What to do (and not do) on a Konkan coast tour
We got a side-hustle going. We had a couple of interesting vehicles we wanted to spend some time with. May as well bag three birds…
The Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and the Mahindra Marazzo you see in this story have a few things in common: they’re well-priced, surprisingly high value vehicles that just sort of fit so perfectly in their slots that you wonder why someone else didn’t fill the void before. They’re also two vehicles we missed driving/riding at launch. The Interceptor, in particular, comes to Motovore after a solid four-odd months, and much has been said and done with both autos. But the real test — and one I must admit we are unable to administer to most of the automobiles that pass through our hands — is in operating vehicles over a long period of time, ideally over a variety of distances. Our side-hustle of doing motorcycle tours gave us that very opportunity. What better opportunity to throw both these vehicles into the deep end, leading a bunch of Ducatis down winding state highways all the way down from Mumbai to Gokarna. A solid 1700km round-trip. We learned a few things about the MPV, the bikes, riding with strangers, and making friends.
Getting out is the worst part, so start early
This shouldn’t have been a surprise to me, because every single time I’ve dragged my ass out of bed for an early weekend ride, the worst bits are the 30–60 minutes I need to spend just getting out of the city. This is despite my living outside Mumbai city limits anyway! Our first stop outside Mumbai was in Alibaug, where we breakfasted and picked up one of our riders from his ancestral farmhouse. Just getting there — even from Navi Mumbai — is a task and decidedly unpleasant. Use an alternative, if possible. Get out early. Or late. Or in our case, we could have taken the ferry across to mainland Alibaug, and just had a much more pleasant beginning to the trip.
Enjoy the water crossings
For me, the best part of the trip were the innumerable ferries that one must take to jump across short water bodies that project inland from the sea all along the coast. If you had all the time in the world, you could go around, but the respite from the heat and brief interlude to chat is very welcome. We counted four on our way down to Gokarna, but you can do even more, if so inclined. It’s worth doing a bit of research about ferry timings before you get there, because they can occasionally be shut. For instance, a few days before we got to them, some schedules were disrupted on election days. The bikes were a breeze to get on and off the ferries, but on at least one occasion, the Marazzo needed the clutch to be slipped a bit to reverse off the ferry and onto the inclined pier. The small engine/big turbo feel is fine on the highway, but needs a bit of deft handling when you don’t have any run-up space.
Don’t worry about fuel
Unlike when you’re heading up to the Himalayas, the Konkan coast is hospitable, dotted with facilities and in general a breeze to navigate. Despite taking only state highways and rural roads hugging the sea, we had no issues getting good quality fuel. It also helped that we had taken the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and Mahindra Marazzo along as lead and backup vehicles respectively. The 650 went a solid 180–200km before needing a tankful, while the Marazzo just went on and on — we counted four tankfulls (about 10,000 rupees) for the entire 1700km round-trip. A most impressive and convenient traveling duo.
Don’t worry (at all) about food
As a high-maintenance princess, I need to be assured of a certain level of comfort and specifically, quality of food on my travels. Hygiene and various other compulsions dictate that I’ll opt for a styrofoam-flavoured fast-food burger rather than indulge in questionable local fare. None of this was a concern on our trip. One can literally just roll up to a sleepy-looking mom-and-pop kitchen with two tables (and we did, often) and feast upon most excellent seafood fare — in our case, usually Mackerel, Pomfret or Shrimp. Vegetarians are equally well catered to in these parts, so no worries there. On at least one occasion, I think we deserved a substantial discount. A lonely little roadside dhaba with the fans off and no customers suddenly sprung to life and a packed house, with us rolling up on large Ducatis and gentrifying the area briefly.
Don’t worry about the roads
If you’re used to shuttling between tier-1 cities on our relatively recent expressways, you’re forgiven for thinking that anything more remote may be a challenge to traverse. The Konkan coast is anything but. The state highways are ok, to good, to amazing, but never awful. At worst, you’ll encounter some broken tarmac that limits your speed and perhaps needs you to stand on the pegs for a while, but nothing uncomfortable. And you’re always rewarded with great views, very (very!) little traffic, winding roads and great riding/driving. Both — the Marazzo and the Interceptor 650 are blessed with very real-world-friendly suspensions, that err on the side of plush. They soaked up everything we threw at them with no complaint. It’s worth mentioning that the Marazzo was loaded with two people and added luggage for six, so it proved to be an impressive utilitarian hauler.
Stop and stare awhile
There so little traffic and — at least for us city folk — so much to just taken in, that it makes sense to just sort of stop and stare at a pristine beach or two. We did just that, shared some photos, and received an immediate response from a colleague who grew up around there. Big world, small world. Do be careful about how deep the sand is, though. The Interceptor 650 pushed right through, but we got the front-wheel-drive Marazzo properly stuck in some deep stuff. Nothing four guys and a strong tree branch couldn’t sort out!
Take multiple mobile phones/SIM cards
If you complain about how awful your cell coverage is every other day, you’re not going to have much luck on this route. Coverage is spotty, depending on what network you’re on. We had near-constant coverage (including Internet) alternating manually between Airtel and Jio in our dual-SIM phones, while you’re better off turning off the device if you use Vodafone.
Google Maps are your friend
There’s little-to-nothing that isn’t mapped along the coast, and we successfully routed ourselves via Google Maps. For us, it helped to map out daily routes in segments, load them up on our cellphones and download them for offline navigation. That way, no matter what the mobile network coverage, we always had navigation to get us through. We also found bike phone mounts to be exceedingly useful, like the various RAM X-Mount knockoffs that you can buy on Amazon. A note about the ferries — many of them have multiple piers to alight, some of which have fallen out of use. So if you find yourself at a desolate pier with seemingly nobody waiting for a ferry, ask around. The working pier is probably a few hundred metres away.
Carry basic tools and fluids
Especially if you have a backup vehicle tailing you, there’s no reason not to carry things that could help you fix a broken bike. We carried oil, a full toolkit and puncture kits, since most of our bikes were Ducatis and ran tubeless tyres. Thankfully, apart from a stray wire that needed to be tucked away, no tools were required for the entire trip.
Stick to less than 200km/6 hours a day, if you really want to enjoy yourself
There’s a couple of ways to approach a road trip: one is to hammer on as if you have something to prove in the deadline you’ll meet, and the other is to pace it out so you can actually take in some sights and enjoy the ride. We did exactly this all the way down to Gokarna, and were rewarded with relative comfort, usually enough sleep and enough time to knock back a few in the evenings with plenty of conversation going. Early starts are great for the open roads and low traffic, but can be bothersome if your bowels don’t come online that soon, but will later. Best not to rush.
Wear the right gear
For us backup drivers, shorts and tees were the order of the day, but the motorcyclists didn’t have that luxury. Always wear proper protective gear, especially when out in unfamiliar territory. We conducted this tour in April, which is just about getting into the hottest season around Maharashtra, so everyone wore a ventilated jacket. The more mesh, the better. Leave the leathers at home, we say. Two of our crew wore the Rynox Stealth Evo pants, which conveniently convert into ghagras for when you need to take a break from the heat. They’re plenty-well vented too, and you can’t miss the radioactive-orange patches of colour. For the drivers, the Marazzo proved to be eminently practical and comfortable. Our packing strategy was essentially “throw it in the back”, but this MPV has space to spare. We were impressed by the air conditioning as well, which kept things relatively cool even on the days when we didn’t have the icebox stocked. Extra points for the cooled glovebox that provided chilled Red Bull!
Goa is currently a nightmare
With the amount of vast public works being undertaken in Goa to widen roads and build bridges, traffic is unprecedented. As lovely and attractive a destination as it used to be, Goa is — currently — absolutely awful to traverse. Here, it’s probably wise to do alternate routes despite what Google Maps tells you. The winding lanes of Goa are always fun on a motorcycle, and the extra travel time (if any!) seems irrelevant. The further south you head, the better it gets, as we found out on our delightful afternoon ride to Gokarna.
Gokarna is incredible
Despite road works and innumerable diversions, the ride to Gokarna is pleasant, and the location, incredible. I don’t really want to publish exactly where we stayed, but the photos should say more than I’ll be able to in this paragraph. This is my second road trip to Gokarna, and both were very different experiences. It’s popular with expat crowds, so you get your usual touristy pandering in terms of food and stay. But if you do a bit of research and find a place that isn’t a hot topic for tourists, well, you get these views, great food and an incredible place to just relax. Quick tip: Amrut Restaurant in Karwar for lunch. You can UPI me later.
Take the winding way back
For the final leg of our trip, we chose to take the quick way back, connecting to the NH4 — a flat-out highway blast. Getting there, however, was the best part. The fast route is the winding route! If you tell Google Maps to take you to Belgaum from Gokarna, you go through some spectacular forest roads around Anshi National Park, South of Dandeli. Really, the best tarmac we’ve seen on this entire trip, and almost entirely in thick forest vegetation. Remember the tip about offline maps? Here’s where it’ll help, because no matter your mobile network, it doesn’t work on much of this route.
Bonus tip: Don’t talk politics
A quick scroll of Twitter will tell you just how polarised, divided and wilfully fucking stupid we’ve become as an electorate. It helps if you’re all riding together as a smarmy, jaded bunch of either persuasion (apparently, there are only two left) but it’s best to avoid the prickly topics, especially if you’re twin-sharing rooms later.
Bonus tip: Check your tyre pressure
Here’s a fun fact: Not a single dealership or workshop will ever check your tyre pressure before handing the vehicle back to you. It doesn’t matter what your vehicle costs or how exclusive it is. It’s a confounding disease, and strongly impacts how you feel in your chosen automobile. Our Marazzo came stuffed with 52psi(!) in the tyres, which made it feel like a skateboard, while the Enfield was down to 20psi when we checked, making it sluggish to steer and generally lacklustre. Check tyre pressure at the earliest opportunity and fill up to the recommended number (or your comfort level, if you’re experienced) and you’ll have a much better trip.
