Home sweet home…

Olichuchattam falls as viewed from my backyard

After a very long hiatus… I’m back on WordPress. A lot has happened since i last logged in here about 4 years ago. Our family has grown. We have a son, he’s almost 2 years old now. He keeps us busy and we don’t travel like we used to before….

Also…. we have finally fulfilled a long cherished dream of ours. A small house in the lap of the mighty western ghats. Anakkampoyil is a small village about 45kms from Calicut. Drive uphill from there for about 4 km and you reach a place called Karimb. Another kilometer uphill and that’s where we have our small house.Its about 600 meters above mean sea level, ensuring fantastic climate (depending on your apetite for heavy rains)

Mobile and internet connectivity are poor and non existant respectievely, and that means more time spent on soaking in the views and climate…

A black eagle hovers in the mist

The mists and rains are constant companions throughout the year. The place is blessed with fresh water streams originating from pristine forests which start from about a kilometer away from our house. Clear days provide us with spectacular views of the Vellarimala range from our yard. Birding is fantastic….and so is the wildlife apparently. Elephants , Sambar , and many other wildlife visit our neighbours who live closer to the forest boundary. I’ve not yet mustered the courage to go for a night walk.

Moonrise over Vellarimala

I will try to keep updating/boring everyone with few sights from our patch of paradise.

 

Frogs and Frogmouths

On Oct 2nd, the Malabar Natural History Society ( MNHS ) along with the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department and, The Zoological Survey of India conducted a Frog Survey at  the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary.Now while I am primarily a birder, and Herpetology not my usual cup of tea, I jumped at the chance of exploring the insides of the wildlife sanctuary at night.

So, along with my friends Riyan ( Asst.Prof in Zoology) and Sudheer ( Physician), we set out from Calicut at around 4:15 pm. The route we took was, Calicut-Thamarassery-Poonoor-Thalayad-Kakkayam-Kakkayam dam (entrance to Malabar WLS) . We made it just in time by 6:00 pm, when the rest of the team were disembarking from their vehicles.

After a quick cup of tea and refreshments at the dorms, we were given a brief introduction and objectives of the day’s survey by Dr.Jafar Palot ( ZSI and Hon.Sec of the MNHS). We were also in the esteemed company of Dr. Varad Giri of the BNHS and Satyan Meppayur of MNHS. Other members from the MNHS and BNHS has also come for the survey.

Ceylon Frogmouth | Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary(Kakkayam), Calicut | 2nd Oct 2014 The frog survey conducted by MNHS yielded a superb bonus….lots of frogs and this Frogmouth !!! It was a thrilling experience to hear the calls of the Frogmouths ( Many of them) in the crisp clean night , accompanied by the million frog and insect sounds… We had taken precautions by using torchlight ( and not a flash) and high ISO ( ISO 3200) to click this image.Though this might still have caused the bird some inconvenience,we left it on its way as soon as we managed this record shot. Many thanks to the excellent spotting skills of Riyan Konkath, and DrSudheer Mullakkal

Eagerly we set out and were soon set upon by the million leeches which are present in the rain forests at this time of the year.While the herpers,came well prepared with gumboots, headlights etc, we birders were not so well prepared and did not join them when they waded enthusiastically into the streams and pools inside the bamboo thickets.

Raorchestes ochlandrae (Ochlandrae reed frog) is a species of shrub frog in the Rhacophoridae family. It is endemic to the Western Ghats, India. This species of the oriental shrub frog was described from Kakkayam Reserve Forest of Calicut district, Kerala state, in the southern Western Ghats. ( Wiki) This was perhaps the prize catch of the night, and worth the numerous leech bites all over my body.

We stayed on the main path sufficiently thrilled to hear the calls of the very rare Ceylon Frogmouth. We even managed to spot and photograph one while the Herpers were finding many rare endemic frogs.The survey went on long into the night and finally we all trudged back to the base camp around midnight for a delicious dinner of steaming hot rice and sambar and pickles prepared by the foresters. As it was a working day the next day we drove back the same night a reached our homes by around 2:30 am.

I must put in a serious word of appreciation for the remarkable spotting ability, dedication and determination of the herpetology group.They are just too good, unmindful of the leeches and terrain, including negotiating small waterfalls at night, they kept on in full enthusiasm searching and finding frogs well into the night.

I must also give thanks to the gentlemen of the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, who were fantastic guides and wonderful hosts, staying up so late into the night to take care of our group.

A Himalayan Sojourn.

In late August 2013, my dear wife started reminding me that she had applied leave for a week, in November. She wanted us to do something more exciting, than our usual jaunts to the jungles of Southern India. I suspect she’s had enough of Tigers and leopards (What with the resident 100 kg Tiger she sees every day at home..!!! ) As usual, I enthusiastically agreed at that time, and conveniently forgot all about it till mid October.

Mid october…
Wife: Vineeth, so where are we going then ?
Me: I have it all figured out, We’ll do 2 days in Bandipur, 2 days in Kabini, 2 days in BR hills.
Wife: That is something we can do any weekend, I specifically said something different !!!
Me: What??!! Why ??!!! This is such an awesome plan !!!

Wife : You Moron !!! I had given you enough time to plan,chuck everything and lets stay home…Pffftt

Me: (Panic)  Lets do Leh !!! we’ll call up Vivek(my brother) and do a week-long trip to Leh.
Wife : Now you’re talking….

So we call up my brother, and he agrees( What a sport ! ) as he too has leaves pending and so we plan….flights,hotels, destinations…..

Late october…
Bro calls up and informs that he has to leave to Singapore on an assignment…all plans go for a toss.

We still wanted to see the Himalayas,and perhaps do a bit of birding…So I mentioned Pangot and Sattal, birding hotspots in the Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand.
Reshma agrees, so we call up the guys at Asian Adventures, who handle the bookings for Jungle lore Birding Lodge at Pangot and Sattal Birding Camp at Sattal. We dealt with Mithun, who was very professional in chalking up an itenary which suited our needs.
The plan was that , we reach Delhi airport, get picked up by our guide Shyam Sharma, and driver Adeshji. Reach Pangot and spend 2 nights there, move on to Sattal and spend another two nights in Sattal.Efectively we’d have five days of sightseeing and birding.We were to have a Toyota innova all to ourselves for all 5 days…Airport to airport.

So we transferred the money, booked air tickets from Bangalore-Delhi-Bangalore,leaves finalised in my office….and oh,bought a new Canon EOS 70D for the trip.No more fighting for the SLR, I was to use the 70D and the 4005.6 and Reshma the 500D and the 100-400.

So we are all packed and ready to go to Bangalore( we planned to reach one day before to do some last-minute shopping).Our Karnataka KSRTC multi axle Volvo is scheduled to depart from Calicut at 2200 hrs.Around 1700 hours we see news flashes of violence and rioting on the Calicut-Bangalore road due to opposition to the Kasturirangan report. We hope it’s not too bad and keep our fingers crossed.Around 1900 hours we hear in the news that its going to be hartal in Kerala ( equal to a Bandh) from midnight. We still hope to travel…
Around 2000 hrs we get a message that our bus has been CANCELLED !!!
Panic sets in….we have visions of all our money going up in smoke. Nevertheless we decided to check out the bus station  at around 2130 hours or risk driving the car to Bangalore( yeah we were desperate…)
As we reach the bus stand we find a Kerala ksrtc ordinary bus ( believe me..ordinary it was) bound for Bangalore leaving…I ran up to the driver, and luckily he says seats are available and he will wait for us to bring our luggage…very few people wanted to travel that night.
We desperately drag all our luggage into the bus and finally start our adventure !!!  The bus took a long detour avoiding the problem areas, and very late into the night managed to cross into Karnataka, unscathed.

It takes crazy ass mallus to handle crazy ass mallus…no one else would have risked driving that night.But we had serious money at stake here…worst case we might get stranded on the highway…The bus was originally scheduled to depart at 2000 hrs.The stars and planets were on our side….Some seriously brisk driving over some atrociously bad roads, made for a bone jarring ride…

We finally reach Bangalore in the morning, much earlier than we thought we’d reach, shop for gloves/skullcaps,thermal inners,  new camera bag…and call it an early night.

Our cab picks us up at 3am,and after another brisk  and hair raising drive ( putting it mildly ) reach airport before 4 am…well in time for the 6 am flight to Delhi. Our flight thankfully, is on schedule and lovely weather greets us in Delhi when we finally land around  9 am.
We find a dude wearing a cowboy hat and dressed in the manner of a hardcore wildlifer/ desi cowboy  waiting for us at the airport.

Shyam Sharma is not your typical guide…in our 5 days together I have never seen him in non camouflage gear…”Sir, yeh to hamesha andar ki wildlife feelings ko zinda rakhne ke liye hain” he says(Err…loosely translated he meant, Sir, this is to keep the wildlife feelings alive inside me all the time). A veritable store house of information ( and tall tales too, claims to have seen 2o black bazas on a huuge tree ) he proved to be an excellent guide and a fantastic travel companion, netting well over 100 species in 4 days of birding and sightseeing….

Our driver Adeshji was waiting and so we started our long ( 8hr) journey to Pangot.Sunday traffic in Delhi was sparse and we made a quick getaway from the airport and soon crossed Delhi limits. We stopped for brunch at Maama’s dhaba ( Out of this world paranthas and butter roti and daal makhni and…you get the drift ) Somewhere after crossing the river Ganga, I drifted off to sleep..something i’d never been able to do when someone else was driving.Cant praise Adeshji’s driving enough…never had any nervous moments except for the occasional tractor and bullock carts and crazy bikers  that you encounter in the highways of Uttarpradesh.
Woke up when we reached choti haldwani ( Jim corbetts village). From there we started climbing…crossed nainital and saw our first views of the mighty Himalayas. I’d probably have to write another post to describe my feelings on seeing the Himalayas, but for now I’d just say……(speechless)

Reached Pangot, and Jungle Lore Birding Lodge around 6 pm, and was warmly welcomed by Tejpalji who is a caretaker/manfriday at Jungle Lore. It had already gotten dark by then….and very very cold !!! From 32 degree Kerala weather to a cool 8 degree Himalayan evening.

Sunset at Pangot clicked with my iphone

We settled into our cottage…comfy enough because of the heater they provided. Had a shower and an early dinner and hit the sack…we were finally here !!!

To be continued….

Magical B R Hills

For a long time we’ve wanted to visit K.gudi wilderness camp run by Jungle lodges and resorts at B R hills. The opportunity presented itself while we had to drive up to Bangalore from Calicut in late March 2013.This was to be a brief interlude as we could only spend one night at K.gudi, but what a memorable night it turned out to be !!!

K.gudi has been rated by many to be the best JLR property,ranking even higher than the Kabini river lodge. Now while Kabini is likely to be more rewarding in terms of big cat sightings, K.gudi and B R hills offer a more wholesome jungle experience.The location of the camp is the most attractive feature…Bang in the middle of the jungle, no fences, no walls…In my opinion this is like being in paradise for any nature lover.
We started from Calicut early saturday morning hoping to reach k.gudi before lunch. As we had never driven to that part of the state we were unsure about the road condition/restaurants etc. The route taken was Calicut-Sultan Bathery-Gundlupet-Chamrajnagar-K.Gudi.

From experience I would suggest taking a slight detour and stopping at Cafe Coffee Day at Gundlupet for the bathroom break and maybe light refreshments.A word of caution while driving through Gundlupet and Chamrajnagar…Cows/buffalos/goats, cyclists/bikers and pedestrians generally love using the middle of the road, exercising extreme caution and liberal use of the vehicle horn is highly recommended.
The transition from village to jungle is abrupt when you approach from chamrajnagar side. I wished i was driving in an open jeep. A few kms drive through some ghat sections brings you to K.gudi. The location is to die for,just the location would bring back nature lovers to this camp again and again.

We were welcomed warmly and shown our log hut ( Bilgiri) which is the farthest accommodation in the property.The jungle lodges schedule is well-known to us and we went to the Ghol Ghar for a simple but delicious lunch.I regretted not taking my camera to the ghol ghar as there were Velvet fronted nuthatches,Asian Paradise flycatchers,Spangled Drongos,Black hooded orioles and many more birds just flitting outside the Ghol Ghar.Needless to say we spent sometime birdwatching post lunch.
My friend Phillip Ross, an acclaimed wildlife photographer was visiting K.gudi with a few friends from Bangalore. It was good to catch up and we ended up sharing the same jeep for our evening safari. Reshma and me were totally smitten by the jungles of B R hills…It was different, and it was lovely.This place is a birding paradise…not to mention Barking deer Headquarters !!! In Bandipur and Kabini, a barking deer sighting could be counted as a rare one…here they are found in plenty.Barking deer,Sambhar and Gaur. Surprisingly, while B R Hills is known as elephant central, we encountered only a lone tusker during our safari.While we saw a lot of wildlife, the evening safari did not yield a glimpse of any big cat.
.

Phillip had volunteered as a naturalist here a few years ago and it was great to hear a lot of info about this area from him. Post safari we had tea and headed off to our hut for a shower before dinner. It was getting dark and i was out in the balcony with my torch.I started shining my torch out into the jungle to scan for some nightlife. My light caught a pair of gleaming eyes, and i initially dismissed it for a wild boar. To my shock and surprise , what i thought was a wild boar turned out to be a young female Leopard !!! Called out Reshma, and she thought I’d lost my mind…but as the leopard came closer she too got the thrill of her life. Called up Phillip, and he too didn’t believe me.But I urged him to come quickly with his gear, and he too was stunned.Very soon the entire resort was in our room( some 20 odd people) savouring this amazing sighting.This is the magic of K.gudi. This the best part about staying in the jungle. a leopard sighting from our cottage !!! She spent a good 30 mins with us and left all of us satisfied and thrilled. The resort staff also mentioned sighting a young Tiger from the same area three days ago….So I would highly recommend the log hut Bilgiri for some great sightings in the camp.
Post dinner the lights are out by 10 30 pm and the jungle takes over.Alarm calls frequently pierced the night , signifying predator activity.Nightjars and owls too kept us company for the night. The cool night and the pleasant breeze finally overpowered my will to stay awake and i finally went to bed setting my alarm for 5 am.
I woke up well before my alarm….couldnt sleep much because i was too excited to be here. The deer and wild boar were roaming around the property and the birds hadn’t started their day yet. 5:30 am the generator is turned on and we are woken up with a steaming cup of coffee/tea. We got ready and boarded the jeep for our morning safari. One of the hotspots for big cat sighting is the Annikere road, and we headed off in that direction. I was just happy to be here and was enjoying the forest.It was teeming with birds and other wildlife. Besides yesterday evenings super sighting was still fresh in our minds.The safari’s did not yield anymore cats,and we returned to the camp for breakfast and some more birding.
After a super heavy delicious breakfast , we went to our hut to shower and pack and get ready to drive on to bangalore.Both ous us were so enamoured by the forest that we decided we will come back here soon…very soon.

Very soon happened the very next month….yup hectic work schedules and family commitments, plus the super hot summer made us desperate and we wanted to escape from hot and humid calicut. Surprisingly both of us agreed on K.gudi (my wife generally hates visiting the same place over and over again, unlike me ). So we booked for two nights this time, packed our bags and headed off to the beloved Jungles.
The forest had received some rains and was looking much greener and livelier than in march. After a pleasant drive, we checked into a tented cottage this time. Basic, neat, clean and comfortable with a clean bathroom…luxurious when you are camping in the middle of the forest.But i’d recommend the log huts any day if you can afford to pay the 1000 or so rs per head extra.
Bird activity as usual was very high in and around the camp.The One more bottle bird and the brain fever bird and the grey jungle fowl were especially vocal, with the one more bottle bird almost keeping me awake the whole night !!!
Anyways, post a heavy lunch at ghol ghar and a power nap later, we were all set for the evening safari. Rajesh was our driver.He is a nice guy but his driving style sometimes resembles that of Sebastian Loeb 🙂 . So we set out to the Annikere road, on the first of our four safaris. On the way we met the usual suspects….barking deer, sambhar, hanuman langurs, Gaur, spotted deer, peafowl,wild board and a few elephants…

Also saw painted bush quails for the first time.
Another bonanza sighting was that of a Changeable Hawk Eagle with a palm squirrel catch.The many ladies in the jeep did not want to watch the jungle in all its raw brutal beauty and we moved on.

We waited for a while at the annikere waterhole, where many have sighted a tigress and her four cubs. Construction of a concrete pool/waterhole seems to have disturbed the wildlife and there was not much activity there.Suitably frustrated as it was almost time for us to return, we started our trip back when suddenly…stripes !!!

She was a huge tigress and Rajesh told us she has raised four really healthy cubs.She was calling out to her cubs and going back to where they were sheltering. We managed to follow her for a while till she decided to cross the road and disappear among the grass and rocks.
Elated, we sped back to our camp. Rajesh’s driving would have shamed Loeb into retirement.Most of us did not care, we had just had a one on one session with the chief deity of this fabulous temple.Some of us were seeing a tiger in the wild for the first time…
Hot tea and pakodas at the camp followed by a nature documentary as is the norm in most JLR properties. We headed of for a quick shower and then proceeded for an early dinner. We hit the bed early as we had started really early from Calicut. Sometime into the night a sharp alarm call and sound of scurrying animals woke us up. Well they must have woken many an excited person who was camping there.The dozen or so flashlights did not succeed in spotting the predator and slowly the camp settled in for a sound sleep..or so we thought. The Indian Cuckoo had different plans for me and many others…One more bottle, one more bottle it kept calling into the night and was joined by some of its friends too…I too ended up wishing that I had a bottle, to help me doze off.
Apparently we had many others who did not sleep well that night as was evident from some of the grumpy looking fellow wildlifers…Going into the jungle in the morning is a special feeling….there is that nip in the air and the jungle smells and feels different.

We saw the fame Madras(Indian) Tree Shrew this time.Not one but a pair, and they posed on a tree for us.Now sighting a Madras tree shrew is a big deal as they are found only here in southern India. Rajesh might not be the best of drivers but we had some fabulous sightings with him.Plus he is a nice guy and takes time to talk to people about the region,and its flora and fauna.
Post breakfast,we headed off toward the Ranganathaswamy temple after which BR hills or Biligiri Rangana hills gets its name. as it was the local festival here, the place was crowded, and dirty.There was some construction going on at the temple.We both paid our respects to the deity and made a quick getaway from the temple and headed back to the camp.At he camp, we met Narayan, one of the main naturalists, and a local.Now we had met up during our last visit and it was nice seeing him again. He was just recounting how he and his wife saw a tigress crossing the main road at around 11 am while they were coming here on a bike !!! Bloody hell it was around 11 00 am and we too wanted to try our luck…So we hopped into our car and drove slowly towards the checkpost on the Chamarajnagar side.

The birdwatching was good…at one point we saw a white rumped shama ( a lifer for both of us ) and were trying to photograph it from the car (getting out of your vehicle is prohibited and punishable inside the jungle), when a group of guys in a scorpio thought we had spotted some big cat and were scanning the area in vain. We stopped outside the checkpost and chatted with the guards there for sometime. Reshma was amused to see the antics of a white browed fantail, but she never got it to pose with its tail flared. The sun was getting hot and we returned in time for lunch.
Evening safari was with Narayan.The driving style is totally different, spots and then kills the engine for everyone to view/photograph.Narayan is an amazing spotter….incredible how he spots and id’s a bird from so far away, that we can barely even see it. Oh by the way, a pair of binoculars are a must, we were happy with our olympus 8 x 40. We saw lots of birds and our usual suspects.

On the way back we heard some alarm calls and headed off in that direction to find another jeep waiting by the road…they had just seen a leopard cross the road and cross back again and head into the bushes. We waited there patiently till it was time for us to get back.

Day three, I was up before sunrise.Reshma was feeling lazy and wanted to sleep…it was a lovely cool morning.The night had been awesome with distant thunder, lightning and a cool breeze as it had rained in the vicinity.Finally Reshma woke up and we boarded the jeep for our last trip into the jungle.While we did not see anymore big cats, we spent an amazing time with a pair of Blue Bearded Bee Eaters. They gave us super poses, and we did not stay there for long because Narayan said there might be a nest nearby.So we took off and headed back to the camp for one last heavy breakfast.
Finally we headed to our tented hut, showered and packed our bags and bid goodbye to the staff and friends we made at K.Gudi wilderness camp…promising to be back very soon.

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Another day in paradise.

My Childhood buddy Kamal had landed from the deserts and concrete jungles of the middle east, wanting to spend some time in a real Indian jungle.Fortunately or unfortunately, we finally had only one day to do this jungle trip and so we headed of to my favourite part of the Nilgiris, which is a four hour drive from Calicut.

We stopped at Wild Haven for a quick lunch and beer,and were about to walk down to Cheetal Walk, when Kumar, our driver/guide told us it would be better that he dropped us in his jeep.

We gladly accepted his offer and were in cheetal walk after a two minute bumpy ride.Mark was waiting for us and he urged us to settle down soon before all the action started. I had tried to downplay the chances of encountering any wildlife other than spotted deer and wildboar, lest my friend got disappointed.

Almost five minutes after we arrived, the first visitor arrived…A magnificent tusker, affectionately called Rivaldo by Mark.We were sure glad that we didnt walk down…

Things started happening soon.Summer had tightened its dry grip on the area and a lot of animals would come to a small tank which Mark fills up from his well for the animals.

Another younger meaner looking tusker soon made his way, followed by a herd of four. We were thrilled….little did we know that this was the trailer !!!

This area was like an elephant magnet and soon tusker after tusker arrived in the area, at one point we could see six different tuskers, in different parts of the property !!!

Meanwhile I was telling Mark how I’d never photographed sloth bears, though i’ve managed to spot a couple of them. As if on cue, a mother and cub slowly walked down the hill and crossed the stream across the cottage….i managed to get a few images.

The area was teeming with Sambhar, Chital, Black faced langurs, Wild boar, Gaur, Peafowl and a lot of other birds.

We feasted our eyes on the blockbuster show that mother nature had setup for us. Alarm calls had us excited all through the evening signifying that predators were also around.

As it was a moonless night, we hit the bed soon after an early dinner, enjoying the sounds of the jungle. A sharp alarm call from a sambhar right under our window woke us sometime late in the night….soon the chital started calling out in fright, and then we heard the TIGER….It was calling as it slowly moved across the area, we could not see it beacuse it was pitch dark and Mark does not encourage the use of torches and flashes to disturb the animals.But it was amazing to hear the tiger calling out into the night and we sat up for a while savouring the moment.The cool night ensured that sleep soon overcame us.

We were up at dawn, and the birds were at their best.

I love the sound of peafowl calling out in the morning… it is amazing.Mark had made steaming black tea and we were in for a treat that morning too…

What better than watching elephants and bears and sambhar and cheetal, while sipping on hot tea and chilling out in the veranadah !!! Alarm calls again from the chital and langurs got us excited and we were lucky to see a leopard as it disappeared into the scrub. I spent more time with my binoculars than my camera, as i did not want to get worked up about not getting good images.

It was truly awesome….we couldnt have asked for more. Unfortunately it was time for us to get back to calicut, Kumar again came to pick us up. We bade Mark goodbye and headed off to wild haven for some solid break fast before heading off to Calicut. Truly it was another day in paradise…

PS. I had written this trip report a while ago. As I post this, Mark Davidar is recovering from a coma.We bade goodbye promising to visit him again soon.Little do we know what life has in store for any of us… I truly wish and hope and pray that he makes a full recovery and gets back to Cheetal Walk, where he truly belongs. I dont know if I would ever be able to visit Cheetal Walk again, but I would like to sign off with this endearing image of Rivaldo truly at peace in a quiet corner of the Nilgiris, which he would perhaps call home.

PPS : Mark Davidar passed away yesterday( 19th october 2013) after a brief illness.I along with many others would no doubt treasure and cherish the awesome memories spent in his company at Chital Walk.Thank you for the memories Mark. May your soul rest in eternal peace…

Tusker at twilight.

Another one to be framed. We had finished our evening safari and were returning, when we saw this pair of tusks from behind the bamboo. Slowly the tusker emerged and we spent the last few minutes of twilight watching him feed on the bamboo. I have converted this to b/w to get that late evening twilight feel in the jungle…

Framed.

Finally after 3 years of clicking with my DSLR, I finally got an image printed and framed.This is the final edit, resized to be posted on the web. Thanks for viewing 🙂

A Monsoon Drive.

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be

Dire Straits/Brothers in Arms

The monsoon had just arrived. We were itching for a holiday.From rain lashed Calicut we drove towards the hills, only to encounter more rains.Spent an awesome weekend driving around the Anamalais in June 2011.

Route: Calicut-Palakkad-Pollachi-Valparai. Time: approx 6 hours. Distance: around 250 kms.

Somewhere on the Palakkad-Pollachi highway….Fast vanishing sights from rurual Kerala.

The road from Pollachi to Valparai is a drivers paradise. Beautiful country scenes on both sides of the road. Somehow I feel sad that we dont get to drive through such countryside a lot in Kerala. Gods Own Country surely does not hold a candle to Tamilnadu and Karnataka in this aspect.

Very few crazies encountered on these roads…pleasure to drive.
Clicked from moving car, wanted to get the motion blur to add that sense of dynamism.
Exif Details 1/13th sec,ISO 100, f20
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Lens: Sigma 18-200 @ 35 mm.

Clouds kissing the cliff…Clicked by Reshma Krishnan

Soon after crossing the checkpost at the entrance of Anamalai wildlife sanctuary, we came across this beautiful sight of the Aliyar Dam.

There are 40 Hairpin bends and innumerable waterfalls on the Pollachi-Valparai route.
Excellently well maintained roads and easy to drive unlike the wayanad ghats or the kallatti ghats.

The Swift taking in the view 🙂

Ominous Clouds….

Aliyar Dam

One of the many waterfalls we passed by.
This one is called the Monkey Falls.
I found the place to be relatively clean and plastic free…Thank God that there are still some places like this in South India.

Accomodation was in a bungalow belonging to waterfall estates. You come across this board after the 28th hairpin, about 20kms before Valparai town.
Accomodation in Valparai town is not a very good idea….

This was our pad for 3 days and 2 nights.
Tennis court bungalow. there are only 2 bedrooms, so we had the entire place to ourselves.Nice, neat and clean and well maintained.
We also had the services of 2 butlers/caretakers during our stay.They took very good care of us.
Outstanding home cooked food,simply superb stuff.

Another view from the front door of the bungalow.
Clicked By Sharat Somsunder

A lounge with a view 🙂

Another awesome view form the bungalow premises.
You can see how windy it was….

The road from waterfall estates to Valparai….
This image was taken with the 100-400 lens

Valparai landscape….From tea estates to shola forests to grass and rocks.
Another image with The Canon 100-400.
Who says you need a wide angle lens to shoot landscapes 🙂

The road through dense shola forest…
I was actually scared of crossing paths with leopards or elephants while getting out to take this snap.Valparai has been in the news recently for elephant attacks and man eating leopards.

On the way to Nallamudi Pooncholai and Seen God viewpoint.
A must see spot if you happen to travel to valparai.
Super duper torrential rainfall ensured my camera stayed in the car.
Amazingly beautiful views of the mists rising above the forest canopy.
More photos when i visit next time.

View from Sholayar Dam.
It was late evening when we reached the dam site.
Nothing much to see at the dam.
But, the drive is simply outstanding….FANTASTIC winding roads to really enjoy driving through some amazing scenery.

A Kovil(small temple) on the way.
According to the local priest this area is frequented by elephants and bison (gaur).
we were lucky to spot 2 wild elephants nearby.

Thousands of acres of tea estate border shola forests.
Apparently visits from the denizens of the forest are frequent leading to many man-animal conflicts.

Streak Throated Woodpecker (female)
My one decent bird shot of this trip.

Lion Tailed Macaque with baby.
Camera: canon EOS 500D
Lens: Canon 100-400 F4-5.6 L IS USM
Exif: 1/60 sec F 5, 100-400@180mm ISO400

Handheld shot in bad light and light rains.

This is my favourite image and the last shot of the whole series.I waited 3 days and drove oh so many kms around valparai to get this one.
And by the way these are critically endangered species, found only in some areas of the western ghats.I was totally impressed by the NCF watchers guarding this troop even in the rains.I wonder how many generations will get to see these creatures in the wild….

Perhaps someday I would make a trip in not so rainy conditions to photograph the wildlife of the Anamalais…But you gotta visit the rainforests in the rains for sure !!!

Bandipur Chronicles.

“Maybe once I get some decent Tiger images, I’ll quit bugging you to go on these jungle visits all the time”

The urge to visit the jungles was getting too unbearable after a long….4 months 🙂

The last time I went there, I got some good images of this guy.

But this had eluded me for a long time….

I somehow made the booking online for 3 days 2 nights at JLR,Bandipur and spent the next one week trying to convince my wife to join me.She was unrelenting, and as the days went by my panic increased and thus I tried the first line.

She was in Bangalore on office work for 2 weeks and I somehow managed to convince her finally to join me. Phew !!!

So we were to spend a long weekend at JLR Bandipur on 17th 18th and 19th Dec 2011….We were last there in Dec 2009.

This time she was to take the Volvo ( Bangalore-Ooty Volvo would drop you right in front of JLR), and i was to drive from Calicut.Usually I take the Calicut-Nilambur-Gudalur-Mudumalai_Bandipur  route. But  since there was some tension going on between Kerala and Tamilnadu over the Mullaperiyar dam issue , I did not want to take any risk and chose the Calicut-Kalpetta-Gundlupet-Bandipur route.

The ghat roads were in a bad shape , and 4-5 hour traffic jams on the ghats were happening every day. So I left home at  5 :30 am  hoping to cross the ghats before the rush starts.Luckily for me there was no traffic and i managed to cross Sultan Bathery by 7 30. Stopped at a small eatery for some nice hot coffee and Appams and egg roast. Got news from Reshma that her bus had not yet crossed Bangalore city limits.

So with lots of time to kill, i decided to visit Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad. It was filled with tourists, and they were being crammed into jeeps for a One hour ride. I had never visited Muthanga before. So I went to the office and asked how much would it cost if i were to hire a jeep for myself.

At Rs. 650 including all charges I thought it was a good deal. So I boarded the jeep. My company for the ride was Vivek, the driver and Madhav, the guide.

Frankly I did not enjoy the drive at all. The guys were good company with a lot of information and anecdotes , but the forest was depressing.I will not go much into detail, but I did see some elephants and spotted deer and the Malabar giant squirrel.

After the safari I headed off to Gundlupet.Reshma asked  me to pick her up at the Coffee day there. I had some nice coffee and samoosas, and then dozed off in my car for an hour.I was refreshed by the time Reshma reached, and we drove on towards JLR.

While checking in, we were very happy to see the familiar face of  Mr.Nataraj, one of the naturalists at JLR  in the office.After exchanging pleasantries, we were shown to our room for the weekend. It was the special cottage,called Hoopoe. Nice, clean and big with a small balcony, and away from the road.

Freshened up and went for lunch.I was not very hungry because of all the eating I did. But the lunch was great. Simple delicious food, excellent courteous staff.

Rested a bit and soon it was time for our evening safari.

Our driver for the evening was Kiran.  There were 8 people with us in the jeep excluding the driver. Two of them were 2 young guys from Australia( Adit and Pranav) who had just completed their 12th std and were out to see India.

Our evening safari yielded the usual suspects… Chital, Gaur etc.Unbelievably, one of the guys fell asleep during the safari. The Aussie duo were busy clicking .

We came across a group of Dholes ( wild dogs) midway through the safari, but they were far away  running on the jeep tracks.

Perhaps they were on a hunt ??!!!

Anyways opportunity ruined, and the non-photography crowd in the jeep didn’t want to stick around for the Dholes. We returned back to JLR. I was not too disappointed…I was thrilled to be in the Jungle.

Members of an online community Indianaturewatch, of which I also am a part of were there in Bandipur.

Eminent Surgeon and Photographer Dr.Ajit Huilgol and his son Vikram(An ace photographer himself), Suganthi and Rana Belur( makers of the battle of bandipur,search youtube),Saravanan Sundaram( I guess he loves the jungles, shuffling his time between the corporate jungle and the real one), Basavanna of JLR, Anshu Rao and his family and Sabir Chowdhury and his family.

It was great meeting  all of them there.

Had a drink and then an early dinner and hit the sack…wanted to be fresh for the morning Safari.

Sunday morning we were up and ready before dawn broke.Infact we were ready even before the JLR staff were awake !!!

We were with Kiran again. With us were Basavanna, Rana and Suganthi, and the Aussie duo.

The early morning ride to get to the jungle was amazing. It was freezing, travelling on the highway in an open jeep at 6 15 AM…

At the forest office there was information that a Tigress ( Gowri) was spotted around 5 45 am at a particular zone,and there were high chances that we might get to see her.

Without wasting much time we zoomed towards that area.Saw some gaur along the way…

Its magical to be in the jungle in the morning in winter.Though the slight mist and the low light were not ideal for handheld photography, the setting was simply awesome.

Basavanna and Kiran scouted for pugmarks, and there were so many going in different directions that it was all very confusing….

Finally we moved on slowly, very alert.The light was becoming better and then suddenly there she was…..

Gowri, the reigning queen of Bandipur was walking on the jeep tracks.She was just majestic.In my excitement I did my now patented “Spraying and Praying”. Got some shots in the camera. And then I settled down, nerves were calmed and carefully clicked some more images. The Hanuman langurs were going berserk on seeing the tigress.She at one point went into the bushes and let out some muted, but oh-so-menacing growls at the langurs. The hair on my neck stood up on its end.

We carefully tracked her till she disappeared into the bushes.Some excellent planning and driving by Basvanna and Kiran made us cross paths with the tigress again.

This time there were 3 more jeeps with us and all of us soaked in the view. The tigress was nonchalant, she had 4 cubs waiting for her and she was not bothered by the jeeps.

She quenched her thirst in the waterhole and went on her way….It was time for us to get out of the jungle and back to our rooms.

What a morning !!!!

Had a hearty breakfast and did some birding around the campus and near The country club, with Mr.Natraj. It was a morning well spent.A  short walk yielded, the Red Munias, Green bee-eater and the Chestnut Headed Bee-eater, Peacocks, White cheeked Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, Parrots, Scarlet Minivets, White backed vultures,Pacific swallows, and perhaps an Asian Paradise fly-catcher.

Surprisingly, the jungle safaris yielded very few birds.Only managed to spot a male streak throated woodpecker and this crested serpent eagle.

We returned in time for a great lunch and some well deserved snooze.

Evening safari ( in Kiran’s jeep again)  yielded us the barking deer( muntjac) and a few elephants.( Incl. a couple of solitary tuskers).Reluctantly we got out of the jungle again.

 

Back at JLR, Dr.Ajit showed me some of his images on his Ipad. The man is truly a gifted photographer. Had a light dinner and again tucked in early. I got up sometime in the night and opened the balcony. It was frrrrreeeezing !!!

Early next morning we were ready for our last safari with Kiran.It was considerably more foggy, and the light was low.Saw 2 barking deer together near a salt lick.

Moved on from there and in a couple of minutes we saw THE TIGER.

A huge handsome male….walking without a care in the world. He was just surveying his domain, sniffing around and scent marking a lot of trees.

Clicked a few images, and wished I had another camera body and a wide-angle lens….The tiger soon went inside the bushes.Here is where the most brilliant piece of tracking was done Kiran. He reversed the jeep got on to the main highway and parked the jeep by the roadside and waited… Soon enough the tiger crossed the main road and went into the other side.We also went inside( different route and road) and waited for him. The jungle was reverberating with Chital alarm calls.We again came across the tiger, watched him strut his stuff, relax in the grass and pose for the camera. At one point he was about 10 ft near a herd of super alert chital….Clearly food was the last thing on his mind as he left them alone and continued his walk.

We waited near a salt lick for him to return.He did not disappoint. He strolled down a meadow, licked some salt/mud for a few minutes, sprayed around some more, and went off on his way. At his closest he was about 20 feet away…A majestic animal, strong and proud.I lowered my camera and soaked in the moment.

This was nature, this was the jungle, this was what I had come to experience.Too often we are so obsessed about getting that awesome image that we forget to look at the bigger picture.The pure air, animals and birds roaming wild and free….

Checked out after a great breakfast…..I just cant wait to get back to the Jungle again !!!

The urge has only gotten stronger 🙂