Finally, I am going to write about my most exciting road trip. This one continues my blog "On the roads of Meghalaya". You can read that here:
We started for Kaziranga from Cherrapunji by car. It is approximately 231 Km. It was a long road trip. We started in the morning around 9 AM. Roads were smooth, surrounded by lush green hills. The weather was super cool. It is the same route I mentioned in my previous blog Guwahati to Shillong. We stopped at "Jive pure veg restaurant for lunch". This time I saw a painting of a lady there. I didn't know why but I felt some positive vibes by seeing that. I just wanted to sit there and look at that painting. So I clicked the picture of that. Here it is:
We crossed Guwahati around 1 PM. After Guwahati, the hill area ended, and the plains were started. Now we were moving towards the Kaziranga via NH27. This route was completely different from the route we experienced in Meghalaya. Now the roads were broader till the Kaziranga entrance. Here we experienced the beauty of villages and farms. As we were moving towards the Kajiranga, the highway and its surrounding were becoming more beautiful, surrounded by mustard fields (Sarso ke khet). In India, especially in Bollywood Sarso ke khet are very important. Bollywood has symbolized them as the most suitable place to express love and romance, and for us also, Sarso ke khet gives full romantic vibes. I like them a lot; when spreading all over the field, it seems like some yellow velvet sheet is spreading all over the ground. They look so beautiful. We were moving at 80-90Km/hr on the National highway, surrounded by these beautiful Sarso ke khet. It was a beautiful and eye-soothing ride. Sun was setting, looking beautiful from the highway. I took lots of pictures of the sunset. It was fun. Here are few of them:
We were entering the Kaziranga region. It was getting dark. Approx 60Km before the Kaziranga National park, forest had started and there forest animals usually cross the roads and therefore this region had the speed limit. CCTV cameras were installed to capture the speed of vehicles. LED displays were also installed all over the route to display the speed of vehicle crossing the camera. At the start, it was fine, riding at a speed of 40km/hr. But as we moved closer, the speed limit was 20km/hr. By this time, it was dark, and nothing was visible in the surrounding, So there was no view when driving at night. I started getting bored, but no other option except sit in the car.
We reached our Hotel around 11 PM. After checked-in and freshening up, we all came out for dinner. We had dinner in a local Dhaba. The next day was the most exciting and important day for me. We were going for a jungle safari in Kaziranga National park.
Kaziranga National park is a protected area in the northeast Indian state of Assam. Spread across the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River, its forest, wetlands, and grasslands are home to tigers, elephants, and the world's largest population of Indian one-horned Rhinoceroses. Ganges River dolphins swim in the park's waters. It is visited by many rare migratory birds and grey pelicans roost near Kaziranga village.
We had booked two safaris in two different areas. The morning safari started around 7 AM. We had booked the western area for the morning safari and the central area for the afternoon safari. But our safari guide swapped both safaris. He told us he knew when and where the Rhinos could be spotted. Since This National park is famous for Rhinos and we were here to spot Rhinos, we believed him and followed his lead. So in the morning, we went to the central region, and the Safari started with many thrilling and lifetime experiences. We rented Binoculars, All thanks to my colleague. It was his idea to get the Binoculars. As we entered, we spotted an Elephant family crossing the mud road. Just after, we spotted a Rhino sitting in the dense greenery. Thanks to the Binoculars, we were able to look easily and clearly. At that moment, we were so happy that we finally got the chance to see Rhino because we didn't know what God had planned for us in the complete Safari, and believe me, God always plans best for us. I am saying this because as we moved ahead and went into the deep forest, the Safari became more exciting and interesting. After spotting the sitting Rhino, we moved ahead, and then Boom, there we experienced a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Two deer were playing and eating; we stopped there to see them, and then from the far dense forest, a rhino was coming down to the water pool. As he came out from the dense forest area into the open plain, He started running towards the water pool and a little jump into the water. We stopped there for approx 15-20 mins, enjoying the rhino bathing in the water. He came out, looked towards us, and then got lost in the dense forest again. What a beautiful lifetime moment it was. At that moment, my trip was already successful and satisfactory. I spotted Rhino; It is done. But as I said earlier, we don't know what life is gonna show us next. The same happened during our Safari, with new experiences and feelings at each step. In the central region, we spotted so many rare birds. Again Thanks to my colleague, Nikhil, I got to know all the bird names we spotted. He and his son had tremendous knowledge about the birds. Because of him, I was able to enjoy this bird-watching Safari. Again a very rare but beautiful experience I had. We spotted approximately 40 types of birds: below are the names:
Indian Roller/Blue Jay
Common Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Little Egret
Large/Great Egret
Pond Heron
Grey Heron
Little Cormorant
Large Cormorant
Darter
Sandpipers
Bronze-winged Jacana
White-breasted waterhen
Ruddy Shelduck
Spot-billed Duck
Bar-headed Goose
Alexandrine Parakeet
Scops Owl
Lesser Adjutant Stork
Black Necked Stork
White/Wooly Necked Stork
Open-Billed Stork
Common Myna
Whistling Duck
Greylag Goose
Dabchick/Little Grebe
Red Junglefowl
Black-headed Ibis
Eagle
Common Bulbul
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Red-wattled Lapwing
Dove
Long-tailed Shrike
Black Drongo
Red Rumped Swallow
Jungle Babbler
Jungle Myna
Asian Pied Starling
Common Stonechat
White Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
All these birds we spotted. My favourite was the "Darter". He was sitting on a pole in the lake, spreading all his wings wide to dry them. It was so beautiful sight. Next was the Jacana. That was so near that we could see it clearly without the Binoculars. A beautiful and amazing bird-watching experience I had.
We didn't click much pictures as we were busy in experiencing the vibes and surrounding. This Safari ended approx 10 AM, and we were damn hungry by then. Since our next Safari was around 1 PM, we decided not to return to the Hotel. We had some snacks there and went to the tea garden. There were many tea gardens, and we got confused about which one to visit. Since we had little time, we decided to go to the nearest tea garden. It was Hathikuli tea garden. It is India's largest integrated organic farm. The main purpose is to maintain the ecological balance of a biodiversity hot spot and prevent further environmental degradation in the area adjoining the World Heritage Site. This tea garden was started in 2007, and the process was completed by 2011. We spent approx 1 hr there, clicked lots of photos. It was a happy hour.
We reached the safari place for our next Safari to the western region. We had just started the Safari and spotted two Rhinos eating in the plain grassland. I noticed that there was always a white Heron beside the Rhino every time I spotted any Rhino. Here also, one Heron was accompanying these two Rhinos. This was just the starting. As we went ahead, We saw a large group of rhinos, all roaming in the large plain grassland near the small lake, eating and relaxing. We started counting them, but after 100, we stopped counting. Beautiful site it was. This area was more beautiful in terms of greenery and water lands. Every time we spotted Rhino, we felt like this was THE moment until we experienced the next. As we were moving towards the end of the Safari, we got the chance to witness the most beautiful moment. Two Rhinos were playing. Our guide told us that they were mother and child, and the mother was teaching the child life skills for living. I don't have words to express my feeling while watching them. They were running, attacking each other, then suddenly stood still like they were frozen. Again same, running, attacking, and then freezing. Here is a small recording:
It feels so amazing witnessing these natural moments of life. And here I say that This was THE MOMENT. On each trip, I try to find a moment that I want to call "Pause the moment". Here this was the moment to pause. We were very to the end, and just at the exit, We spotted an Elephant family playing in the lake. I like baby elephants a lot; this was the first time I saw a baby elephant. It was so cute. They were playing in the water; the baby completely drowned in the lake and lifted its trunk out of the water. I felt so lucky that I got the chance to experience so many lives and their beautiful experiences.
With this, our Safari day ended, and we returned to Hotel with big smiles on our faces and lots of happy moments in our hearts.
Our few group members decided to travel back to Guwahati at night. We four people decided to start the next morning since we were very tired. The next morning we started around 8 AM. The weather became a little foggy but pleasant. We were crossing The Kaziranga region, again at speeds of 40km/hr and 20km/hr. We spotted an elephant on the road and a Rhino just beside the road. The dense forest of Kaziranga surrounded the road. As we exited the Kaziranga region, open wide, spread plains started. There I observed the beauty of the village. Open wide farms, cows, buffalos, and goats are roaming there.
Houses were beautiful. They reminded me of my childhood drawings when I used to draw huts with triangle-pointed roofs. There all huts had this pointed roof. I thought of the reason for that because this is the area having heavy rainfall. So to maintain the water flow, they built pointed roofs. That's the only logic I could figure out. Again we were crossing the same National Highway, surrounded by mustard fields.
We reached Guwahati around 4 PM. Here we wanted to visit Kamakhya Devi Temple. We reached the temple around 5 PM. This is the place where Devi Sati used to retire in secret to satisfy her amour with Shiva. Also, It was where Her Yoni(Genitals, womb) fell after Shiva Tandav with the corpse of Sati.
We had our flight at 11 PM. We delivered our cars and reached Airport. Here our 10 days are ended with lots of memories and experiences. We landed in Pune late at night to get back to our daily routine life.