This time we planned to visit the Great Rann in Kutch district of Gujarat. The words of Amitabh Bachchan ‘Kutch nahin dekha to kuuch nahin dekha’ compelled us to visit this place.  Another reason was to see the flamingo birds, ‘Surkhab’ in local tongue.

Kutch is the largest district of India and is famous for Great Rann (marshy salt flats which become snow white after the water dries up), embroidery, block painting, bandhani (tie and die), mirror and other such works.

Bhuj is the central point to visit various places in Kutch. 

We boarded the Ahmadabad Rajdhani Express on 18.12.2015 at 7.55 pm.  The train was scheduled to reach Ahmadabad Junction at 9.40 am the next day but it was late by more than an hour and we got down at 11.15 am.  Initially we had planned to catch the 10.30 am bus to reach Bhuj.  But as we were late we could take 12.30 bus.  It was our first experience in the sleeper seat of any bus, which we enjoyed as is enjoyed any first experience, but for its delay.  The bus that normally starts at 12.30 pm actually started at 1.15 pm and thus reached Bhuj at 8.15 pm instead of scheduled time of 7 pm.

A friend, Shri Ovhal was there to welcome us.  We took Gujarati Thali as dinner at Hotel Prince and proceeded for JNV Bhuj, Dumra which was further two hour journey.

20.12.2015

On this day we visited Koteshwar, Narayan Sarovar, Mata na Madh, Vijay Vilas Palace in Mandavi and Mandvi Beach.  We enjoyed a lot at Mandavi Beach.

In between we had our lunch of Prasad at Koteshwar Temple, iIn which Dal, Chawal and Poori Subzi along-with Halwa is offered free of cost.  One can however give

donation at the counter.  In Kutch we saw this ritual at many religious places.

Koteshwar Mahadev Temple - The very ancient Koteshwar Mahadev Temple is at the dead end of the land mass beyond which is the vast salt marsh on the right and the rest surrounded by water, mockingly merging the man made boundaries. It is believed that Ravana was blessed by Lord Shiva and wasgifted the miraculous Lingam with

a boon of immortality subject to the condition that the lingam shall not be dropped on the way. The other gods, fearing supremacy of Ravana played foul by creating coerced dropping. Once put down, the lingam dispersed in many different lingas (Koti Koti). Out of illusion Ravana picked the imitated one, thus leaving the original at Koteshwar. Ever since, the Lingam is worshipped as Koteshwar Mahadev.

Koteshwar gives the feeling of Kanyakumari which is the extreme end of South and Koteshwar is the extreme end of west.

Narayan Sarovar - The temple houses innumerable deities but the main shrine is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Mythology says Narayana, another name of Vishnu has created the lake while his stay there.

Narayan Sarovar has the same significance as has Pushkar in Rajasthan has.  People take bath in the Sarovar before performing ‘Pitri tarpan’.

Mata na Madh - It is a place where temple of great Ashapura ma is situated. Kutchi people have deep belief in this.  In Navratri

festival many people of Gujarat and nearby areas come here on foot in reverence to the Devi.

Vijay Vilas Palace - The Vijay Vilas Palace is an impressive 450-acre palace estate at Mandvi where the Maharaja of Kutch spent summer in the 1940s. The imposing palace is built in an Indo-European style with exquisite stonework.

21.12.2015

This day, we visited Great Rann and Kala Dungar.  While returning back we saw beautiful Flemingos.

The Great Rann - The Great Rann of Kutch lies to the north of the Tropic of Cancer, at the top of the Kutch district. It can be best approached via Bhuj.  Dhordo, approximately 86 kilometers from Bhuj, is being developed by the Gujarat government as the Gateway to the Rann. Dhordo is on the edge of the salt desert. The Great Rann is also called white rann because of its colour. 

The white Rann basically is a long area of dried (marshy) salt due to weather condition of that area.  One can walk on this white salt desert.  It is said that it looks most beautiful on full moon night.  But we couldn’t do so because on that day, entry for the general public ‘Common Man’ was allowed during the day only due to some DG conference in that area.

Kala Dungar – Kala Dungar or Black Hill is the highest point of Kutch. Since this is one

of the places where a civilian can get closest to the Pakistan border, there is an Army post at the top, beyond which, only military personnel are allowed. The hill is also the site of a 400-year-old temple of Dattatreya, the three-headed incarnation of Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva in the same body. Legend says that when Dattatreya walked on the earth, he stopped at the Black Hills and found a band of starving jackals. Being a god, he offered them his body to eat and as they ate, his body

continually regenerated itself. Because of this, for the last four centuries, the priest at the temple prepares a batch of prasad that is fed to the jackals after the evening Aarti.  Surrounding view from this place was awesome.  We pleased our eyes with the beauty of the area.  From there, we were also able to see Indian Bridge.

22.12.2015

On this day, we visited ‘Pakshi Abhyaharnya’, Mundra Port and Mandvi Beach.

We could not see any significant bird in ‘Abhyaharnya’.  But the sunrise was awesome.

Mundra Port - Mundra Port, located in the Kutch district of Gujarat state is the largest private port of India.  It acts as a gateway for north-western India.  It also has a rail line.

In the evening the sunset at Mandvi Beach was equally awesome, as was the sunrise in the morning.

23.12.2015

This day was mostly for travel, first from JNV to Bhuj, then from Bhuj to Ahmadabad and lastly from Ahmadabad to Delhi. The first was a pleasant journey and we reached Bhuj one hour ahead of the scheduled time of our train from Bhuj.  While celebrating this early arrival during our breakfast in the same hotel in which we took our dinner on the 19^th, we forgot that the time was running out.  We ran and gasped to catch the train which we would have missed by a few seconds.  All is well that ends well but in the process we undertook a part of our journey in an unreserved compartment while having a 3AC ticket.  The train reached Ahmadabad in time.  The Ahmadabad Delhi Rajdhani also was in time at Delhi next morning.