Part Two
4’0 clock in evening on NH-4, old Mumbai-Pune Highway, seeing no one walking or cycling on it, surrounded by hills more than thousands feet from see level. Only heavy container trucks, cars, buses. Noise of vehicles and mixed with cool wind blowing. We defeated the first barrier towards Pune, its Khandala and Lonavala Ghats. We are now silently cycling. No one needed to put any efforts to cycle for some time as its down hill. Down hill, I mean slopping down. We were sitting on our bicycles and just giving them directions. Rolling down from a hilly place on bicycle is always fun. I bend down ahead and the speed of bicycles must be in between 40 to 45 KMPH. which was real fun and comfort. All of us had the feeling of being professional cyclists. This time we cycled almost 15 KMs in a stretch without taking any halt. I was cycling far ahead of Nandkishor and Nardev, I stopped to see if they are just behind me. We were near Kalra caves. We took some rest and again started cycling. By sun set we approached Kaamshet, it was real fun rolling down on bicycles for KMs. Now we started loving the moments I could feel the sense of satisfaction of doing all this and can see the same on Nandkishor’s and Nardev’s face. We have become almost professional cyclist by now and none of us seemed to be tired. We all were really happy after cycling for all day and our body, mind, muscles, heart, blood, kidneys, legs,etc .everything felt the sense of satisfaction and all got strengthen up. My Heart was saying thank you appu..J
7 PM,After reaching Naigaon we decided to have cup of tea and its almost dark. We sat in a nice Dhaba with Maharashtrian ambiance. Asked the waiter about the distance to Pune, discovered that it still 40 KMs more. That means we have covered almost 70 KMs on cycle. We had to be fast now as Pune is still 40 KMs, and its already dark. On NH-4 there are no street lights. We had to rely on the lights of vehicles passing by and on our guts. Nardev had one torch which hardly has any brightness he fixed that on his cycle's handle. Okay something is better than nothing. We decided we would cycle and would not stop until we reach Pune city. We had to be in a lodge so that we can sleep properly. After cycling for next 2 and half hours we covered almost 20 KMs and approached Dehu Road. Cycling for entire day made us cover only 90 KMs. I calculated average KMs completed every hour, it was 8 KMs. Felt bad looking at it and promised myself next day I would cover more KMs with my buddies. We got to a lodge in Dehu Road, “Sabana”. We have stopped to stay that night. For three persons the charge was Rs. 900. Nardev went ahead and like a leader negotiated on our behalf and made it 750 bucks and also arranged hot water for us for taking shower next morning. I was completely exhausted by now as expected and had little bit of fever as my shoes soaked lot of water and was wet entire day. I laid on the bed as soon as we entered in the lodge. Nardev and Nandu took shower and started chatting for a while. After chatting for a while they went ahead for their dinner and I asked them to bring chicken and Roti for me. After having my dinner I had a pain killer and collapsed on the bed. Nandkishor the Face Book bug was online and Nardev went asleep.
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