Wild and Historic

Part Three of Three of the Column_M and MotorScribes Tour of Gujarat with a Jeep Compass.

Distance traveled: 438km. Chotila – Junagarh – Sasan Gir – Veraval – Rajkot

Photos by Ishaan Bhataiya and Bhuvan Chowdhary

With the North covered, it was now time to head towards the southern coast of Gujarat. Our route would cut right through the middle of the dry state, going through cities that were more than 2000 years old and landing at sea ports that were made before the country was colonised by the Portuguese. With about 1,200kms covered in the Jeep Compass since leaving Pune about five days ago, the thought of our tour coming to an end was slowly creeping in. It was a strange feeling though, as my body wasn’t able to tally the total distance covered to the stress levels. Part of it was due to the Compass’ high seating which helped hugely in driving stress-free while sitting perched on top of busy traffic in Ahmedabad, while the rest, was due to the Compass’ brilliant suspension setup that manages to keep the 1.6 ton SUV flat around the faster corners and straights, with minimal body roll despite the varying road conditions generally experienced on Indian highways.

We start early morning from Chotila, a small temple town near the city of Rajkot and move southwards towards Gir National Park, while stopping over at some interesting places. After a nights halt, we would turn back and head to Rajkot for our final day in Gujarat.