TheFreeBird
Tanot to Longewala
The route to Longewala is even more secluded & beautiful than the Ramgarh – Tanot stretch. If you missed reading about Tanot. Click HERE to read . This is where the real desert comes to life. There are vast sand dunes with no crowd.
Freedom Trip: Jaisalmer | BP609 | Tanot | Longewala
We stopped in the middle of nowhere when we found this beautiful spot. The silence and serenity of this spot was out of this world. This was sooooo beautiful !
We decided to have lunch almost at 1600 hrs. Better late than never. The Rajasthani lunch felt even more authentic as we sat on the desert sand in the middle of nowhere with the rajasthani driver.
After the lunch we went to the big dune to enjoy the vastness of this desert. After going around and taking a million pictures we finally returned to the car.
Once done we started towards Longewala. The route was so scenic that i felt the need to stop every now and then. At one point there was a big sand dune and if i had a 4X4 would have definitely done some serious dune bashing. I was too overwhelmed and wanted too stop here. Even the goats tried to stop me.
Enroute are some small hamlets. These small villages got some Mumbai sweets home delivered.
Finally having reached Longewala, we could see why it was called the graveyard of tanks, there are so many of them.
History of Longewala
The 1971 Pakistan invasion had some 2000 Pakistani soldiers,37 tanks & other support vehicles with the intention of taking over Longewala and then having breakfast in Jaisalmer, lunch in Jaipur & Dinnner in Delhi. The Indian side had only power of 120 soldiers to defend the mother land.
If betting was allowed Paksitani’s were in overwhelming favour. However Indians turned the tide fighting all night and making the enemies run away leaving behind all the tanks and machinery.
Bro Tip
Before visiting this place watching Border movie is of utmost priority.
At the entrance there is a Border post 638 which was bought in by the Pakistani army from the international border before being made to retreat. There is a small room where you can watch some clips of the Border movie for the proper context.
Going ahead there are lots of military vehicles. Like this Pakistani tank which destroyed by the 106 mm M40 A1 Indian recoil less rifle.
This is the recoil less rifle mounted on the Indian jeep
Then there is T59 tank belonging to the 22nd cavalry of Pakistan and one of the 37 Pakistani tanks that were destroyed on the night of 04,05 December 1971 by the Indian Air force.( Border movie reference -Jackie Shroff)
We went around and saw the remaining vehicles as well.
After eye- feasting on this historic piece of cake we started the return journey to Jaisalmer. This itself was quite eventful as we spotted number of wild animals including camels, goats, chinkara & Nilgai- the blue bull Of India.
I have many more pics but not enough space to upload ( Photographers dilemma). This place was indeed the jewel of the trip.
Having reached back to the main city we grabbed a quick bite & paid a hotel guy 100rs for a room to freshen up. Picked up our bags and headed straight to the Jaisalmer station for the almost midnight train back to Mumbai with a change over at jaipur.
Do watch my Longewala Vlog. I have tried to make it interesting 🙂
The Freedom trip is officially over & what remains is the journey back home.
Freedom Trip: Jaisalmer | BP609 | Tanot | Longewala
Enroute Mumbai I had 3-4 hrs in jodhpur before the next train and I definitely made the most of it. i went in search of the Dark Knight’s prison
Click here to read about my 2 hours in Jodhpur
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Hope you enjoyed reading this post.
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