount of places we can explore. I am awed.

[padikpanther]

Thanks for the kind words drooling voyager +1 'to the places we can explore' with our bikes only the sky is the limit

Epilogue – Although many things went wrong to start with and honestly we didn’t possess the same enthusiasm if things would have happened the way we had planned, yet - ‘This was much better than what we had anticipated’ were the words which came across our minds looking back one of the most poignant motorcycle trips of our lives, till date. An expedition like this doesn't happen without a lot of support from the near and dear ones. We were fortunate to have a huge backing from many great souls and we owe a sincere thanks to all of them. After coming back from the bike tour, the moment we got to see our families and friends is permanently etched in our memories.

If something stays with us and spurs us to travel more, it’ll be the unconditional support that our families and friends extended to us, it’ll be those challenging roads that tested our determination and driving skills; but most of all, it’ll be the experience of meeting new people, understanding cultures and being pampered by those seen and unseen hands that took care of us and our motorcycles and today we whole heartedly believe in the famous adage by Cyril K Shepherd (author and rider – Across America by Motorcycle) - "I have often thought there must be a guardian angel watching over mad motor-cyclists.” We are honoured and humbled to achieve minuscule part of our long coveted dream.

Apart from our families and friends we are thankful to Western India Automobile Association, for their help and guidance for our bike carnets and our mechanic Munna and his team for burning the midnight oil for getting our bikes Afro ready. The list is really long and mentioning everybody is not the objective at least on this forum.


Reluctantly settling in our daily life once again, somewhere back of the minds the film keeps on playing itself as if it’s still happening. One fine day we got a call from Western India Automobile Association and we were invited for a small function arranged by them coinciding with their AGM. We were being felicitated!!! Yippee - An altogether different experience and totally unexpected. Mr. Nitin Dossa, Executive Chairman - WIAA, Mr. Yogendra Trivedi (MP), President – WIAA & Mr. Edil Katrak, Vice – President – WIAA were kind enough to personally introduce us to the gathering and brief them about our Afro adventure.


The Biker team sharing their experiences with the WIAA invitees.
From L to R – Mr. Yogendra Trivedi (MP), President - Western India Automobile Association, Mr. Edil Katrak, Vice – President - WIAA , Mr. Nitin Dossa, Executive Chairman - WIAA, Rajesh Abhyankar, Dinesh Naik, Ajinkya Mohol








Rajesh Abhyankar being felicitated by Mr. Yogendra Trivedi.
From L to R – Mr. Nitin Dossa, Executive Chairman - WIAA, Mr. Yogendra Trivedi (MP), President – WIAA, Rajesh Abhyankar, Dinesh Naik





Dinesh Naik being felicitated by Mr. Edil Katrak, Vice – President - WIAA
From L to R – Mr. Edil Katrak, Vice – President - WIAA , Mr. Nitin Dossa, Executive Chairman - WIAA, Dinesh Naik, Rajesh Abhyankar





Ajinkya Mohol being felicitated by Mr. Nitin Dossa, Executive Chairman -WIAA
From L to R - Mr. Nitin Dossa, Executive Chairman - WIAA, Ajinkya Mohol




Hope the rides continue…

[Fordmanchau]

Padik Panther, this was an epic travelogue. Read through the entire content once again and was truly mesmerised by your writing and your experiences.
The pics of the wildlife was awesome and those cheetah's stalking the wildebeest did set my pulse racing too.
And congratulations for being felicitated by the WIAA. Hat's off to you and your team.
This was the most enthralling travelogue I read on TBHP.
Thanks to you.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

One of the best travelogues on team-bhp,

hats off to you and your team!!!!

keep travelling and keep posting on team-bhp.

[ajay_satpute]

And the award for the BEST travelog on Team BHP goes to...

As I have said many times before and will always say it, the sheer passion and dedication that you guys have shown throughout this journey is exemplary. Belive me, I have forwarded/shown your travelog to many family members and friends and they are all awestruck. For most, this kind of journey can only be imagined in a movie. Kudos to you guys!!

Frankly, I would love to personally meet you guys. Or even better idea, if you guys are around Pune, we can arrange a special Pune TeamBHP meet in your honour and you can enthrall the audience with your experiences.

P.S. The wildlife photos are superb. They gave me a feeling of watching NGC or Discovery or Animal Planet. The proximity to the wild animals is very exciting.

P.P.S. The WIAA felicitation is a perfect icing on the cake.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Very well said Ajay.
One of the best TL's on TBHP. A journey to cherish for a long time to come.
You guys have actually done something that, was thought to be impossible. Carrying the India flag to the WC, riding on Bullets in Africa, and the best part was being felicitated by the WIAA.
Kudos guys, please join us for the next Pune meet we have. We would love to hear more details on this epic TL.

[padikpanther]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Padik Panther, this was an epic travelogue. Read through the entire content once again and was truly mesmerised by your writing and your experiences.
The pics of the wildlife was awesome and those cheetah's stalking the wildebeest did set my pulse racing too.
And congratulations for being felicitated by the WIAA. Hat's off to you and your team.
This was the most enthralling travelogue I read on TBHP.
Thanks to you.

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

One of the best travelogues on team-bhp,

hats off to you and your team!!!!

keep travelling and keep posting on team-bhp.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

And the award for the BEST travelog on Team BHP goes to...

As I have said many times before and will always say it, the sheer passion and dedication that you guys have shown throughout this journey is exemplary. Belive me, I have forwarded/shown your travelog to many family members and friends and they are all awestruck. For most, this kind of journey can only be imagined in a movie. Kudos to you guys!!

Frankly, I would love to personally meet you guys. Or even better idea, if you guys are around Pune, we can arrange a special Pune TeamBHP meet in your honour and you can enthrall the audience with your experiences.

P.S. The wildlife photos are superb. They gave me a feeling of watching NGC or Discovery or Animal Planet. The proximity to the wild animals is very exciting.

P.P.S. The WIAA felicitation is a perfect icing on the cake.

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Very well said Ajay.
One of the best TL's on TBHP. A journey to cherish for a long time to come.
You guys have actually done something that, was thought to be impossible. Carrying the India flag to the WC, riding on Bullets in Africa, and the best part was being felicitated by the WIAA.
Kudos guys, please join us for the next Pune meet we have. We would love to hear more details on this epic TL.

Heartfelt gratitude for encouraging a ‘failure’ & speechless by the kind words showered. The pre tour emotional ups-downs (emotional atyachar’s), support by family & friends and also at times by unknown hands & the kind words shared by you all has already made the whole episode undoubtedly the best phase in life (who doesn’t like to be pampered), but one thing – in some way this failure has kept the ‘itch’ alive for sure. Let’s see what the future holds.

No doubt the WIAA gesture was absolutely out of the blue and for us that was the first moment of truth as to we had attempted something different.

Ajay & Swanand – We all three are pakka Punekers, though Dinesh has shifted to Goa for professional reasons. In fact for better part of my life my address said ‘Pune 30’ The pleasure would be ours to join the team bhp Pune meet and share this episode once again. Me and Ajinkya (for our respective professions) travel extensively. But we have already decided to meet you all in the near future.

[Thar4x4]

Hello padikpanther Sir,

What a gr8 biker you are, very nice and different travelog. I am amazed with your passion about soccer and bike trip.

I too own a RE 350 STD and had a trip Pune To Goa with wife however I went off because of bad experience in that trip. Now I am inspired with your experience and surely start again.

btw Please attend one of the Tema BHP Pune meet, I am early waiting to meet you.

Again thanks for inspiring travelog.

Rated *****

Thanks,
Vishal.

[padikpanther]

Originally Posted by Thar4x4

Hello padikpanther Sir,

What a gr8 biker you are, very nice and different travelog. I am amazed with your passion about soccer and bike trip.

I too own a RE 350 STD and had a trip Pune To Goa with wife however I went off because of bad experience in that trip. Now I am inspired with your experience and surely start again.

btw Please attend one of the Tema BHP Pune meet, I am early waiting to meet you.

Again thanks for inspiring travelog.

Rated *****

Thanks,
Vishal.

Dear Vishal, pls remove the ‘Sir’ part, probably just ‘padik’ suits me better (the colour of my hair is really deceptive and has got nothing to do with my age ). Since you are located out of Pune, you would know the real meaning this word 'padik' .

If we have really managed to inspire somebody that’s the biggest yet unintended outcome of the entire trip and if that’s true we actually don’t mind going through all the physical and emotional twist and turns all over again. We sincerely want to attend the Pune team bhp meets in the near future. See you all soon.