World's tallest statue- sardar Patel-A republic day ride
As the republic day was on Saturday. So we had 2 days of leave and a ride plan for 1 night stay had to be planned. Intially the plan was to go to aurangabad, but 2 days won't make justice for it. And whenever a plan is being made you will come across friends who turn up at the last moment that they won't be able to make it for the ride. As the initial plan was to aurangabad, And one of my friend asked to join him for the statue of unity ride. But I denied it as I had other plan. My friend called up a day prior to the ride saying he couldn't come due to some issue, so I thought I would've to ride solo. But for my surprise a got a call from one of my friend that he would wish to join me. But again 2 days won't be possible to explore aurangabad, so we changed the destination to statue of unity one night prior to the ride. And I wanted to convey this to my friend who had asked me join him for statue of unity ride,but that was cancelled. So me and my friend aman planned to ride together.
Day 1
We planned to meet by 7am but that got postponed till 8am. Met at the fixed place and started the ride. As per our plan we had to reach the statue of unity and explore it and then book a room for the day and ride back the next day. We knew about the road as we have driven through it several times. It has to be one of the smooth ride but it has it's own dangers as well, as vehicle drive past fast we need to be careful about it, also sometimes you may find cows sitting on the road or a vehicle ahead of you suddenly slow down, at places you may see locals crossing the roads on their bikes and riding on wrong sides, etc. We took our first halt after covering 100km for breakfast at charoti. After that we rode for around 150km then took a small break as we covered the distance in one go. So till now we had covered 250kms. Still another 150kms to go, which we covered it in one go with a 5min break for photo. We reached the place by 4.20pm. Upon reaching there we came to know that the ticket counter closes by 4pm and we can also book tickets online. Was wondering why so early to close the counter and that too it was republic day as well as Saturday. Also there was no preparation for republic day at the statue of unity. The are 2 type of tickets one costs 150rs which allows you to go up to the foot of the statue and other is 350rs by which you can take the lift up to a view point close to the chest of the statue. But the river was totally dry so the view from the top would also have been the same. You can also hop on a helicopter ride. There is nothing much close to the statue for exploring. We waited there till sunset and left in search of hotel. There was one hotel 20km from the statue which was full but that cost 5500rs for a night next 1 hour we spent searching for hotel at place called rajpipla. And managed to find one around 8pm. This places doesn't have much hotels for stay. We then went for dinner and then called it for the day.
Day 2
Today it was only a ride back home. We planned to start by 7am, it was chilling cold throughout the night. When we got up at 6am it was still dark so we slept for one more hour. Finally we started at 8am. The temperature was around 10 degree and I didn't had the liner inside my riding jacket, as I normally remove it. So the cold air coming in. It was so cold that the fingers were turning numb. We had to ride in such condition as we had no other choice. After an hour or so aman said his bag which he had tied to the rear seat had fallen. So we took a U turn to look for It, soon I noticed that the bag had not actually fallen it was hanging on left side of the bike. We then continued by the time we covered 70km we halted for breakfast. After this we thought would stop after covering a 100+ KM but we were sceptical about that because we have ridden close to 500km since yesterday. But even then we rode 135km at a stretch took a small halt. Saw many small stalls on the side of the road and enquired about what they sell, initially I didn't understand what they were actually telling. Them when I brought it came to know that it's bean kind of vegetable along with potato, sweet potato,etc is mixed with spices and put inside a earthen pot which is placed it side the fire, here in Maharashtra they call it as popti normally they do it with chicken here. But the veg I had there was also good, tried it for the first time. Next we halted to fill the fuel past that we rode continuously till virar toll then stopped to have some sugarcane juice as it was really hot by now. What next we reached home by 3.30pm an hour before we thought we would reach. That's how this ride came to an end.
