OK, so I’m all set to go on the largest adventure/expedition of my life. Got all my medications, all my gear packed up and hopefully my camera will last till the end of the trip. If time permits, hope to swing via Kaziranga on the way out. See ya all in 3 weeks time.
The expedition is 2 weeks long and I do not have access to any source of electricity along the way. I tried the AA battery pack for my D200 and D70, but they hardly last. I tried bunch of solar options, but either the gear is too heavy or not powerful enough to charge these batteries. So I need to pack up as much juice for my camera as possible. If any of you have a spare Nikon D200/D80/D70/D50 battery, I’d really appreciate it if you can let me borrow it for 3 weeks.
I guess I went through a writers block the last month or so. I thought I’d mention this before I disappear this weekend. I’m heading out on a 3 week vacation to Namdapha tiger reserve in Arunachal Pradesh. Namdapha has been my dream for many years and after months of planning, the trip is finally happening. Namdapha is the only place in the world which supports 4 big cat species – Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and the Clouded Leopard. Also on the trip are some of the amazing scientists from NCF. The plan is to start from Miao and trek…
Well, yeah I’ve been either traveling or have been having writers block. Our monsoon shoot has finally come to an end and will be in Bangalore for a month or so with small travels here and there. This is the time to catch up on urban life, fix strained relationships and striking things off the todo list etc.
Sometime early last week, the Nilgiri tahr that we were hoping to film came down from the highlands. However the next day, a pack of wild dogs came and attacked the herd and all of them ran back up the hills. We were on our way when this happened, so when this happened, we just drove back to Bangalore. They have come down again it seems and mostly this will be our last chance to film them. Sandesh and Mandanna are already there and I’m leaving tomorrow morning to join them. I would have never guessed, goats would rule my…
Fuel to drive to Tamil Nadu : Rs 1400 Movie tickets : Rs 40 Watching ‘Shivaji – the Boss’ in a B-grade theater in coimbatore : Priceless What sucked was the fact that most people in the theater were family types and me and my friend prashanth were the only ones whistling and clapping for every one of Rajini’s killer dialogs. The movie itself was very racist and has been done with a poor taste. But then again its a Rajini movie and the dialogs totally rocked. “Panni kuttama varum, Singam single aa than varum”
Leopard from BR Hills (click on image for bigger version) After more than a year, I finally had an excellent sighting of a leopard and that too at my home forest of BR hills. We got there on saturday evening and got to see one for 20 min right outside the park. On sunday morning, we got a glimpse of this fellow on a tree on the morning safari. A very fruitful trip to BR hills.
It’s that time of the year. Really the only sensible tech event in this part of the world to look forward to.
As Sandesh puts it, We are in the land of the cloud goats. Lots of clouds but no goats. We really did not get the huge groups that we were hoping to get. We did manage to get a small group and the males were getting excited smelling the females urine, but that’s about it. Sometime now they gather in huge groups and then the fights break out between the males etc. We suspect we are early for this event (maybe because of delayed monsoons). Anyway we decided to move on and landed back in Valparai now. We have messengers…
Airtel for some reason is down in Munnar now and I had to fight with a cyber cafe guy for an hour to let me use the computer without an ID proof. He finally gave up the fight when I said he can read all the emails I’m sending out. Anyway will be offline the next 10 days and hopefully should come back with some handsome Nilgiri tahr photographs and footage.