[ramkya1]

Harsh,

Tnx for the GPS tracks, very useful.

I'm in White Desert today, the Big Raan, awesome..... is an understatement!!!

Sorry to run ahead of your trip a little, will upload just one picture where an overzelous vehicle got stuck, the BSF had to use a tractor to pull the 2X4 Safari out toady morning.



The ground underneath is wet, dig a little, there's water at this time, getting stuck would not take a lot of effort.

Awaiting your accounts and great pictures..

--Ramky
=====

[sami316]

Hi Harsh,

Just came across this amazing TL of yours. The pics have beautifully captured the Rann. Waiting for more..

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Harsh,

Tnx for the GPS tracks, very useful.

I'm in White Desert today, the Big Raan, awesome..... is an understatement!!!

Sorry to run ahead of your trip a little, will upload just one picture where an overzelous vehicle got stuck, the BSF had to use a tractor to pull the 2X4 Safari out toady morning.

The ground underneath is wet, dig a little, there's water at this time, getting stuck would not take a lot of effort.

Awaiting your accounts and great pictures..

--Ramky
=====

Already in the Rann! Wow, i am so jealous right now ;-). Hope you a good trip. About that "over-zealous" Safari. Think the guy should've been left there for a day or two, as a punishment for being oversmart. Rann was clearly too marshy too have even tried this!

Originally Posted by sami316

Hi Harsh,

Just came across this amazing TL of yours. The pics have beautifully captured the Rann. Waiting for more..

Thanks sami316. Updating the 3rd day in a short while.

[tsk1979]

Wow! Now that is some wilderness! Waiting for the next installment!

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Wow! Now that is some wilderness! Waiting for the next installment!

Yes, it was fun
----
Day 3 - Part 2 (Log)

After 2 hours of entering the Rann, we finally saw a salt farm in the distance. Is this it, we asked ourselves. Varnu Wandh also seemed to be at a distance of 10 km or so from that position. As we approached the salt farm, we saw another set of tyre tracks leading to it. This was highly encouraging, but before we could celebrate our success of crossing the Rann, we saw a huge group of Khurs staring at us. It was wild *** safari time, and without giving another thought to our exit from the Rann, we left the tyre tracks and drove towards the group of Khurs. The ground was much more marshier here and scarier, but the adrenaline rush of capturing them on camera gave us the required high of taking the risk. We succeeded in getting quite close to them, all the while exclaiming at how similar they looked to Kiangs. After shooting them to our satisfaction, we returned towards our destination, Varnu Wandh.

A gorgeous bunch of khurs


A lone ranger


Twins!


A larger bunch


A happy family


Love the way they stare


A zoomed shot of one of them running

The adrenaline rush, and the excitement of sighting so many Khurs, made us lose our minds and instead of looking for the tyre tracks we were following, we headed straight towards the buildings we could see in the distance. Soon we crossed a lake to our right, carefully navigated away from it and towards what seemed like a village.

We did not study the ground properly, and even if we had there was no way to tell that it was SUPER marshy. Splut, split, splat! We were royally stuck with all tyres sunk in the marshy field. We were already in 4H mode, but the car was not budging. I did not try any further and stopped the car and got out to study the extent of the damage. Mud was clinging to all the four tyres but there was still a possibility of getting traction from the edges of the tyres. The car had sunk quite a bit, and climbing back again seemed like getting into a Honda City rather than a Tata Safari. I decided to give it one more shot in the 4L mode before I took the spade out to clear the mud off the wheels to get more traction. I put on the reverse gear and the car budged just a little. I then immediately shifted to forward gear, it rocked forward, and a final quick shift to the reverse gear made the car rock backward and out of the rut! Thank God! We were out of it and on solid ground now, but I then spent the next 20 minutes scraping the mud off all the tyres with the spade we keep handy, as Aarti took photographs.

The tyre when it was pulled out of the mud


Laboring in the scorching sun to get the mud off the tyres.


The unsuspecting ground near to the place where we stuck, as marshy as that place.

Once the mud was scraped off enough to give the tyres traction, we moved on, and retraced our steps to find the tyre tracks, which we eventually did after 15 minutes of looking around. They led us to a salt farm, and we knew we'd made it! Soon we left the Rann behind, and found a tarred road, with a signboard which said that Adesar, the village on the highway, was 10 km away. We couldn't stop smiling as the thrill of having crossed the Rann had complteley overwhelmed us! What an adventure it was!

Still shaky on what could've been, we neglected to shoot the pelicans in the lake


Bulldozer in action at a salt farm


The salt farm


An over-loaded Chaggar

We headed for Bhuj and reached by about 2:30 pm or so. We checked into Hotel KBN that we'd booked from Delhi, and after an initial scare from the outer looks of the hotel, we were glad to see that the inside was nice and clean, and the room especially was clean, bright and comfortable. After a quick lunch and a nice refreshing shower, we hit the roads of Bhuj to look for the BSF headquarters to arrange for our permit. We had the most difficult time locating it, as everyone kept pointing us in the direction of the BSF base rather than the headquarters. For the record, the BSF headquarter is located on Kodaki road near the Hamisar lake in the north-western part of the city, while the BSF base is in the southern part of the city.

We finally managed to reach the sector headquarters by about 5:15 pm, a little too late to get the permit the same day, but applied for it nevertheless so that we could pick it up the next day. The permit was to visit the border post in the Greater Rann called Vigakot. Normally, Indian tourists are not required to take permits to visit the general destinations of the region and are allowed upto 'India Bridge' and 'Kala Dungar' without them. However, to go past 'India Bridge', one needs a permit from the BSF guys. As is the normal procedure, it requires an application, all details of individuals (including the driver) and the car being used to go the border post, a copy of IDs of all the individuals, and the RC of the car. We were told to pick it up the same time next evening.

It had somehow been a tiring day, and we returned back to our hotel early. The plan for the next day was to get up early and head towards Lakhpat and Koteshwar so that we could be back in Bhuj by 4 pm to pick up our permit.

[lordofgondor]

That was one adventurous drive man! I wonder why that person told you about the river blocking the exit of the Rann thing. Did you encounter one? Any pointers for what to lookout to determine if it's a heavily marshy areas?

[ramkya1]

Wow, that's some hair-raising account and some lovely captures. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Just got back to A'bad today, we traced your tracks on the same land.

--Ramky

Originally Posted by vardhan.harsh

Yes, it was fun
----
Day 3 - Part 2 (Log)

.......................
We did not study the ground properly, and even if we had there was no way to tell that it was SUPER marshy. Splut, split, splat! We were royally stuck with all tyres sunk in the marshy field. We were already in 4H mode, but the car was not budging. I did not try any further and stopped the car and got out to study the extent of the damage. Mud was clinging to all the four tyres but there was still a possibility of getting traction from the edges of the tyres. The car had sunk quite a bit, and climbing back again seemed like getting into a Honda City rather than a Tata Safari. I decided to give it one more shot in the 4L mode before I took the spade out to clear the mud off the wheels to get more traction. I put on the reverse gear and the car budged just a little. I then immediately shifted to forward gear, it rocked forward, and a final quick shift to the reverse gear made the car rock backward and out of the rut! Thank God! We were out of it and on solid ground now, but I then spent the next 20 minutes scraping the mud off all the tyres with the spade we keep handy, as Aarti took photographs.
...............

The plan for the next day was to get up early and head towards Lakhpat and Koteshwar so that we could be back in Bhuj by 4 pm to pick up our permit.

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by lordofgondor

That was one adventurous drive man! I wonder why that person told you about the river blocking the exit of the Rann thing. Did you encounter one? Any pointers for what to lookout to determine if it's a heavily marshy areas?

Later he explained, over the phone, that he wanted to dissuade me from trying a risky route at the time of the year for my own sake. There was no river though!

Well a heavy marshy area does not come out of a sudden, if you can see in the rear view mirror the ground has started to sink, start moving slow. If it sinks more, get ready for the unexpected.

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Wow, that's some hair-raising account and some lovely captures. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Just got back to A'bad today, we traced your tracks on the same land.

--Ramky

I hope you did not land up in the marsh like i did :P

[lordofgondor]

Hey Harsh, when's the next installment coming mate?

Originally Posted by vardhan.harsh

Later he explained, over the phone, that he wanted to dissuade me from trying a risky route at the time of the year for my own sake. There was no river though!

Well a heavy marshy area does not come out of a sudden, if you can see in the rear view mirror the ground has started to sink, start moving slow. If it sinks more, get ready for the unexpected.

Oh, a good Samaritan eh! Hey how about making a quick dash out the general sinking area instead of going slow?

[ravi_xx]

Fabulous snaps. Needless to say, the RoK is now certainly a trip to plan for. And yeah - Tata Motors should be chasing you to allow them to use the shots of your Safari in their advertisements!

Cheers, Ravi

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by vardhan.harsh

.....................

I hope you did not land up in the marsh like i did :P

We kept way-off the soft ground, ours was a short, soft holiday trip

=====

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by lordofgondor

Hey Harsh, when's the next installment coming mate?

Oh, a good Samaritan eh! Hey how about making a quick dash out the general sinking area instead of going slow?

Hey Mate, sorry for the delay in the update. Work had been crazy this week at office and the travel did not help either. I've penned down the next day nad probably will get it up by later today evening.

By the way, a quick dash out of hte general sinking area is not a good idea, instead you'll end up even more deeper in s**thole.

Originally Posted by ravi_xx

Fabulous snaps. Needless to say, the RoK is now certainly a trip to plan for. And yeah - Tata Motors should be chasing you to allow them to use the shots of your Safari in their advertisements!

Cheers, Ravi

Thanks ravi_xx for your kind words

Originally Posted by ramkya1

We kept way-off the soft ground, ours was a short, soft holiday trip

=====

That was a wise decision.

[vardhan.harsh]

We had to begin early again on day 4 since we planned to visit Koteshwar and Lakhpat, and also return to Bhuj before sunset to collect our permit. A tasty breakfast of packed sandwiches and juice awaited us at the reception, and we were thus able to leave for Lakhpat by 7:30 am. The route follows the SH heading west from Bhuj towards the bustling town of Nakhtarna and into the vastness of Lakhpat. The highway till Nakhtarna is densely populated with villages on both sides, and thus the average speed is not very good. However, once the hustle bustle is crossed, and the zillions of speed breakers negotiated with, the countryside opens up and one can feel the proximity to the Great Rann. It took us about an hour from Bhuj to cross Nakhtarna and a short while thereafter we were staring at a huge board informing us that we were crossing the Tropic of Cancer. I am not a fan of such milestones myself, but it was fascinating to watch Aarti getting all excited. From here-on the road is quite straight, devoid of population and marred with shrubs on both sides.

Crossing 23°26′N 68°23′E


Several roads in Gujarat are dead straight like this one

About 45 km or so before Lakhpat, we crossed a small village called Gaduli where the road from Koteshwar joins the SH. Past Gaduli, one rides next to the Chinkara Narayan Sarovar wildlife sanctuary all the way to Lakhpat.

Originally Posted by Board at Lakhpat Fort

Lakhpat perhaps derives its name from the prosperous maritime trade in the past that generated a daily income of one lakh kori, the then currency of Kachchh. Situated at the western tip of the Indian subcontinent at the junction of the Kori creek and the Rann of Kachchh, Lakhpat lost its maritime significance in 1851 AD after the displacement of the Indus river in 1819. Another legend says that since Rao Lakhha founded it, it is named as Lakhpat. Guru Nanank is believed to have camped in Lakhpat on his way to and from Mecca. The house where he stayed was later sanctified as a Gurudwara. The other places of tourist’s interest include the tomb of Gosh Mohammad and a number of old hindu temples.

Now Lakhpat is a fortified town with high walls, several gates and a bastion made out of hard stone. It wears a deserted look and is scarcely inhabited.

A panorama of the Lakhpat Fort


A board describes the story of the fort.


The entrance of the fort where the recent Tata Sumo Victa ad has been shot. Brother-hood is what Kiyang believes in ;-)

We reached our first destination by 10:00 am. The striking fort of Lakhpat is visible from quite a distance, and it is only from this distance that it can be captured in its entirety. Two sign-boards at the entrance describe the Lakhpat fort, but the chai-wala at the entrance spiced it up for us with his ramblings about the shooting of two movies here, Refugee and Lagaan. After a cup of hot masala chai, we head towards the Northern wall of the fort, completely unaware of the vistas beyond it.

It was VERY windy up there, and the views were to die for.


A panorama of the Great Rann from the ramparts of the fort. The vista unfolded all of sudden when it was least expected.


The experience of sitting there silently, while both us took in the views was fantastic and difficult to describe.


The views themselves are difficult to capture. The magnitude of the landscape is very overwhelming.


It was time to pose, with the tummy tucked in securely. ;-).


The inner green contrasts with the reddish boundary and the Great Rann


I could not resist posting this one. Definitely for keeps. 

We spent a lot of time at the Northern wall of the fort, admiring the vastness of the Rann, and also trying to capture it on camera. To the west of the fort lies the Kori creek and to its North is the marshy Rann. We drove around the village inside the fort for sometime, which despite the saying on the board is not all that deserted. We also tried to venture into the Rann, but failed as the exit was guarded by BSF jawans who refused to let us through. We decided to proceed towards Koteshwar, our second destination for the day.

An intricately carved door at the tomb of Gosh Mohammad


The tomb of Gosh Mohammad


A deserted road in the village inside the fort


Apparently the wooden gate outside is about 150 years old and still stands, although unhinged

The road to Koteshwar from Lakhpat moves south, crosses the BSF post there and is largely devoid of any human population. The road runs parallel to the Kori creek. We took a small detour towards another BSF post right next to the creek which, I think, was called Biwi ka Kua (wife’s well), only to be scolded and sent back by a Jawan. The road here too is largely straight and marred by shrubs on either side. A bit of advice – when driving on this road, be careful when you see a vehicle approaching from the opposite side, lest you want to get a paint job done on your vehicle.

The straight road towards Koteshwar


A cattle egret on the side of the road


I don’t know why but I love this beauty shot of Kiyang


An Indian fighter jet! . (Sorry, don’t know the name of the bird, but I like the shot enough to post it)

Soon we reached Narayan Sarovar, which mythologically is one of the five holiest lakes of the Hindus, one of the remaining four being Mansarovar. However, since the lake is easily accessible, and also possibly because Gujarat overall is a non-glamorous state when it comes to tourism, it does not get the required publicity. The temple crowd there was a major put-off for us, and we headed straight towards Koteshwar. The final approach road to Koteshwar has the Arabian Sea on both sides and is fun to drive on. The pier at Koteshwar itself is nothing to boast of, apart from being the western most point of land in India. We saw some fishermen boats, and were told by a BSF Jawan posted there that all fishermen are supposed to sport the Indian flag on their boats for identification purposes by the BSF patrol boats. The Pakistani fishermen do the same, Karachi after-all being quite close. The temple at Koteshwar also did not seem much to write home about, so we decided to give it a miss. Yes, we are horribly non-religious.

Some fishermen working on their boat

It is not allowed to venture past this board, but since all sign boards in Gujarat are in Gujarati (a sign of the state not being too tourism friendly), we did not understand what was written on it, and went ahead, only to be immediately sent back by a Jawan. We did so reluctantly, wondering what possible harm it could cause if tourists did in fact go up till the pier. The only possible conclusion we could arrive at was that the Army must fear that someone might decide to jump from the pier and swim to Pakistan!

The western-most temple in India

The drive from Koteshwar to Gaduli went through the same wildlife sanctuary. Beautiful as it was, we did not sight any animals. The drive to Nakhtarna was boring, and the distance of about 100 km was covered in 1.5 hours. The roads, though narrow, are in pretty good shape. Lunch happened at a non-descript hotel at Nakhtarna, and despite our request for non-spicy food, there was a liberal dressing of green chillies even in Dal Tadka! We reached Bhuj by 4:30 pm, well in time to collect our permit for Vigakot from the BSF sector headquarters. As it happened with us at the DC’s office in Leh (link to old blog), we had butterflies in our stomachs due to anticipation. However, unlike Leh, major babudom happened here which irritated the hell out of Aarti (who hates bureaucratic red-tape), so much so that I had to drop her back to the hotel and come back to collect the permit. Finally, after a 2.5 hour struggle and knocking on several doors, the permit was ‘expedited’ and handed over to me at 7 pm. We’d lost another beautiful sunset, and the only saving grace was the hope that the permit would make the next day memorable. Anticipating a long day ahead, we hit the sack early, and ditched our plans to go out to look for non-veg, settling instead for our hotel’s nice vegetarian fare.

[hvkumar]

Koteshwar - I also managed to fool the BSF jawans and get onto the pier itself and photographed the Kotalingeshwar temple against the rising sun from there before the jawans discovered me! We ended up becoming friends and in a group photograph together!

Am curious to know about how this permit is different from the one ramkya1 took at Khavada - but I guess the story is yet to come.......

[vardhan.harsh]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Koteshwar - I also managed to fool the BSF jawans and get onto the pier itself and photographed the Kotalingeshwar temple against the rising sun from there before the jawans discovered me! We ended up becoming friends and in a group photograph together!

Am curious to know about how this permit is different from the one ramkya1 took at Khavada - but I guess the story is yet to come.......

I wonder why they ban visitors to go uptill the end of the pier. It's just stupid ! It was great that you were able to befriend them. I ended up (like always on my trips) getting scold at :(.
Probably the one ramakris took at Khavda was for going uptill India bridge & Kala dungar. The permits we got went 80km beyond India Bridge towards the India-Pakistan fence. That's coming in the next day log.