[saket77]

Marvelous Arunabh! I am very happy for you that you have managed to keep the flames burning even after settling into your professional life. Very few lucky & really enthusiastic ones manage to do it and it makes me extremely happy to see you riding alone to these vast stretches of land & desert.

Beautiful pictures to go with it. Eager to read the entire story and how it unfolds.

Regards,
Saket

[//M]

The scenic Gadisar Lake surrounded with small temples in the vicinity.

[Seventhgear]

Great pics of a good solo ride Arunabh.Just hope you get to ride more before you are tied with responsibilities,deadlines etc etc.I really envy you for the time you could take off for the ride.Keep riding ..

[//M]

Some pics of the Jaisalmer Mandir Palace.

A major part of this palace has been transformed into a luxury hotel now. Only the other half of the palace is open to tourists.

[karzzexped]

Riding Solo. Tempting
The choice. Intriguing

A distinct and an interesting travelogue to say the least. Am implicitly glued to it. And wishing you the best ever for your future wonders.

Regards,
Karthik.

[//M]

Patwa Havelis, Jaisalmer.

[//M]

Some random pics.

A common sight in Jaisalmer


Dr.Bhang's shop, just outside the fort walls


Testimonials from Dr.Bhang's firang clients


Some of Dr.Bhang's preparations as per the menu


Dr.Bhang's Lassi Outlet


Yes ofcourse they mean "Chilled Beer"

[rudradeep]

Hi Arunabh,

First of all an excellent travelogue with awesome pictures. I am too planning a Rajasthan sojourn, starting from Bangalore, mid of next month and just wanted to enquire on the conditions of the roads that you encountered during your trip.

Thanks in Advance!!!

Regards,
Rudradeep.

[//M]

Originally Posted by rudradeep

Hi Arunabh,

First of all an excellent travelogue with awesome pictures. I am too planning a Rajasthan sojourn, starting from Bangalore, mid of next month and just wanted to enquire on the conditions of the roads that you encountered during your trip.

Thanks in Advance!!!

Regards,
Rudradeep.

Hello Rudradeep,

The road conditions are absolutely fantastic everywhere. Even the single lane roads have excellent surface. Western Rajasthan has some terrific stretches of tarmac, smooth and flat.

Infact I was surprised to see the roads in Gujarat. I had always heard that Gujarat has the country's best roads. I am sorry but that award goes to Tamil Nadu according to me. Having travelled the length and breadth of the country, I can safely say that.

The roads in Gujarat were great, but there are some pathetic stretches like the Vadodara-Ahmedabad highway (Only 4 wheelers are allowed on the expressway but the old highway is in a pathetic stretch now). Even Tharad-Radhanpur was a bumpy ride.

However, Rajasthan has amazing roads plus minimal traffic to slow you down. Just enjoy the vistas and you will be tempted to floor the pedal often.

With Regards,
Arunabh

[rakesh_r]

Excellent trip log and awesome pics.Finally the dessert storm meets her home turf . I too am planning to drive from Pune to Rajasthan either next month or in January. How did the bike fair? Hope you didn't face any issues post the engine work.

[ADI_77]

Originally Posted by //M

Hello Rudradeep,

Infact I was surprised to see the roads in Gujarat. I had always heard that Gujarat has the country's best roads. I am sorry but that award goes to Tamil Nadu according to me. Having travelled the length and breadth of the country, I can safely say that.

The roads in Gujarat were great, but there are some pathetic stretches like the Vadodara-Ahmedabad highway (Only 4 wheelers are allowed on the expressway but the old highway is in a pathetic stretch now). Even Tharad-Radhanpur was a bumpy ride.

You will find a few bad stretches of roads in every state in India, I have travelled extensively within Guj & Rajasthan and find the highways here to be the best. You can avoid the Tharad stretch by going through Deesa- Dhanera-Sanchore-Barmer. Presently the old Vadodara-A'bad highway is been widened into a 6 lane. The Expressway is one of the best roads in India. (2 wheelers not allowed) I usually cover the 94 Km stretch in almost 45 mins at a normal speed of 110.

[//M]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

Excellent trip log and awesome pics.Finally the dessert storm meets her home turf . I too am planning to drive from Pune to Rajasthan either next month or in January. How did the bike fair? Hope you didn't face any issues post the engine work.

Thank You sir.

The bike did pretty well, no issues at all. Not even a puncture to report.

Infact I was glad that it returned incredible fuel economy too, way beyond my expectations. While I have managed to get even 28-30 kpl from my bike on previous occasions, this time the Desert Storm returned a constant 32-33 kpl with even 35 kpl on a couple of occasions. Generally it returns around 20-22 kpl in urban conditions so the figures of 35 kpl were absolutely astounding.

[//M]

22nd October, Day 5

I got up late in the morning and went walking around town. It was one of those typical lazy mornings when you feel like sitting in armchair comfort reading a newspaper sipping chai.

I did the same. I had a glass of honey lemon ginger tea and newspaper at my disposal but I wasn’t really sitting in an armchair. It was more of a khatiya.

By 10 am, I left for Tanot. Jaisalmer-Bada Baug-Ramgarh is an excellent road with wind farms and zero traffic. Ramgarh has a fuel station, but I had enough fuel with me so I proceeded towards Tanot.

The Ramgarh-Tanot stretch is amazing. You see the vast desert, shrubs, dry trees and an arrow straight road with absolutely no traffic. The small village of Ranau on the way had lovely dunes too.

I reached Tanot and realized I was the only tourist there. Surprising, since it was Diwali and the time for Gujarati New Year so I was expecting a lot of tourists. Even in Jaisalmer apart from the usual European tourists, there were hardly any Indian tourists.

While in Tanot, I visited the Tanot Ray Mata Temple. I wanted to go to see the BP609 and the Indo-Pak border too but the sentry at the checkpost told me “bade sahib nai hai…aaj to permit nai milega idhar se”.

I was expecting this so I was not really disheartened. I proceeded towards Longewala.

to be continued...

Desert Storm doesn't looks out of place with the buildings of Jaisalmer


Rock formations on the way to Tanot




Windmills are a common sight in Western Rajasthan


Jaisalmer to Ramgarh stretch














Ramgarh to Tanot, absolutely zero traffic in this stretch




















Tanot Rai Mata Temple

[Secretariat]

Nice travelogue. nice pictures - Bravo. Having done a similar solo trip, albeit on four wheels, I was nodding and smiling through your travelogue.

The desert is actually a great place for solo journeys. The wide open spaces, the great roads, the crisp air, the pitch darkness and million stars in the night - can anything match that ? Of course a Desert Storm and a fearless rider completes the perfect picture !!

Looking forward to the rest of your travelogue.

[//M]

Continued...

In the entire stretch from Tanot – Sadewala – Longewala, the only person I saw was Wasim, the guy with a camel. I stopped, shared a smoke with him, clicked a pic and proceeded towards Longewala.

Longewala is a sensitive area and a border town. But again, I was flooded with questions from the army men about my Enfield and also why was I traveling alone.

Frankly, I was very hungry and was expecting Longewala to have a few dhabas since it’s a tourist place but this place has no grocery stores, let alone a dhaba or a settlement. I casually asked an army personal if any dhaba existed nearby as I was hungry.

He asked me to park the bike and come along with him. After going quite a distance, I saw atleast 20 army men sitting under a huge tree eating roti, dal and sabzi. I was invited to join them for food. While I initially insisted that I will carry on and have food somewhere else, they were warm enough to accommodate me. There were armymen from Sikkim, Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and having visited these places, it was fun to share experiences of my trips with them.

The Sikkim guy almost jumped with excitement when I mentioned about Lachung, Chungthang and about the delicious Chicken Thenthuk I had in Mangan earlier this year.

After clicking a few pics of the Pakistan regiment’s battle tank and also of that famous lorry, I thanked each and every army men there for the lunch. They were all praises about the Bullet and told me how it was a “dildaar” bike and that it had a “mastani chaal”. Majestic ride is what he meant.

On the way to Sadewala




Wasim and his camel posing with the Desert Storm


I saw quite a lot of them at Sadewala


On the way to Longewala






Freedom !!


Arrow straight road to Longewala




A small village near Longewala