Dang - Place and it's People

Dang is a well known place (district) in the South Gujarat and has around 312 villages, with it's administrative headquarters in Ahwa. It has plenty of natural scenery, water fall and wildlife. During monsoons it's one of the most beautiful places to visit. The lush green meadows, outfield, hills covered with mist and floating clouds would definitely mesmerize one for sure. Dang is around 140 kms from Surat. Five (Bharat Uncle, Pinkesh, Vatsal, Chintu and me) of us started from Surat around 2.30 pm in the afternoon and were lucky enough to reach Geera Falls in Waghai just before the sunset in the overcast conditions with persistent rains through out the journey. We clicked for a good time at Waghai and enjoyed the Geera waterfalls and the stream that was overflowing with the muddy water. The reddish kind of color in the water along with greenery made the gray atmosphere colorful. Waghai also has a huge botanical garden, which is said to be the second largest in Asia. The sun was already setting for the day and the less amount of time that we had with us, we let the botanical garden to explore for our next trip.

@ Waghai

Red mud water

Geera Waterfalls @ Waghai

It was time to call off the day, had to travel good 35 kms to reach the place of our rest and also to have our dinner in a lodge which was kept open after 9 pm on our special request. We had a night stay in Ahwa at the house of Pinkesh's relative. Chintu was already down and out by the time we're trying to settle in.

Chintu, already slided in

Next day early morning we moved to the sunset point in Ahwa to capture the monsoon morning beauty of Dang. The view from the sunset point was enthralling which had hills covered with greenery and floating clouds.

From Sunset point @ Ahwa

From Sunset point @ Ahwa

The day had just begun for us and with Bharat uncle's in depth knowledge of the place, who belongs to Dang and has spent most of his childhood in Ahwa made our trip a great journey. He took us through the interior places of the Dang which had amazing landscapes, scenery and lovely views. We then went to the famous yet less explored waterfall of the Dang known as Geera Waterfalls in Girimaal. The waterfall is around 60-70ft and the depth where it falls is around 300ft. Once you reach Geera waterfalls you don't have anything to eat or drink, one needs to carry food and H2O if planning to stay for couple of hours.

Landscape on the way to Girimaal

Geera Waterfall @ Girimaal

While moving back from Geera waterfalls, Girimaal, we passed through the Mahal forest which has a rich wildlife. Saw a leopard crossing our way in a fraction of second and a colorful chameleon passing across the road like a king.

Colorful Chameleon on the roads of Mahal

Ladies on the roads of Dang

People of Dang are as beautiful and colorful as it's place. The majority of the people residing here are tribal and Aadivasi who speak a different lingo other than the Gujarati. I got to click quite a few portraits of the men and women working in the field, moving on the roads with umbrellas, school children returning back to home in the rain.

Old lady and a girl fetching the
water from a hand pump

People passing through a
check-post in a Jeep

This trip happened almost after a year of planning with Pinkesh and I'm thankful to him. I'm grateful to Bharat uncle, without whom we would not have been able to explore the beauty of the Dang - place and it's people.