Roadtrip Day 13: After Maharashtra, its time for Saurashtra

Some more bike issues. Looks like Gujrat isn't liking me much :)

I was up early at 5:30 AM. Reason being, I had not decided the plan for the day. I had one thing decided that if I intend to ride, I will start early. Plus I had also not written the blog post for the previous day. So there was a good amount of anxiety which woke me up early.

While deciding, I figured that I am nearing 3k kms & as per the suggestion from the mechanic I met in Navasari (read my Day 6 post for detail), I should get the engine oil changed. I could do it at my next destination too but I was not sure if I end up being in a big city with lot of options. So I decided to get it done at Bhuj itself. So now I am ready with the day’s first plan. I now need to wait for shops to be open. But for rest of the day, I still had not decided.

My wife was up early as well. Apparently she with a few friends had decided to do cycle ride to a place close to Bangalore. My friend Amit was also with her. I spoke to Amit & Amit suggested that I should do the Saurashtra tour considering that it would be hard to be in Gujrat again. I think that talk tilted the decision in favour of Saurashtra ride. I decided to head towards Jamnagar & say goodbye to Bhuj & White Rann.

After completing the blog post & getting ready by 8 AM, I had to kill time till 9 when the shops would open. Glance in google maps for bullet shops revealed that most of the shops will not open that day as it was a Sunday. Bummer. I had to look for alternatives now. The plan B would be to ride to Jamanagar & then get the engine oil replaced there.

I decided to have some morning breakfast & landed at hospital road (the same place where I went the day before) but with my bike fully loaded as I had packed stuff on it. It drew attention from curious folks. There is a group of 50+ aged folks to whom I decided to ask about the oil change thing. We had a conversation & they eventually offered me a lot of local delicacies to eat from the hawker next to whom we were standing. They looked influential folks from Bhuj & had come to the place for breakfast after swim session in Harsimran lake nearby. Apparently, it has been their morning routing for past .. a lot of years .. I guess. I got reminded of the breakfast session I used to do with my friends (specially Ankit Sen) in Bhopal after our morning runs. Those were good days :).

While most folks took my number, I do not remember the names except for Atul bhai (the one in the pic above) whose number I had saved :).

I had forgotten to mention that on Day 12, I had got call from Reliance State head of Gujrat, Mr Suhas, who got notified of my blog & good words I said about Reliance. He had personally called me to thank me & had told me that if I need any help in/around Gujrat, I can reach out to him. I dropped him a word inquiring if it is possible to do oil change at a Reliance petrol pump & one Mr Harshil called me up at around 9:30 AM & asked me to come to a petrol pump towards Mandvi where they could get it done.

After completing my breakfast, I headed towards the petrol pump. I called up Jitu bhai (mechanic at Navsari) & told him about the plan. He suggested NOT to get it done at petrol pump as opening the oil nut is a bit tricky & most folks would not be aware of how do it on an old bullet. I decided to still take my chances & made Jitu bhai speak to folks at the pump. They were able to open & drain the oil. Only around a ltr of oil came out. They filled the oil but looks like they overfilled it. After some deliberation, we decided it is ok, I paid them & started on my ride towards Jamnagar. I immediately noticed the change in engine sound & it sounded much more ‘smooth & pleasant’. I thought I did the change well in time as just 1 ltr of old engine oil meant pretty less oil remaining in engine. I praised my back for a good call that I took :).

The Reliance petrol pump did not have petrol so I got it filled from a Shell petrol pump that I spotted during my ride back to Bhuj. I decided to try them to compare my bike’s performance on Shell vs Reliance petrol. Their petrol was expense by Rs 3 but I felt that is ok.

It was quite hot & the road to Bhachau, a major town on the way, was bad. I had tried looking for a 5 ltr can (my can had fell off during the night ride from White Rann the previous day) but could not find anything in Bhuj. So I just had 2 ltrs of water with me. I usually do not buy bottled water as I am against creating more plastic trash. I stopped at a hotel hoping to pick one 5 ltr can. They did not have one. I had tea & while starting to return back, noticed some oil spillover in my rear tyre & area around that (behind engine). I concluded that the engine oil nut is not tightened enough & went to a puncture shop next to the hotel. I asked for 20 number spanner & started tightening the nut myself. It just did not stop to tighten & thats when I remembered what the Navsari mechanic Jitu bhai told me about destroying the threads if you tighten the nut a bit too much.

Well I knew I had screwed things up but now I am over the phase of blaming myself & the situation :). Seeing my situation that I was bent on my knees & trying to do something which most normal folks usually dont, the shop owner suggested a mechanic a km down the road. I went there who eventually guided me to a mechanic in town Indraprasth, locally known as Jagga. It was 1 PM by this time.

I was able to find Jagga’s shop with some asking around. His real name is Jagadish apparently. I told him the situation & he immediately told me that oil spill is from the top & not from the nut, as the oil has been filled beyond the high level mark. He took the oil out & also figured that the threads are ‘screwed’ too (well I not only misidentified the problem, I had now created one more problem :-] ). He also mentioned that the previous oil wasn’t drained well & the new oil is also in a ‘bad state’ now. He suggested that I get a proper oil change done in my next stop (Jamnagar) as this oil change is pretty much useless now. I remembered what my Navsari mechanic Jitu bhai has said, but well, you dont learn till you screw things up :).

I tried paying money to Jagga bhai but he refused to take. Finally I could only pay him Rs 50 & then started towards my trip towards Jamnagar. Jagga bhai shop is named Chamunda auto center. They had all kinds of engine oil with them including the synthetic one. I had thought of getting oil change done in Bhuj thinking the smaller places might not have good oil, but apparently, I was wrong.

I started on my route to Jamnagar again. Reached Shikarpur at around 3 PM & took pictures of vast open spaces, windmills, electric towers. At one place, the roads actually diverge & goes pretty further away from each (very similar to how train lines diverge closer to a bridge). You could see vehicles coming from other side at a distance. The scene definitely is something you want to take a stop & watch.

The road that I was on goes towards Ahmedabad & I had to take a diversion towards Jamnagar (Pipalia to be particular), which I missed but realized fairly quickly. So I backtracked & took the turn. The road from that point was pretty bad for a good 20-30 km of stretch. After Bhuj Bhachua stretch & this road, I was tempted to call this a day of riding on bad roads :).

I also decided to take picture of Gir cows (& bulls) that are visible throughout Kutch area. They looked pretty magnificient.

Another prominent cow/bull that you would see have pretty large horns. When I looked at them, they reminded me of Yamraj & I decided to call them Yamraj cow. Whenever I tried to take their pic & when they look at me trying to take their pic, I was so terrified by their look (& their horns) that I decide to just the idea & move on. Below is picture from internet for your reference.

At around 5 PM, while still navigating the bad road, I saw someone from tata winger kind of vehicle, giving me a thumbs up. Up ahead, he had stopped his vehicle & I stopped by next to him. He was Mr Digpal Jadeja from Rajkot. He told me that he has covered all parts of India on his thunderbird. I requested for a pic & he obliged.

I told him about the oil change fiasco & he said that he could help me in Rajkot. He took my number. It was a narrow road on which we had parked vehicle & both of us were in hurry to start driving. I realized that I do not have his number & then I tried ‘chasing him’ but quickly realized that I am missing my goggles. I decided to backtrack & found them smashed on the road :(. I mourned loss of them for a moment & continued on my onward journey.

The road became better at around 5:30 PM. I was able to ride faster but the challenge was the cross winds. They were sometime so strong that if I start look elsewhere (a sight or something) I soon get drifted towards the edge of the road. Also, this part of the journey was much more cooler. I could notice cool breeze at around 5:30 PM itself while during my Bhuj journey, the air stayed warm till like 6:30 in the evening.

I crossed a small river & the view of the flowing water mesmerized me a bit. I was not sure why. But I anyway decided to halt there, gaze at the flowing water for a few minutes & also took a pic. I think the river name was Unad (or something) as I saw on the google map.

I also stopped at a tea shop to make a few calls for my stay at Jamanagar. This is my usual protocol now. Search for ‘AC dormitory’ showed up a few result. I called up Eco Inn hotel & they said bed is available. So I decided to head towards them. Their reviews looked decent too. There was another Relax hotel which I decided to keep as backup.

I was soon crossing windmills & there is one that was put up pretty close to the main road. For the first time, I realized the ‘swishing’ sound windmills create & it was fairly loud/noticeable.

I entered Jamnagar at around 7 PM & rode towards Eco Inn hotel. The beds were decent but the toilet did not look well maintained to me with water spilled on the floor. My previous stays in Surat (Be Happy dorm) & Bhuj (Hotel In & Out) were much better & maintained. I let my bike parked at Eco Inn & walked towards Relax dorm which was at walking distance on TownHall circle. Apparently the place was closed for renovation.

So far, usually the first place I checked, I liked & had checked in, at least in Gujrat. So I was not really prepared for looking around a lot. But guess I had to. I looked up ‘lodges in jamanagar’ on both google search & maps. One Ashiana hotel came up but when I called the hotel, the person did not budge on room tarrif. I called up Jay Khodiyar hotel as its reviews on Goibibo looked good. The room tarrifs looked in my budget but when I went to check the rooms, they were pretty old. So I decided to skip it too.

I had met Mr Amit from Jamnagar during my dorm stay in Bhuj (he was staying next to me) & had long conversation & next day breakfast with him. I had told Amit about my arrival to Jamnagar. He had sent me his location & was insistent to meet him. I called him up asking for any suggestions he had to which he asked me to come to his place. Amit’s place is next to Air force station in Jamanagar & I decided to give in to his request. I was at Amit ji’s place by 9:30 PM.

I had decided to act upon Jagga’s advice (mechanic from Indraprashtha) & have my oil change in Jamanagar next day. Might also get the threads of oil nut counterpart in the engine, redone too. Then I thought, maybe, I should find a good mechanic & take suggestion from him before getting any job done. Anyway, I decided that Day 14 is going to be spent with mechanics in Jamnagar. After having dinner & conversation with Amit ji, his wife & his daughter Prachi, I decided to call it a day.