One of the easiest drives for good wildlife sighting in Gujarat is to the Velavadar Black Buck National Park. Velavadar, is about 140km away from Ahmedabad and a leisurely drive, takes around 2.5 hours with random stops for photography or food.
You also have the option to visit Lothal and the Uthelia Palace en route, for a peek into some history, if you so choose.
The drive is very comfortable, roads are good and the only thing that you need to watch out for is - the actual turn off from the Highway towards Lothal / Velavadar that isn’t very clearly marked.
The Velavadar Blackbuck National Park is open from sunrise to sunset (except during the monsoons) If you want to make just a Day Trip, depart from Ahmedabad about 5:30-6:00am, reach the park, go in for a drive. Have lunch at the Black Buck Lodge, relax there until the sun loses a bit of its fieriness, go on another drive around the Park and then head back to Ahmedabad.
The only reason I suggest a day trip option is because : The Black Buck Lodge has just 14 independent cottages and is constantly at high demand. However, to truly enjoy the beauty of this place and relax, it is advisable to spend at least one night at the resort.
The 35sq km Velavadar Blackbuck National Park park has grasslands, shrub lands, saline plains and mud flats, which support a variety of grass, 95 species of flowering plants, 14 species of mammals (blackbuck, nilgai, Indian Grey Wolf, Striped Hyena, Indian Fox, Golden Jackal, Jungle Cat and smaller ones like hare, gerbil, field mice, mongoose and hedgehog), over 140 species of birds and many reptiles. The Alang and Paravalia Rivers, three artificial ponds, two check dams and nearby coastal marshes provide an ideal habitat for aquatic flora and fauna. From a conservation viewpoint, a unique feature of the park is that it is the only tropical grassland in India to be given the status of a national park. This used to be the private grasslands of the Maharaja of Bhavnagar before it was converted into a National Park.
Serious Birders head here for rare sightings of the Lesser Florican, endangered vultures, Demoiselle cranes and a variety of Raptors. The park also hosts the world’s largest harrier roost.
We visited during the monsoons when the main park is closed (mid-June to mid-Oct), but we saw lots of black buck and birds and even a jungle cat on a general drive around the outside of the national park. It is a single lane road and the road behind the Velavadar village has massive craters, so you need a vehicle with higher clearance (like one you could use inside the Park) to make this drive.
As long as you don't have any noisy families visiting at the same time as you, this is the most peaceful resort that you can visit in the State. The cottages are spaced out more like an African (think Kenya / South Africa / Tanzania Safari Resorts) Resort than a Kutchi / Gujarati one. It spreads across acres and acres, with no boundary wall in sight, just rolling swathes of green and blue. The chirping of birds is brilliant background music to this visual relaxation.
They have a fantastic in house library (small, but with plenty of books on wildlife and lots of different magazines if you prefer) at the reception and the sit out here overlooks a beautiful lake, that makes it the perfect spot to cosy up with a book or just sit and contemplate the glorious silence. (that is until a noisy family comes along loudly debating on whether to make their accompanying maids carry their own food or let them eat at the restaurant or some other such BP inducing topics)
The rooms at The Black Buck Lodge are beautiful, wide open and spacious. Each cottage has a little open shower area behind the bathroom that is walled, but open to the sky, we had a tree in our open shower area, that often had birds in it.
The bathtub / shower area inside the bathroom is brilliant. I hate having a shower inside the bathtub, because the tubs are normally curved and small and you keep struggling for balance, but at this resort, they are large and spacious, so it was perfect. (unless you have someone in your group that has a problem climbing up a high stair.)
There are beautiful sit outs all over the resort (including outside the cottage) that are perfect for settling in with a good book. The planters chairs are also ideal for taking a post lunch siesta (weather permitting)
I loved their themed accessories - the cutlery, the bed sheets, the lamps etc. Everything has been very tastefully put together without going over the top. We loved everything about this resort except for a couple of other guests who were obnoxious without even realising it (one maid inside the 20 seater dining room insisted that her 5 year old charge sing ring-a ring-a roses 45 times in a row and he proceeded to do so at the top of his little high pitched voice, a grandfather sat on a seat a foot away from the lake, plopped his just-learnt-to-crawl grandson on the ground and we were subjected to half an hour of "no's" at various volumes and pitches - Vin Diesel could have learned from this grandpa)
This is however my favourite resort in Gujarat and I hope we get a chance to go back and visit inside the park.
You have to take the all inclusive plan as there is no other place nearby to visit for lunch or dinner, unless you plan to visit Bhavnagar for the day. But the food at every buffet was very good (you just have to adjust salt and chillies to your taste - they are served on the side). The non-veg is excellent and quality is high. Since they cater to just the small number of in-house guests (and the occasional lunch crowd), food sometimes gets cold (if you go late etc) but the service is very helpful.
The buffet includes salads, a fairly large vegetarian spread, a non veg dish (chicken / mutton) and a dessert. We had some awesome mutton kurma, mutton Rogan Josh, kofta curries and guab jamuns. Definitely don't miss the amazing pista colored gur which is made in the village nearby. It’s worth waiting to arrive here for your meal.
However, if you feel peckish along the way, the most popular stop is the recently opened Gallops that serves better than average highway food (for Gujarat), although most of the options are deep fried. The complex has a restaurant upstairs, an eatery downstairs, a couple of outlets outside selling chikkis, paan, channachor and frenchfries. CCD and Havmor are due to open shortly.
The Gallops kitchen isn't very clean or inspiring, so we much prefer driving a little further to Pipali and eating at Darshan Hotel which serves the most awesome dhal we have ever eaten on Gujarat's Highway's. Just order that with some hot rotlas and whatever veg side dish that the servers recommend and you and just trust them blindly, you can’t go wrong.
Whether you head here just for a day’s outing or for a long weekend, enjoy the park responsibly, do not harm or frighten the wildlife, avoid loud obnoxious behaviour and respect Mother Nature.
Disclaimer : every story/rant mentioned here is completely true.
5 Point checklist before a long drive.
1. Fuel (The obvious full tank)
2. Air in tyres (including stepney)
3. Tool Box & Jack (you never know)
4. Papers - RC, PUC, Insurance, Licence (right side of the law)
5. Map Route - Paper or Virtual (while getting lost has its own charm)
A shorter version of this trip appeared in The DNA on 5 October 2014
You can read the shortened version here.
+Edited.jpg)
+Edited.jpg)
+Edited.jpg)
+Edited.jpg)
