Rewind 2014

Coming from 2013, this has been a fast year...a very fast one indeed :)

2014 has been exciting in more than one ways for me and I personally am ending it on a high and very well looking forward to 2015.

January - A start to the year with a visit to my personally favorite destination, Dandeli. A solo trip and a nice meet up with some wonderful travel bloggers. Another trip back our favorite jaunt, this time with the group and the year starts with a bang with a much cherished sighting of the Great Hornbill, something that I was waiting for years.

February - A special day when your blog is recognized as the 'best travel blog' by BlogAdda here. Bird survey at Melagiris and a much awaited visit to the Seethanadi camp kept be busy through the month.

March - Awed by the sight of congregation of more than 5000 Bar headed Geese at Magadi lake, Gadag... a conservation success story indeed. Bird estimate in Nilgiris (around Mukurthi) and some fine birding there at Ooty.

April - June - dry months for the year... probably a first time witnessed such a lean period due to hectic work schedules.

July - A long pending trip to the heaven, Kashmir/Ladakh, courtesy Amith, the traveler and a wish fulfilled and a dream accomplished... way to go!
After the Adda award, a quick weekend to Goa to test drive the new Tata Zest as a top blogger, an event where I met a lot of awesome bloggers from different worlds.

Aug-Sep - 2nd set of dry months for the year... well...!

Oct-Nov - the volunteering work started in full force... volunteering for crowd/traffic management at Bandipur during Dasara/Deepawali and jaathre (temple fair) times, lots of appreciation and new learnings.

Dec - Closing the year with yet again a trip to our favorite jaunt, the Old Magazine House at Ganeshgudi.

Been a hectic and a fast paced year that had a lot of challenges for me and ending the year on a high with an apt change in the professional life and looking forward to 2015 with a lot of plans and hopes.

Being true to self, blogging took a backseat and I appreciate all the readers/followers who have steadfast been with me, trust and hope will be posting more content on regularity henceforth :)

Three Cheers!

2014...

The calendars change... new ones adorn our walls

Time for the seasons to roll over again... the grey hairs are well increasing!

and soon... its December again...! so what next...?

another year sets in, yet another calendar change! ... and so on...

The Wilderness is calling,

and I must go!

Summarizing 2013

As I had wished for in the last post of 2012 here, I did travel a lot in 2013 and importantly to newer places making new friends and discovering a lot on offer. Let me summarize it monthly on how the year unfolded...


January: A quick visit to Ooty (the queen of hills) for some birding around the area with buddies, was a very fast one indeed and the only group outing for the year! Blowed away by the endemics seen but disappointed by the way the Ooty hills are being razed down!

February: A new vehicle adds to the stable replacing the old. With that, a weekend getaway visit to Kolli hills, a discreet place with some amazing hairpin bends to counter and for the first time the married person in our group came along with his wife! A nice outing but sad to see the litter all around Kolli hills.

March - April: Almost dry months with not much of traveling except some birding trails in and around Bengaluru to Nandi hills and other places.

May: 5 years of blogging and a reason to celebrate. Been a fantastic journey so far. Invited some wonderful bloggers to guest blog for me. Honored to have hosted them here.

June: Attended the lone bloggers meet for the year, missed attending many others!
Plans and arrangements for Valley of Flowers were all done and had to be shelved due to the devastating floods that shook Uttarakhand. Disappointed!
Attended a 'frog' workshop at Bisle Ghats conducted under the guidance of frog expert Dr. K.V. Gururaja, courtesy buddy Avinash Kannammanavar.

July-August: Monsoon mania at Agumbe at Gowri's place (much awaited).
Certified as a volunteer from the KEDB in association with JLR after attending their two part week long course at Bandipur. Learnt many a new thing in the week spent and made some new friends.

September: A first time trip towards Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (Bheemeshwari).
A week long spiritual drive along with family covering BR hills, Coimbatore, Guruvayoor, Janardhana, Varkala, Kanyakumari, Totadri (Nanguneri), Rameswaram, Madurai and back home spanning 2000kms. Loved the drive all the way!

October: Dasara festivities and multiple sojourns towards Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary covering Bheemeshwari and Galibore regions. Catching up with travel freak Amith Kumar triggered off mutual interests to an all time high.
Visited Ganeshgudi for the first time in the year along with a vociferous group, had a blast throughout. Sadly, only one visit to our favorite jaunt in the year.

November was a busy month
Nandi hills and Maidenahalli for birding along with Amith and other people.
One weekend in and around Mulki (near Udupi) for some wonderful coastal birding.
The last week entirely in Andamans, yes a much awaited and longed for destination visit along with Kesava. Maiden dive under water was the key highlight for a non-swimmer.

December: A weekend visit to Kole wetlands and Chavakkad beach (in Kerala) for some more coastal birding and a day outing to Makalidurga and Nandi hills yet again!

New places were visited this year and many new contacts and friends made, blogging has been slow, as you see the Gujarat Diaries is yet to finish, that means the content of 2013 is completely pending!

As the calendar year changes to 2014, I hope to visit newer destinations, indulge in more adventure activities, travel a lot more and well travel and keep traveling :)

Before I close, didn't participate in many contests due to lack of time and creative mind, and pleased to be recognized amongst several giant bloggers (see the badges at the end of the page).

As always, the audience of this blog has been a great source of encouragement and support, wish to offer much more in content of this beautiful world and take you along on virtual journeys.

Do drop a note if you have time, encourages me all the more :)

Greetings 2013

Well, 2013 is in and let me wish my readers first!

A few postcards for you people :)

Recap 2012, Welcome 2013

I traveled a fair bit in 2012 and to many new places and to some familiar jaunts. Overall, the year has been very productive and eventful :)

A long pending visit to Thattekad finally happened and was a very productive trip along with Amit.

Nature and Bird watching trails done covering many lakes on the peripheries of Bangalore – Bannerghatta, Hulimangala, Kaggalipura, Gulakamale, Madiwala, Hesaraghatta and Markonahally lakes with the UGS group (Usual gang of suspects as Deepa Mohan calls it) and others.

Much awaited and long overdue moment of owning a bullet transpired – a proud owner of a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350cc bike – time for the biker in me to evolve!

Owning a bike and no rides…!

So happened bike rides to Bandipura, Ramanagara, Jalamangala (the only ‘trek’ of 2012) with Guru and a solo ride of about 1000+ kms to Ganeshgudi (Dandeli) and back.

Team outings were scarce and had a good time with the group at Ganeshgudi in March. No more team events, hope for more team outings in 2013!

Attended couple of Indiblogger meets in Bangalore and had a good time and met lot of new people. Took part in lot of contests this year and was rewarded with vouchers and hampers for the same. Being in the top 10 and winning a Samsung phone was another highlight, courtesy Cinthol’s new campaign propagating alive is awesome.

Went with the family on a pilgrimage to the holy temple town of Badrinath in the Himalayas and that was another memorable outing.

Went around Bengaluru city to capture the old-time towers that were the boundaries of the city, the Kempegowda towers that are now almost bang in the centre – how big have we grown!!!

A weekend spent at one of our favored destinations - BR hills.

Took time out to volunteer for wildlife conservation and took part in activities at Gopalaswamy betta and Melagiris forest ranges and the Turahalli habba.

Interest in macro photography and also reptiles/amphibians took me to Goa and Coorg (Honey valley estate). Wish more people visit Goa for its wilderness rather than the beaches and wine!

Visited Hampi and Daroji (for the Sloth bears) with a new team and was a fun trip all along.

Prashanth, a college mate working in Dubai – met him after 10 long years (connected back through Facebook) and him having similar interests helped matters the more.

November was a quiet month with only a drive to Ganeshgudi happening with KKT, who again is being introduced to wildlife and photography by self.

The highlight trip of the year – maiden solo trip for a fortnight to Gujarat happened in December and was very enjoyable and eventful, had a lifetime experience there and traveling solo has its pros and cons. Heartfelt thanks to Falguna Shah (from Ahmedabad) for helping me out on this and many others whom I met through the course of the trip.


The blog has evolved more over the year and has gained me more friends, more audience, more followers and has gained more popularity. Sincere thanks to all who take out time and come here to read this, I hope to live up to the expectations!

Watch out – much more to come!

2013 looks promising and I hope it brings with it more travel, new locations, new people and overall more growth as an individual :)

A year ends and a year begins...

31st December 2011
I'm not a party animal and I do not follow any 'dancing into the new year' stuff. Being a weekend, I wanted to end the year doing what I love to do the most, off I went on a nature and bird watching trail along with Deepa, Vaibhav and the super spotter Deepu to Bannerghatta National Park.

We don't enter the park premises nor go to the 'safari joy crowded tamasha rides', rather we move around the park, near the pond, quarry, behind the parking lot, behind jlr campus and we get to see good amount of birds in their natural habitats here. Also mammals from the Herbivore safari area are visible on the fringes as do wild elephants sometimes that come in search of partners (domesticated elephants).

Overcast conditions was not very helpful, but still we saw more than 40 species of birds that day and sighting the Pied, Common and WB Kingfishers all in one place excited me no end.

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01 January 2012
Similar thoughts as previous day and being a Sunday, I wanted to start off the year birding and off I went straight from the bed to my backyard, Madiwala lake armed with my binocs and my cameras.

An eventful session and an wonderful start to 2012...
I have nothing much to write and will let the pictures do the talking... Enjoy :)

  

Greetings 2012

Well, 2012 is in and let me kick off with few greetings :)

People are shouting at the top of their voices, screaming, boozing, dancing, singing, god knows what all... buy why :D

Wish people don't act funny and end up 'damaging' themselves or their neighbors (somehow it keeps happening) :P

Mega and major plans for 2012, let's see how it unfolds... :)
Keep a tab on this blog for updates...
Keep blogging, Keep clicking, Keep following, Keep commenting, Keep smiling :D

Cheers 2012 :)

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!

2011 is here

Wishing all readers and friends a "Very Happy New Year 2011"

Have a happy, safe and prosperous year ahead!

Keep Rocking, Keep Smiling, Keep Clicking!

Cheers from the team here...

Santosh-Raja-Guru-Gaitonde-Meghana

2010 is here

Wishing all readers and friends a "Very Happy New Year 2010"

remember - 2010 is the Year of the "Tiger"

Keep Rocking, Keep Smiling, Keep Clicking!

Cheers from the team here...

Santosh-Raja-Guru-Gaitonde-Meghana