A weekend trip.

Planning
There was a marriage in family coming up in Dec 2010 at Katni in Madhya Pradesh which is about 950 kms from Vadodara. I planned a biking trip to attend the marriage and researched all routes with detail. Then one day my elder cousin brother called and told me that he was counting on me to help him manage the travelling of marriage party to and fro by train. This put an immediate end to my planning. I had read some where – “Do not plan, it makes God laugh”

As the end of calendar year was approaching I had an intense desire to go on a bike trip. I deviously planned and sent my wife to home in Thane at the year end. I was not able to manage long leave so decided to visit near by places. Udaipur I had already traveled, west Gujarat could wait as I had better plans for it, didn’t want to go to Madhya Pradesh side due to emotions of previous planning failure, so after some more searching I decided upon Saputara. And this time there was no need to think which bike to take.

Taking the journey
On 30^thDec I left home at 0610 hrs. The hand gloves I bought for Katni trip didn't go waste. It was still dark in the morning and I had to face the oncoming vehicles’ high beam. Yes, if ever I become a sage I will curse every such driver to face a flash of bright light for every km they drive. After about 25-30 kms, the gloves became cold and the chill started to seep through it. My first stop was Palej, (about 50 kms). There was a small fire burning at a nearby tea stall on which I warmed up my palms and gloves. Had some rest, a cup of tea and continued my journey towards my destination. The dawn was just breaking and I could see sun rising on my left side. I reached Ankleshwar and had breakfast in Ashirwad hotel where I always ate when I visited Ankleshwar on job

I didn’t had a GPS enabled handset then. Print outs of Google map helped me a lot on this trip or I would have surely got lost...of course it would be fun, but that was not how I intended to have it then.

Travelling through many villages and on not so good roads, I reached Ukai. I decided to see the Ukai dam and called Nimesh Kedia for a quick guidance as he lives nearby. But this guy was in Cochin enjoying holiday and at that time was busy getting some pictures clicked. He was supposed to call me back in 5 minutes which turned out to be 07 hrs and 30 minutes long. He must be living in a low gravity field where time moves slowly relative to that of earth.

I couldn't get much detail from him. After little enquiry locally, I decided not to visit the dam and continued my journey further. I reached Ahwa shortly and filled up petrol as I had read somewhere that there are no petrol pumps in Saputara. On the initial part of road to Saputara from Ahwa, there was some construction activity on the road going on due to which there was some mud and loose grit and stones on the road. Because of this and my poor judjement at a curve, I once skidded and fell trying to unavoidably squeeze my bike from the narrow space between the two drums kept on the side of road.

While travelling through the Dang forest, I came across a river where I stopped to enjoy the water and have rest. There was a small waterfall which gave me a chance to test my newly learned photography skill. Below are the results.

Flowing water

Water fall captured in "motion"

Next I reached Mahal. There were few guys sitting at the road corner to whom I asked about nearby places which can be visited. Gira falls particularly interested me which was about 35 kms from Mahal. The road to reach Gira falls from Mahal was through hills and with many steep climbs and few slopes. It was fun driving alone in this ghat like terrain. 

View from road leading to Gira falls

The road after the hills was okay but the last 10 kms to Gira falls was bad. They forgot to put tar on the road. Covering those 10 kms feeled to me like travelling for eternity on an infinitely long road.

That infinitely long road

I reached Gira falls and landed a huge disappointment.

Gira falls

As you can see a very thin stream of water was falling and the fall was not accessible easily. I could only see it from the edge of a cliff. It must be breathtaking to watch it in the rainy season when lakhs of litres of water would fall from such a height. I returned and again travel for eternity on that infinitely long road to cover those 10 kms back.

The road is not straight even for a kilometer in the Dang forest. All those curves made me motion sick. I got that typical feeling inside my stomach and stopped for a rest. I realised that I was sweating so I removed my jacket and didn't wear it till the rest of the journey. A police van filled with many prisoners passed me.

Saputara
I reached Saputara after covering the remaining 30 kms. As it was 30th Dec and some paragliding festival was going on, the rent of hotels were high.  At one hotel, the owner didn’t take me take me as I was single. He told me that when there are two or more people then they can handle each other if someone gets drunk or if there is some trouble. He didn’t want to get into that mess. I thought what would he do if all his guests in the group come drunk fully? I didn’t ask him about that. After much searching I found a guest house, Ganesh Niwas, on cot basis whose owner charged me Rs 300 after much bargaining. You can rent the top floor which is a nice place if you want to enjoy 31st Dec with just few guests. The maid in the guest house was a girl of about 12-14 years of age whose parents lived in nearby village named Malegaon. I asked her why she was working and not studying. The answer she gave me brought me to reality about the level of gender equality in India. Her parents didn't want her to study as she was a girl and would ultimately end up managing housework after marriage. She would rather work and earn money. And she has an elder brother who goes to school.

In the evening I went to the Table Top to watch sunset. Table top is a flat open space on probably the top most point of Saputara.

Table top of Saputara

Just after sunset as viewed from table top

Horse riding

This guy was unable to mount the horse from ground. The horse had to be brought below the swing. Now guess how this man mounted the horse...

Dabang

As night fell I came down.

Saputara's boating place

Rescue boat with oars?? What is this for? To fish out dead bodies??

There was an orchestra organized along with the paragliding festival. I attended it for about half an hour. Now it was time to hunt for an eating place. A typical eating place found anywhere is a collection of different stalls at one place selling varieties of item. It is also present in Saputara where I had my dinner there and went to sleep.

I got up at 07:45 am. By 08:15 I completed daily morning chores. There was a rose garden near the guest house so I decided to take some pictures before leaving.

There are other flowers too

Misal Pav
I left at around 09:00 am and went straight to the place where I had my dinner last evening. There were two food stalls open. Had a Kanda poha and 2 vada pav; both of which were double their regular price elsewhere. I wished I eat less so that there will be more space for the misal pav but I was hungry. Misal pav was the reason I included Nasik in this trip. The exit “gate” of Saputara was wide, you feel that road immediately widens as we leave Saputara. I was wondering why to make a exit gate so wide thus giving an impression that Saputara is happy that people are leaving…then I realized that it is also an entrance gate…

The drive between Saputara and Nasik was pleasant due to good roads and the warmth of sun in winter. I passed many beautiful spots which I now feel bad about writing as I didn’t stop any where to click pictures.

Few kilometers before Nasik there is a lake. I am not able to recall the name of the place (Ozarkhed?); it is near some industrial area. In final year of engineering our class went for a factory visit and while returning some of us guys took a dip in the lake. We wanted to go just thigh deep so that we remain practically dry, but when water reached our undergarments there was no point in remaining dry so we took a dip completely and enjoyed the water. One of my friends Kalpesh Desai, who knows swimming, took me a little further into the lake with him and left me there. I didn’t know how to swim and I also do not know till date, how I reached to safety in shallow waters at that moment on my own. It was the first time I decided to learn swimming which I have not done it yet.

I reached Nasik after about 2 hrs of driving and went straight to Barve’s misal pav stall. Its named “Om Sai”. When we were in final year of engineering Amit Mhatre and I would daily have a misal pav at Barve’s “joint” and that was the reason why we bunked our first lecture almost daily. No, getting up late was not the actual reason…we always tried to wake up early but somehow managed to sleep till 10:15 am. One thing that we were not at liberty to do at that time was eat papad along with misal pav. It was Rs 1 each but we could not – sort of – “afford” it. We would eat a pav instead which was also the same cost. It was our brunch.

I had the misal pav with dahi and “tarri wala rassa”, and two papads along with it – one for me and another for Amit. Let me tell you…I was very much satisfied.

I decided to visit Viju’s hotel Rajmata, one of our hang-out place near college. He was not at the counter. Nevertheless, I had a tea which refreshed a lot of memories. It was then that I decided to visit the Chemical Engineering department in the college. There I met Mane sir, Jain sir and Mawal sir. Jain sir looks like he has lost some weight and Mawal sir has gained some. Mane sir is as he was.

Entrance to my degree college

To Vapi

I started towards Vapi. There encountered were some really bad road patches, 80% of them in Maharashtra state. I stopped at a place to take a rest below a tree. What I saw there was amazing. A snake was having breakfast. I think the prey was a chameleon. I watched the whole process of snake consuming its prey. After clicking few pics of the process I left without taking rest.

Hind limbs and tail of the prey can be seen. The body of snake has expanded to take the prey in

Almost in. Some part of tail can be yet seen outside the mouth.

Siesta time

Next I stopped at a village named Daxila. I met an old man there who was kind enough to ask if needed water. After talking to an old man I came to know that panchayat election results were being declared. He personally favoured the 'samraai' system. Its a Gujarati/Marathi word which mean electing your leader by forming a common opinion without the formal process of voting. This saved time and money.

Below is the picture of one of the winners.

After going few more kilometers, when I was not able to travel more without taking rest, I stopped at a place where a foot high boundary was built on both side of the road. You know a sort of “katta”. May be there was a river/gutter passing below the road. It was dry at that time. On that boundary wall at the road side I slept for about an hour. I use my helmet as pillow. When I got up, I had some glucose and left for Vapi. I stayed at Samir’s house. He and his wife were requesting us (me and my wife) to visit them since past many months. So, at least 50% of their request was fulfilled by my visit. It felt nice to sleep in a home.

Back to Vadodara
Next morning I left at about 7:30 am amid protests by Samir and his wife. I tried to convince them that if one starts early in the morning then more distance can be covered without fatigue. They understood and let me go after having nice tea. I had some more breakfast in Navsari, bought a mixed fruit juice tetrapack and continued my journey towards Vadodara. The highway NH 8 is in excellent condition. I drove at speeds of 70-80 km/hr in several patches. This considerably reduced my travel time. Near Vadodara there were many vendors selling “Ponk” at the road side. “Ponk” is raw cereal like wheat, jawari etc cooked in hot sand. It is then separated from the husk and is eaten. Ponk is made only in winter. It should be eaten as soon at is cooked.

Ponk being cooked in hot sand

Beating cooked ponk to separate it from husk

Ready to eat.

I tried some ponk there and as I liked it, I bought some. I reached Vadodara reaching by 0230 hrs, bought lunch and ate it along with the ponk at my home. Thats when I came to know when does the ponk tastes best. After lunch I had a nice sleep. This was the end of one of my weekend trips of many in future.