Twenty-one-year-old Tal Benari from Israel, in his faded blue T-shirt and pyjamas, had driven down from Delhi in search of the best viewing spot for the first eclipse he would see in his life. Bike crammed with a large rucksack, a stove, a tennis racket and a thick stick for safety, Benari said he will long remember the awesome experience of watching the solar spectacle.

``I slept in Ahmedabad last night and reached here in time for the grand phenomenon. I just kept driving along the highway till I found the cloud cover thinning and the sun peeping,'' he said. In the quest for adventure, he has developed a taste for rice and tea and has got used to the volley of questions constantly being fired by curious locals.

Objective met, he was back on the highway, heading for Ahmedabad from where he planned to take the first train to Rajasthan, carting his bike along in the luggage van.