Saturday, August 2, 2008

GHATSHILA – RIDE in the RAIN

“Rain”, I am not one who love this word and its nature, simply because of no reason; I used to don’t like rain. But it happens sometimes when you don’t like something and the same came to your way and you have to cross it. The same thing happened to me from the very first start in the morning of the Saturday (26.07.08) till the end of this tour on Sunday evening, we were totally drenched by the blessings of the GOD. And one thing for sure I start to enjoy the rain.

This time my plan was to conquer the rain more then the road. Ria was bold enough to face the rain and practically was very happy to be drenched, though she insist me to buy a pair of rain coat specially for this trip. In the Wednesday morning my friend Surya called me and told me to go for a ride in the coming weekend, actually his new R15 was just completed the running in process and waiting for the highway bumps, but sadly Surya was not able to join us with his R15 cause of monsoon & bad road in Jharkhand so continue with his P180, we also got company of Indranil, Sandeep, Nir & Nirmalaya from THE ROADROLLERS and the fun begins.

MAN & THE MACHINE
Sandeep Bagchi – P220
Indranil Maulick – P200
Nirmalaya Chatterjee – P200
Nirmalaya Chakravorty - P180 Classic
Surya – P180
Kaushik & Ria Banerjee – Apache RTR

THE ROUTE
Kolkata – Uluberia – Kolaghat – Panskura – Kharagpur – Lodhasuli – Chinchira – Bahargora on NH6 total 205km.
Bahargora – Musabani – Ghatshila on NH33 total 45km.

STAYING / HOTEL
Hotel Anneswa - Double bed room Rs.300.00, food extra.
Hotel Bibhutibihar - Double bed room Rs.600.00, food extra, AC, on NH33.

SATURDAY, 26.07.08
As decided earlier we were supposed to meet our favorite Azad Hind Dhaba at 6:30, but I am the person who join late the gang at 6:45 and that was due to rain. After a short breakfast we took the NH6 via Kolaghat to Kharagpur, but suddenly we faced a heavy shower after Kolaghat till Kharagpur. And it was my first ride n rain @ highway. Firstly I was bit confused and started slow, but the overall handling, power delivery and breaking of my 4500km old RTR punch me lots of confidence and I found myself doing 80+ kmph soon. The heavy rain take his toll from the Surya’ P180 and thus took one hour to fix the problem. After got it fixed we again continue our journey towards Ghatshila via Lodhasuli, and soon crossed the Bengal – Jharkhand cheapost at Chinchira.

Ghatshila is situated at the Chotanagpur Plato and about 250 km from Kolkata and approx 125 km from Kharagpur. One have to took NH6 from Kolkata till Bahargora in Jharkhand and then on NH33 till Ghatshila which continue towards Ranchi via Jamshedpur & Tatanagar. Ghatshila is famous for its scenic beauty, and for the river Subarnarekha. You will find lots of small hills hear & there namely the famous Phuldungri and Dalma. In rainy season you can discover some small falls like Dharagiri and others. There is also a lake near Ghatshila and its only 18 km ride from the main town. Jamshedpur is only 45 km away from Ghatshila and can be visited by hiring a local taxi or jeep.

We reached Ghatshila at 1:20 PM and took some time to find our pre arranged hotel Anneswa which is in the bank of the river Subarnarekha. We took three rooms to accommodate ourselves. A fresh batch along with a super hot meal feel us homely. After lunch every one go and took a small nap apart from Surya who find himself busy sleeping till 10:00 PM. Though we have a small plan to visit the town and the local market in the evening but could not went out of hotel due to heavy rain. All the evening we enjoying ourselves chatting in the hotel room, though Ria was bit disappointed due not to find any company, actually got bored listening our biking stories.

SUNDAY, 27.07.08
Our plan was to visit the local side seeing and other on the Sunday morning, but due to sleepless night without electricity makes us again late to come out of hotel. It was approx 8:00 AM when we start our journey. After visiting here & there we came to place from where we can watch the beautiful green range of hills towards Jamshedpur, the battle of sun & rain makes an awesome Colour combo in the hills. Sandeep had a plan to visit the Jamshedpur, but due to short time we can’t achieve it. One the way back near Hazaribag Forest we found a sign of a temple in the road. Following the road signs we came to a village named as Narsinggarh, which is famous for its 1000 yrs old Ma Durga temple. One of the local priests gives us a briefing about the history of the temple & the King who lived there. Don’t know how long that priest was true, but at least it was not less then 300yrs old. We came across via the same route and experienced lots of rain on the way. We reached Kharagpur at around 12:00PM and decided to take our lunch there, but as it was Sunday and we are not very away from our home all of us decided to took the lunch at home. As Ria was bit stressed & I thought It will be again stressful to cook for us at home, so we planed to took our meal on any Dhaba, and have it near Dharagiri.
We have a very short time span in our hand to visit the Ghatshila; further monsoon was its top form so we could not cover the whole area properly. We need another visit to discover her completely. Although it was a great trip and at least my rain fear is gone away.



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