Adios 2011, Welcome 2012

2011 has been a mixed bag of emotions for me, a little joy, a little sorrow, hard decisions, inconsistent health, exciting travels, overall can be termed as a good year!

A new year and a new job straight away :) Kicked of the year with our group outing at Ganeshgudi OMH camp (see) and river rafting on the Kali was the highlight.


Maddur and Ramanagara visit happened clubbed with a in house function. Raja and me had a good time birdwatching here...


Kudremukha trek was long due and finally we did it again as a team. Bad health and probably the first time I thought of returning mid way, thankfully with god's grace completed the trek. This is our only dedicated 'trek' for the entire year!


Brother's wedding and I sneaked out to Maidenahalli for a super quick visit along with Raja. Curse me or Praise me :)


In the meanwhile a new beginning called "Indiblogger" kicked off for my blog, what a game changer it has turned out to be!


Peak summer and Bandipura was not to be missed, but somehow turned out to be a dampener and horribly expensive!


Visit to Kasargod happened all of a sudden and so got a chance to re visit Bekal fort along with Raja.


Biggest game changer of my life - attended the "Naturalists Training Program" (NTP) conducted by our guru S Karthikeyan!


After this NTP, every other weekend I'm at some lake or any forest patch in and around Bangalore itself looking for birds, insects, butterflies, anything and everything :)


Family Piligrimage to Mantralayam - a visit long due finally happening, I'm blessed! Thanks to Raja for lending the Figo, it was a cruise.


Monsoons and next were the visits to Ganeshgudi OMH camp again and Aditya's Simha farms for 'macro' activity.


7 months done and only 6 odd outings, very untrue to our normal behavior, work and personal commitments in the way, can't help it sometimes!


A quick trip to Agumbe with half the team during end of monsoons happened, things were about to change after this.


Family health problems and other issues kept me occupied for some weeks together, tough times, now relieved that it got over!


Raja got busy with his wedding and finally one bachelor from the team got hooked up during October. Directly proportionally his participation reduced thereon, its a normal phenomenon and we support it :)


Off went my bike and waiting for the new one to arrive...


Got to know Amit, having similar ideologies and fancies, immediately happened the small trek and bird watching around Muninagar, Bangalore.


A delicious outing for me and Nag at Food street, Bangalore here...


Then self and Nag camped at Honey Valley estate, Kodagu and came back heavily impressed!


Then with fellow NTPians, bird watching sessions happened at Shivanahalli, Nandi hills and Madiwala lake.


The next events are yet to appear on the blog, so can only summarize for now :)


As a group, we were back to Ganeshgudi for a couple of days and had a jolly good time with the newly married groom coming along :) The last group outing for 2011!


Never thought I would be tripping alone w/o my group so early but it happened faster than anticipated on my solo trip to Bandipura during November, eventful trip but missed my buddies.


An early morning visit to Hesarghatta lake, had a good session along with Amit.


Last day of the year and ends with an early morning bird watching outing near Bannerghata Zoo, an eventful outing irrespective of the bad cyclonic weather :)




The blog has risen to a new level especially this year due to the increase in the visitors and the readers and I'm thankful to each one of you for the constant encouragement and support provided.


Got to know some wonderful travel bloggers like Arti, Dhiraj, Anu, Amit, Aravind and it has helped me in a lot of ways. Thank you people! My bows :)


All in all Adios 2011, Welcome 2012...

More greetings will follow!