R for Rhyolite R for Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park

Well then Zoochosis http://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.in/2015/02/travel-memory-of-eye-of-tiger.html was not the only that tumbled out of my traveling bag.
Today as i dug into it to clear out stuff and file them neatly in my memory bank there were stuff worth caressing fondly with, before i stacked them into the proper slot where i would want them to be.

                                  

Rhyolite...that's what needed caressing...touching , feeling. Feeling the years of making of this which once was as sluggish as a toothpaste. This which before i am being told of it being known as Rhyolite is also known as Welded Tuff. This which takes so many years of chemical weathering and alterations that the hexagonal columns of it is considered a geological monument. It is special.

Dark pink rock sometimes tinged with rusty orange. Some granulated, others with spots. Textures with waves and ripples and even those that looked like the grinding stones that we had in those yester years when they had to be tapped with a pointed chisel and hammer to get those smooth yet sufficient pores for spices to be ground.
The amazing fact here being that barring the park which has been man made the stones and rocks are all sculpted into the forms that you see there naturally. Maybe the numbers were carved into the rocks but the pores and ripples, the wave signatures all tell stories of action of currents of either wind or water on the rocks .
'' Up to a few years ago there was a weatherbeaten sign on the road leading up to Mehrangarh which said: WELDED TUFF, NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL MONUMENT.''

Volcanic rock as geologists and earth- scientists would put it to distinguish it from others that could be sedimentary or even metamorphic. i saw the sedimentary rocks namely Breccia and the abundantly available Sandstone too and especially those that had the ripples and what a shame in my over enthusiasm of the Rhyolite i have not a single good shot to slot. Barring this one which allows a mere peek into that ripple.

 What is it about Rhyolite that had caught my fancy that i am clinging on to the various colors that i saw, or caressing the ripples, pores, weathered tuffs, clasts, yeah all these terms associated with this igneous/ volcanic rock ...
Well the fact being that this Rhyolite and the so many colors of volcanic rocks that i saw at Rao Jodha Park were made between 745 and 680 million years ago even much before Gondwanaland.
The rocks here are the largest episodes of volcanic activity in the history of the earth. Whoa!!
http://www.raojodhapark.com/

A nature lover with a comfortable pair of shoes with a hat to keep off the sun, probably an insect repellent if one is crazy like me to creep into the bushes and take pictures of wildflowers, a good sunscreen and a bottle of drinking water would probably be seen in a place like this and exploring away to his or her own soul's glory. For it is here that such a person would revel in nature's own miraculous science to see how over million of years some plants have evolved to find ways of overcoming the challenges of the desert and rocky terrains.
i had my first rendezvous with a very beautiful thistle of daisy family oont kantlo ie Globe thistle here.

Also that the habitat is alive with so many species of creatures like mongoose, hare, reptiles and a variety of insects. What to talk of the more than hundred species of birds. As is mentioned in the handout a well designed colorful with pictures and map et al 'Visitor's Guide' which is offered to you at the reception when you purchase a ticket for Rs 50 only. 

i can go on and on in my enthusiasm as to what i have seen or felt for this is one my kind of place but now i want to stack my pictures...some if not all...

i entered through this gate this exact place i collected my ticket and Visitor Guide handout too...the gentleman also explained patiently...


i decided to take the yellow trail as i had made up my mind to finish the entire trail as explained by the gentleman in one and a half hours flat of the park which is spread in 72 hectares and that was the only trail i could afford given the restraints i had of the limited time at my disposal...
Also i decided to for sometime to do away with that major distraction...my camera...hence i switched it off and move slowly but steadily to complete my trail consulting the map and looking for the yellow arrows but use the camera maybe laters when my trail got over.
 As i started...kobb..a...bleu...cluck...kobb..a...blue...clickety cluck over those rocks.
Really loved the way my boots made that sound over all those rocks...
....to be continued...