[iamahunter]

PS - I am not much of a story teller, so it’s going to be a short and crisp post with few images.


As the Covid cases mellow down we decided to take a short vacation. Kiddo being locked down in the house since past 2 years - literally 40% of her life needed an outing.
What better place than the jungle safari with some wild animals. Something that she has been familiar with, only the television.

Bags Packed and on the move!

Additionally, what better than a friend with similar interests (travelling, driving, photography, etc) joining along.
So BHPian 1:1 and I tagged along in this journey.

So it was an Ecosport 1.5 TDCI and Seltos HTX+ Diesel Auto on a Gujarat trip.

Travel - It was a simple decision - Drive.
Reasons:
- We Love to Drive!
- Social distancing (no use of public transport)
- Roads of Gujarat are amazing!

Preparation
It was going to be first super long trip for my kiddo and my better half; and for the Ecosport as well.

Car
- Rear Inflatable Bed
- Dashcam - DDPAI Mola N3 with GPS
- 128 GB Memory card - for the Dashcam
- Tyre Inflator - TUSA
- Puncture repair kit - STANLEY

The Inflatable Car bed


The tyre Inflator
It works quite well as used in the journey, Compact and east to use.


The Dashcam
Worked quite well, records footage of every minute and that is almost 100 Mb of data.

The material on the Inflatable bed is good, but not warm for the kid to sleep snuggly. So we put up a proper bed sheet, and carried kiddo's pillow and blanket, and she "could" comfortably sleep throughout the journey. It also raised the height of the seat, so even sitting she could comfortable see out of the window. The bed is also comfortable for a 5 feet adult for a short nap.

Hotel Bookings and Activities
We decided it’s best to cover 400-450 kms at a stretch in a day so the hotels were booked accordingly.

Day 1 Stay - Vadodara - Comfort Inn Donil (miscalculated, we could have easily reached Ahmedabad, no worries, we booked Ahmedabad for return)
Day 2,3,4 Stay - Sasan GIR - The Fern Gir Forest Resort
Day 5 Stay - Ahmedabad - DoubleTree by Hilton
Day 6,7 - Daman - The Deltin

Day-wise Travel

Day 1 - Mumbai to Vadodara

Starting at 7 am, we reached Vadodara at 3:30 pm. 2 breaks - one at Charoti for breakfast and the next at a Shell fuel station near Vapi.
Anybody travelling, I would highly recommend using the Shell fuel stations because their good fuel quality, clean washrooms and well stocked stores.

The Ecosport with 1:1's Seltos resting at Vadodara

So after relaxing in the hotel, we went to a local place called "Night Bazar" for dinner. There was quite a hustle - bustle in a rather quite city at that hour.
It's named as a Bazaar, but it’s only a dinner bazaar - with highlight being the Matka Biryaani.

Matka Biryaani, Badam Shake and Kulfi from the Night Bazaar
That Badam shake was Yumm!

Day 2 - Vadodara to Sasan Gir.
Vadodara -a- Ahmedabad -b- Rajkot -c- Junagadh -d- Sasan Gir

Ecosport ready to start Day 2 from Vadodara

a. Next day we started in the morning and took the NE1 towards Ahmedabad - Amazingly smooth road.

b. From Ahmedabad towards Rajkot is the highway still in progress with quite some diversions. The stretches which have been completed are very good. The road is quite deserted in terms of restaurants and be would suggest to start full or with snacks. There are more fuel stations than decent restaurants on this road. We halted at SN Highway Food Mall, it was the inauguration and so the place itself and the washrooms were quite clean.

Later, entering Rajkot, the roads get worse with the road works being carried on. The traffic is unmannered but sparse for a person from Mumbai. As it was almost sunset by the time we crossed Rajkot, we halted at Shell after Rajkot city for refilling of water and snacks.

Driving into the sunset. Enroute Junagadh.

c. Post Rajkot the roads are good towards Junagad. We reached Junagad after sunset and had to make way through the city traffic. Being a small city comparatively, it did not take much time.

Crossing Junagadh

d. Journey from Junagad to Sasan Gir was in total darkness and through the forest. However, there are enough fuel pumps and few hotels on this road as well. So even if you have not tanked up, need not worry. It’s a single lane road and good headlights are recommended. Oncoming traffic will blind you.


Day 3 - Sasan Gir

Visited the Gir Safari which was the highlight of the trip.
The most important thing is that you have to book the jeep (its actually an open Gypsy) safari well in advance. Limited number of jeeps allowed and booking is online only. The cost per jeep is Rs 4500. Suggest to book a hotel near to the Safari - If your stay is within 5 kilometers radius of the safari, you can book jeep to pick you up from the hotel itself at an additional cost of Rs. 1000.
If you don't want to spend the additional 1k, you can drive to the Safari pickup point; there is ample space for parking your vehicle.

Inside the jungle, your gypsys will be allotted a fixed route. This prevents from all the gypsys crowding on a single route.

A few Images from the Forest.

Safari Starts



Spotted little Owls


The Monitor Lizzard




Very common in here the Peacock


Black Face Langoor


Some more Birds
I am not sure what Birds are these, great if someone can let me know.


Beautiful Kingfisher


Spotted Deer


Kamaleshwar Dam


Alligator in the Lake.


The King Himself


An Awesome Jungle vibe

And so the day ended on a beautiful feeling...

[iamahunter]

Journey continues with the new day...

Day 4 - Gir Interpretation Zone(GIZ) + Somnath
GIZ
So this is kind of a mini jungle made by the authorities where lion spotting is almost guaranteed. So even if you did not spot a lion in the GIR forest you will see one here. We saw one big male lion and 2 cubs, a few cheetahs and deers here. Here you can book a jeep safari (in advance) or you can directly reach here and take the available bus safari (Rs 150 per person, even kids will be charged same).

Images from the GIZ.

Birds


Basking in the Morning Sun


Cubs


Food


Eagle


Leopards
The Leopards are kept separately, probably to avoid the tussle between the wild cats.

In the evening we, decided to visit Somnath which is just an hour's drive from Sasan Gir, more on it in the next post, some images of the property for now.

Our Stay at Sasan Gir - The Fern Gir Forest Resort
Even though this was a little expensive for us, we had booked resort this after keeping in mind the travel and family - especially kids and elders. After a travel of almost 800 kms from Mumbai, a relaxed property makes a huge difference. The Fern proved to be totally worth the cost - Clean and spacious rooms with sit-out deck, good food, open area for kids, swimming pool with spa and jacuzzi, an observation deck, indoor games and most importantly - safe parking. To top it up, the staff was super courteous.
Would highly recommend it.

Over our stay, we managed to spot and click some birds and stars, lets have a look at it.

Some Birds spotted in the Property




Flora and Fauna



Finally some images of the Architecture of the Property


The top part of the reception is also wooden carving like the lion statue. The detail is astonishing.




Clear sky at night and the opportunity to click the stars cannot be missed.


The star trail!

[iamahunter]

Somnath

Evening at Somnath

Drive from Sasan Gir is almost 50 kms or 1.5 hours. The road passed thru various villages and can be said to be OK at its best. However the road is quite improved compared to 2017 when we had visited on the motorcycles. The final patch o some 5-7 kms towards Somnath is silky smooth. The parking for the Vehicle is some 500 meters from the temple and is quite safe to park the car. The washroom facilities over here are pathetic at the best.

Most of the road condition from Gir to Somnath


The final 5-7 km patch to Somnath


Parking lot - Somnath

Any kind of electronics are not allowed inside the temple, there are lockers available, but would suggest to keep your mobiles, wallets, cameras, smart watches safely in the car or back at your hotel. However, if your vehicle has a remote key (which every car has now a days) even that is not allowed in the temple. For that you have to keep it in the locker. I opted to not go inside the temple thanks to all these conditions and took care of the belongings of the ones who did.

There is a beach near the temple with an entrance fee of Rs 5. We did visit the beach, but being from Mumbai, we found nothing amusing in here. However I was pleasantly surprised at the price of coconut water, it’s quite cheap (compared to Mumbai) at Rs 15, 20 and 25 depending on the size. Prices here in Mumbai start at Rs 40.

Beach at Somnath.

Drive back to Sasan Gir was uneventful. Ecosport's headlights proved themselves. Upper and Dipper combination is killer, lits up the road quite well.

Spotted this animal while on return(captured on Dashcam).
Probably a Mongoose

After this, we went for a ride in the night, hoping to spot some animal enroute. Sadly we returned with nothing and decided to capture some stars as seen above.

[iamahunter]

The Return Journey

Day 5 - Gir to Ahmedabad.
Sasan Gir -a- Junagad by-pass -b- Rajkot -c- Ahmedabad.

a. We checked-out at the max checkout time from Gir and started our journey towards Rajkot where we planned for the lunch break. Today we decided to take another route to by-pass Junagadh. So moving away from Sasan Gir, we took left towards Devaliya on the Mallia-Sasan Road. We were unaware of the road condition, but to our surprise, it was a fantastic road. We continued till Galodar where we joined on NH 151, bypassing Junagadh. This route is longer but takes similar/less time as you can easily cruise at highway speeds and enjoy driving.
Also, some part of the Gir - Galodar is only open during the day light.

Route as per Google map.


The initial part of the Road and the later part.


The NH, this is the road you would take if going from Junagadh to Somnath.

b. The route from Junagadh to Rajkot was uneventful. We went into Rajkot city for lunch, the roadwork inside the city, made it a little tiring for the kids and elders. So we went to a McDonalds outlet in Rajkot to cheer up the kids. The pathetic driving manners were very evident in the city and we did face challenges a couple of times. Wrong parking made it difficult for us to get into the car at the parking(all the attendants went for a break together), and another driver arguing with security to get into the mall from the exit gate wasted some time.

c. Continuing from Rajkot to Ahmedabad, the roads are good, with quite some diversions, flyover are being constructed to by-pass the cities/villages enroute. Encountered an accident of a totally drunk Dzire enroute. There were 3 drunk guys in the car and they lost control at a diversion due to the high speed and crashed in the ditch. We stopped to help, however, all 3 climbed out of the car with a few injuries, and immediately ran into the adjusting field.


Clueless as all the passenger (whom we had halted to help) ran away, we resumed our journey.

Ahmedabad was quite polluted, probably due to Diwali.

Reaching Ahmedabad post sunset, we chilled at the Hotel. 5 star hotels in Ahmedabad are quite cheap and have good rooms, making it a perfect stop-over for anybody who wants to continue the next day.

Day 6 - Ahmedabad to Daman.
Shopping at Ahmedabad Law College road, the biggest motivation for my better half to come for the road trip.
After the shopping, the boot of the Ecosport was full, so we tanked up at Shell and continued on the NE1 towards Daman. Enroute we spotted Schmitten Chocolates Factory outlet after Ankleshwar, and took a snacks break over there + more shopping. The chocolates are quite good.
We reached Daman after Sunset and chilled at the hotel for the next 2 days.

Day 7 - Chill at Daman
At Daman, we found had our meals at Jagjit Veera's Dhaba, good food at a reasonable rate.
Not much activities other than enjoying the pool and cocktails at Daman.

Day 8 - Daman - Mumbai.
A regular 150 kms drive from Daman to Mumbai was quite normal and thankfully we did not encounter the normal huge Jam at the Vasai Bridge near Fountain Hotel.

Overall quite an amazing experience and a successful road trip with the Ecosport..
We spend approximately Rs 9000 on fuel and Rs 1600 on toll for a total journey of 2000 kms.

Cheers to the many more road trips to come.

[Aditya]

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

[narmad]

Excellent travelogue and thanks for the details, specially about the roads and gas stations.
A trip to Gujrat is due in my Ecosport and I would definitely use this as a template .

[jungleroars]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Journey continues with the new day...

Day 4 - Gir Interpretation Zone(GIZ) + Somnath
GIZ
So this is kind of a mini jungle made by the authorities where lion spotting is almost guaranteed. So even if you did not spot a lion in the GIR forest you will see one here. We saw one big male lion and 2 cubs, a few cheetahs and deers here.

Beautiful travelogue and nice pics. Please note, there are no cheetahs in India (in Wild) as such. What you have seen/sighted is Leopard.

[wolfsnare24]

I don’t normally believe in coincidences, but I started planning a Mumbai-Vadodara-Diu-Gir-Somnath-Daman-Mumbai trip just 30 minutes back, and here I am reading a detailed travelogue!! I wasn’t completely decided on the destination but now there’s no ignoring this sign from the universe, I have to do this trip!

Great travelogue, I managed to convince my family to come along just based on the lion and peacock pictures!

[haisaikat]

Beautiful travelogue and wonderful pictures, I liked the Gir photos and the night stay hotel above everything and makes me feel compelled to visit this place at least once.

Incidentally I have Mola N3 dashcam too and curious to know how you converted the footage to Gif, great idea but the only downside on the forum is it counts towards the 30 photos per post limit which an youtube embed will not.

The star photography is also great, wonder what photography gear you used. The ecosport looked dashing with the sun rays in the backdrop.

[cpabhijit]

Nice travelogue. Gujarat definitely has some of the best highways in the country.

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Journey continues with the new day...

Day 4 - Gir Interpretation Zone(GIZ) + Somnath
GIZ

Leopards

The Leopards are kept separately, probably to avoid the tussle between the wild cats.

These leopards are ones which have killed a human and have been captured and put in this enclosure.

[iamahunter]

Originally Posted by narmad

Excellent travelogue and thanks for the details, specially about the roads and gas stations.
A trip to Gujrat is due in my Ecosport and I would definitely use this as a template .

Thanks man!
You will thoroughly enjoy the Ecosport, its actually very comfortable.

Originally Posted by jungleroars

Beautiful travelogue and nice pics. Please note, there are no cheetahs in India (in Wild) as such. What you have seen/sighted is Leopard.

Thankyou Mate, will keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by wolfsnare24

I don’t normally believe in coincidences, but I started planning a Mumbai-Vadodara-Diu-Gir-Somnath-Daman-Mumbai trip just 30 minutes back, and here I am reading a detailed travelogue!! I wasn’t completely decided on the destination but now there’s no ignoring this sign from the universe, I have to do this trip!

Great travelogue, I managed to convince my family to come along just based on the lion and peacock pictures!

Sounds Great buddy! All the best.
Make sure you book the morning Safari, lion spotting is higher in the morning.

Originally Posted by haisaikat

Beautiful travelogue and wonderful pictures, I liked the Gir photos and the night stay hotel above everything and makes me feel compelled to visit this place at least once.

Thankyou Mate, its truly beautiful.

Originally Posted by haisaikat

Incidentally I have Mola N3 dashcam too and curious to know how you converted the footage to Gif, great idea but the only downside on the forum is it counts towards the 30 photos per post limit which an Youtube embed will not.

I used Photoshop for the GIF conversion, I am sure, there might be many other tools as well.

Originally Posted by haisaikat

The star photography is also great, wonder what photography gear you used. The ecosport looked dashing with the sun rays in the backdrop.

Canon 80d with a Tripod and any lense will do the job.

[ulhas.ahirrao]

Great travelogue. We friends have planned Gir - Somnath next week so this post really helped!!

Any reason you did not take RORO from GHOGHA to HAZIRA while coming back?

[iamahunter]

Originally Posted by ulhas.ahirrao

Great travelogue. We friends have planned Gir - Somnath next week so this post really helped!!

Any reason you did not take RORO from GHOGHA to HAZIRA while coming back?

Thankyou buddy.

I am not sure if the RORO ferry is working. We had called them while we were doing the bookings, but the calls went unanswered. So decided to go ahead with the bookings enroute.