I had slept barely for 6 hours in the last two days. The last three being under fluttering Ladakhi prayer flags at Gaurav's place. A entire day of riding was ahead of me. And of course there was the anticipation of meeting the guys with whom I was going to thump across Gujarat. Little wonder I was unable to think straight and looking a bit like some hobo or tramp.

Strapping on my saddlebags (and tying them down for added safety) took 5 minutes. Warming up the bike another two. And then finally we were off, the three of us, Gaurav, Vinod and me, headed for Dahisar toll naka from where we were all supposed to kick off at 6:30.

Met Kyle Smit and Vaibhav for the first time.

Already seemed as if I had known Vinod and Gaurav for all my life.

And I had met Histasp at Goa for Rider Mania 2003.

The ride started smoothly; absolutely no hiccups with Vinod and Kyle leading the pack buddy fashion, me and Smit riding second (again buddy fashion) and Gaurav, Vaibhav and Histasp bringing up the rear. I was riding slowly, gauging my fellow riders idiocyncrasies and my bike's quixoticness. My grogginess and need for sleep had gone away somewhere. Helped of course by the collective thump of the RE's, the amazing roads (two-lane and smooth as a millpond) and the fact that we were riding through a forested area. And the fact that just when I was about to relax and cruise we would be caught up in a cavalcade of trucks.

The first stop was at Manor for a drink of water and a cup of tea. The camaraderie that was to characterize the entire ride was already evident.

Our second stop was at the Maharastra-Gujarat border and now onwards the traffic was really a bitch. It was here that Vaibhav had to go to get his PUC and Kyle and me had a small discussion about who was crazier, me or my bike.


Here onwards till Valsad it was a ride out of a proverbial nightmare. Trucks and trailers overtaking us in atrociously dangerous fashion, toll gates everywhere with lines and lines of trucks and really heavy traffic. Smit was everywhere. Now behind me in my rear view mirror, now ahead of me honking at the trucks ahead. Histasp was mostly behind us all, riding drag in his solid competent way, while Johnny was putting on sudden bursts of speed while recording the scenery all around in his cerebral Pentax.

The roads were no longer the good ones we had for the first 70 odd kilometers out of Mumbai. With the highways passing through the actual towns and cities in places and in various stages of repair. To add to this the weather was atrociously hot for what was winter and the going was really tough. We finally reached Valsad around 11:30 in the afternoon where we were met at Gundlav Chowkdi by Gujarat Bullet Club members- Mandeep(Founder), Sandeep and Gaurav Shukla. The stop was at a Dhaba where we had breakfast of Aloo Parathas and curd and washed it down with ice-cold Chaas (Gujarati for buttermilk flavoured with spices) served in recycled beer bottles.


Hereafter the traffic was relatively lesser but the road was again a bewildering maze of diversions and of course the usual bottlenecks of trucks lined up like people in a Railway Booking queue.

What with the concentration required to stay on the road, I was unable to catch much of the terrain we were passing through. The vistas mellowed a bit beyond Bharuch with groves of plantain and sugarcane paralleling the road on flat plains.

An interesting feature here on was the almost uniform look of the roadside hotels which seemed almost like inverted pagodas.

I was of course touched by the concern shown by everyone whenever we stopped for a cold drink of water or another round of chai. With Gaurav leading the group in asking me again and again if I was tired.

Finally we somehow reached Khed at around 6:30 where we were met by Amol and Aviral from
Ahmedabad. After another round of Chai all around we were finally set for the last stretch. I could imagine luxuriating in a cold bath and dream of finishing a truck load of ice-cream.


Amol led the way here and I must say the last 70 kilometers did seem the best part of this section of the ride. Almost no traffic, all the RE's formation riding and a very very dark night where seeing a fellow rider in front is almost a relief.

We finally reached Amol's place in Ahmedabad where many other Bulleteers from the Gujarat Bullet Community were already clustered, unpacked our respective bikes and got down to the serious business of partying and raconteuring!

I somehow managed to keep awake till I could hand over my bike to Mandeep (clutch plates seem to have gone kaput) and hit the bed at around 2 in the morning to go out like a light.



Next...
A two-laned stretch with rice fields all around and almost no traffic...(read on)


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