First day at Rann Utsav, The Great Rann of Kutch

The most anticipated leg of my sabbatical trip had finally arrived. We were arriving in kutch from Bhuj for a 3-day stay at Rann Utsav. Rann Utsav is a festival of celebrating the culture of Kutch. It is organised every year for 3 months, from November to February. The dates vary from year to year which can be checked from any official travel partner, like this one. The packages are diversified well enough to suit everyone. They have 1N/2D, 2N/3D and 3N/4D packages. The packages are further divided into different room types. All the rooms are tent style. The cheapest room is  "economy swiss cottage" and the most expensive is "Premium tents".

Posing near the main gate

The next two days at Rann Utsav, The Great Rann of Kutch

The first day at Rann Utsav was exciting and eventful. The second day also had packed schedule under its sleeves. The day started with morning tea at 5:30. The guests are then taken to the White Rann for watching the sunrise. There's no camel cart ride as the distance to the sunrise point is more than the distance it was to the sunset point. We took our seats on the bus. It was a short 10 min ride to the point from where we had to walk around 200 meters. One can take camel carts or individual camel ride from here till the vantage point. We decided to walk so that we could stop wherever we want and click photographs. It was cloudy over the horizon and looked like we would not be able to watch the sunrise. The sky showed vibrant colours though as the sun was rising behind it.

First rays of the sun over the horizon

A day well spent in Bhuj before proceeding to Rann Festival, Kutch

After spending a good time near Dwarka temple, we continued our journey to Bhuj. We had to stay there for 1 night and leave for kutch the next day as it's only 80 km from Bhuj. Google maps showed us a straight route to Bhuj via Jamnagar through NH 947 and then continue on NH 27 till Bhuj. The road was crowded with trucks and other commercial vehicles till we took a turn towards NH 947. I must have driven for around 15-20 minutes when we realized the road was absolutely deserted. We were probably the only ones on the road within at least a radius of 3 KM.  After about 15 km, the road condition had worsened and there was a point when I could not find out the straight path on the road as it was filled with huge pile of sand and the area was surrounded by water.

The alley leading to Dwarkadheesh temple