The temperature outside was indicated as 42 degrees Celsius on the centre console as we got on to the highway that led us to Sasan Gir, not that you’d notice it inside the cabin of the Santa Fe, because the air-conditioner was working at full pelt, and the car was suffused with an extremely comfortable chill. Back to the highway, it was perfectly paved and scarcely populated. We took the route that bypasses Bhavnagar and Pipaliya, and on the way we even found a salt refinery which we just had to explore (mostly because nobody stopped us).
You would think it’s not that big a deal, but to see a mountain of unrefined salt shoulder-
to-shoulder with another that is completely refined is quite a sight, and I, for one, was fascinated by it. We couldn’t dwindle for long, though, because we had to be in Gir in time for the lion safari. Despite the quality of the road, it does suffer from one issue: there are no food stops on the way. We didn’t find anything until we reached a small village about 30 minutes away from Gir. A quick brunch later we were ready to set off, but not before photographing the ‘Bullet’ powered rickshaw that had just pulled up.
The entrance to the Gir forest reserve is interesting. Right at the police check post that demarcates its starting point we were greeted by a spotted deer frolicking about by the roadside. The policeman, after taking down details such as the driver’s name and the car make, model and registration number, and checking out the Santa Fe, told us we had to be out by one of the reserve’s gates within 90 minutes or we’d be penalised.
I was tempted to ask him about added-on time for injuries and such, but didn’t because he probably wouldn’t have got the reference (it’s not cricket, after all!) Anyway, we moved on, and the road suddenly ceased to exist, although all the heavy machinery required to pave a road through the reserve would probably scare the living daylights out of the animals that call it their home, so I can understand why the road has never been repaired. Not that it was much of bother in the Santa Fe, though, the suspension soaked up a lot of the bumps, making the ride a lot more comfortable than it could have been.
