On Friday Evening all of sudden we decided that on Saturday we will be heading towards mahul Creek for Shooting Flamingos.
But what time.... 8 am or 9 am ...no 6am coz we also wanted to capture sunrise.So after sleeping for only 3 hrs I woke up at 3.45 am and boarded 4.59 Churchgate Fast from Vasai Stn(Still I cudnt get a 4th seat [:(]). As decided, we (Vijay, Amol, me and Ruturaj)met outside Lucky Hotel at Bandra West. Soon we called up Mallik who joined us at Chembur in his Raleigh 650X. By 6.50am we were at Mahul Jetty ready to take a boat to shoot Flamingos. But we didnt knew that Flamingo Sightings depends on High Tides / low Tides. As during low tides Motor boats cant be used coz of shallow waters. We were adviced by Rajaram Mahulkar(Boatman / fishermen/ guide) to come by 9.30am as high tide will start by then.
We visited a hotel at Mahul bus depot and filled our empty stomachs with Sada Dosas and Batata Wadas[:P]. By 8.00 am we were back at Jetty waiting for high tide to arrive. Then all of sudden 2 professional Cameraman came to our rescue and adviced us to take a rowing boat as high tide will take another 3 hrs. The only drawback with rowing boat...we cannot cover entire creek. No probs as we were impatient to wait for high tide. Not to forget with the sight of Nikon D-200 and 500mm lens we had our Jaws Dropping upto feet.
Soon we 5 enthusiasts + 2 rowers boarded a small boat and started our most memorable ride of recent times. We had anticipated it as normal boat ride but little did we knew that with Vijay in our boat it wud bcome the scariest and adventureous boat ride. Bcoz every move that VJ made....our boat swayed violently and we feared that we ll fall down into tht 5ft super black, super polluted, super dirty, super stinky, super mushy creek. With our continous screams Flamingos pushed back which annoyed the Pro-photographers the most(we cudnt control laughing at their helpless state).
Since all cudnt stand at once, we took turns in Standing up to view / click flamingos. Soon we all got settled except for VJ [:P] who continued his dialogue with Rajaram Mahulkar regarding various environmental issues, BMC issues and even camera lenses. While clicking the Pink beauties we realised we had already spent almost 2 hrs in the creek and the heat of 11.00 am + hot vapors added to our misery. After reaching back to Jetty it was again time for snacks.....and we satisfied ourselves with bananas, Malliks Chicken Biryani, Amul chaas and Lots of water.
Around 11.45 we left Mahul.
Mallik said good bye 2 us @ chembur while we headed towards bandra.
I boarded Virar Fast from bandra and rest (VJ, Rutu, Amol) continued their Bike journey to their respective homes.
Thus bringing an end 2 our successful Flamingo Hunting / shooting trip
Note
The Mahul River, a dis-tributary of the Mithi (or Mahim) River is the remnant of what was once a much broader water channel separating the island of Parel on the south and west and Trombay on the north and east. It is now largely reduced to a thin stream, and is mostly dead and choked with garbage and debris.
This creek is surrounded by many gigantic industries. At the heart of the creek is Mahul Village. There is a jetty for landing small boats for fishermen. Migratory birds come to this creek every winter
Strategy: The birds congregate on the mudflats when the tide recedes. The key to a successful visit is to go after an hour of high tide and watch the birds as they arrive to feed.
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