Rhinos in the mist

Kaziranga National Park is an unusual national park- it is spread across 500 Sq KM, which makes it one of the biggest parks in the country. Imagine a huge expanse of high grass that can even hide elephants, thickets where you canon look up to find an owlet staring at you, swamps and lakes, where you find all sorts of animals slumbering, eating and drinking...then you get an idea of Kazhiranga.

Jeep Route

There is a tortoise on that small twig in the center

Kaziranga at dusk

We did 2 safaris- one in a jeep and another on an Elephant. Sightings of Hog Deer, Wild Boar and a variety of birds is common. The highlight is of course the Rhino- a magnificent animal. Like the Elephant, it looks gigantic, and yet gentle.

The elephant ride was at 6 AM, and was the highlight of the trip. The grass is shrouded in mist and silence, as even the birds are still to wake. The elephant, unlike the Jeep takes us off-road, and into the grass. We quickly arrived at a few Rhinos and got to look at them up close.

Wild Boar..Oink! Oink!

The elephant's drive-in restaurant 

All in all, a great trip.

Gobbemalu at Hyd

Madhu made them.

GOBBEMMALU AT KAVALI

see and enjoy................

BHOGI MANTA AT KAVALI

2 day we celebrated bhogi after a long time with bhogi manta.

Trip Report

I came back yesterday after 7 nights and 8 days in the North East, of which a good bit was in the Himalayas. If Jerome K Jerome were to write about it, he would have called it "3 Telugus in an Innova", which would have been accurate. The three were Umashankar, Ramesh and me.

The stopovers and the highlights:

Guwahati, Assam: Saw the incredibly wide (1.5 KM wide) Brahmaputra for the first time. The river was bulging with water.

Kaziranga National Park, Assam: Seeing the Rhino in the marshy elephant grass (grass tall enough to hide elephants) was worth the whole trip. Also saw wild boar, hog deer and a variety of birds

Rhinos in the mist (click to expand)

Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh: Nestled high in the Himalayas, this pass offered us snow covered cliffs, a large frozen lake and a panoramic view of the Himalayas.

Sela Lake! (click to expand)

Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh: Close to the China border, this is the highest point of our trip. Besides its beauty, Tawang is a place imbued with history. This was the scene of the 1962 Indo-China war. It houses a war memorial which is an incredibly moving place to visit. As Ramesh said, it makes one feel very small. The Indian Army is a special institution! And I found that my knowledge of Indian history is not that great, which is a  pity.

Tawang also is home to a large Buddhist population, and a 400 year old monastery, which was pretty interesting.

Buddha at Tawang Monastery

Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh: Home to another ancient Buddhist monastery, offering magnificent views of the mountains.

View from Bomdila Monastery (click to expand)

Tezpur, Assam: The Brahmaputra again. Here it is 3 KM wide! We got to walk along the banks and on the river bed at Sunset. A truly magnificent river- one can only imagine how scary it must be when it floods, which it does every year.

I will post snaps in a couple of days.  In the meantime, the map below gives an idea of the route. And the terrain map below that gives a flavor  of how Himalayan the terrain was in Arunachal Pradesh.

Blue line represents route: click to see bigger pic

Blue line represents route: click to see bigger pic

New snaps

All...please post some new snaps for a change :)

Happy New Year!

Wish all the family members a great new year - full of good health, happiness, love, success, books, healthy discussions, pollution-free surroundings, traffic-free roads :) Please feel free to add to the list.

Love you all

Poonam & Krupakar