Hello Everyone,
So after my Pune-Leh-Pune ride it was time to take the Bonnie out for a spin. I am enjoying the bike so much that it can’t be describer in words. There are some things that just fall in place or just work out the way you want. The Bonneville is such one thing that just works for me. Even after the whole Triumph India-bikes-detuning-debacle I am happy that the quality of the bike has pacified the disappointment and the anger I had towards Triumph’s way of new found stupidity.
So after a little planning I asked around if anyone would be interested in accompanying me for a ride. My wife was not able to accompany as she had just started on a new job and leaves at such an early time were out of question. Days passed and there was only one riding colleague another Bonneville owner, Manoj who had confirmed about the ride. The hunt went on for others and eventually it was decided that 4 of us would be the Riders for the RoK. Dates were fixed: 24^th to 29^th December 2014.

The riders:
Kuntal Nag R15 V2.0
Aman CBR 250R
Manoj Bonneville
Myself Bonneville

The confirmations from all came a bit late hence there was not enough time for reservations. We were a bit apprehensive whether we would get any accommodation at Kutch being that the RoK festival was in full swing that weekend.

Manoj was at Mumbai the day before so he was going to ride ahead and finish his work at Ahmedabad and meet us three directly at Ahmedabad.
So Kuntal and me started off from Pune at 6.45 am and Aman was to join us from Mumbai.

Day 1:
Pune to Ahmedabad around 675 kms.


The Mumbai Ahmedabad highway is always in awesome condition. Though the immense traffic makes it a bit tough and not that favourable for a rip fest. Maintaining a speed of around 120-130 kmph is easily doable on these roads.
We took a few stops along the way and had a pretty smooth ride except for a punctured tyre in Kuntal bike which was fixed immediately.
We reached the junction at Vadodara where it eventually branches out into an expressway for 4 wheelers only and another way for two wheelers and all other vehicles. This is where the roads start to get really bad. With all the traffic and the road construction going on we had to slow our speeds down a lot. This meant we would reach Ahmedabad only at night and not before. Manoj had already arranged accommodation for us hence we were a bit relieved that we don’t have to hunt for it at night.

Finally we reached the place at Ahmedabad at around 9.30 pm met up with Manoj and checked in. The hotels and eateries were mostly closed and we had to settle on Pav Bhaji and a few glasses of juice.





Day 2: We were to reach Bhuj which was around 350 kms from Ahmedabad.
Route: Ahmedabad-Dhrangadhra-Halvad-Malia-Bhachau-Bhuj.


This road was in a better condition. We did not have any problems and could keep good speeds. Had a halt for breakfast and we could see scores of cars going towards Bhuj and a lot of them were from Maharashtra.
We reached Bhuj at around 2 pm. First thing on our minds was to find accommodation. We stopped at a hotel that we saw first and made an inquiry. As expected the hotel was full but they had one room which was not being given to anyone. When I checked the room I realized why. It was pretty small, had water leakage from the ceiling and had a small window for ventilation. Also parking was on the road with no dedicated parking. Though the rent was fairly cheap we decided to give it a pass. We started calling every possible hotel in Bhuj just to know that they were all booked. Finally we found one hotel Oasis where we could get a family room with 4 beds for just one day. We decided to check into that hotel and then search for hotels for days after once checked in.

The hotel is nice with dedicated parking and a guard. The room was good enough at the rate. Not enough food choices but quality was fair.
Then came the herculean task of finding accommodation for the next 4 days.

Till late night we had no luck with any of the hotels when finally the hotel manager took us to his local agent who in turn called a few places and got us a big luxurious cottage at 1350 Rs per head per day at Hotel Seven Sky.
I remembered calling the same hotel earlier the same day where I was told there was no room available for next 5 days. We were happy that we had some place to stay and we readily accepted it.
We had planned to go to Lakhpat, Narayan Sarovar the next day.


Day 3: Bhuj- Lakhpat-Narayan Sarovar-Bhuj
We visited the Lakhpat city which is deserted and got a glimpse of the vast marshy Rann from one of the walls of the city. The Pakistan-India border is around 25 kms from here.



The airport was just beyoind the hotel's back side... We saw a lot of Indian Air force planes that morning...












At Narayan Sarovar...


The rides..














With the narayan Sarovar we retired for the day to our hotel and made plans for the next day.. Next day was the one we were all waiting for.. We planned to visit the Greater White rann and kalo Dungar..
A few pics of day 4:








Overenthusiastic as they were Aman and Kuntal decided they wanted to ride in the Rann.. So they took their bikes a little further in and guess what... Their bikes were rooted on the wet salty earth. A couple of photographers helped them out of the mess and being learnt a valuable lesson they retreated back to the parking area. Next was my time to get stuck and all the guys had to lift my bike's rear up to get it out...Being a heavy bike has its disadvantages also.

So we all parked our bikes safely and went for a walk onto to the white salty land...







An Amazing sunset we witnessed that day..


This is what salt looks like up close...



With the end of our Rann visit we were back at the hotel getting ready for the return ride..
On the return we had a halt at Ankleshwar and made it back to Pune on 29th December...
a few pics on the way back..






All in all a very disciplined ride it was and we had a lot of fun. Though the highlight of the ride was the white Rann which was mesmerizing.