From Borivali To Malvan

[DriveNinn]

Posting after a long time. Sometimes Life makes you so busy that our priorities change. Same happened with me. My wife gave birth to a son two months back. The happiest occasion of my life. The last two months and the nine months before that when "WE" (not she alone) were expecting made her my first priority and driving, 'Fiat'ing and 'Punt'ing took a backseat.

So now when all is well and my wife is at her mother's place I have a free hand (quite literally) to do anything here. So I decided to make optimum use of the vacation time and go to our native place in Talere (Taluka Kankavali). We could offer prayers at our "Kuldaivat" here and also it would serve as a long drive with a much needed break as well. The travelers are myself, my parents and my 9 year old nephew. I am the only driver.

The following preliminaries have been done:-

Tyre Nitrogen Pressure - Checked
Engine Oil - Checked
Coolant - Top Up done
Route - Mapped
Google Navigation - Checked

Am I missing out anything. Please point out. Any tips, fine points are welcome.

I am leaving tomorrow morning (09-05-2013) at 6. The planned route is Borivali - Ghodbunder - Majiwada Jn - Mumbai-Pune Expressway - Kolhapur - Gaganbawda - Tarele.

Will post the travel experience and the photographs soon. Wish me luck.

 

[Superbad]

Dayum. From the start to the end point . I can associate everything. Because i have been there done that.
Talere lies en route to our native place. And malvan is a place for lot of our relatives.
Glued to the thread now for more updates.

 

[AR Ram]

Posting after a long time. Sometimes Life makes you so busy that our priorities change. Same happened with me. My wife gave birth to a son two months back. The happiest occasion of my life. The last two months and the nine months before that when "WE" (not she alone) were expecting made her my first priority and driving, 'Fiat'ing and 'Punt'ing took a backseat.

So now when all is well and my wife is at her mother's place I have a free hand (quite literally) to do anything here. So I decided to make optimum use of the vacation time and go to our native place in Talere (Taluka Kankavali). We could offer prayers at our "Kuldaivat" here and also it would serve as a long drive with a much needed break as well. The travelers are myself, my parents and my 9 year old nephew. I am the only driver.

The following preliminaries have been done:-

Tyre Nitrogen Pressure - Checked
Engine Oil - Checked
Coolant - Top Up done
Route - Mapped
Google Navigation - Checked

Am I missing out anything. Please point out. Any tips, fine points are welcome.

I am leaving tomorrow morning (09-05-2013) at 6. The planned route is Borivali - Ghodbunder - Majiwada Jn - Mumbai-Pune Expressway - Kolhapur - Gaganbawda - Tarele.

Will post the travel experience and the photographs soon. Wish me luck.

Have a nice journey. Expecting a detailed TL and lot of pictures

 

[Tornado]

Why via Gagan bawda ? Why not via Amboli Ghat ?

 

[DriveNinn]

Amboli Ghar opens in sawantwadi which is South of malvan. The distance between Sawantwadi and malvan is approximately 55 kms. Add to that the distance between Bawda and Amboli and the distance to travel would hv increased by at least 100 kms. Therefore...

 

[patkar_a]

Amboli Ghar opens in sawantwadi which is South of malvan. The distance between Sawantwadi and malvan is approximately 55 kms. Add to that the distance between Bawda and Amboli and the distance to travel would hv increased by at least 100 kms. Therefore...

Yeah correct that would be a round about distance,so going through gaganbowda was good thought,another option phonda ghat which exits near talera, but i think you could have further enjoyed the ride if you have gone through Nh-17 mumbai Goa.It takes Roughly 10 hours to reach kankavli With enough breaks in between.
Ensure that you check the Oil level,coolant level at regular interval.Enjoy driving..cheers

 

[Rajvel]

Waiting for your TL and pics.
pls post a google map info toooo.
Im unaware of the above places.

 

[Superbad]

Yeah correct that would be a round about distance,so going through gaganbowda was good thought,another option phonda ghat which exits near talera, but i think you could have further enjoyed the ride if you have gone through Nh-17 mumbai Goa.It takes Roughly 10 hours to reach kankavli With enough breaks in between.
Ensure that you check the Oil level,coolant level at regular interval.Enjoy driving..cheers

was going to say the exact thing.

plus there is not a lot for traffic these days on this route except for the panvel to pen stretch.

speeds wont be consistently high owing to the turns and twist of ghats , but over the decade , the roads have become much broader and the overall average speeds have increased too.
i have done pen to kankavli within 7 hours last time , that too without any aggressive driving.

 

[patkar_a]

was going to say the exact thing.

plus there is not a lot for traffic these days on this route except for the panvel to pen stretch.

speeds wont be consistently high owing to the turns and twist of ghats , but over the decade , the roads have become much broader and the overall average speeds have increased too.
i have done pen to kankavli within 7 hours last time , that too without any aggressive driving.

Yup I had my recent 4/5 trips,in this year that to 8/9 hours roughly the route is similiar ..the road has become much broader..After wadkal road widening has been done uptill poladpur.The road is Absolute butter,i will be having my next trip to kankavli this friday.ehehe..
My thinking
Mumbai to kolhapur==> 7 hours
kolhapur to Kankavli==>2.5 hours
Total approx ==>10 hours and after all bear the summer heat of pune, kolhapur.
best bet go bye NH-17

 

[DriveNinn]

So guys I am finally back. Actually I was back on Monday evening itself but could not post because of pending work.
Here is my travel itinerary.
DAY 1 : 9th May 2013
We left from our home at Dahisar on 9th May @ 730 AM. Due to the delay in leaving from home we encountered traffic on Ghodbunder road all the way till Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The drive thereafter was smooth without much traffic. We reached the Mumbai-Pune Expressway by 930 AM. Here we made first halt at the food court for about 40 minutes. After that it was a steady drive along the expressway. I tried to make up for the delay by speeding safely. My 90 HP Punto easily touched 150kmph without breaking into a sweat. We encountered a lot of truck traffic after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. These trucks tend to drive in the right lane @ 60kmph and that takes a lot of fun out of your drive - flashing and honking behind the idiots.
The second halt was around 230 PM at Hotel Mahendra in Karad. The lunch and service at this vegetarian hotel is very good. We exited the Kolhapur highway by taking the Gaganbawda exit. The Gaganbawda ghat is deceptively dangerous with very acute twists and turns. We spotted at least two turtled heavy vehicles along the way. Finally we reached Talere - my native place around 630 PM. We rested at our home after that.

Day 2 : 10th May 2013
After a late breakfast we left from our home at 10 AM. The first stop was at Phanasgaon to visit our family deity. That is a short drive of around 10 km from our home. On the return journey we visited Napne waterfall at Vaibhavwadi. Thereafter we left for Malvan. On the way we had lunch at Kankavli - A sumptuous fish and chicken thali.
We reached Malvan at 430. My mother's paternal home is at Malvan but we did not stay there due to some family matter. We stayed at Vaze's Cozy Nook bunglow. In the evening we went for a walk in market and beach.

Day 3 : 11th May 2013
We had breakfast in the hotel itself. Then we left for the Tehsildar’s office for some property related work. After that we went to a relative’s place where we had lunch. While coming back I filled the tank and then on the way back something happened which gave me a mini heart attack. The engine light on the display panel started glowing and the CHECK ENGINE sign appeared. I immediately returned to our hotel and called it a day. I tried calling 24 hour Fiat helpline and those guys directed me to the nearest service station which was at Kolhapur (Marvelous Motors), around 130 Km from my halt. Since the car was working fine without any abnormal sound or feel, I decided to stretch my luck and carry on as per our schedule and make a halt at Marvelous Motors on our way back on Monday. Thus ended an eventful 3rd day of the trip.

Day 4 : 12th May 2013
This was a Sunday and the activities of the day began routinely. We had scheduled a trip to the beautiful temple of Kunkeshwar on this day. Kunkeshwar is in Devgad Taluka a distance of around 70 Km from Malvan. It is beautiful temple of Lord Kunkeshwar the local deity – a form of Lord Shankar. The temple is situated along the sea shore and offers a beautiful view of the Arabian Sea. After offering our prayers we had food at a nearby restaurant and then came back to the hotel. All the while I was uncomfortable due the engine light on the display and this prevented me from going to other places like Vijaydurga Fort.

Day 5 : 12th May 2013
On the day of return we started at 640 AM. I was driving cautiously and not over racing the car. The road from Malvan to Kolhapur was through Phonda Ghat. The road here was in bad shape compared to the Karul Ghat (Gagan Bawda). Anyways we reached Marvelous Motors Kolhapur,
The service advisor Mr. Yogesh Ghorpade attended me immediately and took the car to the service bay where a diagnosing kit was attached to the car. It showed error code P0236. The guy who attached it immediately erased it. I later realized that I was duped. They did not charge me for this but it gave me a false sense of security while driving back from Kolhapur to Mumbai. On the way I realized that the car was not accelerating the way it should be even on a straight stretch of road with the accelerator fully pressed I was getting a RPM of around 2500 and a speed never exceeding 110 kmph. I attributed it to the excess luggage we were carrying on our way back. I finished the Pune – Mumbai expressway at 430 PM. And then started the famous peak hour traffic of Mumbai. Unfortunately on the way back when were near Ghodbunder the engine light sign appeared again. We reached home at 730 PM.
And thus ended our eventful trip. I took the car to Balaji Fiat on Wednesday 14th May. What happened there…lets keep it for another day.
Total Distance covered 1345 KM
Average 17.2 kmpl. I guess it could have been better but for P0236…

 

[DriveNinn]

And here are the photos of the statistics...