An excursion after a very long period of time....
It was weekend, and had to freak out. There was a cricket match organized from our office. I was bugged off and wanted to stay away from the madness of the city and it had been a long while I had an outing and that too a biking trip. We were planning to have from last month and hopefully managed with this one. Four of us Gowri, Sarang, Abhinav and Me (on two bikes) were emphatic to have a bike trip and planned one for Mt. Abu. It was almost 250 kms from Ahmedabad. Three of them started from Baroda on Saturday morning. As per the plan they were supposed to reach Ahmedabad by 7 am from where I was joining them. But just at the time of expedition Gowri's bike had a Flat tyre and our trip was delayed by almost 3 hours. They reached ahmedabad at around 9.30 am and after a break we started for Mt. Abu at 10.20 am.
We went through Mehasana, Siddhpur, Palanpur and to Abu. It was great time riding our bike's at a top speed of 110 kms/hr. Speeding up at the maximum and racing between the two was awesome. Where Gowri used to play some hide and seek on the highway. The highway was beautiful especially from Palanpur to Abu. A grand scenery could be easily viewed from the highway with fog covering the Aravalies.
We reached Mt. Abu at around 5.30 pm. Brisk of wind in weather made us relaxed and full with zest on the way from Abu road to Mt. Abu. It was great riding our bikes in the Ghat areas of the Mt. Abu
After having some rest we directly went to the sunset point and had a splendid view climbing to one of the secluded rocks, thanks to the pop-corn boy who showed us the isolated place. None of us was willing to get down after the sunset as we all were enjoying the calmness and serenity of the place away from the unharmonious and grisly sights of the city. Especially away from the workplace, I still remember Gowri saying "kitna accha hai yha, na koi target, na koi deadlines, na koi project aur na koi manager". Atleast we had nothing for mutiny at the weekend against the resistance of undue workload and pressure especially during the regression and recession days... :)
Returned from the sunset and it was already dark, people were turning back from different sight seeing spots and building traffic along the streets and honking of horns from the vehicles once again resembling to the madness of the city which made the cool and calm atmosphere unharmonious and noisy. The streets were all lit up with people wandering around the shops and restaurants fully packed with huge queue's awaiting their turn to grab some edible food after a nice outing at different spots around the Mountains.
After having some sweet delicacies at different restaurants we turned back to our rooms and had a good sleep for the rest of the night. The next day we started moving to two other beautiful spots. One being the pilgrimage of Delwada Jain Temples and other one Gurushikar, an another religious place having a temple of Dattatraya which is located at one of the highest peak around the mountains. The sculpture of Delwada Jain Temples was simply amazing and awesome. It took 14 years to build the temples at a cost of 18 millions and 53 lacs in the year 1031 A.D. with 1400 masons and 1200 labours.
Finally we started moving back at 12.30 pm on Sunday for Ahmedabad. We made it to Ahmedabad at 6.00 pm with an hour and half break at Palanpur for lunch. It was bit risky riding our bikes against the winds blowing at almost 40 kms/hr drifting our bikes on the highway. But that didn't impede our passion from riding at almost 95-100 kms/hr and reached Ahmedabad effectively in 4.30 hours covering 250 kms. And from Ahmedabad Gowri, Sarang and Abhinav left for Baroda.
Overall it was a great trip and all four of us enjoyed it. In hindsight awaiting in frisson for much more trips coming up with the rainy days ahead and I (hopefully all of us) would not rebuff the idea of organising such wonderful trips.
