Gujarat - Kutch and North Part of Gujarat

Good Day Friends, this is another great time I had while traveling in Gujarat all by road with two of my friends and here I am putting up details of this travel with pictures.

It was Friday evening and a sudden decision to leave for Kutch, in the state of Gujarat, for me and two of my friends, I was all excited as I love driving and we were going by car driving for about five days, visiting different places such as Narayan Sarovar, Koteshwar, Devpur, Bhuj, Bhadreshwar, Ambaji covering about 2400 k.ms in those five days and reach back to Mumbai.

One of the friends had annual family prayer meeting near Narayn Sarovar, at Village Kuryani, so first night a straight travel of about 1050kms from Mumbai to Narayan Sarovar starting on Friday night at night around ten and reached about three in the afternoon of Saturday. A night halt in the community center named as Valram Vishramdham and on that remaining day went further walking of about ten to fifteen minutes for distance of two

or three kilometers is the temple of Lord Shiva the Koteshwar Mahadev Temple, the western most part of India on the sea shore, which is also a land border to India, it is said that the glow of lights from Pakistan are seen across the sea from this Koteshwar in India.

Had a restful evening and a lovely kutchi dinner of Roti made of Bajra, khichdi, kadhi and potato vegetable with buttermilk. Next day morning visited the temple at Narayan Sarovar of Lord Narayan the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the Lake Narayan Sarovar, later on left for Village Kuryani, for one of the friend to attend the prayer meeting and had lunch there by all of us. From Kuryani on the way to Bhuj, we took a stop at Mata No Madh, a temple dedicated to Godess Ashapura, very famous temple in Kutch, lots of pilgrims’ visit this temple throughout the year and the special prayers are held during the Navratri festival. From here on the way to Devpur, we crosses Tropic of Cancer.

 After this visit, we as per the plan took a stop at Devpur, a very small village where we met Mr. Krutarthsinh Jadeja, the descendent of the king of the village at his Darbargarh, his father has started a School named White Eagle School and there are about Two Hundred children studying there in English Medium of study of Central Board and at present about ten students as resident in the premises too along with some of the teachers.

Mr. KrutarthSinh Jadeja is managing a Home Stay with four rooms for tourists giving them personalized services and suggesting tour around the place as he is having very good information about Kutch District so, it was an idea to take a night halt there and meet him with lots of time to talk and planning to arrange the tours in Kutch for tourist with his help and promote the Tourism in Gujarat from our side too. With this idea, he was happy to help and accepted to assist me with the clients as well as managing the tour itineraries. It was a pleasure to have dinner with him and he also joined us for the breakfast in the morning. Mr. Krutarthsinh Jadeja also suggested us that we should continue our journey to Ambaji along with a stop of night at Danta Village which is about twenty k.ms before Ambaji and similar home stay is run by the descendants of the earlier King. We were lucky to be accepted by them in Danta.

When we left from Devpur, I was happy to get support from Kritarthsinh Jadeja and hopefully we will continue our growth with each other’s help. Further we proceeded to Desalpur village on the way from Devpur to Bhuj and bought the specialty of that village, the Indian sweet called Penda made purely out of milk and sugar. Further in Bhuj, I took a Sighadi, an earlier time’s cooking instrument by using coal, and some salty snacks called pakwan, all of us were interesting in buying few more things but time was restricted and we could purchase only Masala of another snacks item called Dabeli.

Further we went to Bhadreshwar to see some plots for investment and from there proceeded to Danta Village via Palanpur. Again from Devpur to Danta via Bhadreshwar and Gandhidham was about 500 k.ms covered with  all stops at Desalpur, Bhuj, Bhadreshwar, Gandhidham, reached in about eleven hours from morning 9.30 am till evening 8.30 pm, at 8.45 pm we were received by Maharani sahiba Chandrakumariji at Bhavangadh, now called as Bhawani Villa for our night halt.

We had a lovely conversation with herself and her husband during dinner and after dinner in their sitting area way to which is decorated with the stuffed animal heads being hanged on the corridor and nicely decorated sitting room with antiques of earlier time, oh and they have about 6 different breeds of dogs raised as pet from lovely small ones till fierce huge size like Alsatian and bulldog and also have few birds like hens, ducks and turkey too. Oh, and did I mention they have a Farm house and Horse stable also, so riding is another things to add up in the itinerary if interested while stay in Danta besides visiting different interesting places.

On Tuesday morning, we left from Danta Village with hope of better tourism year in Gujarat for us, we proceeded to Ambaji and had Darshan at the Temple where Amitabh Bacchan has been shot for Gujarat Tourism’s Advertisement and giving the punch line of “Breath a bit of Gujarat”. From there we went in Udan khatola (Ropeway) to reach the original shaktipith of Maa Amba (Godess Ambaji) on the hill top and thus completed the wish of another friend to see these temples. After the darshan, we went for the breakfast.

After darshan and satisfied with the breakfast proceeded to another village Khedbhamha, having temples of Ambaji mata as well as Lord Bramha. This is a good place to do some shopping of vegetable products like green garlic, dried garlic and ginger too, more of some fresh vegetables also available there. Further down is the town called Idar. As its in the way to reach the main highway road, we always pass through the town, but have never took stop there, but this is also one of the historical place to be visited. Then coming down to the Himmatnagar by pass to reach Ahmedabad and from here it is about 500 k.ms of run towards Mumbai, it was about 4pm already when we were to reach Ahmedabad. From here, it was a nonstop run to Mumbai with halt to freshen up and for dinner at restaurant next to highway. Finally the arrival at Mumbai was around 12.30 am. Thus it took about eight hours to cover up the whole run of 500 k.ms along with the halt for dinner. The Journey ends having good time with friends, work and pleasure on the way and hoping you also would enjoy reading my experience.