Soon after every other unlocking procedure started to take place country wide , me and my partner decided to travel short distance initially . This is because, the gradual unlocking had also led to some confusion among the crowd and the rules and regulations were very new for us to follow.
While some places shut down in the early evenings , other shops opened in the same time. The 'new normal ' that people had trended it , was difficult and confusing .
On 19th of October, we decided to take a short , one day ride to Tamhini Ghats .
Now , This place was at a coverable distance and included no such challenge as compared to other locations near and around Pune.
Starting from Hinjewadi (Our Base) , to Tamhini Ghats looked hardly some few kilometers (43.9 to be precise!!) which meant , it should hardly take an hour and half to reach.
Keeping in mind the timelines, we started almost lazily by 1.pm , Roughly.
The path was straight trail from Hinjewadi Phase 1 to Phase 3 , Paud and Mulshi . On reaching Mulshi , you start getting the glimpse of simple village like livelihood with little by lanes , mediocrely crowded with shops and stalls.
As the altitude increases , these little lanes paved way to bigger roads , with hills on one side and a city view on the other . This would continue for sometime , soon after which , you start reaching the tamhini stetches and the valleys.
The roads posed a great view of andharban forest which cannot be easily overlooked when compared with the gleaming waterbody infront of it.
Mesmerized by the beauty of our surroundings and in an attempt of capturing some fantastic glimpses of the view , we almost lost track of time .
There was a stall where we had stopped for a break ,when we were to almost reach Tamhini which was owned by a couple , middle aged and little bit shaken by the current economic condition . We had a little chat with them , where , they gave special emphasis on returning from Tamhini early in the evening. The couple advised us to do so , because , although the places we were covering looked beautiful in the daytime, the same looked deserted at night.
It was almost 5p.m when it finally struck us that we had to return .
Soon after , we packed our equipment and started descending the altitudes of Tamhini .
There were few instances of rash driving by Public Vehicles like Trucks and Buses and it is best advisable to slow down your own pace then to hurry up when these heavy vehicles buzz their horns from behind. This is because, It so , once happened , where for a slight moment , a bus almost touched our vehicle , and if not noticed at the right moment , could have posed harm to our lives.
It was 5.30 and Dusk had started to fall onto us . the very road which I quiet confidently , vouched to be straight , looked confusing , now that , there were no street lights.
There was a point when , we questioned our confidence , and decided to ask for the route from someone local to that place.
This was when , we had reached a market place and the narrowed street had diverged into two ways.
On being asked , a vegetable seller advised us to take the straight path to reach back home , while , there was another young man , who vividly mentioned that we should rather travel in the left Direction instead of travelling straight.
Since , it had started raining heavily by that time, our phoned were locked away so that they do not get drenched.
This left us with only one option , we had to trust our gut and take the advise of one of these gentleman. So , we chose for the latter , and started to drive towards the left .
As we went on for few kilometers , we noticed huge walls , which only looked like the boundaries of a shut down industry , paved our way deeper into it's dense and dark labyrinth .
I still remember the road , with no street light and not one house , neither vehicles, nor any human being passing by.
The desertion left us puzzled and we realized that, we were in fact , on the wrong path .
With utter fortune , we saw a shop and we drove hurriedly past the rain and the puddles , to ask our path back .
All the people were initially confused as to why , we took that very street , because , we had to take straight from where we came .
The question crossed our mind as to why a , well mannered young man would ,misguide us when he looked very much like a local to the place. If he wasn't sure , he could have easily ignored the question .
As the road was muddy and slippery , it took us a lot more to ride back to the point in the market where we had started .
after this , without wasting time, we drove really fast in the direction of our home. There was little possibility that something bad could have happened , but the fact that , we were brooding over the idea of giving it a benefit of doubt , made us really anxious regarding our self security.
As we saw the Lights of Hinjewadi phase 3 road glimmer in front of us , we left a sigh of relief .
Things to keep in mind :
1. Follow Post Covid Protocol like wearing masks.
2.Maintain comfortable speed as the roads become steep at times , almost like a surprise.
3.Start the return Journey Early if few people are travelling as the roads look dark and deserted at night and streetlights are a rare sight.
4. Carry Raincoats as the altitude sometimes invite little unexpected Drizzles.
Although short , But we learnt of Importance of Time Management from this travel experience.