Recently i came back from a road trip to Gujurat (about 1700 kms round-trip). Patan and champaner were on the platter. I had invited darth_lucifer (from BCMT), however he could not make it due to prior commitments. But since he'd said he was interested in visiting Dholavira excavation site, i striked it off my itinerary for us to cover it together at a later date. Instead i took a detour to Nandurbar to meet Fr. Geoffrey D'lima of Janseva mandal in conjunction with some education projects.

Day 1

The plan was to start early, 5:00 AM on saturday 20th June, 2009. For the first time ever i managed to do that. I had hit the road bang on time. The destination was Patan. With a little more than 650 kms to cover i had to be very fast. The route was going to be

Mumbai - <NH8> - Ahmadabad - Mehesana - Chanasma - Patan

My calculations said that i may reach there at about 8:00 PM. But behold... i had _not_ taken into consideration that i was going to be on a GQ! This is a fast route. But it started only probably after crossing Vasai. Another slow patch was encountered after having crossed Surat. There was some bad news in the offing... the engine was showing signs of problems... as if for a few moments, intermitantly, the engine would behave as if it was going to halt... However i shrugged the chances of an engine seizure, and moved on.

Upon reaching Baroda, i accidentally entered the National Expressway - 1. Now nowhere did it say that mobikes cannot enter. I had a slight idea, but did not know for sure. So i took my chance. Only after covering about 6 kms, and encountering the toll-plaza, was i sent back. I returned and took the rather slow 2-laned NH-8 towards Ahmadabad. Just before entering Ahmadabad, you encounter the Sardar Patel Ring Road. I had to find a way towards Mehasana now. This was going to be pain-in-the-arse (but a much lesser one compared to the one encountered while finding the way back towards baroda 2 days later..) I reached Patan at about 6:30PM, pretty ahead of the schedule. No pictures for today as i had tucked the camera deep into the bag, tightly protected by polythene bags.
I took up a hotel room for Rs. 300 near Patan City. I was going to visit Rani-ki-vav and the Modhera Sun temple tomorrow. After resting for a while, it was time for dinner. I wanted to have an authentic Gujarati dinner. But after what i had that night, i concluded that probably i'll find better and healthier gujarati food back home in Mumbai!!

Day 2 - Rani ki WOW!

Today was going to be very lazy day! I was going to spend the whole day in Patan (not wanting to ride into a new place at night after my last (mis)adventure in Chikaldhara) With just two places to visit. I spent almost the whole morning at the room watching TV and catching up on some reading (titled Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen). I left for Rani-ki-vav at about noon.
The first thing you notice about Rani-ki-vav is.. well.. nothing! you step into a fenced area with a huge garden within.. and you see no stone structure.. For a while you wonder.. is this where i wanted to be? Then you see a stone block at a distance, which once approached, you realize is the one displaying information, and next to it is the vav. No wonder it was burried until 1960, around when it was excavated.

Rightly so, its a huge well, probably constructed for a queen with lots of sculpture/stone-construction around it. Such stepwells were somewhat common in those times in the region. This particular one is no less than a temple. Its just fantastic to see how creative one could get in those days with construction.

I came back to my hotel room after having spent time at the Vav. BTW, the gardens at all the monuments i had visited in Gujarat are simply awesome! You can just lie on the grass just doing nothing for hours at a stretch.

The Sun temple at Modhera was about 32 kms from Patan. I started for Modhera around about 3:00 PM. Like the Rani-ki-vav, The Sun temple too is an ornate structure. Some pictures...

Day 3

Today was going to be a journey to Champaner. The total distance was going to be about 250 kms. I started early, at about 6:30 am (I did not want to ride under the hot sun, if that was going to be the case). The route was going to be
Patan - Chanasma - Mehesana - Ahmadabad - Vadodra - Halol - Champaner/Pavagadh

Most of the route i had already covered during my ride towards Patan. But found it especially difficult to find a way to Vadodra from the ring road at Ahmadabad while not trying not to end up on the NE-1. I must have covered almost the complete ring road in my quest to find the right route (which eventually did not start at the NH-8 anyway!) When i finally found it, Ahmadabad - Vadodra journey was going to be

Ahmadabad - Mahamedabad - Nadiad - <NH-8> - Vadodra.

Nevertheless, i reached Champaner, only to find that there was no hotel to be seen around! This was a small place, and i was right in my decision not to reach the place at night. I started asking around for a hotel, and found out that some villagers themselves run small lodging facilities. Managed to find one such guy - Jigar Patel (9724346204/9099797664) - and after some bargaining, got the room for Rs 250. After having rested for about an hour i started towards Jami Masjid (which was very close to the room)

The other attraction at Pavagadh is the Kalika Mandir at the top of the Pavagadh mountains. This being a very active temple, lakhs of pilgrims come here every year. I could not visit this (technically i hadn't taken a bath!! To save riding time early morning, i had done that the previous evening.. :-P).

Day 4

Today i had to visit Fr Geoffrey D'Lime at Nandurbar. The plan was to reach Nandurbar early, meet Father, and leave for mumbai so that i am closer to home when i take a halt at night.
Nandurbar was about 220 kms from Pavagadh. But boy! the roads were bad as hell! I reached Nandurbar at about 2:00pm, a journey that should have taken about 4.5 hours took almost 7 hours!
Meeting Fr D'lima was a pleasure. He told me about the Janseva Mandal, which is an NGO run by him, working towards the educational betterment of the kids of nearby villages. It provides day boarding facilities to the children and among others, provides computer facilities for learning. I had visited with an objective of understanding the nuances of the projects and how i could help them in setting up the Moodle LMS for the NGO.

After having spent about 2 hours at Nandurbar, i left for mumbai with a target to reach Vapi by nightfall. However, my mobike was showing signs of performance deterioration, and i had to halt at Navapur with a purpose to get my bike checked. However, once reaching there, i did not feel like doing that looking at the larger risk that i may be facing if the mechanic cheated! I Spent the night a Navapur in a small hotel (could not find a decent enough lodging there) at Rs. 200.

Day 5

Day 5 was going to be a happy ride home. I had to ride slow.. mostly at 60 kph to ensure that i do actually reach home while still riding the saddle. I'd started at about 7:00 AM and reached home at 2:00 pm.

More pictures found here.