[v&v]

Originally Posted by parassoni

Awesome Pics V&V! Kutch is my native place(area around Naliya to be precise) Also RANN RIDERS runs a Camp site deep inside the Rann near India Bridge where you can Ride/Drive and Camp + visit the Local Artisans etc.

Kutch-The Arid dryland has a paradoxic beauty, which is shown in your wonderful pics!! Great Pictures and Fantastic travelogue!

Thanks paras. Now i know whom to contact for finer datails in and around kutch for my next trip .
Many places were left due to time shortage. Also Naliya grassland for Great Indian Bustard is a must visit and plan to do this year.

Originally Posted by MotoNanu

Awesome travelogue V&V. I was at Bhuj and GRK on Jan 2nd and 3rd! My travelogue is stuck as my laptop has crashed
The beauty of the white desert is something which cannot be described in words. Kalodungar was so special to us. The sunset from this place is breath taking.
I liked the Aina Mahal too. One question, did you experience any magnetic activity near Kalodungar. You might recall there is a board marking the start/ end of magnetic region. People say the speed of the car increases suddenly while returning from Kalodungar. I did not feel so, did you?
Great snaps and keep them coming.

Thanks Moto. Very true regarding white desert. One has to be there to know the awesomeness. We stopped near the board just to check which was marked as Magnetic region. Frankly we did experience any thing. It more like a illusion like Magnetic Hill @ Ledakh. We missed the sunset @ Kalodungar as we had to rush to Chari Dhand.


Some more snaps

[swiftnfurious]

Couple of pics are really nice. I liked the "Safari among the transmission lines" the most! Hope you got a chance to shoot the Safari alone in vast vacant space in the Rann of Kutch!

[v&v]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Couple of pics are really nice. I liked the "Safari among the transmission lines" the most! Hope you got a chance to shoot the Safari alone in vast vacant space in the Rann of Kutch!

Thanks SNF. Even i like that Safari shot. Regarding shot a Rann , the vehicles are not allowed to enter from where you can get a good shot. There is designated parking , for the actual white rann , one has to walk another 500 mtrs.

Some of more pic of birds.

Grey Heron


Red vented bulbul



Black winged Stilt


White throated Kingfisher



By sundown we headed back to Bhuj. GPS tracks were very helpful to return to Vang village. Reached bhuj by 7.30 pm.

Next day was going to be again long journey to Bombay.

[SujAce]

thanks for sharing this travelogue V&V. pics and locations are awesome and I'm sure the ride would have been great too. it sure was a long drive to undertake, that too with kids on board. am sure you would have encountered a lot of "aren't we there yet" questions :-)

[v&v]

Originally Posted by SujAce

thanks for sharing this travelogue V&V. pics and locations are awesome and I'm sure the ride would have been great too. it sure was a long drive to undertake, that too with kids on board. am sure you would have encountered a lot of "aren't we there yet" questions :-)

Thanks SujAce. Yea the ride was awesome. My most long drives are with kids on board including Leh in 2011. Now they are used to these kind of drives and eagerly look forward to it.

"aren't we there yet" kind of questions happen in your first couple of drives and after that you starts enjoying these kinds of trip. With improved roads and lots of TL's for reference and TBHP network, you surely can plan for contingencies.

[IndianGuardian]

Originally Posted by v&v

Day - 3
Another 5 kms ahead is the India bridge. (Permission is required to enter).
We walked on the bridge. Spent 15 odd minutes there and headed to Rann of Kutch.

If one goes for the Rann Utsav, they can opt for going to the Indi-Pak during one of the days. This takes you past India Bridge and right to the border. The ride is long but excellent. Due to no human habitats (except for BSF and a few huts here and there), the place is rich in wildlife. We saw some jackals, camels, wild asses etc.

And then once you reach the border, they take you along this road that is right near the fence and you can see the Pakistani forces on their watch towers at the other end looking at you with their binoculars (you too will need binoculars to be able to see them, it's a bit of a distance). What separates this from the Wagah border is that while the Wagah border is open for visitors, this side of the border is only open to visitors who are part of the Rann Utsav.

[KreativeGeek]

great pics of the overall journey and the rann of kutch specially

[pcpranav]

Originally Posted by v&v

By 2.30 we left Rann and headed to Chhari dhand.

The traditional route from Bhuj is from Nakhatrana, then to fulley village , from there you can enter the Grass land. From Bhuj its around 80kms. So a little chat with locals suggested that there is an alternate route via VANG village. The road are bad but SUV can enter though this route.

excellent narration and pics. Im also planning Kutch in this Nov.
requesting you to kindly share more details on Chhari Dhandh route via Vang, as you did. Is this road really doable in 2WD (Xylo) ?

did you hear (or see) of Chir Batti in the Banni area?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chir_Batti

[DRIVEPASSION]

Originally Posted by v&v

The chill in Delhi was getting worst and with kids winter vacation set in we were again brainstorming for a quick getaway. With limited time 1 week with us we were not able to decide the destination. Just then an important meeting in Mumbai came up and decided to make it vacation cum official trip and zeroed in our destination as Bhuj - Kutch region.

Kutch has been long pending and it will requires at least 10-12 day to explore the region , hence decided only to explore Bhuj and Kutch. I was excited to visit Chari Dhand for birding and the driving experience. Kutch region is a birding paradise.

So the plan was finalised as

Delhi - Bhuj - Kutch - Ahmadabad - Baroda - Mumbai - Udaipur - Delhi

Hotel booking : Quick googling and got lots of good feedbacks for Hotel KBN and Prince at Bhuj.

The final itinerary was as below

Day - 1
Delhi - Palanpur - 860 kms


Day - 2
Palanpur - Bhuj - 325 kms

Attachment 1048659

Attachment 1048661

Attachment 1048662

Day - 3 Kutch festival, Rann, Kalo dungar & India bridge. Return to visit Chari Dhand.

Attachment 1048660

Day - 4 Bhuj -Ahmedabad - Bharuch (530 kms)

Day - 5, Bharuch - Mumbai - (340 kms)

Day - 6&7 @ Mumbai

Day 8 - Mumbai - Udaipur - (750 kms)

Day 9 - Udaipur - Delhi - (680 kms)


Total distance of : 3800 kms.

Hi,

It has been sometime since I last logged in. I guess I usually checkout this forum when I am stumped

I enjoyed your posts and would like some pointers from you:

1. I would be doing Delhi - Bhuj and would like to understand which is a better route.

Regards,

[v&v]

@pcpranav missed your post. Its easily doable on a 4x2. Keep track recording app as one can get lost easily. As for Cher batti It can only be sighted at night. Let me know if you need more info.

@drivepassion Take the Del Jaipur Udaipur Abu road Palanpur Bhuj. It is the quickest route.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by v&v

@drivepassion Take the Del Jaipur Udaipur Abu road Palanpur Bhuj. It is the quickest route.

Second that. Jaipur Chittor Udaipur is better bet and take byepass right before Udaipur to hit Aburoad highway.

Delhi Bhuj doable in 14-16 hours stretch. See one of my earlier travelogue. Started from Delhi at evening and drove through night. Loved low traffic conditions

[DRIVEPASSION]

Originally Posted by sudev

Second that. Jaipur Chittor Udaipur is better bet and take byepass right before Udaipur to hit Aburoad highway.

Delhi Bhuj doable in 14-16 hours stretch. See one of my earlier travelogue. Started from Delhi at evening and drove through night. Loved low traffic conditions

Can you give me an approx in kilometers from chitt/udaipur from where I need to turn off for abu road.

Also could you tell me the condition of the road just short of Bhuj. I understand the last 77 kms are not in good shape, but the status was about a year ago.

[ramkya1]

Lovely T-Log with great pictures. The White Raan is brought out in details and some of the bird pictures are awesome.

I did a T-log like this around the same area years back, but your pictures are better than me. What camera & lens... or has that been covered in your T-log already?

Only caution to all is to be careful when you venture off track without back back in Raan, it's very deceptive, you ca get stuck, loose bearings without GPS. 2013 has been the worst in terms of rain, tracks that used to dry up by December are fully wet, no chance of them drying up till February, 2014, record rains and heavy flooding, even some internal short cut roads to Dholavira are unusable now, villagers are using detours.

Thanks for sharing.

--Ramky
======

[v&v]

Originally Posted by DRIVEPASSION

Can you give me an approx in kilometers from chitt/udaipur from where I need to turn off for abu road.
.

This prominent T intersection approaching Udaipur. Attaching the map for reference.

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Lovely T-Log with great pictures. The White Raan is brought out in details and some of the bird pictures are awesome.

I did a T-log like this around the same area years back, but your pictures are better than me. What camera & lens... or has that been covered in your T-log already?

Thanks for sharing.

--Ramky
======

Thanks ramkya1. I was using multiple lenses. Camera was 600d canon and lenses were 18-55, 18-200, 200-500 Tamron.

Also some shots wide angle shots were from Nokia N8. I liked the camera phone very much.

Vinod

[sudev]

The Udaipur byepass is prominently marked though appears all of a sudden.

Yes the road between Bachau and Bhuj is not divided and has heavy traffic. Tarmac but not vey fast.