We reached Velavdar by 1700H. Ramzan bhai our guide had called us a few times to know when we were reaching. We had no plans for a safari that day since we had driven from Zainabad and also stopped to see the “Indian eagle owl” at Wadhwan.. The plan was to do four safaris for the next two days (24th & 25th). We parked at the national park and were asking the officials for the national park accommodation status. There are a few rooms and a dorm. But, the booking procedure is pretty convoluted, demand draft via speed post to the forest office at Bhavnagar and that too without clear visibility of availability ! Ofcourse nothing was available. Ramzan was to let us know the hotel for us to stay. I also ran into the well known macro photographer, Yuvraj Gurjar who was along with a few folks. Yuvraj said that the Narayani Heritage hotel at Bhavnagar was his choice. But, I didn’t want to stay some 45 kms away. Ramzan’s hotel option would be nearer for sure. While we waited for him to return from his safari guiding, we climbed the watch tower near the gate to watch harriers coming in to roost. The cast iron railing was wobbly and felt unsafe ! Soon Ramzan arrived and he told us to go to Hotel Khodiyar, about 10 kms away. We asked him the distance again and he said 15 kms. Now that confused us, was it 10 kms or 15 Kms ? We then asked another person who said clearly that the highway was 10 kms and then we had to travel towards Bhavnagar for another 15 kms to get to the hotel which was bang n the highway. That was a total of 25 kms from the park not 10 and not 15. Somehow the first meeting with Ramzan didn’t inspire much confidence. There is no budget hotel near the park. There is only a very high end resort the Blackbuck Lodge which is right next to the park. Ramzan did mention that there were two hotels coming up in the nearby village and should be ready sometime in the summer. But for now, we had to go some 25kms away for our hotel.
We first filled in fuel and then checked out Khodiyar hotel which is at ,Sanes. It was empty and had blue and red lights in the corridor. Kinda like “camera types” was the comment! We decided against it and, after asking the petrol pump recommendation we switched to the next door hotel “Shree Krishna Foodinn”. The petrol pump guy mentioned the food was good here. Fortunately the rooms here were fine and the corridors well lit. No multicoloured lights thankfully! Funnily no amount of search threw up these hotels on google and neither did the map show it. But once at the hotel, and with some bare data connectivity, I could see this hotel marked on the map for a short while. After that one time, it never showed up. The data connectivity on the Bhavnagar-Ahmedabad highway was very poor. Almost zero data. For google maps one needs good data connectivity. Its pretty useless without connectivity. I much prefer paper maps. Hardeep and I kept having this conversation all though our drives. But now after I am back, I searched out and have marked it on the map. You need to spell exactly too to get a search result. This spell situation would repeat on our return to Mumbai. So it isn’t something of a one off. Whaatt.. ? I think we are in the year 2000 still on this one …. Gaah !
The hotel had a 24h restaurant since it caters to night buses that stop here for a bite and a bio break. Only down side is that the buses honk their pressure horn, signalling to their passengers to get on board. This goes on through the night. I was able to get some breakfast packed early morning to take it with us on the safari.
Music and pressure horn at the hotel porch!
Sree Krishna Food Inn – Bus honk from krish photo on Vimeo.
Velavdar one needs to take our own vehicles for the safari drives. Ramzan came a bit late but we were inside the park by 0715H. He took a route quite different from the other vehicles and said we would try to spot wolves. Some 30 mins into the safari, we spotted a pack of three. My very first wolf sighting. They were probably returning from a hunt, he said. Ramzan offered to drive since both Hardeep and I were trying to take pictures. He expertly positioned the car and we got our first shots of the day, a few indian wolves !
The Indian wolf, first sighting
Ramzan urging us to drop the blackbucks and go after the wolves.
20171224_080912 from krish photo on Vimeo.
Ramzan knew exactly where they were moving and set us at the metaled road. We took a few shots of the approaching wolves an then got off the car and sat on the ground, waiting for them to cross the road. just as the wolves crossed, Ramzan made a “AAoooouuuu” wolf call and the wolf looked up. Handheld 600mm plus TC was tough but I managed two shots, of which one passed muster ! Thank God for regular gymming ! 600 one, 600 two , thats my motivation count in the gym !
We then went back into the park to see some blackbucks and some harriers. Rest of the morning was quite tame with the regular birds like the common kestrel, stonechats and Montague harriers. There were a lot of larks seen too.
Albino blackbuck
The evening we started our safari at 1530H. Mostly blackbucks and neelgai and watching harriers coming in to roost. A tame session in comparison to the morning.
Red Collared Dove
Next morning, the morning of the 25th Dec 2017, we again went into the grasslands in search of the wolves. Ramzan spotted the three from a watchtower.
But they were far away. As one of them began to move, Ramzan set us up to see it cross the track. This guys has a good sense of where the wolves would move. The wolves were smart and they split in three different directions so we could track only one at a time. After the first crossed the track, we turned around to follow the second one.
This one was heading towards the rear of the park area and soon, we had to stop and only watch from the track. This wolf ran into a huge wild boar. The boar in no friendly mood snorted and made a small charge. Our wolf got the message and took flight to a safer distance. I did manage to take a few shots but being hand held and at a large distance , got only one usable shot. But, what a wonderful wildlife moment to witness !
Wild boar and the wolf
So the tally was, two wolf sightings on two mornings, not bad ! Ramzan said that hyenas are not being spotted at the moment. He asked me to keep checking and he would let me know when they are seen. We could then make another trip for the hyenas later. After the wolves, we went to the wetland area to see some water birds. A flight of pelicans came circling but did not land. The light was quite harsh but, we managed to practice flight shots on a few river terns flying around. By 1130H we wrapped up the safari, loaded the luggage and set course for home.
Laggar Falcon Juv
The idea was we would stop and stay at any hotel by 1800H possibly around Baruch. The google map showed the route via Anand, whereas it was way shorter to come via Adhelai- Vataman-Borsad-Padra-and join the Ahmedabad- Mumbai highway at Karjan which is midway between Vadodara and Baruch. The “Here map” was giving me the correct route but we took a chance on google. turned out it wasn’t the best decision. We defaulted to the google suggestion and went all the way to Anand and then, turned south to Mumbai. Try as we might, we couldn’t get a single decent hotel on the highway. We wanted to halt the night at a good hotel but just didn’t find any non trucker one to stay. We then decided to keep driving and reach Mumbai. We pushed on and thought we would find the same sugar and spice pit stop. Try as we might, no chance of finding it on the map. Then we finally kept a look out and found it, thanks to its large neon sign. Again google map was not much help here until one put in the exact spelling ! So it was a 12 hour drive both ways from Mumbai. The new car was now well and truly broken in 🙂
A buffalo skull
Song of the trip. Dil Diyan Gallan 🙂 Whenever I hear this song, I am gonna remember this super trip !
The correct route to follow from Velavdar to Mumbai
Tips & notes
1. Long lens territory here too but get a 70-200 or a 300mm along.
2. Totally bean bag based shoot from the car window.
3. Positioning the car is super important to get the shot.
4. Good guide is Ramzan Khan: +91 81408 10087. Only watch out and discount some bit of “salad dressing” 😉
5. Stay option at Shree Krishna Foodland is good
6. Three safaris, two morning and one evening is ideal. Keep mornings for the wolf. More may not yield much. I think there are better areas outside the park for birds. Locals would know better I am sure.
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wonderful images from amazing habitat !!!
Great shots of the wolves! The gold grasslands and the blackbucks are so reminiscent of Chappar…went there in early December, will post soon ?