Roadtrip Day 17: Shivrajpur beach & Beyt Dwarka visit

The day spent like a tourist - small distance riding, sight seeing & long hiking

I did not get a good night sleep. Maybe because I slept late. I had thought of visiting Dwarkadhish temple in the morning, hoping to have some meditation time, but then morning started late for me. Also, I wanted to spend lesser time riding in the sun. So I decided to pack my stuff & leave for Shivrajpur beach & then Beyt Dwarka. Since it is going to be small ride day, I was not much concerned of the bike issues & was reasonably relaxed about it.

I was being told that Shivrajpur beach is one of the finest beaches of Gujrat. Beyt Dwarka has historical significance, it was the place where all the wifes of Krishna stayed. Beyt Dwarka is a large island & ferries run between Dwarka & Beyt Dwarka at regular intervals.

Having tea in the morning by walking to a shop nearby, has become my routine, at least in Gujrat. I clicked a pic of this vehicle locally known as ‘Chakra’. It is a old bullet modified to have a diesel carburator. Apparently, it gives a great mileage of 60-70 kmph & used extensively in Saurashtra & Kutch (might be used in Ahmedabad & those areas too, I am not sure).

I was ready to leave by 9 AM. I had packed my bags on the bike. Today, I packed them well. For a few days, I had problem of the tent cover fluttering as parts of it are left loose when I tried covering my bags with it & putting bungy chord on top of it. But today, I guess I had packed things in a way that such that the tent did not have any loose/fluttering parts to it.

Usually I have breakfast at a location near to my stay, but today, I decided to skip breakfast as I wanted to leave early (lesser sun riding). I soon started to see Shivrajpur beach boards & I reached there within half an hour of I leaving my hotel. Bike parking was suppose to be done outside the parking area (not sure why) & it was free. There was Rs 30 entry ticket for each person.

Also, as per sign boards, swimming costume to swim in the water was compulsory. I was surprised to see such enforcement in India & I did notice inside that it was followed to certain extent. It was one really well maintained beach with all kinds of amenities including drinking water. I had left my luggage tied on the bike & I did walk back to collect my water bottle as I was not sure how long the walk on the beach will be. So keeping water handy was a good idea.

The beach water was greenish & it did look like one of the cleanest water beach I have visited in India. There was area earmarked for swimming through flags.

There were motorboats & ride session cost was Rs 100 for around 2-3 min of ride. There is a regular boat which will take you deep into the sea for 100 bucks. There was also a provision to visit nearby island but apparently you are not allowed to get down there. The cost was Rs 500 for that. I could see a camel as well stationed there for a ride. I also had idli vada at a shop on the beach primarily for the shade & seating area they provided to the customers :).

After spending like 2 hours on the beach, I decided to continue towards Beyt Dwarka. Soon I figured that I do not have my goggles with me & I wondered that while taking my helmet off, it must have falled around the place my bike was parked. I was in no mood to hurry back because it has already been 2 hours :). But to my surprise, I found it placed on top of my bags on my bike.

I started to ride again at around 12 PM & had soon reached Mithapur, a city known for large salt factories. Apparently, ‘mitha’ means salt in Gujrat. Now thats ironical. Gujratis put sugar in daal/kadhi & call salt as ‘mitha’ which means sweet in hindi :). Well, thats incredible Gujrat I guess.

I saw some ferries parked at a place called Bavagor (on google maps). I clicked a picture of the place.

I soon reached Okha, which is the town at the end of the road & pretty much deadend of North Saurashtra. I had spoken to Harin bhai earlier who had suggested that I can park my bike at his hotel in Okha & take a ferry to Beyt Dwarka keeping minimal luggage. I was able to locate his hotel which was opposite Indian Oil petrol pump. Some of his staff helped me park my bike in the petrol pump. I then walked to the ferry point which I had crossed while reaching the pump. It was around 200m away & the walk with bag in that scorching sun, did feel burdensome.

The ferry cost Rs 20 which I had inquired with the person who had helped me park my bike. Ferry point had some minor commotion where there as a ferry parked, which was full, but some people started to get down, I was not sure what was the issue. Then another ferry got parked next to it & some folks moved to it. The other ferry guy was selectively allowing people & he stopped me first. But then, someone said something to him & then he allowed me. Well, I did not get into the details of the incidence & decided to enjoy the ferry view.

I saw some seagulls & I also briefly noticed a large turtle who took his head out but soon disappeared back into the water. It was probably a 2-3 min ride. Max 5 min. We soon got down at Beyt Dwarka . I could see a part of under construction bridge, which kind of made sense, as it would have allowed me to bring my bike. But guess the jetty owner lobby might have stalled the work through some political influence :).

I called up Ajay bhai, who is incharge at the camping location I was headed to. It was marked with name Jimit Holiday & Marine Education on Google Map. I later got to know that it is a place which conduct camps for school kids & only recently allowed families to come & stay. Ajay bhai sent someone to pick me up on the bike as the place was around 2 kms from the ferry point.

What caught my attention at the place is the innovative chair which is created out of vehicle tires. There are multiple of these lying around.

The tents were not exactly cosy but are fine for the purpose. It has 6 mattresses, pillows & blankets (not sure who would need blanket in the season). It was pretty hot inside, although there is a provision of table fan, & most folks were sitting outside the tent under the shade. Since I did not have a good night sleep, I decided to catch some sleep.

I was up by 3:30 PM. It was still hot outside so I just decided to sit in the sitout area of the tent. There was me & one more group of folks in there. Later, I talked to them & figured that they are a photography company from Ahmedabad & were here at the location for shooting pictures for one of their assignments. By 5 PM, I decided to take a stroll on the beach & that is when I saw a lot of local folks getting settled & some horses & bikes going to the far end of the beach. I was being told that it was a horse race which happens every ‘Jumme ki Raat’. I started walking to the farther end & caught glimpse of the race too.

I had earlier thought of visiting Beyt Dwarka temple in the evening as it opens at 5 PM but I soon found my calling in the walk so I ditched the temple visit plan & continued my walk. The beach further up was part rocky & had lot of sea weeds. Later I got to know that like Narara beach, this part of the beach also harbour marine life which gets exposed during low tide. Some of the landscape was very unique that I have not seen in the past.

While walking on the beach, I noticed some movement in the shrubs away from the beach & noticed some deer kind of creatures, who hid themselves as soon as they saw me. Later I got to know that place harbors ‘Neel Gaay’.

It was 6:40 PM & I had been walking for like an hour now. I realized that it was time to head back. I looked at Google map & saw that I have come pretty far from my location. Idea of doing the entire Beyt beach circuit crossed my mind but then I just laughed the feeling off :). I saw a lake on the map & decided to walk to it. I saw some very unique migratory birds with color of orange/pink on them. I tried taking a pic from far but guess it did not come that well.

Since my phone was dying, I was not using much of GPS to navigate through shrubs to reach the lake. While tracing my path back to the beach, it did feel like the game they showed in the NPCB movie (it is a Malyalam movie) in which folks track their way through a jungle to reach the beach. It wasn’t that dense though :).

I started to walk back as it was becoming dark. While closer to my tent location, the idea flashed in my mind - since there are herbivore animals, what if there are carnivores too. Well, I thought, I have survived this far, I should survive now too. With the thought & sometimes, cursorily looking over shrubs next to me, I tried walking as far away from them & as closer to beach as possible. I was back at the tents at around 8 PM.

Later in the night, I was talking to one Nikhil bhai, who is cook at Jimit. He told me how he has toured half of Gujrat on his splendor bike. He also talked about issues related to bullet as lot of locals who drive ‘Chakra’ face issues with the engine/crank specifically.

Later while having dinner, I met Mittal bhai & his crew. Mittal bhai is an avid traveller himself & he talked about his past of quitting IT job in Mumbai & relocating back to Gujrat to start his own photography firm. He was with his team of 8 odd folks. He has this regime of doing Ladakh ride via Spiti every year on his bike (he does one way & ships his back back to Gujrat). I had great time talking to these folks.

Plan for tomorrow is to getup early & then head back to Dwarka, pick my bike & start riding towards Somanth. It is going to be a long ride so I have to leave early. I have spotted a place to stay at Somnath. I also look forward to the ride as it would be mostly coastal ride & should be fun. Lets see.