acquired monk syndrome

I took this snap of Sannath while he was posing for it!

Basically this is his reflection in the water..

Just finished Graduation Day(Though Exams aint over).. Two days later, i was to leave for Elephant Census..

Our man

anushsh

had enroled us with the Madikeri Aranya Bhavan and we(Aakash, Anush, Sannath and Me) were to report there that day(Sunday)..
We started off by getting on to the wrong bus to Mysore.. Then we almost left Sannath behind while taking a bus from Mysore to Madikeri..
I guess we were cursed!

For a few more moments we were fine.. We reached madikeri and got posted at Maarigundi(WHAT?? DIDNT ANUSH PROMISE TO TAKE US TO BANDIPUR???)
Annnnyways.. We thought since this part is quite untouched, there is a good potential for wildlife around here and didnt fuss about it..
Had an annoying experience driving upto Maarigundi with the driver not knowing where to go..

Went up to the camp and met Mr. Ponappa(Sweet chap).. Trekked with him and had some really interesting conversations about life with him.. He’s gonna retire in a couple of years but the mad can trek nonstop with absoutely no fatigue..

The place we went is a reptile paradise.. Saw quite a few lizards(Garden, Draco, One Unknown) and ofcourse My little Viper

We didnt spot any elephants as they had moved on to another place nearby, but we heard on near the camp.. I didnt..

On the third day we were three Trekkers turned Tourists in Mysore.. We went to the Palace Museum and the Palace.. Was good fun..
Moved to Coffee Day and photographed a Thai baby - Shawn (Very very cute one).. And we were waiting for Sannath to get off work and come with us..

After some amount of more confusion(LOL), We ended up at Ranganthittu in an Auto driven by Suresh.. Went for a boat ride.. I’ll put the highlights of that in points(Need Practice for exams)

1. We saw a croc
2. i saw a night heron properly
3. i saw a dead egret
4. We saw Swallow nests with babies
5. We saw a Kingfisher which dives into the water for fish(I forgot its exact name)
6. I saw a purple heron
7. I saw another Night Heron
8. We saw another croc

Well quite satisfied with this we returned, packed and left to the bus stop to find out that there were very few GOOD buses to back home..
After much cribing we got onto an AC COACH(With Broken AC of course)

Saw this bugger at Ranganthittu.. Was a pretty sight..

Thanks Yathin: For Identification..

Have you ever been a couple hundred meters away from a group of about 200+ elephants?? I have.. Watch and Burn!!

The baby elephant is just 15 days old(According To The Forst Guard).. Was lucky enough to see close to 300 elephants in the span of three days.. Unfornately due to limitations of the camera, i couldnt document the herd.. I do have pictures of the herd..

Wiki : The Indian Giant Squirrel, Ratufa indica, is a large forest squirrel found in South Asia. Sometimes called the Malabar Squirrel in India itself, the species is distributed in tropical forest along the Western Ghats, central and north eastern India.

This guy jumped from a tree on one side of the road to one on the other.. Lucky enough to get a shot of it..

The three of us were quite silent. It was around 7:30. And we were walking……..

All around i could see tree cover. It was cold too. The only sound i could hear was from the birds, insects and our marching steps. I went ahead of them, as always looking for a good shot. I was infact looking out for some of the birds that were making the sound. I stopped for a moment to look around and i looked up. This my friends is the result of that stop. I consider this photo the only photo that was properly taken throughout the trek. Kodachadri is beautiful. Throughout the trek i was itching to run ahead cause of its beauty. But enjoyed it slow and steady.