By the river Karli, I reclaimed my life.. Its been a year since my wifey and I have ventured out. We were too busy in settling down with our newborn son and thus could not spare time. It’s not easy to look after a kid for sure. It takes most of your time and makes you prioritize things around your kid but nevertheless its fun. All your day's hard work is forgiven once your little angel smiles at you
So, all my close friends were visiting us and specially our son, on one fine Sunday. This is when we were discussing about an urge to go out and enjoy like we used to do in our college days. It’s been 6 years since we all went out together and so we decided to head to Kokan and make the most out of the long weekend (29 Sep - 2 Oct). I promptly pointed out that it would be difficult for us being parents to a new born (5 months old) but then we asked our doctor and confirmed that it’s okay to go out. The only restriction is to NOT take him to crowded places.
After much ado, we fixed our minds on Tarkarli in the Kokan belt. This small village is situated at the bank of the river Karli and its around 400 Km from my place. As it happens with a multi family outings, 2 couples dropped out after a week. So finally, we booked the hotel “Tarkarli Niwas Nyahari” for 4 couples for 3 nights. Even though the hotel has a weird name, it has got good reviews on the “TripAdvisor” and relying on that, we booked it almost a month beforehand. As days passed the excitement went up and then came the task of packing everything that is needed. Wifey looked after preparing the list of all items that we might need. I must say she really has a command on coming up with list of needful items and making sure all essential things are packed. I looked after the camera stuff and fortunately could locate a lens renting provider in Pune. I quickly ordered the Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens along with the ND4 filter for it. The rent came out 420 per day which I think is reasonable, considering the fact that this lens costs around 50K.
A week before we start, we all sat together and discussed about the routes we can take. We decided to take the Pune-Kolhapur-Gaganbawda-Tarkarli route. My cousin had taken the Pune-Patan-Chiplun route a week before and according to him the Ghat section was in bad condition, so had to drop it as well. Taking this route means I can be on the NH4 for maximum time which in turn guarantees a better and fast travel experience.
When everything is going smooth, there are always issues which dampen your spirit. Just before we were looking all set, couple of weeks back, somebody broke my car’s left side headlight. Either some biker banged or it could be kids playing cricket in the society. As I was getting out of it, on 28th Sep, one day before we set to tarkarli, my car MID started flashing "Airbag failure". I went through threads on other forum and came to know that its because of the Battery going weak. I took my car to the service center (Pandit auto) and they declined to check my car. I was furious when they said, we have work load. I was only asking them if somebody can just confirm if its indeed battery issue. I immediately called up FIAT customer care and the operator asked me to hand over my phone to the CR officer in Pandit. Finally, Pandit guys agreed to look at some relays which can cause this issue. When all relays were ok, they asked me to take it to a battery shop. I went to the EXIDE dealer and he confirmed that one of the cells is almost dead. I promptly changed my battery (2.5 yrs old) and crossed my fingers.
I decided to not let it spoil my excitement of going out and thankfully it did not turn out to be a costly affair. The headlight (The whole assembly) was changed at 2500/- and battery for 5200/-.
Its only 3 days to go and it’s an unending wait to be on the road for Tarkarli....
Last edited by neoonwheels : 4th October 2012 at 11:42.
|