Travelling

This is the full merged blog of a 13-day road trip from Pune to Gujarat and back. Day wise separate blogs are available in the hyperlinks as this entire could be too lengthy to read. Day 1 Pune - Ahmedabad   We started from our home in Pune at 4:15am for Ahmedabad. The expected drive time was around 13 hours by the map ( excluding breaks). We took the Ravet route to Mumbai which was good. The saying "Mumbai never sleeps" could be sensed when people seemed rushing to their workplaces even before 7am. The roads between Mumbai and Vapi were terrible and took much longer. The roads were under construction and had heavy vehicles all the way. It needed patience and skills to navigate that route. After crossing Vapi , we finally stopped for a break and had lunch. After a filling lunch, we resumed our journey. At Bharuch, we got onto NE4 (National Expressway 4) which is one part of the golden quadrilateral project connecting Mumbai to Delhi. Now this was an enjoyable driv...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 7 Bhuj - Dholavira We started from our accomodation (The Desert Inn) in Bhuj by 7am. Dholavira was 1.5 hours drive. The roads were all good this time. We drove through a beautiful road called the "Road to Heaven". A beautiful road with sea and white sand on both the sides. We stopped to click some pictures by the road side and also to enjoy the beauty of the nature. We then drove towards the "UNESCO world heritage site - Harappan civilization". What a planned city it was. How much of understanding had gone into the construction that was done thousands of years back with whatever limited material was available and no technology, only their inherent techniques. Hats off to the people of that era!! It was an exciting experience.  Post this, we checked in to our accommodation at Dholavira tourism resort. The lunch was kat...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 6 Gir National Park This day again started a bit early. We got ready and started by 5:20 am to reach Gir's Sinh Sadan by 6:20am. Car parking is available inside. It was quite cold, and the cold wind added to it. It was essential to cover up in warm clothes including head and ears. We had procured the permit in advance, a guide was assigned to us who got the jeep and we all got into it. It was a 12km drive before the actual safari started. We were lucky to have a brilliant sight seeing of lions, leopards, neelgai and deer. Also spotted some peahens and wood peckers on the way. Gir forest is said to be spread across 1412 sq. km. area housing 674 lions, 60k+ neelgai and 1L+ deer. It was an hour long safari which was worth every moment. We returned back happy and had breakfast at a shop nearby serving hot fafda jalebi!! We then started o...