BoP Anniversary Ride - Rann of Kutch (Part I)

Once again, I'm back to blogging after almost a year. Around this time last year, I was pondering over my professional life, whether to move to a new city or stay put, etc. I chose to move; my new job in Pune exposed me to exciting opportunities and fantastic people. However, motorcycling took a backseat for a long time. The working week tired me out much more than ever and I was simply unable to manage my time for the first few months. Slowly though, I got a grip over my schedule and pushed myself to free up my weekends. I went on a few short rides with fellow BoPian Ajit and Sanjeev, a biker I met at my new workplace.

However, early on, Satish, Dips and I had scratched out a rough plan for the 2016 Anniversary ride and I diligently saved up my few leaves throughout the year. The destination was always Rann of Kutch, but concerns about rain and slush in November made us reconsider and we started exploring alternate plans. Lower 'lip' of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, East Coast - all were considered at one point of time. Finally though, more riders joined in (while Satish backed out) and by shifting the dates to December, we managed to stick to the original plan - Rann of Kutch Anniversary ride.

Dates: 14-25th December, 2016

Route taken/Places visited:
Pune-Mumbai-Surat-Baroda-Santalpur-Dholavira-Bhuj-Kalo Dungar-India Bridge-White Desert-Lakhpat-Narayan Sarovar-Mandvi-Ahmedabad-Baroda-Mumbai-Pune

Riders:

1. Ankit Gupta - Silver RE Classic 350 - The Leader
2. Diptinder Singh Chhabra - Black RE Electra 4S - The Hairstyle-changer
3. Krishnatreya Brindavanam - Silver RE Electra TS 350 - The Warrior
4. Zaheer Saifi - Black RE Electra 4S - The Follower 

Total distance traversed: 3,081 kms

The ride preparations had started at least a month in advance. I'd purchased a new ViaTerra tank-bag. Much before that, I'd shopped for new arm-guards, knee-guards and gloves. These turned out to be a great topic of conversation with my co-riders and strangers alike, as they have outer plates of steel which lent a 'warrior' look to me. A kind friend also lent me her tent and sleeping bag as we planned to camp somewhere.

DAY 1 - 14th December (Pune to Surat)

The day's destination was Surat, 420 kms from Pune. Day 1 and most of Day 2 were to be solo stretches. I was now completely comfortable with solo rides, but what caused some trepidation was the distance. I hadn't covered anything more than 120 kms a day in the past 9 months, though 420 a day is well within my comfort zone. I started off sharp at 6 AM and made my way towards Mumbai via the old highway. The ride till Mumbai was uneventful, except for hunger pangs; I hadn't stopped at my usual breakfast place in Lonavala and post that, I surprisingly didn't find any place to eat. Somewhere on the outskirts of Mumbai, I stopped and had a samosa with chai and decided to break for an early lunch afterwards.

One thing continually preying on my mind was the cash crunch. Demonetization was in full force and ATMs dried out faster than a drop of water on a hot tawa. I was carrying around Rs 1200 in cash and wanted to avoid as many cash transactions as I could, because on rides, emergency situations almost always require hard cash. So 85 kms before Surat, I stopped for lunch at what seemed to be a highway plaza with multiple restaurants under the same roof. Somehow, the mood for continental food caught me and I ordered a Cheese Macaroni and Lemon Tea. Unfortunately, this was the beginning of my cash woes for that day because their card machine wasn't working and I ended up parting with some of my precious cash.

It was then a smooth ride to Surat where I got caught in the evening traffic. I hadn't paid attention to the signboards and ended up going 14-15 kms into the main city; the next morning, I'd be coming back to the highway to go to Baroda and there was a big hotel right at the turning that I could have taken. Anyway, I was dead tired and found a hotel somewhere in the city. All thoughts of sleep came down crashing when I was told that they accept ONLY cash payments. It was a decent-sized establishment who could have easily transacted with card or net banking. All my pleas fell on deaf ears though. I wasn't in any mood to pack my luggage again and ride through the horrendous traffic to find another hotel, so I decided to freshen up and find an ATM. A hotel staff guy accompanied me and we tried 4 ATMs nearby, all to no avail. I then asked him to guide me to the nearest restaurant that would accept card payments. There, while getting my dinner packed, I got hold of some cash by paying 5% extra on my card. Cash issues resolved, I went back to the hotel. Here, however, I decided to push the hotel staff further (matter of principle - what if I hadn't gotten cash?). I kept asking them to give me their account details so that I could transfer the money. One guy tried to intimidate me by telling me that I can't leave the hotel premises without paying cash. I stuck to my ground for quite sometime. In the end though, I was too sleepy to argue further and promised to pay them cash in the morning, which I duly did before leaving.

This part of me may surprise a few readers - why get into trouble unnecessarily in a new city when I had cash in hand? But to me, it was matter of principle. It isn't anything to be proud of, this trait of mine, but it is how I am. I knew where to stop though, so no harm done.

DAY 2 - 15th December (Surat to Baroda)

This was to be a reunion day on 2 fronts. Firstly, I was to go to my friend AR's place in Baroda for breakfast. I was meeting her after a year and coincidentally, she had come back home from the US only a few days before. The ride from Surat to Baroda was short and sweet - 150 kms. Using Google Maps, I found my way to AR's place where we had an excellent breakfast and spent some time chatting about our college days.

The second reunion of the day was, of course, with my co-riders. We had planned to meet up in Radhanpur, around 280 kms from Baroda. Previous night, Dips had called me to ask if I could ride till Rapar that day. I refused, because both the distance (540+ kms from Surat) and my stopover at Baroda would have made it a tough ride for me. So we met up at Radhanpur as planned. After some bantering about my gear, we shifted to more serious topics - that of the unmentionable in a dry state. We obtained some information from a bunch of curious people, procured the necessary supplies and rode the next 40-odd kms to Santalpur to our night's stay.

This place was attached to a regular highway dhaba. At a very affordable price, we had a massive room with 7 beds for ourselves. We started our BBB session with a huge packet of chakhna that Ankit had procured, a fuck-load of onions and lemons and some "Impact". We filled in each other on our respective adventures. Rajaji commenced his dialogue of the ride - "sooji hai?" Dinner was at the 24/7 dhaba downstairs, after which we passed out for the night.

Link to Part II