Chasing the monsoon through the Ghats
720 km of wet tarmac, waterfalls that weren't on any map, and the smell of the first rain hitting hot road. The Ghats in July are a different country.
- Distance
- 720km
- Duration
- 4days
- Region
- Western Ghats, Maharashtra
- Terrain
- Mixed
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Max altitude
- 1,438m
Everyone tells you not to ride the Ghats in the monsoon. The roads flood, the leeches find you at every viewpoint, and the fog can drop visibility to nothing in the time it takes to downshift. All of that is true. It is also the only time of year the place looks the way it does in your head.
The first rain
I left Pune under a flat grey sky and hit the first real rain on the Tamhini ghat — that specific smell of water on hot tar that I would ride four days for on its own. Frankie's old touring seat soaked through in about ninety seconds and I stopped caring almost as fast.
Waterfalls off the map
Half the waterfalls in the Ghats in July don't have names because they don't exist in April. You round a bend and there's a hundred feet of white water crossing the road where last week there was nothing. I lost an afternoon to one of them near Bhandardara, sitting on a rock, thoroughly soaked, entirely happy.
The fog
Coming down from Malshej the fog closed in so completely that I rode the last 20 km at walking pace, following the white line and the tail lights of a truck I never actually caught. Frankie's engine guard took a kerb I never saw. Cheap insurance, paid out in full.