awesome pankaj...the falls really look inviting for a quick bath

will look at the video now

Saw the thread + read it for the first time Pankaj..this is really fascinating stuff..
Kudos to the efforts for the ride

Do keep updating..

Take Care and ride safe.

awesome pankaj.. You having best time man..!! I await for your log & pix everyday.
Btw, hope your eyes are better now.

twelve and half hrs 895km, blog coming soon.......

Chills N Thrills

Day 13 - Chills N Thrills




Date: 22-1-2010
Gir Forest to Jaisalmer
Damages for the day -
1400 fuel
Rs 25 - tea
Rs 150 night stay at Jaisalmer
Rs 500 for the last five days of stay at Sasan Gir.

Km travelled – 895
Riding time – 12.30 hours
Route taken - Gir – Junagadh- Rajkot – Morbi - Radhanpur - Sanchur - Barmer - Jaisalmer



As the alarm rang at about five a.m. I tried waking up to get going. It was a very cold morning and I decided to sleep some more, for another ten minutes. Not knowing that a ten minute greed for sleep would last so long causing delay. The clock showed 7.00 am. when I woke up. Without any delay I worked on the pictures for the blog for an hour. Packing the bags, I was ready to leave at about 9.30. am. No sooner than I was 200 meters away from the resort the owner’s vehicle stopped me and we returned to the resort. Over a cup of tea we discussed the purchase of new tents and marketing strategies for the resort. I paid an amount of Rs.3000 for the stay and food for the past five days. When the owner learned about this, he returned Rs 2500to me and did not want to charge me a penny. After insisting much, he only took a sum of Rs.500 for a stay of five days.


I decided to ride out from there towards Jaisalmer, my next destination. The time them was 10.30.am Losing four hours of riding time I was unsure of reaching Jaisalmer by night. The distance being approximately 900 kilometers from Sasan Gir.



The first 90 kilometres of the route, was a single road with a lot of speed breakers that prevented me from speeding my way through. On counting I realised that there were 20 speed breakers in 5 kilometres.A day prior to my visit a teacher lost her life due to negligence of not meeting safety standards of wearing a helmet. She flipped over from the bike due to loss of balance on one of the speed breakers. I thought to myself, a helmet that costs just a thousand rupees was worth an investment as compared to a loss of life. Here in India we do not adhere to safety rules seriously, as a result there are so many lives lost in road accidents.







Soon I was on a four lane road cruising at a steady speed. The bike needed refuelling, after riding 123 kilometres I refilled the tank zooming at 110-115 km on the express way. I went on like this for 238 kilometres before halting for a kathiawadi meal just before Morbi at 1.45 pm.




After a while of starting from Morbi my helmet was completely covered with bugs. The helmet’s visor had been stained as a result of a number of bugs that hit on it during the ride. When I stopped to take some pictures, I realised that the helmet was stained.






Moving further I came to a familiar route, where I saw the windmills again. This time spinning at an easy pace it looked very different from when I saw it last. I stopped here to get some pictures of the madness in traffic. This time I saw the most absurd road sign saying " Savdhan wrong side traffic se bachiye" meaning save your self from the traffic coming from the wrong side of the road. What was this I wondered! I had to stop and get some picture proof of the madness I was in. Today, the bike cruised along steadily due to non windy conditions.

I was now riding my way to Santanpur.On reaching Radhanpur the road was now a single lane. Cruising a distance of 200 kilometres in two hours. I thought I could achieve a lot more at this pace.



Maintaining the speed I rode a distance of 430 kilometres without any break. Continuing further, covering 600 kilometres non stop I reached Sanchur at 6.40 in the evening. Riding was a challenge as it was getting dark. The trucks and other heavy motor vehicles had powerful lights that were bothering visibility of the road ahead. The roads were not to wide. The weather was very cold post sunset, my body was tired.

I began to feel the chills. My body was begining to get numb in the riding position. My butt was paining due to the long riding hours. Barmer was then at a distance of 140 kilometres. I decided to continue riding from Sanchur to Barmer. The temperatures dipped down rapidly. I now felt the chills even stronger. The roads had less traffic due to panchayat elections, tempted me to ride at high speeds.

Twenty km before barmer a blackbuck came on the road I was riding at high speed. It just halted in the middle of the road standing right there. I somehow managed to control the bike and manouver it to surpass the situation calmly .

As I reached Barmer I thought of spending the night here. The time was now 9.45 pm. wanting to take a tea break I stopped at Charoli.






As I removed my gloves and helmet, I felt a strong chill. I was now freezing. I asked the tea stall person about what there was to see in Barmer, I was not very interested in what I heard, so decided to ride to Jaisalmer and spend the night there instead. It was extremely cold. The meter showed a distance of 750 kilometres covered during the day.


Even after drinking two cups of tea I was still rattling down my spine. I decided to take courage and move on to Jaisalmer. This was a tougher ride than I thought it to be. The low temperature had me feeling numb; I tried hard to remain focussed and not get bogged down by the coldness of the desert winds.


Consoling myself to go on, being ever so reassuring that everything would be fine, I sang songs varying in genre and language from Indian Ocean to Head out on the highway looking for adventure to Manoj Kumar hits and what not. I tried hard keeping myself entertained and distracted from the freeze that took over my senses.

As I rode along the straight roads to Jaisalmer, a couple of wildboars decided to come on the road now. We were in a dillema of who should cross the road first. I was at high speeds faced great difficulty in controling the bike, managed to bail out from the situation once more.

Riding for about another 70 kilometres, feeling like a kulfi, I looked for a tea stall to warm up a bit. 38 kilometres before Jaisalmer I stopped for tea. My bladder was full, demanding attention to answer a call of nature. I wanted to get off the bike but could not just get myself to move at all. My body was in a frozen state. I It took me almost three to four minutes to get off the bike. As I went on to answer natures call, I felt a strange numbness all over my body, I could not feel a thing except the coldness of the desert. It was a grave situation where I could not locate my penis to pee due to frozen hands and other body parts. I was struggling; as my body was totally numb, it took a while before I succeeded in answering natures call. Pheewww!! Relief at last! This eased out the situation a bit.



Feeling dehydrated and parched in the throat I had a lot of water to rehydrate my system. A bit more settled now I decided to ride the last 38 kilometres before I reached Jaisalmer -- My night stay. I was now feeling comfortable and not as cold anymore.



Reaching Jaisalmer, the beauty of an illuminated fort was now a part of the landscape. I halted to take some pictures and proceeded to the fort to look for a hotel.

Finding myself an accommodation at Ishar guest house an old haveli turned into a guest house I checked into a room. The owner was very kind man to have cooked food for me at that hour. Having hot dal and rice was an absolute treat for me. With a stomach full of scrumptious meal, I was ready to crash and call it a day!

A very long ride full of chills and thrills had got me tired enough to sleep like a log. I was in slumber no sooner than I hit the bed.

Ok I'm late in this thread. Need to catch up a lot.

@Pankaj-Didn't knew that you are here. I read all your sojourns till date and good to see you here and doing a wonderful job of posting regular updates of your new journey.

Am Loving it Pankaj.. Enjoying my office days, the reason I read your logs..!!

Hey MG thanks

yeah its one of the biggest biking group in INDIA. So it is the best platform to share my experience.


Hey rachit,
Everyday i am spending is like a fairy tale...a dream for me....infact at the end of the day even with all the limbs paining i am more excited for the day that is gonna come tomorrow... And i am happy to know those vibrations are being transmitted here too Thanks

Monday, January 25, 2010

Day 14 - A Narrow Escape

Finally...updates...
Liked the 1st pic man..lolz..
And good to know that u avoided the crash n ur in one-piece...
Waiting for more updates...

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Day 15 Arabian Night

Boss you are having a gala time...good man....you have all the fun...as for me i have to listen to that song in 3 IDIOTS...bachpan bhi gaya... i too am leaving for a 3-4 day trip now....no more ogling at others trip log

Superb pankaj.. am riding with u too, by reading your logs
glad to know, you had a narrow escape from a fatal accident..

You are taking us through some amazing places through your logs and pics. Bravo!

I just hope that the south too falls under the radar of your dream trip. All the best!

Very nice indeed.Just enjoying reading it.
good luck for upcoming days