The vastness of the open land was astonishing for a city dweller like me. I could see the horizon all around me, which looked like the sky embracing the earth far away. The dust kicked up by the dry wind tasted salty! I struggled to keep away the dust by covering the face with whatever I had. The wind was relentless….

Earth was caked under the hot sun and cracked in an intricate pattern. The vastness of the land and this intricate pattern is what I noticed first upon my arrival at this unique place known as the Little Rann Of Kutch.

Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) is a salt marsh located in Kutch district of Gujarat, India. This spreads nearly 5000 square kilometres and, is the only place on earth where the endangered Indian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus khur), still lives.

The flight from Bangalore landed at Ahmedabad in the morning hours. Ahmedabad is the nearest Airport at a distance of approx. 100 km. It takes roughly 02 hours to cover the distance. My brother picked us from the airport and we headed straight to LRK. We managed to leave behind the city before it woke up from the last night sleep! The car managed to keep a steady speed as the condition of the road was excellent. Our travel took more than 02 hours due to the frequent pit stops. We reached our resort “Bhavna” around noon.

No sooner we finished our lunch it was time to explore the land and the denizens of the land. We set out in an open Mahindra THAR, which gave us ample visibility all around. If the local men in their traditional dress looked interesting, then their fragile looking cattle breed with enormous horns looked amusing to me. Those horns really stand out on those  animals.

As we left the town and then the villages behind, we entered the salt pans. It was salt and mounts of salt everywhere. I have even seen that the pot holes on the roads were filled by the unprocessed salt the same way mud/sand is used to fill the pot holes elsewhere in the country! No exaggeration please!!

 

The tar road gave way to mud road, which ended up into the open wilderness. The vehicle kept going at a steady speed in a direction which, except the driver, only the the almighty knew. Such is the vastness of the open land that it is impossible for an outsider to keep the track of direction. I was told by the driver that the locals manage it with the help of Sun’s position.

We drove around, may be, few kilometres. Though we were in the land of the Wild Ass but not a single one to be seen so far. Our first sighting was of a lone individual male, may be bachelor boy enjoying the solitary nomadic way of life.

He was more than happy to pose! Moving ahead for another kilometre or so brought us to meet a family of Common Crane.

The mom, dad and the two kids moved on without bothering to pose for a family picture!

This area is well know for a sizeable population of Desert Fox . One wish I had in my mind while planing the trip was to spot one. The driver was keen to try to spot one for us. We went around for an hour or so without any luck in spotting the Fox. But we had the luck with us in spotting many other residents of this arid land.

A Pallid Harrier:

An Estern Imperial Eagle:

A Chestnut-Bellied Sand Grouse:

The fastest bird; the Peregrine Falcon:

A Montagu’s Harrier:

As we were circling back the driver spotted the distinctive shape of a trotting fox at a distance. Elated, we carefully started closing in a diagonal approach, rather then a direct approach. A direct approach could alarm the elusive fox and it may bolt. Our patience did pay off as we saw it fairly close as it went about marking the territory and searching for food.

High-fivers and thumps-ups marked the celebration! The sun has already travelled all the way upto the horizon! The temperature dropped few notches, making it comfortable for us. The wild asses were also returning in big groups. One of them seems like a hygiene freak, who takes bath before retiring for the day! A bath is a bath, even if it is a dust bath!

The sun against the back drop of the wild asses looked so pleasing.

While all of them didn’t care much about the setting sun, these two were fascinated by the beautiful setting sun and stopped to watch the sun set!

Back at the resort we had lovely Gujrati food for the dinner. Sleep didn’t take too long to embrace the tired but happy souls.

Next day after a cup of hot tea we went near a huge water body to shoot the sunrise.The cold breeze on my face made me shiver. I stood by the water, my eyes glued to the eastern horizon, hoping to see a beautiful sunrise. The hues from the sun slowly seeped into the sky, water and everywhere around me, staining and dyeing everything in red and orange.

A fire ball! As the sun emerged from the horizon the sky slowly changed from being drab to a pale yellow to a captivating red…. As the warmth of the sun engulfed, the chill in the air slowly gave way.

When the cacophony of the birds announces the beginning of a new day……!

The Common Crane Family flying past the water body:

Having captured the beautiful sunrise we decided to explore the other parts. The first one to welcome us for the day was a wild ass.

A flock of Rosy Pelicans were engrossed in preening and getting ready to start their day.

The cracked floor crunching under the wheels of our vehicle was the only sound we could hear for miles, other than the cacophony of the birds.  We carried on for some more distance when we noticed that the topography started changing from open land to scrub, mostly consisting of thorny bushes. These bushes, during the rainy season get submerged as the entire land completely gets submerged and transforms into a sea for few months.  These scrubs are ideal hiding places for the Short Eared Owl. We were more than keen to spot one. We didn’t leave a single scrub while looking around for the elusive raptor. Such is its camouflage that it took a while for us to see it sitting on the ground just a few meters away from us!

We circled back to the waterbody. The water looked pink from a distance. As we got closer it turned out to be the Flamingos; Greater as well as Lesser Flamingos, in millions. They have literally painted the water pink with their flamboyant plumage!

 

That was the end of our trip to Little Rann Of Kutch. We came all the way to this place with some expectations. We were certenly awestruck by the rugged beauty of this unique place and the magnificent wildlife it has.

If the vastness of the land overwhelms, the magnificence of the fauna in it takes away the breath. That’s Rann of Kutch…..