Bisons Ride Hard to Hedvi Virgin Beach of Ratnagiri

“We may not be blood brothers, but we surely are oil-brothers on roads” – Yeda Anna

A good ride is all a rider can ever dream of. Few tablespoons of Sun and dirt over night long marinated masti and some secret spices of drama fried in low-fat high cost oil – what else can make a perfect ride recipe! Similar was the ride to a Virgin Beach with fellow Bisons.

I wasn’t available for this ride with my bull-brothers until Friday, when my plan to ride to Chandrapur got brutally killed. Another ride is the only remedy for a failed ride, so I thought to join Bisons on Ride to Hedvi. A plea to join the troupe was sent and accepted within minutes on the confirmation that my Achtung has already been serviced.



Josh and the posers

Joshil, aka Josh, has planned this ride to a Virgin beach near Hedvi, Ratnagiri. Hedvi is a small coastal village some 50km off NH17 near a famous (and thus crowded) Guhaghar beach (a rider confirmed the beach carries significance attached to its name ;). From Panvel naka to Hedvi, it’s almost 275 km. Chiplun is a known town on NH 17, from where one needs to ride some 50 km towards west to reach Hedvi.

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Like all other rides, we started gathering at Dutta Snacks, Panvel and started the ride at about 6:30 AM with 15 bullets and 17 riders. Our very own Guri pa ji and First lady were in drive-mode with Giggle Kaur and not the ride-mode. I know any joke on it, and I’ll be crucified! What I especially like to mention about this particular ride is the type of new riders we had, while Don had an experience of 20 bulls over 20 years, Rohan was for the first time out of Mumbai on his bull; Kapil was such a Bull enthusiast that he got his mate buy one, while Vikas took bull on loan to ride to Hedvi though had thousand miles of experience on Comet! What a gang!

We started without much delay for the ride, only to know in an hour that the pa ji’s car had got some problem to fix. Discussed and decided, the caravan on 13 bullets and 14 riders moved on to our first stop, Om Sai restaurant on NH17 near Poladpur. This is one of the favourite places of the Bisons on highways. After fuelling the appetite and having the power-nap, we’re again on the road. Enjoying the curves of ghats we reached Hedvi at 5:30 PM. One may detour the NH before Chiplun towards Guhghar, but the route to Hedvi needs to be confirmed once one get on the roads sprawled across small towns and villages. Our resort, Suruchi Corner, was at the end of road, just before the beach. Sun was preparing to dive into the Arabian Sea as we reached. So shy he was that seeing us gearing to take pictures of him diving, he disappeared from the horizon! Nevertheless, sky was still ablaze with his glory and we took a pleasant walk along the waters the evening we reached Hedvi.

Hedvi Beach

Pa ji and the accompanying riders took few more hours and reached the place quite on time. With the evening snacks, started the introduction time and there we came to know more about the guys who rode with us for the first time. Like ShelDON, who is funeral planner for Catholics, with 20 bullets in last 20 years; Rohan who was off the concrete into the wild for the first time on his bull; Vikas who shares interest in photography with me and was on a borrowed bullet for the ride; Amit who rode a gift-from-wife Classic Desser Storm and his Bull-experienced friend Kapil; Dr Amey who himself liked to call him Dentist not Doc and SriRam who skipped all the intros and was mostly shy.



'Straight' circle formation

Night as usual was the party time that saw few kgs of chicken, fishes, prawns and desi-vegetarian delicacies disappearing within minutes with sips of all blends. Exciting was the taking pictures of shy moon getting eclipsed by the shadow of Earth, and then the Bulls with Headlight on.



Vikas' shot

Next morning was the time to feel the Beach. Hedvi beach is quite clean, thanks to its solitude. Though, the waters didn’t appear so clean, we couldn’t control ourselves to have fun! It’s a crescent shaped beautiful beach with mountains at both the ends.

I do liked the Suruchi Corner resort too, peaceful, quite a bit rural with couple rooms, large rooms for groups, clean toilet, great scenery and a very friendly marathi-speaking staff. They even arranged bonfire for us, that we forgot to lit :P Booking can be done with Mr Ashok at 9421714969, 940413673. 

Saddles up, breakfast done, we started the return ride at around 10:00 AM. 3 hours later, we were just 26km done as a bull broke down complaining that it hasn’t been serviced for over 3months. Lessons learnt, we were again on the road towards Mumbai. Few ‘small’ breaks here and there, we reached Panvel naka at about 11:00 PM. Thanking Josh for such a wonderfully organised ride and bidding adieu to all mates in different directions, we left for our destinations. Oh yess, I forgot to mention a very delicate and heartfelt experience of the ride. We prayed together and asked God to be with us on our ride and thanked him after completing the ride successfully, on the initiation of the Bison Father Sheldon. I really felt He be along us on the ride!

Bisons Ride Hard

“Rides and Bulls do matter, but what matters most is the fellow Rider I ride with” - Jay