Times Passion Trail, Day - 2
Day 2: The Little Rann of Kutch (LRK)
The second day began very early. We left Ahmedabad downtown, around 5.30 am in our cavalcade of Innovas. We had our packed breakfast on our way so that we could reach as early as possible. We reached our resort at Bajana at about 8 am, grabbed a quick cup of tea, and were on our way to LRK.
We couldn’t travel in our Innovas here. We clambered into off-roader Safaris. The Little Rann of Kutch is famous as the world’s last refuge of the Indian Wild Ass (Equs hemionus khur) and has been declared as The Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary. When I saw the landscape, I realized why our normal vehicles would have been unsuitable here. It is very barren, dry, and harsh like a desert, but in reality, it is a salt marsh. So, it is dry, hot, and brown for most of the part, with very sparse, thorny vegetation, primarily Acacia, dotted with some small lakes. Many resident and migratory waterbirds visit these water bodies. Besides the wild ass, the Indian wolf, desert fox, striped hyenas, and nilgai are also found here.
Our guide Munnabhai showed us the cumin fields on our way to LRK. This region is famous for cumin cultivation.
After entering the Sanctuary, we came across a water body and saw many water birds like egrets, greylag geese, herons, pelicans, pied kingfisher as well as the common cranes.
Our first exposure to raptors was when we saw what I believed to be a Eurasian Marsh Harrier perched on a stone hidden in the grass. Moving on, we came across a Greater-spotted eagle, majestically perched atop a thorny tree.
However, we were all impatient for the first sight of the wild ass by then. Traversing over the large expanse of dry and dusty desert, we could even see mirages as it was approaching noon and the sun was beating down.
And then….we saw them…the wild ass. They were mostly in groups. We kept our distance and didn’t go too close as they are a nervous, skittish breed, which starts bounding away at the first sight of danger. Though they were bigger and stronger than the normal ass, they didn’t seem stronger than mules.
We saw some nilgais in the distance. The local guides are very protective of wildlife and are very careful. They don’t take the vehicles too close to the animals and caution the visitors not to make any noise.
We then drove to a water body which was larger than the previous one. We were thrilled to have our first sighting of the flamingos, lesser as well as greater. We also saw large flocks of pelicans, egrets, pied avocets as well as common cranes.
By now we were starting to feel the pangs of hunger, so we returned to Bajana for lunch and a little rest. It was anyway too hot for the wildlife as well to venture out.
This Royal Forest resort was tastefully decorated with ethnic, antique, wooden handicrafts at the reception as well as the cottages.
In the afternoon, we took a different route. We saw some more groups of wild asses, greylag geese, common cranes, greylag geese, etc. We caught sight of a short-eared owl, which was completely camouflaged in the brown earth and dry vegetation. Then the guide showed us something very interesting…an abandoned den of a wolf.
We were told by our guides about a thicket, where we could possibility of witnessing a hyena coming out. As dusk was gathering, we went to this thicket. We waited in complete silence, all 25 of us, for a glimpse of the hyena. Can you imagine a group of 25 people waiting in complete silence, for almost half an hour? That is what wildlife photography teaches you – PATIENCE! We finally got a glimpse, but it was too fleeting and by then, it was too dark to take a photograph.
By the time we started back, it was completely dark. We saw a few Montague’s harriers roosting on open ground in our headlights!
My day ended with one of the most rewarding sights, the view of the star-studded sky, which we rarely get to see in the cities!