Utraj Shegaon and Vasthanji
“Here I come”, was Eddie's war
cry for quite some time, he had been itching to go for this trek, nigh over a
year. He landed in Abu on the 23rd Feb 2013 and tried his utmost to cajole
ole cronies’ schoolmates to accompany him on this trek. I refused point blank as
I was not physically fit and the last lap down to Vasthanji would bust my
knees.
I had done this trek in the early eighties with a bunch of
locals from the Nakki Lake area. During our post-monsoon visit, we faced challenges like dense vegetation, slippery slopes, and no transportation at Vastanji. We had to walk to Surupjung, the closest village, to catch a taxi. Walter, the fall guy agreed to accompany Eddie on his trek along
with Charles, who is a well-known guide in Abu.
I believe it was quite some trek, from the banter that
passed between the three of them the next day during lunch at the Kesarbhavan
dining hall. Apparently, they were joined by some firangis two Brits and a
Canadian. Eddie recommended visiting Rajasthan to discover Udaipur, Kumbhalgarh Fort, and MaharaniBaugh. He also wanted to meet an old classmate who became a village monk in Rani. It was to be a
five-day event apparently they made it in four.
Eddie's interest in the old fort led him to plan a trip to Gujarat. He wanted to explore the famous temples of Dwarka, and the ruins of Somnath and invited me to join him in photographing birds at the Rann of Kutch and the Gir Forest. Since I had never visited Ran of Kutch, I was game to go along and
witness the experience of this wasteland spread over a large part of Gujarat.
Without much ado and no strategies, we decided to leave for
Bhuj the next day.
5Th March
2013
Day -1
Mount Abu, - via Palanpur-via
Radhanpur-Bachao- OH well go through the Google Map I created.
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We left Abu at about 8.30 am, at the base we stopped to have
some chai as Eddie wanted to have a crap. From there, we drove down the Revdar
Road to see some plots of land going for sale. Eddie and Walter have spare cash
lying around hence need to invest. Having no luck in tracing the land mafias,
we continued our journey towards Palanpur.
At Palanpur, Wally decided to bugger off and head for home as
he had some domestic issues to settle. Eddie and I continued our journey
without the chatterbox to liven our journey with some of his hair-flying-out-of-the-box jokes.
We had lunch at a wayside restaurant. Stopped on the highway
at Bhuj to take a few snaps of the ruined castle. While capturing pictures, we encountered a local who shared that the fort used to be occupied by the army until 2001. However, it was abandoned and left in ruins after the earthquake because it was heavily damaged. Here are some snaps I took from the road.
 |
| Remnant s of the fort |
Ruins of the fort
The fort wall
The entrance from the road
In the city
After driving through Bhuj via Nakhatrana we headed for Moti Varani where we were to stay for a day. Our host and owner Mr. Jugal Tiwari of the Homestay at CEDO-Birding, offered to take us for a complimentary bird safari as our personal guide if we stayed an extra day. He was not free on the 6th of March, as a couple from the UK. already booked him We were in no hurry so we opted to stay.
