Tweet
Re: A White Bullet. 2 Guys. 60 Days & 8300km in South India
Alright people, I am back to the forum. A rather eventful week has passed since my last post. This means there will less pictures and more words this time.
We stayed at a friend's place in Rajkot who along with his wife, being recently married, treated us like their Jamai babus. We slept on good mattresses, ate 4 times a day with lots of ghee and butter, were served fruits.....cut fruits every hours or so. And to top it all, the daunting task of washing our soiled clothes was given to a machine....for free. Reluctant to leave, we were on our way to Rann on last Saturday.
Bored with the typical 2 lane highway (check out my comparison of highways here), we turned on an interior road to Morbi. And after multiple dreadful encounters with blue-bulls packs, we decided to get back on the main highway from Morbi. It was noon, and the sun and wind gusts were hellish. The windmills were spinning so fast, it seemed, they were now adding to the wind speed. Bullet felt like a boat in turbulent waters there. We stopped near salt plantation fields on this road, clicked some photos, burned ourselves in the sun. Unable to continue, we found a dhabha, had awesome Kadhi-Rotla and slept there till it was 4 pm. We were going for Ekkal Mata ka rann, about 60km from the point, so we could afford this rest. The last 40km were deep in the interiors of Kutch and we just loved riding there. We reached around 5:30 pm.
Now, ekkal mata ka rann is not a very known spot, and that is precisely the reason we were headed for it. We had been to this place an year back and loved it so much that decided to revisit on this trip. Basically there is this temple, Ekkal Mata ka Mandir, which is around 5-6 km from Rann, which acts as a stopover place for local travelers & pilgrims going to Dholavira or so. This means free food, tea, chaas for entire day and 2 rooms, very modest though, are available too (no charge, they just ask for whatever you'd like to donate to the temple). And most of the times it is very peaceful. But this time, for a kind of welcome surprise, there was a huge mela going on in and around the temple, and people from nearby villages flocked it like honey ****ing bees. We managed to get some room for our luggage, and then off we went to rann. Before the rann starts, there is a small board that says ' Vehicles not allowed after this point'. But since there were tracks all over the place, and also we think it is cool to ignore such warnings, we proceeded. After a couple of kilometers, the dirt track in the middle of white dessert vanished and we were at a kind of an end point. But who cares for end points, and after a couple of moments of building up confidence, we pushed the bike in Rann. This is when it began to sink.
So about 6-7 km away from any kind of human interference, 2 stupid fellas could have been seen pushing a bullet frantically in White Mud, only adding to its speed of sinking. The first 3-4 inches became 6 inches and then the bike was almost 10 inches in mud, when all I could hear was my heart pounding and both of us panting like dogs. Panic attack. Our pushing & pulling was not only helping it go in faster, but was making us loose our senses too. I left the bike for a moment, and just breathed. Something struck me and I pushed the sideways, inorder to increase the surface area. It worked. Sinking had almost stopped. (the salt was still crcking beneath it, but we had bought a lot of time). DK, my friend, was still pushing in a frenzy, when I asked him to leave the thing and just calm down. It took us a couple of more maneuvering and 15-20 minutes more to literally drag the bull from rann (since it was all mud, our own footing was very weak, and whenever we tried to pull it with all our might, our own feet went inside the mud). When finally safe, I kissed the bike and DK kissed soil. We just leaned against the bike staring at setting sun through an open rann. None of us spoke for the next half an hour.
(later we saw few people arriving on bikes from a distant point. We agreed it would be blasphemy to let these people go without touching their feet. they instead admonished us for taking a bullet in rann and informed only splendors & other light bikes work here. in fact, one of the 4 splendors got stuck while on their way and it took 6 of them 20 minutes to pull it out. meaning, we had done a sweet job).
For dinner we went back to the mela and had an awesome langar. I mean, city's langars stand no where in front of what we had that day. Kadhi-khichdi, rajma-poori, sev-boondi, mirchi bonda-chutney .... you name it. After dining rather shamelessly, we headed back to the rann. Some people told us to walk further down the 'end point' to find absolutely white rann. We did that and also carried our sleeping mattresses. On a full moon night, the same 2 stupid fellas could have been seen sleeping like logs in the same rann where they were about to loose their precious means of this journey.
Next day started with a flat tyre. Since we are absolutely rookies in biking we had no idea of how to fix it up (though we carry a complete puncture kit). Lucky for us the puncture was tiny and there was still enough pressure to ride the bike for a few km. We were told to check in the next village about 6 km. We did so, but the guy was in Ekkal mata's mela. The few lonely soles there told us to go 10km further. We did so. But the guy was in Ekkal mata's mela. Just when I was suspecting if Ekkal mata had something against bike, we found a puncture guy about 24km from our starting point. He fixed. We watched & tried to learn. People there also suggested us to go to Dhordho for the best of Kutchh. Though this detour would mean an added 500km in the journey, we gave it a shot and this is what ensued.
The road from Rapar to Bhachau is great for riding (kind of road number 3) and we enjoyed every bit of it. From Bhachau to Bhuj, it is boring to the bones (road number 2). As we reached Bhuj, a kind of sandstorm developed, not exactly windy but dust suspended in the air reducing the visibility to a good low. Things were getting interesting. We reached Bhuj after riding about 200km. We inquired people of Dhordho, and something about permission from BSF came up. Nobody was sure about the procedure though. I made a quick call to Gujarat Tourism, and after getting a promising response we started for Dhordho. The next 90km stretch was definitely one of the best roads I have ridden yet. There are straight stretches (so straight that they could be used as rulers) as long as 25km long amidst a brilliantly arid dessert. And minimum traffic. The people change too. Their dress changes from Kathiawadi to Pathani Kurta-Paijamas, and the typical rural apprehensiveness changes to a delightful charm (I mean people are tremendously more friendly & happy here).
We stopped over at Bhirandiyara, and had an amazing local's special doodh ki barfi (we later came to know that this place is sooper dooper popular for its milk production. in the grasslands of banni, everybody owns cattles, and the thing is called maaldari) The permission for Dhordho is taken at Bhirandiyara, so we checked the office which had shut its door about 2 hours before our arrival. We pleaded to other personnels there who pointed us to disappointed cars returning without permission. We pleaded a little more and they told us to do the same drama in front of the BSF people at the main checkpost. We thanked them and repeated our act 25km later. Now, we have had people doing innumerable favors for us after listening to our story and looking at our bike, but getting a BSF nod definitely tops it all. I have understood a simple smile takes you a long way. Big hugs were exchanged and we were on our way to White dessert. But as luck would have had it, by the time we reached rann, it was already dark and we couldn't see much. So we decided to stay and check out Rann the next morning. After a half an hour long search in the area, we couldn't find any room. Though we had our tent, it was on our last priority since I had strained my back pretty bad from the previous day's bullet workout. We recalled a small dhabha about 15km from Dhordho, and went for it hoping to find some Khaats there. And it clicked. It was a small puncture plus general store kind of shop in middle of nowhere with 3 khats. Lucky us. And then started the chapter of Kachhi hospitality. Not only did he agreed for us staying there, he offered us to dine at his place a few kilometers away. Since we never say no to free food, we happily agreed and just as we started to move our tyre gave away again. They (Gulbuddin & his two brothers and their friends who had joined us at the shop in the meanwhile) gave us their bike to follow them to their home. Though they had had their dinner before us, their mother cooked delicious food specially for us. We ate like cavemen. We wanted to thank their mother personally but that couldn't be. When we arrived back to the shop, one of the brothers offered to mend the flat tire. Our previous flat tyre came in handy, as they had no idea about bullet and for us it was a piece of cake now :P
Finally, as the day was ending, we were joined by their father who wanted to meet us. He was narrating one of his many stories when I dozed off in my bed, exhausted, oblivious to everything that matters, happy.
Though this covers just 2 days of the week, I will break the post here as I think it is getting boring now. We had some nailbiting experience while entering Rajasthan but that part can wait.
As of now, few photographs for the past week.
Alright people, I am back to the forum. A rather eventful week has passed since my last post. This means there will less pictures and more words this time.
We stayed at a friend's place in Rajkot who along with his wife, being recently married, treated us like their Jamai babus. We slept on good mattresses, ate 4 times a day with lots of ghee and butter, were served fruits.....cut fruits every hours or so. And to top it all, the daunting task of washing our soiled clothes was given to a machine....for free. Reluctant to leave, we were on our way to Rann on last Saturday.
Bored with the typical 2 lane highway (check out my comparison of highways here), we turned on an interior road to Morbi. And after multiple dreadful encounters with blue-bulls packs, we decided to get back on the main highway from Morbi. It was noon, and the sun and wind gusts were hellish. The windmills were spinning so fast, it seemed, they were now adding to the wind speed. Bullet felt like a boat in turbulent waters there. We stopped near salt plantation fields on this road, clicked some photos, burned ourselves in the sun. Unable to continue, we found a dhabha, had awesome Kadhi-Rotla and slept there till it was 4 pm. We were going for Ekkal Mata ka rann, about 60km from the point, so we could afford this rest. The last 40km were deep in the interiors of Kutch and we just loved riding there. We reached around 5:30 pm.
Now, ekkal mata ka rann is not a very known spot, and that is precisely the reason we were headed for it. We had been to this place an year back and loved it so much that decided to revisit on this trip. Basically there is this temple, Ekkal Mata ka Mandir, which is around 5-6 km from Rann, which acts as a stopover place for local travelers & pilgrims going to Dholavira or so. This means free food, tea, chaas for entire day and 2 rooms, very modest though, are available too (no charge, they just ask for whatever you'd like to donate to the temple). And most of the times it is very peaceful. But this time, for a kind of welcome surprise, there was a huge mela going on in and around the temple, and people from nearby villages flocked it like honey ****ing bees. We managed to get some room for our luggage, and then off we went to rann. Before the rann starts, there is a small board that says ' Vehicles not allowed after this point'. But since there were tracks all over the place, and also we think it is cool to ignore such warnings, we proceeded. After a couple of kilometers, the dirt track in the middle of white dessert vanished and we were at a kind of an end point. But who cares for end points, and after a couple of moments of building up confidence, we pushed the bike in Rann. This is when it began to sink.
So about 6-7 km away from any kind of human interference, 2 stupid fellas could have been seen pushing a bullet frantically in White Mud, only adding to its speed of sinking. The first 3-4 inches became 6 inches and then the bike was almost 10 inches in mud, when all I could hear was my heart pounding and both of us panting like dogs. Panic attack. Our pushing & pulling was not only helping it go in faster, but was making us loose our senses too. I left the bike for a moment, and just breathed. Something struck me and I pushed the sideways, inorder to increase the surface area. It worked. Sinking had almost stopped. (the salt was still crcking beneath it, but we had bought a lot of time). DK, my friend, was still pushing in a frenzy, when I asked him to leave the thing and just calm down. It took us a couple of more maneuvering and 15-20 minutes more to literally drag the bull from rann (since it was all mud, our own footing was very weak, and whenever we tried to pull it with all our might, our own feet went inside the mud). When finally safe, I kissed the bike and DK kissed soil. We just leaned against the bike staring at setting sun through an open rann. None of us spoke for the next half an hour.
(later we saw few people arriving on bikes from a distant point. We agreed it would be blasphemy to let these people go without touching their feet. they instead admonished us for taking a bullet in rann and informed only splendors & other light bikes work here. in fact, one of the 4 splendors got stuck while on their way and it took 6 of them 20 minutes to pull it out. meaning, we had done a sweet job).
For dinner we went back to the mela and had an awesome langar. I mean, city's langars stand no where in front of what we had that day. Kadhi-khichdi, rajma-poori, sev-boondi, mirchi bonda-chutney .... you name it. After dining rather shamelessly, we headed back to the rann. Some people told us to walk further down the 'end point' to find absolutely white rann. We did that and also carried our sleeping mattresses. On a full moon night, the same 2 stupid fellas could have been seen sleeping like logs in the same rann where they were about to loose their precious means of this journey.
Next day started with a flat tyre. Since we are absolutely rookies in biking we had no idea of how to fix it up (though we carry a complete puncture kit). Lucky for us the puncture was tiny and there was still enough pressure to ride the bike for a few km. We were told to check in the next village about 6 km. We did so, but the guy was in Ekkal mata's mela. The few lonely soles there told us to go 10km further. We did so. But the guy was in Ekkal mata's mela. Just when I was suspecting if Ekkal mata had something against bike, we found a puncture guy about 24km from our starting point. He fixed. We watched & tried to learn. People there also suggested us to go to Dhordho for the best of Kutchh. Though this detour would mean an added 500km in the journey, we gave it a shot and this is what ensued.
The road from Rapar to Bhachau is great for riding (kind of road number 3) and we enjoyed every bit of it. From Bhachau to Bhuj, it is boring to the bones (road number 2). As we reached Bhuj, a kind of sandstorm developed, not exactly windy but dust suspended in the air reducing the visibility to a good low. Things were getting interesting. We reached Bhuj after riding about 200km. We inquired people of Dhordho, and something about permission from BSF came up. Nobody was sure about the procedure though. I made a quick call to Gujarat Tourism, and after getting a promising response we started for Dhordho. The next 90km stretch was definitely one of the best roads I have ridden yet. There are straight stretches (so straight that they could be used as rulers) as long as 25km long amidst a brilliantly arid dessert. And minimum traffic. The people change too. Their dress changes from Kathiawadi to Pathani Kurta-Paijamas, and the typical rural apprehensiveness changes to a delightful charm (I mean people are tremendously more friendly & happy here).
We stopped over at Bhirandiyara, and had an amazing local's special doodh ki barfi (we later came to know that this place is sooper dooper popular for its milk production. in the grasslands of banni, everybody owns cattles, and the thing is called maaldari) The permission for Dhordho is taken at Bhirandiyara, so we checked the office which had shut its door about 2 hours before our arrival. We pleaded to other personnels there who pointed us to disappointed cars returning without permission. We pleaded a little more and they told us to do the same drama in front of the BSF people at the main checkpost. We thanked them and repeated our act 25km later. Now, we have had people doing innumerable favors for us after listening to our story and looking at our bike, but getting a BSF nod definitely tops it all. I have understood a simple smile takes you a long way. Big hugs were exchanged and we were on our way to White dessert. But as luck would have had it, by the time we reached rann, it was already dark and we couldn't see much. So we decided to stay and check out Rann the next morning. After a half an hour long search in the area, we couldn't find any room. Though we had our tent, it was on our last priority since I had strained my back pretty bad from the previous day's bullet workout. We recalled a small dhabha about 15km from Dhordho, and went for it hoping to find some Khaats there. And it clicked. It was a small puncture plus general store kind of shop in middle of nowhere with 3 khats. Lucky us. And then started the chapter of Kachhi hospitality. Not only did he agreed for us staying there, he offered us to dine at his place a few kilometers away. Since we never say no to free food, we happily agreed and just as we started to move our tyre gave away again. They (Gulbuddin & his two brothers and their friends who had joined us at the shop in the meanwhile) gave us their bike to follow them to their home. Though they had had their dinner before us, their mother cooked delicious food specially for us. We ate like cavemen. We wanted to thank their mother personally but that couldn't be. When we arrived back to the shop, one of the brothers offered to mend the flat tire. Our previous flat tyre came in handy, as they had no idea about bullet and for us it was a piece of cake now :P
Finally, as the day was ending, we were joined by their father who wanted to meet us. He was narrating one of his many stories when I dozed off in my bed, exhausted, oblivious to everything that matters, happy.
Though this covers just 2 days of the week, I will break the post here as I think it is getting boring now. We had some nailbiting experience while entering Rajasthan but that part can wait.
As of now, few photographs for the past week.
Attached Files
Comment