This is the first time I am staying in Gujarat. I have been
planning for quite a long time to set foot here and finally managed to do so in
lieu of a project work through ATOS. I spent the first weekend going around the
nearby places since I had only a day’s off on Sunday. From the beginning of
this week I had started planning for the next weekend and had asked my friend Mohan
(he has, till date, never said NO to any of my plans including the current oneJ, to come down from
Pune. My primary plan was to visit Lothal and some other places nearby. Though
both of us were involved in travelling, in this blog many a times I use “my” or
“I” since Mohan does not contribute to the plans. He prefers to leave the
decisions on me comfortably. He complements this by not finding fault with any
of my decisions and enjoying everything. I believe our interests match up well
most of the times.
We had been partners in crime earlier too when we did a long
bike trip on my Thunderbird through the whole state of Tamil Nadu. This time I
did not have my bike with me and hence I tried hard to arrange for one. I
finally tried with Royal Enfield which did not work out as it turned out to be
expensive. I finally resigned to the fact that we have to make do by bus trips
this time around. This later turned out to be a boon for us. How? You will soon
find that out when I start describing our journey.
Mohan arrived on 14th June morning and I received
him at Paldi Bus stand. We took an hour and a half to refresh ourselves at a
hotel called Anupam. At brisk pace we reached the bus stand to take a bus to
Lothal. None of the buses here have English signboards and it took me a long
half an hour to find the right bus and that too only to a place called Bagodara
which is 65 KMs from Amdavad (that is how Ahmedabad is written in Gujarati
here). Lothal is around 19 KM from that place. We boarded a bus at around 8.50
am. A guy sitting next to us started chatting with us guiding us as to how to
reach Lothal from Bagodara. He gave us N number of options where N>=5 and
this totally confused me J
But later I understood that he was quite knowledgeable about that place though
he belonged to some other village far away from Lothal. It was a nice feeling
travelling with local people around us. We got down by 10.40 at Bagodara and
were waiting for some vehicle to take us to Lothal. We got into a bus thinking
that it would take us to Lothal as told by the conductor. However it turned out
that the conductor was a fresher and gave us wrong info :D. Hence we had to get
down after some 12 KMs. The remaining 7KMs were covered by another two
vehicles, one called as a Katara .It’s a damn colourful set up running on a
Bullet engine. We took one more bus and the fourth vehicle from Ahmedabad
before we could finally reach Lothal. As expected, the place was looking more
like a barren land with just a few small structures. First we visited the Archaeological
Museum and got to know the history of Lothal. I comprehended that Lothal was a
flourishing port belonging to the Harappan civilisation wherein the people of
that era built exquisite harbour for the ships shuttling between India and
other countries for trading purpose. People were well trained in beading,
pottery, jewellery designing and more of the kind which seemed to be the chief
items for export from this place. It really felt nice to be able to put our
feet on the land which used to flourish some 4500 years back. We roamed around
viewing the Dock, said to be the oldest one of all civilizations, dilapidated
house structures, underground pipes which I felt were drainage pipes or pipes
for channelizing water from surrounding water body.
After about 2 hours of wandering around and wondering on the
once-active port and trade centre of the highly developed Harappan civilisation
we came out of that area undecided about the next destination. We took a Katara
once again and reached Gundi from where we took an auto rickshaw to Anjer. The
way to Anjer, in this life of mine, will forever remain alive in the preciously
kept memory case, where I have stored all those surprise gifts which the nature
has showered upon me from time to time as blessings for keeping the eyes of a
traveller. Just as we were headed towards our next destination enjoying the
sight around us we held our breaths back as we saw some 10-12 deer jumping in
their inimitable style from one side of the road to the other. I gaped in
absolute awe at the sheer magnificence of the sight and did not bother to budge
an inch to get hold of the camera, lest I miss a moment of the unexpected
happiness in front. Holding onto the happiness of experiencing the unexpected
we reached Anjer and took a break there while waiting for a vehicle which can take
us to Bagodara. Fortunately a lorry accepted our request. We enjoyed the lorry
ride too! We were still unsure about what to do after reaching Bagodara.
However, when we reached, it started raining and after some dilly-dallying of
our minds, we decided to visit a bird sanctuary at Nalsarovar.
Nalsarovar is 28KM from Bagodara. The road to Nalsarovar is
full of small lakes where we got to see many kinds of birds. We managed to get
another lorry this time. The journey to this place was enthralling and a good
sign of what was in store for us that evening. The destination was a 2 KM walk
from the place where we got down and 2 bikers offered to drop us there. On the
way we got to know that they were boat riders who take people for hourly rides.
A few of the boat riders irritated us by repeatedly negotiating rates to take
us on boat to a nearby island to get a better view of birds. The rates started
from Rs.1000 per head and they came down to Rs.200 as I held my fort of viewing
whatever we could from there itself. I had to shout at one of those guys and
plead with one more to leave us on our own. I was content with enjoying the
beauty of the place and birds from a distance. We got to see some breathtaking
views from this place itself. Fortunately quite a few birds flew nearby and we
got a very nice view of the birds. As we walked our way out of the sanctuary we
spotted a place where hundreds of flamingos were seen together. They buried
their faces into the water, probably either for cooling their heads or waiting
to catch fishes. That was a sight to behold but since I did not have my
Telephoto lens I could not capture this from that distance.
We headed back to
Bagodara, this time on an open minivan. The various modes of transport which we
took in this trip were the highlight of the day. It started raining by the time
we reached Bagodara and took a bus at around 7.40 to Amdavad. For some unknown
reason, the bus conductor was a bit miffed at me and reluctantly issued us our
tickets. We reached Amdavad talking about our college time experiences and
other things. We had our dinner at Udipi café and the trip came to an end.
Myself on the left (Pratap) and Mohan on the right.
Location details:
Lothal is at a distance of 84 KMs from Ahmedabad. The route is:
Ahmedabad to Bagodara 65Km --> A left turn here where a Lothal board is present --> 12KMs and cross a railway track to take a left turn --> 4KMs from here to Gundi --> Right turn here and 3 more KM to reach Lothal
Nalsarovar Bird sanctuary is 28KMs from Bagodara. While reaching Bagodara from Ahmedabad, take a right turn which is between a State Bank ATM and Bagodara bus stand. Straight road from here will go to Nalsarovar.
NOTE:
1) Lothal is closed on Fridays.
2) Take drinks and eatables to Lothal. No stores available near to this place.
3) Best time to visit Nalsarovar is from October - March. Boating tickets need to bought at the entrance itself. Otherwise boatmen inside the sanctuary will loot you.
