As I cruise at 40,000 feet above sea level, 860 kmph, I'm reminiscing the adventurous trip I took with my friends a couple of weeks ago. Wondering, is this the right place to write about something that happened in a deserted area. I mean the contrasts are too high, I'm at -63˚C and the travelogue I'm trying to pen in, is about an area that's at +40˚C. But, with the schedule that I'm working these days, there won't be another time to get my thoughts together. It's kinda calm right now, no disturbance from ANYONE, sipping my coffee - what more could I ask for !
Getting to the wild has always been something that I long for. The urban life takes a toll on you and like minded people want to break away and get into the wild, be with the nature and get back to the roots. It's always refreshing !
Ninaad, Kedar and I had discussed about going to Bera I guess almost more than a year ago, never did it cross my mind that it would suddenly fall in my lap. As Kedar does always, he messaged me about the trip to Bera, the most sought after place to watch leopards. One of the most interesting species of the cat family. Shy, territorial and now very low in numbers across the globe. Having visited multiple national parks, I had always missed an encounter with this special creature. Can I call it bad luck ? Maybe, but how many people really believe in luck !? I checked my schedule and it looked pretty doable and it was all decided. Apart from the leopards, another interesting part was the 'road trip' - almost 950 kms from Pune !!
We started off in the evening after finishing our office and hit the road. Driving on open highways is something we all look forward to, especially if you do something similar to me - cross the city everyday for work, manoeuvring the amazing traffic. Since the journey was long we had planned for a halt at night just as we cross the Gujrat border.
Day 2
We started early the next day and the never ending roads touching the horizon looked beautiful in the morning mist. Kedar's powerful XUV 500 wasn't ready to stop except for the much needed breaks for the humans that it carried. A friend of mine, Amit Gijare had urged me not to miss the Step Wells at Adalaj on the way near Gandhinagar, which were built in the year 1499. To our surprise, this was very unique and exquisite and we had never seen anything like this. It's always great to see such structures built hundreds of years back, which depicts the rich heritage of our nation.
There was a detour that was planned, rather I was ignorant enough not to read when it came up on the WhatsApp group. Instead of heading straight to Bera for the night, we went to Jessour. This is a place well known for the sloth bears. It was decided that we'd stay there for the night and leave early morning for Bera.
The road off from the highway had something very different in store for us. Being a holiday for Dhuli Vandan, it happened to be a big festival for the local tribal people in this area. Since, this is not a place that's visited too often, they stop the cars by closing the roads with branches of thorny trees and unless you tip them off, they don't allow you to go ahead. This was surely quite unusual, never seen before. As we gave some money the first time, in a patch of 2-3 kms, we were stopped almost 10-15 times for the same reason. This started to get us irritated and I'd jump out of the car and ask the locals to clear off - kind of in a stern voice. Towards the end we were greeted by a big group of tribal girls who started dancing in front of our car and wouldn't budge unless we tip them. This was quite entertaining and we gave up being irritated and said to ourselves - this is the culture, let's just gel in, no point in getting frustrated :)
We were a bit disappointed as we were told that due to the festive season they were low on staff and the bear sighting was also low. We loitered around a bit, spent some time birding in the wonderful lake that was feeding water to this region. Though these were the usual birds that we've had an opportunity to click quite often, we did manage to get some good snaps here.
We decided to head straight towards Bera and ensured we had another day of stay arranged for. It was quite a hunt to find this place in the midst of the small town and managed to reach there late night. To our surprise this happened to be an old mini-palace of one of the descendants of Maha Rana Pratap. The twin cities Nana-Bera are actually the names of the sons of the descendants. The owner was the last known of these descendants. A well read man staying with his intelligent wife, with the house converted as home stay was a perfect spot for us to spend our next few nights.
Day 3
We started early to go to the the jungle, I'd rather call it the hilly areas where the leopards reside. Early morning winter was quite pleasing especially when we were coming from the hot weather of Pune. The sunrise was absolutely mesmerising and set our morning mood.
We waited at a place where they used to tie a bait for the leopard to come over and have it's free lunch. However, this practice is now stopped by the forest department, we nevertheless, tried our luck.
We moved further as there was no sign of leopards. We saw a fleet of cars parked as they had sighted a leopard. Our car sped across and we started to set our camera's. The leopards were quite far off in the hills and the person who spotted them surely had a fantastic eyesight. It was quite difficult even with binoculars too as they camouflage too well in these hills. We finally saw the leopards (mama and cub) and tried to get a some pics. However, with the shadows of the mountains we could hardly get any good snaps. We tried endlessly but didn't get any crisp pics. Finally as the day dawned, the leopards also went off as they knew that in no time the sun would be scorching hot making it unbearable for anyone to stay outside. We too went back to our hotel and took some rest as we had to do another ride post lunch. We were treated by some awesome home cooked food, which ensured that we could take a power nap immediately after that.
The afternoon ride was making us quite eager as we knew the location of the leopard and were expecting it to be around at the same spot. We tried our luck at another place just to check if we can see some other leopards. However, we got none. As we were losing patience, it made sense for us to go to the same spot as in the morning and to our surprise, the leopards (mama and cub) were still there and ensured they kept all the tourists & photographers busy. We closed the day well, but low light was not very photographer friendly !
Day 4
This morning, we headed out earlier so as to get undisturbed view of the leopards. This was more than a treat. Up in the mountains at the same spot - mama and 2 cubs were out ready to greet us !! The mama and cubs were playing, lazing around in the morning, which surely made our day !
We met another like minded nature enthusiast (Aseem Kothiala) who recommended us to visit Mount Abu for a rare species of bird that was found in this region. He also gave a contact in Abu who would guide us around and ensure that we get a good sighting. Post breakfast, we checked out of the beautiful home stay, where we had amazing, sumptuous and delicious food AND the warmth and comfort provided by DhananjaySingh Ranawat and his wife.
As we headed towards Mount Abu, the skies started to get a bit cloudy and we were a bit apprehensive of what was in store for us. Luckily Mount Abu wasn't cloudy, the weather was just beautiful. We met our guide and to our luck he happened to be the most wonderful guy. With vast experience and many stories to share he first took us the Dilwara temple. The most exquisite place on Earth is all what I can write. What our ancestors have been able to achieve 950 years back, it makes you feel as if you're in the stone age today. The carvings, symmetry, craftsmanship, imagination and creativity all on marble is all just impossible to replicate in today's world. This is a MUST visit place on this planet. All other 'wonders of the world' look pretty insignificant.
After this breathtaking experience we roamed around in the Aravali hills, we were at the top of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth - this mountain range has beauty of its own. Absolutely brilliant !
The main reason that had brought us to Mount Abu was the next destination for us - the Green Munia. This bird is endemic and the guide knew exactly where we could see this bird. The images below will surely give you a glimpse of this beautiful bird. Being caught in bird trade, the numbers have reduced a lot, thus making it an endangered species.
Having taking pics of this bird to our hearts content, we decided to head back to Pune. The journey being long, we decided to take a halt for the night and continue the next day. Overall a very fulfilling road trip with lots of memories, excitement and crossing "toch" bridges on our way back !! :)
Getting to the wild has always been something that I long for. The urban life takes a toll on you and like minded people want to break away and get into the wild, be with the nature and get back to the roots. It's always refreshing !
Kuchnar flowers
Palas flower
The Three Musketeers
Day 1We started off in the evening after finishing our office and hit the road. Driving on open highways is something we all look forward to, especially if you do something similar to me - cross the city everyday for work, manoeuvring the amazing traffic. Since the journey was long we had planned for a halt at night just as we cross the Gujrat border.
Day 2
We started early the next day and the never ending roads touching the horizon looked beautiful in the morning mist. Kedar's powerful XUV 500 wasn't ready to stop except for the much needed breaks for the humans that it carried. A friend of mine, Amit Gijare had urged me not to miss the Step Wells at Adalaj on the way near Gandhinagar, which were built in the year 1499. To our surprise, this was very unique and exquisite and we had never seen anything like this. It's always great to see such structures built hundreds of years back, which depicts the rich heritage of our nation.
Carving at the step wells
Step wells
There was a detour that was planned, rather I was ignorant enough not to read when it came up on the WhatsApp group. Instead of heading straight to Bera for the night, we went to Jessour. This is a place well known for the sloth bears. It was decided that we'd stay there for the night and leave early morning for Bera.
The road off from the highway had something very different in store for us. Being a holiday for Dhuli Vandan, it happened to be a big festival for the local tribal people in this area. Since, this is not a place that's visited too often, they stop the cars by closing the roads with branches of thorny trees and unless you tip them off, they don't allow you to go ahead. This was surely quite unusual, never seen before. As we gave some money the first time, in a patch of 2-3 kms, we were stopped almost 10-15 times for the same reason. This started to get us irritated and I'd jump out of the car and ask the locals to clear off - kind of in a stern voice. Towards the end we were greeted by a big group of tribal girls who started dancing in front of our car and wouldn't budge unless we tip them. This was quite entertaining and we gave up being irritated and said to ourselves - this is the culture, let's just gel in, no point in getting frustrated :)
Squirrels at Jessour
We were a bit disappointed as we were told that due to the festive season they were low on staff and the bear sighting was also low. We loitered around a bit, spent some time birding in the wonderful lake that was feeding water to this region. Though these were the usual birds that we've had an opportunity to click quite often, we did manage to get some good snaps here.
Lake at Jessour
Little ringed plover
Kingfisher
Spoon bill and Painted Stork
Cotton pigmy goose and little grebe
We decided to head straight towards Bera and ensured we had another day of stay arranged for. It was quite a hunt to find this place in the midst of the small town and managed to reach there late night. To our surprise this happened to be an old mini-palace of one of the descendants of Maha Rana Pratap. The twin cities Nana-Bera are actually the names of the sons of the descendants. The owner was the last known of these descendants. A well read man staying with his intelligent wife, with the house converted as home stay was a perfect spot for us to spend our next few nights.
Day 3
We started early to go to the the jungle, I'd rather call it the hilly areas where the leopards reside. Early morning winter was quite pleasing especially when we were coming from the hot weather of Pune. The sunrise was absolutely mesmerising and set our morning mood.
Terrain at Bera
Grey Francolin
Day 4
This morning, we headed out earlier so as to get undisturbed view of the leopards. This was more than a treat. Up in the mountains at the same spot - mama and 2 cubs were out ready to greet us !! The mama and cubs were playing, lazing around in the morning, which surely made our day !
We met another like minded nature enthusiast (Aseem Kothiala) who recommended us to visit Mount Abu for a rare species of bird that was found in this region. He also gave a contact in Abu who would guide us around and ensure that we get a good sighting. Post breakfast, we checked out of the beautiful home stay, where we had amazing, sumptuous and delicious food AND the warmth and comfort provided by DhananjaySingh Ranawat and his wife.
With the Ranawat couple
Road to Mount Abu
The main reason that had brought us to Mount Abu was the next destination for us - the Green Munia. This bird is endemic and the guide knew exactly where we could see this bird. The images below will surely give you a glimpse of this beautiful bird. Being caught in bird trade, the numbers have reduced a lot, thus making it an endangered species.
Green Munia
Green Munia
Green Munia
Brahminy Starling
Crested Bunting
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