Any updates ??

Cheers
Biru

Kavadia saab!! Bring on the log for Day 3! Day 3! Day 3!

Kapoor sahab doesnt have access to internet..so till then i will proceed with the trip log...

So after reparing my puncture too we headed towards Little Rann of Kutch..


Along the highway..












pan Vilas pan vilas pan vilas

Nice captures Nunnu.Keep'em coming.

Cheers
Biru

Thank you bhaiya....waiting for Kapoor sahab to narrate the story before we enter the Little Rann of Kutch from that village..what was its name ? Hooda? i forgot !

The name of the village was Kuda.

Cheers
Biru

Thanks...i was confused with Hooda and Kooda..

@Nin - i think kapoor sahab is bored or very busy...... i mean really

can you please update 3rd day log. its been a while now. and actually 3rd day was the best one. please go ahead.

okay guys..as soon as possible..

The railway crossing just before Kooda village..











Entering Kooda Village..



















































More pics soon..

@nin, What is the fun on riding on those cracked grounds? Won't it be terribly uncomfortable. Just querrying.

WHO IS WRITING DAY 3 AND 4?

I have a steady internet connection again so day 3 and 4 shall come soon enough i guess..

it was awesome fun just awesome

and actually comfort in riding takes second place when you get to see the view everywhere. obviously you dont get to see such amazing places everyday. absolute beauty of our mother nature. and the mirage......... well had only heard of it but got to experience it here only

and now speaking of riding comfort, one of our fellow riders touched 107 kmph and me did 97 kmph...... dont know about others but everyone was doing around 100 kmph....... beat that

good that is good....

Day 3

Apologies for the delays (almost 3 months ). I didn't have a steady internet connection this whole time and it just doesn't feel the same typing out a log at a friend's place or an internet cafe...

No more delays...

So here's what we did on day 3. Add to that a detour to a place which looked like this and you have your expectations set for the day:





The start of the day was quiet eventful with one and a half punctures... One on Ninad's 135 and half on mine:



The nail hadn't pierced the inside wall of the tire and I was able to ride out the remainder of the ride with the nail stuck right there. I realize now that it was rather dangerous...





After another session of gyaan baato we fueled up and hit the highway. There were windmills on all sides after a while so we must have been in the middle of a pretty big wind farm with pretty big wind mills... The sound of the blades cutting through the wind would make any attempts to sleep under a windmill seem pointless.




The shrubs on the ground were almost twice the height of a man so that should give you and idea about how tall these things were


Yes that's salt!



We went off the highway around Halvad and came to a village called Kuda. This is where the fun began .

What started with this:



Eventually became this:



Only to lead to this:



Which abruptly led to this:



Where we were riding on this:



The change in the riding condition was really quick. One moment we were on paved roads. 5 minutes in we were struggling to get through sand pits and a line of shrubs later there were flat plains till as far as the eye could see with nothing but dry, parched, baked, hard soil. The trails might look fragile but if we stuck to the lines, doing 100 hundred wasn't a problem at all... The lack of obstacles was relieving add to that the confidence you get when you know there aren't any blind corners with cows for road blocks - and you get FREEDOM!!!




This one should give you a measure of the heat and distances on the plain...


Yes it was disorientating. Thankfully, we had these guys to help us:


They helped us with the directions, some water and a few other tit bits



What better way to define freedom than with photos like these:











The entire group:




All those photos sure refreshed memories that'll surely last a lifetime! I'm sure many here will agree:

The ride is the destination. - Anonymous

Considering the glorious photos that have just been put up the events following them were hilarious.

From the photos it is easy enough to understand the trouble in navigating through this mini desert. We had a destination in mind and were supposed to head towards Viramgam. There were a few junctions on the plains and we'd asked the locals about the route in question. Even so, we ended up taking a wrong turn and about 20kms later we realized that we were right back where we started . We'd just ended up drawing a big 40km long circle on the map and had gotten back to where we'd started instead of getting lost (which by all probability seemed to be what would happen).

As it was, we decided to carry on with the plan and headed towards SH136 which led to Nal Sarovar, another picturesque destination.

While on the way there, we had to stop at a manned railway crossing. When even after ten minutes there was no sign of any incoming train, I decided to take a side road just for kicks. It was built right next to a canal so I had a metre of road (which consisted of bumps and rocks mostly) to ride on and 10 foot drop into a canal on my right. I went some distance until I heard a train honk in the distance. A quick pic and I was on my way back.


The trail got worse further ahead...

I rejoined the others in the wait for the train which now seemed to have stopped at some 500 feet from the crossing. We waited another ten minutes for it to move before Ninad and I went for another run on the canal road. This time we rode quite some distance before turning back. We took another ten minutes to get back to the road and just as we reached the road, the gates were opened. The train which had still not moved had made us wait 40 minutes. Not that I was complaining .

And so we carried on despite the weird looks from the locals and car passengers alike.

The quality of roads was never questionable. Even while riding through what seemed to be remote villages we always had good, pothole free roads which were well banked and had signboards where needed. We reached Nalsarovar and hour and a half from sunset. Private vehicles are no longer allowed into the sanctuary so we had a ten seater rickshaw take us till the bank of the lake where we had to bargain a bit with the boatment before we got a tour of the area.

Nalsarovar is a 100km square plus bird sanctuary and is home to many migratory which fly here in the summer to avoid the winter in the northern reaches of Asia. Needless to say, there are many colors to be seen and sounds to be heard. All new and wonderous. The proximity to nature will truly set you at peace. A must-go place for overworked people.


The ride.


The entrance to the sanctuary







And the bird formations:











The perch:





That was the end of the day and the end of the photographs for the day. The sensible photographs anyway...

It had become quite cold by the time we got back to our bikes. I was wearing a collared T-shirt, the collars protected the neck from the wind. A thermal lining and my riding jacket. The cold still managed to seep in at speeds of just 80kmph! If memory serves, it was almost 8 by the time we started our engines. We now had to decide where to stop for the night. Tarapur was the closest place where we'd got decent lodging for the night but one of the riders, Shashvat, had a cousin staying in Baroda. So we decided to ride till Tarapur and decide.

For the first time on the ride we encountered roads with a significant number of potholes and after all the luck we'd had on the ride, we encountered this patch in the night on a road with no divider and lots of high beamed traffic. Even with my projectors I could dodge only so many potholes before I realized that we had to slow down. So the people in front of me (4-5 of them) followed Biru who was leading and I formed a subgroup for the people behind me. I kept checking behind me periodically to ensure that all the guys were there, specially after overtakes.

But as it happened, Siddharth on his ZMR went through a fairly large pothole causing a rim bend which led to his tire going flat in no time. Unfortunately he was tailing so only Saurabh, who was riding in front of him, realized what had happened. He sped up to tell the group to stop and eventually Siddharth caught up. The front rim had a fist sized bend in it and the tire was completely flat. Mind you, this is the same ZMR which lost its chain cover. But as luck would have it, we had stopped in a town so a puncture repair guy was just around the corner. The rim was straightened using a hammer (there wasn't any alternative) and the puncture was repaired and the tire over inflated so that the bike would get through the night without any more problems. All this took little over an hour.

It was still early in the night so we decided to stop at Shashvat's cousin's place in Vadodara. NH8 was a refreshing change with its well lit roads and disciplined traffic. It took us no time to cover the remaining 50 or so kms and soon enough we found ourselves squeezing 10 bikes into a parking space meant for one car .

It was a great end to a marvellous day of superb riding. We had witnessed dry parched lands and a green as can be bird sanctuary in the span of one day. Such diversity! A bath and maggie later we were ready to hit the bunk. But not before there was some pointless bakar which, on this ride, seems to have been steadier than a ZX-10R doing 250kmph!

Day 4 coming soon! Masala chicken and VAT69 on the beaches of Daman!