Catching up with 2014!

Time flies! It’s been a crazy year so far, one of those kinds where I haven’t taken any vacation since it started. Seriously, come to think of it, the trip to Gujarat and Rajasthan in December 2013 was the last long vacation we’ve had. Since then, it’s been just so difficult to take time off and just go somewhere….anywhere!



It was supposed to be a trip to the North Eastern Himalayas in December 2013, covering parts of Sikkim and a tour of Bhutan, returning through Assam and West Bengal. But there were budget constraints that hit us, both monetary as well as time needed to complete the circuit. Gozu had some work related travel in December that made it difficult to plan a 3 week trip and we had to drop the idea eventually.

It was already November and we hadn’t finalized where we were going. Then one fine day, it just happened! We were going to be accompanied by the Kumars and the Singhs, in their virgin Ecosport and Terrano, both cars barely run 500-600 kms. So at 2 months old, the Fortuner was going to be the oldest car in the group for this trip. Plans were made and we managed to get the bookings done. Those days the weekend discussions used to be only about what we’re going to through the trip. It was going to be a 10 day trip, covering only Jaisalmer, Dholavira and Zainabad with some stopovers at Ahmedabad.



When the d-day arrived, everyone was in a super charged mood. First halt was at Mumbai where we were stopping over at a friends place and then headed to Ahmedabad on the next day. The following two days were dedicated to some birding around Ahmedabad while the other two guys spent time with family in Mumbai and joined us at Ahmedabad on day three.



During the two days at Ahmedabad, we visited the Thol Sanctuary and Nalsarovar Lake. Honestly, Thol was a bit of a disappointment since I couldn’t get closer to the birds at all. The lake is very big and even after walking around for an hour, we hadn’t even walked halfway around its circumference. We roamed around for about 3 hours and then finally decided to try our luck with Nalsarovar. Once at Nalsarovar, it was a very different experience altogether. We hired a boat for the remainder of the day and the whole of the next day which was quite good. The bird population was dispersed through various parts of the lake. The water levels were still high and the flamingos hadn’t arrived yet, but a lot of other waders were seen.



Covering an area of 120 sq. kms, the lake is covered with grass reeds and the shallow waters allow for a lot of aquatic plants to thrive. The weather was quite good too, and on the second day we were on that boat starting 7AM until 6PM.





On Day 3, we were joined by the rest of the group and then it was shopping time for the ladies at the night market in Ahmedabad. The next day we were scheduled to begin our trip officially and head towards Jaisalmer.



While shortlisting places in Rajasthan, I was very particular of not wanting to do any of the touristy places where one has to walk with a thousand people through those palace corridors. Rajasthan for me was about the dunes in the desert and its uninhabited vastness. May be someday I will go back to visit the palaces, but not in the peak tourist season. On choosing the dunes near Jaisalmer, there were two main spots, Sam and Khuri. The Khuri (khoodi) dunes were apparently less crowded and cheaper than staying at Sam. And fortunately, we managed to get bookings at Mama’s resort and Camp at Khuri given that everything else was pretty much full.

The resort seemed a bit smaller than what we anticipated and what the pictures depicted, but the rooms were good and they had some tented accommodation that looked nice as well. The food was quite good but that didn’t surprise us. Although most places are predominantly vegetarian, I actually think that getting bad food is a bit difficult in Gujarat and Rajasthan.


The first day we went out for a short ride on the dunes to watch the sun settle behind the horizon. Everybody’s first experience on the sand, and we all loved it. So much that we asked the guys to take us for a full-day safari on the following day.



In the full-day safari, you basically travel about an hour on the camels and then settle down under an acacia tree while the guys cook a hearty meal on the dunes. No gas and no stove, only some twigs and a make shift “chulha”. And then post the afternoon siesta, you are good to return back to civilization. There are overnight versions of such expeditions as well, where you get to sleep on the dunes under the star lit night sky, but given that we had a 1 year old, we chose not to be too adventurous. The night temperatures can drop significantly and one has to be prepared for it.

I wanted to get the Fortuner for some dune bashing and experience its capabilities on the sand. Post the siesta, the next stop was going to be the sunset point that we had visited on the previous day. So while the guys packed up and moved towards that place, I decided to go get the car and drive it to the sunset point. On the way to the car, as the camel was getting down a steep slope, one of the belts securing the seat snapped out. The young lad, about 13 years old, didn’t know what to do next and called his brother for advice. His brother assured me that it shouldn’t be a problem at all and that his camel also runs the same setup with one broken strap. So off we went again, and at the next descent, I could see the camels head coming closer and closer to mine. Finally, I had to grab the camels neck and do an emergency dismount maneuver, landing in the soft sand. The seat had almost come off its back, throwing me off to roll in the sands. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, neither me and nor the camel had suffered any injuries. The little guy was a bit embarrassed over the incident, but I laughed it off to make him comfortable. It was then that he told me that I was fortunate that the camel didn’t react to me grabbing it’s neck, if it were a smaller camel, it may have kicked me and definitely caused some pain. I thanked my stars and the camel too, brave animal I must say. Anyway, the seat was fixed by another camel guy who made sure it was secured properly and he swore on his own life that there was no risk for me to sit on it again. I offered to walk instead, but he insisted and I gave in, but not without asking for pardon for all my sins...it worked!

Soon we were back at the car and it was time for me to show the little guy on how good the Fortuner could do camel duty. He handed the camel to his brother and joined me along with another friend. The first step was to climb the dune, straight to the top and then drive on the ridges to get to sunset point. I slotted into 4HL and it climbed up like no man’s business, at 40kmph! Both guys were surprised at the ease at which the Fortuner was managing through the dunes and soon we were at the designated spot.



The next day we roamed around Jaisalmer and visited the fort. It was a nice experience and the ladies got an opportunity to shop around until it was dark.



Our first trip to Jaisalmer and we were all determined to come back for more, but for now we had to head towards Dholavira which was our next destination. Most importantly, we had to make sure our bookings were still available since I hadn’t been able to pay the advance. I called them again to check, the guys were kind enough and hadn’t given away my bookings.


Dholavira had been on our travel schedule for the past 2 years when we’ve visited the Little Rann of Kutch, but it had never materialized. So this time it was finally going to happen, and my wife was excited about it. The only place to stay at Dholavira is at Toran which is operated by Gujarat Tourism so its always a good thing to get place and have your bookings confirmed.

We hired a guide to show us around and that was indeed a good move since we would have never realized how well planned the humans were 5000 years ago.

Next day, we left towards Zainabad (Little Rann of Kutch) in the morning after breakfast. It was a quick and short drive of about 4 hours through small villages until we reached the main highway. But it was not a problem since the roads throughout Gujarat have been fantastic all the time.



Zainabad had now become like our second home given that this was the third consecutive year we were visiting. Dhanraj and his guys made every attempt to make our stay comfortable as ever, hats off. We did the customary wildlife viewing safari and everyone got to witness the critically endangered wild asses and a few other LRK specialties.



Next day we got our permits and decided to drive in ourselves. Although we made a few wrong turns, overall we successfully navigated through the open flats (with some help from GPS and Google Maps). It was time for a quick photo shoot with the three cars.







On the following day we went exploring around Zainabad to Modhera and Patan. The Sun Temple and Rani ki Vaav are some really interesting places to visit if you get a guide and listen to all their stories.



Before we realized, it was already the end of our week long vacation and with a heavy heart we bade goodbye to Gujarat. It was time to catch up with some more family members and then head back home.

Given that we are so used to traveling on our own, this was definitely a different experience for us. But again, the good thing was that we were with a very close group of friends and that’s what made it fun and entertaining all through. Overall, it was a fun vacation and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

A Sequel to Dec 2011 - Exploring the Little Rann Of Kutch

The 2012 monsoon hasn’t been great across the country and one can easily make out the impact of it in LRK. The water bodies that were full last year and had a lot of ducks and other waders had just ankle deep water and were now flooded with flamingos who prefer that habitat. The ducks had to move to the creek side which had some water but not as much as the last time. There was some water released from the Narmada which had an impact on some of the access roads and the only option to go the creek side was from Bajana which is 20kms from Zainabad whereas last year there was another road midway. 

The number of birds this year were less as compared to the previous year and what I got to know was that the flamingos on the way to Dholavira were no longer there in this season. Last year, I was told that there was a huge gathering of 1.5 to 2 lakh flamingos on that side of the Rann. We missed it because we thought we’ll go to Dholavira from the GRK side and unfortunately that road access was closed when we went there. Now Dholavira is about 5 hours from Zainabad and is one of the sites where you can see the remnants of the Harappan civilization, but my main aim was to also go there for the Greater Flamingos which are not found in LRK otherwise. We made plans and we dropped the plans, that’s pretty much what we did and end of the trip, we didn’t really take off for Dholavira. May be someday when I visit the place again, I’ll keep this on the itinerary. 

 

We did go to the Modhera Sun temple which is quite a brilliant depiction of how ancestral Indian man was knowledgeable about subjects ranging from history, geography, science, mathematics to sex education. The temple is no longer a place of worship since it was desecrated and is now a well maintained archaeological site. Our guide kept telling us intriguing stories about how Mahabharata was depicted in the sculptures and how the temple was built based on the sun calendar etc. Overall, a nice visit and there’s always something you learn from such places. 

During the course of the 4 days at Desert Coursers, we made friends with a lot of people and surprisingly one of them was a family from Bangalore who stay just about 7-8 kms from our place. Their son and Pozu immediately took off and what followed was a couple of days of sheer playing madness between the duo. Given that LRK isn’t really a place that has too much to offer for a general tourist, usually the people who visit the place are wildlife enthusiasts and that has helped keep the crowds limited but the overall region can definitely be kept a lot cleaner than what it is today. Plastic trash is seen almost everywhere and can easily be avoided through proper regulations and education. 

My favorite photographic subject in LRK has been the Lesser Flamingos and even this time I spent most of the time sitting at the edge of Nawa Talav waiting for these beautiful creatures to accept me and close in for a nice shot. Finally, persistence paid off and I was able to get a few shots that were satisfying enough to call it a successful day. 

While I was busy photographing the flamingos, Pozu was keeping her Mom busy with her insistence to use my other camera. She also wanted to try her hand at some shots of the flamingos and finally managed to work her way out.

A Greylag Geese couple also happened to pose nicely for the camera, though they maintained safe distance at all times. No amount of hiding helped in getting close to them and they’d take to the sky at the slightest hesitance from anyone in the group.

  

The LRK special for this visit was the encounter with the nightjars, we spotted both the Sykes as well as the Indian nightjars after sundown. The only challenge was to get a nice picture of these supremely camouflaged birds, the search light surely helped in spotting these beauties, but the harsh light didn’t make it easy to get a pleasing picture. Still after fiddling around with the exposure and dialing it down to soften the light, I was able to get a couple of pictures that are worth posting here. 

The Eurasian cranes were found almost everywhere but I was glad to document some aggressive behavioral shots in a siege. I couldn’t make out whether the two males were either fighting for dominance or it was mock ritual, but it went on for about 10 minutes while the other cranes were seen cheering the fight. 

The Demoiselle cranes were missing last year during our trip, but this time they made a good special appearance and during the evening golden light hour and it more than made up for their absence. 

The sunrise and sunset are the two most beautiful events in the Rann where you can see the big orange ball of fire just rising from or sinking into the perfectly flat horizon. One of the evenings we were lucky to witness a really beautiful orange glow reflecting off the shallow waters, introducing a magical effect into the whole landscape. We positioned our jeep to get a classic silhouette shot of the curlew sandpiper in the orange waters and after a couple of tries, I was happy with what I had gotten. 

A day before we were supposed to leave for Jamnagar, I called the Saevus organizers to check on my stay arrangements since I had asked for a separate booking. I was told that they have blocked the room for me separately, but since there was a cancellation they offered my wife to join the event as a participant if she was willing. Given that there was basically nothing that she was going to do except babysitting Pozu, she was ready to join but we wanted to make sure that it was okay to have our daughter along with us all the while. We were happy to know that there wasn’t any issue in having Pozu with us if we were okay with it and so now all three of us were going to participate in the bird race which was quite exciting.

A Sequel to Dec 2011 - We're Birding Again In Gujarat

Planning The Trip

Every year in December, we plan our year end trip to take advantage of the company shutdown that mandates us to utilize a week of time-off. Last year we had the Rann Of Kutch trip planned out well in advance and the bookings were confirmed in August/September timeframe. This year was a bit different though, after the long vacation in August we didn’t really want to spend another two weeks out on a driving holiday. We were not even sure we’d want to go out in December, so we just kept our plans open and had no bookings etc done. It was only in the early part of December that we finalized that we’d go out at least for one week if not two.

Getting a booking for the last week of December is a big deal, places are usually running full and pricing is at its peak. Not that we didn’t know it already, but we still wanted to give it one last try and see if there’s any economical and good holiday destination for us to visit. A lot of places were taken into consideration, from Goa, Kerala, Assam, Andamans and even Sri Lanka, almost everything we wanted to cover was evaluated. Either it was going beyond budget or there was simply no availability at almost all places. Sri Lanka was a strong contender since tickets were still going cheap, but stay options weren’t all that cheap (atleast the ones I could find on the internet). If it were any other time of the year, I wouldn’t mind taking a chance and landing up without prior bookings, but last week of December isn’t a good time to do that so we decided to drop the plan.

Something that’s very peculiar of us while choosing holiday destinations:

• It must be very obvious by now that we prefer remote locations to busy hill stations or crowded cities – the lesser the number of people, the better the location!
• I personally like natural creations versus man made wonders – I feel mankind has basically ruined the landscapes with what we think are aesthetic structures and marvels of engineering etc etc.
• The holiday should preferably have some element of wildlife – definitely not the zoos but not just the national parks either. Any natural habitat where we could enjoy watching and/or photographing birds, mammals or reptiles in the wild is good. 
• There is no fun in leisure vacations – if you’re going to be in the room or resort for the full day, we might as well do that at a resort in Bangalore. Vacations are to explore and experience, not to laze around all day and watch TV or float in the swimming pool.
• The stay has to be hygienic, comfortable and more importantly economical. We hardly spend time in our hotel rooms so all the luxury things are a wasted effort.
• The food has to be basic– we’re no food aficionados who have their menu charted out in the minds even before the meal break. 
• If there’s a place we can drive versus fly or go by train etc – driving takes precedence. There is no substitute for the freedom of being able to choose what you want to do and when.
• Lastly, there is always a plan and then there’s Plan B.

Ok now, back to the story telling. Around the same time in early December we saw that Tata Motors Full Throttle team was arranging a desert expedition starting at Delhi and ending at Jaipur from 22nd-25th . It was a four day event organized for Tata UV owners and the stay options and the pricing was really good. Gozu was a bit excited about this event initially since we were getting a chance to explore Rajasthan (which has been on the list for a while) on a guided but self-driven tour.

Owning a Safari and the Thar is going to let us experience the best of both worlds as the TMFT and Mahindra Adventure teams compete in their own ways to put up some really nice events for their customers. I am pretty much sold on the Mahindra Adventure off-road and TSD events and plan to participate to the extent possible in 2013. On the other hand, we’d always prefer solo driving expeditions rather than being a part of a convoy while exploring places and thus the Tour-de-XXXX or Conquer the YYYY type programs are a big no-no. Not that they’re bad, but just that the element of thrill is missing plus you always end up choosing to go with the flow to avoid conflicts.

Everything seemed okay with the TMFT plan except maybe a couple of things:

• Driving to Delhi for a 4 day event was a really boring idea. There’s absolutely nothing on that route to keep us excited, plus the event was ending on Christmas eve. The following week is the busiest time everywhere and especially in Rajasthan. That meant we may not be able to extend the holiday unless we’re prepared to pay through our nose for the hotel bookings. Besides, except for Jaisalmer where I’d want to go for the sand dunes and the landscapes devoid of people, the rest of Rajasthan though culturally rich with the havelis and history and all of that, it’s a crowded place I think. 
• All our vacations have been with an open agenda for the next day, we never get fussy over following the plan. We only have a rough draft of what we’d like to do and then we just let things flow freely. This is one of the big reasons why we love to drive versus make advance bookings for flights/hotels etc on our vacations. This event was going to be a bit restrictive in that sense as we’ll have to follow a schedule and we were a bit nervous about it. 

Anyway, we weren’t ready to commit to a schedule as yet and so decided to drop the idea for now. May be we’ll need to start with smaller events and see how that goes.

With the Rajasthan plan out of the contention, we started searching for some more alternatives for a week’s vacation. Spending time with extended family in Mumbai and Pune was an option, but that usually turns out to be very dangerous on our weight management practices and at the end of it we’re so exhausted with doing absolutely nothing. Moreover, we’ve had 3-4 trips in this year for various occasions so this plan could be parked for now. 

Just before we gave up on our choices, another idea came up, why not go back to Gujarat again and spend some time only at the Little Rann of Kutch instead of doing a full-fledged trip like last year. We had skipped a couple of places last year (mainly the Sun Temple and Dholavira), and it would be good to explore them this time around. A quick call to Dhanraj who owns Desert Coursers yielded a positive response and we were now booked for 4 days at Zainabad. We went from no plans to having clear plans within 5 minutes! 

About a week later I received an invite from the Saevus magazine folks for the Bird-A-Thon that was planned in Jamnagar. Now this was an event originally planned for November, but had gotten delayed and I had no clue that it would pop up now. Luckily, the dates for the event matched our checkout date from LRK and a quick check on Google maps showed Jamnagar to be just under 240kms from Zainabad. This meant that we could leave LRK after breakfast and comfortably make it to Jamnagar by lunch time and participate in the event next day.

The Bird-A-Thon was a bird race organized by Saevus magazine along with the Gujarat Tourism and sponsored by Samsonite and Olympus. For those who are new to the bird race concept, it’s not exactly a race where you have chickens running to a finish line. It’s about a group of people roaming through the city limits, trying to spot and identify as many bird species as they can between a 6AM-6PM time window. The team with the highest bird count wins and there may be other awards such as for the rare species that someone has seen or the best picture etc. This is however not a photography event and is mainly focused on getting you to explore the bio-diversity of the region and using all resources to identify a bird species so that you can note it down correctly in the log book. The annual HSBC bird race is quite a familiar event and is conducted in a lot of cities. The Bird-A-Thon however, was the first such event being held in Jamnagar and the Saevus team was going to organize stay for the outstation participants, provide cars to move around the city as well design teams with atleast one person familiar with the areas in and around Jamnagar. This was definitely going to be a new experience for me since whenever I’m out for bird photography, the focus has never been to spot as many birds but to spend time with only a few and make sure you have atleast 2-3 shots that you’d be happy with at the end of the day. The new plan was that I’d book a separate room for us and Gozu and Pozu can chill and relax on the day I’m out for the event and we leave for home next day morning and make a stop at Mumbai or Pune if possible. 

This is exactly what I love about being independent on our vacation, we could easily make amends to our original plan and accommodate the Jamnagar event without any issues. Now, we didn’t just have a vacation plan, I also had a mission for the trip which made it more exciting!

Here’s the final plan that we had chalked out:

• Dec 22: Leave early morning 2AM and be in Pune by lunch time, reach Mumbai in the evening for meeting friends 
• Dec 23: Spend some time in Mumbai meeting family and reach Ahmedabad the evening/night
• Dec 24: Reach LRK in the morning
• Dec 25, 26 and 27: Stay in LRK and explore the Rann. Visit Modhera temple and Dholavira. 
• Dec 28: Leave LRK and reach Jamnagar by lunch or evening
• Dec 29: Bird-A-Thon
• Dec 30: Reach Mumbai by evening and rest
• Dec 31: Leave early morning 2AM and reach Bangalore before the evening mad rush begins

To be continued....

The Flamingos of Rann

Apart from the Wild Asses that are special to the Rann, the other species that makes a visit to the Rann every year are the Flamingos. Now, there are two types of Flamingos that come, the lesser flamingos which are seen in the Little Rann and the greater flamingos who prefer to stay at the Greater Rann.

One fine morning we had taken off into the Rann all by ourselves (We did have a GPS though). After an initial couple of hours of getting lost, we did manage to reach the creek where these beautiful birds were seen everyday. I spent a good two hours at the shoreline waiting for them to come closer. After the initial hesitance, they did ease out a bit and I was finally able to make some decent images.

You can see the images from the Gujarat trip over here.

Tech Specs:

Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4 L IS with 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/1250s, F8 at ISO 200

The Survivors of Rann

The Rann of Kutch is the only place left in the world for this beautiful endangered species of Wild Asses. Once at the near brink of extinction, their numbers are now ranging around a few thousand due to conscious conservation efforts.

Though the name suggests that they are donkeys, you'd be amazed to see how graceful these animals can be. They're known to be really fast runners and can easily attain greater than 60kph speeds. It's a treat to watch them run on the parched Rann.

Like any other endangered species, it's illegal to hunt or harm them but it's also illegal to chase them in the Rann. Given the secure environment provided by the wildlife protection act, their numbers are steadily increasing and you can now see them in places across the Greater Rann too. The "Kiangs" or the Tibetan Wild Asses are also related to the Asiatic Wild Asses but they're much bigger in size and can almost be considerd at equals with a horse.

Here's an Asiatic Wild Ass posing in the evening light:

Tech Specs
Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4 L IS with a 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/160s, F8 and ISO 200

Mesmerizing Rann

The Rann of Kutch was always on my list of places to visit. I had planned to do a trip in 2010 but that couldn't be worked out since I tried to cram in too many things in the agenda. So this time, we wanted to cover fewer places and spend more time at each place.

The Rann is a vast expense of salt flats which get submerged under water during monsoons and have small elevated land masses which emerge as islands called "bets". Post the monsoons, the water recedes and what is left of it is a dry flat land with very minimal vegetation along the shorelines and as you move a bit interior to the Rann, all you'd see is flat parched land in all directions. It's an amazing feeling to stand in the middle of the Rann with absolutely nothing around you for miles. It has quite a few uncanny similarities (barring the altitude and terrain) with the Ladakh region for the sparse population, untouched open areas, hard lives of the locals and most importantly warm people who are wanting to make you feel comfortable all the time.

The shallow saline waters provide an excellent habitat for the Flamingos who are regular winter migrants to the Rann. The Asiatic Wild Ass is another species that is found only in the Rann and have been revived from the brink of extinction. Apart from these two major attrations, the Rann has a lot of other things to offer in terms of landscapes, a very rich bird life, lots of nilgais, cute little desert foxes, golden jackals and the elusive desert cats.

The Rann is divided into two parts, Little Rann and Greater Rann. The Little Rann spreads around 5000 sqkms and is home to the the Lesser Flamingos while the Greater Rann hosts the Greater Flamingos. In terms of other geo differences, the Greater Rann has a lot more salt deposit, dips atleast a couple of degrees lower than the Little Rann and has a lot of area in the restricted zone due to proximity to the Indo Pak border.

Gozu had a fair share of off-roading into the Rann and the black beast loved every bit of it.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 24-105 F4 L IS
Shot at 24mm, 1/50s, F14 at ISO 200



PS> I'm going to try and catch up on the backlog and get current on my updates going forward.