Giradhodh Falls – A long, challenging day and a challenge from me

Giradhodh Falls

A long, challenging day and a challenge from me

 

Giradhodh Falls (aka Gira Dhodh, aka Gira Falls, and number 1 on a great list of Waterfalls in South Gujarat) was one of the destinations on one of the longest days I had in India.  Before I go on to explain the amazing natural beauty of the place (and to give you a world-changing challenge), let me first explain a little about the day.

I am not a morning person.  I do usually drag out of bed on weekdays at 7 am and get myself online and working in 3-5 minutes.  That’s not because I wish to rise up early and joyfully leap into work.  It’s because if I let myself sleep in, I’ll end up getting up at 10 and maybe get the computer going by 11.  Plus, those early mornings put me in the proper mood for administering virtual floggings to those who truly deserve serious online punishment.   So, let’s just say that being able to watch both the sunrise and sunset while being driven around to do tourist things is incredibly unusual for me.  The trip to Giradhodh was the first of two such days during my time in India.  I really hate getting up that early, but it was worth it.

So, there I was at a pathetically early hour. being driven away from Surat and out into the wilderness.  Krish did most of the driving.  I started out in the back seat, but later grabbed the front passenger seat so I could continuously try (and often fail) to photograph interesting items as we drove past.  Azhar and Anil completed the party.  I think Azher may have been a little tired.

 

 

Although, I think these people were probably even more tired. 

 

 

An hour or so out, there came that very rare sight for me to be both awake and in a position to view – sunrise.

 

 

And here’s the sunset on the drive back to Surat at the end of the day.

 

 

Once we arrived at Giradhodh, the guys seemed a little disappointed that the falls were not as active as during monsoon season.  At that time there’s usually been more than enough rain up-river to make the falls much wider.

 

 

Considering that Monsoon season comes at the end of India’s insanely hot summers, I decided I was fine with the below-average amount of water flow.  Then there was some discussion about whether the improved view in the late afternoon would be worth rearranging the schedule a bit.

After some debate, the decision was made to return to Giradhodh before sunset, so we set off for the Saputara Hill Station. (I’ll be adding a page for that sooner or later.)  Once done there, we headed back to Giradhodh.

For once on the whole trip, I was back on the same rural roads only a few hours later, so had a slightly better luck managing to take photos of some of the things I’d missed along the way.

 

 

Back at Giradhodh

 

The morning view of Giradhodh was beautiful.  The late afternoon view was even more spectacular.

 

 

Despite all the bumps, scrapes, and bruises I’ve acquired over the years while running around on rocky surfaces, I found myself once again playing mountain goat.  This sort of activity is bad enough when my hands are free, but juggling a camera and trying to line up shots made it even more dangerous fun. 

 

 

Lining up various jagged edges of the rocks on the falls with the sun was my main goal.  Happily for me, we were at Giradhodh Falls at just the right time to do this.

 

 

These guys wanted photos with me.  While climbing over the next pile of rocks to line up some more pics, I managed a group shot of them before climbing down to let then take pics with me.

 

 

Finally, I found the exact position needed to put the sun and the waterfall together.  It wasn’t easy to get to.  If the sun had been a little higher, I’d have had to go swimming.  It wasn’t easy and I think I cooked my eyes (again), but I really love these two pics.

 

 

I thought the rock climbing was the dangerous part.  I didn’t even realize how close everyone there that day came to being killed and eaten until I noticed something out of place in this photo.

 

 

I guess maybe the tigers at Giradhodh are tame.  Or, maybe this one was waiting for easy prey, like a foreigner who was tired from climbing around on rocks taking pics.  

 

Beauty Despoiled By A Few Uncaring People

 

There was one small thing I felt detracted from the natural beauty of Giradhodh.  Despite trash cans being available in the areas where food and souvenirs were sold, the ground was heavily littered with food wrappers, plastic bottles, and more assorted garbage. 

 

 

As I was heading back to rejoin the other guys, I found a plastic bag (there were plenty to chose from).  I picked it up and kept walking in a fairly straight line.  As I came upon more trash, I put it in the bag.  Once I got to the edge of the shop area, I dropped the bag into one of the trash cans.  The total extra time added by collecting the trash was about one minute.  Azher didn’t quite know what to think of my actions, but thanked me.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.  – Mahatma Gandhi

I’ve just told you about my ounce (or, in this case, 60 seconds) of practice.  I hope you’ll forgive me for asking you to spend a few minutes reading a little of my preaching.

 

Escaped Lunatic 60 Second Improve the World Challenge

 

Like China, India has a massive population.  This means a problem only affecting a small percentage of the people is huge.  It also means a solution involving the work of only a tiny percentage of people can have an incredibly effective impact.

I don’t think anyone wants to spend their day at Giradhodh collecting trash.  I also don’t think there’s any need to spend taxpayer money to hire more trash collectors.  Instead, I have a personal challenge I’d like to issue to anyone, Indian or foreign, who visits Giradhodh.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

Enjoy the magnificent view, but do 2 more things.  First, do not throw any trash on the ground.  Deliberately polluting a place of such natural beauty should be viewed as a sin by anyone capable of appreciating nature.  Second, grab a bag from the ground on your way out.  Then spend up to 60 seconds picking up some of the trash and restoring the park to what it looked like before some unfortunate people forgot what trashcans were for.  If anyone asks what you are doing, explain that you are taking one whole minute of your day to help keep the park beautiful.

If you don’t do it, how can you expect anyone else to do it?  How much garbage will continue to accumulate?  How long until Giradhodh eventually becomes nothing more than a large garbage dump, visited not to view the magnificent waterfalls, but only to dump more garbage?  Are you ready to see the name of the place changed to Giradhodh Trash Heap because you and everyone else never bothered to take a minute

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. – Yes, Mahatma Gandhi again.

One person doing this will make no noticeable difference.  But, if you do it and tell others to do the same, it won’t be one person.  Instead, it will be a few people making a small difference.  If some of those you tell spread the idea to a few more, the numbers and effectiveness will grow.

Imagine a future where most or all visitors to parks such as Giradhodh all treasure the beauty.  Imagine if each and every person who came to view the beautiful scenery decided that keeping those places as clean and beautiful as possible was worth as much as 1 minute of their time.

Please share this post with anyone you know who plans to visit Giradhodh.  Share it with anyone you know who loves natural beauty.   Share it with anyone who might be enough of a Lunatic to be willing to spend a 60 seconds a few times a year to help improve the world.

 

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