Day 5 Wed Aug 17 Kevadiya to Statue of Unity
Previous day we stayed at a sou eco camp. Their name states the word Eco i e eco friendly but in the morning there was no water in the washroom. Luckily a few drops from the washroom water tap was the saviour. Mahesh went all the way to the main reception and told the staff about the water issue. On the contrary there was literally a flow of water in the swimming tank which no one was using & was complete wastage. We also faced poor mobile network connectivity & no internet inside the room but we didn’t complain. If there is an option of giving negative ratings on the internet then I would have given that in the review. If you have time and money don’t stay in this place.
It was raining in the morning & in our stay package they had included breakfast. We decided to eat breakfast then visit the Statue of Unity with the cycle, come back to Ekta Nagar Station, transfer the cycle in the train and then revisit campus again as our slot was 2pm in the afternoon that was the plan. It was 7 in the morning and after half an hour the breakfast counter was supposed to be open according to the hotel so we were just killing time at the reception area. We met one more family & they were waiting for their check-in formalities. They reached a few hours earlier than their usual time but the hotel staff refused them to give entry even on a temporary basis. The hotel literally harassed them with their stubborn attitude & refused to give room. Narayan & others from our group told them that they can use our room as we were leaving after breakfast. When we went for breakfast around 7.30 it was not opened, we believe they forgot completely. After some variation of tone from our end they started preparing and served that after a few minutes.
It was 10am and slightly drizzling on and off. When we were riding we could see the world’s tallest statue (182m) and it was a different feeling all together. We as a group were really happy that we were able to attempt & successfully complete Mumbai to Statue of Unity cycle Ride.
I was awestruck to see the humongous architecture and when I reached was speechless because of its massive size. I’m sure there must be a lot of thought process and vision involved creating the masterpiece which is beyond my imagination. After capturing the moment in both – eyes and mobile camera we decided to come back towards Ekta Nagar Station for cycle packing formalities as the return journey was by train. We did the basic packing of cycle and they were ready to go by train in evening.
Our time slot to visit the gallery was 2pm. one can book the tickets from the link below.
https://www.soutickets.in/#/services-venue-list
The cost per person is 380 Rs for SOU Viewing gallery. They also provide free bus service from any bus stop in Ekta Nagar (we boarded from Ekta Nagar Station) to the sou premises & frequency of the bus availability is within 15 minutes. Still we witnessed the fist fighting & verbal variation of language between people who were definitely not from Gujrat before the arrival of our bus. We decided to let go and boarded the next bus.
It took 46 months to complete the SOU. Inside the building one must go to Audio Visual Gallery where they play short documentaries of how the statue was built and other informative information. A viewing gallery is at 135m height at the chest of the statue and we reached there by lift within a few seconds.After witnessing the view and Narmada River we came down by the lift.
The Statue of Unity Gallery is a huge premise and one can spend the entire day easily just roaming around.
Our Train was around 9.25 pm. We came back to Ekta Nagar Station and Sunil Gadgil had booked a room in the station premises which turned out to be pretty useful. We relaxed ourselves & had dinner at a nearby restaurant after a few hours and boarded the train. The train left exactly in the scheduled time. Next day on 18th of August we reached Dadar around 5.30am. Picking up the cycle from the luggage compartment & other formalities took around 45 minutes/ 1 hour and we said goodbye to each other left for home.
I really enjoyed the entire journey. I got an opportunity to not only ride with my friends who are now my second family which I always look forward to meeting them but also got to meet new people such as Vidyaji, Mahesh & Abhijit who instantly became friends. I am really lucky & blessed and words won’t be enough to express my gratitude towards Aai & Baba who always provide me unconditional support in everything I do and because of them & of course by God’s grace I am able to attempt and complete the cycle ride.
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place Ekta Nagar Station
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