Tweet
A Refreshing summer ride to the hills (Surat >> Gandevi >> Vansda >> Saputara)
Hello xbhp.
This is my first post here and my first ever log I wrote about my bike ride.
This trip took place last Sunday ie 29th April 2012, with my friend Tipu (on a Pulsar 200), After many days of planning and many people were interested in this trip, a day before some of the backed out, some of them had their share of excuses, but me and Tipu had it sure that even if all of them cancel, we would make a trip alone (infact my last trip here was Solo, which i will be posting soon)
Destination: Saputara Hill Station via Gandevi & Vansda National Park
Distance travelled: 342kms both ways
Pictures were clicked using Canon 500D and Sigma 10-20mm EX.
We met some xbhpians at the destination, more about it later in the log.
we started the trip at 6:30, Tipu for the first time in his life was well ahead of schedule :O :P (jk), and reached the spot at 6am, I reached the meeting point at 6:15am, filled the petrol, reset the Trip meter and started the trip at 6:30am as planned.
This first picture was clicked at 7:52am, well after we entered the State Highway, although the trip started from Surat at 6:30am, we were too lost in riding through the morning cool breeze and mist on the sides of the road that we forgot to click any pictures here, NH8 through out Gujarat as a part of Golden Quadrilateral is a bliss to ride on, with 6 lane roads butter smooth tarmac and bridge at every major intersaction, our average speed was mainted well around 100 to 120kmph for most of the time (Top speeds Tipu = 132kmph, me = 138kmph). For the next 7 hrs we will be breezing through the beautiful roads and villages.
8:41am and we reached the entrance of one of the richest rain forests of India "Dang", although the beauty may not be that pleasant during summers, Its heaven in Monsoon and Winters, cant wait for the rain. All this time we maintained a fixed distance between the two bikes, and the one in front would stop if the biker behind him would go out of sight in the rear view mirror. We both would ride in a single straight line, and gave out warnings for upcoming risky turns and speed limits
This was a short right of the main road, where we took a short break for a photosession. as you can see this bridge was destroyed years before and thought this would be a nice place for some refreshments and photography before going forward, since no traffic on this road
, I almost everytime stop at this place, the river underneath us was almost dried out fully, the water was surprisingly crystal clear. This same river would be voilent and full of water during the monsoons, a great sight to see.
once the camera is out, photoshoot is a must :P
was thinking of ways to pose, but failed
:P
Had to take a break here to attend nature's call. 9:03am, and we were already past Geera falls (we decided to not stop there for rest, since we previously planned to reach Surat back by 3pm). Geera falls is a minature version of Niagra falls, a great sight once again in monsoon, but its dry this time of the year, but it gives a nice resting place, since tourists arent here this time of the year and there are huts and shades made with no one using them.
The above picture is from my Solo trip 2 months before, clicked at Geera falls (the dry falls in the background), it is to show the landscape of the place.
This is my favorite milestone (for no possible reason), I have clicked pictures 3 time at this placed while passed through it on my previous trips. Gives a great view of the landscape and road besides it, and shows the important places ahead of us. Sigma 10-20 helped here.
While we took another break at 9:33am, Tipu checked his diskbrakes which was giving some issues, nothing too serious and the trip continues
While the problem was checked, a photoshoot was mandatory This was one of the numerous sharp turns and hair pins on the way, we only stopped for one, cause we wanted to enjoy rest of them (Last time i was clicking a lot of pictures at sharp curves, and so missing the fun for enjoying them). Both our bikes performed well beyond expectations, Tipu on the start of the trip said he doesnt trust his bike's cornering skills, I told him to trust his bike and have more confidence on turns, at the end of the trip he was cornering as hard as me (before he used to be left behind every 4 - 5 turns, since I would slice through curves in ease, while he would slow down a lot.). At the end of the trip he told me he has now more confidence on his bike then ever before.
10.06am, we reached our destination, and the first stop we did was head to the table top point, the final climb had some construction going on, and it was quite a adventurous ride to go to the top since the road was dug at certain places and gravel and big stones lying around, unfortunately no pics of the road being constructed going up cause stopping mid way would mean something going wrong, so none of us had the courage to stop for a photoshoot and to freeze the off roading we were undergoing.
Some more pictures before we both would go into the shade and remove our gears and relax for the next 30mins. Had some refreshments, good thing was that the road was in such a great condition we didnt feel fatigued, no back pain, no wrist pain at all also the temps on the top were around 30 to 32C and quite pleasant
One more from the Table top point, almost everything is dried now, with only a few patches of green. Thus nothing to shoot here, also less time wasted in photography. Although this place is heaven and overflowing with green during monsoons. Mist is quite thick, with visibility as low as 10 feet.
This is a picture from my archieves, clicked at the same place during the Monsoons. As you can see its amazing
Now lets get back to Summers :-(
Outside one of the tourist spots of saputara, the lake, the temps were around 32C wasnt a problem, but the Sun was, we had to drink water every 1hr to keep us hydrated. This was the moment when we saw a biker on a Unicorn with some gears stopping in front of us. (if you look closely you can spot him on the end of the road)
Seeing the guy on the Unicorn, I told Tipu that if he takes out his camera and shoot pictures of his bike with the landscape around, he is a biker and that's what he did, after a while we saw two more bikers, one on a Pulsar 220 and one on RE Classic 500, I look at Tipu and told him, see we arent the only crazy heads making bike trips in such a hot weather, there are more like us. LOL.
You can see in this picture the three bikers in total, They were clicking pictures.
"Best Friends"
We went to talk with the guys, after a brief hellos, I asked if you guys are from xBHP, instantly the guy on the right told YES and made an "X" mark with his fingers and sounded really happy, me and Tipu got a big smile on our faces as well, wow small world LOL, or it seems xbhp is in every corner. He identified himself as "Velociraptor13" Since our helmets were on all the time we couldnt see each other, no one was ready to remove the helmet due to the Sun. They were from Mumbai and stayed in Saputara for the night, and were returning back.
They were very friendly, after sharing some talks about where we were from and where we headed, we all headed to our respective direction, we went straight ahead while they went the opposite direction towards Maharashtra. The time was 11.10am and the heat was starting to chime in, but nothing too unbearable yet.
12:18pm on the clock and one hour of riding, thus break toh banta hai.. This was the last break before the jungle ghats would end. So we searched for a huge tree for a shade where we can rest for atleast 10mins. While Tipu was on my head, telling me we will be late we will be late, jaldi karni sala :@ salo aram thi natural beauty ne enjoy pan nai karva dai. (English: hurry up man @ I said: stupid guy doesnt even let me enjoy natural beauty around me), ofcourse this was the censored talk I shared with you :P.
agar break banta hai toh photoshoot bhi hona mangta hai. Wideness of the 10-20 helps a lot.
The Ghats have ended and we are not on straight roads, we maintained a speed of 80 to 90kmph, since we were ahead of time as planned, the heat wasnt yet a problem, while it was already 1.06pm, maybe cause we were too overwhemed by the riding pleasure. Also here Tipu over estimated his bike's fuel economy, and thus wasnt pushing his bike hard like me, since his fuel guage was going quite low then expected. My bike returned a fuel economy of estimated 40 to 42 kmpl even when riding quite hard on the RPM meter (I love to revv my bike during turns and straights), while his was quite low at 30 to 32kmpl, these are estimated figures. Good thing we refueled at Saputara station, on reaching home I still had 60% of fuel left (see the last picture), while he was running in reserve. lol, we both used 700Rs on fuel that day. He cursed Yamaha that day a lot.
it was 1.23pm and we touched the NH8, as a part of Golden Quadrilateral, 6 lane roads are a bliss to ride on and 100 to 110kmph of cruising speeds could be maintained, so we decided to click a picture as soon as we get on the highway, cause after that it wont be possible to stop the needle going up. Tipu having fuel problems wasn't going above 100km/hr, while i was doing 120+, after making a couple of stops to wait for him, i decided to drive along him for the rest of the road.
2.25pm, touch down at home, previously thought to return at 4pm, we set out a target of 3pm, but reached way before time, and this was after so many stops and responsible riding.
Sunday = well spent.. it was time to meet my friend, share about our trip and make them jealous
Hope i didnt take much time, and I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. If you have any questions and suggestions to share with me, let me know.
Regards
ANP.
This is my first post here and my first ever log I wrote about my bike ride.
This trip took place last Sunday ie 29th April 2012, with my friend Tipu (on a Pulsar 200), After many days of planning and many people were interested in this trip, a day before some of the backed out, some of them had their share of excuses, but me and Tipu had it sure that even if all of them cancel, we would make a trip alone (infact my last trip here was Solo, which i will be posting soon)
Destination: Saputara Hill Station via Gandevi & Vansda National Park
Distance travelled: 342kms both ways
Pictures were clicked using Canon 500D and Sigma 10-20mm EX.
We met some xbhpians at the destination, more about it later in the log.
we started the trip at 6:30, Tipu for the first time in his life was well ahead of schedule :O :P (jk), and reached the spot at 6am, I reached the meeting point at 6:15am, filled the petrol, reset the Trip meter and started the trip at 6:30am as planned.
This first picture was clicked at 7:52am, well after we entered the State Highway, although the trip started from Surat at 6:30am, we were too lost in riding through the morning cool breeze and mist on the sides of the road that we forgot to click any pictures here, NH8 through out Gujarat as a part of Golden Quadrilateral is a bliss to ride on, with 6 lane roads butter smooth tarmac and bridge at every major intersaction, our average speed was mainted well around 100 to 120kmph for most of the time (Top speeds Tipu = 132kmph, me = 138kmph). For the next 7 hrs we will be breezing through the beautiful roads and villages.
8:41am and we reached the entrance of one of the richest rain forests of India "Dang", although the beauty may not be that pleasant during summers, Its heaven in Monsoon and Winters, cant wait for the rain. All this time we maintained a fixed distance between the two bikes, and the one in front would stop if the biker behind him would go out of sight in the rear view mirror. We both would ride in a single straight line, and gave out warnings for upcoming risky turns and speed limits
This was a short right of the main road, where we took a short break for a photosession. as you can see this bridge was destroyed years before and thought this would be a nice place for some refreshments and photography before going forward, since no traffic on this road
, I almost everytime stop at this place, the river underneath us was almost dried out fully, the water was surprisingly crystal clear. This same river would be voilent and full of water during the monsoons, a great sight to see.once the camera is out, photoshoot is a must :P
was thinking of ways to pose, but failed
:PHad to take a break here to attend nature's call. 9:03am, and we were already past Geera falls (we decided to not stop there for rest, since we previously planned to reach Surat back by 3pm). Geera falls is a minature version of Niagra falls, a great sight once again in monsoon, but its dry this time of the year, but it gives a nice resting place, since tourists arent here this time of the year and there are huts and shades made with no one using them.
The above picture is from my Solo trip 2 months before, clicked at Geera falls (the dry falls in the background), it is to show the landscape of the place.
This is my favorite milestone (for no possible reason), I have clicked pictures 3 time at this placed while passed through it on my previous trips. Gives a great view of the landscape and road besides it, and shows the important places ahead of us. Sigma 10-20 helped here.
While we took another break at 9:33am, Tipu checked his diskbrakes which was giving some issues, nothing too serious and the trip continues
While the problem was checked, a photoshoot was mandatory
This was one of the numerous sharp turns and hair pins on the way, we only stopped for one, cause we wanted to enjoy rest of them (Last time i was clicking a lot of pictures at sharp curves, and so missing the fun for enjoying them). Both our bikes performed well beyond expectations, Tipu on the start of the trip said he doesnt trust his bike's cornering skills, I told him to trust his bike and have more confidence on turns, at the end of the trip he was cornering as hard as me (before he used to be left behind every 4 - 5 turns, since I would slice through curves in ease, while he would slow down a lot.). At the end of the trip he told me he has now more confidence on his bike then ever before.10.06am, we reached our destination, and the first stop we did was head to the table top point, the final climb had some construction going on, and it was quite a adventurous ride to go to the top since the road was dug at certain places and gravel and big stones lying around, unfortunately no pics of the road being constructed going up cause stopping mid way would mean something going wrong, so none of us had the courage to stop for a photoshoot and to freeze the off roading we were undergoing.
Some more pictures before we both would go into the shade and remove our gears and relax for the next 30mins. Had some refreshments, good thing was that the road was in such a great condition we didnt feel fatigued, no back pain, no wrist pain at all also the temps on the top were around 30 to 32C and quite pleasant
One more from the Table top point, almost everything is dried now, with only a few patches of green. Thus nothing to shoot here, also less time wasted in photography. Although this place is heaven and overflowing with green during monsoons. Mist is quite thick, with visibility as low as 10 feet.
This is a picture from my archieves, clicked at the same place during the Monsoons. As you can see its amazing
Now lets get back to Summers :-(
Outside one of the tourist spots of saputara, the lake, the temps were around 32C wasnt a problem, but the Sun was, we had to drink water every 1hr to keep us hydrated. This was the moment when we saw a biker on a Unicorn with some gears stopping in front of us. (if you look closely you can spot him on the end of the road)
Seeing the guy on the Unicorn, I told Tipu that if he takes out his camera and shoot pictures of his bike with the landscape around, he is a biker and that's what he did, after a while we saw two more bikers, one on a Pulsar 220 and one on RE Classic 500, I look at Tipu and told him, see we arent the only crazy heads making bike trips in such a hot weather, there are more like us. LOL.
You can see in this picture the three bikers in total, They were clicking pictures.
"Best Friends"
We went to talk with the guys, after a brief hellos, I asked if you guys are from xBHP, instantly the guy on the right told YES and made an "X" mark with his fingers and sounded really happy, me and Tipu got a big smile on our faces as well, wow small world LOL, or it seems xbhp is in every corner. He identified himself as "Velociraptor13" Since our helmets were on all the time we couldnt see each other, no one was ready to remove the helmet due to the Sun
. They were from Mumbai and stayed in Saputara for the night, and were returning back.They were very friendly, after sharing some talks about where we were from and where we headed, we all headed to our respective direction, we went straight ahead while they went the opposite direction towards Maharashtra. The time was 11.10am and the heat was starting to chime in, but nothing too unbearable yet.
12:18pm on the clock and one hour of riding, thus break toh banta hai.. This was the last break before the jungle ghats would end. So we searched for a huge tree for a shade where we can rest for atleast 10mins. While Tipu was on my head, telling me we will be late we will be late, jaldi karni sala :@ salo aram thi natural beauty ne enjoy pan nai karva dai. (English: hurry up man @ I said: stupid guy doesnt even let me enjoy natural beauty around me), ofcourse this was the censored talk I shared with you :P.
agar break banta hai toh photoshoot bhi hona mangta hai. Wideness of the 10-20 helps a lot.
The Ghats have ended and we are not on straight roads, we maintained a speed of 80 to 90kmph, since we were ahead of time as planned, the heat wasnt yet a problem, while it was already 1.06pm, maybe cause we were too overwhemed by the riding pleasure. Also here Tipu over estimated his bike's fuel economy, and thus wasnt pushing his bike hard like me, since his fuel guage was going quite low then expected. My bike returned a fuel economy of estimated 40 to 42 kmpl even when riding quite hard on the RPM meter (I love to revv my bike during turns and straights), while his was quite low at 30 to 32kmpl, these are estimated figures. Good thing we refueled at Saputara station, on reaching home I still had 60% of fuel left (see the last picture), while he was running in reserve. lol, we both used 700Rs on fuel that day. He cursed Yamaha that day a lot.
it was 1.23pm and we touched the NH8, as a part of Golden Quadrilateral, 6 lane roads are a bliss to ride on and 100 to 110kmph of cruising speeds could be maintained, so we decided to click a picture as soon as we get on the highway, cause after that it wont be possible to stop the needle going up. Tipu having fuel problems wasn't going above 100km/hr, while i was doing 120+, after making a couple of stops to wait for him, i decided to drive along him for the rest of the road.
2.25pm, touch down at home, previously thought to return at 4pm, we set out a target of 3pm, but reached way before time, and this was after so many stops and responsible riding.
Sunday = well spent.
. it was time to meet my friend, share about our trip and make them jealousHope i didnt take much time, and I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. If you have any questions and suggestions to share with me, let me know.
Regards
ANP.
Comment