10/11/2016, Thursday

Junagadh to Diu, 180kms, 6.5 hours.

By Will

Today we decided too take the scenic route to Diu, which is a small Central Government (India’s Federal Gov’t) operated Island joined to Gujarat via a long causeway. Two great things about the Island of Diu are beaches & beer, oh it’s also famous for the indigenous Diu Palm Tree. Looks like a holiday tourist Mecca to me, which is probably why our room is the equivalent of $70 per night, double the usual Indian hotel accommodation rate we have been paying.

The Tourist Island of Diu isn’t part of Gujarat, it is under the control of India’s Central Government. The blue arrow on the left side map is our location on maps.me app.

Hope our credit cards work as we haven’t been able to get any “New Gandhi’s” yet and the current 500IR & 1000IR were made not valid currency and are now illegal as of yesterday so they are only good for toilet paper….
We are stuck with about the equivalent of $80AUD of those dirty filthy 500/1000 rupees and no one will accept them. Last option is to exchange them for new legal tender at the bank. There is a lesson here for everyone, don’t put all your faith in hard currency. Also funny how the Indian, PM Modi Government coincidentally did it on the day of the USA election when Trump was voted in, trying to remove any limelight from themselves ? Yes I’m a little cynical these days, apologies that’s life…!

I digress, back on track about our most awesome day. We both slept pretty well to the sounds of manic tooting & got up at 6.30am unfortunately we had to skip breakfast as that doesn’t start at the Platinum Hotel (with no beer) until 8am & we were on the bikes & rolling by then. Jenny was keen to check out the Junagadh Fort & Temple before things became to hectic….little did we know !

The view from the balcony of our room in Junagadh, time to get moving before the traffic.

It wasn’t to difficult riding into the unusual hilly geological formation but the further we penetrated into it the busy it became. We did glimpse both the Fort & Temple before doing an about face & heading off.

 

The other interesting things that happened during today’s ride, Jenny got Carpet Bagged by a fruit seller, 2 bananas & 2 apples for 50 rupees, about $1 . The bananas were good but the apples were all bruised & powdery inside. The Seller who probably thought we’d ride away, didn’t look to happy when Jen gave the crappy apples to the cows to eat in front of his other customers….ouch !

We spot a man in a Hi-Viz Vest ??? is it Damien or Varesh from Nevermind ? No just a local who probably works at the nearby cement plant.

The ride through Visavada was interesting if you like seeing that apocalyptic hard edge town look, crumbling buildings, dirt roads, piles of rubbish, animals roaming the streets, people just sitting around watching us ride past, (too be fair, team wiljen aren’t use to it yet). No real hassles just busy & as usual challenging.

The start of the Lion Sanctuary, on the sign it says do not stop your vehicle ! 

Then we rode 20kms through the Asiatic Lion Sanctuary, which included, rough dirt roads, water crossings & side track diversions, through the bush. Jenny rode it like a natural & she still wants more official off-road motorbike training when we gets home. Turned out to be great fun, luckily didn’t see any lions otherwise we would have shat ourselves !

 

 

Ok there was some stopping during the slow 20km ride through the Lion Sanctuary, for a very quick drink break.

After the Lion Sanctuary shortcut (not) we stopped in a small village & had a top notch veggie curry for lunch at a seedy side walk food seller, it helped that now it was 2pm & we were starving. Only $4AUD & we got heaps ! Seriously it was good food, but we gave the raw buttermilk drink a skip, yucko !

Onwards we continued and arrived at the causeway to the island of Diu, I could almost taste that non-prohibition beer. It was reasonable straight forward. Madam Google deposited us at a Dinosaur Park/Play Ground and said here’s your place… WRONG !

Jenny rang the Hoka Resort for directions, while I got on Davo GPS. We both came to the same result at about the same time, another 2.4kms ride along the coast of the Arabian Sea & we would be there. Job Done !

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