Rann of Kutch - (Bangalore - Gateway of Rann of Kutch)

                   Till now I thought that we plan for travel. But after coming back from Gujarat, I realized that it is the vice versa. We planned for Kanyakumari but it took us to Dhanushkoti. We planned for Chandrakani, but it took also to Truind , one of the most beautiful place I have seen. We planned for Rajamachi fort, but reached Lohagad,Ajanta and Ellora. Without planning it took me to Kovalam beach.  Few days back I cancelled my plan to Chadar, to a trip which is alien to me. I was never fond of bikes. So I never learnt bike riding.  Thanks to my friends who took me to remote places and the experience was worth taking risk. What it has taught me. Nothing bigger than Nature. We just need to be humble, we need to love people, we need to aim high.

Rann of Kutch was such a beautiful bike trip, I never thought of making it. It is heaven and it showed me the other side of nature. In two or three places, I thought we are gone, then I have no option but to trust the rider.  In the end it was a safe ride.

Whole plan was done by Rakesh and organised by Hyderabad Adventurous and Trekker's club.

Plan was this :

DEC 20 - AHMEDABAD - ARRIVAL

DEC 21 - AHMEDABAD - PATAN - MODHERA - ZAINABAD - 215 KM

DEC 22 - ZAINABAD - LRK - ADESAR - RAPAR - GRK - DHOLAVIRA - 276 KM / 170 KM IF OFFROAD IS AVAILABLE

DEC 23 - DHOLAVIRA - BHUJ - 219 KM

DEC 24 - BHUJ - LUNA - DAYAPAR - LAKHPAT - NARAYAN SAROVAR - NALIYA - 274 KM

DEC 25 - NALIYA - MANDVI - 90 KM

DEC 26 - MANDVI- AHMEDABAD - 385 KM

But itenararies changed to :

DEC 20 - MUMBAI ARRIVAL : JUHU BEACH

              AHMEDABAD - ARRIVAL

DEC 21 - AHMEDABAD - PATAN - MODHERA - ZAINABAD -  ACTUAL DISTANCE COVERED - 240 KM

DEC 22 - ZAINABAD - LRK - ADESAR - RAPAR - GRK - DHOLAVIRA - 230 KM

DEC 23 - DHOLAVIRA - BHUJ - 230 KM

DEC 24 - BHUJ - BHIRANDIYAR - DHORDO - HAJIPIR - LAKHPAT - 230 KM

DEC 25 - LAKHPAT - NARAYAN SAROVAR -NALIYA - MANDVI - 175 KM

DEC 26 - MANDVI- AHMEDABAD - 400 KM

DEC 27 - LEAVE TO MUMBAI  7:30 AM

              GATEWAY OF INDIA, MUMBAI

              WORLI SEA LINK

               LOCAL FOODS

We were 6 people. Rakesh and Kiran are my buddies. Bala, Sudarshan, Sri became friends via Rakesh. Rakesh did a lot of negotiation with Prithvi and finalized the plan. We said no to separate vehicle for our luggage. We decided to tie our luggage in the back of the bike.  Our flight was at 20th December 8:30 AM.  Before that  we had a tasty and heavy breakfast in VIP lounge. That was really awesome.  Our Jet airways flight came on time and we left to Mumbai.

Juhu beach Mumbai

Our first visit was Mumbai. We did this to reduce our travel cost. Direct flight to Ahmedabad was costing more. We left to Juhu beach in auto.

Juhu beach is not much different from any other beach. But what I liked about this beach is people playing cricket on the sea shore. It was crowded but it was giving that glimpse of dream city, Mumbai.  I would like to visit here again and again.

Local train Mumbai (Santa cruz -Dadar)

Experiencing Mumbai local train was much heard experience in social network. It was good but not much different from Pune-Lonavala train.  We didn't see much crowd, may be because it was weekend.  We wanted to visit Worli Sea link. But because of time constraints, we couldn't visit. Finally we had local food in dadar. Missal pav and kichadi curry was tasty.

                                                          After having food, we came back to airport. Again we spent more time in airport and Mumbai airport is so big that you find one or the other thing to pass your time. Flight was delayed and I found the book store to pass my time. Kiran purchased the only copy left of "Open" , an autobiography of Andre Agassi , the tennis legend.

Ahmedabad

When the flight landed on the land of legends; father of nation and Iron man of India, we were thrilled. We took a cab to our hotel Kailash Inn.  The wide roads, the  resting chairs on the road side, Sabarmati river welcomed us. We straight away went to check our bikes with our guide Prithvi. One bike was about to come in the morning. After checking our bikes we went to have lunch. Prithvi and Kiran went to Pathan galli, where you get good non veg food. Gujarat is one state where you find more vegetarian hotels than non veg. We had local chats like dabeli, kachori,samosa and then ended with one Kulfi.

Hotel was cleanly maintained and it was good enough for us. Morning we had Poha as breakfast in Navarangpur and were waiting for our bikes. One bike had little problem in clutch and we were delayed.  Our first destination was Rani ki Vav.

Sad part of whole trip was , Sudarshan had to leave in the middle of the trip because of personal emergency back home.

Day 1:

Rani ki Vav

My hunt for UNESCO heritage centres continued here also. Rani ki vav which is near to Pathan is one of the marvellous architecture you find in Gujarat. The architecture which dates back to 11th century is based on Gurjara architecture.

This stepwell was built by Solanky dynasty and was treat to watch. The inverted temple is having the step by step carvings on the walls. There are some damage on the walls, since it is an excavated heritage centre which was flooded by river Saraswati.

Carvings are similar to the one we find in south. But the speciality of this stepwell is, it is an inverted temple highlighting the sanctity of water.

If you see the pictures , you will get to know more than architectural brilliance , it is the technological brilliance that will make you wonder about the technological advancement of that era. The underwater storage, the strength of architecture has no resemblance in modern world. That is why Rani ki vav is regarded as one of the beautiful stepwell of ancient India.

Sun temple Modhera

After having late lunch in Pathan, we moved to Sun temple Modhera. A beautiful location with variety of birds made it more interesting. The architecture looked like the one in Konark. I have seen many times Konark temple in travel stories.

One of the calmest temple which reminded me of Mudubidre temple . But this was much better when comes to architecture. Another contribution by solanki dynasty to Indian art and architecture, dates back to 11th century AD.

The stepped tank which is known as Suryakunda is one of the best I have seen because of the artistic pattern designed on the steps.  People sat for a while and enjoyed the calmness. Certainly evening is the best time to visit.

Even after standing for more than 1000 years, this architecture has not lost its charm. That is the beauty of this temple. Archaeological survey of India is taking care of the temple welfare and I really appreciate the work done by them.


After witnessing the magnificent Sun temple we moved to Zainabad , the gateway to Rann of Kutch.
I will continue the Rann of Kutch experience in next post.

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