[jomson13]

Most of my so called 'rides' have been relatively short and have been in and around Pune. All the usual spots (Lavasa, Lonavala, Dhom dam, Sinhagad etc.) had been covered. But all these rides had been relatively short; start off in the morning and you are back by afternoon. The total distance covered would be around 150 - 180 kms. The longest that I had ever done in one go was 240 kms - from Pune to Sangli. This was what triggered the want to push myself and my bike a bit more.

I am part of a biking group here in Pune and most of my rides have been with them. We have a pretty active whatsapp group to plan for upcoming rides, discuss and bike related news, issues etc. Sometime early in August, there was a member who suggested that we plan for a ride to the Statue of unity. This would involve around 1200 kms of riding spread over 3 days. The suggested dates were 20,21,22 September. The rationale was that the monsoons would relent after Ganesh visarjan and we should have clear weather to welcome us in Gujarat.

At the very outset I felt that this plan was hugely ambitious. Riding in a group of 10-14 riders and expecting to cover around 500kms in 12 hours was not feasible as per me. In any case, I was not to enthused with the idea of riding at night - that too on an unknown road. I made my displeasure known to the group and made it clear that I shall leave a bit later (say around 4 or 5am) and meet them directly at the hotel in Rajpipla (this is the closest town to Kevadia - the place where the statue is located)
Thankfully for me, there was another rider who did not want to ride at night and we decided to team up and ride together.
So there were 3 distinct groups converging towards Rajpipla.
Group 1 - scheduled to leave on 20th September at 12 am from Pune
Group 2 - scheduled to leave on 20th September at 5am from Mumbai
Group 3 - me and another friend - scheduled to leave pune at 4am on 20th September

Ride preparations -
I already had most of the gear, the only new purchase I made was that of the mobile holder. After a brief research I purchased the Autofy make unit from amazon. Installed it myself and hooked up the wires to the battery. For some reason it charges only the powerbank and not the phone! Seems to be a faulty unit, but decided to stick with it since I did not have time to return this one and get a replacement.
Got the bike serviced a week before the trip. I planned to pack my luggage in two bags. One was a slightly biggish backpack which would be tied down to the back seat. This would have all the major luggage.
The second would be the small and handy quechua bag which would hold water, chargers and money.



Everything fit nicely into one single bag which was held down onto the rear seat with some bungee cords.



Now that the plans and equipment were ready all we did was to pray for a dry spell in the unusually long rainy season that our country faced this year.

Day 1 - Ride to Kevadia - 20th September 2019

I can never sleep well before any trip and this one was no different. I was up at 3 am and went through the morning routines in a jiffy. After a quick goodbye to a very sleepy wife, I proceeded to load the bag onto the bike.
My riding partner was due to meet me at Nashik phata and so I headed to the meet up point.

It was around 4.30 am when we started from Nashik phata. The plan was to ride towards Nashik via NH 60, bypass Nashik city and head towards Dindori and then continue via the Saputara route towards our destination.
It was quite foggy in the morning and visibility was a slight issue. We were extra careful while riding in the night and I had to keep my visor open since I have a smoky visor.

The first stop - some early morning tea!


Some pictures from the breaks we took while riding:


Having started at 4 am and not having had anything other than one cup of tea up until now, we felt our stomach's rumbling when we reached Nashik. It was around 8 am and we spent some time searching for some good breakfast joints on our way. Finally we found this one which was offering us some very special Misal! We were the first customers of the day and it took them a bit longer to serve us but the wait was worth it.



Never seen papad being served with Misal, but I wasn't complaining though!


The next couple of hours were probably the most adventurous of the entire trip. The road conditions started steadily declining as we left Nashik city and headed for the Maharashtra - Gujarat border. Our average speed slowed considerably and I spent a lot of time contemplating how nice it would have been to have had something like a himalayan to just stand up and glide over all these bad patches of road. Lush green fields between the bad patches were a true blessing since we would stop under the pretext of clicking pictures whereas the real reason was to give some rest to our aching behinds!






Our next stop was Saputara - which is a hill station right at the Maharashtra - Gujarat border. As soon as we crossed over into Gujarat, the road quality dramatically improved. The icing on the cake were the series of long sweeping corners which we jumped right into. I lost count of the number of corners but I'm sure there would have been at least 30 of them. Traffic was sparse since it was almost lunchtime - I guess most of the people travel to Saputara early to spend the entire day at the top.

They have a nice garden and have done some pretty decent landscaping at the top.


We hit this bridge on our way down. The camera doesn't do justice to the view.




Making good use of the corners to rub those chicken strips away!





We decided to continue a little bit further before we stopped for lunch since we were pumped up with the combination of good roads, magnificent views and a lot of twists and turns. We rode on and stopped at a place called Vyara for lunch around 3 pm. It was super hot now and some cool buttermilk in an air conditioned restaurant was exactly what we needed. After a simple lunch of dal tadka and jeera rice we set off on our final leg. Our breaks became more and more frequent now. Earlier we would ride for almost 70-80 kms or around 90 minutes before we took a 5 minute breather. Now this was reduced to 40-50 kms. My bike is not the best when it comes to seat comfort and I was beginning to understand why. Nevertheless we soldiered on and reached our stop for the day at 5:30 pm which was only half and hour after the first group (that had started at 2 am in the morning) had reached the stop.

Total distance covered - 509.7 kms
Total time taken - 13:30 hrs



Not the best place to park but we had no other option

[jomson13]

Day 2 - Visiting the statue of unity - 21 September 2019

Since we had a relatively big group and we had not booked our tickets online, we thought of reaching the complex early and buying tickets at the counter. A few of us who could manage to wake up early and get ready in time left from Rajpipla at 8 am. It is a 25 km ride to Kevadia and we had 4 laned highways with sparse traffic to welcome us in the morning. Needless to say we got a bit carried away and made good use of the empty roads. We were in really good spirits when we reached the statue of unity complex.

All of this quickly faded away when the person at the ticket counter told us that the tickets for the main observation deck were sold out! We were dumbstruck - how was that possible? We were the only people at the ticketing counter. Who had lapped up all the tickets?
Upon further enquiry we were told that it were the physical tickets that were sold out but the online tickets could still be bought. The only problem with that was that the online tickets were priced 4 times the physical tickets! A Rs. 300 ticket costs you Rs. 1200 online! We were in no mood to go back without taking in the view from the main observation deck (which is almost 150 meters from the ground). We tried booking tickets online but the site was giving us trouble, we tried booking through the counter by agreeing to pay the online price but that was not acceptable to the staff. Finally, since there was no other option available, we booked the general ticket which costs Rs. 150 and which does not have access to the main observation deck.

Some pictures from the statue of unity complex.

The general ticket that gives you access to everything but the main observation deck



The Iron man of India



The bikes lining up



The complex is really well done up and is well designed



The mighty Narmada and the sardar sarovar dam in the distant background



The view from his feet



All gates open at the sardar sarovar dam - We were told that this was a first



Brilliant daal baati for lunch - it was a short ride away from the main complex, but was completely worth it.
We found the restaurant section at the complex to be too overcrowded; most of their menu comprised of snacks.



We visited only the main statue complex and the sardar sarovar dam viewpoint. We did not have the patience to check out the valley of flowers and the other attractions at the complex. After a very filling lunch we headed back to the main complex and just lazed around in the shade until sunset. The last attraction for the day was the laser show. The show starts at 7:30 and lasts for 30 minutes. It's an amazingly well made show and you will find many videos of the entire show on YouTube. This was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Apologies for the grainy picture quality, my phone is not too happy in low light conditions









They also have lights on the dam in the evening and we managed to find a nice viewpoint to enjoy this sight





Now that we were done and dusted with what we had come for, it was time to start the return leg of the journey. We had made reservations at a hotel close to Valsad which was roughly 225 kms away. The plan was to get back to the Rajpipla hotel, pickup the already packed luggage and leave for Valsad by 9pm. This way we hoped to reach the next hotel around 12:30.
But fate had other plans for us, we were in for an exciting few hours up ahead of us.

When we were loading up our luggage at Rajpipla, one of us realized that he had lost his bike key. He did not have a spare key with him. The next half hour was spent looking for the key and also trying to figure out what are the other options available if the key was not to be found. Finally the key was found and we started off at 10:30 pm after a 90 minute delay. Now, reaching the Valsad hotel as per the plan seemed to be a bit out of reach and some of us were apprehensive. It was decided that we will ride till around 1 am and then look for hotels on the highway and call it a night.

The route that google maps showed us turned out to be a road under construction, the only thing more worse than the potholes was the constant stream of dust being kicked up by the bikes in front. The road did not have any streetlights either. We soldiered on trying to maintain a decent pace and kept taking breaks every 50 minutes. Google maps seemed to have taken us through some kind of short cut since we passed through narrow roads and saw a lot of residential spaces on our way. We finally made it to the highway (NH 48) around 1 pm. As we were waiting to regroup, I noticed that the main luggage box fitted on one of the bikes was missing. The bike rider and his pillion were not even aware that it had fallen off! Now we were looking at yet another delay, but thankfully one of the bike riders had seen this box lying on the side of the road and had managed to pick it up and get it with himself. He showed up in 10 minutes and that surely saved us a lot of time. The mounting bracket and fasteners for the box were in no condition to be re-used hence we had to tie it up to the stand by using normal ropes. The group agreed that since we had reached the highway, the rest of the journey would be much more comfortable and faster and hence we decided to stick to the original plan and head to the hotel near Valsad where we had already made reservations. The rest of the journey was un-eventful and we made it to our pre planned hotel at 3:30 am.
That was an end to an eventful day 2!

Day 3 - Ride back home - 22 September 2019

I was up at 8 am the next day and went through my morning routines pretty quickly. The plan was to start back for Pune as soon as possible. The rest of the group was going to stay back a bit longer and was going to visit a fellow riders house for breakfast. Wanting to get back home before nightfall, I had excused myself from this and had planned to ride back to Pune solo. Went through with the usual checks for the bike, lubed the chain a bit, loaded up my bags and I was ready to leave at 9 am. Filled up from an IOCL petrol bunk on the highway (fuel was cheaper by almost Rs. 2 compared to Pune). Next stop would be for breakfast and I was looking to have some proper Gujarati breakfast - came across a decent looking restaurant on the highway and decided to stop there for breakfast.

Ordered up a plate each of dhokla, fafda and jalebi. The Gujaratis sure know how to pair up their food - the soft and slightly spicy dhokla acts as a perfect companion to the crunchy, bland fafda. The crunchy jalebis were the perfect end to a very fulfilling breakfast. Just as the bike, I too was fully fueled up for the rest of the ride.







Valsad - Pune is roughly 330 kms and considering that most of the route was a highway I was pretty confident of reaching home by 5 pm. The plan was to take a 5 minute break every hour and to maintain cruising speeds of around 90 - 100 kmph mark. In city conditions the bike returns a range of almost 400kms so I did not need to worry about fuel for the rest of the ride. The bike was still running the company specified (TVS TRU4 10w30 synthetic, manufactured by BPCL) oil which is not very suitable for touring. The engine feels stressed and vibrations creep up around 7000 rpm. I changed over to Motul 7100 20w50 for my next trip (Pune - Hampi - Gokarna - Goa) and the results were much better (will come up with a separate thread for that trip soon)

Other than hitting some traffic in and around Thane, most of the ride was a breeze. It was a very sunny day and things started to get pretty hot in the afternoon. There was a brief spell of rain which did provide some respite and things started to get a bit better as I neared lonavala. I was on schedule and managed to get back home at 4:45 pm.

This trip involved many firsts; it was first time that I had ridden outside Maharashtra, First time that I had ridden 500 kms in one go and it was also my longest solo ride till date. All said and done, it was one memorable and enjoyable ride. Leaving you with some pictures taken on the way back to Pune.

Just some random stop on the highway





Saw this funny rock face somewhere after Thane. Traffic thinned down considerably after this.



The mandatory stop point at Lonavala. Managed to catch a view of a train entering into the tunnel!



Final numbers!

[BlackPearl]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[zaphodb]

Reads like a fun ride. About the seat comfort, have you considered getting some cushion under your seat cover from a local seat cover shop? Also just out of curiosity, where did you find the lost bike key?

[jomson13]

Originally Posted by zaphodb

Reads like a fun ride. About the seat comfort, have you considered getting some cushion under your seat cover from a local seat cover shop? Also just out of curiosity, where did you find the lost bike key?

Yes, the cushioned seat has been on my mind since sometime now. Maybe I will look for some options once this lockdown is over.

The key was under one of the bags!
No idea about how it got there.

[woodstock3001]

Amazing travelogue Jomson13.

I'm sure your trip will help me plan whenever I do Delhi - Statue of Unity - Delhi post this lock down ends but i will do in Car, with my wife & 2 kids and like you, even i'm bit adverse leaving late night / midnight & always prefer leaving at 4am, but this results in sleepless night due to trip excitement.

I have a question - Along with Statue of Unity, what are the other places one can cover / preferred , if we have couple of days extra in hand.

[pcpranav]

@Jomson13 : excellent thread, wishing you lots of happy & safe miles. The inner roads to Sapurata / Dang area are also lovely.

I had been to SoU in car with family just when it was inaugurated Nov-2018.
Just before the Covid19 restrictions, in Feb-2020 I was doing one more trip to Ahmedabad on my Versys650 (just the next week after my Guj Saurashtra solo trip - link HERE (Gujarat road trip - Queries)). In the return leg from Vadodara I re-routed to visited SoU, few pictures from outside area (didnt go inside) as I had a long way to ride back to Mumbai. I missed to take the Rajpipla - Ankleshwar route to reach highway, instead I took the longer & rough road via Netrang - Mandvi - Bardoli - Palsana to touch highway, via lots of forest area. It took a lot of my time that day, but was a good experience, though not recommended that stretch in dark.

Originally Posted by woodstock3001

I have a question - Along with Statue of Unity, what are the other places one can cover / preferred , if we have couple of days extra in hand.

Hi,
in a different thread, recently I had posted a PDF file for key attractions within Gujarat (originally I had made for another friend), check the post HERE (Gujarat road trip - Queries), maybe it helps you.

Since you planning all the way from Delhi, you could include few more points.

regards,
Pranav

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by jomson13

At the very outset I felt that this plan was hugely ambitious. Riding in a group of 10-14 riders and expecting to cover around 500kms in 12 hours was not feasible as per me. In any case, I was not to enthused with the idea of riding at night - that too on an unknown road. I made my displeasure known to the group and made it clear that I shall leave a bit later (say around 4 or 5am) and meet them directly at the hotel in Rajpipla (this is the closest town to Kevadia - the place where the statue is located)
Thankfully for me, there was another rider who did not want to ride at night and we decided to team up and ride together.
So there were 3 distinct groups converging towards Rajpipla.
Group 1 - scheduled to leave on 20th September at 12 am from Pune
Group 2 - scheduled to leave on 20th September at 5am from Mumbai
Group 3 - me and another friend - scheduled to leave pune at 4am on 20th September

While you were new to a long ride, appears, you are not new to a group ride and how typically a group behaves on a long ride [not filling fuel together / too many cigarette stops / wanting fancy food on a road-side dhaba]. I too either try to ride with very close rider buddies or solo. We plan everything and try to stick to it.

For eg - We try to stop at a dhaba which has a fuel out-let, we order food & fill the bike's tank till food arrives, use the loo etc, try to pay for food in advance & leave ASAP.

Originally Posted by jomson13

I can never sleep well before any trip and this one was no different. I was up at 3 am.

I do not know of any one [who take their motorcycles & motorcycling seriously] who has had a good sleep prior to a long [exciting] ride.

Originally Posted by jomson13

Now that we were done and dusted with what we had come for, it was time to start the return leg of the journey. We had made reservations at a hotel close to Valsad which was roughly 225 kms away. The plan was to get back to the Rajpipla hotel, pickup the already packed luggage and leave for Valsad by 9pm. This way we hoped to reach the next hotel around 12:30.
But fate had other plans for us, we were in for an exciting few hours up ahead of us.

Beats me, why not stop there since you had planned to ride solo from Valsad. It was too much stress to be honest.

Originally Posted by jomson13

Wanting to get back home before nightfall, I had excused myself from this and had planned to ride back to Pune solo. Went through with the usual checks for the bike, lubed the chain a bit, loaded up my bags and I was ready to leave at 9 am.

Night riding and bikes is something which I too have avoided, especially between 18:00 hrs to ~01:00. Post that [if you have to ride, I don't advise] most elements are off the road and you can cruise along, but there are too many combinations which can go wrong and it is better to have a 4 A.M start.

Originally Posted by jomson13

This trip involved many firsts; it was first time that I had ridden outside Maharashtra, First time that I had ridden 500 kms in one go and it was also my longest solo ride till date. All said and done, it was one memorable and enjoyable ride.

Must have been special and something you would cherish for long and for sure would remember for years.

Thanks for sharing . Waiting for your Goa travelogue too .

Edit : Get a clear visor too along with the dark one. It will be of a lot of help.

[jomson13]

Originally Posted by woodstock3001

Amazing travelogue Jomson13.

I have a question - Along with Statue of Unity, what are the other places one can cover / preferred , if we have couple of days extra in hand.

Not too aware of this woodstock3001, hope you find your answers in pcpranav's list.

Originally Posted by pcpranav

@Jomson13 : excellent thread, wishing you lots of happy & safe miles. The inner roads to Sapurata / Dang area are also lovely.

Thanks, I definitely will be planning to visit the Saputara area again to explore more.

Originally Posted by Sheel

For eg - We try to stop at a dhaba which has a fuel out-let, we order food & fill the bike's tank till food arrives, use the loo etc, try to pay for food in advance & leave ASAP.

I do not know of any one [who take their motorcycles & motorcycling seriously] who has had a good sleep prior to a long [exciting] ride.



Beats me, why not stop there since you had planned to ride solo from Valsad. It was too much stress to be honest.



Night riding and bikes is something which I too have avoided, especially between 18:00 hrs to ~01:00. Post that [if you have to ride, I don't advise] most elements are off the road and you can cruise along, but there are too many combinations which can go wrong and it is better to have a 4 A.M start.


Must have been special and something you would cherish for long and for sure would remember for years.

Thanks for sharing . Waiting for your Goa travelogue too .

Edit : Get a clear visor too along with the dark one. It will be of a lot of help.

Thanks Sheel, I definitely will not be repeating such night time shenanigans again, will make sure its all better planned out next time.
Will also plan on getting the clear visor.
Will try to get the Goa travelogue out by next weekend.
Cheers.