A Pictorial Travelogue of Bird-watching at Mandhoti Wetlands
It’s almost 10 o’clock now, yet I am not feeling too tired to retire for the day! Strange!
The day actually went off so well, full of actions – starting with setting off very early in the morning, when people were still in deep sleep at homes under the comfort of warm blankets.
This 3rd Sunday of December — the first harsh winter of the season broke loose over DNCR, shattering the records of last 15 years or so!
13 Jeepers of DNCR Trailraiders (defying the rule of not exposing into biting cold of early foggy morning), finally responded joining the “First ever Bird-watching Drive” to the wetlands of Mandhoti village, approx 55 km from Gurgaon.
One after another, the Jeepers (with family & their brave children) coming from Delhi, Noida & Gurgaon started arriving at the pre-planned assembly point near the Hero Chowk in Gurgaon on NH-48 from 5.45 a.m.
That means, Jeepers from Noida & Delhi must have set out from their homes around 5 in the morning!
By the time everybody assembled for a small chit-chat, the time was close to 7 – losing almost an hour from our starting time planned!
Our dear Jeeper friend Kannav, drove down all the way from his home in Gurgaon at the assembly point, just to meet us and wishing us good luck. He had to drop out at the last moment due to some muscle injury in his arm.
“Bird-watching Drive” to Mandhoti Village wetlands in Rohtak, finally flagged off in a _’Jeep convoy’_ at 15 min past 7 in the morning.
As we gradually headed away from City limit towards the countryside with no sign of Sunrise, dense fog was quickly engulfing all over.
Driving thru narrow single roads thru vast farmlands without any street lights in that thick fog, grew more & more difficult & tensing with almost Zero visibility. It was only the pair of red Tail Lights of the Jeep in front that was helping a lot to follow blindly!
Just think of our Marshall, Shiv S Tripathi, leading the convoy in that challenging drive, with no tail light to follow for him! BRAVO Shiv 👍🏼
Leaving behind the dist limits of Gurgaon, we took on the Jhajjar highway. The thick fog also seemed to be slowly diluting to a much better visibility, with the Sun slowly coming out, but with great difficulty.
– By DNCR TrailRaiders
(Written by Sh Abhay Mittra)
