Salt Flats and Flamingos, India

24th Feb,2014

I'm on my yearly break from NYC financial markets visiting a small town in the southern Gujarat called Bhavnagar. If you Google the name you will come across a wiki page, a university link and some other useless links about Asias ship breaking yard and so on. This all sounds boring on a blog that in the past has discussed about beautiful hikes and Dalton highway.

I have always seen salt flats on the outskirts on Bhavnagar. If you are travelling by road during mid summer you will come across huge piles and piles of white snow like mountains. This is actually salt that has dried from the sea water that was trapped. These mountains of snowflakes gives a false impression to your eyes as in the mid summer a resident of saurashtra can confirm that the day time temp reaches 42 degrees Celsius very easily.

But today is a very pleasant evening. I take a ride with my aunt to these snow dunes where the water is yet not dried and my aunt, a photographer and a bird enthusiast herself, has confirmed a herd of Flamingos. Not more than 10 mins drive from the main city we reach these man made ponds. The first image that comes to ones mind is that of a Pink carpet floating on the water, these are actually flamingoes feasting. I have not seen these many in one place.

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