Lothal, Site of Indus Valley Civilization in India

On our way from Ahmedabad to Velavadar, we decided to stop at two places. First at Nal Sarovar (pronounced as Nar Sarovar) then at Lothal. Both these places would actually fall on your way and you just need to take a small detour.

  Now you must be wondering why Lothal?

Walls

  Well, when I was in school, just like everyone else, I too had studied about the Indus Valley civilization and wondered how much advanced men were at that part of the world; so much advanced that they built houses with brick walls where all houses had proper sanitation, had a port, a large granary, wells... all these at around 2400 BC!

  Until I started my research on Gujarat, I always had thought that the Indus valley Civilization was only in Mohenhjaro and Harappa, both of which are now in Pakistan post partition. And to my amazement, I came to know that the Indus Valley civilization is scattered all over Gujarat as well, out of which Lothal is one such settlement.

Dock

Drainage system

Part of brick wall

  Since there are no guides to take you around in Lothal, it is best that you first visit the archaeological museum and get an idea of the place. The archaeological museum is just next to the protected site. The museum is closed on Fridays. You can refer this link for the museum, in case you need more information http://asi.nic.in/asi_museums_lothal.asp

  We roamed in and around the ruins for about an hour. We saw the upper acropolis, lower acropolis, cemetery, bead factory, a dock, warehouse and old wells. Though everything is now in ruins, you can still make out how magnificent it was when the civilization was alive.

Upper Acropolis

Lower Acropolis

Lower Acropolis

  Since my knowledge of history is limiting, you can have a look at the link below. It is really a good article on Lothal: http://www.harappa.com/lothal/text.html

  While exiting the place, two very nice grandpa's befriended us :) They were locals and on seeing our cameras, they asked us to take their photos. They were very happy to know that tourists from far flung places came to see Lothal, which is now their home.

Grandpas

  Next we hit the highways, our destination... Velavadar.

keywords: lothal, travel, gujarat, harappa, mohenjodaro, travel

Nal Sarovar, birding paradise close to Ahmedabad

Our next destination from Ahmedabad was to Velavadar. As you may know, Velavadar is famous for black bucks; and we had planned to see these beautiful creatures for a long long time.

  However before reaching Velavadar, there were two places for us to cover as both the places fall on the way to Velavadar.

1. Nal Sarovar
2. Lothal

  Nal Sarovar is famous for its birds and Lothal is one of the sites of the famous Indus Valley Civilization.

  Since both me and Ankur are photographers and naturalists, so a visit to Nal Sarovar was well pre-planned. The best time to visit Nal Sarovar is from November to February when the migratory birds arrive. And similar to any wildlife sanctuary, the best time for bird spotting is early morning.

 Nal Sarovar is roughly 65 km from Ahmedabad and the best way to reach there is by hiring a cab. We had booked a cab for 4 days which would take us to Velavadar, Gir and back to Ahmedabad. We started early at 6 AM in order to reach Nal Sarovar at sunrise. The condition of the road is good and we drove past a few villages as we were to enter Nal Sarovar.

Greater Flamingo

  We saw several painted storks, cranes, herons on either side of the road when we were still about 1 km away from the sanctuary gate. We also saw flocks of flamingos flying past the village.

On reaching the sanctuary gate, you are no longer allowed to take your car inside. We brought entry tickets and then got up on a shuttle taxi that took us inside the sanctuary. The shuttle taxi driver told us that we need to wait till the taxi is full or else if we pay 100 bucks he would not wait for passengers and start immediately.

  Since our only aim was to see the flamingos, we opted for the latter option. Waiting for the shuttle taxi to get full would mean delay for us and less chances of flamingo spotting. So instead of the regular Rs 10 fare we gave the driver 100 bucks.

Lesser Flamingo

Flock of Lesser Flamingo, about to land.

  Once inside, we had to take private boats that would take us inside the lake from where the birds could be seen. We were approached by brokers who initially quoted us Rs 6500.

  Both of us were like WHAT(???) 6500 for boat ride? We told them that we had come to see just flamingos and nothing else. We are not interested in any leisure trip or view points. After sometime of haggling, the price was brought down to 1500.

Lapwing

Gull

Gull

Kingfisher

We got onto a boat. There was one boatman and a guide. The lake is shallow and about 4 feet deep. The boatman took us to a secluded place after rowing past places that were filled with tall grasses. And what we saw, we were mesmerized....... hundreds of flamingos were in front of us. There were both greater and lesser ones, all busy in feeding. We had to maintain a minimum distance of roughly 50 mtr from them so that they didn't fly away. We got some of our best flamingo shots.

Into The Wild

The Boatman

Flying Flamingo

Lesser Flamingo

Flock of flying Greater Flamingo

Flock of Flamingos, just before landing

 Once we reached the disembarking place we gave a little token to the boatman; and how happy they were...!
  They are poor people and do not get much money from the brokers so a little token brings a lot of smile on their faces.

Contended with great sightings and photographs we headed for Lothal.


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