Mumbai to Little Rann of Kutch

Dates - 25th Dec 09 - 27th Dec 09
Destination - Somewhere around Ahmedabad - Mount Abu? Black buck National Park? Rann again??
Riders
Karthik - D125 .. called KK in the log..
Vaibhav - P180 .. Me..
Amit - P200 .. Mr.Patil or Darthie..
Dhananjay - P220 - Dj..

Distance covered - 1370kms





It was decided that me and Dj would meet under the Bandra flyover at 5am on the Christmas morning to proceed towards Hub (Goregaon). There we would meet KK and Amit at 5.15am.
As it turned out, Dj got late as he had to fill up to the brim before he left Vashi.
I called up Mr.Patil to convey this and asked him to proceed with KK as they might ride slow given we had a D125 with us :)
Dj reached bandra at 5.30 and we were off in 5mins. Told Amit and KK to wait for us out of mumbai..
It was chilling out there on the highway.
The Western Express highway is all set for a fast ride.
The only bottleneck remaining is near Dahisar where we were greeted by huge traffic at a Toll booth..
Given that it was a 3 days weekend everybody was out on the road.

We met KK and Amit somewhere on the highway.. Had a small break and our group ride had started.
We decided to take regular pee and butt breaks wherever necessary.
Next stop was for capturing the beautiful sunrise somewhere on the highway..

Row of Coconut trees on the left

From Rann Ride - Part II

Beautiful sunrise on the right..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Next was a refueling stop for the ones who were not carrying enough..
i captured this there..
the Black Drongo..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Front profile :)

From Rann Ride - Part II

Dj posing..

From Rann Ride - Part II

We had our first group snap here..

From Rann Ride - Part II

and some posing..

From Rann Ride - Part II

We were taking regular stops for drinking and discarding water..
local temple..

From Rann Ride - Part II

locals at the temple..

From Rann Ride - Part II

somewhere on the way..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Next one was a bigger stop for refueling..
found some flowers..

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

I was multitasking this time.. dint want to miss out opportunities to click birds on the wires..
captured the Long tailed Shrike..

From Rann Ride - Part II

We all were hungry by now and were looking for a good looking dhaba where we could find something edible..
After some riding found one and went in..
after a lot of deliberation we ordered Sev Bhaji and Pav for lunch..

It was from here we tried to call the Forest resort in blackbuck national park but dint get any response. It was then we decided that we would ride to Rann on the next day given that we would reach very late to Bhavnagar and we dint know the road that well..

Some a local Bullet Tricycle called Chakada on the dhaba and our posers were ready :D

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

Also met a local with his bullet..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Dj posing.. owner watching..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Next big stop came for me when me and Dj spotted a pond near Vadodara where there were Black headed Ibis, Painted Storks, Sandpipers..
here are a few snaps from there..

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

It was almost sundown now and we were nearly 150kms off the days target.. thats ahmedabad ring road.. turned out to be Sarkhej at the end as Darth wanted to cover 15 more kms before we called it a day..
We reached Sarkhej at around 7.30pm.. Found a nice lodge near the ring road for Rs.400 per room..
Ordered dinner in the room itself and were off for a nice cozy sleep..

Decided to start as early as possible on the next morning as Amit wanted ride across the rann.. We would enter through Kharagodha and wanted to get out on the other end..

We got up on time and all were ready to leave by around 6.30am..
Started from the hotel and reached the ring road only to find Dj and Darth missing.. Me and KK decided to stop at the ring road and tried calling Darth.. Finally after sometime Darth came back and took us along..

Kept riding through the lovely interior roads in search of Virangam from where one has to reach Kharagodha..
Took our breakfast near Sanand..

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

Saw my Favourite bird for the first time..
Black Shouldered Kite..

From Rann Ride - Part II

For rann.. one has to ride from Viramgam towards Mandal.. There is a left just about 10kms before Mandal which says Wild Ass Sanctuary Kharagodha. Its around 15kms inside from here.

We reached kharagodha and kept riding till the roads turned into barren path.. we knew we were in the Rann..
Kept riding for sometime.. asking people for directions to Santalpur. It was N.E of kharagodha and we were told that we had to go through the rann.. We wanted to do that.
I thought i had my GPS mobile charged only to find that it wasnt charged fully..So we were just marking lat/longs for future ref.
But at one of these discussions with the locals, darth lost his map and got confused. Now we started asking for Sultanpur instead of Santalpur.

Sultanpur was just about 10kms across to the west.
We reached Sultanpur in no time but not before spending some time for photography in the rann.
First sight of the asiatic wild ass

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

Where do i go??

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

Still a long way to go..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Ass chaser

From Rann Ride - Part II

Started from Rann towards Vadodara .. which was to be our stop for the night. Stopped at a good looking road side dhaba at Surendranagar. Filled up ourselves to the core and started our journey back to the concrete jungle.

Saw a huge container on one of the dhabas and promptly stopped for some photos.

From Rann Ride - Part II

It was nearly sun down..

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

Stopped for the night some 20kms before Vadodara. Got a reach cheap deal at 150 per head for the night. The dinner was hilarious. Slept off and decided to roll at 6am the next morning. Got up on time and were off.

Dj saw this small farm somewhere on the way and we went in for some photos :D

From Rann Ride - Part II

From Rann Ride - Part II

Last stop was at Food Island which is about 175kms from mumbai.. But unfortunately the restaurant is closed for the past 2 months.. So had candy bar icecream instead.

Me and dj decided to ride on faster to mumbai as dj had to reach home early.. We met a p220dtsi riding near Jawhar. Dj decided to ride with him as he was going to Kharghar. I decided to move on alone from here.

Going though Mira Road was like going through torture. Potholes and traffic. I though i was having an amusement park ride after sometime.

Reached home at 6.00pm covering the last 175kms in 3hours :D

P.S - i always thought we were 4 riders.. but the photograph??

From Rann Ride - Part II