“You’ll remember me when the west wind moves ,upon the
fields of barley, you’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky, as we walk in
fields of gold never made promises lightly, and there have been some that I’ve
broken, but I swear in the days still left, we’ll walk in fields of gold.”
You
will know what I mean when we enter the forest.
Okay, so I am back to blogging after months (and it really
feels like years into the darkness of my cross-country moving and foiling phase)
and could I be any gladder to be asked to go on this trip to the one on the top
of my Indian bucket list of holidays! The craving for wilderness was bigger
this time given to my living in Malaysia for a year and no access to the
wildlife and then a period of coming back with bagful of plans and wishes and
not being able to do any of them. And at last…and what an incredible time we
both had!
On our 4-days long Christmas weekend my husband and I took a
flight to Ahmedabad where we stayed that night and in the morning we rented a
car and drove almost 150 kms. to Velavedar, the Blackbuck Lodge, precisely. It
is however easier to reach Velavadar from Bhavnagar airport which is about 70
kms. The 1-night stay in Ahmedabad was justified with two why’s – one, to visit
the famous Thol Bird Sanctuary plus the Sabarmati riverfront and two, to have
an authentic gujarati thali at Gordhan (that includes a mouth-watering
shrikhand and let me tell you this thali cannot be compared to what we get in
Mumbai or any other places).
You take Thol as a pretty lake day-out minus the
birding-in-the-sanctuary feel. You heard me right - it’s nowhere close to what
sanctuary means or supposed to be. You get to see migratory waders in the lake
from a long distance and some hoopoes and cuckoos if you are lucky enough but what
you can’t really miss is the large group of people eating, playing badminton,
glaring loudspeakers on thr banks and a band of screamers and laughers with little to no
interest in giving any sort of peace to the nature or the birds or the handful
of bird-lovers strolling around with binoculars and no luck.
Gujarat has some exceptionally gorgeous roads that will enthuse
you into driving as long and as far as you can. Velavadar is situated in the
Bhal region of Saurashtra in Gujarat and it is where the park is situated. The lovely drive took us into the
restricted prime home territories of the Blackbuck National Park before we knew we were there yet. It is a grassland ecosystem and perhaps the only tropical
grasslands in India to be deemed a National Park.
The park is similar to African Savannah and those who say
that are probably not too far wrong. Flat and grassy, with a dash of acacia
trees dotting the park, the knee-high golden grassland looked no less than a ‘field
of gold’ which offers easy spotting of the blackbuck (even when they lie down, their
antlers poke out of the grass) but anything smaller. Thanks to our hawkeyed guide driving the open
jeep, we saw a jungle cat and an indian fox taking a sunbath in the early
morning and eventually crossing our path.
Apart from the endangered Blackbuck antelope population
which we saw in hundreds, wolves and stripped hyenas are the main scavengers in
the park, although unfortunately we missed them. We also found a pack of wild
boar family, a nilgai couple (India's largest antelope) in the park. I highly
recommend all birdwatchers to keep an eye for the Brown shrike, White-throated
kingfisher, Green bee-eater, Kestrel, Short-toed snake eagle, Yellow wagtail, Sunbird,
Pond heron, Egret and a large number of pelicans in the winter. Though
Velavadar is one of the largest roosting sites of "Harriers" in the
world, we were able to see only one of them this time!
Now, time to refresh! Down the arid and dusty roads of the
Park was our habitat for the next three days and yes nothing can beat our stay
here. The blackbuck lodge doesn’t want you to just make do, but come back to
comfort, recline in luxury, experience the meld of perfect ambience and unspoiled
niceties. From the bed and bathroom linen to the fine selection of tea in the
room to the exquisite choice of buffets in the stunningly set up eat-out area. They,
indeed, have it all! The back door of the cottage led straight onto our very
own sundeck with cushioned teak chairs – my favourite corner of all where I could
spend hours with my binoculars, waiting for wildlife and birdlife to turn up
for a drink to the nearby waterhole! And the wait was truly rewarding after
dusk when the juvenile blackbucks came down searching for food and a diamond-eyed
jungle cat kept lurking at a distance while we sitting on the edge of the
chairs in the dark with bated breath!
The next whole day after safari-ing was spent exploring the humongous
property in torch light (while we knew full moon would not disappoint to be the floodlight) and the forest itself as there is no boundary, no
fencing! We had the sky in one piece in company lit up with glittering stars! We
could smell the bushes, see those countless dots of flickering lights suspended between the forest and sky - they see us
(we see you too blackbucks!) and drink the wilderness to our heat's content. Such a luxury for
city people.
Are you still looking for a reason, pack your bags, and poof ! VANISH!
