Birding ! Driving ! Soul-searching !: Bird Watching in Velavadar

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.

Enjoy the video and pics below.