Wheeling Charms: A Cycling Travelogue

Cycling along Madh Island-Manori-Gorai-Uttan

This Sunday I had an awesome time cycling along Northern Mumbai coast line Madh-Manori-Gorai-Uttan. I can still re-live the thrill, excitement and the exhaustion of the trip.
Cycling is a blissful activity. I recently read in some newspaper that cycling should become mandatory and people should use more of cycles thereby help keep the environment and the traffic congestion at bay. I completely endorse this view. I wish all of us could use cycles for short distance rather than just hop into our cars and drive down to the market which is just ten minutes away from home.
The cycling trip last Sunday was organized by Odati Adventures. This was the first of the cycling trip that Odati organized in the beginning of this monsoon. Odati is known for its Mumbai Heritage Cycle rides for local history buffs on weekends. Here’s where the story of the city’s evolution unravels though it’s buildings. The ride starts at Eros Cinema, around Oval Maidan, Kala Ghoda, Ballard Estate, CST, Marine Drive and Colaba. These rides are organized in Winter and Summers only.
On this latest cycling trip to Madh Island-Manori-Uttan we were a bunch of 12 enthusiastic men and women. It was a mixed group comprising pf people from all walks of life. There were social activists, bankers, stock market specialist, tech geek etc.
Our first meeting point was Andheri station at 7 am in the morning and from here we headed to Jayesh’s place at Yari Road to pick the bikes. Jayesh owns and runs Odati Adventures.
After having selected our bikes, we tried them out and got all the minor adjustments like raising the seats, lowering the seat etc etc done. We were now ready to set off on our day long cycling expedition. Expedition sounds like a very important assignment right…but it was, as most of them in the group were going to be cycling long distance after a very long time and without any regular exercises. So you can imagine the strain that most of us are going to be putting ourselves through. But luckily nobody was even thinking of things like will I be able to do it? What if I give up half way? etc. Everybody was excited and wanted to chill out and get away for a while from the daily rut.
We started at around 8 am for Versova Jetty which was 3 kms from Jayesh’s place. It was quite an amazing ride passing through the fisherman’s colony at Versova. You could smell the fresh sea breeze as you ride along. At the jetty we got our bikes on to the boat and reached Madh Island. From here we biked across all the way to Marve
By now we were all famished. Many of us had not even had a cup of tea in the morning. So we decided to halt for breakfast at a decent joint called Mantra Hotel before we reached Gorai Jetty. After searching all along the way we were lucky to find one decent joint. As we waited for our breakfast to arrive Jayesh narrated some of his amazing Himalayan trek experiences. We all got talking and were trying to get to know each other better. Finally the breakfast arrived we gorged on some Egg Bhurji, Omlettes and Vegetable Sandwiches and tea and fresh lime juice. After a nice sumptuous breakfast we headed straight to Marve-Gorai Jetty.
The dark black tar road and tall trees on both sides was welcoming. The ride was enjoyable as there wasn’t enough traffic as well. The weather was pleasant. We covered quite a distance (almost 10 kms) before we reached Marve-Gorai Jetty. People on the streets couldn’t get their eyes off us as they saw one after the other cyclists zooming past them. As we passed some fishermen’s village kids were excited to see us and were running alongside waving at us.
Once at Marve-Gorai Jetty we now had to load the bikes once again on to a boat and get to Manori. As we waited for the boat to arrive we spent time relaxing on the sand and enjoying the sea breeze. The boat arrived in about 20 minutes. Getting the cycles up the boat and getting it off was quite an experience. And mind you one had to do it on his/her own. There was no time waiting for the boat men to come and help you load the cycles on to the boat or get it off the boat as there was a huge rush of people wanting to get in and get off the boat.
It was a 10-15 minute boat ride. We alighted at Manori Jetty and decided we would ride upto Uttan Village in Thane District. The drive down the Manori-Gorai-Uttan belt is remarkable. The place was familiar as one is so used to driving down in a car during weekends here. We passed the famous ManoriBel and Dominica Resorts.
Gorai is known for its beaches and East Indian population, though in recent times the beaches have become polluted. Till the 1980s Gorai was known for its clean beaches and palm trees. Gorai has a large East Indian population. As your drive down the road towards Uttan you come across many houses. The one thing I noticed on the gates of most of these houses is ‘We Oppose SEZ’.
This serene Gorai – Uttan belt, the Mumbaikar’s ideal spot for picnics could be the next Nandigram in Maharashtra. The lush green countryside, an abode of over 1.25 lakh Catholic farmers and fishermen, is caught in the net of the SEZ Act and is in the process of being handed over by the State Government to Pan India Paryatan Limited (PIPL), the group that owns Essel World and Water Kingdom, to be developed into a Recreation and Tourism Special Economic Zone. The locals are beginning to realize the impact this development is going to have on their lives and are planning to fight tooth and nail against its implementation. The Bombay East Indian Association is spearheading the opposition to this proposed SEZ.
The weather was pleasant and it was also drizzling. While most of the ride was smooth at one spot there was quite a climb which took a toll on most of us. Nevertheless we all did it without a huff.
We rode almost 27 kms one way upto Uttan. Uttan village is a quaint place and has a lot of resemblance to Old Goa villages. Uttan situated on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea is about about 90 kms from Mumbai.
We reached Uttan at around 1.30 pm. We halted at the end of the beach for a while. As we parked ourselves on the cemented bench each one of us realised how difficult it was to sit down as our backsides were aching terribly and we yet had another 28 kms to get back to where we started from. I almost thought my butt had disowned me. The pain was unbearable as I sat down. But then it was camouflaged with our jokes and talks. After resting for about 20 minutes we decided to head back. By now we were all famished and just wanted to have some good lunch. Luckily we found a small time hotel. We immediately halted here and ordered for our lunch. After a sumptuous meal we headed straight to Manori jetty which was just 20 minutes away.
Our journey back was the same route. The only difference this time around was that we had to be extremely careful while riding as there was tremendous traffic on the road and the roads were wet as well. Nevertheless it was good and thankfully none of us had any injury or accidents. We reached Versova Jetty precisely at 6 and were at Jayesh’s place at about 6.15 pm where we had to drop our cycles and head back home to get back to work the next day….that was certainly a sad feeling. But nevertheless we were all rejuvenated thoroughly after having ridden 57 kms in one day.

Team-mates: Jayesh, Ashok, Aara, Anusha (myself), Gautam, Salil, Farheen, Shweta, Jay and Vikram, Pooja and Uday.

Pictures By Jayesh Morvankar- Odati Adventures