With an uncommon feel of being in someone else territory, we rode across the Gir forest. The land of great Asiatic Lion, whose foot prints extends far from the core jungle of Gir. Along the border of the Gir National Park is the ever so charming meter gauge railway, that still maintain harmony with the jungle and its habitat. Here are some pictures from the many routes, culture and people we discovered during the journey.
At Junagarh, BG and MG shares the island platform. Seen here are YDM-4 #6692 and #6371 performing shunting duties. (Harish Kumar)
Even when a shunting activity in progress, road traffic had to be blocked at this level crossing (Harish Kumar)
While Harish and Raghu took the road to Sasan Gir, Ben and Naveen chose to ride across the Gir Forest by the Jamwala - Dhari route, .
Dhasa - Veraval Passenger waits at Dhari for a crossing with its counter part. (Benher)
(Naveen)
The friendly station master plays with a child. Typically, at small stations passengers and railway staff enjoy lot of bonhomie (Naveen)
Quite rare to see these now-a-days. MG BOBYN wagons at Chital (Benher)
The Dhasa-Jetalsar passenger (52932) approaches Chital for its scheduled halt (Benher)
The station khalasi is ready for token exchange (Naveen)
We spot YDM-4 #6394 yet again on this day, powering a different train on a different route. Seen here at Chital is the 52932 Dhasa Jn - Jetalsar Jn passenger departing from Chital. (Naveen)
Even as the sun sets on the western horizon, the Jetalsar bound passenger departs Chital, also marking the end of our rail-fanning in the Jungle trail. (Benher)