Pune to Lonavala

This is one route to Lonavala from Pune not many know and the ones who are aware of it rather avoid it. It passes along Mulshi dam through Pirungut Ghat. This route is longer but also it is quite narrow and dangerous for a normal drive to Lonavala easy choice to give it a miss. We happened to bump onto this road was pure matter of chance. Past weekend we roomies decided to check out Lavasa city. Knowing that it lies on the road to Paud gaon, five of us road on our 150cc bikes down the Chandani Chowk. Well we missed out on locating Lavasa but we continued wandering in Tamhini Ghat :). The drive is superb as roads are well maintained passing through green hills, perfect Pune mansoon with a little drizzle and a lot of fog around.
After the Neve goan (50 odd kms from Chandani Chowk) the road split, we had two options either continue through Tamhini Ghat towards Murud a hundred odd kms from there with a fairly decent road or take narrow one to Lonavala through a dense forest. It was 6.30PM, all we had was bikes and plastic money, after some thoughts we went for Lonavala and thankfully it turned out to be a worthwhile decision. A wonderful ride for someone in Pune looking out for a decent biking experience. Mind you it is a bit risky, we were lucky not to get into any accident but next time if I am gonna go that route it would be in day time and with some more preparation. There were several passes on that road where water through hill spilled over the road and after the heavy rains it would be very difficult to cross it on two-wheelers.
This 50Km drive is the best I ever had on a two wheeler. The road was foggy with hardly any visibility. The beam thrown by headlights was dispersed in fog and the one who was driving in front could actually see his shadow on the wall of fog. There were few settlements along the road but hardly any city necessities all along. I doubt if we had got a punctured tire whether we could have managed to get it fixed before Lonavala. But, one surprising aspect was we did encounter our ST Mahamandal buses which was a bit assuring. There is a Arhatic Ashram on that road, must say a very great setting to unwind.
The whole experience was amazing and much needed break from polluted city environment. Lot of greenery with a very soothing eloquence of nature, it was a refreshing couple of hours.