[julyone_modi]

Prologue
Long back, I had read a article numerating Mumbai-GOA (NH-17)as one of the must-do routes in India. Hence, the urge to do a motorcycle trip on this route was always in the heart. However, never attempted to complete this urge.

The other trip that I wanted to do was to ride along the coast. This wish was further amplified during my USA trip where I had a chance to drive along the magnificent Pacific 101.

Pic from the Net


somewhere en-route from Vegas to California

Come 2015, Got a new bike, My shiny new RE Continental GT. That was the point I decided I will complete this long standing wish of coastal ride.
The Plan was to complete the Bangalore-Goa route as quick as possible, use Goa as anchor point and commence the coastal ride from there into Maharashtra.

The Rough itinerary planned was as follows:

• Day1 BLR Goa Via NH4 Distance 231
• Day2 Goa Achra Via vengurla Distance 150
• Day3 Achra VijayDurga Via SH4 Distance 60
• Day4 Vijaydurga Ganpatipule Via SH4 Distance 143
• Day5 Ganpatipule Mumbai Via Jaitapur/Dabhol Distance 292

The Idea was to stick to Coastal freeway("Sagari Mahamarg"or SH4) as much as possible. However, in the Ganpatipule-Mumbai leg the route is not complete as Port near Dighi is not connected via ferry or bridge. Hence one has to either fall back to NH or go off-coast and reconnect, leading to extra time.

I Started the BLR-GOA leg of journey on Christmas day 2015. The route selected for Goa was Via Chorla ghat as recommend by bhpian @goandude. He recently did this route and it was better than the google recommended Via Bandoli.

Day 1

Left Bangalore early morning at 4, however, was slowed down considerably due to fog. So dense I took full 1 hour to cover 35 Km stretch of crossing NICE road.
Took a break sometime at Ranebannur and then somewhere before Hubli to have breakfast.

Perhps the most sumptuous and cheapest meal in the trip. Tea was like Rs. 5. Now beat that!!

Left Pune-Bangalore GQ Highway at MK Hubli and on to smaller state roads along the countryside. By then, I was already 6 hours on saddle. However the views of countryside was a sudden boost to elevate the dipping energy levels. Meanwhile found solace in a lone traveler like me.

The lone traveler

Reached Goa by roughly 3-30 pm, as I was considerably slowed in Chorla ghats in Karnataka side, with bad tarmac conditions. Once crossed that and reached GOA, It was a breeze to ride till Calangute. Met my buddies who came in their car from Bombay in the hotel and ended the day in a watering hole by the beach

Yours Truly

Day 2
Started late by 10 after having breakfast. Some pics to feast.

The route for today was to get on SH4 Via Querim and take a break at Vengurla for lunch.
This is the last bridge in North Goa post which Sindudurgh, Maharashtra starts.

Reached Vengurla at 1pm, had lunch and started to Achra via SH4. Boy-Oh-Boy, the route is amazng with enough twisties and hills coupled with superb tarmac which will put smiles to any rider.
Reached Achra by 4 Via SH4 and set off to the beach to end the day.

Some pics from the beach:

Now reason I chose Achra was that it is my native place and have a house there. One can stay in Malvan-tarkarli which is 30 odd kilometers and is fantastic place to stay and send the evening.

Day 3
Day 3 was relaxed with early morning visit to tarkarli beach and then to malvan fort. The Malvan-Tarkarli-Deobag beaches are all along the coast with Deobag beach lying at the edge of creek and sea. A recommended place to visit during sunrise or sunset.

Day 4



We started from Achra and first pitstop was Kunkeshwar Temple along the coast. Kunkeshwar and Ganpatipule are one of the two temples lying on the edge of the west coast with picturesque views.

Had a quick breakfast there and we headed to next pitstop: Vijaydurg Fort.

After Vijaydurgh, we set across to reach Ganpatipule via the coast(Aare-vare marg iirc) again. And it easily the best route to drive/ride, hands down. The exact area is marked in the Map above.

[julyone_modi]

Day 5
Day 5 was a bit tricky, as we had no clarity over the route.

The route had 2 ferry crossings, one at Jaigarh and other at dabhol. Post which, we had two choices.

• Plan A Fallback to coast and via Anjarli -Harihareshwar-Kashid just before Dapoli, take a break at Kashid-Alibaug and continue to Mumbai on next day.
• Plan B Connect to NH 17 via Dapoli-Mandangad-Mahad and continue till Mumbai, ending this trip.

We started our day after heavy breakfast and decided to take a call on two options as the day proceeds.

First Pitstop was ferry -cross at Jaigarh port. Now here was the 1st goof-up of the trip.

Seafarer

As we reached the ferry loading area, there were 7-8 vehicles lined up before us. Also, seems there was a VIP movement so 2 police vehicles would get precedence over our vehicles. That implies, we would miss the arriving ferry, wait for one and half hour and then queue up for next ferry ride. Now the car fellas decided not to waste time waiting, and backed up to cross the creek by road which was good 2 hour detour. I decided to stick on to ferry route as there was a place for my motorcycle to load.
Now the twist: The police convoy did not arrive and so the vehicles who came much later us got the slot to load on to ferry.
Lesson learned: Do not over-analyse the situation. Sometime waiting and watching is the best strategy.

Back to trip: My friends and I met at Velneshwar, another temple by the beach. We had our lunch by the beach, relaxed for some time and then proceeded on-wards.

After crossing Dabhol ferry, we proceeded to Dapoli route. No this route was completely deserted with single carriageway with tall grass on either side and no traffic. The entire stretch from dabhol to dapoli, we encountered only 2 ST buses and 1-2 trucks on the way. There was not even a single soul, even to confirm our direction.
Somewhere en-route, we came across shrine of Lord Parshuram. However, cant figure the exact place on the map.

By now, it was already 4 pm, and no ways we could have continued on the Anjarli route in daylight. Also, we had 3 unknowns, Kelshi, Bankoy and Dighi where we knew there is no ferry service. So we would need to leave the coast and proceed as the road takes.
This was the point we decided that ditching the coast was the best bet as not only the route was not only fitting in the 'Coastal road strategy' but also was sparsely populated with nil mobile signals.

We chose Plan B to connect to NH17, via Mandangad to Mahad and then Mumbai. In hindsight it was a bad decision just to rely on Google maps and minimum distance to choose our route, as the quality of tarmac was worst of the entire lot and it slowed us down considerably. Ideally Dapoli-Khed-Kashedi-Mahad would be longer but faster route.

Anyways, the last leg was only un-eventful mile-munching leg of the trip. Had our Dinner at McDonalds-Kalamboli and reached home by 12.

Overall a satisfying and enriching experience.

P.S. My first thread on this forum. kindly excuse any mistakes. C/C welcome. Also currently my Bike is lying in Mumbai. planning to bring it down soon, as I am seriously missing on the weekend breakfast rides with the fellow TBB riders.

P.P.S A big shout to all the Sunday breakfast riders from Bangalore, who pushed me to complete this thread. You guys are the best!!

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Rahul Rao]

The Parshuramstatue is at village Burondi near Dapoli. https://www.google.co.in/maps/@17.72...73.0790868,12z See Burondi in the map and enlarge

Rahul

[Vivek VS]

Superb pics. The Continental yellow looks fantastic, really striking in those shots.

It must have been a lot of fun riding the bike on those roads. I took my Continental to Bhutan last June and had a lot of fun riding it on the hills, chucking it into the corners. And the Blood Red colour of the bike really contrasted with the complete green surroundings.

[Skyline_GT]

Amazing pictures! The Continental GT looks striking in bright yellow.
Surely must be turning many heads as you ride.
And the pictures with the GT standing elegantly with beautiful scenery in the backdrop are simply superb!
And the unique "555" number plate! Awesome!

[Tushar]

Fantastic travelogue mate! I did Mumbai-Goa a few years ago, but was with 2 other riders and have been meaning to do the trip solo. Hopefully it'll come true this year. NH17 is truly a windows wallpaper of a route, though when I took it, the post monsoon tarmac actually made the entire tail light assembly fall off my Tbird .

How was the long distance comfort on your Conti?

[julyone_modi]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

The Parshuramstatue is at village Burondi near Dapoli. https://www.google.co.in/maps/@17.72...73.0790868,12z See Burondi in the map and enlarge

Rahul

Ahh Thanks Rahul, This is it. However couldn't find any literature on Internet. Would be glad to read more about it.

Originally Posted by Vivek VS

Superb pics. The Continental yellow looks fantastic, really striking in those shots.

It must have been a lot of fun riding the bike on those roads. I took my Continental to Bhutan last June and had a lot of fun riding it on the hills, chucking it into the corners. And the Blood Red colour of the bike really contrasted with the complete green surroundings.

True Vivek. Its Stunning in yellow. Actually it is difficult to convince between Red and yellow, however @neil.jerico's thread was convincing enough to take a plunge.

Bhutan is awesome man, I did my Sikkim-Bhutan-Arunachal ride 2 years back, abet on my Pulsar. I am sure, must me amazing on CGT!!

Looking forward for your travelogue.

Originally Posted by Skyline_GT

Amazing pictures! The Continental GT looks striking in bright yellow.
Surely must be turning many heads as you ride.
And the pictures with the GT standing elegantly with beautiful scenery in the backdrop are simply superb!
And the unique "555" number plate! Awesome!

Skyline, Thanks buddy. Yeah It was definitely a head-turner.
Lost the count of people stopping and asking about the bike during my trip.
I remember few instances when the pppl surrounded the bike just to cherish the stunning beauty

And thanks for the positive comments on pics, coming back to photography after long!

BTW the number is Photoshoped

Originally Posted by Tushar

Fantastic travelogue mate! I did Mumbai-Goa a few years ago, but was with 2 other riders and have been meaning to do the trip solo. Hopefully it'll come true this year. NH17 is truly a windows wallpaper of a route, though when I took it, the post monsoon tarmac actually made the entire tail light assembly fall off my Tbird .

How was the long distance comfort on your Conti?

Buddy, the NH17 currently is under widening. I would recommend you do the coastal route. It is fun I tell you. Yeah, monsoon screwed up entire coastal belt man, but I was actually surprised at the condition of tarmac in Dec-Jan. It is such a treat for bikers man!! Go for IT!!!

Regarding CGT on touring, its a bliss. This is coming from a guy who was riding P180 UG3 earlier. I personally didn't find any challenges.