Blackbuck Holiday

“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!