TRACK THE RIDE
Odo reads 26353, diu
Its possible to sleep under the sun. The guys at the beach
prove it, wake up at 8 and plead with the guys with rooms
to use the toilet. They dont mind either, use the pretext
to sleep till nine. The married couple are up early and ready
and go for a leisurely breakfast at the ferry wharf and a
stroll through the diu village market. Farida buys more bedsheets
to burn.
The start is way too leisurely, Vinod and Gaurav busy sending
pics and logs to dean for upload, Amol sorting out bike problems,
rest of the guys hanging around waiting to go. Finally manage
to kick out around 1 in the afternoon. First stop is the petrol
pump, it takes almost three quarters of an hour to fill up
14 bikes from the lone dispenser.
![](rides/west/gujarat/images/Pic(14).jpg)
The only ride of the day is about 115 km to Sasar Gir so its
possible to see the fort, church and Nagoa beach before we
hit the road.
![](rides/west/gujarat/images/Pic(12).jpg) ![](images/Set157_01.jpg)
The fort is very well maintained with a lot of different sections
and can take the better part of the day to experience fully.
Vinod etches out a huge 60 kph logo in the sand below so perfect,
it looks possible only with some high tech wizardry, the geek
(self confessed) he is. Some go up the fort, some hang around
at the base, sip nimbu paani, build relationships.
![](rides/west/gujarat/images/Pic(15)1.jpg)
Amol punches the head light of Teja's bike, then bangs the
front wheel into a wall, only to correct (partially) the squint
acquired in a fall the previous day. Tejas has a "ball
in the mouth" kind of look on his face. More nimbu paani
follows and Gaurav herds the guys onto a cross country track
to the nearby cliff for the mandatory line up photo. Various
angles are taken, corny lines initiated by, u guessed it,
Mr. Histasp, fly thick in the air, somebody quipps, "
take us from the back"... fortunately nobody laughs off
the cliff.
The beach calls, so does the food, the church is skipped.
The beach is a small stretch of clean fine sand with clear
sea, almost blue... the restaurant, a covered terrace on the
first floor overlooking the bay, the fort and the cliff to
our left to an array of lights spelling "DIU" to
a low flying aircraft. The food is ok, the view great, the
beer cheap.
Finally leave diu by 4 on a rough cracked road towards Sasan
Gir. The road gets better after a few kms till we reach Kodinar
town 40 km down. Kodinar is one of those places in India which
is connected to the rest of the country by potholes rather
than roads. Another 50 kms down we reach Talala town, which
has earned its place in history by Amol having the first puncture
in his bike's life there. We are about 18 kms from Sasan ,
its dark and the road is notorious for looting incidents.
So the ride is in a close pack, with Kyle and Gaurav packed
in a lil too close. Kyle's headlight not working. the ride
though is excellent, smooth surface rising and dipping softly,
the smell of foliage in the air and soothing sound of bulls
syncronised in a moderate speed.
A stop for tea on the way to Talala turns out to be an amazing
discovery. We are surrounded by onlookers as always, but this
time it turns out to be people of African origin speaking
Gujarati. We couldn't get the story of how they landed here
but are informed that they number more than 10,000 in this
area. Tea is excellent as it has always been ever since we
have entered in Gujarat and Vinod has flipped over it so much
he makes it a point to say it out. Others show their silent
appreciation by drinking endless cups of the brew.
![](rides/west/gujarat/images/Pic(21)1.jpg)
Finally reached Sasan village by 9-30 with the odo reading
26469. A reference led us to try booking us at the Taj Gir
lodge foolishly, we had been promised to be helped out as
much as possible. But at the Taj Gaurav was helped "out"
politely.
That turned out be quite a blessing in disguise as we got
a whole bungalow with a huge ground to ourselves for 2 nights
and a day for only Rs. 100 per head. The food was Gujarati
thali again much better this time. The conservator of forests
we met to get to start before the official time the next day,
turned out to b quite frustrated with class of tourists in
a wildlife sanctuary. We did not get any concessions about
the time. But he earned our respect as a genuine lover of
wildlife than just a govt. officer doing his job.
We retired for the night. A few prefering to sleep outside
on the charpais, only to know the next morning from the forest
ranger that leopards frequent that area at night and are known
to pick up their prey. Not that, that stopped them from repeating
the act the next night. Maybe the forest rangers advised the
leopards to stay away from Amol, Gaurav and Vinod.
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