tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21801775348967189252024-02-07T04:33:03.661-08:00Traveling is PleasureRaffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-24804513761789110782010-01-11T03:51:00.000-08:002010-01-11T05:35:56.533-08:00Feel like a fish...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgt6rnAXCv3R7aNiQP_d3zTmFPaAC52RyDlCw5nx7xkInhuCDLn_BMdopsWm81nGCDd2Rusf5boLeC7ew2A4iI8EbtIoCgG-tx3t_J1SFpEZ5AS4iunJ1MnUokP6b6F7lwCmb09QvWr4U/s1600-h/IMG_4758.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgt6rnAXCv3R7aNiQP_d3zTmFPaAC52RyDlCw5nx7xkInhuCDLn_BMdopsWm81nGCDd2Rusf5boLeC7ew2A4iI8EbtIoCgG-tx3t_J1SFpEZ5AS4iunJ1MnUokP6b6F7lwCmb09QvWr4U/s200/IMG_4758.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425449292843316610" border="0" /></a>We stayed 3 days in Dive India, Havelock, Andaman. We went for scuba diving on 23rd Dec, 2009. Couple of us know swimming. Rest of us know the basics of swimming. We had breakfast around 7:00AM, Picked the dive jacket and fins according to our size, travelled in dongi about 40minutes to reach the dive spot. On the way, in the dongi, dive instructor explained about the procedures, signals, dos and don'ts etc. Reached the spot, fitted our cylinders, etc and were ready for the dive :) . Dive instructor, David, gave instructions, and asked us to practice it in the shallow water. We practiced to breathe from the cylinder, to clean the goggles, to clean the mouth piece, etc. for 5 minutes. Once we were ready, David asked us to touch the ground with finger, keeping our body flat, move like crawling only with fingers and flipping the fins. He took care of inflating and deflating the air in the jacket to maintain the buoyancy. Actually, there are lot of calculations behind it. You need to know all those if you want to go deeper, say 20meters depth, and above. There are dive certification courses to know about those in detail. We reached 5 to 7 meters depth only.<br />Raffi, Sunil, and Elango went in one batch and Maruthu, and Sampath went in other batch. David asked us to clear the air pressure on the ear regularly by swallowing saliva. Coral reef area started just few meters ahead in the water. Saw lot of beautifull corals, colurfull fishes, Blue fish, Yellow and Black fish (Clown Fish), Green fish, Sea urchins, rose colored star fish, groups of fishes, etc. David asked us told the boulder corals if we need any support and asked us not to touch any other corals or any other creatures over there. It was a nice experience seeing the marine life under water. Didn't feel any difficulties. One of the mates had a calf muscle catch, but within manageable limits. We were under the sea for 30 minutes, felt like a fish, and enjoyed the marine life.<br /><object width="400" height="300"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fraffimd%2Fsets%2F72157623187350630%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fraffimd%2Fsets%2F72157623187350630%2F&set_id=72157623187350630&jump_to="> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fraffimd%2Fsets%2F72157623187350630%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fraffimd%2Fsets%2F72157623187350630%2F&set_id=72157623187350630&jump_to=" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-4859198022753884082010-01-07T05:56:00.000-08:002010-01-09T10:53:00.506-08:00Lost in the Jungle...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4R_oPaWaCarfZtXLJVeVf3_kIRdRlsZdjWg5hEahC4zJgQNHPlq1DAJbMwfBAmDhEwBeJU2eeLAQGBcDHY9U5ZYJ8n4zuJ9JTM6nCg8IAJw8fbdfoGpCDk4F67ggQ4MkzeDJ0RZuzJro/s1600-h/an+113.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 219px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4R_oPaWaCarfZtXLJVeVf3_kIRdRlsZdjWg5hEahC4zJgQNHPlq1DAJbMwfBAmDhEwBeJU2eeLAQGBcDHY9U5ZYJ8n4zuJ9JTM6nCg8IAJw8fbdfoGpCDk4F67ggQ4MkzeDJ0RZuzJro/s400/an+113.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423998206964119858" border="0" /></a>Dec 21st 2009 - Andaman - Mt Harriot - Maduban Beach Trek.<br />We were out of our resort by 7:00AM , had breakfast in Naidu hotel, Bhatu Basti, packed the leech kit with salt, tobacco powder, dettol, etc. Packed enough water to stay for the day. Once we were all set, took a cab, and reached chattum jetty. Reached bamboo flat in a ferry. We reached the base check post in a jeep. Paid him the cash, Sampath asked Raffi to note down the jeep driver akbar's number in case if we need jeep while walking back. After noting down the number, Around 8:30AM, we started our walk on the road to mt Harriot. After few kms of walk, we reached forest department check post, paid the entry fees, got the permit, and entered the forest area. Elango brought his <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4sQeHFRGE1dSZS-OQGrzZPwnTNaGVcra8MwzgRJjbWAHlXRGQJYScRvdwMxU7nHHOZ2n80atf6rGucikr8PQF63Bz-EJGUgI-oC3_gr1Dkexur4KJvNXvlM_rRae7aq_bfCrcvB1Nexo/s1600-h/an+151.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4sQeHFRGE1dSZS-OQGrzZPwnTNaGVcra8MwzgRJjbWAHlXRGQJYScRvdwMxU7nHHOZ2n80atf6rGucikr8PQF63Bz-EJGUgI-oC3_gr1Dkexur4KJvNXvlM_rRae7aq_bfCrcvB1Nexo/s200/an+151.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424001263334274338" border="0" /></a>new trekking stick, others picked the sticks on the way to avoid the load on the knees.<br />Although the walk is inside the forest area, it was not much pleasure to walk on the motorable road. Just before reaching mt Harriot, we saw few orchids and plants in the controlled environment and the abandoned commissioner's bungalow.<br />We reached mt Harriot, relaxed under the peepal tree, refreshed ourselves before starting our actual trek, which is supposed to be 16kms starting from mt Harriot peak and ending at the mt Harriot peak. We started our trek in the trail inside the forest. It was a pleasure to walk inside the forest. It was 9:50 am when we started our trail. As per one of yogi's advice, Elango had brought black raisins and palm sugar crystals. That helps you to generate the s<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixTp-lao5pMJG8_okBXy7rJvBLzm-PyehucFtq0eT5hDDhnyNS147wguhw5IX2Ju6UfX8h6bjQ9UFI1WQQdMU0D0aUVVqdQPJ9RTBJl-TlcySDJUtwpAPElfsCYI_pXaqvDFGSYp2_04k/s1600-h/an+156.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 178px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixTp-lao5pMJG8_okBXy7rJvBLzm-PyehucFtq0eT5hDDhnyNS147wguhw5IX2Ju6UfX8h6bjQ9UFI1WQQdMU0D0aUVVqdQPJ9RTBJl-TlcySDJUtwpAPElfsCYI_pXaqvDFGSYp2_04k/s320/an+156.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424001488271447394" border="0" /></a>aliva in your mouth and avoid de-hydration. We retained couple of them in our mouth and enjoyed our walk. In the beginning of the trail, within couple of kms, we saw a professional photographer with a nice binoculars and SLR camera with good lens taking pictures of birds found in that forest area. We didn't see anyone after them until we reached kala pathur, which is near to mt carpenter.<br />one fellow crossed us, asking us the way to kala pathar. Not sure whether he lost his group. We took few minutes of rest on the rock, saw the names embossed on rock dated from 1840. We took few photos, refreshed and resumed our trek.<br />It was a dense forest with one trail. We just followed the trail. No one is either coming in the trail or returning back in the trail. We were the only group walking in <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5gFNemq8sQ3u4yqfS9MQTfVg2XjtVgLiBotdXfkNKzrqMZv0aXOb99FomZ56dFcPLnIuFQbYj5W53cj85L1CoHinfNQOSx8JCIwX_OFpMo2yhiS7JDdNowe52EfT5ie1tK8Tnj3chuM8/s1600-h/an+170.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5gFNemq8sQ3u4yqfS9MQTfVg2XjtVgLiBotdXfkNKzrqMZv0aXOb99FomZ56dFcPLnIuFQbYj5W53cj85L1CoHinfNQOSx8JCIwX_OFpMo2yhiS7JDdNowe52EfT5ie1tK8Tnj3chuM8/s400/an+170.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424004008346114242" border="0" /></a>the trail, that too without any guide. We were hit by leeches in few kilometers of the trail. We applied tobacco powder with dettol and coconut oil. Not many leeches when compared to karimala gopuram trek in parambikulam. Couple of people felt irritating as it was a new experience for them, other folks were okay with it. Elango suddenly got scared of snakes and walked slowly by clearing the leaves on the trails. We took turns to lead, cleared the leaves and walked with care as instructed by Elango. Sun started going down, we were walking, walking, walking within the forest.<br />Arou<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_WN5LHIZMQhqiNXz7S1y8d9_T-swpTYdR6e8UpZzEw6rvMzFBhzOYNZLAjcfO3SzN9sEpzLWZXIhr_ZwZyoyWA9VomtaTiv1DHE2CSJZluLFqskBe-8XoekZ5AxuM2DY3yUCOtQDaNQ/s1600-h/an+165.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 297px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_WN5LHIZMQhqiNXz7S1y8d9_T-swpTYdR6e8UpZzEw6rvMzFBhzOYNZLAjcfO3SzN9sEpzLWZXIhr_ZwZyoyWA9VomtaTiv1DHE2CSJZluLFqskBe-8XoekZ5AxuM2DY3yUCOtQDaNQ/s400/an+165.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424002243040572194" border="0" /></a>nd 2:00PM, we started sensing that we were getting lost in the forest. Couple of us including me suggested to walk back so that we can reach before the night. Couple of us does not want to climb the uphill now, wanted to go downhill, reach the beach and find alternate mode of transport. We decided to walk ahead till 2:30PM, and if we don't reach the beach, we'll start walking back. In Andaman, sun sets too early at 4:30PM. Finally, we reached a small stream around 2:45PM. We got some hope after seeing that stream. We washed hands and face to refresh ourselves and ate the packed lunch given by kodhandam sir's family, who were very kind. By the time we finished our lunch, it was 3:15pm.<br /><br />We asked the opinion among ourselves about our next move. Elango was telling that somehow we need to reach back to Port Blair tonight because we have the ferry to Havelock early in the morning. Raffi replied him that let's first see how we go out of this place. Not sure whether we'll reach Port Blair tonight or tomorrow. We referred the snap of the forest map that we took at mt Harriot peak. We found all the small streams reaches the sea. Based on our knowledge of traveling inside the forest and the remembrance of discovery channel programs, We decided to follow the stream to reach a place where we could see <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinba7nUou_PhcYiouC_OE8yrUDiagFVV4RAZYh5M1DZGlnOFGl3zmIAtcyypQKRFDEt8yhqeZ-fsg6d_1ZDV3rYuKiZjFlmIBfACx4TyLII2wV_CA2C-SZJsVRXwboaJjyX-W9QEbUecs/s1600-h/an+196.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinba7nUou_PhcYiouC_OE8yrUDiagFVV4RAZYh5M1DZGlnOFGl3zmIAtcyypQKRFDEt8yhqeZ-fsg6d_1ZDV3rYuKiZjFlmIBfACx4TyLII2wV_CA2C-SZJsVRXwboaJjyX-W9QEbUecs/s320/an+196.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424004575529612066" border="0" /></a>some life. So, got into water, water was at knee level, we walked few meters and found that the forward way is not that easy. Trees had fallen down and blocked the way and the depth of the water was increasing. We withdrew our plan of following the stream, we came back to the place where we had lunch and tried to apply our mind again. Since we walked downwards much, we felt that altitude has come down quite considerably and the sea should be nearby if we walk in the right direction and decided to walk in the trail across the stream.<br /><br />We were little scared that the trail might not lead us to beach. Sampath insisted that we have to walk in that way, no other option. As a back up plan, we decided to track our route from that point, so that we can reach back to the stream at least if we didn't find any beach. Staying near <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQYzoj2QHyADf0orUgoR6ZQyBV-iQsRRbwJHm4oyi9tcySl468Ln8TBeZ7LL3R6FY5Oz3wJpU2E_GU-e3_a-9ex-9BzMhTbeuTzxx3FmtrA2P1JudeZZ1bit4ZW8La8qnAqXGqnD6cCY/s1600-h/an+197.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 254px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQYzoj2QHyADf0orUgoR6ZQyBV-iQsRRbwJHm4oyi9tcySl468Ln8TBeZ7LL3R6FY5Oz3wJpU2E_GU-e3_a-9ex-9BzMhTbeuTzxx3FmtrA2P1JudeZZ1bit4ZW8La8qnAqXGqnD6cCY/s400/an+197.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424004942678700994" border="0" /></a>stream is better than staying in the middle of the forest under trees. Elango had told us many times about the presence of snakes especially King Cobra in these forest. We took back the paper that we dropped after the lunch, dropped small pieces of paper to track our path as suggested by Maruthu. Maruthu's turn of dropping paper was over, then Raffi's turn was over. We took the downhill path, after certain distance, we started feeling the salt water in the air. Few meters down, Maruthu heard the crow's sound. Based on the above observations, we felt that we are nearing the sea. Few hundreds meter down, we reached the sea shore.<object width="425" height="344"></object><br />We got so<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHiFhOtHM22Ao-v7ZNYMWX7u2PrznZdATAQw1i4fGLTu-2GLaAAJUayTYzBP-wlzJzHgi7XsZTwTiqg_bSnyvdA9reB4MTfX70mXG70RKjEAlAGDxoOciYQY2XCjgSZqV7wj2AOD9UlHc/s1600-h/DSCF0240.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 211px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHiFhOtHM22Ao-v7ZNYMWX7u2PrznZdATAQw1i4fGLTu-2GLaAAJUayTYzBP-wlzJzHgi7XsZTwTiqg_bSnyvdA9reB4MTfX70mXG70RKjEAlAGDxoOciYQY2XCjgSZqV7wj2AOD9UlHc/s400/DSCF0240.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424006394560145154" border="0" /></a>me hopes, could see smiles on everyone's face. We relaxed for few minutes, applied our mind again, identified the north, south,etc. based on the sun before it hides away from us. Referred the Andaman map on the book that Raffi bought in the museum shop. Realized that we need to walk south from our current position to reach Port Blair. Their was no mobile signal.<br />We walked couple of km on the rocks, it is not that easy to walk on the uneven, wet, rocky surface.<br />We saw some boat crossing on the sea at a far distance, tried to make some signals to the boat, but, all went in vain.<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D76AN3Eg8z8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D76AN3Eg8z8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />We continued our walk, after crossing a curve, mountain in the forest were cleared away and we got signal on our mobile. Signal was feeble and it was on and off. We thanked Sam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1sthV4SYedbAirZ5DZpPrGfxYJmtwQ4qZNDxoFq0AIlwKGEloiLQymaYiS22JEyAxo3NEbrg2SFIP8vGenLb4I3e7IXmMKQozAZMswRwGQGgj8aGNV4_KQjSYlr6nAjALFarI5hLRC8/s1600-h/an+202.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1sthV4SYedbAirZ5DZpPrGfxYJmtwQ4qZNDxoFq0AIlwKGEloiLQymaYiS22JEyAxo3NEbrg2SFIP8vGenLb4I3e7IXmMKQozAZMswRwGQGgj8aGNV4_KQjSYlr6nAjALFarI5hLRC8/s400/an+202.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424006954396131250" border="0" /></a>path who asked us to note down the jeep driver, akbar's, mobile number. Raffi called him up, informed him about the situation, and asked him for some help. He replied "Sir, reach some road and call me, I'll come and pick you all". Where do we find a road there? Again we emphasized that we got lost inside the forest and somehow reached a beach. Told him that it will be of great help if he can send some boat to rescue us. He said, he'll check with the boat fellow and call back. He called back after 20 minutes and handed over the phone to boat fellow. We explained him the situation and asked him to come and rescue from the beach. Initially he said that the waves are too high right now, and sea will get more rough as the night is approaching and the full moon is nearing. He asked us to stay over the beach on the night and he'll come in the morning and pick us all. We called Akbar again, negotiated with him for a while, we were ready to pay double the amount and even some commission for him. He negotiated with the boat fellow and boat fellow calle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqREanKqjo8roiADHBLj03c5LR0tz0ncAHb2GMTDtzomtcwxBEljRL93DCSdpHygMarAFvsK7RUJIE5J6_0tKaA05PmH_ZTE2lowkaO2bma2mwpmlR8wEr7OycRaz0TDgkFSqTz0olUfE/s1600-h/an+203.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqREanKqjo8roiADHBLj03c5LR0tz0ncAHb2GMTDtzomtcwxBEljRL93DCSdpHygMarAFvsK7RUJIE5J6_0tKaA05PmH_ZTE2lowkaO2bma2mwpmlR8wEr7OycRaz0TDgkFSqTz0olUfE/s320/an+203.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424007989955984994" border="0" /></a>d us again. Now, Raffi lost the signal in his BSNL mobile. Luckily Elango's mobile picked up the signal. Raffi called the boat fellow through that mobile and after rounds of negotiation, Raffi and Elango convinced the boat fellow to come immediately.<br /><br />The time was 6:00PM, other four fellows already crossed the rocky terrain and reached a sand area.<br />Raffi and Elango joined the group and informed about the rescue plan. As the sun went off at 5:00PM, it was dark completely. We were signaling with torch to all the boats/ferry that were visible at far distance. Raffi and Sunil collected some shells on the shore. Maruthu was listening to the music in the i-pod. Elango and Rajendiran sir were quitely sitting on the sand. We got doubt on the boat fellow whether he will turn up now or in the morning. We call<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsn6k5a6beo9M7ZQ46IiSI-L8f_AWIOJxLwQnDl1494bIu7S9JKDqc5Hz_hm99UA6P_eWm485-nM4N9RM1LjGyoO6C45IQXlouIuNWYjWQ66KSUBHPjqBwYXyzuBVhti5aw-NLb5gFBYQ/s1600-h/DSCF0268.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsn6k5a6beo9M7ZQ46IiSI-L8f_AWIOJxLwQnDl1494bIu7S9JKDqc5Hz_hm99UA6P_eWm485-nM4N9RM1LjGyoO6C45IQXlouIuNWYjWQ66KSUBHPjqBwYXyzuBVhti5aw-NLb5gFBYQ/s400/DSCF0268.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424008265758918194" border="0" /></a>ed him many times, checked the status. Some mobile network signal went stronger, some mobile network signal went low. managed to call him through multiple phones to keep a track that he is coming. In the meanwhile, we were signaling to all the boats that were visible, even at a far distance.<br />After a long wait, boat/dongi came to rescue us at 8:00PM. Tide was high, he could not get the boat closer to the shore. One fellow came out of the boat, anchored the boat. There were three more fellows on the dongi. Water was at the chest level near the boat. We had to walk in the water and get onto the dongi in the high tide. Rajendiran sir went first, gave his bag to the boat fellow, and jumped in. His shoes fell off. Raffi picked up the shoes from water and dropped inside the dongi. Raffi didn't realize that his bag is still on his back. It already had 4 or 5 litres of water, fetched from the stream and it got wet to add more weight. As the high tide was moving the dongi too much, water level was also quite high, with the weight on the back, Raffi struggled to get onto the dongi. Boat fellow scolded him left and right. Sunil managed to get in. Raffi finally realized the bag weight and gave the bag to the boat fellow and jumped on to the boat while Maruthu was getting into dongi, as it went down while Maruthu was climbing. Elango saw all this drama, planned well, gave the bag first to the boat fellow, and followed Maruthu's trick and got in very easily.<br /><br />We all got into the dongi, boat fellow removed the anchor and started our journey in the rough sea. We thought that our struggle was over. But, in the high tide, dongi was pitching too much, edges of each side of the dongi was touching the sea water everytime. Maruthu, and Elango were alright. Sampath and Sunil were in better shape. Rajendiran sir and Raffi were feeling vomiting sensation because of the dongi movements on the sea.<br />Rajendiran sir vomited in the bucket, which is used to throw the leaked water out of dongi. Raffi managed to hold it. When we were waiting to get out of the dongi, Elango asked the boat fellow to drop us in chattam jetty instead of bamboo flat. This requires more travel in the dongi on the rough sea. Raffi didn't have energy to reply back. Finally we reached chattum jetty, got out of the dongi, paid the boat fellow the money that he asked, gave some cash to boat fellow to hand it over to akbar, jeep driver, as a commission. Took couple of auto-rickshaws and reached our resort by 9:30PM.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-45142190571290647842010-01-07T01:56:00.000-08:002010-01-11T04:05:46.787-08:00Out talk with DFODay 8 - 4th Oct, 2009<br />On our last day in parambikulam forest area. we refreshed our self in tiger hall. Packed our baggages. Some events were going on in parambikulam. So, they were conducting painting competition for kids in tiger hall. They had outdoor competition such as Kabadi, Cricket, badminton, etc.We didn't have any plans on that day. We just relaxed for few hours, had tea twice, bought forest honey, etc from the forest department shop. Had early lunch. Pickup Tempo traveller came directly to tiger hall. We loaded the baggages in tempo traveler, said good bye to parambikulam village, and started our journey back to coimbatore. Babu came along with us till the eco centre. We told Babu that we wanted to talk to Parambikulam forest officer.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5QWzqkpEKiZtWGkDbo5mwkb7-4Df-ka3ZrN7rTojjGblRvOZQXOVpF9YwtrazMyVCRRCKUp97ZwAfB7-7MENsMLh4DMVQQkUHrd1H1d9KNgBWQ-PHerGi1mjDO-Bd-pah8heq5-DPYag/s1600-h/WithSanjayanKumarIFS_DFO.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5QWzqkpEKiZtWGkDbo5mwkb7-4Df-ka3ZrN7rTojjGblRvOZQXOVpF9YwtrazMyVCRRCKUp97ZwAfB7-7MENsMLh4DMVQQkUHrd1H1d9KNgBWQ-PHerGi1mjDO-Bd-pah8heq5-DPYag/s200/WithSanjayanKumarIFS_DFO.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423935208148858370" border="0" /></a>He took us to DFO office, we met Mr.Sanjay Kumar IFS DFO. We spent couple of hours talking to him. He was so dedicated to the work. He p about the eco tourism plan, where he generate the job opportunities for the tribals in the parambikulam, how he controls the forest environment, etc. He explained about the numerous project ideas such as making the key chains from plastics collected through the recycle bins within forest area, etc.<br />To add to all that, his wife is a doctor, who is also serving for the tribals in parambikulam village. As a couple, they are serving over there and contributing to the environment. We appreciated him for the nice work and gave few valuable feedback. He asked us back to volunteer to help him to keep up the environment. One of that is to teach English to the tribal who are working as guides over there.<br />Anyone interested? <a href="http://www.parambikulam.org/">Parambikulam Official site</a><br />We said thanks and good bye to all forest officers and left parambikulam forest.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-48429362885194377672009-11-23T07:56:00.000-08:002010-01-11T04:06:07.690-08:00Thellikal Nights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELJtOamk8D8mTZSoB7tHWiMrDCFXN8EVrrplMiWExtm6O39m7qgvhDRJNw9nWv7c3_lRkvULwA_OKKS1cmkXxsWQuyNP5yQ1TCs2K9msZfEU_jBDudtye7A9bLclxe1Zdok89BjfU-OA/s1600/Parambikulam+390.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELJtOamk8D8mTZSoB7tHWiMrDCFXN8EVrrplMiWExtm6O39m7qgvhDRJNw9nWv7c3_lRkvULwA_OKKS1cmkXxsWQuyNP5yQ1TCs2K9msZfEU_jBDudtye7A9bLclxe1Zdok89BjfU-OA/s320/Parambikulam+390.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407329879584086642" border="0" /></a>Day 7 - 3rd Oct, 2009<br />After few hours of sleep in the machan, we all got ready by 7:00AM, ate the remaining bread, jam, banannas, etc. We trekked few kms ahead of the machan to chcek out the animals. Unfortunately, we didn't see any. We started walking back to parambikulam village. That was 5 kms. We reached parambikullam village, refreshed ourself, ate lunch, packed curd rice for the dinner at thellikal nights, boarded the bus around 1:00PM, reached parivari pallam. from there we need to trek 8 kms to reach thellikal nights stay. It started raining as soon as we got down from the bus. we put our rain coats on, started walking. Sunshine had an head ache, gave the local balm, which we bought at the eco centre shop. Luckily, there were no leeches on this trail.<br /><br />On the way, murugesh found some guava trees, plucked lot of guavas. Then found a amla tree, plucked few amlas. It was nice walking in the forest when it is drizzling. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZP0UvCGTgbJNlxAxbsqyA3EVrfdXW32KMOARYTuxpY3byUK7BBgGKQgRLSiyewAJBJtK9MAsTPuCXD0aEKhDBM4fSb3SQlFpNRFllp6mKrdG4iDrIySs6CMOsIXRltnS4UMunqtYp1tQ/s1600/Parambikulam+391.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZP0UvCGTgbJNlxAxbsqyA3EVrfdXW32KMOARYTuxpY3byUK7BBgGKQgRLSiyewAJBJtK9MAsTPuCXD0aEKhDBM4fSb3SQlFpNRFllp6mKrdG4iDrIySs6CMOsIXRltnS4UMunqtYp1tQ/s320/Parambikulam+391.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407329177729771090" border="0" /></a>We reached the Panthera den, near the thellikal vayal around 4:30PM. We ate one pack of curd rice with pickle. Bliss took some mind map notes about the treks, Moon light slept a bit. Sunshine and Wanderer were resting themselves after the walk. Babu and Murugesh brought some water from the pond near by to the kitchen and prepared the black tea. Drank the black tea. Archillies and Bridget went for a walk till the pond and came back. Babu and Murugesh shared lot of wild stories that they came across. Once, Babu met with an elephant and it started chasing him. Somehow he ran off and escaped from the elephant, reached his home, and didn't go to work for the next few days it seems. So many stories like that. Archillies was tired and went for a short nap. Bliss and Moon light listened to all the stories.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6fBuDi-NCY5bL15XwlZws2yDrUE774pVdzZO2atGLE8o4p4fBGbvA-7ty4JOPyxLDVBbK-9mUQ84aUTKRSirtltm5fzakqi2gUJcCs3YScIgVKd_O9iHd-M2NKvrHvyUULY3mZ9koL0/s1600/Parambikulam+399.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6fBuDi-NCY5bL15XwlZws2yDrUE774pVdzZO2atGLE8o4p4fBGbvA-7ty4JOPyxLDVBbK-9mUQ84aUTKRSirtltm5fzakqi2gUJcCs3YScIgVKd_O9iHd-M2NKvrHvyUULY3mZ9koL0/s320/Parambikulam+399.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407330781252319874" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Suddenly Babu observed that a sambar deer is being hunted by a team of wild dogs. Moon light, Bliss went and saw that with the guides. In few minutes, all the wild dogs cleared off the sambar deer. Archillies got up around 7:00PM. All ate the dinner, went out, saw few sambar deers, malabar squirrel, etc. It was pitch dark, we went back to panthera den, chit chatted for a while and went to sleep early, as we need to walk 8 kms to reach the bus stop to catch the bus at 7:00AM in the morning. We got up at 5:00AM, all got ready quickly, let the place, walked briskly in the morning, took some short cuts, reached the bus stop on time. After few minutes, bus came there, we got into bus, reached parambikulam village, directly went to the hotel, ate breakfast :)<br /><div style="text-align: center;">You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-45250544750804111872009-11-21T10:56:00.001-08:002010-01-11T04:06:24.197-08:00Full Moon CencusDay 6 - 2nd Oct, 2009<br />We vacated salim ali centre around 2:30PM and headed to Full Moon Census. From salim Ali centre, Full moon census is 5 Kms away. Our guide said we should not reach early, because animals won't come after smelling our presence and alos we should not reach late, because animals will go away if they see us coming. So, we planned to reach around 4:30-5:00 and started accordingly.<br /><br />After 5 days in forest covering almost 70Kms, our stamina improved a lot. Covering 5 Kms and all is <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB86r8cwC_DgNzsvGDXrOpTSKYm6k3wW-raUoqlmMP7SbYnpVa6xE3dAGabrl7NrD0pQW1ajy7mYOSRKHeF4RnYnyRBkn5JzIEE-2QfLmTdoOCeZoJY4RW5fQwYDciHDTXbKe77m3Dm60/s1600/Parambikulam+225.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB86r8cwC_DgNzsvGDXrOpTSKYm6k3wW-raUoqlmMP7SbYnpVa6xE3dAGabrl7NrD0pQW1ajy7mYOSRKHeF4RnYnyRBkn5JzIEE-2QfLmTdoOCeZoJY4RW5fQwYDciHDTXbKe77m3Dm60/s320/Parambikulam+225.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406633496533879778" border="0" /></a>a easy task now. We never felt tired, we were at a good pace. Not much of leeches on this trial. We saw few sambar dears at some distance. We crossed couple of vayals, grass land. Saw few Bisons and sambar deers at a distance. We reached our tree top machan after around 4:45. Bliss, Sunshine went up. To adress nature's call, Archilles and Moon light walked few metres away from the tree top machan. Saw a herd of sambar deers at a very close distance. Almost 25 to 30 sambar deers. After sensing us, all ran away in different directions and after sometime, gathered again and went inside the forest trees.As the machan is occupied very rarely, It was dirty all over the place. One big rat and few bats were inside. Our Guide cleaned the machan and set all the rat and bats away.<br /><br />We ate some snacks and played few rounds of card games. We ate chappattis, bread, jam, boiled <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7GPpvkfTO040GQL5uXYEMmPZuLNJYYJOAWPJnCKR3BahtHQqW2-z1Czcsddltrb3iS1uhPqW6FsZMGOPnI47m4FCD4mz9RDG-peVXjRilS17cC1isHmnPOyQJGUJiTfOCAgG89xf20Q/s1600/Parambikulam+372.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7GPpvkfTO040GQL5uXYEMmPZuLNJYYJOAWPJnCKR3BahtHQqW2-z1Czcsddltrb3iS1uhPqW6FsZMGOPnI47m4FCD4mz9RDG-peVXjRilS17cC1isHmnPOyQJGUJiTfOCAgG89xf20Q/s320/Parambikulam+372.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406634247838087906" border="0" /></a>eggs, bannanas, etc as dinner. After dinner time was 9:00PM. We made some shifts to be awake and watch out for the animals. Bliss wanted to stay awake the whole night. Archillies and Moon light were on the last shift, which starts from 2AM. So, both went to sleep. Bliss, and Sunshine were on the first shift, 9:00PM to 11:00PM. Bridget didn't get sleep in machan because of bat's smell. Bridget also accompanied the first shift folks. They identified a sambar deer. All went and saw. After 11:00PM, Sunshine went to sleep. Bliss, Wanderer, and Bridget were observing the animals. Around 00:30 hrs, some one woke up Archillies and Moon light saying "Bear, Bear". They spoted a bear. All woke up and saw the bear. It was right beneath the machan. We used the bright-light torch, brought by the guide, and saw the bear. Because of the disturbance, it went back to the trees. It was raining whole night. Because of that, none of the animals came to the grass land, stayed inside the forest.<br />Moon light went to sleep. Archillies could not get sleep after that. Started observing animals. Around 2:00AM, Bliss, Wanderer went to sleep. Bridget went to sleep around 2:30AM. Archillies woke up Moonlight around 3:00AM and went to sleep. Didn't observe any more animals. But felt some movements beneath the machan. Not sure, what was the animal.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKKnjm7k6p7WPLzJqJ9-5fELQRWzzdio7mF2N_A980c8Pesaz1zPc6AFFG3DvXpKUnyhKkaW1ChyphenhyphenThUGP6w5HEufQERd2-GfOqwN_avwYdJWj3P53phwBbQefCro7X_SGawHrPb8kPsfs/s1600/Parambikulam+383.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKKnjm7k6p7WPLzJqJ9-5fELQRWzzdio7mF2N_A980c8Pesaz1zPc6AFFG3DvXpKUnyhKkaW1ChyphenhyphenThUGP6w5HEufQERd2-GfOqwN_avwYdJWj3P53phwBbQefCro7X_SGawHrPb8kPsfs/s200/Parambikulam+383.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406635118219093106" border="0" /></a>Near to that machan, there is a rock stone. Elephants normally come there and rub its body on that rock stone it seems. Because of that rock, that place is named as "Anakkal", meaning Elephant's rock.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek</a><a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html"> blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-70706279528838326612009-11-21T10:36:00.000-08:002010-01-11T04:06:45.131-08:00Salim Ali Centre<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9DXmTBdKFnjZeR2TBLjzUUxHYzAl6XdmeyGlcxPi3TCrJqp8Jeyl81NMm17ljeiW9ZrugjVuwseZ3Yf1HaWYSYQaQ7O6CwxDfjsa23ONDcTf783hfztcgaiNYIKCRfSkdhBMRkEaz6do/s1600/Parambikulam+341.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9DXmTBdKFnjZeR2TBLjzUUxHYzAl6XdmeyGlcxPi3TCrJqp8Jeyl81NMm17ljeiW9ZrugjVuwseZ3Yf1HaWYSYQaQ7O6CwxDfjsa23ONDcTf783hfztcgaiNYIKCRfSkdhBMRkEaz6do/s400/Parambikulam+341.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406629274202607650" border="0" /></a>Day 5 - 1st Oct, 2009<br />After the Early morning safari, we ate the breakfast near the information centre, saw the displays at the exhibition centre, rested ourself below the trees near the information centre. We left around 12:30, reached parambikulam village, ate our lunch, refreshed a bit, took the neccessarry stuff for next couple of days to stay at Salim Ali centre and Full Moon Census. Initial plan was to get the material with us and someone will cook for us near salim ali centre. Unfortunately, some one passed away in parambikulam village and most of the people who stayed near salim ali centre came to parambikulam village. So, change of plan. For the next two days, We packed enough chappatis, tomato rice, curd rice, eggs, bread, jam, banannas, candles, etc.<br /><br />Since Salim Ali centre is on the way to the cochin tramway trek and we already covered that trail, we didn't want to walk 10 Kms again on the same trail. We reached Salim Ali centre in the SUMO and we released the SUMO. Babu didn't come with us. He was there in parambikulam village to attend the rituals. New guide came with us.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt4t6HKIVZc50jy2HkURGcbczzjuvi34WIQ27UqmERcU-5Z4k1fF-yfcyYyRkxbtBhOYNjB5XT9y4NNHfKWaHyD_MdRF-t2IwrP6RFGJpHS8ML8HA1kxmusLRWK2UPdkz1aEeIXBhUmfs/s1600/Parambikulam+211.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt4t6HKIVZc50jy2HkURGcbczzjuvi34WIQ27UqmERcU-5Z4k1fF-yfcyYyRkxbtBhOYNjB5XT9y4NNHfKWaHyD_MdRF-t2IwrP6RFGJpHS8ML8HA1kxmusLRWK2UPdkz1aEeIXBhUmfs/s200/Parambikulam+211.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406630027731928786" border="0" /></a>We reached around 5:30. Guide cleaned the salim ali centre dormitory. That facility had Bamboo cart, very basic toilet, water arrangement for the toilet, no power. We off loaded our lugguage. Bliss went to river to take bath. Rest of us asked our guide to make the arrangement for fishing. We have already brought the fishing thread and the fishing needle from parambikulam village. We got three fishing rods, tried to catch some fish. We got some pull from the fish, but they are smart, ate the earthworm and went off. It started getting dark, we went back to salim ali centre. Ate our packed dinner. Went to sleep. It was raining whole night.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKwnHMvyVJ9Gvp-WFZaOmHava-NFqv2zyEKIgzG_jgfIyVQALa8mXJC5DrpVDm_95mNpGSpcJMGT9R-kGclyE4ZXQYsI_Jrs2G6KIzt1ET6fr32_FAeYCxSryLZvj8k_94KLT3wuLt8qo/s1600/Parambikulam+201.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKwnHMvyVJ9Gvp-WFZaOmHava-NFqv2zyEKIgzG_jgfIyVQALa8mXJC5DrpVDm_95mNpGSpcJMGT9R-kGclyE4ZXQYsI_Jrs2G6KIzt1ET6fr32_FAeYCxSryLZvj8k_94KLT3wuLt8qo/s320/Parambikulam+201.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406630839518299410" border="0" /></a>Next day, day 6, Got up around 8:00AM, it was still drizzling. We brushed, asked our guide to boil the eggs through some villagers who stayed near salim ali centre. We ate chappattis, eggs, bread, and jam. Bliss went outside, did some Kalipayattu practice, followed by Rain Yoga. Since we need to be awake on full moon census night, We rested ourself in salim ali centre. Babu reached salim ali centre around 12:00. We ate our lunch around 1:00PM, relaxed a bit, packed our stuff, vacated salim ali centre around 2:30PM and headed to Full Moon Census.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br />You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek</a><a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html"> blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-16900649945787110592009-11-21T07:14:00.000-08:002010-01-11T04:07:02.633-08:00Kari Mala Gopuram Trek<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgs2Dy9P9k1iGFOkXBJKB8_6U1ZQPIA5m_TEfPOuJtgqu6Bst2SXqa4X_lmaZRGcE_JttGDBXuuY8dN4KYwzI1Dbi2iBpruKdpEvShOOkKREhB6hLFqgFxNfFs2N80MRwcNHDZnmglpM/s1600/Parambikulam+135.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgs2Dy9P9k1iGFOkXBJKB8_6U1ZQPIA5m_TEfPOuJtgqu6Bst2SXqa4X_lmaZRGcE_JttGDBXuuY8dN4KYwzI1Dbi2iBpruKdpEvShOOkKREhB6hLFqgFxNfFs2N80MRwcNHDZnmglpM/s400/Parambikulam+135.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406576010862526354" border="0" /></a>Day 4 - 30th Sept, 2009<br />Since this one is the toughest among all the parambikulam, we planned to start early. Informed our guide on the previous day to arrange the food parcel before 7:30AM.<br /><br />We were all ready by 7:00AM, we ate our breakfast at lakshmi hotel, who charged at par with any normal hotel in bangalore. Our lunch parcel got delayed because of the morning breakfast rush in the hotel. We got our parcel around 8:30AM. Guide farooq replaced guide murugesh for this trek. By the time we reached the parambikulam dam, it was 9:00AM.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMTi_8hCOQogFUh5uw0_mRmCpCyffxLLmiMaWA3Cpsbz0SLXuGYHGUcSuT6_QS-6J4CNEafzhPLDcLZerGXAuIT9F4pKJElSGn8vxPqiU_19DwfJPaWV96lHl4pgPVg7apsKRj8K99Bc/s1600/Parambikulam+174+-+Copy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMTi_8hCOQogFUh5uw0_mRmCpCyffxLLmiMaWA3Cpsbz0SLXuGYHGUcSuT6_QS-6J4CNEafzhPLDcLZerGXAuIT9F4pKJElSGn8vxPqiU_19DwfJPaWV96lHl4pgPVg7apsKRj8K99Bc/s400/Parambikulam+174+-+Copy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406576972725005010" border="0" /></a><br />Karimala Gopuram trek starts from the dam. As our guide informed about the leech population in this trail, we had applied lot of dettol mixed with tobacco powder. Few, who didn't like the tobacco powder smell, applied only dettol. Babu made some nice sticks for us from the trees.<br />We started our trek. The trail is steepy from the beginning of the trek. We had to stop couple of minutes after every 10 minutes of climb. Too many Leeches all around. As soon as you slow down your pace or stop at some place,minimum 5 leeches claim on the foot. We were all busy in removing them as we walked. Bliss walked ahead of all of us.Wanderer and Moon Light were at the end. Bridget started counting the number of leeches she removed from her shoes. She got around 200 leeches altogether till she reached back the base.<br /><br />As we walked very slowly on the steep, We reached the middle of the trial around 1:00PM, which was late as per our calculation. We all had our curd rice with yummy Ginger pickle. Took some rest.Since Wanderer was low on that day, Wanderer decided to stay at the rock and asked us to climb the peak and come back. Guide Babu stayed with her. We headed up after lunch break. Since we need to climb down before the sunset, we increased our pace. It was drizzling quite often. As we all had our rain coats on, we kept walking inside the ever green forest.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMjJoegJJOcpRmSjueG8eviUxmg3iYz8fvASAcmxB8k8NN_KX-47nD2ERHp6cv7TqLNZPQwnlq3uK9v9AmYn8P1ogukM8R4M-xt5wJL_e1VZ9vuIsaTs8TrmGqu8luYTkQgaisxpJNSc/s1600/Parambikulam+204+-+Copy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMjJoegJJOcpRmSjueG8eviUxmg3iYz8fvASAcmxB8k8NN_KX-47nD2ERHp6cv7TqLNZPQwnlq3uK9v9AmYn8P1ogukM8R4M-xt5wJL_e1VZ9vuIsaTs8TrmGqu8luYTkQgaisxpJNSc/s400/Parambikulam+204+-+Copy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406577989910273922" border="0" /></a>Last few kilometers there are no trees, But Lot of grass were there. Our guide said that elephants come here for this grass especially. We saw couple of marks which indicated that baby elephants palyed over the grass land. On the grass land, the trial is actually maintained by the elephants. We followed the elephant pug marks and climbed the steep by holding the grass, which gave very strong support. We saw a small black viper snake. Our guide used the stick to clear the grass, it went away. Since it was 2:30PM already, the last mile to the peak we didn't cover :(.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEAEkWo7ySfiY22CLBQJXfEongX4N74TIgdFlzxtxWdDB7XDIpeNweKuJjaADuLfx7GxA21-fbKMTmW5iU0YgmBc7YEfPkMcReh2zj3lZMcfYVPGtZUE5xm4gc0kN2MU2oW-FAiZDjeg/s1600/Parambikulam+214+-+Copy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEAEkWo7ySfiY22CLBQJXfEongX4N74TIgdFlzxtxWdDB7XDIpeNweKuJjaADuLfx7GxA21-fbKMTmW5iU0YgmBc7YEfPkMcReh2zj3lZMcfYVPGtZUE5xm4gc0kN2MU2oW-FAiZDjeg/s400/Parambikulam+214+-+Copy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407339644913140770" border="0" /></a>We relaxed on the grass land, had a nice view of the catchment area, clouds passed across us. Had the chocolates :), took lots of photos and some videos.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO5FYiLcS-ZpeSYI9BpfM5sCnUhtmQRqN5FzM2EUdrQKgIl7_yK_7_OOcQDVkokuyYqT_Y1kpQEPfgSaf0ZmkcmVrM4YYIZ9cMtKnR4oHZGKhFPcDKI2777GpQ-lbIPnBnjbuJ1pxeUZ8/s1600/Parambikulam+188.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO5FYiLcS-ZpeSYI9BpfM5sCnUhtmQRqN5FzM2EUdrQKgIl7_yK_7_OOcQDVkokuyYqT_Y1kpQEPfgSaf0ZmkcmVrM4YYIZ9cMtKnR4oHZGKhFPcDKI2777GpQ-lbIPnBnjbuJ1pxeUZ8/s400/Parambikulam+188.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406578499963856450" border="0" /></a>Then guide gave a signal to start otherwise we can't go back before sunset.We started climbing back. As always, Climbing down was easy, but the load goes to knees. We made small steps to avoid much of load on the knees. We came back to the rock, middle of the trial, where Wanderer and guide Babu were waiting for us. Took 10 minutes break, shown all the photos and videos. Left the rock, headed back to the dam. We saw swinging tree, we tried to swing like a tarzan... and then started walking down.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfLxaRHq7gTN0YmkWicb5bsQaRI5DlMm46X9P_cx1iA-56Wa6qUi3Pws91S28ShOErvdECzTDAaac3BIqzB6akfdrL_4GI3F8g00Kzj_zx3pW9nYtM_IMcDdoNYKG825BOKhV4UP29FdA/s1600/Parambikulam+249.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfLxaRHq7gTN0YmkWicb5bsQaRI5DlMm46X9P_cx1iA-56Wa6qUi3Pws91S28ShOErvdECzTDAaac3BIqzB6akfdrL_4GI3F8g00Kzj_zx3pW9nYtM_IMcDdoNYKG825BOKhV4UP29FdA/s400/Parambikulam+249.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406579012715202306" border="0" /></a>This time, Bliss was coming at the end. His policy is to be the first when you enter the forest and to be the last when you come out of the forest, to make the most of it :) We reached around 6:00PM. The SUMO that we arranged for the morning safari was there at the base. We took some snaps and went to the tiger hall in SUMO.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek</a><a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html"> blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-17544721832553003872009-10-19T04:29:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:07:19.446-08:00Karian Chola Trek<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbeuFztqKKKNElcRH9PeAoH4UGKkncPKJn3VpUzXlfeZe80zYMF0rRr6YHjBjEajcL3ja8vrr0HFJCBY5rHivwZhyMBPkyUguN1GMF0bTYt0Gbz5xy1MnN01ZCYiE3e4Cy9mPIsKiugI/s1600-h/IMG_0221.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbeuFztqKKKNElcRH9PeAoH4UGKkncPKJn3VpUzXlfeZe80zYMF0rRr6YHjBjEajcL3ja8vrr0HFJCBY5rHivwZhyMBPkyUguN1GMF0bTYt0Gbz5xy1MnN01ZCYiE3e4Cy9mPIsKiugI/s400/IMG_0221.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394283536814461746" border="0" /></a>Day 3 - 29th Sept, 2009<br />After 40kms in two days, we pushed the karimala gopuram trek to 4th day and went for the light karianchola trek on the 3rd day, 8 kms overall. yeah, 8 kms a day is light for us after the tramway trek :). We finished our breakfast in parambikulam village, we didn't pack anything for the lunch. Planed to have lunch near eco centre. In the middle of the trek, there is a stretch of evergreen forest in this trek. Walking inside evergreen forest was altogether different and nice!. We saw variety of trees in the evergreen forest. We saw few orchids, variety of mushrooms. Each tree is fighting for their share of sunlight and growing up. It was cool walking inside the evergreen forest. Guide Murugesh and Babu answered our questions about the trees and flowers.<br /><br />We crossed over a water path inside the evergreen forest. We caught some crabs. check out the blog entry on <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/crab-catching.html">crab catching</a>.<br /><br />We saw one big tree, Seven of us held hands to cover the bark of the tree.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9YsoHRy2dzqKvSb4gokw_o5ootnQ9EE0w1nn_IuT6UH1wO-SvTT8Pogb6I1jlZ3Dffxhfub-wymM83wmP3ghsY9VHyiFYyHTxLwo9Zi7OmlB83tgttUpytmhnuUMCxqusRXayFjJHkq0/s1600-h/Parambikulam+181.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9YsoHRy2dzqKvSb4gokw_o5ootnQ9EE0w1nn_IuT6UH1wO-SvTT8Pogb6I1jlZ3Dffxhfub-wymM83wmP3ghsY9VHyiFYyHTxLwo9Zi7OmlB83tgttUpytmhnuUMCxqusRXayFjJHkq0/s400/Parambikulam+181.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394293572785554578" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4_UChtMbhyphenhyphen4EZiiQ7rCnLlQeknnPMb6wFDyQZv0aa5AbWrSwFPsvbDvX9hFGo6TEUyY81xhJrhkk0yg0L2CAf86UtyCCBw0gM-H1Co4Wv8HdVAQkuAyr3cKaxNrcBNp0IwasS2fT8Bc/s1600-h/IMG_1202.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4_UChtMbhyphenhyphen4EZiiQ7rCnLlQeknnPMb6wFDyQZv0aa5AbWrSwFPsvbDvX9hFGo6TEUyY81xhJrhkk0yg0L2CAf86UtyCCBw0gM-H1Co4Wv8HdVAQkuAyr3cKaxNrcBNp0IwasS2fT8Bc/s400/IMG_1202.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394294376064310546" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKn9NR_jJOUIAx0ZqtTk9mBacWVDWtWGtvPJzvLNzbXpQrpvoACfn3u4JbaP8gx594F6duE2C3Kc0L6WaCsAaq_ME3m17_oiyCuUyNuZ6xacEQ9Mo_bIThwTVNywBFo4xsxoGcx_7Bs6I/s1600-h/Parambikulam+068.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKn9NR_jJOUIAx0ZqtTk9mBacWVDWtWGtvPJzvLNzbXpQrpvoACfn3u4JbaP8gx594F6duE2C3Kc0L6WaCsAaq_ME3m17_oiyCuUyNuZ6xacEQ9Mo_bIThwTVNywBFo4xsxoGcx_7Bs6I/s400/Parambikulam+068.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394297882772194914" border="0" /></a>We heard loud voice of elephant. Our guides babu and Murugesh alerted us, checked the presence of the elephants on our trial. The voice came from left side of the trial. They said we might get into trouble if we go in this trial and they found alternate trial on the right side. In the alternate trial, we collected honey and drank directly :) check out the blog entry on <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/honey-collecting-and-drinking-in-forest.html">honey collection</a>.<br />At the end of the trail, We found a cycus tree with fruits.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzlwglT2beKvgxTTYj37bfu3OuVNlpuURvXnkwz-i7AcB-O2hFnaLASh-enYHcrr4boSEfuOC5vrOYJLTYVX_SGRgSqjSsyM6t1yCItJ4A7cRNC1-jwTlkX-y0AgT2KRGrlZaaMH9WZyc/s1600-h/IMG_1240.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzlwglT2beKvgxTTYj37bfu3OuVNlpuURvXnkwz-i7AcB-O2hFnaLASh-enYHcrr4boSEfuOC5vrOYJLTYVX_SGRgSqjSsyM6t1yCItJ4A7cRNC1-jwTlkX-y0AgT2KRGrlZaaMH9WZyc/s400/IMG_1240.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394304301699317138" border="0" /></a>After the trail, a path led us to the eco centre. We reached the eco center and had our lunch at Minivet cafe. We ate fish and eggs to get some protein for our muscles for the next day's Karimala gopuram trek :)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek</a><a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html"> blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-58347130631682808562009-10-19T01:41:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:08:56.652-08:00Cochin State Forest Tramway<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOwQfWDaofPekPrihIFspX-CwOW-cG2PMaMmz4xeHFwW3Mm3eDVbe9bkxHB30dX2EMsCHqXXhAFUe4-GYB9VFmbRC4XKnx6ql5ewAFb3mI0s2yuzCaVBZsY66r_BqPMmW5MI4ghS2je8/s1600-h/IMG_0066.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqOwQfWDaofPekPrihIFspX-CwOW-cG2PMaMmz4xeHFwW3Mm3eDVbe9bkxHB30dX2EMsCHqXXhAFUe4-GYB9VFmbRC4XKnx6ql5ewAFb3mI0s2yuzCaVBZsY66r_BqPMmW5MI4ghS2je8/s400/IMG_0066.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394229913143044482" border="0" /></a>Day 1 & 2 - 27th and 28th Sept, 2009<br />As our guide said "Bus to Parambikulam village will reach tiger valley IB at 7:00AM, be ready by 7:00AM", we were ready by 6:45Am itself, got all our luggage to the road, waited for our guide and the bus. Guide came their around 7:30AM and the bus came around 8:15AM. We took some photos in the meantime. We loaded all our luggage, reached parambikulam, had breakfast in Hotel Lakshmi. Our guide informed the plan for next two days. "We'll dump the luggage in a room in parambikulam village, pick up the necessary stuff for next two days, we'll pack the cooked food for the lunch, we'll buy the rice, vegetables, etc for today's dinner, tomorrow's breakfast, and tomorrow's lunch."<br />He got the rice and vegetables from <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL597iRsnhg7k7s19Q6GkHN9riw4ueQOCZD-Su8xMRiJQAK9s9ELDlD28lOQ1WpurApISTKq1bI_LPNtpieBllmCumv2-kune9Pl-lo7g6jF50nafla70fFbfwPCpHJOBVg70nmT91y78/s1600-h/IMG_0075.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL597iRsnhg7k7s19Q6GkHN9riw4ueQOCZD-Su8xMRiJQAK9s9ELDlD28lOQ1WpurApISTKq1bI_LPNtpieBllmCumv2-kune9Pl-lo7g6jF50nafla70fFbfwPCpHJOBVg70nmT91y78/s400/IMG_0075.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394231235341376402" border="0" /></a><br />the couple of shops which serves whole parambikulam village, gave part of it to thatha and asked him to make the curd rice and tomato rice for that day's lunch. He packed the rest of the items into two package. Few of us went and dumped our extra luggage into a room arranged by our guide. When we all set to leave for the trek, it was around 11:30AM. We got our lunch packets, filled our water bottles, and carried one 5 litres water can. Guide Murugesh joined us.<br />We started our journey to tramway trek, to cover 40 kms in 2 days.<br /><br />We saw a malabar squirrel on top of a <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbuO7tpoA8XNrj9vlDEV-ABISzgzaJOVslTx-ZDftNfg_ZheWYYiNPjtCOT5HbSez4EMED-_R38eDuvlw500uU_xUAjqR5RU3_bOZ9vOITcVfTBt3XdGpn27PFnA4I1u6Fuk0XRQ4OpKM/s1600-h/IMG_0126.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbuO7tpoA8XNrj9vlDEV-ABISzgzaJOVslTx-ZDftNfg_ZheWYYiNPjtCOT5HbSez4EMED-_R38eDuvlw500uU_xUAjqR5RU3_bOZ9vOITcVfTBt3XdGpn27PFnA4I1u6Fuk0XRQ4OpKM/s400/IMG_0126.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394237098077883186" border="0" /></a>tree. we saw lot of pug marks of tiger,<br />elephant, Indian gaur etc. We saw<br />different kinds of trees and flowers. Till certain distance, leeches were not there. Sunshine got the first leech, then everyone checked their feet and saw few leeches on their feet, applied salt, threw them out. Then applied dettol liquid, tobacco powder, salt on the feet to prevent the leeches. Bliss hijacked the guide murugesh and reached the river side lunch spot well ahead of time. We all took our own time to reach the lunch spot, refreshed our self on the flowing river water, ate curd rice and tomato rice that we had packed in parambikulam village. Our guides gave one pack of the rice and vegetables to the tribal<br />who will cook next day's lunch for us.<br />We played a bit in the water<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiefK9oNd6XQ4IfGdgEtFwCceRPNIlFfyg-2VaY33WfKWpDZSdJ92Dcf3_c2KbqWuQIsy8sAMHk8rMby_iLeEh6BfJ8tGM7kqwSpW22DO9imBNRzbwAEgCOlai8OtJCZ3WbiXqEjIlg-Sg/s1600-h/IMG_0123.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiefK9oNd6XQ4IfGdgEtFwCceRPNIlFfyg-2VaY33WfKWpDZSdJ92Dcf3_c2KbqWuQIsy8sAMHk8rMby_iLeEh6BfJ8tGM7kqwSpW22DO9imBNRzbwAEgCOlai8OtJCZ3WbiXqEjIlg-Sg/s400/IMG_0123.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394238678122204114" border="0" /></a>We started our walk after lunch. leech <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KVo6gLpvDQO9P-sheZ8BmZuQgJcUrBM0NTeSj20uocD-hukiNrl85fxZ9hDurbOHkAkpYurd08fVlUvi6wfvko0PBMywRmVIoWUFhq3z78sRgjx3Y138A5Fct0h79r4cYaK7PtDmN1k/s1600-h/IMG_1046.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-KVo6gLpvDQO9P-sheZ8BmZuQgJcUrBM0NTeSj20uocD-hukiNrl85fxZ9hDurbOHkAkpYurd08fVlUvi6wfvko0PBMywRmVIoWUFhq3z78sRgjx3Y138A5Fct0h79r4cYaK7PtDmN1k/s400/IMG_1046.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394241505005105538" border="0" /></a><br />attack was there in some stretches.<br />After 4PM, few of us were tired, took break in between. Finally we reached the Muthuvarachal, end of the first day trek. We off loaded our luggage, our guides got water and started preparing the dinner. River flows all across the trial. There was enough sun light for the day, so we went to the riverside, took bath, refreshed our self. Came back, drank hot black tea :)<br />This was the first day of the trek and we walked 20kms in day :), which is totally different than our normal day routine. Archillies suggested to have a stretching session to relax the muscles to avoid any strains, which might spoil rest of the trek plans. With the instructions of Bliss, we all stretched our muscles. We felt relaxed after that session. In the meantime, our dinner was ready. In that location, electricity is not there. Cook managed to cook with the help of battery powered lamp and torch. We all ate chapattis, veg curry, bananas. when the guides and cook finished their dinner. We all got our luggage and reached the night stay, which is less than a km from the dinner spot. It was pitch dark, hissing sound everywhere, we all carried our torches, followed one another, reached the place. That place was very very basic. No electricity, wooden cart were there to accommodate five to six people. Water was filled in the water tank by our guides. Since that place is not being used regularly and closed most of the times, it was smelling a bit. As we are all tired, we slept immediately. It rained all night. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgooQhxLpG9LTvQMwDPJ2PxtjnoSetnxLumTb8uyNuuYikCoExFZLUSyVz88uxJI7VvcsYpsAV3kVCYLBoBF8R7AllyRgQbT211dX0mmoRa-wVaK1A5DC5MbuIerG1F39JsncNGeoARKsA/s1600-h/IMG_0142.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgooQhxLpG9LTvQMwDPJ2PxtjnoSetnxLumTb8uyNuuYikCoExFZLUSyVz88uxJI7VvcsYpsAV3kVCYLBoBF8R7AllyRgQbT211dX0mmoRa-wVaK1A5DC5MbuIerG1F39JsncNGeoARKsA/s400/IMG_0142.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394253467163406658" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We got up at 5:00AM, finished our<br />morning duties, climbed down to the<br />place where we ate our dinner.<br />Breakfast, Khara bath, was ready for us. We ate Khara bath with banana and pickle. We got the black tea. We applied dettol, tobacco powder, salt, etc to prevent leech attack. It was drizzling a bit. We took our rain coats out, started our 2nd day journey.<br /><br />Our body got used for the walking, So second day journey was good. We reached the lunch spot. Lunch was ready, we ate our lunch. We met a 80 <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg4h3Sy7rKpLU71U7qONZ68jBng5uKLHK_0NvCdDnB-fzcLReUM8cPpOSW-vGuMWgFuNQKglzDkpvRPd68Z5xUKxbvSIHEzOaCTQMoCYDFxwPH7GalnK4PrLLBn9g3LdT5Dp9LhD6nzww/s1600-h/IMG_0180.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg4h3Sy7rKpLU71U7qONZ68jBng5uKLHK_0NvCdDnB-fzcLReUM8cPpOSW-vGuMWgFuNQKglzDkpvRPd68Z5xUKxbvSIHEzOaCTQMoCYDFxwPH7GalnK4PrLLBn9g3LdT5Dp9LhD6nzww/s400/IMG_0180.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394256350667863986" border="0" /></a><br />years old tribe, who worked in the<br />tramway. Now he is working with the forest department to clear of the trees to maintain the trail and sometimes some work in panjayath to run his life. His family only served us the lunch. To buy anything, they have to come to parambikulam village , which is 10kms away. We saw few remnants of tramway, took few snaps. Guide took a diversion from the main track to cut short the distance. So, we walked up the hill and down the hill few times. On the way, we saw few sambar deer across the river bank. Sambar deer is very sharp, it could sense us and went inside the forest.<br /><br />We wanted a break for few minutes, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPrRSi3qkGNqfEE1saOzBGfhBiOG3Pyqbd1fknEKXjF4CeDL_DybcXMrws8rPPn_AckhoqoauV2XDm3lPc0PvSg2pCKst_ip_amUYq_WVT6jzR97EI9k2qyP4gz6bDs588_Qshyphenhyphenr7v2o/s1600-h/IMG_0183.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPrRSi3qkGNqfEE1saOzBGfhBiOG3Pyqbd1fknEKXjF4CeDL_DybcXMrws8rPPn_AckhoqoauV2XDm3lPc0PvSg2pCKst_ip_amUYq_WVT6jzR97EI9k2qyP4gz6bDs588_Qshyphenhyphenr7v2o/s400/IMG_0183.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394261605556243202" border="0" /></a>we all just rested on the raod, which is used very minimally to avoid the disturbance to the animals. All the private vehicles are not allowed inside and it is well controlled by the forest department. Rarely you can see the forest department jeep in those roads. Our guide told couple of stories "Long time ago, a tiger got annoyed by the two wheeler sound and killed the guy who drove the bike". "A bear fought with a man, pulled out one of his eyes with lot of flesh. He was taken to hospital, but unfortunately he passed away few days later". We heard few stories like this from our guides and we identified few birds on the walk.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Bliss was busy watching birds with the Binocular.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_voiQ74g86pArgoOtW09-C46hARgUGwPRg4RxSTDYlRFJBUjV9zZrK_lLvQ7ey_62YWCeiDjhTtRaiaFIgz7cv5sA5EVS6QeXNPe5K04BhyphenhyphenrwlfXMUPehLWkRnrfx_GNN2Pc7yTVFcA/s1600-h/IMG_0189.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_voiQ74g86pArgoOtW09-C46hARgUGwPRg4RxSTDYlRFJBUjV9zZrK_lLvQ7ey_62YWCeiDjhTtRaiaFIgz7cv5sA5EVS6QeXNPe5K04BhyphenhyphenrwlfXMUPehLWkRnrfx_GNN2Pc7yTVFcA/s400/IMG_0189.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394263030111445730" border="0" /></a>All together, Tramway trek was a nice <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp89rclra23T8X42g2CNjtuBQv8HvMFL3HfoJJeI3fiWGerUe7h5TQVlQyvUsaC_vHGHjvidrLmxWAZknM09nScnFEH6-0P0Q_cM0dTx3mUFpHs_GU1AtIFeBFc8Ccy4b97I45cu5Zwc/s1600-h/IMG_0193.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp89rclra23T8X42g2CNjtuBQv8HvMFL3HfoJJeI3fiWGerUe7h5TQVlQyvUsaC_vHGHjvidrLmxWAZknM09nScnFEH6-0P0Q_cM0dTx3mUFpHs_GU1AtIFeBFc8Ccy4b97I45cu5Zwc/s400/IMG_0193.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394264267246318258" border="0" /></a><br />experience except the animals part.<br />We didn't see much of animals as we expected. One more thing, not whole forest is not natural forest. Lot of trees were cut in the olden days and taken away by different people. So the forest department planted lot of teak wood trees in early 1960s to fill up the vacant places and maintain the density across the forest. We ate the candies, peanut chikkies, Chocolates, etc on the way to keep us moving.<br />Fresh air everywhere, greens everywhere, no noise pollution, instead we heard the music from the birds all the way.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkJ9q1-PAoHQJD9qovfO0g8-Q4Nx-wF5CplHXLrwAmjtdTJZKj1YQxP0pC1uJ2BaGH8UBGbXFW7ivZjhzqYoRWJKxNDqkMFWZOmMXhQ8wmDJRvUQ7df3nehX8Da32TkDrCeKp3li3-WY/s1600-h/IMG_0190.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkJ9q1-PAoHQJD9qovfO0g8-Q4Nx-wF5CplHXLrwAmjtdTJZKj1YQxP0pC1uJ2BaGH8UBGbXFW7ivZjhzqYoRWJKxNDqkMFWZOmMXhQ8wmDJRvUQ7df3nehX8Da32TkDrCeKp3li3-WY/s400/IMG_0190.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394268080161286530" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Finally we covered 40kms in 2 days :)</span><br />You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-45315206683530973152009-10-17T03:10:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:10:27.508-08:00Early Morning SafariDay 5 - 1st Oct, 2009<br />After 4 days of trek, we had covered 66Kms. day 1 - 20Kms, day 2 - 20Kms, day 3 - 8Kms, and day 4 - 18Kms. We saw lots of spotted deers, few sambar deer, couple of indian gaurs, only one group of elephants on the safari road and couple of peacocks. We expected to see more. So, we enquired our guide, he replied that you can see lot of animals in the early morning around 5:00AM to 7:00AM. On day 2, We asked a person in the Information center to arrange for a SUMO. He had managed to arrange the SUMO. As the forest officers open the entry gates late in the morning and close at 6:00PM in the evening, we had requested the driver to come and halt in parambikulam village on the previous evening.<br /><br />We were ready by 5:00AM, our guide didn't turn up by 5:00AM. As the parambikulam village wakes up at 4:00AM in the morning and couple of tea shops were open, we had our sip of tea, and few bananas. Guide came around 5:30, he may know that the gate opens at 5:30 only, we got into the SUMO and headed to see lot of animals.<br /><br />As soon as we crossed the gate, we saw a rabbit crossing the road, few spotted deers. Few kms away, we saw few sambar deers at a close distance. Since it was little dark, we could not take clear photos. Few kms away, we saw few indian gaurs, which included a calf drinking milk from it's mother.<br /><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ybLx24AfEok&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ybLx24AfEok&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br />Then, we saw few elephants groups at different places.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcS28TgWJ9Trj08AS2MUnyk0KXQnjrVAoVgb8iOt_-hQX3w-SaLJ_uvuRgvz9aOOWt5KKWcA_nRORQ4nUA2AWbtyabrjqOVvBwb5l6IBeUKgrfK_jozY97KCmAzFadZYHLZitmBwAQsA/s1600-h/IMG_1748.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcS28TgWJ9Trj08AS2MUnyk0KXQnjrVAoVgb8iOt_-hQX3w-SaLJ_uvuRgvz9aOOWt5KKWcA_nRORQ4nUA2AWbtyabrjqOVvBwb5l6IBeUKgrfK_jozY97KCmAzFadZYHLZitmBwAQsA/s400/IMG_1748.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393515478561721394" border="0" /></a>We saw Grey-headed Fish-eagle on a tree<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji51UapBtyoTNP_oDzVdAv84ykXSc3OPrKogOAOjqaHCtLIgbaO6Kr5Elo4zoG8E-DG6bXykM3Nv7jeA0a4NfqLafZDntegyYZKK7QRPgKCtnnxEYjzjv3xgXlZHedKFg8D8ppAzywKwk/s1600-h/IMG_1776.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji51UapBtyoTNP_oDzVdAv84ykXSc3OPrKogOAOjqaHCtLIgbaO6Kr5Elo4zoG8E-DG6bXykM3Nv7jeA0a4NfqLafZDntegyYZKK7QRPgKCtnnxEYjzjv3xgXlZHedKFg8D8ppAzywKwk/s400/IMG_1776.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393517622771680914" border="0" /></a>We reached Kanimara Teak, took lot of photos with the tree,<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3v6Leb-wuD7U5uHgJ04MSFBBcG0Tiprl3vnOVeX-Yp_2DjN_Jgv4XuqTIRoSK8nPzc4JipTfJRm0kFg2B4nROPx1NpzQ32vaGsPHBE6lCo6amtHUDkGz2R0VT24WfwG5Gn6Zz9hWJWxU/s1600-h/IMG_1781.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3v6Leb-wuD7U5uHgJ04MSFBBcG0Tiprl3vnOVeX-Yp_2DjN_Jgv4XuqTIRoSK8nPzc4JipTfJRm0kFg2B4nROPx1NpzQ32vaGsPHBE6lCo6amtHUDkGz2R0VT24WfwG5Gn6Zz9hWJWxU/s200/IMG_1781.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393566453498943762" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZF4kEdKtvW0owKPsh_wVB85cF_J6icCcPK-ZwmcehMyD6JHHlANAeJdD_fv_VerYyUZ8apb3MOxFWYAO1tDwxmga8HMZlRxq4KwTFqWEDgFxP6iLbL0PmZVCV4JvbR6_lXgAj9vKANuU/s1600-h/Parambikulam+105.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZF4kEdKtvW0owKPsh_wVB85cF_J6icCcPK-ZwmcehMyD6JHHlANAeJdD_fv_VerYyUZ8apb3MOxFWYAO1tDwxmga8HMZlRxq4KwTFqWEDgFxP6iLbL0PmZVCV4JvbR6_lXgAj9vKANuU/s400/Parambikulam+105.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393567135864794018" border="0" /></a>Few kms away, we saw a tusker and his mother<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYb06BZYWQcu9ws_Az_bv92n280meFac-WvSGnEsmjFWYJjDVD0FR5GRfZawowM2qI4nA4afPA6WtkmdNHgC0lkGr0KZaUPMKN5ZkGRcltrmNVbin-jWoovPJ1HyZCTiYcP2-33dvT1o/s1600-h/IMG_1807.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYb06BZYWQcu9ws_Az_bv92n280meFac-WvSGnEsmjFWYJjDVD0FR5GRfZawowM2qI4nA4afPA6WtkmdNHgC0lkGr0KZaUPMKN5ZkGRcltrmNVbin-jWoovPJ1HyZCTiYcP2-33dvT1o/s400/IMG_1807.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393568682205406178" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHcPs-JSNlVSl-e6_eecCERfpzKbn2KLH2fOLiBNeaHdk0LFZ_miOmBPiYe2TfHTcjikRAtMuCOuWvhA0ghV4txmGNLHD3iDiDe_K7KiOCLU2jG5UOoiz_ZHP5ltpq447MaSOIw53y6k/s1600-h/IMG_1815.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHcPs-JSNlVSl-e6_eecCERfpzKbn2KLH2fOLiBNeaHdk0LFZ_miOmBPiYe2TfHTcjikRAtMuCOuWvhA0ghV4txmGNLHD3iDiDe_K7KiOCLU2jG5UOoiz_ZHP5ltpq447MaSOIw53y6k/s400/IMG_1815.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393569613398016674" border="0" /></a>Then, we saw a group of indian gaurs<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-6_GUW3XJ3KCHWzUIbln1GgJRt67bWtX6PmOROzDemkszooFul3cLEHV0tB79tfVV14UiRcpmVqtUysLI0ct4oVPKbebgxaXp2wpJY_sC_BqQOomraJd654x_RGkTtJxpoyXsTK2kgc/s1600-h/IMG_1827.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-6_GUW3XJ3KCHWzUIbln1GgJRt67bWtX6PmOROzDemkszooFul3cLEHV0tB79tfVV14UiRcpmVqtUysLI0ct4oVPKbebgxaXp2wpJY_sC_BqQOomraJd654x_RGkTtJxpoyXsTK2kgc/s400/IMG_1827.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393571511891583906" border="0" /></a>We saw lots of spotted deers everywhere.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0dwsPqYRiNr_GgMlQEMyG3EWrRuWVXuoKx74lSkeLuJvFqaG2XgzZCRw8FFMgdfg7w6e6uAfGyraDxn9zShshVuhe3_yLWHjST0ZRjWrpVoJ-pe0eibU9V28l7a4keIf4kiDZ0ARQHQ/s1600-h/IMG_1860.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0dwsPqYRiNr_GgMlQEMyG3EWrRuWVXuoKx74lSkeLuJvFqaG2XgzZCRw8FFMgdfg7w6e6uAfGyraDxn9zShshVuhe3_yLWHjST0ZRjWrpVoJ-pe0eibU9V28l7a4keIf4kiDZ0ARQHQ/s400/IMG_1860.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393572231570384274" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdeMwvgkoXWIXsTupVqIzKRIstRfnZaZdt0brqcVZE3XRW0iNeOmt2TegkGsFUg_4xMKT4rnwyrTu7kpiLBpqyN7tym-9QQWcmlb3YGxjD9brI-llEHcx2veYsZLP95FrnNlEi_bY70I/s1600-h/IMG_1310.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdeMwvgkoXWIXsTupVqIzKRIstRfnZaZdt0brqcVZE3XRW0iNeOmt2TegkGsFUg_4xMKT4rnwyrTu7kpiLBpqyN7tym-9QQWcmlb3YGxjD9brI-llEHcx2veYsZLP95FrnNlEi_bY70I/s400/IMG_1310.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393573353953813138" border="0" /></a><br />We saw few peacocks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o76-IWnqIC-CYK3W0e4ZoJne7rgCdvuZYdzAeg8PB0XLCSsM7FBMCcJTWhty0tUgMHczRMDQ0bqXD0Ej-qip0YdK-ufpdaxkr6lBYXFCrMh5drP3H6iKUn89b1yk6z_zi3q-kFYqKp8/s1600-h/Parambikulam+157.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o76-IWnqIC-CYK3W0e4ZoJne7rgCdvuZYdzAeg8PB0XLCSsM7FBMCcJTWhty0tUgMHczRMDQ0bqXD0Ej-qip0YdK-ufpdaxkr6lBYXFCrMh5drP3H6iKUn89b1yk6z_zi3q-kFYqKp8/s400/Parambikulam+157.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393575565225761906" border="0" /></a>We saw racket tailed drango, king fisher, minivet, wood pecker, treepie, and few other birds, but could not capture it in photos. Most of the photos included in this blog entry were taken my Moonlight. He felt that he was missing extra zoom lens for his Cannon 450 DSLR. May be we should buy it before our next trek.<br />You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek blog entry</a> .<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-76843077193989587242009-10-17T02:01:00.000-07:002009-11-23T08:25:38.321-08:00Crab catching<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5GBDvovsopnsdBwC61uDgw2SvWoVMBReqeyyaJG1l7d2ilZxYlvIK2TyuYVZCaZpnghyphenhyphenSlQsc66xXLxuJyRF9G-jfAExaHa0F9K65_hdKTdwGuVq34b1Qqs9u00VyL98KEWp7Qac_DpY/s1600/IMG_0232.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5GBDvovsopnsdBwC61uDgw2SvWoVMBReqeyyaJG1l7d2ilZxYlvIK2TyuYVZCaZpnghyphenhyphenSlQsc66xXLxuJyRF9G-jfAExaHa0F9K65_hdKTdwGuVq34b1Qqs9u00VyL98KEWp7Qac_DpY/s320/IMG_0232.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407334457228577010" border="0" /></a>In the karianChola Trek, we crossed over a water path in side the evergreen forest. Our guide babu quickly observed that there are crabs in the water. He caught some crabs in his bare hands and showed it to us. He asked us to hold it gently at the center and not to apply pressure on the crabs.<br /><br />Look at the sharp eyes...<br /><br />We all took turns and held the crab, took photos. Since these crabs are small ones, it didn't bite us.<br /><br />Believe me, we left it back safely in water :)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEP3Zw9xsT4fOKzkGpoNkK87ZgU8Isiejy3mPfMfUAeSKbLDQgzFoBxcVbGnhCGmOxA2LgShG2-cz94nCzMX1mNAyT6rNn4o1LX_Dn4o31GRjE8ncgwQNMyYCr6ogl-XLDarrvUcj71i0/s1600-h/IMG_1189.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEP3Zw9xsT4fOKzkGpoNkK87ZgU8Isiejy3mPfMfUAeSKbLDQgzFoBxcVbGnhCGmOxA2LgShG2-cz94nCzMX1mNAyT6rNn4o1LX_Dn4o31GRjE8ncgwQNMyYCr6ogl-XLDarrvUcj71i0/s400/IMG_1189.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393495482982796770" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-91559034154959509392009-10-15T02:34:00.001-07:002010-01-11T04:11:04.359-08:00Elephant Family<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GwhlPGwXqZ8&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GwhlPGwXqZ8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-22748783160741394432009-10-14T00:15:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:11:25.734-08:00Honey collection in the forestIn the KarianChola Trek, we heard a loud voice of elephant. Our guides babu and Murugesh alerted us, checked the presence of the elephants on our trial. The voice came from left side of the trial. They said we might get into trouble if we go in this trial and they found alternate trial on the right side. We had already covered 5kms of the 7kms trail.<br /><br />In the alternate trial, Murugesh sensed the honey bees on a tree. There are two varieties of honey namely "Kurunthen" - small honey bees build the honey comb at the openings of the bottom of the tree and "Marathen" - big honey bees build on the top branches of the tree. He identified the tree, where the Kurunthen honey bees built the honey comb. He used his aruval, cleared the access of the opening in the bottom of the tree.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaox63X4aPp2be6yWhGOE42l20GufU5yKCf58EuF44mXX_n4E8iXe52hup3LNBp_685xho3IWF1-ruOiPGZ64D5LjI2GW7lCqRQ_Vvc-ftkyuySB2usGfYxSeZ5FtER1xqVK6gne7Wc_8/s1600-h/IMG_0257.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaox63X4aPp2be6yWhGOE42l20GufU5yKCf58EuF44mXX_n4E8iXe52hup3LNBp_685xho3IWF1-ruOiPGZ64D5LjI2GW7lCqRQ_Vvc-ftkyuySB2usGfYxSeZ5FtER1xqVK6gne7Wc_8/s400/IMG_0257.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392361307480886882" border="0" /></a>He inserted his hands, got the honey comb. Honey bees were small, didn't bite him.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRxvmeKmIzaFmQOSqcaAkrnGWjNN5Mp5BJIOuZZL-dSO47EqinL_GjeRlAK6n_-MQo06lYWz_k4i-9WPNWUYXwYXrMQ6YWXKnUoYJ9b_3w-eGFYR7Q68RDj3sxcEdo_vlaMB8JHtLBnY/s1600-h/IMG_0259.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRxvmeKmIzaFmQOSqcaAkrnGWjNN5Mp5BJIOuZZL-dSO47EqinL_GjeRlAK6n_-MQo06lYWz_k4i-9WPNWUYXwYXrMQ6YWXKnUoYJ9b_3w-eGFYR7Q68RDj3sxcEdo_vlaMB8JHtLBnY/s400/IMG_0259.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392364661486359090" border="0" /></a>Here is the close picture of the honey bee comb.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2qQ50pL0h8dwUJPtU8yLcjb3ryQTjP4t2mT_7h5l6E4gC-bTueplsUogo-aC5pE7jeFzHCMNkku193f_OwUfEE3R7DhlbXIemZy-2iJIoPTJB_MrRXB0RsSud0DLGdlI_Z5tn8epXPg/s1600-h/IMG_0262.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2qQ50pL0h8dwUJPtU8yLcjb3ryQTjP4t2mT_7h5l6E4gC-bTueplsUogo-aC5pE7jeFzHCMNkku193f_OwUfEE3R7DhlbXIemZy-2iJIoPTJB_MrRXB0RsSud0DLGdlI_Z5tn8epXPg/s400/IMG_0262.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392363274844808594" border="0" /></a>we all got our share of tasty, pure honey direct from the honey comb :) It was tasty :) It was our first experience to collect honey and drink directly from the honey comb. That too in the forest!<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM0PiM3wvJ3kdnwFtnYGNsjCW7lfgg8X_w-sGbsBfouAPJlHJGnD9dOEs7IL4AQTBqyyO4XOqqKmynEpT0Y2YXb0mkRdxzNWLfsLUdUJrrvgGa9Vl25GVpPQXNHKLkItl8s4ENxLMGTbM/s1600-h/Parambikulam+088.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM0PiM3wvJ3kdnwFtnYGNsjCW7lfgg8X_w-sGbsBfouAPJlHJGnD9dOEs7IL4AQTBqyyO4XOqqKmynEpT0Y2YXb0mkRdxzNWLfsLUdUJrrvgGa9Vl25GVpPQXNHKLkItl8s4ENxLMGTbM/s400/Parambikulam+088.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392365589048117042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">We enjoyed it :)</span><br />You can read more about our parambikulam experience from the main blog entry on the <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/parambikulam-sept-26th-oct-4th.html">parambikulam trek blog entry</a> .<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-67723324156283088412009-10-11T02:48:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:12:04.927-08:00Parambikulam ForestSept 26th - oct 4th 2009<br />Considering 2 long weekends, Seven of us had planned for parambikulam forest trekking, merged those two long weekends and took additional 3 days leave. One of our friend dropped out and six (Archillies, Bliss, Moon Light, Bridget, Wanderer, Sun Shine) of us were ready to leave. Yeah, we got our new nick names :)<br />All the credit goes to Bliss, who picked this place, planned all the treks<br />for the seven days in parambikulam bu referring the <a href="http://www.parambikulam.org/">parambikulam web site</a>, co-ordinated with the forest officers, got permissions, sent money order to book the treks, etc.<br /><br />This was my first long trekking experience, so I packed more than enough stuff in my<br />newly bought 4 feet trekking backback :). All others too carried equal amount of baggages.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 0</span><br /></div>All set and we left bangalore on september 26th early morning, 6:15AM, in a train to coimbatore.We ate dosas in train and played cards. Wanderer was very lucky that day and kept winning. Taught some card playing tricks to Sun Shine. Moon Light reached coimbatore already, met Bliss parents, packed our lunch and waited for us with the tempo traveller near the railway station.<br /><br />We reached coimbatore, loaded out lugguages into the tempo traveller. Bliss's Mom got hot horse gram rasam to clear our throat. It was very good, I had 2 glasses :) Moon Light got few PET bottles, we stopped at a shop and loaded 12 water cans, 5 litres each. Also Bliss parents got 20 litres water can from home. altogether 80 litres of water for 8 days. Bliss's parents gave some instructions to Bliss, asked us to take care of Bliss, and bid us a bon voyage :)<br /><br />As Parambikulam Wild Life Sanctuary (PWLS) closes the entry gate at 6:00, we had to reach the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPF7Ju3etH8QTI5VG2sSb8UeYL9CHImet9EfmgfydbhCkvU93d-IindTNk9U5HdY90_oQX00MdMZRJQ7ZFmcp6aCThVnJlLXkRXjAHvlmzzLW9vrNt5sSIDRyenZnQwDaNSlTzzjmhr1k/s1600-h/IMG_0011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPF7Ju3etH8QTI5VG2sSb8UeYL9CHImet9EfmgfydbhCkvU93d-IindTNk9U5HdY90_oQX00MdMZRJQ7ZFmcp6aCThVnJlLXkRXjAHvlmzzLW9vrNt5sSIDRyenZnQwDaNSlTzzjmhr1k/s400/IMG_0011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391281580745362994" border="0" /></a>place at the earliest and send the tempo traveller out of PWLS. We ate our lunch inside the tempo traveller. We reached the PWLS information centre around 4:00PM, paid the remaining money for the whole package. As they detected some tigers in venkoli peak, they didn't allow that trek for us in our list of treks. So, we picked salim ali centre trek instead of venkoli peak.We saw couple of peacocks and few yellow head, long tail monkeys near PWLS information centre. They allocated a guide for us and opened the gates for us to enter parambikulam. We saw lots of spotted deer. Few people call them as Photo deer, as they pose for the photos :) We saw the 400 years old kannimarra teak on the way.<br /><br />We reached tiger valley stay around 5:30PM, sent our tempo traveller back, after we were on our feets. We took couple of torches, and couple of cameras. our guide took us to the ThunaKadavu Dam, and a short walk across the dam. The view of ThunaKadavu dam in the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTnskw6Lw6uOwg6i2MHVcBJY25Lmais9Fwpbv5CFx-H1huG71GhHWoi_0sEsd7u0-UAfTJwv7a5ttobx4681x9GAB0pWFlD9SRjxJwDiirjgv-TjP9frkx7xzkjSMyCNVas5kbO_YYC5Q/s1600-h/IMG_0023.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTnskw6Lw6uOwg6i2MHVcBJY25Lmais9Fwpbv5CFx-H1huG71GhHWoi_0sEsd7u0-UAfTJwv7a5ttobx4681x9GAB0pWFlD9SRjxJwDiirjgv-TjP9frkx7xzkjSMyCNVas5kbO_YYC5Q/s400/IMG_0023.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391283241250121842" border="0" /></a>evening was awesome, we saw a bison grassing near by the dam, we sighted few birds. walked across the dam, and reached the forest officers building. Our guide got us black tea, my favourite drink and which was the only drink possible to make anywhere inside the forest :). Bridget sat near the water and was alert in case of sudden surprises by the crocodiles :). Guide gave some information about the tunnel that is connected between the Parambikulam dam to Thunakadavu dam.<br /><br />It started getting dark, so we headed to our tiger valley accommodation with the help of torch, saw coupld of wild boars. Guide informed that sometimes it gets wild and attacks human. So, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXIxByuKuVDCcE-Rh1SKLwxAL7IwDPjYtjs3J8-Bh4l-kjReZuWO5Y39ntCDey0yKUYrBYzDxhG7LbqvnweMKlybjatyyQviKGWGKTToDOwMqF5qqnkQHSgJMf5XZC1jc3XpSmUR_p2_g/s1600-h/IMG_0047.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXIxByuKuVDCcE-Rh1SKLwxAL7IwDPjYtjs3J8-Bh4l-kjReZuWO5Y39ntCDey0yKUYrBYzDxhG7LbqvnweMKlybjatyyQviKGWGKTToDOwMqF5qqnkQHSgJMf5XZC1jc3XpSmUR_p2_g/s400/IMG_0047.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391280566101012034" border="0" /></a>beware of it.Bliss ate some fruits and went to sleep. We got our food, cooked by tribals and delivered at tiger valley stay. Lots of chappatis, white rice, 1 veg kurma, 2 full Nattu-Koli (country chicken), 8 boiled eggs, egg burji :) We ate whatever we could and gave the rest to our guide. We tried to sleep early to get up early, but another family stayed in another room in the same block. They made lot of noice, didn't listen to our requests to keep silence. When I managed to get sleep, our guide knocked our doors, shouting "their are bisons/Indian Gaurs around the building. Come out and have a look". Some of my friends went out and saw bisons/Indian Gaurs. I and Moon Light slept instead. Even Bliss went out, saw the Bison, came back and said "What a wonderfull Bison?" :)<br /><br />Next seven days were roamed across most of the trails in parambikulam forest and totally we had covered around 100 Kms on our feet in 7 days :)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Few things to note:</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1</span> - Carry BSNL connection in one of your mobiles, only BSNL network is available over there.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2</span> - Most of the guides speak tamil. So, better if you have some tamil speaking guys in your group.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3</span> - The restaurants in parambikulam charge as equal as a normal hotel in Bangalore.<br /><br />There are lot more to write, each treks deserve a separate blog entry and some activities such as <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/honey-collecting-and-drinking-in-forest.html">honey collection & drinking</a>, <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/crab-catching.html">crab catching</a> , etc deserve a separate blog entries.<br />Check out the links to read about each one...<br /><br />Day 1 & 2 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/cochin-state-forest-tramway-trek.html">Cochin State Forest Tramway Trek</a><br />Day 3 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/karianchola-trek.html">KarianChola Trek</a><br /> Day 4 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-4-30th-sept-2009-kari-mala-gopuram.html">Kari Mala Gopuram Trek</a><br />Day 5 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/10/early-morning-safari-in-parambikulam.html">Early Morning Safari in Parambikulam forest</a><br /> Day 5 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-5-1st-oct-2009-salim-ali-centre.html">Salim Ali Centre</a><br />Day 6 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-6-1st-oct-2009-full-moon-cencus.html">Moon light census</a><br />Day 7 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-7-thellikal-nights.html">Tellikal Nights</a><br />Day 8 - <a href="http://trekaddicts.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-8-4th-oct-2009-out-talk-with-dfo.html">Out Talk with DFO</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-2108213355395091122009-08-13T08:56:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:12:38.583-08:00One day trip to Matheran<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB26rgbRhHLT2GqxLIu6YCphKLKi0pxAj9v74ipOAoEJxXcqGqEqxUcZ8DMIzy8nVVF0H1x7zmvBfsEE_0Gb7bGvq-hZ3YP1mX6cE5Gf0bMpHGsI800TMXkfJCmB-94BvIZhWyf1DV4u4/s1600-h/pune+081.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB26rgbRhHLT2GqxLIu6YCphKLKi0pxAj9v74ipOAoEJxXcqGqEqxUcZ8DMIzy8nVVF0H1x7zmvBfsEE_0Gb7bGvq-hZ3YP1mX6cE5Gf0bMpHGsI800TMXkfJCmB-94BvIZhWyf1DV4u4/s400/pune+081.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369480545056006738" border="0" /></a>8th August 2009<br />I and Maruthu went to Pune to meet our friends and my first manager, under whom I started my career. We all planned for one day trip to Matheran.<br /><br />On Saturday morning, we packed our food, thanks to Neela for all the preparations, we left kondhwa around 7:45AM in Nanda's WagonR, thanks to Nanda, filled in the petrol, travelled towards chichwad, Prabhu was our navigator. Met my first manager, Rana Chanda, and his family at Wakad junction. As we got delayed, Made him to wait for long time :(. Went on the Pune-Mumbai highway, missed the exit as we were busy taking pictures <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmEU0SY5uz-OCVkXbgJfbtA3d6K6uOSeFMxFRYdHy8DU3hsTC01ObqMqd3yb76PRiP56qdLKvXiKTCbvUozxS_omZigcWpGjUreBESsFZC31NC11_lO44dK-SU_nsQAmdmeZ7ahxRz6CY/s1600-h/pune+103.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmEU0SY5uz-OCVkXbgJfbtA3d6K6uOSeFMxFRYdHy8DU3hsTC01ObqMqd3yb76PRiP56qdLKvXiKTCbvUozxS_omZigcWpGjUreBESsFZC31NC11_lO44dK-SU_nsQAmdmeZ7ahxRz6CY/s400/pune+103.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369482626500857618" border="0" /></a>and videos on the drive, came reverse on the service track, got out of exit. It was tough to maintain the speed with Rana in the highway.It was green all over the place as we crossed the mountains, and dark inside the tunnels. Pavan was happy as we crossed the mountains and tunnels. It was green almost all the road, and it was more lush green as we were close to the matheran. We stopped at the small falls just before the hair pin bends. The view was awesome. We took few snaps, had garam chai.<br /><br />We headed to the matheran, although the number of hair bin bends are less when compared to ooty, couple of them are very steep and really dangerous cliffs. As we reached the peak, it started raining heavily, but it stopped in few minutes. We parked our cars, bargained for the horse rides. Got a 3 point deal of 600 rs for one cart for Rana's wife, as she had back pain, and 2800 for 7 horses for rest of us. The roads were muddy because of rain. I felt good to sit on the horse after a long time. Few horses were good, and rest of the horses are okay kind. I got a white horse, which responded well for the commands, but could not trot, as I had pavan with me. He was calm and enjoyed the ride. Maruthu was scared a bit about the horse. We stoped at the view point, got down from the horses, walked down a bit, the view point was awesome, tall mountains with a deep valley in between, lush greens all over the place, mist here and there. Check out the video.<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zULTcPkQbZU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zULTcPkQbZU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />We came back from the view point, got on the horses, reached the bazaar point, we all ate the food that we got, too many monkeys were around. It was hard to keep the monkeys away, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDIQ3cy5eoA3LATKvnRnmTJSxoXdWiITjVkzbn_VUj3wTo2Ls5lA8csK1IYfVvQWiLec7K04lHq_dGn4OD5BOr4DsSPODCk7tM4kdQwgsFBNy4piVYkdNz95_d54ngaB3pNyuuXwU2Fw/s1600-h/pune+131.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDIQ3cy5eoA3LATKvnRnmTJSxoXdWiITjVkzbn_VUj3wTo2Ls5lA8csK1IYfVvQWiLec7K04lHq_dGn4OD5BOr4DsSPODCk7tM4kdQwgsFBNy4piVYkdNz95_d54ngaB3pNyuuXwU2Fw/s400/pune+131.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369483735838927506" border="0" /></a>Maruthu was the guard to keep away the monkeys. Menu was Tamarind rice, curd rice, with pickel. Rana got some lays chips to eat along with the rice.<br />After lunch, I got another horse to trot for a while. we went to another view point, green everywhere. Spent sometime in the bazaar. We got on the horses, rode them down the hill. On the way back, Prabhu drove the car for few kms, we stopped near a lake.<br />Reached pune, went to Rana's house in chinchwad. Drank tea, ate Hot Samosaa, and tasty gulaab Jamoons, yeah I ate two :) Spent sometime in Rana's house and reached Kondhwa around 8:30PM. It was a nice day alltogether :)<br /><br />Where is Matheran: 120Kms from Pune<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-70557060081619091642009-08-11T08:32:00.000-07:002010-01-11T04:13:21.678-08:00Agumbe and Joggi Gundi FallsAug 2nd 2009<br />On Sunday, we vacated the base camp at hebri around 7:30AM. We ate our breakfast(Buns, Idli,Vada, Neer Dosa, etc) on the way. Reached agumbe sunset point. Lots of monkeys were around. The view was awesome. We spent 30 minutes over there, ate Ice cream, and pineapple with salt and chilli powder.<br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XrlRYtMIZlw&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XrlRYtMIZlw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />We crossed agumbe, reached the route to JoggiGundi falls. It was raining, we all prepared ourself <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WCO7tQZkRMwDZc1fKNCAm_D9Hn-zd74CTLspmz6Atri8dK02fE8Peeu_etaoA9c4hDHKKI4wOAqxXTblVlAFifenKSVHGMZ9FOPx4dbToFJYx7NVrSethE1zZG31JsVyqid0IAzxjG8/s1600-h/agumbe+136.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WCO7tQZkRMwDZc1fKNCAm_D9Hn-zd74CTLspmz6Atri8dK02fE8Peeu_etaoA9c4hDHKKI4wOAqxXTblVlAFifenKSVHGMZ9FOPx4dbToFJYx7NVrSethE1zZG31JsVyqid0IAzxjG8/s400/agumbe+136.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368982047152088738" border="0" /></a>to face the leech, few applied tobacco powder with coconut oil, few applied salt on legs and arms, and few were generous and decided to feed the leech. As I and Elango had been to joggi gundi falls once, we didn't take any guide. We entered into the forest, there were lot of trails. After a kilometer, we took a trial and ended up in the main road. We came back on the same trail, saw a crab on the way, tried another trail, and ended up to another spot along the sita river. It was a fantastic spot. Spent almost an hour over there.<br /><br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/J4vdLMLZDK0&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/J4vdLMLZDK0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5HOcuAa6_ukybKgGhwCZncAVk1zvvUmfEpXBYBdwEg-iyC2wpSl6IycaWF1eQVcaXC63Mp3ZIYlFqAjqUhRGIXhV-6desoszQ2T17YuDUppdvLh_9ahEXuK8cYpVxtK1cvdvN9TtecM/s1600-h/agumbe+155.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5HOcuAa6_ukybKgGhwCZncAVk1zvvUmfEpXBYBdwEg-iyC2wpSl6IycaWF1eQVcaXC63Mp3ZIYlFqAjqUhRGIXhV-6desoszQ2T17YuDUppdvLh_9ahEXuK8cYpVxtK1cvdvN9TtecM/s320/agumbe+155.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368731960864539426" border="0" /></a>Came back from that spot, finally found the right trail, walked across all the big logs on the way, and reached the joggi gundi falls. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNT8KUGTpiUxGDJWBwo9Air2JlZcmzaIxG3r-8_M8XrmsYJ9qoSP3ptHtrOIQEJ9IEWXIqTkEliTeOiIW0VhEK5cuFG_ecfq_1hmSm8FzbwlXX79kW4qpmWOpAunGVWHz9Adi_DVlF60/s1600-h/agumbe+153.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNT8KUGTpiUxGDJWBwo9Air2JlZcmzaIxG3r-8_M8XrmsYJ9qoSP3ptHtrOIQEJ9IEWXIqTkEliTeOiIW0VhEK5cuFG_ecfq_1hmSm8FzbwlXX79kW4qpmWOpAunGVWHz9Adi_DVlF60/s320/agumbe+153.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368731137356042018" border="0" /></a>It was small falls, but lot of force in the water. Denoy explored the way to reach the small end of the falls. We all went to that spot, felt the awesome water force, It was like natural jacuzzi :) One had to really take the support of the rocks in both the hands and legs, otherwise the water will take you along the sita river.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-8563390760466810732009-08-10T01:07:00.000-07:002009-08-10T01:08:08.480-07:00H1N1 in India<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQUGJaObhZYuCUPUJxpTYi6gaU1PW6HlEL7mwO6kO06l-HSO46994tHxXvsA469Gu53kq-lEFA8eRH6QN6T_HpcL8GP2TLL5ew9Lr1zbW1aUGpv0q-fo8QsqEqCUHSXy3x0vC1Ne6PAs/s1600-h/pune+210.jpg"><img style="CLEAR: both; FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTQUGJaObhZYuCUPUJxpTYi6gaU1PW6HlEL7mwO6kO06l-HSO46994tHxXvsA469Gu53kq-lEFA8eRH6QN6T_HpcL8GP2TLL5ew9Lr1zbW1aUGpv0q-fo8QsqEqCUHSXy3x0vC1Ne6PAs/s320/pune+210.jpg" border="0" /></a>Went to Pune over the weekend. While going to Pune, it was not that panic, only few people wore the mask in pune airport. but within two days, it changed drastically. Number of death cases are increasing. In Pune city, many people wear masks, although few ignore it. While coming back to bangalore, In Pune airport I think 60% of people wore the mask. I didn't see any foriegner wearing a mask. They are not caring at all, either they don't know where to buy or don't care about spreading it. To avoid that, Airport authorities might have made the arrangements to provide/sell the masks at the security checks. In the security checks, the security checking inspector are wearing the masks, but no emphasis on the passenger about the usage of masks. I wore my mask that we got from a medical shop in pune. Reached bangalore airport, I was partially happy and partially scared after seeing that only < 5% of the people were wearing the masks.<br /><br />Somewhere I read that this virus might hit 30% (approx) of world population. Too scary...<br />Children and old aged groups are easy targets for this virus. Wash your hands frequently and properly, keep distance from people who have symptoms. Check out what WHO says about it - <a href="http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/what/en/index.html">WHO's FAQ</a><br />Beware of this virus, take precautions to avoid the reception of this virus and also to avoid spreading of this virus.<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-39781923874081654342009-08-04T11:33:00.000-07:002010-01-11T05:36:13.927-08:00White Water Rafting (WWR)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhCBDRNNyQZlVOoyRHpMCHWo2oDKx89Ly9nUm2-dp4IK9YPQLge5GvqNSJR-yAXlPXWW36qgWfHBsOyeL16pOeRTuQf_WkKG1uJw7vj2NRJkrfiv37DT3jfz7j48cS9YDtaoj-Lw_8g8/s1600-h/agumbe+012.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhCBDRNNyQZlVOoyRHpMCHWo2oDKx89Ly9nUm2-dp4IK9YPQLge5GvqNSJR-yAXlPXWW36qgWfHBsOyeL16pOeRTuQf_WkKG1uJw7vj2NRJkrfiv37DT3jfz7j48cS9YDtaoj-Lw_8g8/s400/agumbe+012.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366183905315199250" border="0" /></a>Aug 1st 2009<br />We all gathered at the bangalore city railway station on friday night.<br />Most of us finished dinner already, Few of us went for another round, ate some sandwiches in Comesum restaurant.Got into the train Shimoga Express (6227), chit chatted a while, went to the berth after the ticket verification. Elango woke up as per the train schedule and asked everyone to get ready as the train was supposed to reach Shimoga in 10 more minutes. I woke up, went to toilet, refreshed, then found out that the train was late by 1 hour. Few continued the sleep, few enjoyed the early morning breeze as the train crossed Bhatravati and other places. Soumya hit nostalgia, remembered about her school days. We reached shimoga, elango lost the TRAX driver number, called Adreno Dilip, got driver number again, found the TRAX, loaded our lugguage into it. One new friend, nagesh, joined us in the TRAX. His friends already reached agumbe one day ahead and waiting for him. We introduced ourself to nagesh and started playing coffee potting. As it was 7:30AM, We had idli vada, coffee in a restaurant in shimoga. Got back to TRAX, continued coffee potting and came up with cool<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_%28poetry%29"> limericks</a>. We stopped by MandaGadde Bird santuary, passed by Agumbe, finally reached Hebri, the water rafting base camp at 11:30AM. We occupied the dormitory, refreshed us, few slept for an hour, lunch was ready by 1:15AM. Dilip ask us to eat enough food as the water rafting requires lot of energy. We all ate well :) and rafts came back after the morning ride.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMvDaER7BFTugwGYS3k-8vtTJJSYcu3ylzGdtFs6YG3zQK4z3LHeK_4SIg8I29YaaygSjf4WjRTZ9NMTnoIxrK8weAGYf4kChsZq830VcD1-zox9K3sEHRAlYMd2S0uYaTSxF03MTTHXM/s1600-h/agumbe+020.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMvDaER7BFTugwGYS3k-8vtTJJSYcu3ylzGdtFs6YG3zQK4z3LHeK_4SIg8I29YaaygSjf4WjRTZ9NMTnoIxrK8weAGYf4kChsZq830VcD1-zox9K3sEHRAlYMd2S0uYaTSxF03MTTHXM/s400/agumbe+020.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366182562517388258" border="0" /></a>They pumped the air into the rafts, we picked our life jackets and helmets. Guide explained the basic commands to us. We boarded the rafts and got into water. for few minutes we practiced the commands and started our journey. I took my handy cannon camera, packed inside the dry bag provided by the guide. As we proceeded we used to the commands and got the synchronization among the rafters. Guide informed us about the places where we can get into water to swim across the river. We got into water for few minutes. I don't know the swimming, but It was too tempting. I jumped into water at three places keeping all my faith on the life jacket. It was an awesome experience. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/I6EWPU35BMg&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/I6EWPU35BMg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />The guide didn't allow me to take pictures at all for the first half of the journey. We took a small break, few more people joined us for the rest of the journey. For the second half, I changed the raft, the guide in the new raft was cool, he didn't say anything about the camera usage, I took my camera wherever it was possible, clicked some snaps, shooted some videos. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3teyq3gz6Q9Hbj1G_Kreol_9sl5l8_pLJ4KXiChVdpj8CmSX15pSyP-V3TA1-vAzRwM6WNyZ7zq98rXwcoKuEnCik2OfuhjtKG_6EavJZ3PhcBmX5B1Car79PnyjTsWXdsMAsVqSgFss/s1600-h/agumbe+045.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3teyq3gz6Q9Hbj1G_Kreol_9sl5l8_pLJ4KXiChVdpj8CmSX15pSyP-V3TA1-vAzRwM6WNyZ7zq98rXwcoKuEnCik2OfuhjtKG_6EavJZ3PhcBmX5B1Car79PnyjTsWXdsMAsVqSgFss/s400/agumbe+045.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366184973741554242" border="0" /></a>Few fell off while crossing couple of rapids, everyone jumped into water as soon as the guide gave the signal for the swimming. Elango got hurt on a rock in a rapid while swimming :(, I and Poorvi was about to drifted away by the water into a wrong path when we were out in the water. We both didn't know swimming. Somehome managed to stay against the water flow, and got into the raft with the help of the pedal. It rained as we crossed dense forest areas. After 3 hours of enjoyment, the 26 kms of water rafting was over.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />We came out, lifted the rafts on our head for half kilometer, kept it on the vehicle. I and hecate <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOR-0qIZ3s7hCfuDbyBFAGLvZXyhGqP0ZeFuVdDJI4VcnuWasfY2yekV1bao84hccpYqfDVrdRlv8cd6sNSw10P7fGRfHs8y-FpKRRMOEzB3-7k8T0JXQoaE7TbyH5wssaRLt3LU7672M/s1600-h/agumbe+081.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOR-0qIZ3s7hCfuDbyBFAGLvZXyhGqP0ZeFuVdDJI4VcnuWasfY2yekV1bao84hccpYqfDVrdRlv8cd6sNSw10P7fGRfHs8y-FpKRRMOEzB3-7k8T0JXQoaE7TbyH5wssaRLt3LU7672M/s400/agumbe+081.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366186241552828082" border="0" /></a>competed for the max push-ups on the ground. You know who would have lasted long, yes, ofcourse it was me :), although hecate gave a tough competition. Maruthu captured that in the camera. We walked back a km on the roads, another vehicle came for pickup. we reached the base camp, ate hot hot Aloo Bajji, few Capsicum Bajji, lots of Onion Bajji. refreshed ourself, had dinner, few went to sleep. We played cards, Luck was with me again, I won 3 or the 4 games we played. went to sleep on saturday. Sunday's activities worth a separate blog entry, will post it later.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-76429147349955543192009-07-27T07:45:00.000-07:002009-07-27T07:48:42.632-07:00Weekend drive to my hometownOnce in a while I drive down to my hometown instead of hopping a train.<br />On Saturday morning, I fixed my stepney wheel and headed to my native.<br />Ate chappatis in Adyar Ananda Bhavan on the Highway and continued my drive.<br />I was alone hearing my favorite songs aloud, cruising at 120KMPH most of the time and touched 140KMPH at times, as it thrills... After covering 270Kms approximately and my home was only 40kms away.<br /><br />Just before 10Kms to kanchipuram, one accident, Honda City car hit a motor cycle, the rear wheel of the motor cycle was twisted and motor cycle driver was in the vicinity. Car looked good. No blood on the road. I deviated a bit and proceeded on my way to avoid chain accident. 5Kms down, another accident, A car with 3 passengers hit the rear side of a lorry, while lorry was crossing the road.<br />No injuries to the fellow who sat on the back seat. Driver was injured at few places on his face, but he was quite okay when compared to the other passenger. The other passenger was injured heavily, few places on the face, heavy injuries on both the legs, as the dashboard jammed on his knees. Not sure whether he wore the seat belts. He might be in late 50s. <br /><br />When I reached that junction, poor old fellow was taken out and he was sitting on the road. I stopped my car few meters away, checked them if I could be of any help. The driver introduced himself as a doctor and he needs help. As there is no immediate availability of ambulance and kanchipuram is few kms away, we decided to take the heavily injured person to the hospital in my car. Few people helped to lift him carefully without touching the injured areas and rested him on back seat of my car.As the legs are injured heavily, he couldn't fold his legs, we couldn't close one of the doors. The person who didn't get hurt stood inside and held the open door, the doctor sat next to me and we moved the car. Doctor called few relatives and informed about the situation and asked them to reach kanchipuram. Injured person started telling "Narayanna", "Narayanna" and some other slogans. We crossed 3kms may be, the wind force on the door was to much, I couldn't go fast, as it hurts the injured person. We found few numbers of the ambulance on a sign board, called an ambulance, and waiting for the ambulance. I thought of calling my home to inform the delay, the call didn't go through as my currency reached the minimum and it was in roaming coverage. <br /><br />In the meantime, the highway patrol vehicle came in, asked few questions, and they said they can help to reach the hospital. We moved the injured person from my car to the highway patrol vehicle. As we lifted the person, he started shouting "pain is too much, let me die instead" :( May be half a litre of blood came out of his body. We finally moved him to the patrol vehicle. patrol inspector made the person to kind of sit, straighted his legs, and managed to close the door. The patrol vehicle headed to a hospital in kanchipuram. I came to my car, thought of following the patrol vehicle, but it went out of my sight with the siren turned on. 3 kms down, as I reached the junction, I am not sure which direction, the patrol vehicle went on. So, I took the turn that goes to my native town and reached my home after 2 hours of delay. Everyone was waiting for me. I explained the situation, ate late lunch, tried to take a nap, couldn't get sleep. <br /><br />Back seat was stained with lots of blood.I took the car to the water wash centre. After seeing the blood, First guy refused to clean indirectly by saying "you remove the seat covers and get it". I took the car to the mechanic shop, he refused to remove the seat covers by saying "I'm allergic to blood stains, I'll vomit If I remove". Then I took the car to another water wash near by. It took almost 5 minutes to convince him to clean. He agreed only after asking him the question "I helped an injured person, don't you help me to clean my car?" . He and his helper cleaned all the blood stains on the seats, and then water washed the car. After the work, asked him about the charges, he said "Give me as you wish sir". Paid the amount to see the smile on his face, gave some tips to the helper.<br /><br /><br />Rested myself on sunday, headed back to bangalore on monday. The onward journey taught me many lessons.<br />So, my speed was less than 100KMPH most of the times, rarely hit 110kms. Good to say that no accident on the return journey. I hope that injured person reached a better condition by now.<br />As our highways are not like the freeways in other countries, it is always good to follow few things:<br />1) Keep your speed under control (May be less than 100KMPH)<br />2) Look ahead and watchout within 50 - 100 meters. someone may cross or some vehicle may cross the road.<br />3) Watchout your rear and side mirrors<br />4) Be alert to press the break at anytime<br />5) Don't drive when you are sleepy<br />6) Front seat passenger has be very alert and never ever sleep on the journey. He/She can help to avoid many accidents.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-1634407478596820082009-07-20T23:16:00.000-07:002010-01-11T05:42:23.082-08:001 day trip to Shivasamudra falls<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPmlsPO4x4kVsD7uBIa2lkeyEBqIKxeVK-v4eGKafMe5wbapugW1BXCsTMeh7Iu4cW_T3doEnzlPD8aEU3memfXK0jJ_AY1es2A2l-h0DcwjhHpD28davVNf4Sb8HUruRH9KkBprmV_5s/s1600-h/sivasamudram+024.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPmlsPO4x4kVsD7uBIa2lkeyEBqIKxeVK-v4eGKafMe5wbapugW1BXCsTMeh7Iu4cW_T3doEnzlPD8aEU3memfXK0jJ_AY1es2A2l-h0DcwjhHpD28davVNf4Sb8HUruRH9KkBprmV_5s/s320/sivasamudram+024.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360797136150243970" border="0" /></a>19th July 2009<br />On a beautiful Sunday morning, Ruchi, Manpreet and I headed out towards BTM to join Raffi, Elango and Sowmya on our way to Shivasamudra falls. Unfortunately, something came up at the last minute, so Sowmya could not join. Environment friendly beings that we are, we decided to take just one car even though it would be a little uncomfortable for 5 of us in one car.<br />Check out the video below...<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vMIx4AMWp7w&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vMIx4AMWp7w&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />We decided that Raffi and I would do all the driving – to prepare us for the GDC drive! Sometimes Raffi does back-seat driving that irritates me and I wanted to make sure he doesn’t do it. But I must say he did not do it and in fact even appreciated my driving! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW192kJUjaSneHjBWVQDU3jghZYdksM7VYLJk8jbf2iYUHLuQ7vXZuOUCRJyXqYs_7i1I_j79jfv_bueEEhRxu9qCOxZU4Mtlt9qtAx8ymfItpwEGQVx56IrUck1fRWN2B0vlTTI3AFzo/s1600-h/sivasamudram+009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW192kJUjaSneHjBWVQDU3jghZYdksM7VYLJk8jbf2iYUHLuQ7vXZuOUCRJyXqYs_7i1I_j79jfv_bueEEhRxu9qCOxZU4Mtlt9qtAx8ymfItpwEGQVx56IrUck1fRWN2B0vlTTI3AFzo/s320/sivasamudram+009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360796662390875426" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Raffi was driving in the morning and decided he wanted to prove his friend wrong who said Indica cannot do 140 Km/hr. He jammed the pedal, hit 140 and took a pic of the speedometer at 140! We all cheered him but immediately asked him to slow down. Did not want to get into any mess before the GDC trip. Breakfast was at Kamath. We tried their breakfast buffet. Had heard a lot about it and it lived up to our expectation. You must try it if you get a chance.<br /><br />On the way, Ruchi taught us a game called “coffee-potting”. One person is the den and the rest of the people decide on one verb that ends in “ing” – present continous tense. The den can then ask several questions to the rest such that the answer can be yes / no / maybe. Based on these he has to guess the word. She also taught us other games called “Psychiatrist” and “Limerick”. They were so much fun that time passed quickly and we reached our destination.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJxuT6rwp8zmSQVks0U4J3IFMo28Op8XTQMv24MLn_RjQPT2TTweDog_8MvpObzF_K14nFMu5uROBohJnpwAY3Hs0nOGDcHQUtlZr3wP2bFUqvPzkg5JLh6KF_t9K11IcnFPvpxqc5w8/s1600-h/after_rain.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaJxuT6rwp8zmSQVks0U4J3IFMo28Op8XTQMv24MLn_RjQPT2TTweDog_8MvpObzF_K14nFMu5uROBohJnpwAY3Hs0nOGDcHQUtlZr3wP2bFUqvPzkg5JLh6KF_t9K11IcnFPvpxqc5w8/s320/after_rain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360797606078100034" border="0" /></a><br />Because of the good monsoons, there was a lot of water, and the Gaganchukki falls were in all their splendour! The water was gushing with so much power, the foam went up several feet. Several monkey were monkeying around and one hung on to its mom’s belly while she was moving around. That was a good camera moment. We then went to Barrachukki falls, which were even more beautiful. Standing there amidst the greenery on one side and waterfalls on the other, was spiritually uplifting. All of a sudden, it started pouring and all of us got drenched in the rain! Crouching behind a bush and sipping tender coconut water while shivering in the rain was our way of having fun!<br /><br /><br />Our next stop was Talakkad, but I must say that the road to Talakkad is BAD, to say the least. We pay so much tax money and this is what we get – disgusting! Anyways, our games made the journey interesting. We were hungry but didn’t find any decent place and we wanted to get back to good roads before dusk so kept driving. Junk food kept us going – my stomach is still misbehaving! But on reaching the place, we felt it was worth the drive. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_RDFpR2to1YLpn01mQxaOqORYlXnvkOrlIaFHRvrRG_Gkd0AkXzRIJjgnNFXTkEZlwA-GbQxYWvKXbbtabk3BsGsySuWaS-vhqR-aagyg2fpkjrJH76yXbwJ25iNoVM2TyFoUflK02KQ/s1600-h/thalakad.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_RDFpR2to1YLpn01mQxaOqORYlXnvkOrlIaFHRvrRG_Gkd0AkXzRIJjgnNFXTkEZlwA-GbQxYWvKXbbtabk3BsGsySuWaS-vhqR-aagyg2fpkjrJH76yXbwJ25iNoVM2TyFoUflK02KQ/s320/thalakad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360798395811655554" border="0" /></a>The place was so beautiful! The river was swollen and one fourth of the trunks of all trees were in water. We took a coracle ride and the boatman took us in between the trees. The water was still, trees all around, birds chirping, and the splash of water when the oar went in – one must be there to feel it. It cant be described in words. We just sat still for a few minutes to enjoy the moment. The coracle ride was so much fun, that at the end of it, we asked the boatman for one more ride! And this time around, we took tea and coffee along with us. Sipping garma garam chai while on a coracle ride with friends – now that’s how we like to live life!<br /><br />I was at the wheel on our way back, and what we feared happened - we got a flat tyre. Luckily the stepney was in place and Raffi changed the tyre in 6 minutes! We timed him and even captured it as a video on our camera, But the lighting is not proper. After dinner at Maddur Tiffany (reminded me of Audrey Hepburns “Breakfast at Tiffanys” – though this place is nowhere near that!), we headed back. A fun trip that was.<br /><br />How to reach?<br /><a href="http://www.bing.com/mapindia/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=12.589413%7E77.331951&style=r&lvl=9&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&rtp=pos.12.9133397340775_77.6005554199219_BTM%20Layout%2C%20Bengaluru%2C%20Karnataka%2C%20India__%7Epos.12.268390506506_77.1693802624941_Sivasamudram%2C%20Karnataka%2C%20India__&rtop=0%7E0%7E0&encType=1" target="_blank">Route 1 - Through Kanakpura Road</a> - 116 Kms<br /><a href="http://www.bing.com/mapindia/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=12.589413%7E77.331951&style=r&lvl=9&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&rtp=pos.12.9133397340775_77.6005554199219_BTM%20Layout%2C%20Bengaluru%2C%20Karnataka%2C%20India__%7Epos.12.268390506506_77.1693802624941_Sivasamudram%2C%20Karnataka%2C%20India__&rtop=0%7E0%7E0&encType=1#JnJ0cD1wb3MuazRrMDB2cWcwMTdnX0JUTStMYXlvdXQlMmMrQmVuZ2FsdXJ1JTJjK0thcm5hdGFrYSUyYytJbmRpYV9fX2VfJTdlcG9zLms0MnFjY3FmZ21maF9CaWRhZGklMmMrS2FybmF0YWthJTJjK0luZGlhX19fZV8lN2Vwb3MuazFiN3JxcWR4cTM0X1NpdmFzYW11ZHJhbSUyYytLYXJuYXRha2ElMmMrSW5kaWFfX19lXyZydG9wPTAlN2Uw" target="_blank">Route 2 - Through Mysore Road </a> - 126Kms<br />We took Mysore route.<br /><br />Our next trip – river rafting on the Seetha river at Agumbe on 1st & 2nd August.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Poorvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07065950205852461881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-17935288883532008742009-07-19T23:12:00.000-07:002010-01-11T05:42:56.551-08:00Good Practices for car's healthSome of the things that came out after a discussion with my colleague, Sachin KC.<br />Thanks to Sachin for sharing the good practices that he follows.<br /><br />* Don't jump start the vehicle. Most of the damages happen during engine startups. Keep the engine idle for about 30-45 seconds before you start moving. You can notice the difference yourself about the engine performance. ( Though it is not needed for mpfi engines, it is still a good practice ).<br /><br />* Keep watch on the battery acid level. Don't rely on servicing people, they don't even bother to check it sometimes. ONLY use distilled water for topping up ( no acid ). Level should be till the<br />indicator in every cell.<br /><br />* Keep checking the coolent container regularly, may be every fortnight. Sometimes they dry up very quickly and damage radiator. The coolent level should be as indicated on the container.<br /><br />* DONOT turn on AC when it is raining. This could generate carbon-monoxide known as "Silent Killer". Lower the windows by 2 inches or use just the blower. Found this in an article.<br /><br />* Avoid resting your left leg on the clutch. Even little push, engine drinks considerable amount of fuel and the mileage drops. My car's mileage increased by around 1Km when I avoided this. ( There will be a resting pad to the left of clutch which you can use )<br /><br />* You can skip one gear shift in forward direction when you feel that the vehicle is moving fast. Say, for example, your vehicle crosses 35 and u change the gear from 2 to 3, drive till it reaches 55 or 60, then you can shift gear directly to 5. This avoids fuel flow as you don’t have to use clutch one more time. This is similar to downshifting from 5 to 3rd or 2nd gear when you deaccelerate.<br /><br />* He uses the following gear shift strategy.<br />0 -> 20 : first gear<br />20 -> 35 : second gear<br />35 -> 55,60 : third gear<br />55 -> 65,70 : fourth<br />Above 65,70 : fifth<br /><br />* Most importantly, get the engine De-Carbonized. This removes the carbon layer that gets formed inside the engine. After you have got this done, you will feel that your engine is brand<br />new!! He is doing it for every 25,000 KM and his Santro is doing great even after having run for about 1,38,000 KMs!!! Hyundai charges around 1400 rupees for DeCarbonizing alone!<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-88421457739872171962009-07-17T09:10:00.001-07:002009-07-22T10:57:29.915-07:00Tadiandamol - A Nice Peak<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrsOKFfdj1_eF7km2G0wKld0Zue613wdxTMmZnXtYGxDyk5jjdlHzM2rlWR0z6SKrH8nEtOA5PKjm_ohPMfTwA3QekgPqLKq_qkQku8nS8k7nehNbWCmRkToYFAmaDxtd6n7JyMrpdKUM/s1600-h/tm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrsOKFfdj1_eF7km2G0wKld0Zue613wdxTMmZnXtYGxDyk5jjdlHzM2rlWR0z6SKrH8nEtOA5PKjm_ohPMfTwA3QekgPqLKq_qkQku8nS8k7nehNbWCmRkToYFAmaDxtd6n7JyMrpdKUM/s400/tm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361344972684839330" border="0" /></a><br />Tadiandamol is the highest mountain of Kodagu district, India, and the second highest in Karnataka. It is located on the Western Ghats range, and reaches an elevation of 1,748 m. It is a place of interest for trekkers and naturalists. The mountain has patches of shola forests in the valleys. I had been to this place twice, I will go again if someone accompanies me, even tommorrow. Normally we leave the foot of the hill around 11AM, reach the peak around 4-5PM, relax, collect woods from near by places for the bornfire, setup tents, chill out in the evening clouds, have dinner, go for a walk, and sleep in the tent above 1,748 m. Last time after the dinner, once we settled down in the tent, it started raining :)<br /><br />Check out my collage for the same.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr7kcrtY0LbM72xCh1_HJd6k0C0KvVz0nzMgs2Q8eNv6gs8gKOeq-ccg5iQArQBPzVeHhRImlNMZtkMogUhEqs-l2mRX7m08EwO-9bKwwdEdL5gmHSlxpF9Ev1vYSwpkMVbYo5ST0mR4I/s1600-h/tm.jpg"><br /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Poorvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07065950205852461881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-56982572118145219592009-07-17T06:49:00.000-07:002010-01-11T05:43:35.329-08:00Hebbe Falls from KemmangundiDuring the Kemmangundi trek, we had been to Hebbe falls. You need to walk down to this hebbe falls, as it is buried inside a coffe estate. An 8 km trek from Kemmangundi along a steep and narrow path leads you to these sprightly falls. Surrounded by dense forests and coffee plantations, Hebbe Falls gushes down from a height of 551 ft[1] in two stages to form Dodda Hebbe (Big Falls) and Chikka Hebbe (Small Falls.) Don’t miss a refreshing dip in this herb-infused water.<br />It was awesome falls, check out the video :)<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/brO8_zkBul0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/brO8_zkBul0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-43235842316324829072009-07-17T00:25:00.000-07:002010-01-07T01:06:28.104-08:00Road trip to PondyTGDC has brought back memories of so many of my trips, what with blogging, uploading pics on flickr and talking to friends about driving trips. One road trip that brings very fond memories is the trip to Pondicherry. Here goes the journal…<br /><br />Day 1 Friday 6.30 am: I had stayed over at my friend Sophia’s place in HSR layout and we were picked up by our friends. We drove along Hosur road and had pongal, idly, vada for breakfast at an Udipi joint on Hosur road. The drive was fun with all of us yapping, giggling and singing. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjc34HKBfWYSRsD8UyrUQ4ULl0elazhcE_8toKCVjcgykDU2b1e-wSQf3qqPc6e1VWrINC4SBZJX3vsfc1BP-m9q0pyNgPCYfLYWEobL8GfjBaOHXlNrZMZmSkPZDTmozZL3AcV9jmfzU/s1600-h/Matri+Mandir.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjc34HKBfWYSRsD8UyrUQ4ULl0elazhcE_8toKCVjcgykDU2b1e-wSQf3qqPc6e1VWrINC4SBZJX3vsfc1BP-m9q0pyNgPCYfLYWEobL8GfjBaOHXlNrZMZmSkPZDTmozZL3AcV9jmfzU/s320/Matri+Mandir.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359329708965805346" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Day 1 1.30pm: Usha wanted to visit Ramana Maharishi’s ashram at Thiruvannamalai so we took a short deviation. The place was divine and peaceful! We meditated for a while and trekked on the annamalai hill – it was very rejuvenating. We then had south Indian meals and were on our way to Pondy.<br /><br />Day 1 4pm: We reached at about 3.30 or 4pm. Neelam is a member of the Pondy Ashram from many years so she arranged for us to stay at an ashram guest house bang opposite the beach! It was so beautiful. The cool breeze blowing on our face brought in the scent of incense burning nearby. The chirping of swallows added to the charm. So many people on bicycles made me want to learn to cycle! There were so many French style villas and the streets were calm. We visited the ashram for the evening meditation program. It was so relaxing, I could have driven for another 8 hours!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgi-hM9rn47s6JLZSLmU35dfuiB6GFIYYE00ASZAaopQoCgw-uOxyzcZw8PiFbeuGNepc_l9cPaiS0fT7QYJqj8ALM73jqKXRDt81X9wyVoO_Xu58SUtVrx9Lad5P6X92ADBTfnKcPWc/s1600-h/French+embassy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgi-hM9rn47s6JLZSLmU35dfuiB6GFIYYE00ASZAaopQoCgw-uOxyzcZw8PiFbeuGNepc_l9cPaiS0fT7QYJqj8ALM73jqKXRDt81X9wyVoO_Xu58SUtVrx9Lad5P6X92ADBTfnKcPWc/s320/French+embassy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359329703954166370" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Day 2 7.30am: After breakfast, we headed for shopping – bought perfumes candles and soaps, diffusers, books and knick-knacks. We also visited a hand-made paper factory and did some more shopping.<br /><br />Day 2 1.30pm We reached Auroville where we had lunch and some exotic herbal drinks. I had the sarsaparilla sherbet and it tasted awesome! Picked up a couple of bottles for home. We saw so many foreigners living there, roaming about in Indian clothes on bicycles and mopeds – very unassuming and nonchalant. I can’t imagine leaving my country and living in foreign land amongst strangers. I could never do that!<br /><br />Day 2 4.30pm: Neelam got special permission for us to visit the Matri mandir. It is an amazing structure – spherical with gold disks all over it. Its being made from more than two decades and still needs some finishing. The garden and lawns there are beautiful and an old banyan tree gives a very royal feel to the place.<br /><br />Day 2 9.30 pm: We went to a boutique hotel on the beach road called Hidesign Promenade and danced away till the wee hours of the morning!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilplDVR9wNmDnXlVZ-pHm7yS9romm4gTnD8_inkdq8RIkSLpGjy0ZN7C6pHK-1RZTeDZjMeleFkWYOZzRo8LvMuLqnKlO2_OL8lfwJzjo1HaP-2KFtJjTmZ0aynewod5Uv5tjVZaZMufk/s1600-h/girls+let+their+hair+down.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilplDVR9wNmDnXlVZ-pHm7yS9romm4gTnD8_inkdq8RIkSLpGjy0ZN7C6pHK-1RZTeDZjMeleFkWYOZzRo8LvMuLqnKlO2_OL8lfwJzjo1HaP-2KFtJjTmZ0aynewod5Uv5tjVZaZMufk/s320/girls+let+their+hair+down.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359329698936816642" border="0" /></a><br />Day 3 7am: We went to the private Auroville beach, frolicked in the water, got completed drenched in the salty water and then lay on the sand to dry in the sun! There’s a French lady who has a quaint little joint – actually a shack - near the beach where we had a coffee and croissants.<br /><br />Day 3 2pm: After a simple but delicious lunch at the ashram guest house, we left back for Bangalore. Driving back seemed longer as it always does.<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Poorvihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07065950205852461881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2180177534896718925.post-51633800625994582422009-07-16T22:51:00.000-07:002009-07-22T11:03:01.773-07:00Ergonomics of Car DrivingI drive 50 kms up and down daily to office. As we work daily with computer, mostly used parts of the body are fingers. We cannot get rid off the usage of mouse, as it gives us bread and butter to live. While driving also, we have a wrong habit of using our thumbs to horn. It will end up in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury">RSI</a> and you'll pain in the fingers. I have took few pictures today on my way to office as I got time in the bangalore traffic signals :). Would like to share the good ones and bad ones.<br />Bad ones are <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbYN0n0x326goELg6-BacrziWi1RHMEUTsg0zQm1f9IVhvxR7pPuK1zHzenIo_okVi-q37XAb-QjdCo07P2FZns8yPhIbgXUrn2IdFPfXWgnplkXKrp94nsotslPZlZx9CO3Xrbq5eh0/s1600-h/horse+005.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbYN0n0x326goELg6-BacrziWi1RHMEUTsg0zQm1f9IVhvxR7pPuK1zHzenIo_okVi-q37XAb-QjdCo07P2FZns8yPhIbgXUrn2IdFPfXWgnplkXKrp94nsotslPZlZx9CO3Xrbq5eh0/s320/horse+005.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359307570505517346" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5nUY7L8tZ3EeNmptaCRjuunQbpT7pJO6KkXYQgNdfGncDpu7ECj5GIFAKrZYa81k9u7W1MqzkYkueVi_21gXlVK3Mz-fGXoMrpSaZh4fYxk8R8am4Y6urr91Ji0KSJkCMTC2YZ6Scexs/s1600-h/horse+008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5nUY7L8tZ3EeNmptaCRjuunQbpT7pJO6KkXYQgNdfGncDpu7ECj5GIFAKrZYa81k9u7W1MqzkYkueVi_21gXlVK3Mz-fGXoMrpSaZh4fYxk8R8am4Y6urr91Ji0KSJkCMTC2YZ6Scexs/s320/horse+008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359307577849789138" border="0" /></a><br />Do not give the pressure on the thumb finger, that raises lot of stress to the finger. As much as possible, avoid that habit. It comes by practice. Any change takes its own time. I took 2 weeks to practice this and now avoid the thumb finger usage.<br />Now, let me share god ones...<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5KKDdXWa1nGGRN4jjq2_Wxxun0TS-_3OinmbYLQhYxJDCJjpMl-5FXLyqz_Y25lR7NlBtsZxT1a-gOWF8imCzX0hyphenhyphenS5GibWFOMU7vai2tCvO9Fdvm0VUIQO1EOxKtjtMqj0wfW1iTsUk/s1600-h/horse+018.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5KKDdXWa1nGGRN4jjq2_Wxxun0TS-_3OinmbYLQhYxJDCJjpMl-5FXLyqz_Y25lR7NlBtsZxT1a-gOWF8imCzX0hyphenhyphenS5GibWFOMU7vai2tCvO9Fdvm0VUIQO1EOxKtjtMqj0wfW1iTsUk/s320/horse+018.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359307592526484146" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgZJcKl1gYAwTvTG8b3D2smEuXDtMvtcujGkngDBzp3cIQov0odDfGZjx_LQV0q_0ALsrPfjiCeNdU7VJ_TpCcZBGT94yLW-3Mh3ZRO0MTO6pGUZ2o6Yj4p2LAD-BoS2_2-ewwQSyzH0E/s1600-h/horse+010.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgZJcKl1gYAwTvTG8b3D2smEuXDtMvtcujGkngDBzp3cIQov0odDfGZjx_LQV0q_0ALsrPfjiCeNdU7VJ_TpCcZBGT94yLW-3Mh3ZRO0MTO6pGUZ2o6Yj4p2LAD-BoS2_2-ewwQSyzH0E/s320/horse+010.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359307585875476018" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsCp_lQ9S3_qtiPQLkEcSsPNmAd7gp5F0t7co7DEz0qYLL7wkaFQgxADmSB-uojmJuI24cCeaqcKomLUBHIF9DttVJKX_9oFzjx21-PypmAM1i3clJqc0GOGLtNyKen-ODf9XXY-NoNXI/s1600-h/horse+012.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsCp_lQ9S3_qtiPQLkEcSsPNmAd7gp5F0t7co7DEz0qYLL7wkaFQgxADmSB-uojmJuI24cCeaqcKomLUBHIF9DttVJKX_9oFzjx21-PypmAM1i3clJqc0GOGLtNyKen-ODf9XXY-NoNXI/s320/horse+012.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359307590928500898" border="0" /></a><br />Please vote for us, today is the last day. Count down started, it ends at 12:00PM tonight (17th July 2009)<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/application/1246604591108626</div>Raffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05546426924484991618noreply@blogger.com3