Day 27
Today we are driving to Dhordo, to see the white desert.
Dhordo is in Kutch district in Gujarat, and about 430 kms and 9 hours from Abu Road.
We started at 7.30 am and took NH 27, towards Gandhidham. In about thirty minutes we are in Gujarat state, which we came to know as we are stopped at police checkpoint, looking for alcohol. Gujarat is the only state other than Bihar, where alcohol is prohibited. We are well aware of this and we came clean!
We continue our drive and we see lots of power lines on either side, miles of barren lands lined by thorny trees, few brick kilns, small farmlands, lots of goats and cattle and several trucks carrying loads of Mica.
NH 27 is 3500+ kms long and is the second longest highway in India, starting from Porbandar to Silchar in Assam. The highway is fairly good, but for some patches in few sections. However, road discipline is nil or non-existent as we see several cars, bikes, trucks and even JCB coming in our lane from the opposite direction flouting all rules. It is suicidal and probably seen only in Hollywood movies.
We saw construction of Mundra-Panipat Pipeline, estimated to cost over Rs.9200 crores, to transport crude oil from Mundra on the Gujarat coast to IOC refinery at Panipat in Haryana.
We also saw container traffic from Kandla port, located about 70 kms from Bhuj. Kandla is among the largest ports in India by volume of cargo handled.
We reached Gandhidham at about 1.45 pm, and took NH 341 towards Bhuj. For the records, Bhuj airstrip was bombed during India-Pak war in 1971 and the runway was reconstructed with the help of local villagers mostly women!
A short break in Bhuj to fill our famished tummies, we are on the road again at 3.30 pm towards Dhordo.
We reached Dhordo at 4.30 pm and checked in at Kutir Craft resort, a small village hamlet with houses made of mud. The mattresses are on top of mud beds. All of us are in one hut with no aircons and the temp 30c+ when we checked in. We see few bugs crawling around and are bit nervous how to spend the night. Nevertheless, we decided to experience village life!
We unpacked and left our things in the hut and drove to see the White desert, which is approx 25 kms from our place.
White desert or the Great Rann of Kutch, is a vast area of pristine white salt desert, also called the world's largest salt desert.
It is an amazing sight and well worth the drive to see its natural beauty and ecological importance. We captured both sunrise and sunset from this vast expanse.
We also saw arrangements being made for the upcoming Rann Utsav starting from Nov through Feb 2023. Kutch Rann Utsav is an yearly Carnival of Music, Dance, nature beauty of White Rann where you can experience tent city luxury and much more. Visiting on Full Moon Day is said to be a dream for every traveller. Hopefully, we will come back to experience this sometime.
On our way back to our homestay, we had a close encounter with a bunch of black buffaloes roaming on the road, and not visible in headlight beam. Luckily both the navigator and driver were alert and able to stop couple of meters before we hit them. Close encounters of the cattle kind!
End of day twenty seven - 9311 kms on our tracker.
#full tanker
Mud hut experience would have been really good, I suppose. Really beautiful pictures and write ups ❤️
ReplyDeleteWow, this is turning out to be a wonderful Bharat Darshan for, us, readers too. The rich diversity of the country is beautifully brought out in your blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat going FullTankers. Prayers and best wishes for the remaining journey.