Gujarat Trip Report
Dear all
I went to LRK ( Little Runn of Kutch) & TBS (Thol bird sanctury) in Nov 2009 and here is trip report
We were group of 15 bird lovers and decided to visit above mentioned places. 15 guys from 8 cities made our travel plan difficult one but decided to meet in Ahmedabad on 16th morning. We all gathered in Ahmedabad at 7.20 am and headed towards Hotel to drop luggage and get freshen up . After breakfast , we picked up our packed food and enterd TBS. Mital Patel was waiting for us and he quickly guided us about locations. There were 3 photographers and 12 birdwatchers so getting along was bit a challange. So we decided to meet at watch tower point at 1400hrs for lunch . It was nice morning schedule for me , got few river terns in flight and got set of three frames in which river tern dives in water , cathes the fish and off water.
After lunch and after carring 600mm/f4 with D700 I decided to take a quick nap and meet again as bird watchers moved on . Afternoon session after 1600hrs to 1830hrs was not prodcutive. we came to hotel and lot of fun in evening
2nd day schedule was for half day and I got some beautiful images of red Munia and Black headed munia along with Saras cranes , comb ducks and Indian silverbills. In after noon we headed towards LRK , the Desert
in LRK shooting Wild A S S ( WA) was my dream. First morning we splitted ourself again in 3 vehicles, 2 for birdwatches and 1 for us. As we entered the park , very rare and shy wolf was playing in dry grass. I cursed myself as light was so low and even D700 at 2500 ISO was on knees. After sometime wolf noticed us and ran away. Morning mist allowed some gorgeous images of WA and we grab chance with both hands. It was around 8 am in morning and we were heading towards wetlands for pelicans , I saw two wagging tails in bush:p and I could not believe my eyes. There was a wolf pair :). Female was so shy and she immediately ran way. Male Wolf offered mr few secs to get down of vehicle and I got 5 neat images of wolf running. As Wolf show ended we all were dancing in joy. I was never excieted like this before. After shooting some birds we stopped for lunch and delicious Gujarati food in desert was something to enjoy. Afternoon was nice with wetland birds and we got few more images of WA in sunset. We cameback to camp and callled it a day.
Next day was last day in LRK and our target species was Desert fox. All day we searched for Desert fox but no luck. Lot of bird photograohy was done & I was quite happy. After sunset, we headed towards camp and to my surprise , there was Deset fox chasing hare , It was great experiance to see the drama.
Next morning we headed back to Ahmedabad and we all got dispersed to our own home towns
Few most important points to be noted for LRK trip
1) Pl carry enough packed drinkning water , you will need that for nearly everything as ground water is very salty. We used packed drinking water even for bathing. Ground water is pumped in LRK and used for getting salt
2) Though entry in park is free and you are allowed to take your vehicle , do take services of local person who knows LRK as back of his hand , 5000 sqkm of desert and great chances of loosing ways. While returning camp on day one , we were realy scared as guide was finding way with the help of North Star & compass
Few images form this trip are here
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All suggations and feedbacks are most welcome and much appreciated
BR
Harshad
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Originally Posted by denise ippolito
