6/10/2012

Riding on the wrong side of the road...

Got back to cycling after a two week hiatus.

KH (Kharghar Hill) is off limits during the monsoons - they block the roads for safety from rockslides - so missing that beautiful 6 km climb.
Got restless by evening and took the bike out for a spin in Kgr (Kharghar) instead.

On my last climb of KH, had spotted from the top, what looked like a good uphill trek opportunity. The entry point is a bylane that starts right before the Kgr Valley Golf course.

So I pedalled upto there and explored as much of the bylane as I could. The bylane turns out to be a a rocky road strewn out alongside the surviving table top hills in this extension of the Sahayadri range. The passage hugs the perimeter of the golf course, all the to a valley in it's backyard. Could afford many opportunities for hill climbing at a later date, for now just a little off-roading adventure.


Pedalled out of there and back into Kgr, passing the entry point for Pandavkada falls, which is more like an extended car parking zone right opposite Central Park, with people enjoying the drizzle and charcoal roasted corncobs on the sidewalk.
Right after Tata Memorial Hospital, there's a brand new tarred stretch of road that's currently closed to motorists, stretching upto the other (village) entry point for Pandavkada. Felt beautiful cycling there without the road bumps. Smooth, virgin road. At the end, I caught up with a rainbow.


Cycling back, I rode, on the wrong side of the road. Primarily to feel safer against the onslaught of increasing traffic in the evening. But it really felt scarier with bikers and cars trying to overtake in the slow lane! You also get to take in addition sights - apart from the natural beauty - lassies doing photo shoots,  and somewhere, a couple making out in their stationary car - now I'm not one to ogle or interrupt, I just happened to glance as I stuck to the extreme right side of the road.

Reached home and washed down my bike and me, both mudcoated from the ride. Discovered later, that I had quite the rooster trail - from the seat of my pants to the back of my head. So I'm definitely getting a set of mudguards before my next ride.