Every now and then, the bouts of frustration rise from the everyday drudgery and make my cluttered mind, crave for a weekend getaway. It was one such rare day when me and my friends successfully pulled off an escapade. Short, sweet, very exciting, and very memorable.
The destination was the quiet and beautiful coastal land of Diu. The start point was Ahmedabad and on the way to attain a short, instant dose of nirvana were Robin, Kedar, Jigish, Alabhya and myself. The fact that we were crossing over from a ‘dry’ state (no drinks allowed officially) to a ‘drenched’ beach (Booze Booze everywhere, what do you want to drink?) made the journey all the more worthy.
But hours before we entered Diu, we had this unexpected adventurous detour. As we drove in my lovable swift, we lost our way at night and went on an unknown road which was actually a serpentine path of mud, gravel and dust that never seemed to end. Where it was leading, well…we couldn’t tell. On both sides of this ‘road’ was what can be best described as horizontal abyss of darkness. Above us, the cloud-free sky was so jam-packed with stars; we felt we are in a planetarium. And to our disbelief, we had fog around us. In the month of May.
As our pupils dilated, we realized it was a forest area. No, we were not inside the forest or something, but yes, we were somewhere close. To the Gir jungles. Ok….So it was probably the vast open land and thick green cover of Gir that had caused the cooling effect and the fog. Wow, we had arrived at a conclusion with a scientific explanation. What a relief!!
As we drove further with car lights being the only source of light available, we had some pedestrians – few deers, a Nilgai, and a little rabbit crossing the path. Soo….may be a lion ahead?
Well, it was dawn by the time we asked for directions and came back on track, without having any darshan of any lion. It was a great thrill and so the fact that our unplanned excursion had pushed Diu deadline back by 3-4 hours, was not regretful. Me and Robin had taken turns to drive since past 12 hours and understandably, the excitement of reaching Diu was not that well-written on our faces….
(to be continued)
