Coastal Konkan Road Trip: Prologue

Something like this hadn't happened before. Nobody had a planning and execution experiance. But everything has a first. So did this. And like all firsts, it needed people, willing to take risks and cautious enough to be ready with a plan B, in case something doesnt go as per the plan. First setback was on day-1 itself. But more about that later.

It started with a close friend, staying in Bangalore, getting a long leave for about a week and keeping the whole week open for some adventure, if a plan happens. When he checked with me, I had just been from Alibaug and Kashid, and Konkan was the first thing that flashed in my mind. So the first plan that struck was to go in Konkan. But since there was one full week at disposal, it had to be something more elaborate than just going there and lazying around here and there like those 'typical' tourists. So in about 5-10mins a plan to do a road trip along the full coastal length of konkan, that too on bike, started taking shape.

In about 2-days of the weekend, the plan was ready and I had tried to consider all possible details - where do we start from, where do we go, how much is the distance, how long it might take, does it have ferries in between, is there a need to allocate more time to travel due to ferries, what time of the day will we be travelleing, what all will we be doing at a particular location, what all will we be visiting ....... etc etc. It took a lot of time, but this was one of the best, and most involved plans, I had ever prepared. Time allocation was also done for our main important activities, and based on this time allocation, a schedule for all the days and travels during those days, was planned.

Initially, the full plan for the road-trip was - to start from Pune, go to Alibaug, and then go till Terekhol in a combed pattern. Then turn back, and return to Pune in a combed pattern as well. That way, we wouldnt get exhausted travelling either ways. But then everything doesnt work out as you expect it to. Due to various time constraints, we had to let go of the combed pattern, and adopt a start-at-murud-janira-and-end-at-terekhol type of linear pattern.

In all, the plan was prepared for a whopping 9-day touring, hopping from one place to another every day - with no two nights being spent at the same place. A new place to stay every day. This mode of travel and stay, was ofcourse totally new to us.

By the time the plan was prepared, it was clear that not many people would be able to join us, owing to various problems like - getting a long leave granted, to not having a craving for such road trips. There were many monsters to scare people away -

1. No one had any previous experience in planning and executing such a long road trip
2. No bookings were to be done, and a place to stay at, was to be found when we enter our destination for the day
3. Total uncertainty about electronics charging points. No guarantees. 
4. On the return, it was going to be all NH17. Twisty, curvy, scenic, but equally dangerous. Infamous as the most dangerous highway in MH, owing to it's accidents and death counts. 
5. It was May, and was bound to be hot. Despite planning travels on early mornings and late evenings, you cannot guarantee sticking to the plan all the time, and travelling during hot afternoons would become inevitable some times. 

Not many are willing to travel in such conditions. The end result was as expected. Only two of us were going - me and Pravya.

The plan was finalized in couple of days. Expenditure projections, equippment checklists, electronics/photography gear requirements, maps, availability of petrol pumps and ATM enroute, risks, plan B's ...  etc etc was all thought about and finalized.


Route and Time Details

S.No.	Day	Date	Route	Total Travel	Stay At
Day-1	Saturday	28/04/12	pune -> tamhini ghat -> mangaon -> indapur -> agardanda -> murud-janjira -> diveagar -> shrivardhan	210km	Shrivardhan
Day-2	Sunday	29/04/12	shrivardhan -> harihareshwar -> bagmandla -> bankot -> velas -> kelshi -> anjarle	95km	Anjarle
Day-3	Monday	30/04/12	anjarle -> harne -> dapoli -> dabhol -> dhopave -> guhagar	70km	Guhagar
Day-4	Tuesday	01/05/12	guhagar -> velneshwar -> hedvi -> jaigad -> ganapatipule	60km	Ganapatipule
Day-5	Wednesday	02/05/12	ganapatipule -> jaitapur -> vijaydurga -> devgad	120km	Devgad
Day-6	Thursday	03/05/12	devgad -> kunakeshwar -> mithbav -> malvan -> tarkarli	50km	Malvan
Day-7	Friday	04/05/12	malvan -> vengurla -> terekhol -> vengurla	70km	Vengurla
Day-8	Saturday	05/05/12	vengurla -> pavas -> ratnagiri -> chiplun	250km	Chiplun
Day-9	Sunday	06/05/12	chiplun -> mangaon -> tamhini ghat -> pune	220km	Home Sweet Home

Just to make it clear in advance, though this was the plan, quite a few changes were made on the go, and in the end, it ended up being an 8-day road trip, with me skipping the Day-8 Chiplun stay and doing the whole Vengurla->Pune 500+km patience testing journey in a single day (11 hours with breaks).


Expenditure Projections

Primary daily expenses were going to be in eating and stay. Assuming standard daily charges, and even overestimating it a little bit, I arrived at a figure of around 6-8k for eating and stay arrangements for two of us.

Apart from these, petrol would be another big ticket expense. Assuming a Rs.2/km, for around 1200kms of travel, as per our estimate, would require petrol of around 2.5K.

That meant, our expenditure was going to be around 5-6K per head for the whole of the trip.


Equippments

Day-5 was identified as risky, due to few reasons. First, the travel for the day was quite lengthy. Second, there was no clarity about availability of ferries or new bridges to reach from Ganapatipule to Vijaydurga. Third - the time table was so tight that there was a possibility that we would get too late at Vijaydurga itself, and would end up in no man's land. We would need a plan B if there happened to be no place available to stay. I decided to take my 2-person tent and sleeping bags for the eventuality.

Then other miscelleneous items like toiletries, medicines, clothes, couple of 6-feet sections of 6mm rope (boy, did they come handy!), chargers, extension board, head torch, extra pair of shoes ... etc etc made it to the kit.


Photography Gear Considerations

9-days of trip was going to consume my 12GB of cards in no time. I (over)estimated 4GB of RAW shooting per day, and collected enough class 4,6,10 SDHC cards to go the distance. By the way, class-6 SDHC are more than sufficient for a 450D. It's the internal buffer on the DSLR that matters when it comes to 'firing the machine gun'. Speed of data-transfer to SDHC cards has no say in that. 450D has a buffer for mere 6 shots, and no matter whether you have a  class-4 or a class-10 SDHC card, you are going to end up losing moments after first 6 quick fires. Class-4 is good enough, while class-6 is optimum for an entry level DSLR like 450D. Alas! I had to pay from my own pocket for this learning.

Battery was another concern, but from experience I knew it wouldn't die before 2-3days of use, and I was banking on getting a charging point during  stays on alternate days. So no expense on a new battery, I told myself.

And since Konkan is all about scenary and beaches, well, my tripod had to be with me. So I carried that 3kg beast all around, with me, through out the road trip.


With all this considered and taken care of, the only thing remaining was to wait for that day when this highly ambitious road trip would begin, and somehow grab hold of yourself before you go crazy with excitement, while you wait for the day.

I have maintained a detailed account of the road trip in my travel diary, and it's that day-by-day account, along with some photos, that I plan to present here on my blog gradually, with two intentions in mind. First - as a possible help in planning, for those adventurous bikers and travelers; and second - as a travelogue, for these are some of the golden memories in my life, and few years down the line it will be a hell of a treasure trove for me, even if it doesn't interest anyone else.

Chao till I post day-1.

Next: CKRT: Day 01 - Murud Janjira to Shrivardhan