Date:24/11/2014
Place:Nal Sarovar
Time: Morning 6:30 to Evening 4:30
Accompanied by: Journalism class and family
Since pre Diwali discussion was going on, we must go somewhere on one day picnic. Entire group was in mood to go but things were not getting materialized. Finally we all decided that we will plan only after Diwali vacation.
Again started discussing where to go, how go, when to go etc. This tour idea was basically of our senior Mr. Vishnubhai Pandya's and we were also interested so I started giving option like - Sughad, Anupan Mission, Sarkhej Roja etc. One of the option came Nal Sarovar and we all agreed to that as this is the season of birds to visit and it is right time to visit. So finally and collectively our destination was fixed now - Nal Sarovar.
Myself, Urvashiben, Mahulkar Sir, Majid Sheikh, Urvishbhai Gamit took responsibility to plan it on coming Sunday that is 23/11/2014.
On evening of 21st November, we 3-4 friends met at Gujarati Sahity Parishad. I was little late but others managed the meeting nicely. They called up all the friends and started confirming members. This was very much required as vehicle selection was depending on size of the group. I joined the meeting and made 2-3 calls to arrange the vehicle. By the times we come to know that no more than 10 people will be there in picnic. So we decided to go ahead with 20 seat vehicle. Luckily my daughter's school van person offered his bus at 15 Rs./kilometer rate and we all agreed to it as other options were quite costly.
To manage the group size considerably good we decided to go with family so our members ship number reached to 15. We agreed to start our journey early morning at 6:00 from Gujarati Sahity Parishad. Urvishbhai and Urvashiben took responsibility to call and inform everyone regarding timing and pick up point and I took responsibility to manage bus and payment.
The day came, we started our journey sharp at 6:45 from Ahmedabad to Nal Sarovar.
Early morning! fresh environment, snacks, family, children, songs and bus.........zoooooooooom we were on highway.
I saw happiness of making this tour possible on everyone's faces. We were discussing the last two days planning phase and enjoying the travelling simultaneously.
We reached Nal Sarovar at 8:20 am. Our bus was not allowed inside so we asked driver (Rameshbhai) to park it and decided to go in.
Now read this article not as only a tour description but also an article as lesson learned as well as what to do and what not to do at Nal Sarovar.
Entry fee is 60 Rs. which includes 25 Rs. fare and 35 Rs. maintenance charge.
Boating fee / person is 220 Rs. for two hours.
If you go without taking boating ticket in side the Nal Sarovar than later you can not get ticket from inside. You have to come out again (aprox. 2 Km) and again you have to pay 60 Rs. along with 220 Rs. for boating. I feel this is very wrong practice as it forces visitor to pay money without seeing the site.
Ok now if you have got the ticket then they will bring you inside in their vehicle only which is fine.
Immediately they will start pushing you to get on boat - CAUTION - if you are going first time to Nal Sarovar than make a note that food, museum, park and other sitting arrangements are on the bank of Nal Sarovar. These boatmen will try that you never know all these things are available here as they have something else in their mind.
Once you will get on boat, they will offer you that this boating is for two hours and if you want to see more birds you have to pay extra charge which is nothing but their trap. They will ask you to pay 100 Rs.extra per head just for one hour extra boating. Officially this is not allowed at Nal Sarovar so do not pay such money to them.
Secondly they will take you to the island which will take almost 45 minute approx. and in between they will start talking about food etc. Once you will reach their, they will arrange a meeting with their lady relative who is serving food there on island. As you are new to this place and you have no idea that food and other things are also available at Nal Sarovar they will force you to take lunch. They charge 125 Rs. per plate and food is ridiculous. So do not take lunch there. The entire boating is of two hours and 45 min. is one sided journey time so to and from is almost one and half hour. So just go on island roam around for half an hour and come back. That's all.
My suggestions would be if you really wish to enjoy Nal Sarovar than plan your tour in morning hours as we did. 9:00 to 12:00 is good time window. Enjoying boating without spending a single penny extra. Come back and enjoy food at Canteen. One small but good museum is also there. It gives lot of information about history of Nal Sarovar, how and from where birds travels, their route of travel, time of travel. They have also recorded real voice of some of the birds type. They give brief information about how they records sounds of birds etc.
So we enjoyed and experienced all these things and came out again in their vehicle to parking plot. There is a huge garden (not much maintained) which is good to enjoy snacks and good to play games etc. We also took rest, enjoyed snacks and discussed lot many things.
We were tired but still wanted to enjoy as much as we can.
At 2:45 we started our journey back to Ahmedabad but this time everyone was almost sleeping.














