6. Nature's potholes in Nighoj and more

A couple of years back thanks to our friend Prasad we saw this amazing place. The pictures were somehow eluding me all this time. Just found them in my maze of files and folders with vague shorthand labels. We had no idea what to expect and the prospect of seeing some more potholes (we see enough on the roads) was far from exciting. But trusting Prasad’s sense for the unusual and the photogenic we made this, a little out of the way, trip. (Detailed directions at the end of the post).

I was not too unhappy driving through the narrow village roads (Rajeev generally gives me the difficult stretches on one pretext or the other). As I was saying, I was not too unhappy because it gave me a chance to halt where ever I saw a bird. Sure enough I managed to see this painted stork sitting atop a tree and we ended up spending a good one hour taking pictures around this small stream which was almost dry at the time. 

painted storks

a heronry of egrets

white necked storks

painted storks in flight

bird feet marks on the wet earth

little egrets

One of the few wire-tailed swallows I have seen which has its 'wires' intact

a pair of ashy-crowned finch-larks (can it get any better!)

even this domestic hen looked cuter and happier

were these cloned!

 

After this unexpected windfall we drove on to our destination. For me the day was already made, having seen the painted and the white necked storks. When we reached Nighoj and Prasad said, “yes, this is the place” I could scarcely believe my eyes. The river had sculpted its rocky bed into this amazing work of art. The camera does not really capture the full panorama of what the eyes see, so here are bits and pieces of what I saw.

the only bit of shade I could find to squeeze into

bird sightings were the unexpected bonus on this trip, Common kingfisher

River Kukadi - The 'Artist' par excellence

the common kingfisher in a different pose

a little cormorant, looking lost, maybe injured

 Piyush, Prasad, Rajeev and me of course.In case you're wondering the camera on a tripod clicked this one.

But this was not all. Prasad wanted us to visit a place called Morachi Chincholi, a picnic spot with peacocks in the wild, on the way back. We found our way there but unfortunately it was closed that day because a bullock cart race was scheduled in front of it. But we really missed nothing because we saw the peacocks on the fields outside and saw an exciting bullock cart race to boot. What a day!

Morachi Chincholi - closed!

It was quite exciting, sorry not to provide a video, it was too crowded

These ran amok and nearly knocked us down

finally caught and subdued

National birdof India

How to reach :

We drove down Nagar Road towards Ranjangaon of the AshtVinayak fame (Mahaganpati). About 24km beyond Ranjangaon you will see a turning for Shirur village (you have to keep your eyes peeled); do not take the straight route to the Shirur village (we had to turn back) instead take the bypass going towards the right. Beyond Shirur we had to make a tricky almost a reverse turn after a bridge over the river Ghod (Ghodnadi). There after it is a fairly straight drive of about 20 km to Nighoj village. A left turn and a drive of about 3 km brought us to a rocky platform which evoked an excited “yes, this is the place” from our generally quiet friend.