Roadtrip Day 25: Start of rides after a hiatus - Rajkot to Palanpur [Fri Apr 2, 2021]
The day of riding slow but steady post engine work, meeting Raja bhai from Ahmedabad & overshooting the destination from Patan to Palanpur
P.S. Sorry for publishing this post super late. My rides had been going on great & I am covering 300 odd kms every day which has not left me much time to write blog posts. Plus, the days have become hot, so I have to leave early, loiter in the afternoon (this blog post is written from a hotel called Hotel Tawa Lily on the way from Jaipur to Delhi) & resume the ride in the evening to reach destination. I used to write posts during morning but now I just get up, get ready & start my ride early.
In my previous post, I had mentioned that I had a decent previous day ride to Gondal where the bike did fairly well for the 70 odd kms to & fro. Since the block & piston had been replaced, I had to ride the bike under 40 kmph. Bhavik bhai from Gondal had suggested that I can do 50 kmph too & I settled midway at 45 kmph. I had told Anand (my host at Ahmedabad) that I would leave early as the day have become pretty hot. Also, I did not have very high confidence on the bike so if something happens, I have a lot of time during the day to get the mechanic to the bike or vice versa.
I was up at 5:30 AM. I did not have a great sleep. I guess it was the anxiety on how the bike is going to perform post the engine work. By 6 AM, both Anubha bhai (wife of Anand) & Anand were up. Inspite of my recommendation of not preparing the breakfast that early, Anubha bhabhi was adamant that she will not make me leave without eating. By 6:30 I was done, dusted, had breakfast & was with my bike downstairs. It was a bit early so I decided to push my bike outside the apartment & start it there, not to disturb the neighbours. Nothing untoward happened & it was all good (I had memories from my Ahmedabad stay when the kicker spring broke when Samir & his wife came to see me off & the grand farewell got spoilt :-] ).
Special thanks to Anand for providing all the moral support in Rajkot. Without him, I would have probably packed my bags, left my bike in Rajkot & would have gone to Bangalore. Double thanks to Anubha bhabhi who ensured that I stayed well fed, hydrated & never miss a meal in Rajkot. My ride days had made me reduce my meals from 3 to 2 as I used to feel sleepy after lunch & used to avoid having meals then. But at Rajkot, I was back to my older schedule of 3 meals a day.
After leaving Anand’s place, I headed towards Patan. I had earlier planned to Palanpur but I got a call from Raja Aggarwal from Ahmedabad previous day, who suggested to do Patan as the road will be countryside plus Patan is closer compared to Palanpur. It made sense as well.
The ride started fine. I filled petrol at a Reliance petrol pump inside city limits. I was on Rajkot Ahmedabad highway till Surendranagar & it seemed like there is work going on the road at various places. I did manage to get some good scenes on the way.
While riding, I saw some antelope (I googled Nilgai to find the english name) grazing right next to the road. I was surprised & immediately stopped the bike to take a pic. They kept grazing for a few moments, then one antelope saw me, then he saw other antelopes. It seemed like they did some visual discussion among themselves & then started to run away from the road while kicking back (as if I am going to run behind them). I could manage to take the pic below.
I had been riding for an hour & then I realized one big downside of riding at 40 kmph. The slow uneventful rides make you sleepy. Plus I had not taken bath in the morning. I reached a prominent village & took a tea break.
It was ok after the break but the sleep did not go away completely. I took the planned detour at Surendranagar & the road has become countryside/narrow now. It also became marginally more scenic.
At that time, I remembered that Raja Aggarwal who had suggested me to go to Patan, had mentioned that if I happen to pass by closer to Ahmedabad, he would be happy to meet. I saw a route to Patan that goes via Viramgam & I decided to take that. I also messaged Raja & he acknolwedged that he would be there. We decided to meet there at 1 PM. We met at Honest hotel & Raja bhai had come with Jignesh bhai. Jignesh bhai is a hobbyist bullet tinkerer in Ahmedabad. We decided to have lunch & as usual, I was not allowed to pay the bill :). While leaving, Jignesh bhai checked my bike & said the engine seems to run fine. Raja bhai asked me a few curious questions around my attire etc. He was also surprised that the pics that I take are from my modest Redmi phone. While talking to him, it did feel like I am doing a big thing & he was pretty impressed with what I am doing. Thanks Raja bhai. Gestures like these has kept me going so far :). Raja bhai runs his own artificial jewllery business & we happen to talk a lot about Amazon & Bangalore food :).
We left the place at around 2:30. I decided to have a tea before leaving as I was afraid I am going to feel sleepy. The tea did not help much & I started feeling sleepy as soon as I started the ride. Plus the roads were pretty bad. The challenge on the stretch was that there were hardly any trees & hence no tree shade. I saw some shade where a truck guy had parked his truck & was sleeping in it. I parked my bike next to the truck. I despertately needed a place to sleep & decided to just lie down on the grass. After a 15 min nap, I decided to start riding again.
The drowsiness returned soon. I just decided to kept riding slow as there was not much traffic & I was anyway riding under 40 kmph. At around 6:30, I reached a prominent village (do not remember the name) where I had to take right turn. I saw a tea stall with some locals standing & I decided to stop by. They immediately started discussing if KA on my bike refers to Kerala or Karataka. I joined the conversation & cleared the air. The tea guy & I had conversation around Gujarat & some labour law changes that had recently came in. His name was Amartnath Yadav & I curiously asked if he is from UP to which he said yes. He offered me some more tea & at the end, refused to take money from me (now even strangers have started sponsoring my food). I decided to return the favour with a pic of his & his crew members.
I was actually doing pretty well time wise & slated to reach Patan in another 15 min. I decided to head towards Rani ki Vav as then I would be able to leave for onward journey the next day in the morning itself. I quickly changed destination on my map & started riding full throttle (which means at 50 kmph in the then situation) towards Rani ki Vav. I was there at 6:50 PM & the security folks told me that the place is closed at 6:30 PM. They did not heed much to my requests of being an outstation tourist. Frankly, I did not request much either. I decided to head to the city after taking a pic purely for memory (& blog) purpose.
Suddenly a thought flashed that it is just 7 PM & why shouldn’t I ride till Palanpur. That would reduce my distance till Pali that need to be covered on the subsequent day. I realized that bike holding well had bolstered my risk taking thinking. I had earlier checked a place called Shashwat hotel which had AC dormitory. I usually call the hotel before heading there but this time, I decided not to lose time on the call.
I took below pic while heading towards Palanpur.
Google map showed me 3 routes. I chose the route which seemed shortest & also seemed like country side road. It turned out to be good decision in the hindsight.
The first smaller country side stretch made my vehicle the fastest vehicle on it. There were other guys on bike & riding much slower. I got cat-called from 2 guys on the bike who quickly passed me. I was more amused than concerned/scared. My goggles also provided decent protection from insects & it seemed like a good ride. The road soon joined a wide road which looked like SH. I narrowly missed turn towards another countryside road on it towards Palanpur. This road was a lot of fun to ride. As soon as I entered the road, I saw an MH number Ambassador riding ahead of me. I was amused to see it. The driver soon decided to give me way & I obliged. It was now pitch dark & I had not checked the route in detail on the map. Suddenly a thought passed me that what if this is a jungle road. Is it safe to ride on a 2 wheeler on this ! I soon saw some folks walking & I saw some lights/villages too. It assuaged my fear & I kept riding.
It took me good 2 hours to reach Shashwat hotel. Closer to the city, I realized that Palanpur is pretty ‘posh’. There were large stores & city roads were pretty wide. Maybe, my expectation from Palanpur were not that high. I thought Surat, Rajkot, Ahmedabad are the only big cities in Gujarat. In some sense, Palanpur actually felt ‘grander’ than Rajkot to me.
Shashwat hotel was located in a gully from the main road. In the building, the hotel is on 2nd floor. I met Noorbhai at reception & asked him about bike parking. There was a iron grill at building entrance & Noorbhai asked me to park my bike inside the building. But then later I figured, the iron grill is never closed. So it is as good as parking bike on the gully. I asked Noorbhai if it would be safe from dogs & he assured me it will be.
While parking the bike, I saw this grumpy, sad, old cat sitting on the building wall. It wasn’t afraid to see me & just kept the same sad poker face. I clicked a pic of it :).
Inside, Shashwat dorm seemed well maintained. The fittings were most modern among all the hostels/dorms I had stayed in Gujarat. Having said that, the maintenance could have been better. I was given a dorm bed on the top inspite of the lower beds not being occupied, not sure why. The restrooms were clean but could have kept better. The AC in the dorm was weird, it felt more like a blower than an AC. The air used to come in burst after long gap. Having said that, for 200 bucks, it was also the cheapest dorm that I have stayed at, so far.
I went out to have dinner after taking bath & washing my clothes of the day (I wash my clothes daily). During the day, Jignesh bhai had told me how ‘Sev Tomato’ dish is a safe dish to order as it need to be prepared fresh every time, else the ‘sev’ will moisten. I saw Maya Parota house & decided to try the same trick. Unfortunately, the Sev Tomato wasn’t the one prepared freshly & I was too tired to complain. So I ate whatever got served & came back to dorm to catch some sleep. It was around 11:30 PM by then.
I somehow got up at around 2 AM feeling cold. That is when I realized that I probably have fever. Couple of thoughts flashed my mind - this could be loo, it could be food poisioning as I could still feel undigested Sev Tomato in my stomach, or it could be Covid. The last thought really got me thinking. If I should leave my bike in Palanpur (somewhere) & take a flight back to Bangalore or do I need to get quarantined in Palanpur itself. I should at least be able to escape to Rajkot but then, I would not want to see a family in such a situation. Multiple thoughts started running my mind. I decided to sleep over till morning to decide my & my journey’s fate. Rest in the next blog.