Bhavnagar -> Diu -> Somnath (27.1.25)

A total of 285 km was the target today, with a normal run of 5.5 hours. However, we broke at Diu for lunch, and made a leisurely trip of it.

Leaving Bhavnagar (8.00 am)

It was a glorious sunny day, 17 degC in the morning, with a lovely chill in the air. Yesterday we had dined lightly off burgers and sandwiches and spiral potato (now what is THAT, you might wonder) and onion rings and ice cream. Our hotel was on the third floor of Himalaya Mall, and all these options were available right downstairs. Also available was a succession of off key karaoke singers, who kept continuously climbing onto the makeshift stage from the audience. We were sorely tempted to unleash the Cacophonix treatment onto them.

Anyway, we had ultimately ended up having a lot of stuff inside us, vying for attention, so we left without having breakfast, planning to catch something on the way.

Breakfast at Hotel Sahyog (9.30 am)

Somehow, dhabas are not common on the highways, and Gujarati dhabas even less so. We shelved our wish for a fafda-jalebi breakfast and veered into a dhaba which proudly offered us alu paratha. That’s a good option, but somehow we got a deep fried version that left us quite dissatisfied. I mean, it was as strange as a deep fried dhokla, forsooth!

Nagao beach, Diu (11.30 am)

Diu is a gem of a place. Being a Union Territory (Goa/ Daman/ Diu used to be our usual triad in school), it is a virtual oasis in the middle of the arid desert of a dry and vegetarian Gujrat. Therefore it has a definite draw for tourists who have been going through Gujrat for a week and are now at the end of their actin/myosin tether.

We hit the Nagao beach first, because our driver took us there. Attached to a small dinosaur park, this beach had less sand and more flat black rocks, giving it more character but less comfort. Diu has many beaches, some of which we could see curving around the horizon.

Ghoghola beach, Diu (12.30 pm)

Diu lies on both sides of a water inlet, which expands into a backwater. We crossed over the bridge into urban Diu, because I wanted to find a beach with more sand and less rock, and Ghoghola beach, being a Blue Flag beach, suited our wish to an H. Miles of lovely fine sand, the sun shimmering on the water at high noon, some families lolling in the shallows with war whoops - all were bound to bring a smile to one’s face.

Lunch at Apana restaurant, Diu (1.00 pm)

We were actually looking for a seafood joint by the fancy name of O Coqueiro, but the approach road was so rough that our Etios baulked and started chomping at the bit. So we meekly went to a restaurant by the water and had Gujarati thalis. Nice thalis, of course, but when one has been shown pictures of prawns on the net, thalis tend to lose their shine a bit. Ah well, life’s life.

Portugese Fort, Diu (2.00 pm)

Diu had been a Portugese colony, and their fair footprints were all over the place, including a very well-maintained fort with a lighthouse that stands guard on elevated ground at the mouth of the inlet. We took a quick look (electric buggies helped in the quickness), but it is a fort that can definitely be recommended. If you are visiting Diu, do not miss it.

Sagar Darshan Guest House, Somnath (5.00 pm)

I had pre-booked this place on the net, and can be said to be the best property in town, in terms of view. Being part of the trust, it is located adjacent to the Somnath temple, and has unimpeded view of the sea from the hotel rooms. The western wall was fully glass and we just sat in our rooms till 6.30 pm and watched the sun set in glorious technicolour.

Somnath temple, Somnath (7.00 pm)

The new Somnath temple is a beautiful piece of work and was initiated by Sardar Patel after independence, since the old temple had been repeatedly pulled down by various attackers, starting from Mohd Ghazni to Aurangzeb. The king of Junagadh had complicated matters during independence by wanting to join Pakistan, but that had been diplomatically avoided. Just imagine going to Pakistan (technically) to visit Somnath temple. This is a shiva temple, of course, and one of the 12 jyotirlingas.

We watched the 30 min light and sound show and followed it up by Darshan at both the new as well as the old Somnath temple, which is located bang opposite the new one, but far less popular now - which is ironic because all the divine blessings etc are supposed to have been showered on the old one. By the time we returned to our hotel, it was 9.30 pm, a day well spent. It had a pizza/ sandwich joint apart from a regular restaurant, so our dinner choice was clear.

Tomorrow we travel to Junagadh.