The Blackbuck National Park is located at Velavadar in Bhavnagar district in the state of Gujarat and is one of a kind in India.
The park spread over 34 sq km is a mix of grass land, shrub land, saline plain and mud flats and is dedicated to the protection of endangered blackbucks.
Herds of blackbucks can be seen across the flat grassland. As per the guide, there were about 1700 blackbucks in and around the park.
Other wild animals like Indian Fox, Indian Grey Wolf, Striped Hyena, Nilgai (blue bull) also call it home.
The park is a good place to watch grassland birds like larks, bushchats, wheatears, sandgrouse, francolins and quails. The park is also known for its winter roost for harriers.
The park is open from 630 hrs to 1300 hrs and then from 1500 hrs to 1800 hrs. The park stays closed during the monsoon - June to October.
At the park you need to take a permit from the forest office at the gate, hire a guide and take your own vehicle in for the safari. The permit, guide and camera cost us Rs. 1000/- on a weekday and Rs. 1100/- on a weekend. The charges are per entry, so if you were doing the morning and evening safari, you're expected to take two permits.
Fortunately, the park isn't exactly a crowd puller, so things like safari jeeps, restaurants, hotels are absent. As per the guide, the forest dept. also keeps things tight by not allowing any of this.
Stay options are limited to The Blackbuck Lodge just outside the park and the rest house (a dormitory and a couple of cottages) run by the Forest Department. The Blackbuck Lodge is super expensive and the forest rest house is difficult to book.
Off the three nights we wanted bookings for, the rest house was available for one night only. When we checked with the Forest Dept. the previous day of our stay, we were told that our room was given to some other govt. official visiting the site!
So stay was organized at Bhavnagar which is about 50 km from the park - about an hour's drive. Bhavnagar has decent cost effective stay options plus the added advantage of some local sightseeing but the hustle bustle of a city.
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| Takhteshwar Temple, Bhavnagar |
The drive from Mumbai to Bhavnagar is about 630 km and takes about 12 hours. The NH48 up to Baroda is nice, though peppered with heavy vehicles that occupy all three lanes and takes about 7 hours. The Baroda - Anand section is fantastic and takes less than an hour. Anand - Velavadar takes about 3 hours on a patchy highway that is being expanded at places. Heavy traffic and cattle keep things slow on this section. Velavadar - Bhavnagar is an interesting one hour drive on a super two lane tarmac flanked by mud flats. Once inside Bhavnagar, traffic is messy in the narrow lanes.
Taking the RORO ferry from Dahej to Ghogha, Bhavnagar, across the Gulf of Cambay, came up as an option from a experience point of view. Though it meant getting out of Mumbai at 400 hrs to get to Dahej by 1100 hrs. The first ferry leaves Dahej at 1200 hrs and you need to report an hour earlier.
Since we weren't sure of our schedule, we hadn't booked the ferry ride in advance. Unfortunately, the ferry was running full that day and we had to settle for VVIP fee of Rs. 3,000/- (against a regular fare of about Rs. 1,700/-) for the two of us and the vehicle.
The ferry started half an hour late that day and took two hours to cross the murky brown waters of the Gulf of Cambay. The embarkation and disembarkation of cars, trucks and buses was handled pretty decently by the ferry crew.
On board, i think two hours is just about the time you can spend walking up and down the vessel, gazing at the horizon, catching a munch at the canteen and snoozing, before it starts getting boring.
Ghogha to Bhavnagr is a 45 minute drive on a patchy narrow two lane with a lot of two wheeler traffic.
Early next day, we got good sightings of blackbucks, nilgai, fox, wolf and hyena at the park.
The guide - Ramzan Khan was good and took us around the park and made sure that we were lined up properly with the light and gaps between the dry foliage from a photography perspective. Though for me it meant handing the camera with a long lens at the ready and taking quick tight turns at the wheel. The Thar's ground clearance and grunt helped.
In Bhavnagar, food at Rangoli and the gujrati thali at Rasoi was very nice. We also sampled some local food - fafda, khandvei and jalebi at the market.
Day two at the park was also decent. Saw a crested serpent eagle while heading to the park in the morning. Another visitor mentioned sighting a pack of four wolves near where the eagle was spotted.
From a photography perspective day two was better. I guess I was better prepared after reviewing the day one pictures and I think the light was better.
Post the safari on day two, we pushed off to Anand to reduce drive distance to Mumbai the next day.
Visited the Amul factory at Anand. Enjoyed the food at Amul Foodland just outside the factory and picked up a load of chocolates from the Amul store.
On the way back to Mumbai, stopped at Legend Hotel at Baroda for a Gujrati breakfast and chai and Hotel Ahura at Talasari for some Parsi Chicken Dhansak for lunch.
