Riding to Rann Of Kutch
Riders: - Niel, Gaurav, Rajiv
Total distance traveled:- 3340KM
Total Expenses:-
Day1:- Pune –Nasik-saputara
Distance: - 325KM
After a long wait of excitement, here comes the day when we are ready to start our ride to Rann of Kutch and other places in Gujarat. I got an alarm ring at 5 ‘o clock in the morning, its time to get ready and move to vohuman. After getting ready, I load my bike with saddle bags, bottle bags and sleeping bag etc and reached vohuman at 6:30. Munna was already waiting for us there. Ranjeet and niel reach there after some time. We reviewed our plan and had ban-maska, toast and cup of tea and finally started at 7:45. We took our first stop at narayangaon at chateau indage wine yard at around 9:45. This place is famous for its wine and has a decent restaurant for breakfast and wine. Munna had a glass of wine and me & Neil had some French fries and tea. We then push off for Nasik and I have to meet an old friend of mine who is doing some training in artillery school, devlali near Nasik. So I have called him after reaching there and we met in the mid way. After have some chat and remembering some old memories we started for saputara.
All three of us were hungry and were searching for some decent dhaba for lunch, but thought to have food after touching the highway. We stopped on a dhaba after 25-30 km to Nasik. Now Gujarat region is already started, so we decided to have a Gujarati thali. After tank up our stomach we move towards saputara. We had a break on the way to click some snaps of grapes yards and field. We reached saputara at around 4:30PM and after searching for place to stay we decided to take a hut in hotel torn. This hotel is managed by govt. of Gujarat and is quite decent place. Stay includes dinner and breakfast for next day @350 per head. We unload our bikes and move to sunset point on hill top. There is ropeway starting from this hill top to another adjacent hill at a reasonable rate of 40rs. Four wheelers are not allowed on this hill but bikes are allowed so we took our bull uphill to sunset point. This place has a nice view of dang villages on one side and saputara lake on other side. We relaxed there for some time and return down to Saputara Lake. It is very small lake but nice view of hills around. After spending some time in small market of saputara we moved back to our cottage and relaxed for some time before going to lunch in hall nearby. Food was really good and its worth paying for that clean food and stay in that resort.
After having food we had chat with mess in charge who had given us lot of information about Kutch and Rann. All of three were very tired by then, so moved back to room and slept after first day of our ride. Road condition on the first day stretch was almost good.
DAY2:- Saputara- gadodra-vadodra-valsad-tarapur-Bagodra
Distance: - 450KM
We wake up at around 8 am and got ready to move ahead to our destination. We had breakfast in the hall and then start from there at around 10am. The road from saputara moves from some wildlife sanctuary and botanical garden. Saputara and dang villages are famous for its bamboo crafts. Every year govt. of India organizes a bamboo festival in the month of March. The 70 % of road was and is surrounded by bamboo trees and forest. This is not so thick forest so its very good place to shoot as ample amount of light. We took road to gadodra which is turn point for Surat. We had lunch at dhaba in gadodra and then move ahead on NH8. Road was awesome but it’s full of traffic as this highway is heart line of India which connects Ahmadabad to Mumbai (Commercial capital of India). Gujarat is highest number of industries in India and Maharashtra comes on second position so heavy vehicle traffic is obvious on this route. Seurat is famous for its cloth market. We move ahead on this highway and stopped on roadside to have pauk near barouch. Due to heavy traffic niel was left behind and was waiting for us 40KM before vadodra but we were waiting for him at vadodra bypass. So we had cup of tea there by the time Neil came, I thought to relax on dhaba. It was already dawn when Neil reached there, so without wasting time we inquire about route and move ahead. We took road to valsad and then left turn to tarapur-bagadra-limidi. Roads of Gujarat were awesome and almost all the state and national highways are maintained by private authority and you have to pay toll for almost all the roads. But thanks to no toll on two wheelers rule. We reached tarapur at around 9pm and decided to have dinner on dhaba. All three of us were tired but it’s of no use to stay there at this place and alter our plan. So, after purchasing some chocolates for X’MAS nite we move ahead towards gadodra. It’s already 11PM when we reach gadodra junction, so we thought to stay on dhaba hotel. Rooms were small so we decided to hire two rooms @150 each. After unloading our bike, I have distributed chocolates to munna and Neil in my santa cap. This place was on junction of two national highways so it’s very disturbing for whole night to sleep as trucks were honking like anything. But we were so much tired that even pressure horns are like music in our ears that time.
DAY3:- Bagodra-limdi-surendernagar-halvad-tikar-adesar-Dholavira
Distance:-368KM
After very disturbing sleep thanks to truck horns who keep us awake and we keep counting the type of horns whole night like dhoom machale and kajara re etc. We had cup of tea and had paraothas at dhaba before moving ahead at around 10:30. We crossed limdi and took right turn towards halvad from sundernagar. It’s better to tank full petrol from sundernagar because quite few petrol pumps on this way. Some patch of road is bad in this way. We stopped at bypass of halvad to ask the way for little Rann. Niel has suggested to cross little Rann before going to great Rann. We got useful information from dhaba wala and local people and they have told us that it’s not much safe to cross run of own and we should follow some salt truck or take some local person from tikar. Neil was very hyper at this time and he was very curious about little Rann because after entering Rann we couldn’t find any specie for 35-40KM and its no man’s land. We moved towards tikar after asking all the ways and other information. Tikar is last village before little Rann, we were asking the way for Rann in tikar but one person was ready to come with us to show us the way but then after some time he returned and asking for 500Rs to guide us. We refused him start moving ahead as we don’t have any time to waste, it’s already 4PM. There was salt factory on the way and we have asked the direction, one person was going ahead 2-3 km to some fisher village so we followed him to enter in Rann. Rann is actually as good as ocean in rainy season but it becomes salt desert when dried. Entering to Rann is very much confusing because you have no other option else to follow tyre marks on salt. You can find wild ass in little Rann as there is a wild ass sanctuary in little Rann. And they generally divide into many paths after ever 100 meters. We found it most difficult task to enter and follow proper direction. We ask more way from this 4-5 people fisher village and workers who are collecting salt to be sent to factories for processing. After asking the way we are now in no man’s land and we have to go ahead of our own. But we got good amount of information from locals and good start so we were more than happy that we are crossing Rann from its heart. All three of us were excited as we were standing on Rann and crossing it of our own. We were following the tyre marks of trucks and follow that for another 30 km to reach on other side of Rann. Two small hills comes on the way where no tyre marks are present but we have no other option but to cross it and follow our gut feel to cross it. But we got tyre marks again, best thing was there are some stones put together or some flags put on the way by the locals for there daily use to cross the Rann. They ensure that you are moving in correct direction. We were ripping at 80KPH on Rann and finally we saw some cloths hanging on hill top, which gave us signal that we are close to end of Rann. This village is varnu which connects little Rann to adesar a small town on highway. So we keep moving towards highway and stopped at adesar to have some food. A perfect idea executed at perfect time and we are on other side of Rann now just before sunset. A feel of great satisfaction and happiness can be easily seen on our faces. We were very lucky that we haven’t lost the way in the Rann and no breakdowns. As all Rann looks same in all the directions, so its better to carry a needle to follow the direction if lost and we have already bought spare tubes and foot pump after saputara as we know that we won’t be getting anybody to fix out bike with met with any problem.
We asked the way to dholavira via rapar from adesar. Dholavira is biggest harrapan site found in India and it is gateway to Great Rann. We tank full our bikes at rapar as there is no petrol pump after rapar. We were driving at 70-80 on this road to reach dholavira. But suddenly temperature of wind increased and we couldn’t find any thing on both sides of road, not even a single tree. We stopped after some time to see what’s happening; I turn my bike handle to view the ground on both sides. And surprisingly we were crossing great Rann; we stopped our bikes and sit there for some time. This is the best moment in our ride yet as we were sitting in great Rann and it is looking as km’s long white bed sheet spread on ground in moon lite.
After sitting spending half hour just sitting there and enjoying the silence of that place we thought to move ahead towards today’s destination. We reached dholavira at around 10PM and only place to stay there is toran resort. We checked in that place and it was very comfortable and cheap place to stay. As very less tourist come on this site, so all tree of us got separate hut by just paying 125 Rs each. One other group of govt. officers has also reached here from Delhi. We were very hungry, so whatever he cooked for us we ate and sincerely thankful to him for serving food at 11pm in night. After having dinner one officer from Delhi was over drunked and he shared his knowledge about Rann as he was posted here some years back. We went to sleep after taking bath.
This was simply a great day as we manage to cross little Rann and now we are in great Rann.
Day4:- Dholavira-bachau-bhuj
Distance:-230KM
We wake up at around 9pm and then moved to harappan site @dholavira. There is small museum at site also which has collection of pots, jewelry etc used harrapan. If some person is interested in this archeology then this is one of the best site in India to study, but none of us has that interest. We took one person from museum that took us to site and told us about various facts and figures about this site. Actually archeologists have found 7 cities around dholavira and now they are extracting. It is very difficult work as they have to dig cautiously using knife. After visiting this site we came back to village where we had food at one farmer’s house. His wife
cooked bajre ki roti, bhaat and chass with fresh jaggaery. Food was really amazing, and finally they had served us cup of tea. We chat with local people to get more information to cross Rann, but everybody have informed us that it’s not possible to cross Rann this time of year because water is still not dried. Generally Rann is dried by December but this year due to heavy rains it won’t be getting dry before March. And in summer season it is difficult to cross Rann due to strong winds which are carrying salt along. So, we were depressed as we had planned to go to khavada from dholavira through Great Rann. We got information from BSF camp also and they have also told us same. There is still 2 feet of water in Rann and seems as ocean from one corner. There is one tree, which is now converted to stone as fossils, 10M from dholavira. So we changed our route plan to move to bhuj via bachau. All the villages are reconstructed in whole Kutch area after earthquake on 26 Jan ’2003, rapar was epicenter of that earthquake.
We took internal route via Rav, chobari and this road opens 5KM ahead of bachau on highway to bhuj. There is no petrol pump on this route but we had already fill u p petrol while moving to dholavira at rapar. This road is shortcut if you wanted to go to bhuj from dholavira instead of via rapar. Now its national highway so we thought to increase our speed. But after some time I couldn’t see Neil and munna in my rear view mirror. So I stopped on roadside and called up munna. He got flat rear tyre, so he getting it fix at dhaba on the way. Neil reached there so we sit there for some time waiting for munna.
We start moving towards bhuj just after munna reach. Munna had short listed some hotel at bhuj so we had asked for Hotel GangaRam near paragmal palace. It was around 9:30 by the time we have checked in the hotel. It is a very comfortable place and is situated in the center of the city. Owner of this place is very helpful and you can get all kind of information on Kutch and bhuj from him. We ordered food for us and went to room to get fresh. I had taken one bite of tandori chicken when munna remind me that it’s Tuesday today and he knows I don’t have non-veg on Tuesday. We had ordered only for chicken and that too for monsters. So I ask him to put this chicken in fridge for tomorrow morning. I had dal roti and then we had packed tea in thermos and move to roof top of this hotel. View from roof was simply great and we can watch whole bhuj city from here and best thing was we have a complete view of paragmal palace and aina mahal. Wind was cool there, so we had cup of tea which I have got from downstairs and click few snaps of palace in moonlight. We went to our room to collapse after spending another 1 ½ hours on roof top.
Day5:-
Bhuj - Khavada - Bhuj
After having a long calm sleep, I woke up at 7 in the morning and ask for a cup of tea from hotel waiter and went to roof top to get a glance of sunrise. Morning view from there was pretty good. You can see whole bhuj city and fort adjacent to this place from there. Mr. Jethi (Hotel owner) was telling about sunrise previous night. He was also telling about the earthquake, this building was fully constructed and
functional in 2002 and not damaged in 2003 earthquake. 70-80% of houses were damaged during earthquake in this area during earthquake in 2003 in area measured 7.1 on richer scale. I had breakfast of roasted chicken; I kept in fridge last night. Then I move to tourist information center to collect information about the place and handicrafts villages around. This center was inside Aina Mahal, I bought books on Kutch and maps to get better understanding of the place. Then we all went inside aaina mahal and then parag mal palace (Palace of prince of Kutch). In old days Indian kings are very fond of safaris and shooting animals. There are lots of tiger and other animal skins preserved in palace. At around 12 we started from there for Khavada (Border to indo-pak). We went to a sumrasar a handicraft village on the way. We visit kala rakshak there, and Italian women had started this couple of years ago. The take the work from outside, design it on suits etc and give work to local villagers. She is running her business with a very unique idea. Things there are costly then the normal one but as they are very good and fine worked as things are designed by fashion designers. Then went to a local house in the village and lady showed us her work on various cloths. They served us tea and explained us types of handicrafts available in villages of Kutch. She also explained us how generally they calculate the cost of work.
Cost of work = initial cost+ (no. of days) * 10-15 rs/day. And all depends on complexity of design. Sometime they took 3-4 months to complete one design. I bought one beautiful and colorful turan from her costing me Rs 900. Then we went to another house where 4-5 ladies doing there crafting work sitting on cane bed in yard. We have seen there work also. They explained us how handicraft started in these villages. There was no work for women in these remote areas, so to spend there time they started doing crafts etc and putting their ideas in cloths. And go to city in 2-3 months to sell it in market and get some money to run their house. And this way it start getting popular and many people from big cities start giving orders to them. And they start getting good business from them.
We started moving towards khavada after visiting couple of more houses. We crossed Tropic of cancer on our way. We had couple of short halts to click few snaps, and finally reached khavada. We all were hungry so lunch was at highest priority before deciding anything else. We order food at one road side dhaba; there was not much option there. I met one BSF guy from Haryana, he give me some details about the place. We went to Gandhigram near to that place after lunch but they were selling things at 2-3 times the normal price. So came back to khavada market and purchase few things from one shop in the market. Then we started for a temple on the top of a hill from where we planned to see sunset in great Rann of Kutch. There is one big temple there and generally people stay there for one night before coming down. There is one BSF camp also on the hill top. We can see great Rann of Kutch from there and we can also see India bridge from there (Only BSF is allowed after that bridge till –pak border). We enjoyed that place till sunset, it was freezing cold there in the night and cold wind was carrying salt from Great Rann which was irritating to eyes. We started from that hill back to bhuj; munna was shivering as he was not wearing any jacket. We had an awesome Gujarati thali in dinner at Annapurna, this place serve best food in bhuj. There is lot of option here to choose food here as per your need.
After having stomach full of food we went back to our hotel and had cup of tea before going to bed.
Due to less stay days in bhuj we couldn’t visit couple of places but if we got time we will visit these places next time like handicraft villages hodka, banni, Lakhpat fort. And indo-pak border at visapur, you need to take permissions to visit this place from bhuj collector office. Naliya is also a good place near by, this place has underground air force airport for fighter jet, 2 minutes flight to Karachi.
One another place called panodra; it has a power station from limestone. You don’t have to dig much soil to get limestone.
Than monastery is another good place to visit.
Distance traveled: - 218KM.
Day 6:-
Bhuj- Mandvi
Today Neil is leaving back to pune because he has to shift into his new house and vacate old one. We discussed best and fastest way to reach back pune from bhuj. Me and munna went through bhuj and click few snaps in front of fort and pond behind that fort. Then we move to bhujadi village to see Surjan handicraft center. This village has one unique artificial village (Must to visit place) where artists from remote location have there huts, making there specialized things. We purchase some more things from there like shawl, suits etc. We also purchase few mudwall paintings from there. Then munna received call from hotel because by mistake he took keys of hotel along with him. In the mean time I visited surjan. They have various center in Ahmadabad, bhuj etc. They have 3000 women working for them in different villages in Kutch district working from there home. This place has real Kutch design but is very costly.
Munna came back and we move towards mandvi. There was a huge Jain temple before mandavi, we stopped there for some time, and actually it is a group of 72 temples together. Still some part of temple was under construction and stone carving work was going on.
We reached there at around 4 but couldn’t found place stay as there are limited place there for stay. Finally got stay at newly build jitender hotel, rooms were spacious and good. We drop our luggage there and immediately rush towards beach. There is a small port at mandavi where we went while going towards beach. That may not be functional but seems dramatic like port in Hindi movies. We stopped at roadside ship building yard. They construct ships in winter because water level is very less or none at some places in mandavi.
Beach was good and one side of beach is full with wind mills. Place was looking very beautiful, we click lot of snaps till dawn. Munna had got one 80’s yashica fully mechanical medium format camera he purchase for 4k. He tried clicking few snaps from it. Then we both went to Buddha kitchen, best place in mandvi for food. Food was really awesome there.
Distance traveled: 95KM.
Day7:
Mandvi – Junnagarh
After waking up we went to mandavi fort. It was well conserved and well maintained fort. King of mandavi is still staying in the palace, so 1st floor is locked for public, Otherwise you can buy a ticket to visit fort and ticket for carrying camera. But place is so beautiful and view from top is really awesome. This palace was used for shooting in various bollywood movies like Hum Dil de chuke sanam, lagaan etc. We spend some time relaxing there and came back to hotel and pack our stuff to start moving towards mundra/junagarh.
Mundra port was blocked for public and we got very depressed after reaching there as it is around 8-10 km inside the city and we didn’t get entry so we have to come back from there. This place is open for visitors only on Wednesday and Saturday and that too without any bag/luggage and camera.
Then we thought to move toward Rajkot via anjar and bahoo. You have to take right turn from moorve towards Rajkot, this is shorter route so we choose this.
This place is famous for quartz for watch, so all watch companies have there plants at this place. We went via tankara; it’s a village of Maharishi dayanand. My native place rohtak (Haryana) has a university on his name MDU (Marashi Dayanand University). We reached Rajkot at around 7PM so we thought to move ahead towards Junnagarh and reached there at around 9:30 pm. This is a small city so we thought to have dinner first before hunting for any place to stay. We stayed in a hotel near to market; it’s a comfortable place and a spacious yard ahead.
Distance: 463 KM
Day 8:-
Junnagarh - somnath - Diu
We had paranthas in breakfast and went to upperkot fort after that. This fort was full of shit and absolutely UN maintained and neglected. But still some places like kund, old guns etc were good. This was whole depressing place and nothing much to see, so better to go till gir and stay there for 1-2 days to see Gir Lions.
We reach back from fort to hotel pack our bags and started for somnath temple. This temple is on beach side facing sea and is very beautiful. Camera was not allowed inside the temple. But we had captured its view of beach and sea. We spend some time sitting in garden of temple facing sea. Then we started for Diu for New Year bash. We reach one beach in Diu for sunset and after that we started looking for some place to stay. We had planned to stay at sea village resort but due to New Year almost all rooms are booked and he was offering us a shady place there at very high price which we decline.
He was asking for 3500 for 2 nights, BTW this place was good and have a private kind of beach just at sunset point.
We moved to nagoa beach at hotel Ganga sagar @Rs1200 for 2 nights. Rooms were not that good but we have there is no other good option in our budget. Nagoa beach has lot of resorts but they are pretty expensive. Diu is a small clean island connected by road now. Places and roads are well lighted. We sit on beach for some time. Beach was good and calm. At around 9:30 we move towards town to had dinner. We went to Diu fort before dinner; it was very well lit and was looking very beautiful. Whole place was well lit and decorated may be because of New Year. We had dinner at one restaurant and went back to Nagoa beach to our hotel. It’s around 8km from town.
Distance: 224km
Day9:-
Diu (New Year Party)
We wake up at around 9 and after having tea we move to one fisher’s village vanakbora nearby at around 11:30. We met one person there who is owner of several boats which usually catch fishes in sea and sell in market or export it. We ask him about the process of catching fishes to storing and selling in market. First we have to collect money to build boat and it takes around 3-4 months in construction of boat and it costs around 15-17 lacks for a mid-size boat.
Then around 4 people go for sailing to catch fishes and it is generally around 7-10 days trip. They have one whole ice room where they store fishes on the boat. Then he showed us generator room which contains one truck engine which they use as steamer. He also told us that each boat carries one wireless with them to keep people on port informing about their status. And if they have any machine failure or any other problem then they call some mechanic or person from port to correct it. They sell these fishes to exporters and they send it to Europe, Canada, and US etc. One trip on boat has final profit of 30k, and they have around 3-4 trips per month. This person owns 7 such boats and 2 new boats are under construction.
This person is really a rich man, (3*7*30) 63k profit per month. But still he eat his food with workers on the boat, this kind of things really motivate them to do work for him.
Then we went back to our place to have lunch and slept for some time. Then we were just roaming around and met Rohan there. He came from Ahmadabad to this place for New Year with his IIM classmates. Somebody has stolen pant of one of his friend and that pant has keys of his bike. So they plan to get some person from city to make keys for them.
Nagoa beach is very much crowdie now with lot of gujjus group there just to drink alcohol there. Alcohol is still ban in Gujarat so they came to DIU to drinks and it is a UT so it’s cheaper also. Most of them were over drunked and still drinking and out of control, vomiting here and there. So we decide to leave this beach immediately and move towards church in Diu town. We went to caves after visiting church and then to sunset point. It was a beautiful view from sunset point. You have to climb on cliff to reach sunset point. This was the same beach where we were had came to stay first in resort.
After sunset we went to town market and went to one custom shop. Diu town market is also very crowdie by this time as lot of people from nearby cities came to this place to celebrate New Year. Munna purchased some stuff from custom shop and then we went to have food in one of the restaurant. They didn’t allow us to sit inside family room and condition outside is bad so we thought to purchase breezers and move back to Nagoa beach.
We went to Hokas restaurant but he also refuse to give us entry as it’s only for couples tonight. We both we just to start our bikes thinking no value for singles on new year eve but manager came next moment and invited us to take dinner there. We had buffer dinner there @400\person but food was really awesome. They server us chicken, fish, veg, roti, raita, rice etc and deserts also. This was the best food I had got yet in Diu, place was also very romantic as bonfire on one side with light music around. We moved out of that restaurant at around 11, manager insisted us to keep joining them for New Year but then we thought to sit on beach that time. Then we went to STD booth to call our pals but they are not fully operational so we drop our plans and sat on beach.
At around 11:50 lady owner of our hotel get 2 waiters along with full boxes of crackers. They start fireworks sharp at 12 and it lasts for 30 minutes. She must have spend around 30-40k on these fireworks. One local was telling us that she has a tradition of fireworks every year. Munna and me gave wish to each other and went for sleep.
Distance: 50km
Day10:-
Diu-bhavnagar-baruch
We wake up early today as we have to start back for pune. We stop on one roadside dhaba “Paranthas House” but he didn’t serve paranthas before 2 pm so we moved ahead and had our food and one roadside place, but food was good there. We came across a world’s biggest ship breaking yard “Alang”. Many business men came to this place to purchase secondhand furniture at very cheap price and sell it in cities. You can get world class water proof furniture here. Gujarat highways are always occupied with trucks as there are lots of industries there. Gujarat is most industrialized state in India. We went to Bhavnagar-dholira-tarapur-valsad-vadodra-baruch. We had our dinner at hotel kamat near toll plaza; food was really great at valsad, Gujarati thali. Then we start searching for place at Baruch but couldn’t find any place so we rode ahead to ankaleshwar and stay in one hotel there. This place has a huge chemical factory so you have to be very curious about the smell there.
Distance: 535Km
Day-11
Ankaleshwar- Pune
We wake up at around 7:30 and then after taking batch we went down to have breakfast. I had 3 paranthas there and then we load our saddle bags and luggage on bike and start following NH8. Valsad-vapi-manor-mandavi. We eat “ublaoo” near Surat, potato are keep in sand in on pot and fill it with sand and then give it heat from outside. It is served with lemon, must to try snacks.
Then we took turn towards Thana and bypass Mumbai via Mumbra village, it was very crowdie place. We took left before toll bridge to thane after crossing on bridge and reach panvel. We had cup of tea on one roadside dhaba, it is just opposite to on resort where Riders mania 05 was organized. We memorize those days and ride back to pune via lonavala and finally reached pune around 8PM.
Distance: 475KM
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:-
1) Beautiful dholavira ruins.
2) CROSSING RANN OF KUTCH
3) Handicraft villages of Kutch.
For more snaps:-
http://picasaweb.google.com/gvbahl
Total distance traveled:- 3340KM
Total Expenses:-
Day1:- Pune –Nasik-saputara
Distance: - 325KM
After a long wait of excitement, here comes the day when we are ready to start our ride to Rann of Kutch and other places in Gujarat. I got an alarm ring at 5 ‘o clock in the morning, its time to get ready and move to vohuman. After getting ready, I load my bike with saddle bags, bottle bags and sleeping bag etc and reached vohuman at 6:30. Munna was already waiting for us there. Ranjeet and niel reach there after some time. We reviewed our plan and had ban-maska, toast and cup of tea and finally started at 7:45. We took our first stop at narayangaon at chateau indage wine yard at around 9:45. This place is famous for its wine and has a decent restaurant for breakfast and wine. Munna had a glass of wine and me & Neil had some French fries and tea. We then push off for Nasik and I have to meet an old friend of mine who is doing some training in artillery school, devlali near Nasik. So I have called him after reaching there and we met in the mid way. After have some chat and remembering some old memories we started for saputara.
All three of us were hungry and were searching for some decent dhaba for lunch, but thought to have food after touching the highway. We stopped on a dhaba after 25-30 km to Nasik. Now Gujarat region is already started, so we decided to have a Gujarati thali. After tank up our stomach we move towards saputara. We had a break on the way to click some snaps of grapes yards and field. We reached saputara at around 4:30PM and after searching for place to stay we decided to take a hut in hotel torn. This hotel is managed by govt. of Gujarat and is quite decent place. Stay includes dinner and breakfast for next day @350 per head. We unload our bikes and move to sunset point on hill top. There is ropeway starting from this hill top to another adjacent hill at a reasonable rate of 40rs. Four wheelers are not allowed on this hill but bikes are allowed so we took our bull uphill to sunset point. This place has a nice view of dang villages on one side and saputara lake on other side. We relaxed there for some time and return down to Saputara Lake. It is very small lake but nice view of hills around. After spending some time in small market of saputara we moved back to our cottage and relaxed for some time before going to lunch in hall nearby. Food was really good and its worth paying for that clean food and stay in that resort.
After having food we had chat with mess in charge who had given us lot of information about Kutch and Rann. All of three were very tired by then, so moved back to room and slept after first day of our ride. Road condition on the first day stretch was almost good.
DAY2:- Saputara- gadodra-vadodra-valsad-tarapur-Bagodra
Distance: - 450KM
We wake up at around 8 am and got ready to move ahead to our destination. We had breakfast in the hall and then start from there at around 10am. The road from saputara moves from some wildlife sanctuary and botanical garden. Saputara and dang villages are famous for its bamboo crafts. Every year govt. of India organizes a bamboo festival in the month of March. The 70 % of road was and is surrounded by bamboo trees and forest. This is not so thick forest so its very good place to shoot as ample amount of light. We took road to gadodra which is turn point for Surat. We had lunch at dhaba in gadodra and then move ahead on NH8. Road was awesome but it’s full of traffic as this highway is heart line of India which connects Ahmadabad to Mumbai (Commercial capital of India). Gujarat is highest number of industries in India and Maharashtra comes on second position so heavy vehicle traffic is obvious on this route. Seurat is famous for its cloth market. We move ahead on this highway and stopped on roadside to have pauk near barouch. Due to heavy traffic niel was left behind and was waiting for us 40KM before vadodra but we were waiting for him at vadodra bypass. So we had cup of tea there by the time Neil came, I thought to relax on dhaba. It was already dawn when Neil reached there, so without wasting time we inquire about route and move ahead. We took road to valsad and then left turn to tarapur-bagadra-limidi. Roads of Gujarat were awesome and almost all the state and national highways are maintained by private authority and you have to pay toll for almost all the roads. But thanks to no toll on two wheelers rule. We reached tarapur at around 9pm and decided to have dinner on dhaba. All three of us were tired but it’s of no use to stay there at this place and alter our plan. So, after purchasing some chocolates for X’MAS nite we move ahead towards gadodra. It’s already 11PM when we reach gadodra junction, so we thought to stay on dhaba hotel. Rooms were small so we decided to hire two rooms @150 each. After unloading our bike, I have distributed chocolates to munna and Neil in my santa cap. This place was on junction of two national highways so it’s very disturbing for whole night to sleep as trucks were honking like anything. But we were so much tired that even pressure horns are like music in our ears that time.
DAY3:- Bagodra-limdi-surendernagar-halvad-tikar-adesar-Dholavira
Distance:-368KM
After very disturbing sleep thanks to truck horns who keep us awake and we keep counting the type of horns whole night like dhoom machale and kajara re etc. We had cup of tea and had paraothas at dhaba before moving ahead at around 10:30. We crossed limdi and took right turn towards halvad from sundernagar. It’s better to tank full petrol from sundernagar because quite few petrol pumps on this way. Some patch of road is bad in this way. We stopped at bypass of halvad to ask the way for little Rann. Niel has suggested to cross little Rann before going to great Rann. We got useful information from dhaba wala and local people and they have told us that it’s not much safe to cross run of own and we should follow some salt truck or take some local person from tikar. Neil was very hyper at this time and he was very curious about little Rann because after entering Rann we couldn’t find any specie for 35-40KM and its no man’s land. We moved towards tikar after asking all the ways and other information. Tikar is last village before little Rann, we were asking the way for Rann in tikar but one person was ready to come with us to show us the way but then after some time he returned and asking for 500Rs to guide us. We refused him start moving ahead as we don’t have any time to waste, it’s already 4PM. There was salt factory on the way and we have asked the direction, one person was going ahead 2-3 km to some fisher village so we followed him to enter in Rann. Rann is actually as good as ocean in rainy season but it becomes salt desert when dried. Entering to Rann is very much confusing because you have no other option else to follow tyre marks on salt. You can find wild ass in little Rann as there is a wild ass sanctuary in little Rann. And they generally divide into many paths after ever 100 meters. We found it most difficult task to enter and follow proper direction. We ask more way from this 4-5 people fisher village and workers who are collecting salt to be sent to factories for processing. After asking the way we are now in no man’s land and we have to go ahead of our own. But we got good amount of information from locals and good start so we were more than happy that we are crossing Rann from its heart. All three of us were excited as we were standing on Rann and crossing it of our own. We were following the tyre marks of trucks and follow that for another 30 km to reach on other side of Rann. Two small hills comes on the way where no tyre marks are present but we have no other option but to cross it and follow our gut feel to cross it. But we got tyre marks again, best thing was there are some stones put together or some flags put on the way by the locals for there daily use to cross the Rann. They ensure that you are moving in correct direction. We were ripping at 80KPH on Rann and finally we saw some cloths hanging on hill top, which gave us signal that we are close to end of Rann. This village is varnu which connects little Rann to adesar a small town on highway. So we keep moving towards highway and stopped at adesar to have some food. A perfect idea executed at perfect time and we are on other side of Rann now just before sunset. A feel of great satisfaction and happiness can be easily seen on our faces. We were very lucky that we haven’t lost the way in the Rann and no breakdowns. As all Rann looks same in all the directions, so its better to carry a needle to follow the direction if lost and we have already bought spare tubes and foot pump after saputara as we know that we won’t be getting anybody to fix out bike with met with any problem.
We asked the way to dholavira via rapar from adesar. Dholavira is biggest harrapan site found in India and it is gateway to Great Rann. We tank full our bikes at rapar as there is no petrol pump after rapar. We were driving at 70-80 on this road to reach dholavira. But suddenly temperature of wind increased and we couldn’t find any thing on both sides of road, not even a single tree. We stopped after some time to see what’s happening; I turn my bike handle to view the ground on both sides. And surprisingly we were crossing great Rann; we stopped our bikes and sit there for some time. This is the best moment in our ride yet as we were sitting in great Rann and it is looking as km’s long white bed sheet spread on ground in moon lite.
After sitting spending half hour just sitting there and enjoying the silence of that place we thought to move ahead towards today’s destination. We reached dholavira at around 10PM and only place to stay there is toran resort. We checked in that place and it was very comfortable and cheap place to stay. As very less tourist come on this site, so all tree of us got separate hut by just paying 125 Rs each. One other group of govt. officers has also reached here from Delhi. We were very hungry, so whatever he cooked for us we ate and sincerely thankful to him for serving food at 11pm in night. After having dinner one officer from Delhi was over drunked and he shared his knowledge about Rann as he was posted here some years back. We went to sleep after taking bath.
This was simply a great day as we manage to cross little Rann and now we are in great Rann.
Day4:- Dholavira-bachau-bhuj
Distance:-230KM
We wake up at around 9pm and then moved to harappan site @dholavira. There is small museum at site also which has collection of pots, jewelry etc used harrapan. If some person is interested in this archeology then this is one of the best site in India to study, but none of us has that interest. We took one person from museum that took us to site and told us about various facts and figures about this site. Actually archeologists have found 7 cities around dholavira and now they are extracting. It is very difficult work as they have to dig cautiously using knife. After visiting this site we came back to village where we had food at one farmer’s house. His wife
cooked bajre ki roti, bhaat and chass with fresh jaggaery. Food was really amazing, and finally they had served us cup of tea. We chat with local people to get more information to cross Rann, but everybody have informed us that it’s not possible to cross Rann this time of year because water is still not dried. Generally Rann is dried by December but this year due to heavy rains it won’t be getting dry before March. And in summer season it is difficult to cross Rann due to strong winds which are carrying salt along. So, we were depressed as we had planned to go to khavada from dholavira through Great Rann. We got information from BSF camp also and they have also told us same. There is still 2 feet of water in Rann and seems as ocean from one corner. There is one tree, which is now converted to stone as fossils, 10M from dholavira. So we changed our route plan to move to bhuj via bachau. All the villages are reconstructed in whole Kutch area after earthquake on 26 Jan ’2003, rapar was epicenter of that earthquake.
We took internal route via Rav, chobari and this road opens 5KM ahead of bachau on highway to bhuj. There is no petrol pump on this route but we had already fill u p petrol while moving to dholavira at rapar. This road is shortcut if you wanted to go to bhuj from dholavira instead of via rapar. Now its national highway so we thought to increase our speed. But after some time I couldn’t see Neil and munna in my rear view mirror. So I stopped on roadside and called up munna. He got flat rear tyre, so he getting it fix at dhaba on the way. Neil reached there so we sit there for some time waiting for munna.
We start moving towards bhuj just after munna reach. Munna had short listed some hotel at bhuj so we had asked for Hotel GangaRam near paragmal palace. It was around 9:30 by the time we have checked in the hotel. It is a very comfortable place and is situated in the center of the city. Owner of this place is very helpful and you can get all kind of information on Kutch and bhuj from him. We ordered food for us and went to room to get fresh. I had taken one bite of tandori chicken when munna remind me that it’s Tuesday today and he knows I don’t have non-veg on Tuesday. We had ordered only for chicken and that too for monsters. So I ask him to put this chicken in fridge for tomorrow morning. I had dal roti and then we had packed tea in thermos and move to roof top of this hotel. View from roof was simply great and we can watch whole bhuj city from here and best thing was we have a complete view of paragmal palace and aina mahal. Wind was cool there, so we had cup of tea which I have got from downstairs and click few snaps of palace in moonlight. We went to our room to collapse after spending another 1 ½ hours on roof top.
Day5:-
Bhuj - Khavada - Bhuj
After having a long calm sleep, I woke up at 7 in the morning and ask for a cup of tea from hotel waiter and went to roof top to get a glance of sunrise. Morning view from there was pretty good. You can see whole bhuj city and fort adjacent to this place from there. Mr. Jethi (Hotel owner) was telling about sunrise previous night. He was also telling about the earthquake, this building was fully constructed and
functional in 2002 and not damaged in 2003 earthquake. 70-80% of houses were damaged during earthquake in this area during earthquake in 2003 in area measured 7.1 on richer scale. I had breakfast of roasted chicken; I kept in fridge last night. Then I move to tourist information center to collect information about the place and handicrafts villages around. This center was inside Aina Mahal, I bought books on Kutch and maps to get better understanding of the place. Then we all went inside aaina mahal and then parag mal palace (Palace of prince of Kutch). In old days Indian kings are very fond of safaris and shooting animals. There are lots of tiger and other animal skins preserved in palace. At around 12 we started from there for Khavada (Border to indo-pak). We went to a sumrasar a handicraft village on the way. We visit kala rakshak there, and Italian women had started this couple of years ago. The take the work from outside, design it on suits etc and give work to local villagers. She is running her business with a very unique idea. Things there are costly then the normal one but as they are very good and fine worked as things are designed by fashion designers. Then went to a local house in the village and lady showed us her work on various cloths. They served us tea and explained us types of handicrafts available in villages of Kutch. She also explained us how generally they calculate the cost of work.
Cost of work = initial cost+ (no. of days) * 10-15 rs/day. And all depends on complexity of design. Sometime they took 3-4 months to complete one design. I bought one beautiful and colorful turan from her costing me Rs 900. Then we went to another house where 4-5 ladies doing there crafting work sitting on cane bed in yard. We have seen there work also. They explained us how handicraft started in these villages. There was no work for women in these remote areas, so to spend there time they started doing crafts etc and putting their ideas in cloths. And go to city in 2-3 months to sell it in market and get some money to run their house. And this way it start getting popular and many people from big cities start giving orders to them. And they start getting good business from them.
We started moving towards khavada after visiting couple of more houses. We crossed Tropic of cancer on our way. We had couple of short halts to click few snaps, and finally reached khavada. We all were hungry so lunch was at highest priority before deciding anything else. We order food at one road side dhaba; there was not much option there. I met one BSF guy from Haryana, he give me some details about the place. We went to Gandhigram near to that place after lunch but they were selling things at 2-3 times the normal price. So came back to khavada market and purchase few things from one shop in the market. Then we started for a temple on the top of a hill from where we planned to see sunset in great Rann of Kutch. There is one big temple there and generally people stay there for one night before coming down. There is one BSF camp also on the hill top. We can see great Rann of Kutch from there and we can also see India bridge from there (Only BSF is allowed after that bridge till –pak border). We enjoyed that place till sunset, it was freezing cold there in the night and cold wind was carrying salt from Great Rann which was irritating to eyes. We started from that hill back to bhuj; munna was shivering as he was not wearing any jacket. We had an awesome Gujarati thali in dinner at Annapurna, this place serve best food in bhuj. There is lot of option here to choose food here as per your need.
After having stomach full of food we went back to our hotel and had cup of tea before going to bed.
Due to less stay days in bhuj we couldn’t visit couple of places but if we got time we will visit these places next time like handicraft villages hodka, banni, Lakhpat fort. And indo-pak border at visapur, you need to take permissions to visit this place from bhuj collector office. Naliya is also a good place near by, this place has underground air force airport for fighter jet, 2 minutes flight to Karachi.
One another place called panodra; it has a power station from limestone. You don’t have to dig much soil to get limestone.
Than monastery is another good place to visit.
Distance traveled: - 218KM.
Day 6:-
Bhuj- Mandvi
Today Neil is leaving back to pune because he has to shift into his new house and vacate old one. We discussed best and fastest way to reach back pune from bhuj. Me and munna went through bhuj and click few snaps in front of fort and pond behind that fort. Then we move to bhujadi village to see Surjan handicraft center. This village has one unique artificial village (Must to visit place) where artists from remote location have there huts, making there specialized things. We purchase some more things from there like shawl, suits etc. We also purchase few mudwall paintings from there. Then munna received call from hotel because by mistake he took keys of hotel along with him. In the mean time I visited surjan. They have various center in Ahmadabad, bhuj etc. They have 3000 women working for them in different villages in Kutch district working from there home. This place has real Kutch design but is very costly.
Munna came back and we move towards mandvi. There was a huge Jain temple before mandavi, we stopped there for some time, and actually it is a group of 72 temples together. Still some part of temple was under construction and stone carving work was going on.
We reached there at around 4 but couldn’t found place stay as there are limited place there for stay. Finally got stay at newly build jitender hotel, rooms were spacious and good. We drop our luggage there and immediately rush towards beach. There is a small port at mandavi where we went while going towards beach. That may not be functional but seems dramatic like port in Hindi movies. We stopped at roadside ship building yard. They construct ships in winter because water level is very less or none at some places in mandavi.
Beach was good and one side of beach is full with wind mills. Place was looking very beautiful, we click lot of snaps till dawn. Munna had got one 80’s yashica fully mechanical medium format camera he purchase for 4k. He tried clicking few snaps from it. Then we both went to Buddha kitchen, best place in mandvi for food. Food was really awesome there.
Distance traveled: 95KM.
Day7:
Mandvi – Junnagarh
After waking up we went to mandavi fort. It was well conserved and well maintained fort. King of mandavi is still staying in the palace, so 1st floor is locked for public, Otherwise you can buy a ticket to visit fort and ticket for carrying camera. But place is so beautiful and view from top is really awesome. This palace was used for shooting in various bollywood movies like Hum Dil de chuke sanam, lagaan etc. We spend some time relaxing there and came back to hotel and pack our stuff to start moving towards mundra/junagarh.
Mundra port was blocked for public and we got very depressed after reaching there as it is around 8-10 km inside the city and we didn’t get entry so we have to come back from there. This place is open for visitors only on Wednesday and Saturday and that too without any bag/luggage and camera.
Then we thought to move toward Rajkot via anjar and bahoo. You have to take right turn from moorve towards Rajkot, this is shorter route so we choose this.
This place is famous for quartz for watch, so all watch companies have there plants at this place. We went via tankara; it’s a village of Maharishi dayanand. My native place rohtak (Haryana) has a university on his name MDU (Marashi Dayanand University). We reached Rajkot at around 7PM so we thought to move ahead towards Junnagarh and reached there at around 9:30 pm. This is a small city so we thought to have dinner first before hunting for any place to stay. We stayed in a hotel near to market; it’s a comfortable place and a spacious yard ahead.
Distance: 463 KM
Day 8:-
Junnagarh - somnath - Diu
We had paranthas in breakfast and went to upperkot fort after that. This fort was full of shit and absolutely UN maintained and neglected. But still some places like kund, old guns etc were good. This was whole depressing place and nothing much to see, so better to go till gir and stay there for 1-2 days to see Gir Lions.
We reach back from fort to hotel pack our bags and started for somnath temple. This temple is on beach side facing sea and is very beautiful. Camera was not allowed inside the temple. But we had captured its view of beach and sea. We spend some time sitting in garden of temple facing sea. Then we started for Diu for New Year bash. We reach one beach in Diu for sunset and after that we started looking for some place to stay. We had planned to stay at sea village resort but due to New Year almost all rooms are booked and he was offering us a shady place there at very high price which we decline.
He was asking for 3500 for 2 nights, BTW this place was good and have a private kind of beach just at sunset point.
We moved to nagoa beach at hotel Ganga sagar @Rs1200 for 2 nights. Rooms were not that good but we have there is no other good option in our budget. Nagoa beach has lot of resorts but they are pretty expensive. Diu is a small clean island connected by road now. Places and roads are well lighted. We sit on beach for some time. Beach was good and calm. At around 9:30 we move towards town to had dinner. We went to Diu fort before dinner; it was very well lit and was looking very beautiful. Whole place was well lit and decorated may be because of New Year. We had dinner at one restaurant and went back to Nagoa beach to our hotel. It’s around 8km from town.
Distance: 224km
Day9:-
Diu (New Year Party)
We wake up at around 9 and after having tea we move to one fisher’s village vanakbora nearby at around 11:30. We met one person there who is owner of several boats which usually catch fishes in sea and sell in market or export it. We ask him about the process of catching fishes to storing and selling in market. First we have to collect money to build boat and it takes around 3-4 months in construction of boat and it costs around 15-17 lacks for a mid-size boat.
Then around 4 people go for sailing to catch fishes and it is generally around 7-10 days trip. They have one whole ice room where they store fishes on the boat. Then he showed us generator room which contains one truck engine which they use as steamer. He also told us that each boat carries one wireless with them to keep people on port informing about their status. And if they have any machine failure or any other problem then they call some mechanic or person from port to correct it. They sell these fishes to exporters and they send it to Europe, Canada, and US etc. One trip on boat has final profit of 30k, and they have around 3-4 trips per month. This person owns 7 such boats and 2 new boats are under construction.
This person is really a rich man, (3*7*30) 63k profit per month. But still he eat his food with workers on the boat, this kind of things really motivate them to do work for him.
Then we went back to our place to have lunch and slept for some time. Then we were just roaming around and met Rohan there. He came from Ahmadabad to this place for New Year with his IIM classmates. Somebody has stolen pant of one of his friend and that pant has keys of his bike. So they plan to get some person from city to make keys for them.
Nagoa beach is very much crowdie now with lot of gujjus group there just to drink alcohol there. Alcohol is still ban in Gujarat so they came to DIU to drinks and it is a UT so it’s cheaper also. Most of them were over drunked and still drinking and out of control, vomiting here and there. So we decide to leave this beach immediately and move towards church in Diu town. We went to caves after visiting church and then to sunset point. It was a beautiful view from sunset point. You have to climb on cliff to reach sunset point. This was the same beach where we were had came to stay first in resort.
After sunset we went to town market and went to one custom shop. Diu town market is also very crowdie by this time as lot of people from nearby cities came to this place to celebrate New Year. Munna purchased some stuff from custom shop and then we went to have food in one of the restaurant. They didn’t allow us to sit inside family room and condition outside is bad so we thought to purchase breezers and move back to Nagoa beach.
We went to Hokas restaurant but he also refuse to give us entry as it’s only for couples tonight. We both we just to start our bikes thinking no value for singles on new year eve but manager came next moment and invited us to take dinner there. We had buffer dinner there @400\person but food was really awesome. They server us chicken, fish, veg, roti, raita, rice etc and deserts also. This was the best food I had got yet in Diu, place was also very romantic as bonfire on one side with light music around. We moved out of that restaurant at around 11, manager insisted us to keep joining them for New Year but then we thought to sit on beach that time. Then we went to STD booth to call our pals but they are not fully operational so we drop our plans and sat on beach.
At around 11:50 lady owner of our hotel get 2 waiters along with full boxes of crackers. They start fireworks sharp at 12 and it lasts for 30 minutes. She must have spend around 30-40k on these fireworks. One local was telling us that she has a tradition of fireworks every year. Munna and me gave wish to each other and went for sleep.
Distance: 50km
Day10:-
Diu-bhavnagar-baruch
We wake up early today as we have to start back for pune. We stop on one roadside dhaba “Paranthas House” but he didn’t serve paranthas before 2 pm so we moved ahead and had our food and one roadside place, but food was good there. We came across a world’s biggest ship breaking yard “Alang”. Many business men came to this place to purchase secondhand furniture at very cheap price and sell it in cities. You can get world class water proof furniture here. Gujarat highways are always occupied with trucks as there are lots of industries there. Gujarat is most industrialized state in India. We went to Bhavnagar-dholira-tarapur-valsad-vadodra-baruch. We had our dinner at hotel kamat near toll plaza; food was really great at valsad, Gujarati thali. Then we start searching for place at Baruch but couldn’t find any place so we rode ahead to ankaleshwar and stay in one hotel there. This place has a huge chemical factory so you have to be very curious about the smell there.
Distance: 535Km
Day-11
Ankaleshwar- Pune
We wake up at around 7:30 and then after taking batch we went down to have breakfast. I had 3 paranthas there and then we load our saddle bags and luggage on bike and start following NH8. Valsad-vapi-manor-mandavi. We eat “ublaoo” near Surat, potato are keep in sand in on pot and fill it with sand and then give it heat from outside. It is served with lemon, must to try snacks.
Then we took turn towards Thana and bypass Mumbai via Mumbra village, it was very crowdie place. We took left before toll bridge to thane after crossing on bridge and reach panvel. We had cup of tea on one roadside dhaba, it is just opposite to on resort where Riders mania 05 was organized. We memorize those days and ride back to pune via lonavala and finally reached pune around 8PM.
Distance: 475KM
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS:-
1) Beautiful dholavira ruins.
2) CROSSING RANN OF KUTCH
3) Handicraft villages of Kutch.
For more snaps:-
http://picasaweb.google.com/gvbahl
Labels: adesar, bachau, bhuj, bhujadi, dholavira, diu, halvad, harrapa, junnagarh, kala rakshak, khavada, Mandvi, nagoa beach, Rann of kutch, Royal Enfield, saputara, somnath, Surjan, tikar
posted by Gaurav Bahl @ 4:00 AM
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