A Kutchi summer - Day 3 - On to Sasan Gir!

A Kutchi summer - Day 2 - is here.

Once again I was prodded awake (I was getting used to this and woke up on the second prod) at some unearthly hour, told that we were reaching Veraval. All morning rituals were done and our compartment sat in groggy anticipation of our imminent arrival at Veraval station.

Scheduled time came and passed and mutterings arose that 'the Railways was not like this in the old days'. Minnie, being enterprising and also the one with the internet on her phone, decided to check the schedule. She then very calmly proceeded to tell us that we were an hour late amidst much groaning and moaning from yours truly. Oh well, nothing I could do there.

Finally, we reached Veraval, which was significantly cooler than LRK. Bad news awaited us on the platform, as Pritam uncle had to head back due to personal problems. Upon hearing the news, we all morosely headed for the exit. I missed one of my "roommates" for the rest of the trip.

While we were winding our away down the over-bridge, Shantaram uncle delivered the best news of the day: Chennai had won the previous night. I wasted no time in informing Vijay uncle who very vaguely brushed it aside. Round one to me.

We piled our luggage and ourselves into the six Qualises that had arrived and set off to the Rainbow hotel.

We were now in Junagadh district I learnt. It was very different from LRK, green, with mango orchards and farms all along the way. It was about an hour and half to reach Sasan Gir, the town for the Gir lion sanctuary. All along there were boards proclaiming, how we were nearing the ONLY remaining home for the Asiatic Lion in the world!

Dhanush next to me dozed off while I tried hard to stay awake. Suddenly we noticed a small building where everybody was staring at us. Suddenly Vijay uncle realized that that must have been Rainbow Hotel, and we turned around.

Indeed it was Rainbow, and our companions of the other Qualises had been wondering where we were heading to. All snafus sorted out, we buried ourselves in breakfast and hot tea, before heading out for a very late morning Safari. My jeep for the morning was the photographer's jeep and I ended up getting loads of tips from Doc Alaganandan, Sivakumar sir and Hariharan sir.

We spotted our first Lion, enjoying his morning siesta in the shade of a small dried up nullah. Much excitement for us, as for me and mom, it was a first ever wild lion sighting. OK, it had its back to us, and slept through our excitement but what the heck?)

We moved on, hoping to perhaps spot more, but we spent the rest of the morning going around in circles, ending with me dozing off in the jeep and the others actually spotting some birds. We then headed back for lunch and a nap.

The afternoon saw everybody in their respective rooms and nobody strayed out, now seasoned veterans of the Gujju afternoons. The evening ride saw me doing what I never thought I would do, I climbed into mummy's jeep.

No lions greeted us, though several raptors put in appearances to save our evening from being a complete flop (Though Vijay uncle scared away an Eagle by yelling at everyone else to shut up!). We also passed through a Siddhi village. For those who are clueless, the siddhis are Africans that moved to India as slaves and ended up setting up establishments in Gujarat. They speak such fluent Gujarati, you will NEVER make out the difference.

Passing through the siddhibari village, where a game of football was on. A few of our guides were also from this community.

Siddhis soon done and dusted with, we saw a Changeable Hawk Eagle enjoying a dry martini in front of us. Cameras snapped away!

The Changeable Hawk Eagle, with my film camera

With efficiency to make the Red Bull F1 pit crew proud, the jeeps loaded up and headed back to our safe sanctuary at the Rainbow.

Upon arrival, the customary baths were had and Panneer Butter Masala Dinner was cooked, but not before one of the greatest Indian traditions was embraced- the power cut. Dinner done away with and beds looking inviting, the number of people staying outside their rooms slowly dwindled away and the day merged into the next.

Methi parathas being made

NOTE: The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) is found only in Gir and in Iran, unlike the African Lion which is found in larger numbers. It has a small population that has increased in the past 5 years.

(The lions are coming, all of us saw loads the next day, so be patient!)

Read about our tryst with the lions.

A Kutchi summer - Day 2 - snake skins, an empty den and theIndian courser!

Continued from Day 1. My son's narrative continues.....

The next day, I was woken up(again) to go for tea, which I left to the very last moment, in order to get some sleep. Drowsily refreshed after the cup of coffee payasasm (Recipe: Coffee with as much sugar as will dissolve), we set out once again, with the same Jeep mates. This time, I quickly occupied the front seat along with Arun uncle, with whom I ended up chatting with until we reached our first destination. Thankfully we were spared the endless wastelands and were instead taken to a marsh or swampland where there was a largish water body

Said marsh with flamingoes in evidence.

Once again the cameras were out, fighting for supremacy over the length of their lenses. A spotting scope was also in attendance, for those who had the misfortune of not bringing a pair of binoculars. Once again a great many Flamingoes were spotted, and they soon took to the skies, their privacy shattered. I turned back thinking there was nothing else to see, only to hear the naturalists excitedly chattering about some bird, that to my eyes looked like a duck. I gave up all hope of even attempting to identify all the birds in the water body and after seeing the moorhen, purple heron and the shovellers, I went over to the vehicle to sit and watch the bird watchers watch time slip away. I was low on film for my camera, and this added to my discontent.

The same marsh, with the Nikon.

Another water body awaited and so were the many Stilts, egrets, coots and a congregation of cormorants.
Photo by Mr Ramanan. The cormorant congregation.
A cobra had also used the place for a changing room and left behind remnants of its old body.
The snake skin

Suitably sated with birds and creeped out by snake skins, it was decided that we would head home, when suddenly our jeep driver cum guide swerved off the road and onto a miniature plain. Vehicle stopped, he whispered “Indian Courser”. At once, every person in the vehicles was agog, searching for the well-camouflaged courser. For many of us, it was a first spotting, so it was exhilarating. And I, being me, usually would not have bothered, but I feel happy, now that I think back about that moment. Maybe, now I will start paying closer attention to the finer details of bird watching.

(My mom mentioned later that it was a first for her too. We saw a pair and a couple of chicks, which of course she found cute! And oh yes, Suresh uncle tried to stalk behind them, and the more he moved the more they moved away, in a kind of scurrying manner! We didn't get any picture of the coursers.)

A breakfast to suit our joy awaited us and nobody held back from gorging. The usual pre-lunch naps took place, this time along with people washing clothes. In the Kutchi atmosphere of less than 0 humidity, the clothes dried within a half hour. Lunch eaten, a spurt of post lunch packing took place, with washed clothes being neatly, or otherwise, put away. My mother, suitably surprised that I was washing my clothes, quickly put out her own clothes after washing.

See the clothes drying besides the room!

A Shikra in the tree that I spied close to our room

The pre-evening ride tea break was slightly subdued, with an assortment of members wanting to bunk. In the end, as the jeeps were getting filled, the very same members who had expressed an aversion to coming on the evening ride ended up climbing in themselves. The evening ride, sadly, saw us back on the dusty Rann. The same asses greeted us again and nothing new of interest seemed to pop up. What a strange habitat indeed!

Wild ass again!

One by one, all the jeeps had starting problems, easily enough rectified. We visited an active saltpan, teeming with birds even though the water was nowhere near potable. After a while, the jeeps and the "elephant" united at what was supposedly a fox’s dugout.
An abandoned fox den. Or was it inside, waiting for us to leave? The previous day, we had seen a momma fox and baby in the distance near a bund, and the mother scooted off, while the bay vanished down a similar hole. My mother's jeep waited patiently for a while, but it never poked its head out.
Disgusted at its absence, we all headed back to our safe base at Dasada to get ready for another train journey to Gir. On the way, we stopped to collect salt crystals that had fallen off the salt lorries and to photograph an owlet, safely ensconced on a cable.

The owl as seen by our "kutty" Lumix. Fading evening light.


The very same owlet. Photo by Mr Ramanan

A short while from this owl, all vehicles pulled over, no reasons given. Then the "elephant", which was usually at the front, showed up. ‘Clutch problems’ it seemed. So the gearbox was opened up, and the drivers, not ones for subtlety, starting whacking away at it with a hammer!

Needless to say, those who had studied engineering were shocked at this cavalier approach to the gear system. The drivers didn’t seem to care, though and they had the problem soon resolved actually!

When we returned, an anxious Vikas, who had dozed off and not woken up in time for the ride, wanted to know if we had seen anything interesting. Our somewhat lukewarm 'no's seemed to cheer him up, though.

At the resort, dinner and another journey awaited us, though these were looked forward to, since Gir and the lions was sounding very promising compared to the vastness and emptiness of LRK. After dinner, we all stuffed our bags into the back of a bus and hopped in ourselves for the ride to Viramgam station, where we were to catch our train to Veraval, the train stop for Gir. At Viramgam, I hopefully looked around for a shop selling film rolls, but all I found was a jielbiwallah and another selling paan and Coke! Oh well! Ration out the one remaining roll for the lions I suppose.

That very same night, our very own CSK were playing Pune and Vijay uncle wrote CSK off saying that Pune would thrash us. This was playing on all the CSK fans' minds as they nervously checked for updates on the phones that had internet. Finally, the train arrived and we boarded. Mummy, Ramanan sir and his family and Me were in the same enclosure, which lent a slight sense of relief that we had at least another set of fellow MNSians for company. The ticket collector came by, vastly amused, as he had gone from compartment to compartment, and all the tickets he was checking at Viramgam seemed to be Madrasis going to Veraval!!

Listening to the trains rattling along, I dozed off to the thought of another long day.


Day 3: On to Sasan Gir!

A Kutchi summer - Day 1 - Of broken down jeeps and the fashion king of Dasada

I wrote about searching for the wild asses here. Now read Day 1 "retold" by my teenage son!

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After cheerily wishing my friends an enjoyable and unenviable last week at school, I finished my packing for the MNS trip to the LRK and Gir. The next morning, I was duly awoken by Dave Mustaine singing about death and annihilation, reminding me of the long two day long train journey ahead of me. Excitedly, Me and mother were dropped off at the train station by a noticeably subdued daddy.

We then made our way to the Navjivan Express where along the way to the oven-like bogie we met the fellow eccentrics who would be our companions for the next week. Some avid naturalists with a dead serious streak and a young birding prodigy, mixed with those who were along just for the fun. (I say this in the hope that I was not the only one!!)

The journey started, I realized that a certain set of headphones of mine had been left at home and I was soon scrounging, much to my mother's amusement, for another pair. A very kind Prasanna aunty loaned me a pair for the trip and I remain eternally grateful for that. The rest of the train journey thankfully passed in a blur, punctuated only by frequent visits from the local motormouth Roshan and a hilarious Malayalam movie.

On reaching Ahmedabad at 7.30, two buses carried the luggage and us towards our destination: Dasada. A half hour detour was made to nourish the group as we made good time and reached by about 11.30. The first order of business for some of us was relieving ourselves of the nitrogenous burden that unsanitary train toilets had brought about. For those who had braved the loos, it was bed, only to be woken up 4 hours later for tea and the morning safari!

One of the jeeps, kicking up dust at the LRK


The LRK in the summer felt almost like a desert and wildlife seemed to be sparse other than the Wild Ass and the Nilgai. Bird life was also somewhat absent other than near the watering holes, where it is abundant. So off we trotted to some god forsaken place in 4 jeeps and a big Tata vandi to carry the others that didn’t fit.

One jeep conked even before we reached the destination. So that jeep’s occupants, me included, dispersed ourselves between the other jeeps and the "elephant" (Tata vandi). So finally, we were on our way and as I was in child prodigy Vikas’ jeep, the first birds were spotted:Rosy Pastors. Two of them. So everyone suitably pleased, we headed on, to spot the famous Wild Ass we had come to see.

The Tata vandi

Far from the moviestar we were expecting, “it looked just like a donkey” as someone later said. Of course, my mother finds all these things so adorable; it just had to be coochie-cooed. Moving on, our jeep saw a herd of wild Nilgai, the blue bull, which thankfully not many others had seen.

The herd of Nilgai. With the Nikon 8008 analog.

We soon hit an old salt plain, with the last remnants of a drying water body, where truckloads of flamingoes were spotted, along with a pair of shrieking lapwings, whose newly hatched chicks we had disturbed. All bird enthusiasts suitably excited about the spotting, it took everyone a while to get back into the jeeps.

Click on the picture to see two fledgling lapwings. One of them was in the process of hatching, so we left quickly so that the shrieking parent could return to her nest.
The Shrieking parent
The same lapwing waits morosely in the distance for us to clear out

Much exhilarated at our finds, we headed back to our resort to enjoy a break from constant movement after so long and a well-earned breakfast!

The dining area at Rann Riders where we spent a good portion of our time finishing off all the food!

After breakfast, the resort's resident peacock was found posing for pictures (and probably fishing for some food) on the dining room sofa and everybody was agog at its boldness. The following shots are with the digital camera.

The "star" poses, complete with backdrop and fancy setting


He obliged for a close-up.

And a frontal as well. My mother posed with him as well. Imagine!

This mild excitement notwithstanding, there was pretty much nothing to do except go to our rooms and do……nothing! I was sharing with Vijay uncle and Pritam uncle and they both hit the sack with the AC on, and were soon sound asleep. I read about the misadventures of Fletch and his fiancé, whatever her name was. Upon being groggily shaken from our respective reveries, we made our way unsteadily down for a nice north lunch.

Feet up, my mom contemplating the ceiling!

Another nap later, we headed out for the evening ride which was more agonizing as the temperatures were in the high forties and everybody was wrapped up like a mummy to keep out the dust! Young Sanjana joined us on this trip as we headed into the true Rann of Kutch and across the numerous salt plains. Although the dust slightly dampened our spirits, we soon caught sight of the asses and spirits were lifted again. We spent the rest of the evening whizzing around the Kutch and passed many a lorry piled high with salt crystals.

Once again, one of the jeeps broke down and so we stopped as the sun went down on another day spent. The issue resolved, the jeep’s occupants relocated and we were on our way to Dasada again, just in time for a delicious and sumptuous meal that knocked everybody out for the next 8 hours, till the next morning safari.

This one was out in the wild, in Gir. He had just finished his dance I think.


LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT!

Deepavali at Rishi Valley

"Lorek", my teenage son reports on the weekend. All picture credits to him as well. Taken on a Nikon FM film-roll camera.

The name Horsely hills will not ring an audible bell for the common man. But for members of the MNS, it is synonymous with paradise and filter coffee. And so to view this paradise and other assorted wonders along the way, 15 of us MNSites set for the Rishi Valley School, which was our base camp. I was jerked awake and zombied my way to the car, which would carry me, my mother, Pritam uncle, Vijay uncle, Tara aunty and Shashank to Madanapalle. Amid discussions of where the Pitta had been spottedin Chennai, I zoned out to the sound of Iron Maiden.

A short food stop at Arusuvai and we were well and truly on our way to the promised land. I made the most of the next leg to catch on some much needed sleep. Another food stop and several birds later, we found ourselves nearing the village of Madanapalle. 'Rishi valley?' for directions led us onto the bypass road and to the school.

At the school, we met up with the man with the plan and the everlasting smile, Mr.Shantaram. He led us to (yet another) midday meal at the school mess. The campus in itself dwarfs any other school that I have seen. It is around 150 acres or so. Just walking to the guest house found the most serious birders rubbing their hands in glee at the number of bird calls and the overall greenery!





After tea, we set out with Mr.Eversmile, Shantaram sir for a small walk. We walked up the nearby hill and got some fantastic views of the surrounding area. The birds were also in abundance and the bird watchers had a field day. We were introduced to the various rock formations around - Cave Rock, Sliding Rock, Windmill and what have you. At sunset, we sat around trying to keep quiet, and were rewarded with the call of the pitta, a nightjar and an owl too! Somewhat hungry we returned to a good dinner and sleep.

Day 2

I was awoken by Axl Rose singing about Hollywood, (my alarm!) and enjoyed some fresh tea, before we set out to scale Horsely hills. The trek started out through the fields and slowly went steeply uphill. Birds were out in hordes and there were sightings every few steps literally. If I remember right, the hunt was on for the yellow-throated bulbul, whose calls were everywhere.

The ascent was steep at first and gradually unsteepened. The climb was punctuated by a breakfast break and innumerable other inexplicable rest stops.

At long last we got off the trekking path and hit the road and Shashank, Jeyanth and I pulled away from the pack. We were later joined by Vijay uncle to be the first men to reach the top. While lunch was being arranged, I journeyed to the edge to get a better view and found the whole valley spread out like a carpet on a slightly bumpy floor. The lunch was Chettinad-spice hot, that had been mysteriously absent all this while. Fanning our burning mouths, we stormed the ice cream parlour, just as the skies opened up.

Those of us with rain gear triumphantly produced said gear and starting downhill. Three steps later the rain stopped and the smug others joined the caravan downhill. Fighting a wet shoe, a severely aching foot sole and the need to urinate. I sped downward, using all available shortcuts with Shashank and arrived at the village at the base of Horsely. The forward guard, waiting for the rear guard to show up indulged in a cup of tea and some butter cookies(yum!!).

After the whole group had regrouped and started tea, a bus with KA license plates came by and claimed it was completely legitimate. Hitching a ride on this illegality, we arrived at the Rishi valley turn off point, to find a squadron of cars summoned from the school by Mr.Shantaram! (Calculations made by the group estimated that we had walked approximately 17kms that day, starting at about 7 in the morning, and finishing by 5 in the evening.) That concluded the day for the Seniors, with Jeyanth, Sekar uncle, Shashank and I heading over to a nearby hamlet for hot coffee and shopping at the mall, which was in reality a small pottikadai.

Day 3

The next dawn, the "coffee boys" headed to the village again for the now guest house renowned coffee. Coffee done, we headed out to another of the abundant nearby hills for some lip smacking bird watching. Tiring, the journey, was, but a large horde of birds placated the ever hungry mob and breakfast saw a beaming many persons. A blue rock thrush sat, well, on a rock.

We were free, much to my delight, for the rest of the morning and a part of the afternoon. Each person headed their separate ways to do what interested them most. I headed to the terrace to capture those moments of beauty on a film negative.

Rested, birded or peeved, everyone headed for lunch with a slightly different opinion of life. I met up with Mr.Shantharam's son and engaged in a 20 minute session of guitar playing. The rest of the afternoon was spent half asleep and reading about how “bleedin' 'orrible them Nazi's were”. Tea saw some familiar fare with chikkis being on the menu.

Having done good justice to them, we headed to 'Madhunayanichiruvu'(try saying that with 3 candies in your mouth) a lake well revered for water birds. A "sniper scope" in tow, viewing of birds was plentiful, and it took the sun to forcefully tell us to move along for us to go back.

After a great dinner of noodles, I packed and read and vowed not to wake up in the morning.

Day 4

Next morning, I refused to go for a pre-breakfast walk and the rain gods obliged with showers.

After a breakfast of dosais, the Innova gang crammed into the car and headed back home and to various relatives. Along the way, we were hit hard by 'Jal', both literally and metaphorically, though Pritam saar was unfazed by all this and kept the humour and car along the right track.

In the end, we saw what we had come to see, the Yellow throated bulbul and a lot more. We enjoyed our stay, the campus, the food and the general craziness that comes with MNS. We saw, heard and smelled 100 odd species of birds and other assorted creatures. I hope the other MNSites are happy.

All thanks to our publishing team at madras wanderer, MNS and Mr.Shantaram!

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Thanks Lorek!

My complete list of birds is here. This is a list of birds I saw, does not include the ones that I heard but did not see.