A Short and Sweet Journey through the Gir Forest

           A chilling breeze through the tinny gaps of the closed window wakes me up, a look at the watch indicates the right time i am supposed to wake. We enter into a place unknown to 3 ( Rohit, Nikhil and me ) of us just 2 weeks back. A look around indicates no sign of what we came for. A quick chat helps us to identify the sole purpose of this visit, the Metre gauge ( MG ). By the way the time was 4:45 am, we decided to head to waiting hall as we came through a reservation but it soon changed after visiting one, crowded and dirty restrooms. With still had around 2 hours left for our metre gauge journey it was then decided that we explore the MG side of ( well here you go, the station name ) Junagadh. 

On inspection we found 2 trains on the MG side with locos to both of them. It was quite dark and soon we returned back to the Broad gauge ( BG ) side after a small shoot.  The next 1 hour was spent chatting. Time was 6 and we headed straight out to explore the place, first surprise was seeing old bikes converted into a local transportation vehicles. Sadar Patel Darwaja was right in front of the station and it looked like an entrance to some place. We just had a close look the structure and returned back to the station to select our seats. 

 

 

The morning rays were getting powerful and activities started one by one. A guy feeding the pigeons, sweeper sweeping the station, hot chai’s and a whole lot of activities. We then decided to board the train to cement our authority on the seats for the next 4 hours. SBI YDM4 #6301 was our power and the coach was a 91 made one. It was almost time for departure and the crowd started building up. A small honk indicated an arrival of a train, it was a train on the BG side.

We depart exactly at 7:15 am, the trains slows crawls out of the narrow path ahead. The houses and roads are so nearby indicating a lot of difficulties for the railways when then plan to convert this section. We go along the Girnar hill for some distance. Seeing our camera at work, localities get friendlier and it results in us getting some information and the request for clicking their pictures. This is a special moment that one generally gets while traveling in a train through rural section of India. There are few stops which do not feature in the time table and in the process we miss identifying the first official stop. 

 

The landscape looked beautiful till we reached Bilkha. A lone coach was found here mostly abandoned for ever. The landscape started becoming dry after Bilkha and we soon arrived at a Junction by the name Visavadar. It was almost 10 minutes after we stopped and there was no sign of us moving, it in turn indicated a crossing which was not there in our records. On having a chat with the LP conformed a train arrival but from the direction we least expected. We also got to know that the trains on these routes are planned in  such a way that they act as connecting trains for the locals. I then decide to roam the station and a surprise, remains of a turntable. As i inspect the turntable the other train to Junagadh arrives silently from Khijadya. The loco undergoes reversal here for taking the train to Junagadh. In the meantime, our path gets cleared and we start off inching closer to the Gir forest. Our next major halt was Satadhar where a decent crowd boarded in. I sensed a burning smell as soon as a beautiful girl sat next to me, obviously the smell was due to my friends sitting opposite to me ( Hope you all got that :D )

It was a beautiful run after that with the density of trees increasing indicting the entry to us into Gir forest. Our eyes were curiously waiting to see lions as this area are famous for. We were not lucky enough to spot lions but we did see trails left by them, a deer, few peacocks / peahens and lot of monkeys.

We then arrived at Sasan gir, the station inside the forest. The station is known to have Lions as visitors and the railway staffs working here have to hide whenever a group of lions come around. We depart after a quick halt and move out of the thick forest area. Arrived at Chitravad, a quiet little halt station where people were selling a fruit ( not sure ) by name jamun ( can someone identify it ). The last departure for us on this train and soon Talala is reached where we get down..

 

 

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To be continued!!

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