Continued...
While I was enjoying my moment of peace, I hear a growl behind me, to which I spiral around finding myself staring at a jackal. A lone jackal, but nevertheless, a wild jackal.
It was about fifty metres away and running towards me. There was I, a rider alone in the vastness of the Little Rann, (Oh, how ironic) and a wild jackal running towards me with malice. I never knew I could get a bike started as quick as I did that day. As I was racing away from the jackal at a 100 kmph on the soft sand of the Rann, I see the rest of the group on the horizon, kicking up sand in their wake.
I catch up to them and we ride for another 50 km through this nothingness before we stop for tea. Yes, we stopped for tea in the middle of this desolateness. (In case you were wondering, our guide had tea, breakfast and snacks in the jeep)
Sipping tea in the morning cold, some of the guys took their bikes for a spin, a doughnut, a powerslide and what not for some of the most beautiful biker photographs they would ever get.
After the tea break, we start off to cover the remaining 30 km to get out of the Little Rann and onto the highway at Adesar.
Now whoever says Modi's development drive in Gujarat is just a media hoax, they should be invited on a road trip here. The roads in the remotest corners of the state too are well paved with every hamlet having a working power connection.
Out stop for the day was Dholavira, the excavation site of the ancient Harappan metropolis, yes a metropolis of 2000 BCE.
Our route takes us through Rapar, the last petrol bunk before Dholavira, after which for a distance of 90 km (180km up and down), there are no fuel stations ATMs or other facilities. Also, this road is famous for inflicting punctures on whosoever dares ride on it, and our story was not so different. One of our bikes' tyres burst after a twig (for lack of better word) caused a massive shred. We lost two hours while the rest of the bikers went up the road to fetch a mechanic who could fix the puncture. It so happened that the entire tyre had to be replaced which took another hour for the mechanic to go to Rapar and get the new tyre.
After all the fixing was done, and after a gracious round of suttas, we start riding again towards Dholavira - our pit stop for the day.
Dholavira is situated on an island in the middle of the Great Rann, called Khadir bet, and there is a road that goes through the Great Rann that connects this island to the rest of the world. This road is ramrod straight for 6 km, and this is the first time in the ride, that we can see the Great Rann - an horizon to horizon view of whiteness. As is the creed, we stop for pictures. :P
We hurry up to Dholavira so as to not miss the sunset from our resort for the night - Toran Tourist Complex, and it was a beautiful sunset indeed. With the sun snugly set in the salt pans, we too retire for the night after a dinner of the local Kutch delicacies.
To be continued...
