Day 37: Jaisalmer to Dholavira

Today, day 37, was one of the most incredible days of our journey! The hero of the day was H.V. Kumar of The HiVayKing (HVK) Club who was guiding us on a road-less, landmark-less terrain by remote control from Mumbai, by mobile phone, which also stopped suddenly and left us all to ourselves only with the oral  instructions we had received from HVK!

All this when night had descended! We turned off the desert sands as HVK told us to and drove towards the Rann of Kutch. His instructions were:

“As soon as the road on the desert ends, on your right you will see a water tank at ground level. Keep it to your right and drive straight. Further down if you look to the right you will see a bund parallel to you at a distance. You are on the right track. Keep following the bund on your right on the flat salt pans till you see a small light way ahead of you. Head towards that light. It is a Border Security Force (BSF) outpost. Check in here. Sign the register and ask them how to proceed towards Dholavira. Drive in the directions they tell you. After some time you will come to another BSF outpost. Check in, sign the register and ask them for directions. Follow their instruction. Soon you will come to a tarmac road. Get on to it and follow that road. You will reach Dholavira…”

Surprise! Surprise! We followed his instructions and got on to the tarmac road. And then a thunderstorm hit us. Absolutely heavy rains with thunder and lighting and there we were on miles of flat salted earth, easy prey for a lightning hit. We were lucky as it is not possible to drive a 2-wheel vehicle on the wet salt pans as there will be no traction between the tyres and the earth!

However, we reached Dholavira around midnight, which on hindsight proved to be the best drive and the most exotic adventure on this journey.took us from the Golden City of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, across the Rann of Kutch, and to Dholavira in Gujarat.