Salt & Serenity

Experiencing The Little Rann of Kutch with The Fern Sattva Resort

- by Anirban Dasgupta

The jeep ambled along the cracked terrain, its tires stirring up little puffs of dust with every turn of the wheel. The landscape around us was an enormous canvas of muted browns and ochres, a vast expanse where the horizon seemed to stretch into infinity. It was in this setting, so strikingly alien yet untouched, that Amju Bhai, our guide, turned toward us with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“One needs to have the eyes of an explorer and the heart of an adventurer to appreciate the uniqueness of this part of the world,” he declared, pointing towards the sun, a slowly dipping golden orb, as it commenced its descent into the horizon of The Little Rann of Kutch. His words hovered in the air, perfectly timed with nature’s grand performance.

I felt a strange thrill shiver up my spine. I had witnessed countless sunsets during my journeys—fiery descents over the peaks of the Himalayas, serene declines across the oceans’ vastness, and quiet retreats into the heart of dense forests. Yet never had I encountered a sunset like this. It was as if all the rules of Earth’s decorum had been suspended in this solitary sea of salt and cracked earth. If there was a place to dream, surely it was here.

No soil, no stones, nor sands marked this terrain. Just sprawling salt pans and an intensely cracked ground under our feet, as if some cosmic artist had decided to “photoshop” this corner of the world, transporting it onto an alien planet. The salty crust shimmered in the last light of day, a landscape surreal and hypnotic.

As I watched the horizon, the setting sun appeared at once nourishing and distant, reminiscent of a precious treasure slowly being locked away for the night. It cast a myrd of colours—crimson, gold, and lavender—across the vast expanse, painting vivid stories across the skies.

“What do you think the sun dreams of, when it finally closes its eyes here?” I mused aloud, breaking the gentle silence.