1 Salt Desert is awesome. Light from 5 to 7 pm and 7 to 8.30 am when I visited in February 2018 are lovely. Everyone I saw was smiling and happy. That is what Salt Desert does to you. Person playing dholak and lady dancing. Looks like she is standing in snow.
2 Bhuj to Dhordo is 81 kms. From Dhordo drive another 5 odd kms to reach Salt Desert. It is an oasis of salt. Structure in centre is Viewing Point. Saw people of all ages. Rann Utsav is held at Dhordo.
3 During season i.e. Nov to Feb end the BSF, who guard the area, perform a nearly one hour skit on Saturday and Sunday. Was lucky to be there on Saturday. This is the starting. Very enjoyable. It is called the CAMEL TATOO Show.
4 View from one corner. Camels that you see bring you from the BSF check post to viewing point. You can come by car too but need BSF permission.
5 Pic about 6. Lovely light. Wish had gone at 5 pm and at noon too to see how the colour changes during the day. We left Bhuj at 7.30am, stopped at a few villages Nironha etc to reach desert by 6 pm.
6 Album has pics of BSF performance and salt desert. Here camels on both sides run in between gap created by two camels coming from the other side. During summers temperatures could cross 45 degrees in Rann of Kutch and accompanied by sand storms.
7 This is how the salt looks in the morning. We are showing evening pics first, morning pic just to give you a quick view.
8 Close to sunset. Saw lots of couples walk hand in hand. Their young son kept on running towards his parents and the couple wanted to be alone. Evenings very romantic.
9 A BSF jawan going full speed. The performance has many parts to it. Note the terrain, it is all sand. Till the Tent City came here ten odd years ago few people came here or knew about it.
10 This couple preferred to be with their son. Tourists play cricket, some go for long walks, other sit around. Salt Desert makes people happy. Visit Salt Desert during full moon night super.
11. People sit as if it were a beach. Bus brings tourists from the tent city to this point. “The low-lying mudflats of the White Rann fill with water during the wet season (June-September) and then dry out over the rest of the year. By December, once evaporation has done its work, the saline crust hardens to form the signature luminous white colour. By January, the marsh is an unending white desert.”
12 Early morning view of structure. Locals said few wanted to design this complex structure. View from top is awesome. You can stay in Tent City, White Rann Resort and numerous hotels in Dhordo and Hodka. Thanks to Rann Utsav there are hotel resorts and hotel resorts.
13 Tourists of all age groups. This group of girls was having a ball. Tent City has a huge shopping area where you get local handicrafts and cuisine.
14 View of salt desert. From Dhordo do an early morning or evening trip to Kala Dunger (about 1 hour away) for sunrise or sunset?
15 BSF Jawan does a salute to the audience.
16 . Sunset. Locals said sunset colours are much better than what you see. I enjoyed what I saw.
17 Not easy to do this when camel is BSF. Be it here or in Jaisalmer Desert Festival BSF do wonders with camels. With roads being constructed just about everywhere need for camels might have gone down. Try having camel milk ka ice-cream, super. Had in Bikaner.
18 Early morning. Taken from viewing point. Salt Desert beings romance in the air.
19 Road brings you from the BSF check post to this parking lot. Took pic before sunrise. Wish had taken about 8 am when the sky becomes clearer.
20 It was really cold in the morning in mid-February. Was told it is colder in Dec Jan.
21 Salt desert is a great place to walk and relax.
22 BSF jawan at his best. In Kutch make Bhuj your base. Hotels in Bhuj. I stayed at Swagat. Nice, clean, functional with excellent location Rs 750/ per day non a/c. Call Chintan B 91 81414 74999. Others Hotel Raj Mahal Rs 1200/. Call 02832 223000, Navkar Residency Rs 1700/ for a/c room. These rates were in February 2018.
23 Morning pic – what would life be without a smartphone. Young lady is capturing happy memories.
24 Sunrise. Am told it is spectacular, guess I have to visit again to see that.
25 Pic about 8 am. Not a soul there, tourists leave by 7.30 am. Love the sunlight. This is car driver cum owner Meet Bhai. Super service. Could never have seen all that I did without him. For a senior & super Kutch guide call Pramod Jethi 91 93742 35379. For car hire call Narendra Bhai 91 9925440072 or Meet Bhai 91 88661 94748 or 87803 77140.
26 Early morning pic.
27 Pic taken by Meet. He clicks quite well. Thanks Meet for making trip a success. When we visited villages he was my interpreter when ladies did not understand Hindi. At times we left at 6 am and reached by 8 pm never complained once.
28 Tent City has superb tents, catering to various price points. This is one of them. Tent City needs an amusement park for children, can be promoted as a corporate conference destination between November-February.
29 Outside Tent City on left is a place i.e. managed by the village panchayat. “Each room is a stand-alone bhunga, the traditional Kutchi mud hut with thatched roof and decorative hand-painted motifs. Everything here is a shade of brown—the land, the huts, the thatch. These paintings jump out at you with their bright reds, greens, blues and whites. Most bhungas have inlaid glasswork on the walls or within the paintings”. Their site is http://www.kutchrannresort.com/
30 Besides tent city is the White Rann Resort. Both these were built by the Gujarat government and then given out to private parties to manage. For some nice and different type of pictures from what you saw http://sandeepachetan.com/visit-white-rann-kutch-gujarat/
31 The Rann of Kutch is secure because the Border Security Force is at the border. This album is a tribute to them. To read a good article on Salt Farmers of Rann of Kutch https://www.thebetterindia.com/73603/agariyas-salt-farmers-rann-of-kutch/