We had a 3 month prior trip planned to Pench national park 6 ppl including people from different parts of Maharashtra and Mumbai.
end moment fraud cum cancellation issues had a big stress and sleepless nights from last few days as a big amount had to be recovered.
22 December 2011 Mumbai.
i requested the friends to stay at my place and told them ABT the mishap ..friends arrived at my place and finally decided to go somewhere as they had taken leave from office and things...and as a co-incidence we had previous plans for jamnagar but we switched to Pench...back to jamnagar in hand we brain-stormed for bookings and things .
called up a bus booking guy and he said yes tickets available only for 22nd said OK ill come directly to SGNP on the time of departure ....as my friends were here and never been to the SGNP borivali national park re. we decided to take a short drive with in and let them have something to kill the time rather sitting at home and worrying about the money that had been given for bookings in Pench and the guy never picked up the phone.
2.30 pm We go to the park and waiting for some friends to arrive i thought why not book the tickets right now and come back in the eve to depart.and thunder struck again....already the Nagpur guy had all my money a big amt i say and here on top of it the buss wala uncle said aare tumko bola tha 8 seats baaki hai aabhi kuch nahi ho sakta...[totey udd gaye mere]
as the uncle knew me as a frequent traveller thru his bookings he tried really hard and sai theres a non ac regular bus going at 3.30 and there's one cabin seat+4 sitting..man i thought for a pause and said please check for more options as my friends and i had our cameras and equipment as big concerns and it was already 2.45 and hard to go home and back to catch the bus.finally after a heavy inquiry he gave us a lifer ...he said u'll have to adjust as three people in a double sleeper. as we had no options left by train or n e thing we said yes and ran towards home even after coming so close to SGNP we returned back thank god i called others or else they wud have entered the park and money wud have wasted ...bhav badh gaya hai entry ka national park ka.
well we rush ....i didn't even do the packing and as we had to catch the bus by 5.15 and last moment packing,camera charging,mobile recharge-charging,torch charging and things i thought i wud have forgot....but we did make it to the bus stop and .....the time we reached with a smile the bus wala said u are not allowed to be seated so many ppl in the place of 2 i said please call him [the uncle who had booked our tickets ] ignored him and ran into the bus before he asked more questions...i had it enough.....after entering the bus i realised that it was not that bad and had a sigh of relief. as the journey begun we all had smiles .....thanking lord for making it happen even after cheated by the so called experts of Nagpur who do your bookings.
23rd DEC....... Gujarat
We reached Rajkot ....just when i put my first steps outside the bus and thanking the driver a huge wave of rosy starlings flew over my head and i saw them as long as i cud.....we had to catch a mode of transport to reach Jamnagar now....and fortunately got a bus heading to jamnagar.
we reached jamnagar and as i read on manish Gadia's blog i knew if he has a good review abt the things it has to be good and followed his blog as i had no time even to plan a trip on 11th hr.
i took a rik and without a choice reached to hotel president as on the way there from Bombay i had a post on Indian birds [FB] and i got reference of Mr.Mustak mepani the first guy to be in touch for all sorts to be done in jamnagar as per your preference. so much so so much things in my mind and i asked at the reception for him and he was there sitting in his office with a smile and i met him finally.rather than the back story i just stood at the point and had a good discussion with him regarding places for birding and others. in a rush i had few places shortlisted thru blogs and stuff on the net. met mr.kunal joshi there sitting next to me ....i had just heard ABT him in Adesh sir's blog as a local expert .he also suggested me as per my shortlisted places .
after a tea with the ever smiling mustak bhai i again rushed to hire a auto-rikshaw a good option as kunal bhai told because Dhichda as the the first place in mind as it was already 1.00 pm and we had just checked in and the Car rent was abt 2500 per day/half day and 300 km limit even
negotiation wud bring him to lumpsum 1600 . hired a rikshawala for 500 from 2.00pm - 7 pm six seater with the ghad ghad ghad ghad silencer and dil tera dewana sounds .the guy was good but then not being a birder he was getting bored .freshen-up, cam loaded was chilly so took some cover aswell and we move on the bumpy ride with lunch at Aaram hotel -140 rs per thali worth it.but rushing time were together and every1 cudnt stuff even if they wanted to ;)
fatafat khaya 2.30 pm and we left and as i had asked for an expert to guide me to places as i was new to the place Kunal bhai and mustak bhai arranged Mr'Anand who was a snake catcher and a local birder with good info as-well. we hop on to the bridge before targeting ti dhichda where anand bhai told are a flock of flamingos. we cud see the white spots from the road and and jumped outta the rik and started to march towards them [ a bit marshy land] and had some good sightings of em and pictures the 3 guys who had seen the flamingo's for the first time had smiles on the faces . Mr.anand took us cautiosly near them for photographing em as i had the 300mm lens but everyone was equipped with binoculars and was worth a watch.also he helped us in spotting other birds aswell. the ticker started and the count there itself was abt 20+
Very few and far were the greater
flamingoes compared to the near and moving lesser
flamingoes waders and ducks.
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| Pintail's,shoveller's ,flamingos etc...above |
Eurasian Wigeon's etc below...
after spending about 1.1/2 hr or so we move towards Dhichda ...many birds can be easily found in actions/plumage's and flocks even while having a drive in jamnagar.
observing the cormorants, common cranes and rosy and dalmatian pelicans in flight and sitting far,herons,ducks and many more in the tiny islands and water bodies and on the edges of the lake. we start walking .
even met Mr.Amish Patel of the jamnagar fame at INW and FB photographers network.
anand bhai kept on spotting something new as we got busy with our binocs sitting on the edge.far away a group of may be 150 cranes were feeding and constantly giving calls trust i had goose bumps and a smile listening to the sounds of the cranes i wanted to see them close but there were on the other side and the sun almost started to go down ,anand bhai stated lets wait for the sun to set and we may have the flight scene of em as they had already started to disperse in small flocks of 15-20...struggling to take a shot as some ppl that came before us must have disturbed the pelicans said mr.anand we sat on the lakes edge and enjoyed various calls,flights and much more but as we also had lakhota lake in mind we decided to move on as the rikshaw wala gave us a hint of 6.15 by playing dil tera dewana song in his blasting teard upart tape.we asked him to shut down and went for lakhota.....traffic and the nervous rik driver because of the christmas eve we reached lahkhota a bit late but we observed the last bit of the famous rosy starling acrobats there.haaaash for the first day but as soon i reached the hotel i had to plan for the next day ....
as the troopers moved on to chk out the city and the food .i was busy making plans in the chilly evening.mr.mustak was not available and we had to book a car for the next day .fortunately kunal bhai called up and said that the tavera'd and innova's are charging up-to 3k per day [we needed for 25th morning as-well ]and you may get an indica for a Tofaan for a bit less and that too if available ...baap re ye panwati peecha kab chodegi. i thought a lot and finally booked a Toofan for the khijadiya and narara expeditions...bloody Indian hummer 14 seater car it is..! i ve seen it a lotta time at my native in Gujarat but the dream of sitting in to it after so much compromised travelling was goin to to get true.
while the guys came back i just had a tea-toast butter for a fill .
24th Dec morning 5.00----for readers: go get something to eat and drink this part is too loong to read]
even after yelling that we have to move by 6.00 no body woke up and like always i stood up and woke up every1.aha the long hummer is waiting outside the window. we get settled as the night before
mr.
mustak had made some
arrangements for permits and things at
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary,we reached there in
abt 30
mins drive and there was Mr.P. R.
Sindhia, Forest Officer,
Khichadia Bird Sanctuary. with a smiling welcome and an arranged guide
mr.Channa.
after a small talk and places to visit and a brief intro
abt the park we entered route 2. towards the watch tower for observing the pelicans and cranes in flight.while chilling out ...[yes the freezing
wala chilling not the slang
wala] on the watch tower spotted a Black necked Stork family....male female and a juvenile.my eyes feasting on the infinite coot population and a small flock of cranes in flight ...
channa buzzed me
ohh black necked stork ...i said yes i saw it so what i
ve seen em before...but then he told me that they are now critically endangered and by this time we had moved further or else
wud have
atleast taken a record shot in the low light conditions so for now it was a Bang start.
out of sudden there appeared a guy somewhere from Ahmadabad Bio institute don't remember the whole thing but even he was desperate to click em with a 250mm canon and i wonder why before .
behind him i saw a similar face and asked are you mr.Manish trevedi and he said yes yes we met on FB and smiled and congratulated him for his amazing picture of the black-necked stork in flight published in 'Sanctuary Asia' wild life magazine.
what a nice guy he is...he was on his bike with a friend photographer too...
we moved on to diff route as the pic here on the time of sunrise wud come against the light.groups of pelicans /painted storks,various varieties of ducks waders were almost everywhere around .so as our guide suggested we parked our car and started walking ..observing the pied kingfisher's hovering ,common kingfishers behavior and purple herons close sights. we had a good increasing count almost upto 60 as we move towards the black necked stork tower from where a rare and very important thing 'a black necked stork's nest with chicks in it was seen far far away ' thus observing some actions created by some marsh harrier among the coots and ducks for a while was entertaining .walking further we saw a tree [where mr.Sindya told to keep looking for oriental white eye'] and thus we found abt 10-15 of em eating fruits jumping here and there what a sight for the eyes was that on just mere 5 ft distance.
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| Oriental white eye. |
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| white eared bulbul |
A strange thing happened when we came across a pack of dogs in the sanctuary and a friend was just joking 'dekh langda tyagi aa raha hai ' because the Dog had a injured probably fractured front leg and his mouth covered with red/brown wet thing....suddenly i saw that they were in numbers approx 8-10 and were restless and with not normal looks that we find in our regular stray dogs.....and i saw something looking like a dead blue bull female on the water's edge.one dog was busy feasting but as soon i tried to click it our guide drove em away [he said it was for our safety as most of the people in the world are afraid of dogs.. thank you ] and was just able to capture a shot with a dog and a kill...after the drama we kept moving and i noted that there was definitely some action happening as there were fresh foot- prints of the nilgai and dogs
almost for a long time some wet and some dry.....there was something going in my mind weather this was a kill made by the dogs as the
nilgai was fresh i mean not swollen or smelling .also when we observed after the pack of dogs was much far resting in shade.
proceeding to the last tower i told abt this to Mr.Manish trevedi he said he'll take a look ...observing some raptors he confirmed a Greater spotted eagle 'we saw on a tree and he on the kill feasting.
we move on to lunch and back at 4.00 almost the same sightings and spending the rest of the day at route 1 got a sighting again of a black necked stork juv far away...waders,ducks etc.observing cormorants and grebes is fun at-least for me what i did because i felt very tired after a stressful journey and tiring day outs...spoon bills in flight and some kind of a rail or crake i cudnt identify constantly running before us .leaving the sanctuary i thought of again visiting the kill to have a look if we can have a chance to see a raptor,etc feasting.as we moved towards the regular tourist drivers are usually not used to drive in such conditions especially for birding he was speeding up as he was bored and tired of sitting in the car as we reach the particular point we saw a jackal [probably] far...very far coming this way but as the car never stopped he vanished into the bushes .....we decided to wait till the sunsets as the car rent was very high and was our choice at the end to say until we wish sala vasool toh ho...things changed in the evening
time...really also suddenly we saw 15-20 cranes sitting not too far ...was a treat for eyes to watch rosy starlings waving into shapes before the setting sun with calls of birds from the tower,i no more regret reaching late to lakhota as i never wanted my pics to be taken there with a human-civilised background .
with a heavy thought of my money being lost of a cheater and tired i take a bath and take a look at the pigeon shit filled balcony at the hotel where a Christmas carol was
heared and a thin
santa in a
tata-tempo with party people in it passes by on the road...i wondered i had some time and as i read
somewhere while in car that there was a 48 something year old Ram
mandir where the ram
dhun has been recited since so
loong and it was Saturday so we went there and a big long walk on the
lakhota lake ....thinking
abt the next day.
More picture from the day......below.....
25 DEC Narara Marine Sanctuary
woke up at 5 ...left by 5.30 and reached
narara by 45
mins
Mr.Mustak suggested that Sunday and on the day of Christmas holiday wud be a bad idea i thought a lot before deciding ...
i wanted to see cranes up close and that wud be leaving by 3 in night and
spent a whole day in the outskirts of
jamnagar as read on
manish's blog,so in the end as i had no options left we finalized
Narara with absolute zero idea ,then came Mr.
kunal Joshi heza expert of all sorts for birds' he told me if u have decided to go then move early
abt 5.00 in the morning and reach by 6 and take a local guide for further
biodiversity viewing but he nodded his head and told me Crab plovers are a not to miss things [
kunal bhai even has his email id in the name of crab-plover :] [i wonder why was every expert talking
abt this bird and insisting more
abt it] i reached
Narara Marine National Park, and after a slow walk with an
desi guide [as we were early the official guides were
abt to come at 7.00 so we moved on to avoid rush of 150 school kids] the old guide- cum
chaiwala -cum pan shop owner- who on the first second told me that hes not in to birding i was paused but then as i remembered
mr.
kunal joshi's words of excitement and the map which Mr.
Mustak Mepani showed me into his hotel [President] was in my mind and i told the old uncle guide thanks for showing us beautiful corals,octopus,puffer fishes and etc
after the water walk for more than 1 hr : that ill move forward and catch u later ,the water
level was constantly abt 1ft from the time we entered there and uneven to walk the kichad goes
into your shoes and makes it more heavier and uneasy to walk and the chilliness : we kept on
walking for abt 30 mins and suddenly i thought to chk for the edges as kunal bhai suggested
,binoculars on the roll and i see something like the crab plovers pic in my bird book. we were a
team of 5 and marched on .finally splitting up ,as we didn't want the birds to get alarmed and vanish somewhere after the almost 2 hr hr journey .....i had a 70-300
vr lens so
cudnt get great pics as they were very far and had to cautiously move close to them.
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| Crab Plovers in flight. |
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| Greater Cormorants in flight. |
yes we did move on but when the attitude
bhara look of the
narara forest Department guy who gave us the permit came to my mind and said that the water level will rise by 9.30 and it was already 9 we needed to rush, the water level
upto the knee and and the bird seen clearly with the binoculars was a feeling of joy . got some good shots though after a good distance sightings, trust me wearing a wet pair of shoes,socks and a cargo shorts with wet butt parts adds
upto 2.5
kgs on your body while u struggle to save your cam and sack.the effort finally paid off and we were happy to add +10 birds,mud skippers and a few underwater life more to the count ,i surely want to visit
narara for the underwater life which i missed a bit because of the rushing times as i had to reach
jamnagar by 11.30 and had to catch a bus by 12 so.
One just has to walk in the water, when the tide ebbs, in about 1 to 2 to 3 feet of water and chk
the tides timings before entering During low tide one can walk on the coral reef and observe the
coral and try to catch a glimpse of the crab-plovers and friends.
special find : Crab plover with crab..
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| Crab plover with catch . |
crab plover is remarkable for being the only representative of the Dromadidae family, which means that in evolutionary terms this unusual shorebird has no close living relatives. This species has a distinctive appearance, with white plumage on the body and head, contrasting with jet-black primaries and back feathers, and a long, black,gull-like bill. Like most waders, the legs are long with partially webbed toes, and the tail is short.
We check out and off to have a fill of the unchased Thali and had our stuff.... believe me the bus Volvo from jamnagar to rajkot of Eagle travels had a Wi-fi. network in the bus ...kya baat hai Gujarat zindabad.
we take a stop to rajkot pick up special winter sweet called Adadiya'' from uncle and spent the rest of the Christmas in the bus
.finally the guy who tried to cheat returned my money with help of my Lawyer uncle in Nagpur...after 120 unanswered calls ,157 messages sent in which only 27 replied sala mera phone ka hee 250 rs usme chala gaya.
new year ended with a rough but a well managed experience.
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| The Clan. |
thankfully our group for
jamnagar was very friendly,co-operative and hungry for wildlife .
Tips:
1. DON'T EVER BOOK YOUR TIGER SAFARI'S ONLINE OF THROUGH PEOPLE FROM FACEBOOK,INDIA NATURE WATCH....I HAVE LEARNT IT THE HARD WAY.
2.jAMNAGAR IS A BUDGET TRIP ALL IN ALL THE MAJOR COST YOU'LL HAVE TO FACE IS TRANSPORTATION THAT'S TRAVELLING FROM HOTEL TO THE BIRDING AND OTHER PLACES BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY CHIOCE BUT TO HIRE FOR A WHOLE DAY OR 300 KM MINIMUM LIMIT.
3.IF YOU ARE GOIN ALONE FOR THE FIRST TIME RATHER THAN USING YOUR BARGAINING AND LOW COST FACTOR THEORY CHK IN TO HOTEL PRESIDENT ...ITS WORTH FOR THE SERVICE ROOMS ARE SECONDARY AS YOU DONT SPEND TIME IN IT ANY WAYS.
4.IF YOU ARE AN EXPERT HATS OFF IF U STRIVE TO LEARN AND SEE MORE ASK FOR A GUIDE TO MR.MUSTAK MEPANI/KUNAL.JOSHI [HOTEL PRESIDENT]
CHARGES DIFFER FROM FULL DAY TO HALF DAY AND FROM 1000-3000 INR.
5.EVERYTHING IS AVAILABLE IN JAMNAGAR I TOOK A NEW PAIR OF SLIPPERS AS I HAD TO THROW AWAY MY SOCKS AND MY SHOES WERE IN A BAD BAD CONDITION AFTER THE WETLAND WALKS.
6.IF YOU WANT REALLY GREAT SHOTS HAVE A LENS OF 500 MM OR GREATER ANY THING LESS IS A REGRET IF NOT LUCKY.
7.IF U GO TO NARARA BE SPECIFIC ABT WHAT YOU WANT IF U WANT TO SEE THE UNDERWATERLIFE TAKE YOUR TIME ITS REALLY WORTH IT AND BEAUTIFUL DON'T MISS IT...AND IF U ARE GOING FOR BIRDS ,ESPECIALLY OYESTER CATCHER AND CRAB-PLOVERS LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND AND START WALKING TILL U REACH NEAR THE SHORE.
8.TRAIN BOOKING HAVE TO BE DONE 2 MONTHS PRIOR TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT... BUSES ARE INTERCONNECTED FROM BOMBAY TO RAJKOT....AND BOMBAY AHMADABAD-RAJKOT JAMNAGAR.
