mansuryayas

After a lot of meticulous planning and some moral support from Dinesh bhai we decided to embark on a Journey to Gopnath, which is some 270 KM from Ahmedabad. The plan was as follows

24th Sept Leave Ahmedabad early by around 4:30 - 5:00, head to Dholka via the Bavla road. From Dholka take the pristine road going towards Vataman(pristine coz there is hardly any traffic on the road, reason for which we come to know only once we reach there.) Wait for POS (Prashant Soni) who would join us there from Ankleshwar. Ride to the Black Buck sanctuary at Velavdar then head towards Bhavnagar, Ghogha, Talaja and eventually to Gopnath.

The trip has left a lasting impression on the minds of each and every rider who joined in, so the list of riders who came along with their bikes

Ashik Khan - CBR 250
Prashant Soni - CBR 250R
Ishit Purani - Yamaha R15
Saurabh Srivastav - RE Classic 350
Dhwanil Desai - RE Classic 500
and then the plethora of P220
Sudeep (Blue), Maitrey (Black), Sunny (Black), Shailraj (Black)

The only pillion Krunal Bunty and myself on my black P220.

So 11 Bikers, 10 Bikes and a distance of about 650 KM to cover in 2 Days. The journey begins in the next Post.

Just a Teaser Photo.

Noor

Triplog approved

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mansuryayas

Thanks for the approval Noor.

sunnypanchal

woww
wt a trip !

krunal vachheta

just awesome trip.we remember it lifetime

mansuryayas

Firstly Apologies for almost forgetting this thread.

24th September Arrives, 4 Members of the scheduled trip are cancelled due to one reason or the other, I get a call early in the morning from Krunal around 3:30 AM asking me to pick him up as the biker who was to pick him up had dropped his plan of coming and he was left stranded, though he was very eager to join the touring party. I agreed to take him along and pick him up around 4:30 from his place.

I wake up have a shower get ready and hear towards Vadaj bus stop on Ashram road, this where I was to pick up Krunal, he was waiting for me, loaded his luggage and he somehow managed to squeeze himself in-between the Bikes rear, my Saddle Bag and myself, his size helping out in every way possible.

Our destination was Vastrapur Lake, though we were to leave by this time, I was not in a hurry as I had been in touch with Prashant who had just left from Ankleshwar and was to catch up with us at Vataman, almost 200 KM ride for him, for us on the other hand its just 80 KM so I was prity cool with it.

The bikes started to assemble at the lake, with some of the guys having their breakfast and tea at the lake where snacks and tea are available all night. Once the bikers assembled baring Ishit who had been late in waking up we all moved upto Mansi Cross roads, the best place to have fuel in the wee hours of the day, everyone filled up and we had our customary introductions and pre-ride pep talk and instructions.

Ishit in the mean time arrived on his sparkling red R15 (V1 obviously, there was not V-2 till that time).

At around 6:00 Am we started off from Ahmedabad enroute Dholka via Bavla, as the road is generally empty and we would not have to negotiate much traffic.

We reached Dholka around 6:45 and then headed towards Vataman where we were to wait for Prashant. I thought the 30 KM ride would a piece of cake and would not take more than 20 Minutes but as soon as we left Dholka we experienced one of the worst roads ever, there was road in-between potholes, infact the roads were so bad we all had to just concentrate on the road ahead and no one had time to look back and see where the tail was, we were some 7 KM from Vataman when Krunal signalled me to stop as he could only see 3 bikes at the back and the rest were left tooo far behind. We stopped for a loo break, re-hydrated ourselves and the cams came out, shooting what ever we could see. The wait became painstakingly long and for there was not mobile network in the area so contacting the rest was prity impossible. After some 20 minutes to our relief we saw the head lights of the trailing group, on inquiring came to know that they had been held up as one of the bikes had an issue with the Bungee cords which had cut off and had got stuck in the rear sprocket. We all re-assembled and had a small Photo session. With Vatman just 7 Km away and Prashant still over 50 KM away we headed straight for Vataman to have some breakfast and some much needed tea and refreshments, as knowing Prashant the way we do thought he would not take more than 25 minutes to get there.

Reached Vataman by around 7:40 AM way too late and that 30 KM road had taken us almost and hour. We had tea, coffee, water and some Bhujji for breakfast and waited for Prashant who too had to face similar road conditions as we had to face and took him a lot more time then we had expected and he reached Vataman only by around 8:15-8:30. He too refreshed himself and we headed towards Velavadar.


Initially I lead but as the roads smoothened out I left it to Ashik to lead, who took full toll of the Vacant smooth roads in his CBR250R. The road upto Velavadar was some 100 KM but no one had any idea what to expect of the road or the sanctuary. We reached Velavadar and lead group even padded it without even noticing it, there was hardly any signage or marking stating that there was such a big Black Buck Sanctuary in the vicinity, very disappointing actually, that's the way it is, can't help. I ripped open the throttle to catch up with the lead and ask them to stop as we had left our destination behind. The place where we stopped was really scenic and called for more photoshoots and posing opportunities, the group obliged hydrated themselves before we headed back towards the Sanctuary. It was getting prity hot and we were now left with no water what so ever but still planned to go ahead as planned.

We entered the Sanctuary limits and Bang we get to see our first Black Bucks albeit at some distance. Cameras cameout Lenses zooooming in to the max the got the best possible shot, The binocular I had carried came in handy as well. The Bucks were really very prity and we could not resist ourselves from getting closer to them but then Prashant and Ishit were not too willing as they were both running low on fuel and energy so they decided to get back to the main highway and wait for the group there while they refuel and rehydrate themselves, Shailraj also decided to follow them which left us with 7 bikes and 8 guys in pursuit of some wild wildlife shots. We went in pursuit of the bucks when we saw one of the gates approached it but it was locked, hearts sunk but then there was a small opening on the side of the gate which from which the bikes could easily get through and that is exactly what we all did, entered the sanctuary and the first thing we saw was a Black Buck jump from one side of the road to the other, right in from of our bikes. The adventure genes got activated and the hunt for more began, we reached a small water body and an observation deck right next to it. Bikes were parked and we all approached the watch tower which was some 200 mts away and covered in shoulder high grass, it was an experience going through to the tower and enjoying nature from that height. We all loved it but then slowly the shortage f water started pinching us bad, guys started to get De-hydrated and some even started to behave weird. Taking it as a sign to return back and search for water we moved on while stopping at the water hole for some photos. WE decided to go deeper into the Sanctuary in search of water and a different way out. To our surprise we found lot more Animals than we had initially thought, Dears, Blue Bulls (Neal Gais) and Black bucks were abundant, we did not know where to point our cams as everyone was shouting THERE THERE, everyone taking the best shots they could capture from their view finders and we kept moving on at last reaching a small house like structure right next to the main road leading into the Sanctuary, one bike went by the second went by and all of a sudden guys from the structure started coming out and shouting, that is when we realized that this was the office and the official entrance to the Santuary, and what the F***, the sanctuary was closed for 1 month which is customary every year. The guys at the office were furious and could not believe how we were able to get in and that too on bikes when bikes are strictly prohibited inside the Sanctuary due to the presence of carnivorous animals, carnivores yeah we did spot of a few foot prints of large cats during our loiter in the sanctuary.

The guys were equally cool as we had had our cams full of what we had come for and had finally got what we were looking for WATER, clean drinking water and it was free, everyone had share and also filled the empty bottles that we had in the meantime brokering a deal with the guards so that they would release us, the guards agreed to accept 200 and let us all go. which was a bargain for the fun that we all had.

POS

that's was a really awesome trip man, and we never forget makhan and that dhaba, just 2 kms but seems 100 but that food and the place was awesome...

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maitrey220

makkhaan.......lol
arrey how can we miss the dhaba.....

sunnypanchal

@maitray- sale idhar b makhhan yaad aa gaya
butter butter

sunnypanchal

one of the memorable Ride