Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Even better - marry the right woman and you can have the best of both worlds!

Great travelogue BTW. It seems I have a lot of catching up to do with so many wonderful threads to go through, one by one.

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

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)

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Amazing narration Suvra da!

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Wow! Great narration & pics boss.

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

thank you once again bhai log!

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Nice one Suvra bhai.

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

As Discussed,

I hate you all..

Yours truly
A jealous guy

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

this is just the beginning or to be precise, just the third day, the main trip is yet to happen from now on..so..be prepared to hang yourself!

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Not sure about hanging myself.. But definitely I will hang you if you continue posting like this..

Cheers
G1

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Great going man.. Keep it coming!!

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

thanks for the kind words..more to follow soon

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

One really great Travelog there. Khub bhaalo dada ... I am glued

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

ha ha..thank you thank you

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Day 4 (3rd February): Santalpur - Little Rann of Kutch - Dholavira - Samkhiyali

The day started off with a good note, when I woke up in the morning and looked out on the window, I saw a barren desert around the guest house, lighting up my eyes. I called Ashish and Tapa immediately who were still in bed and asked them to have a look outside the window. I went out and saw Eshwari already roaming around, taking pictures of the surroundings, an early riser I must say and the best thing was to see the grin on her face and her running around to take pics. I guess when you are out on a trip, you need to be one and here are some of the shots which she got in the morning.





We went down to the restaurant and ordered breakfast, coffee and puri. And in few minutes time, Sunil arrived at the guest house. We had already sent the location of the guest house earlier in the morning so that it is easier for us to locate him. I was relieved with this fact that finally the group was together from the day the kutch trip started. Anyways, we finished off our breakfast and I utilized this time inquiring about the exact place to enter the little rann of kutch and negotiating with the guest house owner to keep our luggage in our rooms until we are back by noon. So, in few moments, we started off on the highway, towards the little rann. We had to take a left from the highway at about 5 kms from the guest house and head towards a small village, the little rann being behind the village. However, even before we could approach the rann, we ended up in another barren stretch of land where we pulled over. And it goes without saying that people started pulling out the cameras out here. The pictures below are a mix from everyone's camera.























Moving on from the location after some picture shooting, we finally reached the village. The moment we entered the village, there was chaos and obvious interest about us, where we coming from and all those stuff. It was like the entire village has come to greet us. Some older folks asked us where do we intend to go to which I asked about the little rann. One person pointed me to the way to the rann. In the middle of this conversation, Tapabrata clicked a few pictures though.









After answering all their questions, we headed towards the rann. We were already off the tarmac and the path was full with sand and we slowly made our way to the rann. And within few metres, we entered the little rann of kutch. A vast, barren land, with no trees, no water, hot and you could see the horizon all around you. It was an amazing feeling the moment I stepped into the rann. People started parking the bikes and start photoshoot, while I took some time to let the feeling settle down and finally pulled out my camera.




























Spending a good 1 hour at the little rann of kutch, we headed our way back to the guest house. We waited for everyone to regroup once we touched the highway. We sighted one local transportation system and clicked a picture of it.





By the time we reached the guest house, it was almost 12:30 pm so we ordered lunch and started packing, ready to head out towards Dholavira. We already got the taste of how hot it is going to be, so we decided not to fill up our tummies with food, and rather have something light. In an hour, we headed out on the highway, towards Chitrod. The NH 17 highway passes through the little rann of kutch as well, so I being the pillion on this day as well, got some good shots of it from the highway.





From Chitrod, we headed towards Rapar. It was now SH 51 which was butter smooth as well, no potholes and we did not have any problems covering the distances fast.





To Be Continued..

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Day 4 Continues..

As we crossed Rapar and Desalpar, we encountered deserted lands on both sides of the road. There was already lot of wind blast around this place so a short stop was something everyone needed. And, I utilized this time for clicking some pictures.













Few minutes of stop and we resumed our riding. The wind blasts resumed for quite a few kms and it was getting difficult to keep a good pace now. I wanted some shots of the group so I utilized this opportunity as a pillion.









When we crossed the village of Lodrani, the Sun was getting ready to start its plunge towards the horizon and I started doubting whether we would be able to make it to Dholavira on time. Less I knew that I would encounter something magical on the way to Dholavira that would make us drop the plan of going to Dholavira and would make our day special. We got the first view of white rann few kms after we crossed Lodrani. So beautiful, magical feeling it was with cold rays from Sun over the horizon that we were spellbound with it and ended up stopping. No words can express that feeling and I was already having goosebumps seeing the beauty of nature. It took me quite some time to settle down, and believe that I am here, finally. I would not waste any more words here because as I mentioned before, no words can express the feeling I had at that point of time. I would rather share the pictures we took at this place. We were so "awwed" by this place that we decided to stay there till the sun set.

































Mesmerized by the beauty of nature, we slowly started off from the place. We decided to drop the plan of visiting Dholavira because it was already dark and instead we headed towards Samkhiyali. It was pitch dark in the night and all of us rode together, so that no one gets left behind. By the time we reached Samkhiyali, it was 9 pm already and we started hunting for a guest house to bunk for the night. However, it did not take much time for us to look for a guest house and just on the highway, to our left we found one. We checked out the rooms and although they were not in great shape, but still it was bunkable for us, because the target was to leave as early as possible the next day. The rooms were of 400/- and we had good and safe parking space for our bikes which seemed fine for us.

Putting in our luggage in the rooms, we headed out for dinner. We located one big hotel just on the opposite side of the highway where we ended up having some delicious unlimited gujarati thali. By the time we crashed on our beds, it was already 10:30 pm. I was going through all the pictures clicked at White and the Little Rann and recollecting how good the day was. I do not remember when I fell asleep looking at them though.

Accommodation for the day:

Hotel Name: Not worth mentioning.
Location: Samkhiyali, on NH15, towards Bhuj.
Tariff: 400/- double bed.

Re: Gujarat Extravaganza

Once again, nice clicks dada!

Sent from my Xperia L.