A nice trip to Bhor's Rambaug campsite for the major camp on Friday night, was the highlight of the week for me. It started with a lovely one and a half hour evening ride from Pune to Bhor on a smooth 4 lane NH-4 highway with the picturesque Sahyadris adorning the landscape on both sides. The night was well spent sitting by a campfire, with old buddies - singing songs, listening to one of them playing the guitar and reliving old memories with jokes about the times that were... And all this in the wonderful rustic setting of a village campsite! Our campfire went on till 4:15 in the morning... after which we had a peaceful slumber in one of the tents. All in all, a good end to the day!
The next morning after getting up lazily at around 9:15 (pretty late for a camp) and having a light breakfast, Viraj and I left for Pune at around 11:30. The previous evening, we had agreed that we would each drive one way, and this time it was my turn to drive.
I haven't ridden bikes on highways much, only thrice before. Twice it was in and around Pune itself and once in Ladakh. On the Pune rides, I've never crossed 100 kmph. I had got to 95 a couple of times on a Pulsar 150 but the bike seemed to be getting a little shaky so I had to back off on those occasions. In Ladakh, I was on a powerful but old Thunderbird, but that had a defunct speedometer. Given the empty and beautiful stretch of road we were riding on in Ladakh, I strongly felt that I must have crossed 100, but I had no way of confirming it. That said, I have crossed 100 on a two wheeler as a pillion on Amit's Thunderbird on a Mulshi ride we had back in 2007, his speedometer needle had gone upto 120, but there is a difference - crossing high speeds on bikes being the driver causes adrenalin-filled elation while the same experience being the pillion rider causes... well, lots of tension :)
But yesterday, 21st Feb, 2009 was the day, I finally broke the 100 barrier being the driver, and that too thrice. It was done on a Bajaj Avenger, with a nervous Viraj on the rear seat. The bike did take some effort crawling towards that magical figure especially with it being 3 years old and having two 75 kilo heavy adults to carry, but it pulled through eventually, managing a little above 105 kmph, after which I had to relax the throttle, to stay within the limits of safe driving.
The attaining of this small personal landmark was a good ending to an eventful week, which had me on another one of life's roller coaster rides of lows and highs....
