17^th October  Udaipur, India to Valsad, India

I had a light breakfast organised by the grand daughter of the hotel owner. She had recently graduated from Indore University. Indore University it turns out are teaching degree courses under licence from De Montfort University, Leicester. When I had a real, proper, adult job, I was a lecturer at De Montfort University. Small world.

The winding roads continued toward Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad is the state capital of the Gujarat. It is connected with Vadodora by an Expressway..... As I approached the expressway I was aware there were no longer any motorcycles on the road. I saw the signs prohibiting motorcycles. I kept going. I felt that finding an alternative route would be a hassle. I reached the toll gates and was told that I was unable to proceed. The staff asked me to head back against the flow of traffic and exit the road. I told them this was crazy and dangerous. Finally they suggested I enter the road and immediately make a U turn, 50 metres down the road, through the central reservation to head back to Ahmedabad........ Hello!...... I entered the expressway and let the horses fly. I could see the signs telling me that the expressway was 90km long, I knew I might run out of fuel. I knew that someone would follow or attempt to intercept me. I rode at very high speed, intermittently, highway staff tried to intercept me, vehicles chased me. I could see the intercept teams in the distance as I approached, I hid as best I could in the shadow of speeding cars. The teams attempted to step out and stop me, but in vain, always too slow, too late. Finally after 80km there were 2 teams. They stepped out with sticks.... they got me! They spoke little English apart from the word penalty. They sent me on to the exit gates at Vadodora. At Vadodora I fully expected arrest. What developed was something different. I arrived and was surrounded by 10-15 staff. The boss was called. He turned out to be friendly and entirely dissinterested in punishing me. He asked for a present from England. I gave him a set of Euro coins, he appeared delighted, he gave me directions to the nearest fuel station and then told me how to get onto the national highway fro Mumbai. I re-fueled with the guage showing 5 miles fuel remaining.

The NH8 to mumbai is a boring and busy road. I plodded on. I had a side swipe nudge from a truck, again one of panniers absobed the impact. I remained seated and chased the truck down and screamed abuse at the driver. Another near miss. Indian roads are full of danger.

I finally pulled into a roadside hotel in the late afternoon. The rooms were 800 Rs and were very nice. The Gujarat is a dry state, alcohol is unavailable. I asked in the hotel restaurant about beer and was directed to a sign.....

Fair enough.

Valsad mileometer 25046