If you want to witness the hard work done by some local
naturalists, Nalsarovar in one such location. I had a similar feeling about
Bharat Kapdi in GRK when I met him the first time in 2018. These naturalists
have done such immense hard work in their local area that some times I feel the
area owes them a lot. Similarly Latif bhai and his hard work in Nalsarovar is
so evidently visible.
I don’t know if it was luck or hard work or a combination of
luck and hard work, that he could find birds like Namaqua Dove at a location so
remote that no human will go there unless they have some real purpose in life.
For us birders, it is one thing to go an see the Namaqua Dove, but if you think
about the story behind finding that bird, it is absolutely mind-boggling.
We checked out early morning from LRK and drove to
Nalsarovar so that we reach there right before the sunrise, giving us the
chance to sight the Red-necked Falcon, Red-headed Bunting and of course the
Namaqua Dove. The drive was okay, the road condition was good, distance was
about 75 km and it took almost 1.5 hours to reach Nalsarovar from LRK. We stayed at Om Sanctuary Resort for one night and checked out next day before sunrise. After check-out, went for boating at Nalsarovar Lake, mainly targeting the Red-necked Phalarope, unfortunately, couldn't spot it this time around. After having lunch on one of the islands of Nalsarovar Lake, we came to the shore and drove back to our temporary home in GRK. The drive back was easy. 300 km took 4.5 hours.
Some tips about the stay: Not many good options are available in Nalsarovar for stay. Om Sanctuary was okay but not upto our liking. They kept caged birds in their property which was heart-breaking to see. How can a birder stay at such a place ever? Not just that, their service is absolutely pathetic, barely anybody out there in the hotel to watch over your comfort or concerns. I later found out a better place to stay which I'm going to book when I come to Nalsarovar the next time. It is Greenland Resort The Filmcity.
Anyway, birding was good atleast if not anything else, Enjoy the pics and video below.
This trip was not about birding but about the mammals. We
came to know that Velavadar Blackbuck national park was supposed to be our best
bet if we plan to see the Indian Grey Wolf and the Indian Hyena. It was also
not very far from our temporary place of stay in GRK. We wouldn’t come all the
way from Hyderabad just to make this trip, so we decided to drive from GRK to
Velavadar and stay there for a couple of nights.
We booked our stay at The Blackbuck Lodge. Apparently, there
are 2 properties nearby the national park and both are named almost the same.
One is The Blackbuck Lodge and the other is Blackbuck Safari Lodge. The former
is the luxury one and the latter is the regular one. We booked the pool villa
and the experience of facing the wilderness of the forest through the private pool
was an amazing one. Couple of nights stay at the lodge is enough to experience
the wildlife unless you are desperate to track the Hyena, which definitely will
take time. The stay was comfortable and luxurious but once you are spoilt by
the hospitality of Taj, it is a little difficult to be pleased by the others. But
I must say I have no complains from the resort, it’s just that Taj is too good
with their hospitality.
The park is a very small one, only 34 sq km. However it is
worth mentioning that it claims to be the world’s biggest communal roosting
site for the Harriers and there is no denying that fact. We saw thousands and thousands of harriers all
across – Marsh, Montagu and Pallid aplenty. The drive inside the park is only
through the designated routes created by the park authorities and you cannot even
get down from the vehicle. However I noticed that one can take their own private
vehicle inside too after paying a fees. We had our safari jeep from the hotel
so we used that one. Photography is a little challenge because of the fixed
routes but sighting is usually not. We were lucky to spot the wolf but missed
the Hyena on this trip. As far as birds are concerned, we were super lucky to
find the Lesser Kestrel. Now that is a very very rare bird to see and any
sighting whether near or far, doesn’t matter. Atleast we were able to see it roosting
on a tree (12 of them) and got a decent enough photograph.
Park entry charges have to be paid by the guests on every
entry, guide charges too have to be paid on every entry however camera charges
are only for one full day and not per entry. Visiting Taj safaris makes us
literally spoilt by royalty. Here you have to pay all the charges yourself,
whereas Taj does that for you. I must say, there’s a lot to be learnt from taj
safaris for these lesser known luxury wildlife stays.
The drive was okay, it just took 6 hours from GRK with a total distance of 360 km,
the road condition wasn’t the best of all but I would say not tiring too. There are 2 routes for making this trip, better to take the Rajkot highway than the Ahmedabad Highway. The best route from Velavadar to GRK is via Limbdi and Morbi. 7
years ago when I drove to Gir from Hyderabad, the Rajkot-Ahmedabad road was 2+2
lane, glad to see this time that 3+3 is under construction and on some
stretches it was done too.
