[MX6]

@Khoj. The little one is perfectly safe. Thanks for your wishes. My leg was even worse the night before.

So after loading the bags in the car, I walked around for a customary check of all the tires.

When I came to the front left tyre, my heart skipped a beat. Damn.
A quick flash back to the event yesterday, when I found the rear left tyre punctured.

Me: There's a tyre puncture.
Wife: Just one? or more?
Me: OMG. don't even think like that. We have only one stepney. We'd be stuck for hours if there's more than one puncture.

I was shocked.
Rear left got punctured after crossing mhasala. Now there's less air in front left. Could it have been that front left also got punctured but the air pressure was going down very gradually? How could a tube tyre with a puncture hold pressure for over 15 hours in which I've driven over 50 kms?

I go back in to the room and tell my wife. It wasn't one. It's two tyres!

Wife: What shall we do now?
Me: Don't worry, luckily I went yesterday and fixed the rear tyre that got punctured. So that's in the boot. I will replace the front one with that. On the way we'll stop at the same tyre wallah and get this fixed. Also lets check all the tyres as a precaution before driving back.
Wife: How will you change the tyre with your leg like this? Shall we ask someone from the resort?
Me: No. I will do it myself. I don't want to take any risk in this.

So while she sat on the bench and fed our daughter, I quickly jacked up my car and changed the front wheel with the wheel from the boot. The same one which I put new tube in the previous day.

I couldn't squat and apply pressure on the nuts. So after tightening the nuts, I had to do the truck driver way of standing on the wrench.

Took me longer time to replace this tyre, which left my wife almost teary eyed.

Then I comforted her.
Me: Did you notice that it hasn't rained since last 45 minutes?
She: silence.
Me: Perfect time to go have a darshan of Shiva. Today is Guru Purnima. Special day. Shiva has given us enough back ups to ensure that we don't go back without his darshan. That's why one tyre was completely flat, but the other one was draining off slowly.
She: Hope you don't strain your leg anymore.
Me: I'm a very safe driver. I will never drive, if I feel that I'm not in control. The slightest pain I feel, I'll stop. We'll take it at that.
She: I will ask Shiva why he's troubling you so much.
Me: He's testing me. Not troubling me. It's special that even in this condition, I'm going to get his darshan, that too on an empty stomach on Guru purnima day! Let's take some photos of this place when there's no rain.

The Cottage and the path.


The cottages have TV as well. Some one was watching animal planet!


The steps where I slipped and fell.


My warrior standing there after two wheel changes!


Next time we will take one of the cottages closer to the sea.



We didn't want to walk down to the beach here. We wanted to go to the temple when the sky was clear.

We got in to the car and started driving to Harihareshwar. It started pouring again.
Me: Did you see that. Shiva held the rains back till I changed the punctured wheel. He's not such a bad guy after all. Hope he holds the rains back once we stop near the temple again.

[MX6]

It was a short drive to the temple from MTDC resorts. Hardly around 5 - 10 mins. As I pulled in to the parking lot, it started raining again.
Boy, this place is amazing.

Car park in the rains.


Will the rains reduce for us to go to the temple? Especially with this leg?


It did reduce. Got this panorama quickly before proceeding to the temple.


This is from the wall of the temple. In front of Kaal bhairav temple.


Didn't read beyond Dakshin Kashi. That's holy enough for me.


Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and Parvati are in form of the hill here. Steps to Parikrama.


Photos of Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and Parvati as linga and Kaal Bhairav and Yogeshwari.


The various POIs of Harihareshwar. Had to skip them due to the rains. Vishnu paad? Not in this rain, said one of the priests.


A tiny cannon in the temple. Must have some history. Let me dig in.


Lamp towers of Harihareshwar. The rains reduced to a trickle for us to finish a nice darshan.


What next? Time to eat. Eat where? Eat what?

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by MX6

Another trip to Dive agar is in the offing. Planning to take my parents as well. Wife and I would love to soak in the monsoons in the beach. So can't take the baby in the wet as yet.

@MX6 - great pics! reminds me of my Diveagar trip late 2008 (in my 15 day old Estilo!) However after that I made a trip to Guhagar and I found that to be much better beach than Divegar. The place I stayed had direct access to the beach. Here's a teaser pic of my son on his cycle (yes we took that along too!). Note the absence of other people on the beach.

[f1fan]

Your images are bringing back memories of my Harihareshwar trip in March 2009. During my trip, I had stayed in the first Konkani Cottage i.e. one on the right side when you climb down the stairs from the parking lot.

Compared to Ganapatipule, the Sea facing Cottages in Harihareshwar were not that great bcos you really cant see the sea from there.

BTW which accomodation did you stay in?

[MX6]

We walked down this path, back towards the car park. Found a restaurant and went in.


No prize for guessing what I ordered.
My wife started laughing. "You think we are flying air-asia to Malaysia is it", she asked me.


After a 40 min break at the temple, the dark clouds started moving in yet again. Wind was very heavy. The trees swaying behind shows the speed of wind.


The skies opened up again. So we started driving towards Srivardhan. To our puncture wallah to repair the other punctured tyre.


Enroute I stopped momentarily to grab a quick shot of this place. The water was full of algae.


So much algae that it was completely green in colour.


And a sample shot of the Banyan tree. Fiscus Bengalensis.


I finally reached the tyre wallah. This time the owner was not there. All his boys where there. They were fixing truck tyre's puncture.
They recognised my car. Seems the owner has told them about me.
They asked me to wait for 10 mins.
It was around 10:45 am and we thought we should be off to dive agar in 15 mins or so.
Then we had a power cut.
Just when they came to remove the tyre from my car boot.
Now how can they pump air back in with no power? Their compressor wouldn't work.

So I had to wait. The choo chas don't stop. When they come, they don't come alone. They bring their whole family.

After waiting for 2 hours for the power to come, we got bored. We thought we'd go in and have lunch and come back. So the plan of having lunch at Bapat (suggested by AP) had to be discarded.

Soon we found a decent place for lunch. Fed our baby. As we were eating, we saw that the power supply was restored. So off we went back to the tyre wallah.

He checked the tube and said that there's a minor cut horizontally (how on hell did that happen)? Seeing tiny bubbles coming from the inflated tube, made me happy. Atleast this tube didn't have a serious issue.

Once it was patched, I checked the pressures on all the wheels. Got them pumped to 32 in front and 30 behind (with 30 for the spare wheel).

Off we were towards Dive agar.

I was wondering.

Two punctures. One was severe that I had to replace the tube.
A slip and fall.
Power cut for 2 hours just when they tried patching my punctured tube.
So near to the beach, but still couldn't keep our legs there.
Huge swelling in my leg - here's the update. I have a third degree ligament rupture in my ankle. 4 - 6 weeks minimum I will be out of action.

Is this the end of my choo chas or are there any more to come?

I didn't realise that I had a ligament rupture in my ankle. Thought it was just an ankle sprain. Bad one at that. I had another 280 kms to drive (srivardhan - diveagar - mhasala - mangaon - Pali - Khopoli - E-way - Wrong end of Pune).

We set out towards dive agar. The land of fine beaches and the golden Ganpati.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by MX6

I was wondering.

Two punctures. One was severe that I had to replace the tube.
A slip and fall.
Power cut for 2 hours just when they tried patching my punctured tube.
So near to the beach, but still couldn't keep our legs there.
Huge swelling in my leg - here's the update. I have a third degree ligament rupture in my ankle. 4 - 6 weeks minimum I will be out of action.

Is this the end of my choo chas or are there any more to come?

Hi MX6,

There is a saying Everything happens for good. Probably these delays would have prevented you from going towards a potentially more dangerous situation.

Ligament tear sounds awfully bad. May be the almightly wated you to enjoy just travel by car while going to/fro office and elsewhere for some time. Please employ a driver.

More over you can now spend more time (atleast for neat several weeks) on Team BHP as well as with your wife and daughter. I know you like driving more...but some times being grounded is better than flying.

Cheer Up.

[arindamray]

Sad to hear about the ligament tear.
When you stopped with a BAM, I thought it was a fall, but didn't want to bring in the bad omen. However not thought it will be this bad. Get well soon.
Enjoying the rain and scenery around.

[ampere]

Thats a nasty fall MX. Hope everything is fine by now.
Amazing place that you visited!

[KRRaj]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Hi MX6,

There is a saying Everything happens for good. Probably these delays would have prevented you from going towards a potentially more dangerous situation.

Yup. I agree. Afterall Siva still managed to give a god darshan. As shown in some of the old Tamil Devotional movies, the choo chaas could do only so much damage as Siva was looking after you

[MX6]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

@MX6 -However after that I made a trip to Guhagar and I found that to be much better beach than Divegar.

Guhagar is an even better beach. But even that's attracting crowds now. We can't try to have it for ourself! Till Edmund and Norgay clambered up, there was no one up there. Now every year scores go there to scale!

Originally Posted by f1fan

Compared to Ganapatipule, the Sea facing Cottages in Harihareshwar were not that great bcos you really cant see the sea from there.

Ganapatipule was a nice beach. But too much crowd. We managed to grab a glorious sunset when up there in April.

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Hi MX6,

There is a saying Everything happens for good.

Yes. Everything is for good. These things don't deter me.

Originally Posted by arindamray

Sad to hear about the ligament tear.
When you stopped with a BAM, I thought it was a fall, but didn't want to bring in the bad omen.

No bad omens. It was an accident, and as I always maintain, Accidents happen. I should be back and "Kicking" for the Kaas trip.

Originally Posted by ampere

Thats a nasty fall MX. Hope everything is fine by now.
Amazing place that you visited!

Things will be fine after a while ampere. It's a 3rd degree ligament tear at the wrong place (ankle). So it will be a while.

Originally Posted by KRRaj

Yup. I agree. Afterall Siva still managed to give a god darshan. As shown in some of the old Tamil Devotional movies, the choo chaas could do only so much damage as Siva was looking after you

Yep. I enjoyed the trip to the hilt. Choo chas won't deter me or my spirit.

Thanks guys for all your support. Let me quickly wind up this rainalogue. It's too damp! Time to go back to history lessons after this.

The drive from Srivardhan to Dive agar was splendid. Dotting the beach, the road offered panoramic views all around. And it started raining again.
Enroute we ran in to a skull of a dead buffalo. Some guy was creative enough to adorn a tree with this. I picturised the tree burning, cracking a burning whip. Lo Behold, we have our own Balrog from Morgoth!
Balrog from Morgoth


Our Balrog from Diveagar


Nice winding road that dotted the sea climbing over the hillocks.


Dude, you can't keep the gates wide open and give a great view of the sea behind and still say no entry (without permission).


New resorts are all coming up. All dotting the beach.


The fury of the rains, sea and the wind. The road disappears in the fog and rains.


Interesting rocks below. But the rains prevented a clearer picture.


Many places we were tempted to just park the car and walk to the shore. My leg played spoil sport.


The road was newly laid and was a dream to drive on.


Soon we approached Dive agar. Time for Ganpati darshan.

[ampere]

What a deluge. MX if tyres have enough distances, I would say change them to a tubeless. Really helps in these times.

[pjbiju]

Sorry to hear about your fall MX6 and thank God your daughter did not get hurt.

Originally Posted by MX6

Once it was patched, I checked the pressures on all the wheels. Got them pumped to 32 in front and 30 behind (with 30 for the spare wheel).

Should you not have got 32 PSI in the spare tyre as well? If you had to change a front tyre again, your spare tyre would have had less than the required pressure. However if you had to change a rear tyre, you could have always released a bit of air from the tyres to bring down the pressure.

Originally Posted by MX6

The road was newly laid and was a dream to drive on.

During the summer of 2010, these roads were in shambles and was being relaid and also the widening work was going on closer to Dive Agar. So nice to know that this work is completed. Hope it survives the rains.

-Biju

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by MX6

Ganapatipule was a nice beach. But too much crowd. We managed to grab a glorious sunset when up there in April.

Purely OT, but when we went to Ganapatipue in the first week of March 2010, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. Check out the snaps:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...apatipule.html


When I visited Harihareshwar, the road to Diveagar was really bad. Good to see the same patched up.

[Figopian]

recently (before monsoon), I had been to Ladghar, Dapoli. Stayed at Pears beach resort - :: Welcome to site of Pears,Ladghar :: (Index) I am sure this will be a worth visiting place in monsoon. The beach is ok, the food is good this place is around 15- 20 mins drive from Dapoli city right on the Ladghar beach which is also known as Tamas Tirth for the colour of the water seen red sometimes from the top

[MX6]

Originally Posted by ampere

What a deluge. MX if tyres have enough distances, I would say change them to a tubeless. Really helps in these times.

Some how I'm not too keen on tubeless on my existing set of wheels.
But will give it a good thought 40K down then line when I have to change the tyres.

Originally Posted by pjbiju

Sorry to hear about your fall MX6 and thank God your daughter did not get hurt.

Should you not have got 32 PSI in the spare tyre as well? If you had to change a front tyre again, your spare tyre would have had less than the required pressure. However if you had to change a rear tyre, you could have always released a bit of air from the tyres to bring down the pressure.

Somehow I don't geel like over-inflating a tyre that I would not be using. Hence keep it at 30.
MX6 will rise again from this fall

Originally Posted by f1fan

When I visited Harihareshwar, the road to Diveagar was really bad. Good to see the same patched up.

The road to diveagar is excellent now. both from Srivardhan as well as Mhasala. Diveagar roads will come up in the next set.

Originally Posted by Figopian

recently
(before monsoon), I had been to Ladghar, Dapoli. Stayed at Pears beach resort - :: Welcome to site of Pears,Ladghar :: (Index) I am sure this will be a worth visiting place in monsoon. The beach is ok, the food is good this place is around 15- 20 mins drive from Dapoli city right on the Ladghar beach which is also known as Tamas Tirth for the colour of the water seen red sometimes from the top

The whole coast has loads of hidden gems. I am planning to drive Dapoli - Guhagar shortly after the rains.

Here's Suvarna Ganpati temple in Dive agar.


Legend has it that the Maratha rulers were afraid of the muslim invaders and decided to hide this Golden Ganpati along with ornaments in a box. They buried this which was discovered serendipitously after 1000 years. I wanted to take a photograph of the box and the golden idol (25 kgs), but was refused permission. Upon finding the ganpati, they decided to install the same in existing ganpati temple itself.

Soon it was milk time for my baby and my wife wanted to use the rest room as well. So we decided to go over to Exotica resorts (MTDC) at diveagar. Thought that after more bhajias and tea, we might check out the beach if it stops raining.

As my wife was away, I was entertaining my baby teaching her about arachnids and their great weaving prowess.


The little restaurant at the entrance of Exotica. Highly recommended for wonderful hospitality, great rooms, proximity to beach and above all amazing onion bhajias


Nice themed place they had with little bridges for little people.


Beware of the mosquitos. Luckily they'd kept the age old Tortoise mosquito coils there!


Look no rain. Let's finish all our food and go to the beach quickly.


My warrior waited there as we gobbled our food.


Look how tall the trees are. Never seen such tall trees on a beach! We were hardly 20 meters from the shore.


We carry Amul Taaza along with the electric boiler. Amul taaza is off the shelves now because of shortage. We had the last pack.

I asked the hotel people whether I can use their plug point for 10 seconds to boil the milk. They said, that they can boil milk over gas and they have the same Amul Taaza.
We had brought our own packet, hence we just requested them to let us use the plug point for 10 seconds.
Now when I boiled the milk, I noticed something strange.
Me: Guess the milk is curdled.
Wife: Can't be, it's never happened. It's got over 2 months for expiry.
Me: Have a look.
Wife: OMG. It IS curdled. What do we do now?
Me: Let's ask them whether they have the packet they were talking about.

The waiter went in came back with an unopened pack of Amul taaza. We were surprised that they actually had it.
He was kind enough to boil half a litre which we filled in 2 bottles. One for immediate consumption and another for 3 hours down the line. That was the last place we thought we'd find Amul Taaza cartons.

I was thinking, "May be this is a part of the choo chas. Else why would milk curdle? I've taken packets of milk in simmering heat of NH7 between Karur and Virudhunagar. how come in this weather? Anyway, we are extremely lucky to find the same here!"

Me: Now that she's had her milk, let's check the beach while the sky is clear.

Just when we were about to get off the car, this happened.


Now my wife was extremely disappointed. We come here braving all oddities. And just when we thought of getting off it rains.
So what? Let's go.

And then the sky cleared again.
We got down, only to see within minutes it came down as a deluge.

We scamper to our car back.
Only to see the rains stop.

Wife: Shiva is now testing me.
Me: laugh out loud.

We scamper again. And we were barely 10 feet away from the water.
We see huge clouds. Endless. Dark. Sea looks ominous.

Me: It's full moon. Dark clouds. Let's not antagonise Someshwara (The shiva that moon worships)

Wife: Sob sob sob.
Me: I will bring you again. After the rains.
Wife: yes. Let's not take any risk with that leg of yours.
We turn around. And the skies open out again.

So near yet so far.