Day 3 (2nd February): Gandhinagar - Santalpur
We woke up by 7am in the morning, and the first thing on my head was to go talk to the mechanic about how fast can he fix the bikes. Everything depended on him because the faster he works, the more we can cover in the day as per the plan. We had breakfast at the guest house and started getting ready. By 9 am I and Ashish were out with our bikes to the garage which was directed by the locals the previous night. The mechanic (Mr. Rathod, Contact Number : +917383955276) listened to the problems and promised to deliver the bikes in 3 hours of time. Although, as per our initial plan, we were to go to Patan from Gandhinagar and then ultimately bunk at Zainabad, but with this delay, that did not seem doable and instead we sat and chalked out a new plan.
We had 3 hours to kill and hence decided to head to the Sabarmati river front in Ahmedabad and so, without further delay 4 of us left on 2 bikes. The traffic of the city was growing now and I just realized that it is Monday morning so this was offcourse expected. One thing that every one of us noted was the cleanliness of the city, and though there were only few traffic lights working, there were no jams/roadblocks. In half an hour, we reached the Sabarmati river front and we did not see what we expected. The water was stagnant and it lacked maintenance, however, the setup and the decorations made to the riverfront was nice and well maintained.
It was already around around the river front and spending few moments around, we decided to have an early lunch as we had some more time to kill. It was always behind my mind about the lost destination of Patan but looking at current events, Patan was best to be dropped from the plan because our main destination in Gujarat was the Rann of Kutch, both Little and the Greater one. We sited one McDonald's on our way and pulled over to have some food. I ran the day's plan through everybody to see if anyone had any other options in the meantime but everyone sounded fine. I called up Sunil to check his status of the bike and him and came to know that a local mechanic has done a temporary patch and he has started towards Ahmedabad already. We let him know our change of plan and asked him to skip Ahmedabad and head towards Palasava from Vadodara.
In an hour, we were out from lunch and headed straight to the mechanic, finding our steeds ready. We paid him and left towards the guest house to check out finally. Our luggage was already taken out of our room by us and the formalities were completed before leaving since the check out time was around 10 am in the morning. So, we did not have to do any further formalities and we started arranging the luggage on our steeds. Eshwari in the meantime took some pictures of the guest house we stayed at.
I handed over the thunderbird to Eshwari and I was the pillion from here on, main intention was to get some good pics of the road and our guys. Starting from the guest house, i turned on the GPS to set the destination to Radhanpur, where we would join the NH 15, 158 kms from Gandhinagar. On our way, Tapabrata checked his tyre pressure and once satisfied, we continued our ride through the good, well tarmaced state highway.
I started enjoying the ride now, being on the pillion seat was something different for me after long time, and to be honest, it felt good. Suddenly Eshwari pulled over and asked me: "Did you see that?" Me: "What?" Esh: "Dude there was a signboard saying Tropic of Cancer is passing from here..lets go!" Me: "Sure! Lets go!" And i murmured in my mind that I was so busy in enjoying the pillion experience that I completely ignored the signboard. Anyways, when we made our way back to that spot, we already saw Ashish take some pictures and some selfies, and we were there, interrupting his selfie. I pulled out my camera here.
And one from Eshwari's camera:
Moving on from there, Tapabrata was no where to be seen, so for sure he has ignored the sign board as well. We continued on our way towards Radhanpur, and my feel good experience resumes. Some pictures taken along the way are as follows.
We crossed Mehsana and got a call from Tapabrata and he told me the location he has pulled over for tea and snacks. I passed on the message to Eshwari and Ashish and within few moments we arrived at that place. Sun was lingering around the horizon and 1 hour or so he will vanish for sure, drowning us into darkness. Anyways, so we took this time to give our bikes and butts some rest and ordered tea, snacks for all of us. Pictures here are from mine and Eshwari's camera.
And in few moments of time, refreshed, we continued our leg towards Radhanpur. As we approached Radhanpur, we saw the Sun setting and as usual, we pulled over for taking pictures. Pictures shared are from my and Tapabrata's cameras.
Spending some good half an hour at this place, enjoying the views and the sunset, we reached Radhanpur around 6:45 pm in the evening. We took a left to the National Highway and continued towards Palasava. This was the original destination we had planned for, initially as the entry to the Little Rann of Kutch and hence our plan was to head towards there, and if we can stay somewhere nearer to this place, it would be easier for us to head to the LRK tomorrow morning. So, that is what we did headed towards Palasava. On the National Highway, you need to cross two forest check posts and with the highway already dotted with lots of trucks, the checkposts did take some time for us to cross and by the time we reached Palasava junction (95 kms from Radhanpur), it was almost 9 pm. Palasava junction was pitch dark, with not a soul around, but us. We realized immediately that the decision was wrong to head towards Palasava. On the opposite side of the highway, we spotted a small dhaba and I went ahead and inquired about any place to bunk for the night. Two locals told me that you guys can go ahead by 20 kms and you would find a nice lodge where they can arrange roof top charpais and you can bunk there. I was immediately excited and we headed towards the lodge, taking the exact location from the locals. However, when we approached the lodge and inquired about the stay, we found out that they have stopped giving away room and it is now only a highway hotel to have food. Further inquiry about stay and we came to know that we either have to go ahead by 50 kms to Samkhiyali or need to go back 50 kms to get a hotel-cum-guest house named Hotel Vrundavan. Since both were equidistant and our plan was to visit the LRK the next day, the unanimous decision was to go back. In the meantime, received a call from Sunil who had already made up his lost ground and was near Radhanpur. I explained him about the current situation and told him to bunk at Radhanpur because we were still looking for places to stay over the night.
After having dinner at the hotel, we headed back 50 kms, towards a place called Santalpur. We had to cross the checkposts again, this time which was full with heavier traffic and by the time we reached Santalpur, it was well past 11 pm. It was not difficult for us to locate Hotel Vrundavan and we heaved a sigh of relief when came to know that there were rooms available. We parked our bikes without delay and occupied the rooms and it goes without saying that the moment we hit the bed, all of us went into deep sleep.
Accomodation For the Day:
Hotel Name: Hotel Vrundavan and Guest House
Hotel Location: Santalpur (on the NH 15, towards Palasava)
good to see more words than pics. Unlike pictures, stories like these are unique to every ride and make for some enjoyable and interesting reading.
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