Jamnagar -> Little Rann of Kutch (31.1.25)

After a few days of visiting temples and palaces, we were ready to head for the wide open spaces. The Little Rann of Kutch, our next destination, a 5000 sqkm of marshy land, would be just the ticket, we thought, and decided to move eastward one more step before veering back towards Bhuj.

Leaving Jamnagar (7.30 am)

We pushed off early, because the desert farm we were going to would take around 4 hours of straight run, plus breakfast. Yesterday, we had left after having breakfast, and our driver had not eaten before leaving, so he ended up skipping the morning bite altogether. Therefore today,  we decided to have breakfast on the way, so he also had a food break. But like a pair of sleuths circling each other, our driver did not leave things to chance and had a tummy-full before leaving. Such is the play of the universe.

Breakfast at Krishna Hotel, Pipali (9.00 am)

This stretch of road towards Rajkot and Ahmedabad is rather sparsely populated, with small localities at long intervals, interspersed with huge factories, mostly textiles. So with every passing empty mile, my tension was building up. Finally I earmarked a Krishna Hotel on Google Maps and forced our driver to a screeching stop in front of it. Normally, prospective customers walk up to a food joint and ask “Idly hai?”  or “Puri hai?”. I would invariably start with “Toilet hai?”. With this renal filter out of the way, Panna would join me and we would get down to less important stuff, like the menu. This place promoted its alu paratha onto us, which turned out to be excellent, followed by a black tea with ginger. I had developed a sore throat last night, so that was a bit of all right.

Devalata Desert Camp, Little Rann (12.00 noon)

If you asked me where exactly is this, I would be hard to come up with the locality. Suffice it be to say that it was 187 km from Jamnagar, close to Kidi as a landmark, and on the western side of the Little Rann. We had chosen this spot since we wanted to touch Little Rann while travelling from Jamnagar to Bhuj, so a place on the western edge was required. Turned out that it was some 15 kms down a road to a village, pretty remote. Apart from Devalata and Eco Resort, two twin properties owned by two siblings, there was no other tourist camp there. The sister owned Devalata, and she turned out to be a sweet middle-aged lady, doing everything except driving the safari jeep, helped by two very cute village girls. Accommodation was pretty basic, but clean, and the hostess really made us feel at home. A simple lunch of roti, rice, daal and veggies was on offer, which we wolfed down and went to rest before the afternoon safari.

Safari at Wild Ass Sanctuary, Little Rann (3.30 pm)

Little Rann is a huge tract of land, fed on the western side by the Gulf of Kutch and on the eastern side by the Luni river, which makes for a great mixture of salt and sweet water marshland. During the monsoon months, the whole area is inundated to depths varying from 3-12 feet. Right now it was mostly bone dry. Wild asses flourish here in hordes, so much so that a large part of the Little Rann is a sanctuary and managed by the forest department and the winter turns it into a home for migratory birds as well.

There are two industries inside the Little Rann. When the area is flooded, prawn cultivators move in and set up shanties, growing and exporting prawns for the next 6 months or so. It is a huge business. Salt panning is another industry, done with informal agreement with the forest department, where “owners” set up mud lined squares, fill them with salty water pumped up from manually dug wells, then drag the standing water in order to separate the mud from the salt and allow the salt to crystallise. They do this for 8 months, living in shanties on the salt pans (solar powered though, time to be impressed), and then sell the salt to the contractors for as little as Rs 300 per tonne! That’s dirt cheap, man! One square might yield 400 tonnes in those 8 months, and the family we were talking to owned ten such squares. That’s 12 lakhs in the year for a joint family. Not too bad, but could have been much more. And back-breaking labour from all members, immersed in brine.

Coming back to the safari itself, Panna, Hemendra and I took off in the open jeep, with the camp-driver and the lady acting as guide. 

Little Rann, was dry now, with only small tracts of water in places. This being an afternoon safari, we could not see many birds, except for some cranes later in the evening. What amazed us to start with were the miles and miles of brown cracked earth that the Little Rann was now. 107 villages surround the 5000 sqkm of land, and those areas, separated by small embankments from the floodable Rann, are green with vegetation and provide a year-long supply of munchies to the asses.

It took us some time to locate two separate herds of wild asses. Very good-looking creatures that look like horses with thin tails, who posed for us for very short periods before walking disdainfully away. We also caught a glimpse of a desert fox and golden jackal.

What was the icing on the cake was the sunset, viewed from the middle of the Little Rann. A 360-degree clear horizon is rare to find on land, and the sun setting majestically on side of it, throwing our shadows over miles and miles of cracked earth, was a scene not to be forgotten easily. We turned homeward when the sun had disappeared but there was still enough light to drive by, donning our jackets against the wind chill factor, though I have no idea how the driver knew which way to drive!

We retuned to camp at 6.30 pm (the forest department issues only 3-hour permits), brushed off the dust from our jackets and settled down to a well-deserved cuppa.

Dinner at Devalata, Little Rann (8.30 pm)

Food setup here was arranged in an open shed, and we could make out the strength of the desert cold. We were clad in jackets, woollen caps and mufflers, and discussing whether we would go to sleep in the same clothes, when the thoroughly Gujarati dinner arrived, made zero-chilly at our request - bajra roti, normal roti, khichari, sev tomater, alu baigan, kadi, chhaas, papad. Quite a spread, and very easy on the stomach.

Tomorrow we travel to Bhuj, to attend a wedding.