Coast to Coast 2021: Porbandar to Bhavnagar

By 7 am, I was packed and ready to move on towards my next destination. Today, I’d planned to reached Bhavnagar and again was going to stay with my close friend’s relatives.

Thanking him for providing such warm hospitality, I was excited now about the new challenges I was going to face today. New Roads, New people to meet!

With such an early start, I found myself alone on the highway which looked kind of deserted for ages. There was literally no one and a beautiful sunrise greeted me.

The distance to Bhavnagar seemed like I was easily going to make it before dark.

As the day progressed, I could see the activities started to happen and on both sides of the highway, people were hustling and bustling and going by their daily chores. Some waiting for their transport, some tending their animals, some small shop vendors selling items to their customers and others, mainly old ones basking on the morning sun! The highlight was the way the people dressed in this part of the state which was like a new thing for me.

I guess the time was around 9:15 am when I stopped for my first break. I had to attend nature’s call and stretch my legs a little bit. It was when I was about to hit the road that I noticed that my 2nd USB charger also had stopped working. I knew I was in trouble now as it was the only and last source of providing me power for all day. I resorted to my Power Bank, which I had kept as a backup just in case. The only question was whether the Power Bank was would last till the end of the day charging both my GoPro battery as well as Mobile phone. It was time to make some mathematical calculations.

After Somnath, It was time to hit the state highways again. The route planned was going to take me as close to the coast as possible.

Somnath- Sutrapada- Lodhwa- Kodinar.

I had made my plans about Diu. I had already visited the place in 2017 and even though I was visiting again now, I thought of doing a full circuit around the Island before moving ahead. I wanted to experience the changes that happened in 4 years of time.

I was heading towards Mahuva which was close to 100kms from my current place. But as soon as I exited Una, the roads deteriorated. With dust flowing around from heavy vehicles, it was really difficult to drive.

It was past noon by now. I was on the NH51 now.

At one stop, I asked the local person standing beside the road that for long this torture was going to continue, and to which he replied that the road condition was like this till Bhavnagar. By now, both I and the bike had taken a heavy beating physically and mentally.

In the morning I had thought that I would comfortably reach Bhavnagar before it got dark but I didn’t know that the roads would be this bad. I still had many km to cover and on top of that, I was going to detour from the main highway and instead take a closer coastal route towards Bhavnagar from Alang.

By the time I reached Alang from the main highway, it was completely dark, and on top of that, the security at the entrance of the yard did not permit me from taking that route since I had a camera with me. They saw it mounted at the front of my helmet. Also, they suggested I go back and instead take the highway route and the Alang route was a little risky in the night owing to drunk people roaming the streets in the evening.

So, I had to travel back 10 km and join the highway which consumed more time.

For the last 20 odd km the roads were back to normal and with that, I could increase my speed a little bit.

I reached the city centre around 8 pm following which Hardik’s cousin arranged to meet me at a pre-decided place. He then escorted me towards his home and finally, the day came to an end.

Late night, after dinner, I transferred all my recordings to my backup hard drive and ensured that my power bank was charging!

It was time to head southwards from tomorrow onwards also requiring me to find a stay from now onwards. This was the last planned stay on the trip and even the distance. Going forward, it was going to stop whenever it got dark and search for a hotel kind of policy!