Oct 14th : GIR Leg 2 day 11th

It wasn’t too hot, probably in late 30s but my throat and lips were totally dry and all I had for company were two warm Red Bull cans, which I finally gulped after thinking twice. It didn’t help me much but I did take a couple of timer shots on the 350D with me gulping down the energy drink with the sun going down in the background. Wherever I looked, I only saw mirages in the distant background and dry cracked earth below my legs. And the occasional wild ass. Welcome to the Rann of Kutch ladies and gentlemen, I was finally here with Ashish, on the Kinetic Jupiter and Kinetic Blaze respectively.
We had decided yesterday itself that we would be heading to the Rann today while Sunny would visit his relatives in Vadodra as the roads to the Rann would easily rip the under-belly of the Blade apart. We headed to Zainabad via Viramgam, a distance of 110kms from Ahmedabad, through single lane highway and village roads to the Desert Coursers Camp. Our moto-scooters were doing pretty well, considering the fact they were never made for adventurous rides like these. My Jupiter has been consistently returning around 30-32kmpl, which includes cruising around the 100km/h mark and hitting the 120km/h territory every now and then. We reached the place by around two and were greeted by the host, whose husband, Mr Dhanraj, who had a lot of say in the village. The place consisted of numerous mud huts with two horses feeling at home along with a friendly herd of dogs playing around. After a good lunch, I enquired about the safari around the place which was due at 4pm, but was disappointed to know that at the most we would be seeing a couple of wild asses. I hadn’t come all the way for this! Took out the maps and somehow managed to convince Dhanraj to tell me a way in through the backside into the Rann. We rode for around 15kms before the vegetation gave way to salt dunes, which finally gave way to vast expanse of nothing but barren land. Bonneville salt flats in India? That would be the reaction of a first comer speed lover to this place. Ashish went the other way, putting down all of Blazes 11.7 horses down via the 130mm rear, but the land wasn’t all dry and we were creating an almost two inch deep path. While I was busy photographing the place, Ashish managed to bog down the Blaze in a stream, but finally came out with Javed’s (our guide) help. Not to give up, Ashish took Javed as a pillion and went discovering the Rann on the other side, which was still somewhat wet, while I took the defensive way of riding on the dry patch and that is when I didn’t realize that I drifted so much into the Rann that I couldn’t even spot the trio (Ashish, Javed and the Blaze) even with the Zoom lens I was carrying. I had been warned by a lot of people about being getting lost out in the great Rann but technology in this era of life rocks and within a minute, I was talking to Ashish and Javed, but as non of us knew where the other one was, I didn’t know in which direction to carry on! It took me a good twenty minutes, after riding in all four directions, to finally locate the trio! The Blaze was resting on its underbelly, the tyres deep in the sticky mud, with Ashish and Javed trying all their mighty hard to get the bike outta the mess. I too joint in, and finally, after a good half hour, she was out, but the tyres were not even moving due to the inner sides of the mud-guards being jammed up with the sticky mud. And yes, how would I face Sunny with no sun-set pics of the machines in the Rann!
Back at the camp, after riding in complete darkness with a million bugs on the roads, half of which were heading straight at my helmet, we reached back the camp where people couldn’t stop staring at us, what with the Blaze dressed up in muck and our pants and shirts dirty with the same! Whats worse, when the Blaze was stuck, we had taken off our shoes to get into the muck and when the bike was finally out, I did the mistake of putting it on to the main stand with my bare right foot - more than a hundred kilo pressure on a square inch area on my right foot! The pain is still there with a little swelling too, but seeing the pictures right now in the room, it all seems worth it, mainly due to the Fish Eye lens, which gave me the pictures I had dreamt of taking long time back. What a pity, there wasn’t any reliance network in the area and so I couldn’t log onto the net to put up the pictures and share the experience I had today. Dinner was a buffet affair, and we shared info about our ride with a lady who was staying here on her way to Bhuj for some project work. Back to the room now, there are two independent cozy cots, we do miss the comfort of an A/C but the village theme hut has made up for it. Some guests seem to be enjoying themselves with the songs n all, Ashish seems to be in a world of his own, while for me, another lovely day on the GIR has come to an end but my home (and love) sickness continues to grow….