Ahmedabad → Valsad → Saputara → Daman
the plan
Six days, twelve people, close to 1,000 km all in, with Valsad as the base camp at a relative's house. I drove a Tata Punch AMT. Out on the highway the automatic was effortless. In the ghats it was a different story, more on that below.
day 1, ahmedabad to valsad
Left Ahmedabad on 1 Sep and reached Valsad late at night. Nothing to see that day, just getting there.
day 2, up to saputara
Drove up to Saputara the next morning and checked into Aakash Lords by afternoon. Spent the evening at the lake, did the boating and the usual lakeside activities. Then Sunset Point, late in the evening. That was the moment of the trip. The clouds were at eye level, sometimes below us, sometimes rolling straight through. It felt like standing inside the sky.
day 3, fog, ziplines, and a hidden waterfall
Sunrise Point first thing in the morning, then the adventure activities, the zipline being the pick. The drive between spots was the interesting part. Fog so thick you could barely see the next bend, and this is where the Punch's automatic mode gave up. I kept it in manual for most of the hill sections, holding lower gears on the climbs and descents.
In the evening we went looking for the dam waterfall near Hatgad Fort. It was a proper hidden gem. No crowd, no stalls, no railings, just raw water coming off the rocks. We were the only group there. Getting to it was a bit of a trek and we treated it as one, half adventure and half wandering. Standing next to a waterfall like that as the light goes is the kind of thing that empties your head. Easily the best part of Saputara, and it isn't even in Saputara.
day 4, gira falls and back to the coast
Left Saputara in the morning and stopped at Gira Waterfall on the way down. Hot, crowded, and after the previous evening it felt like a tourist queue. Didn't stay long.
Back in Valsad we went to Tithal Beach and the Swaminarayan temple next to it. The beach is wide and clean, the temple is calm, and dinner at Premvati inside the temple premises rounded off the day.
day 5, daman
Lazy morning in Valsad, then Daman in the afternoon. Jampore Beach first, which is the one you go into the water at, and we did, for a long time. Devka Beach after that, which is more for walking and looking than swimming. Both worth it, in that order. Drove back to Valsad at night.
day 6, home
Valsad to Ahmedabad on 6 Sep. Long day behind the wheel, but the expressway stretch made it an easy drive, and after a week of ghat roads the car finally got to stay in automatic.
