Gujarat Road Trip – Birding and much more
We were planning for a road trip in India for a long time. But seeing the conditions of our roads in India, we were not sure whether it was really worth the trouble. Then, while we were looking at the migratory routes of many Siberian birds we found that they all stopped at Gujarat. Gujarat is the state in Western Coast India with total area of 196,024 km2 . The bird sanctuaries were spread out wide across the state, so it will be tough to roam around in Government Transportation. We decided to take a rental car and travel around the state in search of birds. So finally the road trip in India was “ON” and that was to Gujarat. It took few months to plan with the routes as we checked for possible birds that we could spot in each sanctuary, the feasibility of reaching each sanctuary, different terrains in Gujarat, a basic hotel for stay near the sanctuaries, number of days needed in each location and many other little details. December is the best season for migratory birds, so we decided to do our road trip in that month.
We could have done this trip easily with a travel guide who would have arranged everything from end to end, but we didn’t prefer to do that way. We wanted to see many Siberian migratory birds, desert birds and each of those bird species prefer unique locations. Like Greylag goose prefers freshwater lakes while Grey hypocolius prefers dry shrub forest and Short-eared Owl prefers open grassland. So we selected the locations based on the habitats of the birds we wished to see. We were very tempted to visit Gir forest to see the King of the Forest “LION” but we avoided it because the place was very commercialized.
This was our first road trip in India. When everyone suggests four-wheeler is the best to drive around in unraveled roads, we prefer small cars as they are the best for our traffic congested narrow roads.In this road trip this car took us to all nook and corners in the wild Gujarat !
The plan was to reach Ahmedabad , pick our rental car and then start to Thol bird sanctuary which is the closest one to Ahmedabad. So the itinerary was like Ahmedabad → Thol Bird Sanctuary → Blackbuck National Park → Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary → Wild Ass Sanctuary → Great Rann of Kutch → Jamnagar → Ahmedabad .
Map Of Gujarat Road Trip
This was the route map of our road trip. We started in Thol bird sanctuary and ended in Khichadiya bird Sanctuary. This road trip showed us lots of realities which was never showed in media. Gujarat is in between two Gulfs, Gulf of Kutch and Gulf of Khambath. So the state has unique terrain and we tried to cover most of it in our road trip.
Here are some of the details about the sanctuaries we visited during this road trip.
Thol Wildlife Sanctuary
We wanted to start our Gujarat road trip from Thol Wildlife Sanctuary as it is located close to Ahmedabad. We were not disappointed with our visit to this sanctuary. The migratory water birds were in decent numbers in Thol lake.
Thol Lake is a artificial freshwater lake situated just 30 kms from Ahmedabad. This place is famous for migratory birds like Greylag Goose, Greater Flamingoes, Sarus Cranes and Bar-headed geese. When we visited Thol Wildlife Sanctuary in early morning, hundreds of birds were flying towards and outwards the sanctuary which was a pretty cool sight to watch. Our Highlight of this place was the landing of thousands of Greylag Goose in the Thol lake which made our start of the trip so exciting.
Blackbuck National Park
Blackbuck national park is a very small park but with decent number of wildlife. The guides were informative which made the safaris pretty interesting.
Blackbuck National Park is situated in Velavadar which is situated around 150 kms from Thol Bird Sanctuary. Blackbuck National Park is a small grassland of just 34 km2 surrounded by agricultural lands. This place was a bit out of way from our travel route but seeing this place is famous for Hyena and Lesser Florican, we didn’t want to miss out this place. Though we couldn’t see both of them in this trip, we got to see hundreds of Common Cranes and thousands of gorgeous Blackbucks. The highlight in this place for us was the sighting of Indian Grey Wolves.
Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary
Nalsarovar is a large water body, so a big scene change for us from Velavadar dry grasslands to Nalsarovar with blue water everywhere. The boating was interesting as we were exploring this place but for birding it was tough as the birds flew away immediately seeing the boat.
Nalsarovar is located around 115 kms from Velavadar. This bird sanctuary is primarily of lakes and ambient marshes. We have to take boats to do birding in this sanctuary. There are many small islands amidst the lakes and you have to tell boatman your requirements, otherwise they will just take you to tourist locations and bring you back. Due to the recent rains in Gujarat, the water level in Nalsarovar lake was very high and the birds had spread out, so we couldn’t see the ducks closely. The highlight for us in this sanctuary is the sighting of Great Crested Grebe and Black-necked stork.
Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary
LRK is an important place in our road trip. It looked a bit different from our expectation but we did see good number of raptors. It takes lots of patience to search for birds in this terrain.
Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary is located in Little Rann of Kutch which is 110 kms from Nalsarovar. This Sanctuary is the last remaining place for the endangered Indian Wild Ass. The Rann of Kutch is a sealine desert area and gets flooded during monsoon. This wide open land is a good spot for raptors and desert foxes. The highlight of this place is obviously the Indian Wild Ass and Peregrine Falcon.
Great Rann of Kutch
We had many places to visit in GRK like Banni Grasslands, White Desert, Kalo Dungar. So in addition to birding, this is a place for seeing some unique terrains in India.
Great Rann of Kutch is located around 300 kms from Little Rann of Kutch and has wide variety of terrains like Grasslands, Salt pans, Shrublands. So this place had a huge scope in our travel but unfortunately Rann Utsav was happening when we went there, which spoiled many of the good remote spots in GRK. Highlight of this place is White Desert Landscape and Western Marsh Harrier.
Narara Marine National Park
Narara marine national park is a must visit if you are in Jamnagar. We had a long drive from GRK to Jamnagar but we enjoyed every moment in this national park. This is the place to see shore birds in action.
This is the only Marine National Park in India and we wanted to visit this place though it’s a long drive from Great Rann of Kutch. Narara Marine National Park is a huge biodiversity hotspot for both marine and bird life. This place is located in Jamnagar which is around 410 kms from GRK. We had a beautiful experience of walking over the reef during the low tide and seeing many marine creatures. Highlight of Narara for us is the endangered Crab Plover and the Octopus.
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary is a good place to sit around and do casual birding. The birds were very shy and flew away immediately hearing any sound, but you can watch them just by sitting in the watch towers.
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary is another birding spot in Jamnagar and is a good spot to saunter around. The well maintained trail is very nice for some casual birding. This was the last spot in our road trip and we got many lifers in this sanctuary. So we happily ended our trip in this sanctuary and started back to Ahmedabad.
During this Gujarat Road trip we saw and learnt lots of new stuffs about Nature, Indian rural environment, Water Management , Impact of politics and Wildlife. There were few good , many bad and downright ugly scenarios we saw during this road trip both on the people and wildlife side. You will see the Good, Bad, Ugly in each sanctuaries when I write those posts in detail.