Ifmr INDIA had planned an ambitious program for 5th December at Ahmedabad. As our Rotarian Biker friends from Ahmedabad had shown their desire to start a new Sub Chapter in Gujarat and with over two months of meetings and orientation with them, they had fixed the date of Chartering them as 5th December, keeping in mind the same Imfr India Chapter decided to hold Annual All Chapter meet along with it, it also planned a Rann of Kutch Ride for 8 days starting from Ahmedabad on 7th December till 14th December, covering all important places in Gujarat.

Accordingly 4 riders – President Rajesh AR, Past President Ajit, Core Committee member Srikanth and member Vinay decided to ride from Bangalore to Ahmedabad by road on their bikes covering a distance of 1500 km over next two days and participate in Rann of Kutch ride, 4 other members had decided to fly to Ahmedabad on 5th December and join the same on 7th December on hired bikes from Ahmedabad. Sharing the journey of 3rd December starting from Bangalore as Day ONE & TWO

We grouped up at the KLE Dental College Gates on Tumkur road at 6:15am and we had Rtn.Prashanth Babu, Prashanth Mishra and Puneet Bajaj who came in early in the morning just to send us off , a big thank you to them, soon after best wishes and warm hugs we started the ride towards Ahmedabad, The ride till Ilkal where we had our lunch was for lack of a better word, climate controlled, overcast sky and smooth open roads we couldn’t ask for more. We tasted the local dishes of the north Karnataka region and the taste was amazing in Hotel Prashant a few kms after Ilkal. Then we proceeded towards Sholapur and reached our destination just before sunset. As we were taking breaks regularly in-between for every 100km we were in a good shape for the evening at Sholapur where we enjoyed the taste of street food right outside the hotel center point.

We started our journey early this morning when it was still dark at around 6AM. On route we were accompanied by Rtn. Abhay Raje from Ahmednagar before joining us we were welcomed warmly by him and his wife with an “Aukshan Ceremony(Aarti)” at their residence in Ahmed Nagar for good luck and success and eventually we achieved our set target to Surat in the state of Gujarat. On route we passed through the Dang State Forest and boy was it “Dang”. Gujrat welcomed us with fountains to this road in the hilly town of Saputara. The roads through this forest area were the most enjoyable and a stark contrast from the harsh conditions in rural Maharashtra that we had previously left behind. My motorcycle also showed a range of 440kms for the first time since it was bought when riding in this region. When we reached Surat, we rode across huge industrial complexes and funny smelling air due to various industries spewed all around the national highway. We finally found the place of our stay in Raj Hans Belleza and a humongous dwelling unit built in roman style. Even the main road design of this region gave the Las Vegas vibes. Post dinner we slept deeply as we needed it badly.

We left Surat after having Poha ordered from swiggy, we took close to 2 hrs reaching the NH48 as we were staying close to the coast in Surat, onroute while crossing a bridge we found 100s of seagulls flying around as people were feeding them. After these beautiful early sights we were welcomed by heavy duty dumpers and commercial truck traffic all through the highway till Ahmedabad, we stopped for lunch en route and finally reached our hotel Radisson Blue, tired but still looking forward to the evening program. The 5 star hotel did help reduce our fatigue with assured hygiene measures.