Little Rann Safari

Well - we skirted around (and around and around) the edge of the Little Rann of Kachchh in jeep going very fast with a driver who didn't seem terribly intent on finding local wildlife .... we did get a flat tyre and we didn't find any nilgai (blue bull), chinkara, hyenas, wolves or Indian bustards of any size - but we did see a group of beautiful Asiatic ass busily helping themselves to a snack of non-indigenous cotton (much to growers annoyance.)  There are only around 4,000 of them left I think I heard.  We did pass a camel cart going about its daily business, people stooking up corn (or sugar cane?) sheaves - and we did get to visit a remote Rabari community of dairy farmers - a different form of Rabari than those met previously, and very much off the beaten track.

It was milking time when we arrived, around sunset.  Everyone wanted their picture taken.  The process is still magic to them.  Their homes seemed very simple from the outside - not much more than tents with brush fences but a big truck was parked in one of the yards.

One of the things that we thought was magic was what happened after the milking.  Everyone took their milk down to a little corrugated iron shed.  It was Leslie who noted that the corrugated iron shed had solar panels - and then she was intrigued when one of the men showed her the printed receipt he had just been given for his milk delivery.  It included the quantity and price - but there also seemed to be other very professional testing going on by a striking tall tanned man dressed in his centuries old herder's costume, complete with some spectacular gold earrings.

Somewhere along the way we picked up some of the villagers and gave them a lift - and a lot of laughter was had by all as we hung on over the rough and barely visible tracks over the dried out salt marsh.

All in all, wildlife or no wildlife, Leslie and I judged it to be a pretty good adventure.