Rann of Kutch

been studying about the different legs of my ride... these satellite pictures of Rann of Kutch are giving enough warning signals that i must rework on my itinerary... you got to respect the nature!

first ride of this season!

this suday (8th june) i was determined to ride out of the city... for a shoot. haven't decided on the destination till i woke up (for obvious reasons!). unlike other weekends got up before sun rise, however thought of starting only after breakfast. nearby eating place opens only post 6:30am. that gave me enough time to start my day slowly... i like it that way! had a nice breakfast and got something packed for my nephew as well, who was still asleep. started off without wasting much time... was fully geared and did not miss my new camera bag (lowepro photo runner). i've been in look out for a proper camera bag which would be safe for the camera and easy to access while riding. he woke up as i was about to start, all i told him was to call me if someone comes by (was expecting the colony association folks to show up for monthly payments)

finally i've made up my mind to ride towards medak. i've been to that place on my other bike (Samurai) along with Ramesh... guess it was about 10 years back! though i was going in that direction, i was not really excited about what i would discover. however i wanted to get an idea about the nearby narsapur forest. it was more like a warm up till i hit narsapur road. i was only wondering how far was the spread of real estate ventures! the hoarding near one of the venture says 'opposite dindigul air base'. once upon a time that place used to be far from the city... not anymore! "Schneider Electric" caught my attention on the way. this reminded me of something after crossing that place, i took U turn to check it out... nicely kept factory!

as i was passing by an area that looked like some forest, i saw two guys with binoculars crossing the road. immediately i stopped by them and wished them. one of those guys was wearing a t-shirt with BSAP written in large font. i had some difficulty in introducing myself... not sure about what to associate myself with! finally i told them bcs... butterflies (my membership is still valid i guess). he started telling me that they had a good sighting of butterflies, though they could not note as they were not familiar. do i really know much about butterflies? hmmn... i can recognise few species... not an illiterate in that subject i guess :) they told me about a temple where they got down and went into the forest for about few Kms! sounded interesting... but I was not in a mood to take a break from riding. i told them that i was heading towards medak for a photo shoot. could not find much to talk with them so moved on from there.

lots of monkeys... small ones crossing the road, looked very interesting! i slowed down a bit to appreciate their cuteness. in the middle of no where, there was a big board saying 'Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University' towards my left. there was a road leading in that direction, as if it was being prepared cutting through the forest. it was so inviting and i could not resist myself taking that road. even after riding about 1 Km, there was no sign of any university or anything. passed by two guys walking towards the main road, but did not feel like asking them. that road ended abruptly so i had no option but to return, however i got a good feeling about the beauty of that place :) on the way back i gave lift to one of the guy walking towards the main road. he gave me some details about that place... around 60 acres of the adjacent land was given to the university and they started the work only in the recent past. also he started telling about the small settlement present at the end of the road... about 3 families and their castes etc., i was surprised to hear that 2 Km from there he has a big farm of about 50 acres or so, he just did not look like that. his accent did not seem to be local to me, so i enquired about his native place. he was proudly saying that we are from andhra region (suraram - godavari dist) and settled here. i dropped him on the main road... totally confused which is forest and which are private farms!

before i could get any clarity i had crossed narsapur town and heading towards medak. the road was taking interesting turns... there was one newly built temple on one of the turns. i decided to drop by on my way back and proceed further. the mile stone was saying 30Km to medak... found something that looked like a fort to the left, must be few Kms off the main road. i rode on... hoping to find a turn towards that place. 'venkatrao pet'... i took a left turn from the main road, without asking anyone where that road will lead to. it reminded me of our grand parent's village, where i used to spend few days of my summer vacation when i was a kid. after crossing the village i found the remains of the fort. i asked the kids around whether there is any road which can take me to that fort. they started giving me the names of other villages, i would reach if i continue on the same road. i got off the road and started riding towards the fort, those kids started giving me weird looks which i ignored as usual.

parked my bull near the small temple just outside the fort. this must be a watch tower or strategically located outpost. definitely there was something pleasant about that place! once upon a time i used to claim that i like clicking monuments... that place was kept clean, probably not many visit except for the villagers around. i was clicking from different angles, for a moment i thought i should stay there till evening. i walked into a small entrance and found some stairs leading to the top. though i was skeptical i took a chance... "WOW" it was an amazing feeling entering that space. i wished that someone was with me then! some day i shall visit again along with her. to get down from that place there were long stones nicely arranged in the form of stairs... cool design! while i was shooting there couple of villagers saw me but somehow they ran away! (i tried to include them into my frames) as i was heading back from that place i saw heaps of dry grass, looked very interesting. (something i used to play on at our grand parents place).

after few Kms from there i saw a group of bikes and a car parked on one side of the road. by looking at the gear i was wearing they started waving at me. i wished them as i rode on. before i moved away from them what caught my attention was the Bullet 350cc standard, one of them was riding a bull. immediately i took U turn and went back to meet them. by then they were trying to take a group photo. i offered them that i would click so that they won't miss out any, which they gladly accepted. mean time someone came and introduced himself (hmmn... forgot the name), also few others found my jacket attractive and came closer to check it out. i took it off and showed them all the protective shields inside. then i noticed 'Kruzers' written on every one's t-shirt. i asked them whether it is any riding group, for which they replied that we all are from hsbc and it is our interest group... (nice design guys!) as i took out my camera to click them, one of the guys came running and started asking me which one is better...Cannon or Nikon! i told him something diplomatically and started off from there. i tired to click them while they were riding, but in vain (they moved away before i took out my camera)

as i entered into medak town, i found them stopped at one place. i called one of the guys and told them, if you are riding together please keep the lights on... it would look like a group! (my piece of advice, never mind!) i went straight to the church and parked my bull just next to the main entrance (nobody objected to it, i did not bother either) being sunday it looked very crowded, i chose not to get inside. the lighting from outside was looking great, went all around the place and clicked in different angles (i liked the results)

like at any religious place there were many people begging. one cute girl by name jyothi started following me. she started with 'give me one rupee'... within few minutes 'give me 5 rupees'... and after few more minutes 'give me 10 rupees'. mean time she gathered few more by telling them that i was giving out some money. i was intrigued by all this and was listening to them carefully but without looking at them. one other smart girl started with... 'give us 10 rupees, you will be blessed with kids'... dunno what they thought, after few minutes it changed to 'give us 10 rupees, you will be blessed with a beautiful wife'... finally it changed to 'give us some money, you will be blessed with good health'. as this was going on one of the kid started with... can you take a photo of us by pulling jyothi towards him.
of course... why not! i showed them the photo, they were very happy by looking at that.
few more joined them... all of them were quite happy looking at their photos. later they followed me for few more minutes and gave up.

returning from there was more like pushing the bull to 80Kmph on 4th gear. there was some resistance in the beginning, but slowly it started responding :) as i decided on my way, i stopped near that interestingly looking temple. water from the bore well pump near the temple gave me the needed refresh. as i was reaching the city my bull came to reserve, however i've decided to stop only back at home. by 2pm i was home checking out the photos... first ride of this season was more than i expected!

Dream Ride

The count down has started... 45 days to go! Planning to ride for the whole month of August along the western, north - western & northern borders of India!

Lot of questions running in my mind... 

• Man... Riding solo has never been a problem
  
• Machine... Bullet is definitely dependable
  
• Terrain & Weather... Nature has always favored me
  
• Border & Militancy... Can anyone predict the flying metals ;)
  
• Safety... What is that?
  

As the first step, I have prepared my trip sheet with the help of "india - ROAD ATLAS" from EICHER.

Looking forward to ride through Khandala, Mumbai, Diu, Dwarka, Rann of Kutch, Thar desert, Amritsar, Wagah Border, Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal & NH7!