Gujrat Road Trip – 28th – 31st July 2010

Fig 1: Trip Route

This plan was kinda made suddenly and the whole credit for planning it up goes to my parents. They made the entire bookings for lodging and transport and all that was left for us to do was enjoy it!

So on Tuesday (27^th) evening after a regular day at work I left for Pune station and boarded the train to Ahmedabad. Due to short noticed train booking, we had sleeper berths and as usual it was all very crowded, with waiting list people trying to sleep where ever they could find any space. Ahmedabad being just 12 hours away from Pune, it wasn’t much of a hassle and before we knew, we were at home having sumptuous breakfast.

After breakfast we were on road by around 10 am, heading towards Balachadi. We decided to take de route and visit Lothal, which is about 80 kms from Ahmedabad. Lothal is an excavation site for Harappan Civilization dating back to 2500 – 1900 B.C. So you can actually see some ruins here, and also the various artifacts unearthed here, displayed in the museum.

Fig 2: Market Place in Lothal

After spending sometime in those ruins, we started again and this time stopped for lunch. We had some packed homemade lunch and then settled for a nonstop 3 hours drive to Balachadi Sainik School, a place somewhere near Jamnagar. We reached here at around 5 after driving around 330kms since morning. We halted for the night here instead of Jamnagar, because we were keen on being near the sea shore. And what location! It was awesome. Our room, which was Maharaja Digvijay Singh’s [the brand Digjam is named after him] summer retreat and now converted to guest rooms, was on the sea shore and the sea breeze was refreshing. After a quick round of tea, we went on the shore and were taking in as much of the nature we could till after sunset. By late evening water receded for kms because of low tide and that with sunset hues made it quite picturesque.

Fig 3 : Sunset hues in Balachadi

Next day we left for Dwarka at around 8. It is around 160kms from Balachadi via Kanchanpur, Khambaliya and Bhatiya. Here we immediately went for Darshan as the temple closes in the afternoon from 1 pm to 5pm. This city is considered one of the holiest cities of India and is one of the 4 dhams in Hinduism. Inside there is one main temple of Dwarkadhish (a form of Lord Krishna) and many small temples of various demi Gods of Hindu mythology.

Next we went to Nageshwar Jyotir linga [near Dwarka], which is one of the 12 jyotirlinga shrines mentioned in Shiva Puranas. What immediately and easily grabs your attention is the huge idol of Lord Shiva [85 ft tall]. After darshan, I tried to capture the entire Shiva idol in one shot and managed pretty well.

Fig 4: Lord Shiva [85ft] at Nageshwar

After that we left for Okha, which is some 30kms from Dwarka. It is a small town on the coast. Bhet Dwarka is just a 15mins boat ride away from Okha. However we didn’t go there immediately, as it was already past 1 and the temple would be closed till 5. So we decided on having lunch first. Driving around the town of Okha, we found that in the small market place it had, nearly all the shops were closed. It seemed that people here believed in a laid back life and valued their siesta. We found only 2 eating joints, one serving typical Gujrati thali and the other with regular food. We went in the latter one which was kinda unkempt and yet crowded for the small sitting place it had. Surprisingly food was palatable, in spite of floating in oil. After this meal we headed for the jetty and got into a boat which took us to the island famous for Bhet Dwarka temple. I really liked the view of multitude of boats lined up, adorned with colorful flags.

Fig 5: Okha Coast lined up with boats

It was pretty hot by this time, and it was barely 3:15. We had almost 2 hours before we could go for darshan. This 4 hours shut down of the temples is pretty inconvenient for travelers who have come all the way for darshan. There wasn’t even any decent place to sit and while away time. To be honest I found that village extremely filthy and couldn’t believe that a place having a temple with so much importance in Hindu mythology was in such a shabby state. To top it all, the pundits of the temple actually made us sit and listen to them make oblique appeals on how we should donate generously to the temple. I mean first you put in no efforts to maintain basic cleanliness in the temple and then you tell us that it is our duty to donate, that too generously, some cheek!

Back to Okha after darshan, we headed for the place we had booked for the night. Could spot many mud houses and many of the roads were untarred. Also it is nearly at sea level, and incidentally had received more than its usual share of rains this season, so was water clogged at many places. In spite of everything our stay was quite comfortable and relaxing.

Next morning before leaving Okha we had a chance of having a close look at the coast guard patrol ships and hovercrafts, not something one sees every now and then, so was pretty exciting. Back on road we reached Porbander in the afternoon after covering some 150 kms. It wouldn’t be fair if we passed by the city without visiting Kirti Mandir – Mahatma Gandhi’s birthplace. So that’s where we went next. There is a memorial built next to Gandhi’s house, which has many historical photographs and information displayed. Quite well maintained!

Fig 6: Windmills lining up Gujarat Coast

The drive since morning was completely along the coast, and something that is lined up on Gujarat’s coast and which caught my fancy were windmills. Huge, really huge and so many of them. It was quite a sight for me and I must have clicked whole lot of snaps from the car. Just outside Porbandar in a small road side dhaba overlooking the windmills, we had our not so good but edible lunch.

Fig 7 & 8: Common mode of transport for common man in Gujarat. Note: That happens to be Royal Enfield Motorcycle engine :)

Sometime before Madhavpur, there was a stretch of road along the sea shore, with huge rolling waves visible. It was pretty thrilling driving on such a stretch. By around 4:50 we were in Somnath. This is again a very important temple in Hinduism, being one of the most sacred of the 12 jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva. And the location of this temple is awesome. It is like a huge temple against huge rolling waves of the sea. Looks majestic! In fact it is said that there is no piece of land between Somnath temple and Antarctica. They even have an “arrow pillar” to indicate this direction in the temple campus. The campus is quite well maintained, with greenery and nice sitting arrangement just next to the sea. We got our timing right for the darshan, there was an evening aarti (prayer) going on when we went. And there is something enchanting about such temple aarti’s, the way they reach a crescendo, not only of the music and chants, but also of the hypnosis created by them.

By late evening it had begin to drizzle and so after an early dinner we retired for the day. Next morning I actually got up early just to sit next to the sea and watch the waves. Huge waves, rolling in one after the other, breaking at the shore, in an unending promenade. The eternal roar and the ceaseless energy are so captivating that I can do this for hours - just sit and watch the waves.

Fig 9: Sea shore at Somnath

But incidentally we didn’t have the luxury of time and had to get going as we had the maximum distance to be covered today, approx 450kms. Until now we had no issues with the road condition, but now it became pretty bad and it worsened after Una. It remained like this till we were around 55 kms from Mauhua, which meant that we had approximately 110 kms of bumpy ride. This plus the rains, put us behind the schedule and it was nearing 10 by the time we were back home in Ahmedabad after being on road for nearly 12 hours.

We couldn’t help but take a short de route towards Diu just before Una. This island is approximately 100kms from Somnath and is connected to mainland via bridges. Diu is a small clean and colorful city. Colorful, because I could spot so many colorful houses, fluorescent yellow with fluorescent pink borders, bright pink with orange doors. Due to lack of time we could not cover all the “tourist attractions” here but we did see one of the most imposing structures in the city, Diu Fort. This fort which was built by the Portuguese during their colonial rule in 1535 is located at the extreme south east end of the island, is surrounded by water on 3 sides and has a deep moat on the fourth side. The three sea facing sides have bastions fortified with canons, many of which can still be seen. Standing near those canons facing the sea, I momentarily felt transformed in time.

Fig 10 & 11: Diu Fort

I really wish I could have spent some more time in the fort, but clock was ticking and we had to be home by dinner time. Couldn’t resist another short de route towards Alang, somewhere before Bhavnagar. Alang happens to be the world’s biggest ship breaking yard. Ships from all over the world come here for recycling. The 10kms road towards Alang, is lined with junk yards on both sides, with anything and everything found in a ship to be resold – starting from furniture, bedding, kitchen ware, washing machines to lifeboats, steel, engines. It was some sight. Alang’s coast line stretches for about 7 miles (all lined up with ships) and it has a tidal range of about 13 meters. During low tide, when the water recedes, many manual laborers dismantle and salvage whatever that can be and reduce the rest to scrap. Lots of steel gets recycled this way. On reaching Alang’s coast we drove from one end to the other catching glimpses of whatever ships were lined up there. We couldn’t see how the dismantling of the ship actually takes place but it was a good enough tour for us.

Every place has something new to offer. Every place has its own unique memories. And what can I say about being on the road – it’s simply euphoric...Wherever I may roam...Wherever I may wander…

:-)