Agumbe recap

It's been an year since I visited Agumbe along with like-minded, photo-enthusiastic friends, all credit to Yash bhai for making this happen, one of the destinations I had so longed to visit.

visit for...? what...?

yes...

the greens, the macro life, the vipers and others, endemic frogs, orchids, lichens, moss, spiders, etc, etc, etc...

We stayed at the Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology - KCRE at Guddekere, near Agumbe run by herpetologist, researcher and a humble person Gowrishankar (he and his wife blog at http://pogirigowrishankar.wordpress.com/)

Agumbe, for information receives very heavy rainfall and is the wettest place around here and is very rich in bio-diversity and most importantly is the home for the king of kings, the King Cobra (or Kalinga Sarpa in Kannada) - Ophiophagus hannah.

The KCRE is a new setup, all managed by Prashanth (camp resident) and Gowri who is currently pursuing his PhD and is here during visitor days. Ashwini was the intern during our visit and is now doing her Phd from the Pondicherry University. Simple accommodation, simple food and the only chance to absorb some great learning about snakes from the snake man himself who has rescued hundreds of snakes and who has also worked with Romulus Whitaker.

I had a long standing wish of sighting the King (in the reptile world, King Cobra is often as King) and I didn't want to miss such an opportunity. For the two and a half days, we were there... we were always on the lookout for mainly snakes, frogs, toads and other interesting life forms, be it spiders or insects or even tiny flowers.

Let me share a few photos through a couple of posts...

(Cat Snake resting after a heavy meal, notice the bulged body)

(Bi-colored frog)

(a spider...)

(photo-pose, its only the outer shell that is left)

(Reddish burrowing Frog)

(greens, greens and greens everywhere...)

more to come... be tuned!