tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56544165323792584912024-03-05T22:39:10.246+05:30WildZestsA collection of my pictures and the thoughts behind those pictures.Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-75706347095197365972015-01-27T16:35:00.000+05:302015-01-27T16:35:46.175+05:30Bandipur Calling!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The weekend after Pozu's birthday was going to be at one of favorite Jungle Lodges in Bandipur. Gowri's cub Prince was being sighted quite often in the tourism zone and we were hopeful of catching a glimpse of the young male tiger ruling the area that once his mother reigned upon. An early morning start ensured that we were able to do a customary stop at the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. The migratory birds had yet to arrive and so we just decided to do a short boat ride and let the kids enjoy watching the crocodiles.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/16379498415" target="_blank" title="WhiteBreastedKingfisher by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="WhiteBreastedKingfisher" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7298/16379498415_19218a7429_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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We reached Bandipur in time for lunch and got ready for our first safari in the afternoon. The weather was pleasant and the light was good, both conditions hinted towards poor sightings in the forest. And that's exactly what happened as well, the forest was nice and quiet and although one of the vehicles saw a glimpse of a leopard, the big cats remained pretty much elusive.<br />
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But we did have some good time watching a herd of elephants taking a dip in the pond as the sun was about to set in the background. Although this wasn't the best setup from a photography standpoint, it was an awesome experience just to witness how the jumbos helped each other down the steep incline of the pond and were enjoying in the water.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/16193443109" target="_blank" title="Elephants by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Elephants" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/16193443109_689dfb6699_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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This lady streak-throated woodpecker gave us some nice opportunities to shoot with a clean green background.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/16191865158" target="_blank" title="StreakThroatedWoodpecker by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="StreakThroatedWoodpecker" height="1024" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8598/16191865158_a33c992431_b.jpg" width="682" /></a><br />
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Next day morning we spotted a Changeable Hawk Eagle sitting in between tall grass and we were wondering why it was sitting down there.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15759500033" target="_blank" title="Changeable Hawk Eagle by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Changeable Hawk Eagle" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7317/15759500033_7cf465d932_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Just then it flew with a Pond Heron clenched in its talons and perched on a branch far away from the track. What followed was a series of feather tearing action to start feeding on the flesh. I am sure this was just a snack for the huge raptor who are known to hunt smaller monkeys as well.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/16378771252" target="_blank" title="CHE-Feeding by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="CHE-Feeding" height="450" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8608/16378771252_73e9d55734_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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A huge alpha males gaur leading the herd that was grazing besides the track was an awesome sight to watch as well. Although they're usually pretty calm and avoid proximity to the jeeps, there have been few reports of aggressive behaviors by these largest wild cattle. Weighing more than a tonne at times, these males can be a serious threat if provoked.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/16192271640" target="_blank" title="GaurMale by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="GaurMale" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/16192271640_99be57f099_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Overall, it was a good trip and more so because I hadn't been to Bandipur in quite a while and it was just nice to be there. Our luck with the big cats didn't really work out this time, but that's a part of these wildlife trips, you shouldn't read too much into that anyway.<br />
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Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-81499898056153614612014-12-01T11:58:00.000+05:302014-12-01T11:58:55.598+05:30Pozu turns Five!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">As a kid, I used to feel that time goes so slow and it'd be good if we could get a time machine to become older quickly. Now, as a parent, I feel that Pozu's growing up at so fast that we need some way to slow things down and enjoy her naughty childhood a little more. I'm sure she wouldn't be happy if I told her that!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Pozus-5th-birthday-invite-upload by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozus-5th-birthday-invite-upload" height="534" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7560/15920442385_e13ace3d6a_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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She turned five last week and this time her birthday party was very different than all the earlier years. For a start, she now knows what to expect on a birthday party and could tell us what she'd like to do for her party. It was our first real birthday party for the kids, all the earlier ones were all focused on adults and it used to be a get together for our friends more than hers. Also, this time Gozu was quite keen on doing it at the clubhouse rather than at home so that there's enough place for the kids to monkey around (it turned out to be a very good idea). The only thing that I hadn't anticipated was the amount of work that was needed to organize the event, and that meant that I was running around until the party started. But in the end it was all worth the effort.<br />
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Gozu had baked a special cake for her which she cut as the first birthday cake of the day before going to school. She was so excited about celebrating her birthday with friends in school that she distributed all her chocolates right in the school bus and later realized that she didn't have any left for her classmates. Poor thing, I should have given her the spare packet of chocolates that was kept at home. Note to self - next time, give her more than double of what's required for the bus and her class!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Pozu's-Bday by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozu's-Bday" height="800" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8636/15298212014_2070605223_c.jpg" width="699" /></a><br />
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Pozu had given me a list of some 20+ friends she wanted to invite for her birthday and surprisingly we had more than 80% of the kiddies turn up for the party. The fun started right at 6PM as kids started coming in and soon the whole place had transformed into a madhouse with the birthday trumpets. Gozu and Shalu had arranged for some games for the kids and that kept them happily busy for a while until it was time to cut the cake. Pozu had specified that she wanted to have an elephant cake - in line with her "I'm Pozu - the elephant" statement. Some of her friends wanted to smash some cake on her face, but that led to some loud crying and that mission was aborted.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="B'day-Cake by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7578/15920449425_1396bdb0a2_c.jpg" width="800" height="352" alt="B'day-Cake"></a><br />
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After the cake cutting, the kids knew that it was time for the party to get over. That marked the beginning of the destruction and all the kids got busy in taking down the balloons and the decoration. This was a new revelation for me since I hadn't seen this stage of the birthday party before. But in the end everyone went home with a happy and smiling face, that's what matters!<br />
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</div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-84348128847026007572014-11-01T18:26:00.000+05:302014-11-01T18:26:02.676+05:30A Slushy Half-day OTR with JeepThrills <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Jeep-Mud by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Jeep-Mud" height="451" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7536/15678645811_6d64942648_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The JeepThrills team had planned a day event at the Bidaraguppe lake near Sarjapur. The lake bed presents quite a challenging obstacle course for the 4x4s while the risk of breakage is relatively lower since it's all mud. This time around it was a smaller group with about 7-8 vehicles with a healthy mix of Jeeps and Gypsies.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Sarjapur-1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sarjapur-1" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7494/15061359993_d48ba96b58_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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I had done a similar OTR in 2013 and you can read up on it <a href="http://wildzests.blogspot.in/2013/06/sunday-morning-otr-bidaraguppe-lake.html" target="_blank">here (Sunday Morning OTR - Bidaraguppe Lake).</a><br />
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<a href="http://wildzests.blogspot.in/2013/06/sunday-morning-otr-bidaraguppe-lake.html" target="_blank" title="Sarjapur OTR 17 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sarjapur OTR 17" height="640" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5325/9074859686_fe1eeaa7d9_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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However, if you look at the picture above, the last time we came here, it was summer and everything was dry. But this time it was very different. The whole place had transformed into a green shrub forest with slushy tracks all around.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Sarjapur-3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sarjapur-3" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3938/15678812491_f2c8f303e1_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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There were small water bodies all across and we had a good time with this one where it was only a few gypsies that made it through with their high revving engines and light weight bodies. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="01-CSJ_5745 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="01-CSJ_5745" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7555/15060632874_b33b334997_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Sarjapur-2 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sarjapur-2" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3951/15494851949_e2072ea4ef_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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All the jeeps just sank in the mud at the exit, including mine! <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="04-CSJ_5750 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="04-CSJ_5750" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7487/15061207363_45448b097c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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There was a lot of recovery that had to happen and the winch came in good use.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="08-CSJ_5761 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="08-CSJ_5761" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5615/15682150692_20e84f69b5_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="1-1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="1-1" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5603/15495736267_6aa1fc7572_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The next obstacle was a climb through a slushy incline and this is where the Jeeps could do it more easily than the Gypsies because of the low range torque. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Sarjapur-4 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sarjapur-4" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3955/15495928260_ae453c1a02_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The gypsies needed to be revved hard and taken through without losing momentum and that means there's a lot more tossing around that happens as compared to the jeeps.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="13-CSJ_5945 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="13-CSJ_5945" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7582/15682161502_236413fff6_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Overall it was quite a fun day with a challenging trail and a lot of recoveries. Good thing was that there were no breakdowns and everyone made home safely. The weather too was cloudy and cool all through the afternoon which made it a pleasure to be outdoors. </div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Sarjapur-6 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sarjapur-6" height="450" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7531/15061361463_a253bae616_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<i>PS: Unfortunately, I hadn't carried my camera for this event so all I got was some phone camera pics. All images used in this post are shot by <span style="color: orange;"><b>Caleb Shireesh Jacobs</b></span> and are reproduced/reprocessed with his permission. </i></div>
Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-82647048770242899802014-10-27T09:50:00.001+05:302014-10-27T09:50:30.126+05:30A Wild Sojourn in Goa <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This year the Dasara holiday and Gandhi Jayanti were two events that most of us were eagerly waiting for. It opened up a lot of possibilities for travel with a 4 day weekend and more interestingly a 9-day vacation with just 3 days of leave. Pozu had a week long vacation from school that week anyway. As the days approached, we realized that we hadn't taken a big vacation in this whole year and it may be good if we just take the whole week off and be at home even if we don't end up going anywhere.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15446576439" target="_blank" title="GoGoaGreen by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="GoGoaGreen" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5616/15446576439_c3a9c59563_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Being a super long weekend, almost everything had already either been booked or was turning out to be a super expensive affair. Moreover, we were certain to find hordes of people anywhere we land up and that's something that I usually don't like. We prefer to visit places where we simply don't see too many people. Although I must call out that in India, it's all in relative terms coz there are people just about everywhere. And the other agenda is usually to find a place with some wildlife so I could sit around a practice some photography as well.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15633208855" target="_blank" title="Fortuner-at-Castlerock by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Fortuner-at-Castlerock" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3949/15633208855_1794f99774_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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After reviewing all available options from the hill stations of Ooty and Coonoor, to the beaches of Goa, we still hadn't zeroed down on a place. Finally, after a lot of discussions it was either going to be some remote places around Sakleshpur and/or Coorg or a trip to the unseen forests of Goa mainly with a birding agenda. We still weren't sure about the accommodation and food etc since there were no bookings made. But that's the good part about our trips, we like to go places where we don't know what's in store for us. We've figured that in the end, everything can either turn out to be okay or go horribly wrong, but in any case, these experiences create long lasting memories from such trips and help you become a better traveler.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15447645680" target="_blank" title="FortunerOnTheFerry by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="FortunerOnTheFerry" height="500" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3953/15447645680_1ff466ab3d_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Not being able to decide which place to go, we just packed our bags and loaded the car. It was now left to fate to decide where we end up eventually. Pozu was all charged up with the idea that we were going out, a darling that she is, she didn't care what place. For her anyplace that's not home and has place to play around is good.<br />
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We left around 3AM as usual and soon we were out of the city and cruising on the NH4. Before we realized, we had already overshot the turn to Sakleshpur. Whether it was good or bad I don't know, but it meant one thing for sure. Our destination was now finalized, we were headed to the forests of Goa!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15609707326" target="_blank" title="Jungle-Scene by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Jungle-Scene" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3942/15609707326_36d3f605fc_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Now it was still early October and the birding season was yet to begin, but I was hopeful that the Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and the Zuari river would be enough to keep me partially busy at least. The plan was to find a stay near Mollem so we could visit the sanctuary and do a trip to Dudhsagar falls. So, instead of taking the Hubli-Karwar route, we took the Dharwad-Londa-Ponda route to get to Mollem. Previously when I had taken this route, the roads from Dharwad till Londa were in really bad shape, but this time I was surprised to see that the roads till the Karnataka exit were actually pretty good. However, the road after Londa is where it starts getting rougher so much that it becomes difficult to distinguish between the road and the potholes in some places. The Fortuner took all of it in its stride, although I couldn't help commenting that our Safari would have done the stretch at 20% higher speeds without any discomfort inside the cabin.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15447236137" target="_blank" title="GreenFortuner by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="GreenFortuner" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5598/15447236137_0c05ed8848_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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It was still Sunday morning when we reached Mollem where we found the Dudhsagar Spa Resort right next to the gate for the sanctuary, barely a 7 hour drive from home. Now, I had other things in mind when it came to our stay options, it had to be minimalistic in order to keep the costs down. However, when you're traveling with family, it's always good to make subtle compromises in order to keep them happy else my photography life will become really tough.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="DudhsagarSpaResort by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="DudhsagarSpaResort" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/15447772368_8e2e75b7c6_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Both Gozu and Pozu had already pictured themselves having fun at a place like that with nice lawns and children's play area etc. So I went in and enquired about availability, good news was it was available but bad news was it was not in my desired budget. A round of negotiations helped finalize a deal that was reasonable and we were settled. We had secured bookings for the next 4 days until the mad rush begins from Thursday onwards when we were planning to head back and enjoy the long weekend at home while everyone's out.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15633422415" target="_blank" title="The Pols in the Jungle by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="The Pols in the Jungle" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3936/15633422415_433faf19ab_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Over the next 3 days we spent a lot of time inside the sanctuary, just sitting around in the forest and enjoying the absolute quietness. We also visited the Tambdi Surla temple, the Bondla wildlife sanctuary, Salim Ali Bird sanctuary etc.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tambdi Surla Temple by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tambdi Surla Temple" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5604/15448310270_164825cd2a_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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All my birding plans had to be shelved since most of the activities had not started yet and some places needed a long trek which wasn't possible with the two ladies along. But I wasn't complaining, being in the wilderness was good enough. Best part was, there were no people around at all, not a single soul to be seen for hours together.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15447997057" target="_blank" title="Fortuner-In-The-Wild by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Fortuner-In-The-Wild" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5600/15447997057_3b31436e2e_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The fourth day was reserved for our trip to the Dudhsagar falls. The jeep trail through the forest that leads you to the falls hadn't been opened yet and so the options available were:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Take the train from Castle Rock or Kulem, both ways train available only on Thursdays from Kulem</li>
<li>Hire a bike taxi who'd take you through a mix of forest roads and paths along the railway tracks, </li>
<li>Walk up for about 14-15kms from either Castle Rock station or the Kulem station,</li>
</ol>Option 2 and 3 were out of question with Pozu along with us. So it had to be the train, and Thursday was the only day we could get a train that will take us in the morning and bring us back to Kulem at around lunch time.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Pozu-at-Kullem by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozu-at-Kullem" height="500" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5606/15447426327_d7f8563f33_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Overall, it was a nice trip, although it was a very hot day and a little bit of rain would have really helped. I was happy that I managed to capture the beautiful falls along with a train on the bridge, so mentally that one thing was off my checklist. The return train was a bit delayed and it was almost 2.30PM by the time we were back at Kulem.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15634052682" target="_blank" title="Dudhsagar-Falls by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Dudhsagar-Falls" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3942/15634052682_141d7e1e5c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15012868744" target="_blank" title="Dudhsagar-Tunnel by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Dudhsagar-Tunnel" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3936/15012868744_923dd104f4_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">The trip to Dudhsagar was the official end of our trip plan and we were supposed to be heading back home. But fate had other things in mind.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15609517446" target="_blank" title="Fortuner-On-The-Road by Amol Pol, on Flickr" ><img alt="Fortuner-On-The-Road" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3946/15609517446_747fa1e109_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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On Wednesday, our gang of friends from Bangalore announced that they are coming to Goa with their families and asked us to stay back. The only issue was that they were going to reach only on Friday morning while we had to checkout on Thursday from Dudhsagar Spa Resort. There were no bookings available for the following day, not at Dudhsagar and not anywhere else in Goa as well. It looked like more than half of Bangalore and Mumbai/Pune was in Goa for that weekend. From the smallest of places to the 5-star resorts, every place I called, I got the same response, "Sorry Sir, we're fully booked until Sunday!"<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Train-at-Dudhsagar by Amol Pol, on Flickr" ><img alt="Train-at-Dudhsagar" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3946/15634274902_d6b70e87a1_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">I was pretty sure that we'd find something or the other if we just landed up at places rather than searching on the internet. Just then, I managed to find one lucky room at the Grand Hyatt that may have opened up due to a cancellation. Now, this was absolutely not in our plan or budget, but then we didn't really have a plan to begin with. So from a moment ago where we were wondering what kind of place we'd get to stay, we had landed ourselves with one of our most luxurious and comfortable stays of the trip.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15012462324" target="_blank" title="DaddynBaby by Amol Pol, on Flickr" ><img alt="DaddynBaby" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3938/15012462324_2fe2d66659_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The Grand Hyatt is a really big and beautiful property, no doubt on that. But never ever have I seen a 5-star property as crowded as it was on that day. The swimming pool was filled with people, there were people walking in the gardens, even the breakfast place was full on the next day morning. It just wasn't quiet anywhere unlike our stay at Dudhsagar. The good thing was that since we were now closer to the city, we got a chance to spend the evening with our friends Anil and Deepa while Pozu was super excited to see her friends Aarna and Ayira.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="PozunGozu-at-the-beach by Amol Pol, on Flickr" ><img alt="PozunGozu-at-the-beach" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5600/15447823370_d4e8dcb79b_c.jpg" width="800" /></a> </div><div style="text-align: left;">For the next two days, we were joining our crazy group of friends for a nice and comfortable stay at the Skylark resort in Colva. Luckily enough, we somehow managed to secure 7 rooms as a last minute booking, all thanks to the group that had cancelled out. The resort was quite good and food was equally amazing, most importantly, they had a nice big pool for us to have fun. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="GoaGroup by Amol Pol, on Flickr" ><img alt="GoaGroup" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5597/15446578839_74202e801a_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Time just flies when you're having a good time, it was already Sunday before we knew. It was time to head back home, and this time it was for real! <br />
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What happened after that, I'm sure nobody's really interested in. It was Monday!</div></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-51267536120059233052014-10-25T13:54:00.001+05:302014-10-25T13:54:24.200+05:30Offroading with the Jeep Thrills team<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It was around mid-September and there was a half day event organized by the Jeep Thrills group. Now, I'd never say no for an offroad get together and the half day events are the most non-disruptive events from a weekend perspective. The only thing I have to take care is to get home before evening and take the two lovely ladies out.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal (1) by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal (1)" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5609/15435223598_3726b21746_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Unlike most of the other events, the meeting spot for this one was quite close by for me since we were all meeting up at Marathahalli bridge and then heading towards Hoskote. The spot we finally found was beyond Hoskote, somewhere near Tekal. The only issue was that it was almost past 11.30 by the time we started the trail and that meant I had to wrap up early to get back home and avoid trouble.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15000611244" target="_blank" title="Dwarak's Gypsy by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Dwarak's Gypsy" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3954/15000611244_4a448dd4eb_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The terrain was all rocks and that meant that I had to make sure there's no underbody damage at the end of the event. The first obstacle was a nice 4ft climb on a boulder that was nearly vertical. There was a small ramp at the bottom that assisted the launch, but post that it was only about holding your nerves and not letting go of the throttle until you are on top. Once at the top, there was just enough place for a jeep before hitting the rocks at the front so one had to be careful not to roll it forward once the climbing was done.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal (2) by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal (2)" height="530" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5611/15000585314_f2ae09bebd_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The gypsies are always the more dramatic ones in such obstacles since they can only climb with a good amount of throttle to build the torque, unlike the jeeps which can crawl up at fairly slower speeds.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15435778810" target="_Blank" title="Thomas-Invader by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Thomas-Invader" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5605/15435778810_3c9dd1f913_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The longer wheel base Bolero Invader had a bit of a struggle to get up but he finally made it with a few attempts. I also needed a second attempt to make it since the initial line of approach wasn't proper and the jeep was skidding to the left instead of climbing up.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal (4) by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal (4)" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3936/15597662606_c3e572d1f4_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal (9) by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal (9)" height="800" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5602/15435341797_29a081e3f5_c.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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The next obstacle was even more tricky as it required careful negotiation through the rocky steps and then exit towards right with an awkwardly tilted jeep for about 10 meters. Underbody scrapes were unavoidable, but I just didn't want to hit anything too hard. Looking at everyone else's attempt, there wasn't a soul who came through without any clanking noises but thankfully there were no breakages.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15435243968" target="_blank" title="Gypsy at Obstacle #2 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Gypsy at Obstacle #2" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3951/15435243968_bbd123c86e_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Again the gypsies made it out, but the lack of articulation makes them very vulnerable to a rollover. Add to that the fact that they have to always throttle their way out makes it even more scarier. But although it seemed dangerous, we didn't have any incidents.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal-(700) by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal-(700)" height="500" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3952/15597680896_55e922f416_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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I had initially gotten my wheel stuck as I got down the first rocky step, but then with a little bit of cajoling and reversing I managed to squeeze the jeep out from the obstacle. There were surely some thuds that could be heard, but nothing serious.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal 22 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal 22" height="530" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5604/15000700484_185990aede_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The right turn exit was quite tricky and most of the guys got an extra helping hand to shift the center of gravity and make it through.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15618705401" target="_blank" title="Deepak's amazing CJ3B by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Deepak's amazing CJ3B" height="534" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3936/15618705401_56e5910cf3_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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By the time everyone made it though this obstacle, it was already past 2PM and given that we had to stop for lunch before we get home, it was time for us to pack up. The JeepThrills team with Dwarak, Vivek and MP Sreenivas continued ahead for a little more I guess while we took leave and headed back home after a quick photoshoot.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Tekal (10) by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Tekal (10)" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3934/15001187173_5065a1145c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<i>PS: Images that are not watermarked are sourced from the JoB and JT facebook group. Copyrights belong to their respective owners.</i></div>
Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-63113821934293165732014-10-25T11:57:00.000+05:302014-10-25T11:57:39.045+05:30Exploring the Experiential Learning Process!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Albert Einstein had said "The only source of knowledge is experience". I tend to agree with it completely, until you've gone through it, you don't "really" know what it's like. With the advent of technology and youtube, it's not too difficult to find a video or an article on what you were trying to do. There's enough crazy guys who must have tried something similar already and most likely video-taped it as well. But the touch and feel experience is something you'd not forget easily vs having a third person view.<br />
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And this is exactly what happened in one of our lunch time conversations. Pozu and I were discussing some random stuff when the discussion went on to describing how clay pots are made. When I offered to take her to show her the pot making activity in person she was all excited about it. So we finalized a visit to the Pottery Town in Bangalore on the following weekend. All through the week she kept checking if we were on track with the plan, so there was no running away from it.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15434835078" target="_blank" title="Gozu-n-Pozu by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Gozu-n-Pozu" height="534" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15434835078_f63c8644f7_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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That day she woke up and got ready pretty quick and soon we were in Pottery Town. Given that the Ganesh festival was round the corner, there were lots of stalls selling idols from a 1ft tall to a larger than life idol standing 15ft tall. I had imagined the area to be abuzz with the artisans, but the traditional clay pot making houses are reduced to only a handful. Pozu was amused to see how one of the guys was kneading a large blob of clay with his feet - all she knew about clay until now was the colored Playdoh.<br />
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On speaking with one of the fellows there, he told me that the large pot making guys weren't there for the weekend and I could come back on Monday if I wanted to see that. But there was one guy making small pots and the diyas upstairs. So we went up and met Ramesh who was a really kind-hearted gentleman. He first did a demo of how he makes the small pots and then invited Pozu to help him make a pot. Initially she was a bit apprehensive about it, but once she had laid her hands on the clay, she was all smiles.<br />
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He even gifted her one of the pots as a souvenir with a nice handle on it. She now has plans to color it nicely as one of the weekend activities.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15597266076" target="_blank" title="Pozu @ Pottery Town by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozu @ Pottery Town" height="391" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5604/15597266076_b755e80dfa_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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A few days later, she surprised me with a question. "Daddy, what will happen if the Earth stopped spinning?" I didn't know how to respond to it so that she'd understand that the gravitational force would cease to exist and weather conditions would change drastically etc. But then she bowled me over by saying "If the Earth stopped, we'll all fall off". I asked her who taught her that and she said one of the boys from her school was telling them all this. And thus began our conversations about how the world is like a ball that goes around itself and the sun and how we experience night and day etc. Heck, she even understands the fact that US is almost diametrically opposite and that's how they're sleeping for the night when it's day here in India - makes me look like a fool sometimes.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15000802063" target="_blank" title="Pozu carving a design by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozu carving a design" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5610/15000802063_20e4202248_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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It was quite funny on how she is able to grasp all that concept so easily at her age. I'm sure that I wouldn't even have known how to wear my own clothes at the age of 4. She was eager to know more about how the moon changes shapes etc and soon we were talking about the solar system and the planets that in our galaxy. In 10 minutes she had registered the names of all the planets and could tell them in order of sequence. Soon, we were getting deeper and deeper into technicalities of the various colors of the planets, how they all go around the sun without hitting each other and how each of them has different number of moons etc.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15618288321" target="_blank" title="Pozu @ Planetarium by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozu @ Planetarium" height="800" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3949/15618288321_89c889edc1_c.jpg" width="600" /></a><br />
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Looking at her level of curiousity, we took Pozu for a visit to the Nehru Planetarium. I knew it was going to be a little early for her age, but amazingly enough she enjoyed the documentary and could relate back to our conversations as she saw the planets and stars on the gigantic dome screen. Actually, she was quite amazed with the dome screen since she was expecting something like the cinema screens.<br />
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I don't think she'll be able to retain all of this by the time she starts learning about it in her school, but given her learning capacity, I am really not concerned about all that just now. Overall, it was a wonderful experience not just for her but even for us - reinforcing some of the knowledge that takes a backseat with everything else that goes on in life. </div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-36716345240645038152014-10-25T10:37:00.001+05:302014-10-25T10:37:58.608+05:30Amy the Amethyst Fairy a.k.a Pozu the Elephant<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A new school event was coming up, and this time it was a fancy dress competition with a fairy/goblin theme. Gozu was all charged up to make a DIY costume for the event and a lot of youtube searches were made to finalize on one design. I was a bit skeptical at the beginning on whether it was worth the time and effort to make things at home vs buying a ready made costume.<br />
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Now we didn't really know too much about fairies except Tinkerbell, but with a little help from Google we figured that there are different types of fairies etc. Amy, the Amethyst fairy was chosen since her name started with an "A". Apparently, she's a fairy who can make things disappear and that's not a new thing for Pozu.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15434648297" target="_blank" title="Anastya - Fancy Dress Costume by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Anastya - Fancy Dress Costume" height="800" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5614/15434648297_52988bb4dd_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The prior weekend was spent in gathering all the raw materials required for the tutu skirt and the tiara etc. The only thing that was remaining was to get the wings made from the wire hangers that we use for clothes. Finally one day, Gozu got me and showed me the demo of how to bend the hangers to make those wings. It wasn't all that difficult at all and in 10 mins we had the wings sorted out.<br />
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I hadn't seen the final dress until the day she wore it, and it really looked pretty I must say. Everything just fitted in really nicely to transform the naughty little Pozu into an adorable fairy. And best part is, she won the competition!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15000493013" target="_blank" title="Anastya - Fancy Dress Competition Winner by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Anastya - Fancy Dress Competition Winner" height="640" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3936/15000493013_933ebc0013_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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It's amazing to see her grow so fast, sometimes I sit and tell her stories about how she was so tiny that I could fit her in my forearm and now she's half my height already. I've gotten so many pics of her when she was a baby, but that's coz she couldn't run away from the camera. Now, its not the same anymore, she won't pose for the camera that easily. It takes a lot of patience to get her to stand in front of the camera and a lot of times I don't end up getting even a single good shot.<br />
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But there was this one day where I was testing a lens that came back from service and she knew I wasn't really doing a photoshoot. I casually got her to stand to see if the lens was tracking the focus points etc. It was only a few weeks later that I happened to see those pictures and found a gem. When I showed her the pic, she instantly said it was Pozu the Elephant (that's what she likes to call herself). This one's definitely one of my favorites from the recent times and will make it to the wall in my next batch of prints.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15434647287" target="_blank" title="Pozu the Elephant by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pozu the Elephant" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15434647287_4d2ca0acc7_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div>
Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-90801466584007131882014-10-24T12:31:00.000+05:302014-10-24T13:22:00.949+05:30Jeepers of Bangalore OTR at Hoskote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It was more than a month since the Yercaud trip and quite a few folks were eager to go out for a day OTR. So when the announcement came for it, the attendee list was already quite long. The venue was going to be somewhere around Hoskote which is hardly 20-25 kms from my place. One of the JoB guys had done a recce and had promised us a good mud trail for about half a day, and what a day it was!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15613989402" target="_blank" title="Offroading with Pozu by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Offroading with Pozu" height="456" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3950/15613989402_e98735275b_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Although it was a weekend, Gozu was out for some offsite meeting, and that meant Pozu had to come along with me for the event. The little one was all excited about going offroad after a relatively long break and was eagerly looking forward to the day.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Group by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Group" height="414" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3942/15427397947_8abf1522af_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The turnout was quite good for the event and we had over 15 jeeps in the convoy. Within 10 mins of reaching the spot, we had finalized our first obstacle. The first part was an entry into a ditch and then a sharp right turn with a two-step climb to reach the top. There were a couple of tree stumps at the top which had to be avoided to prevent any underbody damage.<br />
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Part 1 - Getting into the ditch<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Sidhu Obstacle 1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5614/15613412075_308355efc3_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="Sidhu Obstacle 1"></a><br />
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The stock T-fort needed some help to make sure the foot boards don't get bent while going into the ditch.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Fortuner by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3952/15589732446_0279619af3_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Fortuner"></a><br />
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Part 2 - Coming out of it <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15428166540" title="Pajero Climb by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3946/15428166540_7296043b50_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Pajero Climb"></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Obstacle 1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5613/15589729746_4f771fe77e_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Obstacle 1"></a><br />
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The SUVs made it up without a fuss, most of the jeeps made it fairly easy with the low range torque at hand<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15610456441" title="Karthik's Jeep - Obstacle #1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3951/15610456441_e5d2765dc6_c.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Karthik's Jeep - Obstacle #1"></a><br />
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Some had a bit of drama although nothing sensational<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15613159065" title="Tejaswi - Obstacle #1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5610/15613159065_84065b91bf_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Tejaswi - Obstacle #1"></a> <br />
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The gypsies needed a bit of hard revving to get past<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15426488929" title="Gypsy - Obstacle #1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3951/15426488929_c4fa2dfa5f_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="Gypsy - Obstacle #1"></a><br />
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Pozu was strapped in her seat and we were ready for our turn. She was initially nervous but soon that changed into excitement and thereon it was only about what next obstacle were we going to try.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15427144887" title="Climb - Obstacle #1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5605/15427144887_73c65bba47_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Climb - Obstacle #1"></a><br />
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Next up was a small water crossing through a grassy patch. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Water Crossing (2) by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3942/15427400777_8be7bde664_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Water Crossing (2)"></a><br />
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This was a pretty easy obstacle and nobody seemed to be having any trouble getting through. So to make matters interesting, once I reached the end, I did the obstacle in reverse and again forward. The thought was to dig it up a bit and make it more challenging. And, it worked. The next jeep after mine had his wheels spinning and eventually had to be winched out - my first recovery of the day.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Me at Watercrossing by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3943/15610722111_76a2ebb02b_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Me at Watercrossing"></a><br />
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A little ahead we had a small technical problem with a jeep and a tree stump. Now Sidhu's jeep has a bit of history of getting stuck on tree stumps, so this wasn't anything very unusual. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Sidhu by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5613/15427522078_a7a32c1a7e_c.jpg" width="800" height="530" alt="Sidhu"></a><br />
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The recovery team took some time to get his jeep out of the mess and soon we were on to our third obstacle. It was a reasonably steep decline with a 2 feet drop at the end. It wasn't going to be too difficult for the jeeps because of the reasonably good breakover angles but the long wheel base SUVs wouldn't have made it without risking underbody damage.<br />
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A view of the obstacle with the Jonga <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15610459371" title="Jonga - Obstacle #3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5611/15610459371_be268a2ff5_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Jonga - Obstacle #3"></a><br />
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The jeep guys ofcourse had quite a bit of fun with a good test for articulation (or the lack of it) as they got down. I had the right rear wheel in the air as usual and that made for some good photo opportunity.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Me at obstacle 3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5614/14993251543_088389575f_b.jpg" width="800" alt="Me at obstacle 3"></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15427042988" title="KVK - Obstacle #3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3953/15427042988_aa857fd342_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="KVK - Obstacle #3"></a><br />
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Good thing was that there was another way out which wasn't as dramatic, so the SUV guys could take that for a safe exit. But Santy's Pajero can even make the safe exits equally interesting. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Pajero climb down by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5599/14993263173_9bd9d99174_c.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Pajero climb down"></a><br />
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Pozu was enjoying herself thoroughly all this while, she had made friends with Tejas who was now nicknamed "naughty uncle". He did a splendid job of babysitting her while I was busy with other things.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15427041178" title="Pozu's Best Friend of the Day "Naughty-Uncle" by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5612/15427041178_7721eb410e_c.jpg" width="800" height="640" alt="Pozu's Best Friend of the Day "Naughty-Uncle""></a><br />
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Being a lake bed, we were all wanting to try our hands with some slush and it didn't take time to get a couple of jeeps swimming in a small pond as soon as we spotted it. But it wasn't going to be easy, the lake bed has been mined for clay for quite some years. So what they had gotten themselves into was a clay pit and there was no way that they were going to make it out by themselves. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Pajero stuck by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5611/15427822550_6206ae099e_c.jpg" width="800" height="534" alt="Pajero stuck"></a><br />
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First it was Teju's Thar that got stuck and the mighty Pajero went in for a rescue only to realize that he himself was stuck. Both of them had to be winched out to safety. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Teju Winched by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5606/14993256663_3c1b28c5de_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Teju Winched"></a><br />
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Next it was me who got stuck while trying to be a little ambitious through the slush and had to winch myself out with help from the Jonga for an anchor. But the favor was returned quickly as he got stuck while attempting to cross that clay pond and had to be winched out. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Water Crossing by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15614236712_66fb829e84_c.jpg" width="800" height="373" alt="Water Crossing"></a><br />
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Not learning from any of our ordeals, KVK got his MM550 in as well, only to get helplessly stuck right in the middle of the pond. That's the thing about Jeepers, they just won't give up trying until they've had a go...LOL!<br />
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Anyway, the getting stuck and being recovered cycle was finally put to an end and it was time for some refreshments before heading back home. Lunch was at our favorite Sher-e-Punjab dhaba and we were back home just in time for a birthday party that Pozu was invited to. Overall, it was quite an eventful day with loads of fun! </div><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Gang by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3953/15614645012_092fa02c7f_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Gang"></a><br />
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<i>PS: Images that aren't watermarked are sourced from the JoB facebook group, copyrights belong to the original owners.</i>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-54276298557898952162014-10-22T16:33:00.001+05:302014-10-22T16:33:40.968+05:30Wayanad Monsoon OTR - July 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It was July and although the monsoon was delayed, it was slowly catching up. The Wayanad Monsoon OTR event was announced and having missed it last year, I wasn't going to let this one go easily. Anish had been wanting to accompany me for an OTR and he was eager to fly down from Mumbai for this one. Ramesh had confirmed his entry too, so it was going to be the three of us, the more the merrier.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15413233628" target="_blank" title="On the way by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="On the way" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3953/15413233628_e37c0524df_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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We were accompanied with Santy's Pajero and Pradeep's Gypsy from the JoB group. When the day arrived, it was like preparing for the first day of school. We were out on the road on time and comfortably cruising on the highway doing good speeds.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Santy's Pajero by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Santy's Pajero" height="600" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3949/15413737660_3c3d897f81_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Vythiri can be accessed either from Mysore-Gundlupet-SultanBathery-Vythiri or Mysore-Kabini-Mananthvady-Vythiri. We chose the latter route since that would give us a chance to go through Kabini even if it meant just transiting. The monsoon feel in the jungle is just awesome and I'd anyday prefer Kabini in the rains over the dry forest cover in the summers.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/14978590314" target="_blank" title="Kabini in the monsoon by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Kabini in the monsoon" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3951/14978590314_279abea7a9_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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After a good lunch at a mess in Vythiri, we proceeded to reach the Vythiri Resorts and finished the registration process etc. Evening was at leisure, catching up with a lot of other folks who had come down from various places in their 4x4s. The Vythiri Resorts property was really good and kind of justified the high participation fees for the event.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Pradeep and the machines by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pradeep and the machines" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3953/15599343085_1ae8da425c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Next day morning, post the flag off we were on our way to the trail. There were a good 70-80 vehicles participating in the event, Jeeps, Gypsies, SUVs et al. It took about 3 hours for the trail to be completed, even though there were no major breakdowns to be attended. It was a beautifully designed trail with some really long inclines and deep slush pits, it was all we expected from a monsoon trail. The only grouse was that it seemed to have gotten over too soon, but soon we got to know why. When we exited the trail, we figured that there were supposed to be another trail which was canceled out due to some last minute issues. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15413315207" target="_blank" title="Wayanad-OTR by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Wayanad-OTR" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15413315207_80613c9765_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The trail we did couldn't have accommodated all the vehicles and hence half the guys were made to wait at the entry point and they began their drive only post 2PM. But as fate would have it, they were rewarded aptly for all the waiting they did. It was about 3.30PM when it started raining and that made the trail even more challenging. The O-team had anticipated the spots where recovery would be needed, especially for the long wheel base SUVs and there were tractor winches and JCBs planted at those spots. Overall, it was a brilliant trail and we were content with what we experienced, although deep down I wished that the second trail shouldn't have been canceled.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Shooter with the Jeep by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Shooter with the Jeep" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3939/15596683061_37ce1ff9ac_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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There was a nice celebration dinner arranged at the resort with an open bar and a group drumming event. Next day it was going to be the competition event arranged at one of the open grounds with a man-made track. It was a timed event which meant that you had to throw the vehicle around quite a bit to be quick. The obstacles weren't too tough, but its the time pressure that kills you in this format and risk of breakage goes up. I'm not too worried about the competition stuff, because I know I have to preserve my vehicle and avoid any major damage to be able to return back safely. But it's fun to watch such events, especially for the Gypsy guys who make their machines fly.<br />
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Here's a video of my run at the track. Funny thing about my drive was that I happened to crush some guy's helmet which he had dropped in the first slush pit (watch the first 10 secs carefully). So after we finished the guy walked up to me to let me know that it was his helmet that was in there, looking at the plight of the poor fellow I offered him one of my helmets to keep. The smile on his face was priceless!<br />
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We wrapped up pretty quickly after our run at the competition track and enjoyed our way back through the forest. I was hoping to make it for one of the evening safaris, but that was not meant to be. Once we hit the Mysore-Bangalore highway, we were dodging the returning traffic and made it home safely a little closer to midnight.</div><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15412698059" title="Pitstop in the forest by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15412698059_8463173a25_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Pitstop in the forest"></a>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-67672017908378633592014-10-21T17:43:00.000+05:302014-10-21T17:43:00.081+05:30A 4x4 Trip to Yercaud with Jeepers of Bangalore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I've always traveled to and through remote places in all my trips, but since the jeep has come in, life's gotten even more interesting. Off-beat trails are now a norm and every jeep trip feels incomplete if the 4x4 low range gearbox doesn't see any action.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15590503162" target="_Blank" title="Walk in the forest by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Walk in the forest" height="600" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15590503162_92af813d48_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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After the family trip to Sakleshpur, it was time for all the boys to head out to Yercaud for an overnight trip. Although, I had not been to Yercaud until now, what I had heard about the place was nothing great and so it always got skipped from our travel list. It seemed like a typical hill station with a lake and a couple of view points, which honestly we wouldn't care much about. But this trip was going to be different, we weren't going as tourists, but rather as adventurists in search of a good trail.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15403549388" target="_blank" title="Anna & Me by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Anna & Me" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3933/15403549388_15aeea3d8f_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The jeeper buddies from Salem helped in arranging a reasonable dorm style accommodation which had some open area in case we wanted to camp out. Since we were a big group, we had the whole place to ourselves which was good. There were a couple of trails planned so that we could have some fun with the jeeps and there was a camp out dinner as well.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Yercaud-9 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-9" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15405381527_cf63da8029_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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In spite of some minor technical difficulties on the way, we all made it in one piece and all machines were still running as we climbed the twisty ghats to get to the top. We reached post lunch and quickly headed out to our first trail, which unfortunately didn't really materialize since we didn't get the permission to go in. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Yercaud-3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-3" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3942/14971232993_7432a8311c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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But that didn't dampen our spirits, we managed to find another spot where we happily crawled over some rocky obstacles to make it to a hill top for a photo opportunity.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_Blank" title="Yercaud-4 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-4" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3933/15405771110_0cf7f3dd75_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Yercaud-1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-1" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/14971236683_d18bc383f4_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The evening was filled with some music and laughter as the whole group sat together and discussed a lot of jeep stuff. We also had a rather unusual "ice-breaking" session by our sooper admin KVK, nobody can ever forget that!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Yercaud-5 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-5" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5598/15405769670_2bf2652584_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Next day began with a drive up through mountains but was briefly interrupted by a sensational recovery that had to be done for one of the jeeps. Sometimes, jeepers underestimate the power bestowed upon them by the jeeps and that can lead to some serious situations both on-road and off-road. Anyway, after the successful recovery of the vehicle, we all had a hearty laugh about what mistakes to avoid.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Yercaud-2 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-2" height="534" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5609/15591379725_c79bb9f3a7_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Next up we were all on a rather off-beat trail that leads to a waterfall and this time we made sure we had the required permissions etc. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Yercaud-6 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-6" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5601/15405779430_94cd4246c7_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The trail hadn't been used in a while and was full with overgrown vegetation all around. It wasn't a very difficult trail since it was mostly dry, but had it rained, it would have transformed into something totally different. We were back around lunch time and by now it was also time for us to head back.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15565979196" target="_Blank" title="Jeep-Yercaud-Trail by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Jeep-Yercaud-Trail" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15565979196_dce864e014_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Our friends from Salem made sure that our way back was more interesting than the way up. It was through some really scenic track which had zero traffic, more so because there wasn't a road to begin with. It was like one of those estate trails with just gravel at most places. Good thing was we bypassed Salem completely and exited out somewhere on the highway towards Bangalore. Rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, but we had loads of memories to take back and most importantly it changed my perception about what Yercaud had to offer. Just goes to show that life's completely different when you drive a jeep!</div><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/15587007251" target="_blank" title="Yercaud-Trail by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Yercaud-Trail" height="800" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/15587007251_67137d4119_c.jpg" width="600" /></a><br />
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<i>PS: The non-watermarked pics are from the JoB FB group and copyrights belong to their respective owners.</i></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-77127684297130547032014-09-26T14:41:00.001+05:302014-09-26T14:41:36.999+05:30Family Trip To Sakleshpur With Jeepers Of Bangalore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It goes without saying that if your family supports the group that you belong to, life can become a lot easier when you need permissions for OTRs and camping nights. So in order to get our families acquainted with the Jeepers of Bangalore group, we had planned out a family event to Sakleshpur. Although not everyone could come because of schedule and other logistics, we had enough participation to have a superb two-day vacation with wives, kids, jeeps and jeepers together.<br />
<div><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Jeeps by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3871/15358158495_9d302b7077_c.jpg" width="800" height="438" alt="Jeeps"></a><br />
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<div>6 families, 5 Jeeps + 1 Duster, is what we were as we started our journey from Bangalore towards the western ghats. The roads till Hassan are pretty good while the last 30-40 kms are reasonably okay. We were all booked at Ibbani resorts near Hanbal, about 20 kms from the Sakleshpur town. The place was very basic and had a nice rustic feel to it. Food was pretty decent and was included in the package. There were multiple spots to setup a bonfire and sit around in the evenings, you could even ask for tents to spend the night in the open. The best part was that they had a private pond with quite a few of those rope activities including a trolley that dropped you right inside the water. Without a doubt, that's where all of us spent our time on the second day time playing around in the water like kids.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Sakleshpur-Trail by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sakleshpur-Trail" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3847/15334574256_8ce1f602d9_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>The highlight of the trip was the jeep trail that took us to a really nice mountain top with panoramic views of the western ghats. The lush green mountains are a sight to behold, I'm sure the place looks even more beautiful in the monsoons.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Pano by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Pano" height="185" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3858/15334574986_f36d26c94f_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>The jeep trail itself was quite a nice one with some nice climbs and small streams running through. Gozu got her chance to try some off-road trail driving and navigate through the narrow trail with steep drops on one side. Given that the monsoons were yet to arrive, it was mostly dry and it wasn't too difficult for the jeeps. However, I'm sure that the whole place just transforms itself once the rains arrive. </div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_Blank" title="Sakleshpur-Trail-3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Sakleshpur-Trail-3" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3883/15354399461_7cbe50b879_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>There was this big rope swing at the resort which swept you at least 20 feet off the ground at the farthest point. Honestly, I couldn't remember how long it has been since we I've had butterflies in my stomach. Kids and adults alike, all of us were seen standing in queue to get their turns almost every time we used to cross through the path to go down to our rooms. A simple setup, but yet so joyful!<br />
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<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" data="https://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf" height="450" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="800"><param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-US&photo_secret=351ffa2f04&photo_id=15334567616"></param><param name="movie" value="https://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-US&photo_secret=351ffa2f04&photo_id=15334567616" width="800" height="450"></embed></object></div></div></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-28142608695234208692014-09-26T10:54:00.000+05:302014-09-26T10:54:44.016+05:30A Quick Trip To Bandipur and K'Gudi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Having been to Kabini a couple of times already, we wanted to visit some of the other national parks around here. Bandipur used to be my favorite hangout a few years back but Kabini had taken over that position ever since. The sightings at Bandipur had slowed down after the tigress "Gowri" died early last year and her cubs have taken to their own separate ways. There is a handsome male "Prince" who is now the ruling champion of the tourism zone in Bandipur but it's not everyday that he is being sighted.<br />
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Bookings at Jungle Lodges are always difficult to get unless you're going on a weekday, we could barely manage to get a one day booking at Bandipur. So we decided to add another day at K'Gudi which is one of those places where I've always wanted to go but never ended up going. Being the peak summer time, we were thinking we may get a bit lucky at either of the places.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Forest Fire - Elephant by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="Forest Fire - Elephant" height="450" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2948/15170335820_779c70c330_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The safari ride in Bandipur was pretty quiet, there was a recent forest fire that had charred quite a large area of the jungle and the wildlife was just adjusting to it. With a little help from the summer rains new grass had begun to emerge from the otherwise parched landscape. Most of the water holes were running dry except a few which had minimal water remaining.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Wild-Boar by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3922/15356711412_f71806d128_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="Wild-Boar"></a><br />
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It was good to be back in Bandipur after a relatively long time. Our safaris however were pretty quiet and uneventful, to the extent that I hadn't pulled out the camera more than a couple of times. But that's how unpredictable these wildlife trips can be, sometimes you're busy throughout the safari with lots of action happening all around and other times you just sit around admiring the vistas without needing to pickup your camera even once.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="BrownFishOwl by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2948/15353846821_7423940a43_c.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="BrownFishOwl"></a><br />
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The next day we reached K'Gudi, the JLR property here is within the buffer area of the forest so there is no demarcation between you and the wildlife. There isn't a regular power supply available and the power generator is intermittently used through the day. At night, there is no power supply and each tent is supplied with a kerosene lantern as emergency lighting system. It's a really nice experience to be staying in the wild and I could hear numerous chital and sambar calls through the night signalling the presence of the striped cat nearby. On checking with the staff, they told me that the resort actually falls into the area of one of the tigresses and the warning calls are pretty much an everyday affair. There were also some reports of a kill being sighted about a kilometer away from the resort behind the hill that surrounds it on the back side. No wonder that they discourage guests from loitering outside their tents/cottages in the night once the lights go off.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Painted-Bush-Quail by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3855/15334011486_b565cd3505_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Painted-Bush-Quail"></a><br />
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The safari at K'Gudi was a lot different than what we've done at Bandipur or Kabini. The whole area is hilly and visibility isn't all that great. The chances of sighting a tiger or leopard isn't as high as some of the other reserves, but if you do get lucky, people have had a wonderful time photographing them. The bird life on the other hand, is one of the highlights of K'Gudi, even a casual glance around the resort will yield a lot of different species to be recorded. Another difference is the barking deer population at K'Gudi is significantly higher than Bandipur or Kabini, it could be because of favorable terrain or the food availability.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="BarkingDeerFemale by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3915/15170273729_f52d7dda34_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="BarkingDeerFemale"></a><br />
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There is a bird bath created just outside the dining hall and once the breakfast or lunch event is over, you can see a lot of birds coming down there for a dip and drink. The oriental white eyes, shyamas, robins etc are regular visitors of this place. We noticed it only on the next day while having breakfast and didn't get much time to spend there, but it's on my to-do list for the next time.</div><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Oriental White Eye by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3883/15356712902_f4f5ee3e29_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Oriental White Eye"></a>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-91538989173342305612014-09-25T11:02:00.001+05:302014-09-25T11:02:47.033+05:30Rendezvous With The Blue Tailed Bee Eaters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_Blank" title="BTBE Landing Shot by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="BTBE Landing Shot" height="500" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3844/15161373648_e3c3d857b9_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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As the summer started to set in, there were numerous reports of the Blue Tailed Bee Eaters flocking on the outskirts of Mysore for their annual nesting period. These birds make their nesting holes in the soft sand found alongside the banks of the Cauvery and can be found in large numbers from March to July. It's a pleasure to watch their courtship displays and feeding rituals. The season starts with the males trying to impress the females with their catch and tossing it around - an exchange of prey would mean acceptance. What follows is the nesting period ie. laying eggs and hatching, followed by feeding the young until they take their first flight and start hunting for themselves.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Blue Tailed Bee Eater With A Catch by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img alt="Blue Tailed Bee Eater With A Catch" height="500" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/15347949495_e0c4785db2_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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In the colony, there are always fights for dominance amongst the males, first to get a partner, then to get the best nesting spots, or even to get a specific perch etc. So it's quite entertaining to just sit around and watch the bird behavior and possibly document some of that on camera. The nesting grounds are now informally protected against human destruction, but there is a lot more than can be done. You can see how these birds are jostling for space amongst growing human encroachment, its a pity. There is cattle and donkeys wandering nearby the nesting sites, and there are laundry guys washing and drying stuff just 40-50m away from these birds. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Blue Tailed Bee Eater by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3856/15347647752_ee03be9f79_c.jpg" width="533" height="800" alt="Blue Tailed Bee Eater"></a><br />
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From a birding standpoint, this is another one of those arm-chair birding spots where all you need to do is maintain sufficient distance from the nesting pits, setup a tripod and wait for the action. All you need is patience and perseverance along with some pre-visualization of what kind of image you'd want to capture. There is a lot of story-telling images that can be captured here showcasing the social behaviors of these birds. One should take care to maintain silence at all times and avoid too much of movement so as to not disturb the birds.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="BTBE Landing Shot by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3919/15161189589_866410eae1_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="BTBE Landing Shot"></a><br />
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I actually made a couple of trips this season, and each time, there was enough drama and action that I could capture. Next season I would want to go a bit early and witness the courtship displays as well. </div><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Blue Tailed Bee Eater by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/15161195209_045911ed1e_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="Blue Tailed Bee Eater"></a>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-29319862019398155252014-09-23T16:08:00.001+05:302014-09-23T16:08:41.213+05:30Life Skill #3: Learning to Swim<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Nirvana by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="Nirvana" height="534" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3846/15143562838_d0c8c5d859_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><div><br />
</div>Last year during the summer vacation I wanted to get Pozu enrolled for swimming classes, but the instructor had asked me to wait another year before she started. So this time without fail, I started familiarizing her with the swimming pool and the fun she could have in the water. The main motive I had was to make sure she had no fear of the water once she started her lessons because then she could focus more on technique rather than fighting her fear.<br />
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</div><div>We practiced for about a week prior to her starting the swimming class and by then she was fearless to the extent that she could jump in the pool without even knowing how to swim. She used to have a pair of arm floats that gave her enough confidence to take risks and move around by herself. We also explored the underwater scene often so she knew that there was nothing to be scared of. The GoPro Hero 3 helped in capturing some of those precious moments that are showcased here.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Pozu-n-Me by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="Pozu-n-Me" height="640" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3863/15307106296_1d0b73d079_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>As expected, her class began pretty smooth and she was already swimming independently from the second day onwards. The instructors were pretty good in working with children and could easily teach her the basic techniques of keeping her head in the water and coming up to breathe etc. By the end of the second week, she was able to complete a full lap by herself which was quite an amazing feat for a 4 year old. Not to mention that she was the youngest in the training batch and so she received the most amount of attention from both the trainer and the other students as well. </div><div><br />
</div><div>At the end of the season, I was pretty happy that she had learnt to swim reasonably well and over the next few years she should be able to master it as well. The only downside of being in Bangalore is that the weather doesn't permit the use of swimming pool through the year. So even though she could theortically practice everyday, once the school has started, we've had very few occasions to jump into the pool.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Pozu by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="Pozu" height="800" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5580/15326983241_3d8f22991d_c.jpg" width="600" /></a></div></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-36358054016343633692014-09-23T13:36:00.000+05:302014-09-23T13:37:39.270+05:30Kabini With The Gang - April 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It was almost a year since we went to Kabini with our <a href="http://wildzests.blogspot.in/2013/07/kabini-magic-not-once-not-twice-but.html" target="_blank">gang of friends</a>. We were going to have Anish come down from Mumbai just to be a part of this trip, it was a first time since he returned to India that he was joining us on a trip. Going out with everyone together is always special, last time we were lucky to have awesome leopard sightings and we were hoping it'd happen again. More than us, it was the kids who get excited with the thought of going to Kabini.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="NextGen by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="NextGen" height="500" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3918/15142507540_725bb6332b_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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We planned an early morning start from Bangalore so we could do a boat ride at Ranganathittu before proceeding towards Kabini. We reached Ranganathittu at about 7AM only to find out that the new ranger/warden has enforced the 8AM opening time and the boats would only be available post 8.30AM. Now who on earth got the idea of such a late start especially for bird sanctuary, it's not even worth discussing that here. This was beyond the normal migration season and most of the birds had returned back, the only ones left were the local migrants, some resident birds and ofcourse the crocodiles.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Great-Stone-Curlew by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2943/15142641198_fc24705fa2_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Great-Stone-Curlew"></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Darter by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5591/15306183426_d05e65c9b3_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Darter"></a><br />
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After a nice long breakfast at Kamats in Mysore we proceeded towards Kabini through the HD Kote road. Once at the resort, it was time for the kids to play around until it was time for the evening safari. It had been raining at Kabini for the past few days and with rain comes the risk of low animal movement in the jungle. We searched all through the forest but there was no sign of the cats anywhere. The whole place looked so calm and relaxed that there was no way one could avoid feeling lazy.<br />
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One of the things I have noticed over the past two years is that the elephant population coming to Kabini has reduced ever since the reservoir had almost dried up in 2013. Even though there was no problem in 2014, the elephants had not returned back and one could only find one or two gentle giants foraging on the fresh green grass along the edge of the backwaters. Hopefully they will return next season for a grand view of having 100 or more elephants in a single frame like it used to be. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Elephant by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/15326063181_258842cd1c_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Elephant"></a><br />
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Next day morning safari wasn't too different either, none of the jeeps had spotted any large predator. We had one more day to go and the situation wasn't going to be much different. The next two safaris also yielded similar results, no big cat, but just moving through the forest was an awesome experience. The dried up vegetation seemed like it was coming back to life with the non-seasonal showers and I'm sure even the animals were feeling a lot relieved of the heat.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Deer-Crossing by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2942/15306182666_fdbd65d0cb_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Deer-Crossing"></a><br />
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After spending two awesome and memorable days, we were now headed back home and we were going directly to the airport to drop Anish for his flight back to Mumbai. Except for the lack of wild cat sightings, I think we all enjoyed having fun as a group after a really long time.</div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-85988966232968544912014-09-22T16:52:00.000+05:302014-09-22T16:52:16.950+05:30Jeepers of Bangalore - Offroading, Camping & Barbeque Night<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A small apolitical jeep owners Whatsapp group that had started back in Aug/Sep 2013 with just a few of us had slowly and steadily grown in a much larger group, there was even a Facebook group by now. After a few rounds of discussion on the name for the group, we had settled down on calling it "Jeepers of Bangalore" a.k.a JoB. Using my limited photoshop skills, I got a logo design for the group and thus we were now bonded together with the JoB stickers on our jeeps.<br />
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As JoB, we intend to enjoy some off-roading fun without bringing in any commercial interests and keep it as simple as we can. The group was aimed to create a platform for the newbies and veterans to interact and share views and knowledge about 4x4s and offroading. The members come from various backgrounds and the diversity helps in connecting with folks who are very resourceful in areas where you may not have any knowledge. There isn’t any joining formality other than having a 4x4 and passion for offroading. <br />
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Everyday conversations in the group vary from technical discussions about engines, gearboxes and transmissions to which color looks the best or what new accessories someone has added on their jeep. About 400-500 messages a day is a norm and sometimes we hit that mark even in 3-4 hours if there was some interesting topic being discussed. A lot of members are now carrying portable battery packs and/or recharging their phones by twice a day, some even bought new phones with higher battery capacity just to be able to survive through the resource intensive conversations. <br />
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Now, we had done a camping trip sometime in January that was super fun event with the tiring offroad trail and evening barbeque with beverages. Everyone felt that it was time to do it again before the summer set in and the days became unbearably hot (yes, it happens even in Bangalore nowadays). A quick show of hands revealed that there was a lot many interested participants this time around. It was going to be a much bigger event than we’ve had before. It made us happy and anxious about how it was all going to get managed considering that we hadn’t dealt with more than 10 jeep convoys so far. Plus, with about 20 odd jeeps turning up for the event there were going to be more than 40 people at the campsite for the night. We had to make sure everyone made through the trail safe and sound in time for the evening activities to setup their tents and fired up their barbeques. The Whatsapp interactions were further intensified, you could literally feel the excitement in the group. <br />
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Some of us already had camping gear, but there were a few who were buying stuff especially for this event. At the previous camping event, we were just about a dozen guys and we had volunteers who had brought food, beverages etc for the whole group, but this time it was going to be impossible to do that because of the size of the group. So a decision was made to have everyone do a potpourri of sorts and individually bring in stuff for the barbeque. We also needed more grills and luckily we had about 6 grills between all of us which was good. This actually proved to be a really good idea since we had a lot of choice once the grills were fired up.<br />
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The day began with a 7AM customary breakfast meeting at the New Agarwal Bhavan on Tumkur road post which the convoy proceeded towards the trail with packed lunch of Idli-vadas. I had Yatin join me for the event, it was going to be his maiden off-road trip so he was rather excited to be there.<br />
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A quick briefing session before we began helped in making sure everyone knew who the spotters were going to be and some other basic rules to be followed on the trail. Basically we wanted to make sure that people don’t go wandering off the trail on their own and/or take unnecessary risks and compromise safety in any way. There were quite a few newbies as well who were going to slot into 4L for the first time. As a group, we needed to give them enough support and encouragement to handle the stress on both man and machine. Our objective was very clear, the OTR was all about having fun, we weren’t out there to prove a point about anybody’s driving skill or capability of their machine. A successful day would be to complete the trail and return back safely without any major damage to any of the machines. <br />
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The trail is a rocky canal bed near a friend’s farm on the outskirts of Bangalore and has obstacles of varying degree of difficulty. We had done a part of the same trail last time, but no matter how many times you've done an offroad trail, there's always some new surprise waiting for you each time you visit. <br />
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There are various opportunities to make steep gradient climbs like this one.<br />
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Or get tested for articulation on rocks like this.<br />
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or like this.<br />
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Get stuck and be winched out in some places.<br />
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Or take the dare for some underbody damage and make it out in style like ThunderBolt<br />
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There are rock faces that make you skid all the way down till you hit the bumper on the ground. <br />
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And places where you can slide and ride through the slushy pits<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPktLDPMJpFeNWpyQzVSopFRwc9saI0dI1wqp79dS0C97Z75Z114ul7PL11NT7yoLWOYysd1gx1xAdJeD0ubXADkBLeTcx5t1jhKLpIk7c0ElqSUmCSmDjnAGN1MAfY65Kxq0P5JlYyx3u/s1600/JOB-1-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPktLDPMJpFeNWpyQzVSopFRwc9saI0dI1wqp79dS0C97Z75Z114ul7PL11NT7yoLWOYysd1gx1xAdJeD0ubXADkBLeTcx5t1jhKLpIk7c0ElqSUmCSmDjnAGN1MAfY65Kxq0P5JlYyx3u/s640/JOB-1-11.jpg" width="800" /></a></div>
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There’s also enough for the SUVs to try out even if they can’t risk the rocky obstacles.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TT6lC_bTwixmYw_Y81v63fCDs_Vh6Yu4UlLQwYiZYsYS7ipAd5KvyIYr6Oc6rUxOZziJpHEW8DEtddtWgQ1x_XThf7PX8boZA9lbYtCGuWogupow7lyoFrl61FjOb5zpteAgJUsu7Vhx/s1600/JOB-1-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4TT6lC_bTwixmYw_Y81v63fCDs_Vh6Yu4UlLQwYiZYsYS7ipAd5KvyIYr6Oc6rUxOZziJpHEW8DEtddtWgQ1x_XThf7PX8boZA9lbYtCGuWogupow7lyoFrl61FjOb5zpteAgJUsu7Vhx/s1600/JOB-1-14.jpg" width="800" /></a></div>
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Most of the times, all you need is a good spotter to take you over those rocks without hitting anything underneath.<br />
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End of the day, you know it’s all worth the effort when everyone makes it through the trail without any major breakdown. <br />
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But this isn’t the end of the story - the actual party starts after the jeeps are parked. There’s a flurry of activities going around and people are busy pitching their tents, checking/fixing stuff on the jeep, setting up their barbeque grills and finally opening up their chiller boxes for refreshments. What follows is a lot of cooking, both food and stories until it’s time for people to crash into their tents (literally).<br />
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<i>PS> Most of the images used here are from other participants and sourced from the JoB FB group. Copyrights belong to the respective owners.</i></div>
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Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-4034060134740504322014-09-18T09:14:00.001+05:302014-09-18T09:14:15.478+05:30Day Visit to Maidenahalli Blackbuck Reserve<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Just as we returned back from Kabini, a casual conversation led to an impromptu trip to the Maidenahalli Blackbuck Reserve near Madhugiri. The onward journey was filled with surprises as we got lost a bit and took the "roads less traveled" to reach our destination. The mis-adventure delayed us by at least an hour as compared to the regular route. Given that we were five of us including Pozu in the jeep, the rough ride wasn't exactly something that we were thrilled about. The only silver lining was that it didn't matter if there was a road or not, the jeep could potentially navigate through anything.<br />
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We reached the place at around 10AM and even before we entered the gate, we had already encountered our first herd of the antelopes and the cameras were in action. </div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Blackbuck-running by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Blackbuck-running" height="427" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3865/15083861047_c42582dc58_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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As we entered into the sanctuary, we tried to get in touch with the guard at the office but nobody was available so we said we'll come back again during lunch time and check. We continued through the marked trails, tracking the herds in an attempt to get them in range but the shy creatures kept moving away from us. </div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Female-Blackbuck-Hopping by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Female-Blackbuck-Hopping" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3906/15083709720_b2efd4307d_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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We saw a few harriers hovering around but didn't get a chance to get a photograph them. There were a couple of spotted owlets who made us run around a bit to get a reasonably clean background. </div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Spotted-Owl by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Spotted-Owl" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3844/15083708560_9b37302732_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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An Indian Bushlark was kind enough to hold it's position while we got some shots. </div>
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="Indian-Bushlark by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="Indian-Bushlark" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3888/15083675169_bfff56b2f4_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The return journey was a lot better since we took the normal route via Madhugiri and we were able to make it home in a little over 3 hours. Overall, it was a good day spent out in the wild, and that's all that matters!</div>
Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-58848743883611388802014-09-17T14:56:00.000+05:302014-09-17T14:56:21.815+05:30A Special Birthday Treat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It was time for my birthday and we hadn't done any trips to Kabini or Bandipur even once in this year. So it was decided that we will be spending a couple of days at Kabini to celebrate and I couldn't have asked for anything better.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Kabini-Morning by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3873/15079269117_8731a613db_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Kabini-Morning"></a><br />
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The summer was just starting and the dry forests usually have a lot more action than the other seasons. The Kabini River Lodge is one of my personal favorite jungle resorts, and it is always exciting to be there. Pozu also enjoys the place a lot, she actually starts missing it if we don't visit there for a while. But more than the resort, this time I was more keen on getting some good sightings in our safaris, and I wasn't disappointed.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Leopard-Walking by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5555/15262731721_e1e6313329_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="Leopard-Walking"></a><br />
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On the first day itself, we had an amazing leopard sighting for almost an hour where the huge male cat posed endlessly for our cameras. This guy is one of the boldest leopards we've seen in Kabini and he really put on a nice display of his dominance that day.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="stare by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3879/15079267607_1e79a06cf8_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="stare"></a><br />
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The next day's safari was also quite eventful with another leopard resting on a tree. But what was even more interesting was the jungle fowl posing for us in superb morning light.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="A29Y1504-1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3883/15079165900_b78fce5082_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="A29Y1504-1"></a><br />
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A sambar deer at the backwaters made for an excellent shot with the glittering water in the background.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Sambar-Deer by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3877/15242835416_15011cf2ce_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Sambar-Deer"></a><br />
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During our last safari, we saw a couple of elephants along with a baby crossing the safari track in a hurry. On closer inspection, we found that the baby had developed some kind of an infection on its right hind leg and wasn't able to walk properly. The mother and probably an aunt were being protective and keeping close at all times. It was painful to see the little one suffer, but that is nature's way of ensuring only the tough ones survive in the wild and strike a balance in the ecosystem. Hopefully, the baby will make full recovery and be able to walk pretty soon.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="IMG_4851-2 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3835/15079098699_5114999315_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="IMG_4851-2"></a><br />
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</div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-18757924046611194032014-09-17T10:34:00.000+05:302014-09-17T10:34:30.463+05:30Birding at Annamalaicheri - Watching The Flamingos <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It was almost the end of February and soon the birding season was going to get over. So we chanced upon the first opportunity to make a quick visit to Annamalaicheri near Chennai. The Pulicat lake or lagoon is one of its kind and hosts a large variety of migrants birds and waders, the flamingos in particular are an attraction here. We had made a similar visit in 2012 but had limited luck with the flamingos since there were only a few that were settled far away in an inaccessible spot. So this was again going to be a matter of chance, but that's what birding and wildlife watching is about, you gotta be at the right place and wait for the right time.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Flamingos by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3895/15078105598_9d4024b3e1_c.jpg" width="800" height="303" alt="Flamingos"></a><br />
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This time we were lucky to have a much closer view of the flamingos, but still it wasn't as good as what you'd experience in the Rann of Kutch. The morning light was quite good though and we were able to get a few decent images of the juvenile birds who were now almost 4-5 feet tall and seemed ready for their first migration.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Flamingo by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3907/15264671225_1e1274f125_c.jpg" width="640" height="800" alt="Flamingo"></a><br />
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Apart from the flamingos, we saw a huge flock of Northern Pintail ducks near the shoreline but they took off as we approached them. It was a nice sight to see hundreds of birds fill the blue sky.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Flying-Ducks by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3886/15241659666_3ba7711cce_c.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="Flying-Ducks"></a><br />
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Getting the flamingos in flight with the 600mm mounted on a tripod in a boat wasn't the easiest thing to do, but I did manage to get a couple of decent shots. One of those shots has been procesed to look like an oil painting and I liked this version better than the original. The texture on the otherwise dull blue sky makes a huge difference I feel.</div><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="Flamingos by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_Blank"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5565/15078103567_7af275765d_c.jpg" width="800" height="399" alt="Flamingos"></a>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-43557886763046080192014-09-15T00:59:00.000+05:302014-09-15T01:44:52.272+05:302014 College Reunion in Goa - Yet Again!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="G0020684 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="G0020684" height="400" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5568/15052200399_628dcb1b26_c.jpg" width="286" /></a>It was time for the 10th year anniversary for Gawde's wedding in February and we had been discussing plans of doing a reunion around the same time to celebrate. The last time we all met was in 2012 and it was a blast and that was in Goa. So we looked at some other options for this time but eventually settled down with Goa again, mainly due to ease of access to the beach, good food and other obvious reasons.<br />
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Given that we’ve always preferred to stay at Palolem beach rather than anywhere else, it was a no-brainer on where we were staying. Not only that we have a preference for the beach, we also have a strong liking for Marron’s Beach Resort where we’ve stayed multiple number of times. This year, it was a bit difficult to get contact details of the resort since the original contact number wasn’t working. But luckily, a friend of ours was visiting before us and we were able to get the new contact details and have our bookings confirmed beforehand.<br />
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It was kind of dejavu of our last get together, same place and mostly same folks except for some new faces who joined and some folks from the last time who couldn't make it. But with our group, we never really feel like we were disconnected for a long time, it's still like we're in college and never really grew up!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="1558443_598747750216277_1186603041_n by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="1558443_598747750216277_1186603041_n" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3925/15052271990_8794301222_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The Palolem beach still retains its charm with the calm sea and shallow beach, but it seems to be getting more crowded each time we’ve visited over the past few years. Thankfully, the water motor sport craze hasn’t caught up yet even though kayaks are available to rent. One of the mornings we all went out for the dolphin ride in the morning and we were happy to see quite a few of them hunting around 500m from the shoreline.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="G0100841 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="G0100841" height="600" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5576/15052268950_a06ca61773_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The days were mostly spent relaxing at the sea-facing restaurant with food and beverages being ordered through the day. And when we weren’t eating, we were out at the sea – kayaking. Unlike last time, I didn't want to take any chances with my sunglasses during our kayaking sessions, and so this time I was wearing a hat instead. I remember there were two of us who had lost the sunglasses into the sea as we toppled over from the kayaks. <br />
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Elly had taken up kayaking as his new hobby, and so this time there was a lot more enthusiasm. I made good use of the GoPro Hero 3 camera in our kayaking sessions, it really helps you get some cool perspectives.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="EllynMe by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="EllynMe" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3881/15215973026_e069af9263_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The three days got done in record time and before we realized, it was time to head back. But it was not without making a promise to meet again someday. Hopefully, the next one will be at a different place. Until then....ciao!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="G0291602 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="G0291602" height="800" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3844/15052379258_698585e5b0_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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</div><div></div></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-56059279028937877862014-09-15T00:20:00.000+05:302014-09-15T01:46:38.330+05:30Life Skill #2: Roller blading is fun!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="SkatingLessons by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="SkatingLessons" height="384" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5574/15238181942_df43cc3149_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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With the cycling skill already in her box, Pozu had now set her eyes on roller blades. There are quite a few kids in our apartment complex who come out with their kits to practice and it's fascinating to see them roll past in style. Wonder how we grew up without all of this and never really missed it!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank" title="A29Y0187 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="A29Y0187" height="400" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3861/15051989128_604d1777ce_c.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>Now I had no prior experience of skating or roller blading, so I had very little to offer in terms of advise. All I could do was read up a few techniques on the internet and ask her to implement those. So to begin with, I chose to let her try on her own and not really influence her process of self-learning. To my surprise, it took her less than a couple of minutes to get on her feet and stand without any support.<br />
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She was now ready for her first attempt to roll, and I was left amazed by the way she did it! There was no sense of fear in her, it was infact a cake walk. Soon she was striding around on those wheels trying out various techniques that could help her propel faster. This is where I could use some of my academic knowledge about skating techniques and help her learn how to position her body and let it flow in a rhythm.<br />
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It wasn't more than a couple of practice sessions that she could navigate herself and also stop when required (although the stopping part is still a bit random even now!). In the process of learning, she fell quite a few times, actually a lot more than when she learnt to cycle. Some of the falls seemed harmless and some were a bit scary, luckily she never got hurt because of all the protective gear she wears. But she's never had an element of doubt on whether she wanted to continue or not, she just shrugged it off and moved on. That's what makes her so amazing!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" target="_blank" title="A29Y0168 by Amol Pol, on Flickr"><img alt="A29Y0168" height="800" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3857/15051995947_8f9684c973_c.jpg" width="534" /></a></div></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-18225709866046852672014-08-24T22:17:00.000+05:302014-09-15T01:46:20.251+05:30Life Skill #1 - Learning to Ride<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="1" height="400" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3867/14834268909_0730467586_c.jpg" width="265" /></a>Sometime in late 2013, I had removed the trainer wheels on Pozu's bicycle and planned to teach her the fine art of balancing a bike. But that plan never really materialized and I never got the chance to put the trainer wheels back as well. So in January 2014, the effort to teach cycling was revived again. <br />
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I was thinking it will be a time consuming affair and I will be mostly running behind her holding the bike at the back like how they show in the movies. And then at one point in time the dad lets go and sees the kid pedal off to glory, with tears in his eyes. But it wasn't meant to be like that, we just went down with her cycle, I asked her to sit and told her to look straight ahead and start pedaling. All it took was one push and she went off cruising on two wheels effortlessly. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="2 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="2" height="500" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5558/15020623782_04419a6b1a_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="3" height="320" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5569/14834460757_7d91a51c19_c.jpg" width="213" /></a>A couple of more practice sessions and she had already learnt how to maneuver around and do a complete circuit without touching her feet on the ground. Never knew it could be so easy!<br />
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I had gotten her the set of elbow and knee guards along with her helmet to ensure that there was minimal risk of injury even when she fell hard. But the best part was that, in her own mind, she had made peace with the fact that falling wasn't a bad thing at all. I think this was the single most important factor for her to learn so quickly - she had virtually no fear of falling and every time she did, she just shrugged it off and kept moving ahead.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="4 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="4" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5593/15020982545_e3414e67ef_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Though she had learnt to ride nicely, the size of the bike was becoming an issue. She had clearly outgrown the green bike and it was time to give it away. So, in May 2014, Pozu got an upgrade to a spanking new Firefox 14” bike which she lovingly calls YellowFox.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="5 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="5" height="534" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3852/14834472689_3f6e5268e6_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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</div></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-67394076662629407372014-08-24T02:14:00.000+05:302014-09-15T01:51:40.001+05:30Catching up with 2014!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Time flies! It’s been a crazy year so far, one of those kinds where I haven’t taken any vacation since it started. Seriously, come to think of it, the trip to Gujarat and Rajasthan in December 2013 was the last long vacation we’ve had. Since then, it’s been just so difficult to take time off and just go somewhere….anywhere!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="1 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="1" height="552" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5573/15008934721_a7c523e449_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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It was supposed to be a trip to the North Eastern Himalayas in December 2013, covering parts of Sikkim and a tour of Bhutan, returning through Assam and West Bengal. But there were budget constraints that hit us, both monetary as well as time needed to complete the circuit. Gozu had some work related travel in December that made it difficult to plan a 3 week trip and we had to drop the idea eventually. <br />
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It was already November and we hadn’t finalized where we were going. Then one fine day, it just happened! We were going to be accompanied by the Kumars and the Singhs, in their virgin Ecosport and Terrano, both cars barely run 500-600 kms. So at 2 months old, the Fortuner was going to be the oldest car in the group for this trip. Plans were made and we managed to get the bookings done. Those days the weekend discussions used to be only about what we’re going to through the trip. It was going to be a 10 day trip, covering only Jaisalmer, Dholavira and Zainabad with some stopovers at Ahmedabad. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="2 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="2" height="445" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3909/14825311559_84ce969f2a_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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When the d-day arrived, everyone was in a super charged mood. First halt was at Mumbai where we were stopping over at a friends place and then headed to Ahmedabad on the next day. The following two days were dedicated to some birding around Ahmedabad while the other two guys spent time with family in Mumbai and joined us at Ahmedabad on day three. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="3 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="3" height="445" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5565/14825311269_041ee0bfb3_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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During the two days at Ahmedabad, we visited the Thol Sanctuary and Nalsarovar Lake. Honestly, Thol was a bit of a disappointment since I couldn’t get closer to the birds at all. The lake is very big and even after walking around for an hour, we hadn’t even walked halfway around its circumference. We roamed around for about 3 hours and then finally decided to try our luck with Nalsarovar. Once at Nalsarovar, it was a very different experience altogether. We hired a boat for the remainder of the day and the whole of the next day which was quite good. The bird population was dispersed through various parts of the lake. The water levels were still high and the flamingos hadn’t arrived yet, but a lot of other waders were seen. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="4 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="4" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3920/14825503487_40132e59c9_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Covering an area of 120 sq. kms, the lake is covered with grass reeds and the shallow waters allow for a lot of aquatic plants to thrive. The weather was quite good too, and on the second day we were on that boat starting 7AM until 6PM. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="5 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="5" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3838/15012031945_2d748b28fb_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="6 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="6" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3901/14825394690_62db2a142e_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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On Day 3, we were joined by the rest of the group and then it was shopping time for the ladies at the night market in Ahmedabad. The next day we were scheduled to begin our trip officially and head towards Jaisalmer.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="7 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="7" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3836/14825310299_dffbd57a7f_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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While shortlisting places in Rajasthan, I was very particular of not wanting to do any of the touristy places where one has to walk with a thousand people through those palace corridors. Rajasthan for me was about the dunes in the desert and its uninhabited vastness. May be someday I will go back to visit the palaces, but not in the peak tourist season. On choosing the dunes near Jaisalmer, there were two main spots, Sam and Khuri. The Khuri (khoodi) dunes were apparently less crowded and cheaper than staying at Sam. And fortunately, we managed to get bookings at Mama’s resort and Camp at Khuri given that everything else was pretty much full. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="8 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="8" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3896/14989033666_6ddcfbac7c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="9b by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="9b" height="320" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5580/15008939021_8cdd8b51e7_c.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>The resort seemed a bit smaller than what we anticipated and what the pictures depicted, but the rooms were good and they had some tented accommodation that looked nice as well. The food was quite good but that didn’t surprise us. Although most places are predominantly vegetarian, I actually think that getting bad food is a bit difficult in Gujarat and Rajasthan. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="9a by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="9a" height="266" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3846/14825309829_3ffee393b6_c.jpg" width="400" /></a>The first day we went out for a short ride on the dunes to watch the sun settle behind the horizon. Everybody’s first experience on the sand, and we all loved it. So much that we asked the guys to take us for a full-day safari on the following day.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="10 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="10" height="445" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3889/14825392250_e3a13cf8f4_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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In the full-day safari, you basically travel about an hour on the camels and then settle down under an acacia tree while the guys cook a hearty meal on the dunes. No gas and no stove, only some twigs and a make shift “chulha”. And then post the afternoon siesta, you are good to return back to civilization. There are overnight versions of such expeditions as well, where you get to sleep on the dunes under the star lit night sky, but given that we had a 1 year old, we chose not to be too adventurous. The night temperatures can drop significantly and one has to be prepared for it. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="11 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="11" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3900/14825308159_867c997617_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="12 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="12" height="640" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5573/15011657272_5d9c8d8ed2.jpg" width="425" /></a></div>I wanted to get the Fortuner for some dune bashing and experience its capabilities on the sand. Post the siesta, the next stop was going to be the sunset point that we had visited on the previous day. So while the guys packed up and moved towards that place, I decided to go get the car and drive it to the sunset point. On the way to the car, as the camel was getting down a steep slope, one of the belts securing the seat snapped out. The young lad, about 13 years old, didn’t know what to do next and called his brother for advice. His brother assured me that it shouldn’t be a problem at all and that his camel also runs the same setup with one broken strap. So off we went again, and at the next descent, I could see the camels head coming closer and closer to mine. Finally, I had to grab the camels neck and do an emergency dismount maneuver, landing in the soft sand. The seat had almost come off its back, throwing me off to roll in the sands. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, neither me and nor the camel had suffered any injuries. The little guy was a bit embarrassed over the incident, but I laughed it off to make him comfortable. It was then that he told me that I was fortunate that the camel didn’t react to me grabbing it’s neck, if it were a smaller camel, it may have kicked me and definitely caused some pain. I thanked my stars and the camel too, brave animal I must say. Anyway, the seat was fixed by another camel guy who made sure it was secured properly and he swore on his own life that there was no risk for me to sit on it again. I offered to walk instead, but he insisted and I gave in, but not without asking for pardon for all my sins...it worked!<br />
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Soon we were back at the car and it was time for me to show the little guy on how good the Fortuner could do camel duty. He handed the camel to his brother and joined me along with another friend. The first step was to climb the dune, straight to the top and then drive on the ridges to get to sunset point. I slotted into 4HL and it climbed up like no man’s business, at 40kmph! Both guys were surprised at the ease at which the Fortuner was managing through the dunes and soon we were at the designated spot. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="13 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="13" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5572/15008937491_2a3f1df17c_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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The next day we roamed around Jaisalmer and visited the fort. It was a nice experience and the ladies got an opportunity to shop around until it was dark. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="14 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="14" height="534" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3836/15011656412_cefef7dd27_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Our first trip to Jaisalmer and we were all determined to come back for more, but for now we had to head towards Dholavira which was our next destination. Most importantly, we had to make sure our bookings were still available since I hadn’t been able to pay the advance. I called them again to check, the guys were kind enough and hadn’t given away my bookings. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="15 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="15" height="400" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3903/14825307249_f1192ebc49_c.jpg" width="381" /></a><br />
Dholavira had been on our travel schedule for the past 2 years when we’ve visited the Little Rann of Kutch, but it had never materialized. So this time it was finally going to happen, and my wife was excited about it. The only place to stay at Dholavira is at Toran which is operated by Gujarat Tourism so its always a good thing to get place and have your bookings confirmed.<br />
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We hired a guide to show us around and that was indeed a good move since we would have never realized how well planned the humans were 5000 years ago.<br />
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Next day, we left towards Zainabad (Little Rann of Kutch) in the morning after breakfast. It was a quick and short drive of about 4 hours through small villages until we reached the main highway. But it was not a problem since the roads throughout Gujarat have been fantastic all the time. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="16 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="16" height="534" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5554/14825389630_b91834b70d_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Zainabad had now become like our second home given that this was the third consecutive year we were visiting. Dhanraj and his guys made every attempt to make our stay comfortable as ever, hats off. We did the customary wildlife viewing safari and everyone got to witness the critically endangered wild asses and a few other LRK specialties. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="17 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="17" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5560/14825388760_1b998bfa64_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Next day we got our permits and decided to drive in ourselves. Although we made a few wrong turns, overall we successfully navigated through the open flats (with some help from GPS and Google Maps). It was time for a quick photo shoot with the three cars.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="18 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="18" height="450" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5594/15011653942_5dcd4f66cd_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="19 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="19" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3919/14825495497_cd935bdb36_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="20 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="20" height="800" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3907/15008930491_3e6a8bfac2_c.jpg" width="666" /></a><br />
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On the following day we went exploring around Zainabad to Modhera and Patan. The Sun Temple and Rani ki Vaav are some really interesting places to visit if you get a guide and listen to all their stories. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="21 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="21" height="353" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5583/15008928661_41687aa049_c.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
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Before we realized, it was already the end of our week long vacation and with a heavy heart we bade goodbye to Gujarat. It was time to catch up with some more family members and then head back home. <br />
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Given that we are so used to traveling on our own, this was definitely a different experience for us. But again, the good thing was that we were with a very close group of friends and that’s what made it fun and entertaining all through. Overall, it was a fun vacation and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. <br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/" title="22 by Amol Pol, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img alt="22" height="450" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3923/14989027486_63fe211066_c.jpg" width="800" /></a></div>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-3985199938658406512014-03-12T10:01:00.001+05:302014-03-12T10:01:06.942+05:30Xmas Tree at Leela Palace - Dec 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Gozu was out on business travel through the first half of December, and that meant that the father-daughter duo had to find things to do over the weekend. One such weekend, we joined a couple of more friends on the expedition to go see the big Xmas tree that is put up at the Leela Palace Galleria. Not knowing how big a tree it was going to be, I wasn't carrying a wide angle lens (big mistake). The tree was about 3 storeys high and with the limited area to shoot around it, it would have needed atleast a 16-17mm lens to fit it in the frame. <br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097657905/" title="Xmas-Tree by WildZests, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3703/13097657905_d0e6025d06_c.jpg" width="800" height="500" alt="Xmas-Tree"></a><br />
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Anyways, the tree was an exciting thing for the kids, they had a fun time around it as well as at the cookie house where both of them got their share of goodies.</div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097721765/" title="Pozu-n-Aarav by WildZests, on Flickr" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3747/13097721765_61b4b4bb7a_c.jpg" width="800" height="640" alt="Pozu-n-Aarav"></a>Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5654416532379258491.post-24996015996273640342014-03-12T09:42:00.001+05:302014-03-12T09:42:48.450+05:30Birding at Ganeshgudi - Nov 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Pozu's b'day celebrations were followed by a quick weekend trip to Ganeshgudi. The Jungle Lodge guys have a property by the name of Old Magazine House there. It's an awesome place and offers excellent birding opportunities, especially for the lazy arm-chair birder like me.<br />
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The JLR team has setup water bowls around a specific area which attracts a lot of the resident bird population all through the day. The place offers excellent photography opportunities since the position of the bowls can be modified based on need to get a proper background etc.<br />
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All you need is patience to sit around waiting for the little birds to arrive and then your camera can be let loose. Here are a few snapshots from the place.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;">Orange Headed Ground Thrush</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097696704/" target="_blank" title="OHGT by WildZests, on Flickr"><img alt="OHGT" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7304/13097696704_d97e9b0aee_c.jpg" height="450" width="800" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: orange;">White Bellied Blue Flycatcher (Male)</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097528463/" target="_blank" title="WBBFlycatcher by WildZests, on Flickr"><img alt="WBBFlycatcher" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7393/13097528463_c85c5c3f83_c.jpg" height="450" width="800" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: orange;">White Bellied Blue Flycatcher (Female)</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097405965/" target="_blank" title="Whitebelliedblueflycatcherfemale by WildZests, on Flickr"><img alt="Whitebelliedblueflycatcherfemale" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3673/13097405965_2bacb281f8_c.jpg" height="534" width="800" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: orange;">Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Male)</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097695644/" target="_blank" title="ParadiseFlycatcher by WildZests, on Flickr"><img alt="ParadiseFlycatcher" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7345/13097695644_cb09b90ae0_c.jpg" height="800" width="573" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: orange;">Flame Throated Bulbul</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097526243/" target="_blank" title="FlameThroatedBulbul by WildZests, on Flickr"><img alt="FlameThroatedBulbul" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3736/13097526243_fc0626e833_c.jpg" height="450" width="800" /></a><br />
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Sadly we just had a one day booking at the place and so the next day we went around Dandeli to see if we can get the Great Indian Hornbill, but instead returned back with some distant sightings of the Malabar Pied Hornbill and the Grey Hornbills.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;">Malabar Pied Hornbill</span><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildzests/13097551703/" target="_blank" title="Malabar-Pied-Hornbill by WildZests, on Flickr"><img alt="Malabar-Pied-Hornbill" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3742/13097551703_ba84476bea_c.jpg" height="450" width="800" /></a><br />
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Amol Polhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13653289468224534760noreply@blogger.com3