The ZMA express finally breathed in air at the first station, ie Bavla near Ahmedabad. With the freight unloaded, it never felt better. A new day, a new beginning. The cold added to the comfort of staying and touring around. Yea, cold winds sure make you lazy but nothing like it. Must thank Mohsin here for giving me his Fox gloves which proved to be a boon! The lightweight gloves were really helpful especially in the cold. thanks a zillion mate.

Back to Bavla, where i was put up, here are some snippets. It's a quaint little town some 20 kms from Ahmedabad, on the way to Limbdi on NH- 8A. Its not that big actually, but quite a few specialities exist here. Its got a small market and a few damn good food stalls. Main occupations here include footwear and the garment business alongwith agro based industries & potteries, which are peppered around the entire place. Two of my most favorite food joints are Neelam omlette wala and the samosa wala bang opp the municipal office. The samosas go for 10 a plate, 6 numbers. The reason they are so damn famous is because they consist of a moong dal filling which the main guy loads it up with a imli and a spicy chutney. The bad part though is the shop time, which opens at 4 pm something, wraps up by 6! quite unusual, but the reason is within 2 hrs, the stocks vanish. Locals know the time & dont be surprised to find a rush already b4 it opens.. All dishes are served straight from the pan and given the nice rosy cold around, two of 'em go down aaramse. Lip smacking, tongue whacking!!

Actually one should term Bavla a little tourist spot. There are quite a few places around worth touring, more on it later.

So after coming, i wanted to catch up with Nisarg as we had to fix up the final tour dates and the main itinerary. Rolled the ZMA into Ahmedabad. The traffic here was very very bad. Zero road manners, I mean vehicles pop in from whichever possible corner to intrude into your way. I just wanted to stay cautious and kept honking. The horn was coming in very handy and turning out to be very effective.
Met him at last! Nisargs ZMA was now way past 30,000 ks. Still in the stock condition meant the superb maintenance kept by our Cisco geek. It was really cool to be meeting him after a long time. we planned out things at his place, but couldnt do much as hotel bookings at Agra and Jaipur seemed dicey. I was roaring to ride till Agra. Nisarg too was. but we still werent sure enough about the hotel bookings. so we decided to book up rooms at Jaisalmer initially and then carry on from there, whichever way the roads take us. work done, i came back for the day, on the lovely NH 8A!!

My days at Bavla were very idyllic, just finish my work by noon and freak around. Evening times meant a little timepass around the highway points and the farms & in the end head straight to Neelams. The wafty cool breeze flowing in from every end made riding a sheer pleasure. Plus i happened to have the sole red ZMA in town, and heads turning again at every turn and mile became a common sight. On account of the bad road ride of the day before, the fairing was rattling a bit and oil check was imminent. Plus the filter had to be cleaned too. Interesting point, i got my Bike serviced from a Bajaj outlet since there are no HH outlets here!! The mechanic did up the work in a jiffy and all was cool for the moment. the weather set up a nice mood everyday, just to freak out at Neelams. I mean nothing like a hot bhurji and omlette with onions in that weather! Just rockingg really. One plate always seemed less. Well, too good of something can be wonderful and that was the case here..

Bavla- Arnej- Bavla:

Arnej, around 30 kms from Bavla is a popular tourist attraction. Majority of people enroute to Rajkot take a halt here for the darshan of Mataji. Nice small place, but be wary of odd times as the crowd frequency depends. A visit to Bavla means a sure shot trip to Arnej by hook or crook. I couldnt wake up early and had to go in the evening. But even that was going to be worth it. One can directly reach Arnej via the NH8A, but i always ride through the village roads by taking a diversion at Rupaal. The vibrant green and isolated topography alongwith the narrow strip of road make for a splendid yet challenging ride.

Still this time around, the roads were bad at a few stretches but more than that, seeing the village folks and their lives in nano seconds was a pure delight. Atleast the kids faces lit up when they saw a Karizma make way through their land, and that was something to see! Here i came from soo far and i hadnt foreseen that i will bring a smile to so many unknown faces. heart warming really. Such places are real good photo stops and we took as many as we could. So much so it happened that i took off my helmet and hung it behind so that i was able to look through properly. Dont get me wrong if you find me helmet-less in the videos, it was for a reason.
And again the same story followed.. farmers who were returning home from work stopped by to see what this Bike is, what are these two nerds doing out here in the wilderness!! Why not, not at all a regular sight for em. We just smiled and moved on, and whenever somebody would ask anything about the bike, i wasnt minding it. its been 3 years with my Bike now, so am just so used to it now.

Finally, it was sunset time and decided to ride hard as we wanted to get back home before the dark. Reached Arnej and luckily it was the main aarti time! Prayed to god wholeheartedly for making the journey a succesful one, took prasad, spent sometime in the temple vicinity, took pix n twas time to leave. There are hardly any hotels here by the way. Night riding was in again. I decided to make it a quick one. Nh 8A has been in great shape at least whenever i have rode around here. I knew the roads back to Bavla. A few stretches were tricky as the tar had opened up but otherwise it was just fabulous. The plant blockades in the middle stopped incoming vehicle light and that was a real boon. After the havoc i had on Nh8 while coming this was way better. Still, the philips 60-55 wasnt proving to be enough and thoughts of installing extra lights on the fairing were coming up above. Maybe put up Hella lights below ya something. The light throw just wasnt enough even when at the long position. And sure it was going to be a problem on the travels ahead. anyway, reached Bavla within no time, stop at Neelams and back home.

Hope you like the pix.

Next up, the express chugged into my main native place, Surendranagar, which is 100 kms from Bavla. The Rajasthan ride was coming up and i wanted to greet everyone before i left. More on it later in day 3. Stay tuned!

Points to note:

* I had already done close to 700 odd kms.
* The tires were giving flawless grip and once warmed up they stuck to the tarmac like a honey bee on a flower! Michelin rocks, so does the Duro.
* The express was now giving an approx average of 49 something on the highway. Fantastic. This was an eye opening point.
* I was also carrying my coolpix 8800, 8 mp cam as a back up