Bike Ride Mumbai – Maldoli – Velas – Harihareshwar

5 Riders
700 Km.
125 Km. Night Ride
Crocodile Safari
Turtle Festival
Awesome Beaches
Konkani Food
And a lot of experience…

Places visited

• Maldoli Crocodile Safari
• Velas Turtle Festival
• Bankot Fort
• Harihareshwar Temple

We 5 friends decided to visit Velas this March for the Turtle Festival on the bike. Distance from Mumbai to Velas is not so far, so I added Crocodile Safari at Maldoli, Chiplun in our plan. Now the distance is too long. We planned to cover Mumbai – Maldoli – Velas in one day. Night stay at Velas, Morning visit to Turtle Festival, then Bankot Fort, Harihareshwar and Mumbai.
But sometimes plans never work. We reached at Maldoli by 1.00 pm. We had lunch and waiting for our boat for safari. Maldoli is the best place to relax from our routine life. Riverside homes, Fishing, Boating, Birding, and Crocodiles. If you plan for night stay then it would be awesome with friends, family, and campfire.
Then we started our safari by boat. Its 45 min. And we were not able to saw a single crocodile. My friends like “Mady kidhar leke aaya yaar? Isse achha hum direct Valas jaate”. I told them just wait we will definitely get something. And then we saw our 1st crocodile. My friends watching wild crocodile 1st time in life. That crocodile was too far from us, so our boatman took our boat near to that crocodile. And guess what?? Our boat got stuck in the mud, around 200 meters from that crocodile. We thought ab to hum gaye. But that boatman said don’t worry guys and he jumped in the mud and slowly after 15-20 min. He removed our boat from that danger zone. We saw that crocodile still in the same position with opened mouth. Omg, what that man yaar. Then we went to other spots. And our crocodile counts increased from 1 to 20. We saw and capture so many crocodiles.
We came back to our room, packed our bags and left from Maldoli. Its 5.00 pm and we have to travel 150 km. We reached at khed by 7.00 pm. Everyone was tired, they were not able to sit on the bike. We took a halt after every half hrs. But after Khed no one wanted to go Velas, because now its night, and night ride is risky. Everyone saying Mady cancel the Velas. We will stay here and tomorrow from here directly to Mumbai. But one of my friend Vinayak come to me and said Mady don’t cancel it, we will go, let’s do it. My all other friends too much tired but finally they also convinced to go to Velas.
At 7.30 pm we started to travel to Velas. From Khed its 3 hrs. And 80-90 km. The road became very dangerous at night. The road condition was very bad. And there was no single vehicle on road. The distance between 2 villages was 10-20 km. There was no one for help if we faced any problem. But at 10.30 pm we reached to Bankot. It was like we won a very big battle. No one from us rides a bike at night before. The awesome, danger and very risky experience of our life.
I called that lady where we booked our room and asked for direction from Bankot. It was very close. I explained the road to other riders. And left from Bankot. There was a small road from Bankot to Velas, as we were not able to see the road properly. I came to one point from there road goes to directly the beach. When I came on that road sound of shore scared me. Because it came from very close and I can’t see the beach at night. I go straight to the village. And stopped at the entrances. Waiting for others. Its 15 min. And no one is coming. I got scared again. I started my bike to check them and suddenly on a bike came. They are like Mady “kidhar leke aaya yaar. Jaise wo road se niche aaye to Samundar ka paani humaare upar”. But they asked someone ” koi bullete leke gaya kya idhar se” and they came. But our other bike is still not coming. And rider friend of that bike was so tired. We went to check them. And they were waiting for us at the starting point of that beach road. Then again we crossed that scary beach road and reached a room.
We had our dinner and slept early because early morning we scheduled for turtle watching. And for that, the whole journey was planned.
At morning only 3 of us able to woke up and went to the beach for turtles. After a long journey, we were excited to see them. But guess what we were not able to see a single turtle. Even we missed a female turtle who came on the beach just by 10 min. It was very sad, very much disappointed. But the Velas beach was beautiful. We spend 1 hour on the beach took some photos and came to the room. We had breakfast and left at 10.00 am to Harihareshwar. And we thought now we have to go again from that scary beach road. We came on that road and stopped our bikes because that road was so amazing, beautiful, awesome, superb. At night it was scary because of the dark but on the day it was OMG. Fantastic. We took so many pics on that road. Very good location. It was the best beach road I ever ride my bike in my life. I and my friends never gonna forget this beach and our night ride from Khed to Velas.