At 6 o'clock the next morning Bapu and his merry marchers left Borsad for Ras. Ras was the village where a fortnight ago the government had arrested Sardar Patel, while he was making preparations for the salt march. The villagers pleaded with Sardar Patel to address them and as soon as Sardar Patel stood up to deliver a speech, the police arrested him for violating the peace. Bapu criticised Sardars illegal arrest severely and praised his bravery, he asked the people to inculcate the Sardars love for freedom and his determination to offer whatever sacrifice required. At 6 in the evening Bapu left Ras to a tumultuous send off by the villagers who accompanied him to the next village Kanakapura. On the way to Kanakapura, in a village called Dev, Bapu was welcomed by a 105 year old old great grandmother. She applied a vermilion mark on Bapu’s forehead and blessed him that he snatch swaraj, independence soon and come back triumphant.
At 8.30 Bapu and his band of marchers arrived at Kanakapura on the north bank of the Mahi river. Just a bit downstream the river met the sea, this was a tumultuous estuary, resembling an ocean and so it was known as Mahisagar here. This was one of the biggest river crossings that they would encounter on the march, the estuarine bed was approximately 5 Km long, One had to wait for low tide to cross the mud flats and pools. They began the crossing at 11 o'clock that night, the major part of the crossing was on foot wading through knee deep mud at some places part of the crossing was done with the use of small canoes, it was tiring, at around 3 in the morning the marchers and Bapu staggered on to the South bank, exhausted, tents had been pitched and water stored to clean up they were all caked in mud. Bapu bathed on the bank and then lay down to rest. At 4:00 am, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru reached Kanakapura and had to be carried accross the riverbed since the tide had started coming in. He briefed Bapu about the Congress Working Committee’s meeting and carried back Bapu’s messages for the Working Committee and the nation. After the meeting Jawaharlal left for Ahmedabad and Bapu and his marchers walked to Kareli.
At 6 o'clock in the morning Bapu and his band reached Kareli. Many people had gathered at Kareli. After the public meeting the marchers and Bapu rested for the night in the village. Kareli was the first village of the Bharuch district. At the meeting in Kareli Bapu saw annoying site he saw that the untouchables had gathered few hundred feet away from where the others of the village were sitting to listen to him. He reprimanded the villagers ‘This is the first time I am witnessing that the untouchables have been segregated thus, I cannot tolerate this injustice If the uppercatse villagers wished to listen to him speak, they must happily welcome the untouchables to come sit with them, or else he would go and sit amongst the Harijan’s and speak to them. I leave the decision to you , you can either continue the evil practice of untouchability and not listen to me, or you should go and invite the Harijans to come and sit amongst you and promise me that from this day onwards you will not practice this brutal injustice’. The villagers repented and went and invited the Harijan’s to come sit with them. From here onwards Bapu made it a point to insist on everyone intermingling at his meetings.