Yesterday we continue to stay at Silver Leaf Palace hotel in Ankaleshwar. There was not much to write since we left the room only to go down the Hall for breakfast and lunch and ordered room service for dinner. Watched some tv and slept a lot. This morning we were both feeling rested, refreshed and ready to go. We wanted to be careful so we decided to start slow. We checked out and started walking around 9:30am. We walked for about an hour or so before taking a break. We were walking on the main road still. There was a lot of traffic. It was already getting a bit hot. Sunilji was coming in the car on the same road. He would go past us and wait for us a kilometer or so
Ahead. After walking another half an hour we decided to get in the car and drive out of the city and then walk. We drove for 20 minutes and got off the car to continue our walk. But only after 30 minutes of walk Baiju was feeling very exhausted and felt like he needed to rest for couple of hour before he could continue. Sunilji was just ahead of us. We got in the car and asked him to find the next ashram where we could have lunch and rest. The ashram was only 20 minutes car ride from where we were. There were some Parikramavasis already there resting after there lunch. There were some who just arrived when we got there. We all had lunch in the open courtyard that was tiled. They had painted some of the tiles to keep them cool. We were advised to walk on the painted tiles. There was at least 10-15 degree temperature difference between the painted and the non-painted tiles. There were couple of small temples. One was Hanuman temple and the other was Shiva temple. We have seen this combination earlier as well. We were resting and wondering what is next. Baiju was too tired to walk. He also has to go to Bangaluru for 2-3 days for work. We thought he could go to Bangaluru finish work, recover and then join me in the walk. As we were talking Sunilji came to enquire about the plan. With him came another gentleman who was visiting the ashram
With his family from Surat (only 1.5 hour away from the ashram). We started talking. He was very curious about us as usual. Baiju told him about the medical device he is working on. The gentleman, Amit Zanzarmera, called his brother, Jitesh, to come and join us. They told us about Sourashtra area and Girinar Mountain. How the people are very generous and helpful. If you go there they will invite you into their home for tea and then ask you to stay for dinner and oh by the way it is late why don’t you stay here for the night etc. we asked about flights from Surat to Bangaluru. Jitesh is a businessman and knows about flights from Surat. He immediately called his agent and asked if there is a flight from Surat to Bangaluru. The agent said there a direct flight from Surat which flies everyday. It was about 3:00 pm. Baiju asked our travel agent in Bangaluru to book the 7:00 pm flight. We just had to get to the airport by 5:30 pm. The drive is about 1 1/2 hours.by this time it was almost 3:30. We quickly said bye to the two brothers. They invited us to their home in Surat. Baiju exchanged phone numbers and we got in the car to drive to the airport. By now the ticket was booked and Baiju had the e-ticket in his phone. GPS took us to the airport. We had to stop and ask directions only once. We got to the airport exactly at 4:58pm. Plenty of time for Baiju to check in. He had only one small bag with his iPad couple of shirts toiletries etc. after dropping Baiju at the airport we drove to Vamleshwar which was about 1 1/2 hours from the airport. We reached Vamleshwar around 7:00 pm. In the dark couldn’t tell a thing about the village. We found the Sarla Basant Birla Vishranti Dharmashala(hostel). We got a bed in a big hall for Rs. 50 ea. This place ladies and gents are in separate halls. Once we booked the bed we went in Search of Ramji Bhai, person who will sign us for the boat ride. As we started to walk
To the temple area the lights went out. We had our phones with and the flash light came in handy. When we got there many people were sitting down for dinner. We were both hungry so we decided to finish dinner before finding Ramji. By the time we finished dinner we were told that he is gone hime. I decided that we can stay here for one day and see the place in daylight and book our boat ride for next day. I got my backpack and went into the ladies hall. I found the place 80% occupied. Spoke to many of them. One lady was there with her husband, mother and couple of other people. They were doing the Parikrama by car. Another lady had come with her family, total ten people. There were others who were walking. They were all excited about taking the boat next morning. They all had to get up at 3:00 am to go to the boat. There three buses that had come this evening. They all were staying in this place. The dharmashala is very well maintained. The restrooms are situated in a different building in the back. They are also clean. One lady was doing the Parikrama by bus but wants to do it on foot. She is hoping next time she can time off from
Work and do it by walking. By 10:30 the hall was quiet and we all fell asleep. I was woken up at 3:00am by all the commotion of people getting ready to go, by 3:45 the hall was empty except for me. I went back to sleep for some more time. Today we walked about 8kms.