Appointment with the Olive Ridley babies

Sunday 5-15pm:  Walk through the Urur Olcott Kuppam towards the SSTCN hatchery, to see the baby turtles being released.  Unfortunately, only my mobile phone camera at hand.  

Sunday evening, at the turtle hatchery on Elliots beach outside the TS gate

Checking to see if the eggs have hatched.

The eggs take 45 days to hatch we were told. Each of those poles marks the spot where there is a clutch of eggs.

The first few hatchlings

As soon as they are taken out, they seemed stunned and lay still without moving.

More of them....

See the hatchlings as they begin to move!

A volunteer explains about the sac on the tummy of the turtle which serves as nutrition, until the hatchlings get to the water.  They need to get to the water within 24 hours of birth.  Survival rate into full grown adult is only one in 1,000, under normal circumstances, they told us.  But with all the lights, fishing nets and trawlers, it has become one in 2,000.  

If this hatchery is releasing say a 100 a day, on the average in breeding season, then does that mean that each season is resulting in only one adult?  That is appalling.  I hope I have my numbers wrong...

The wonderful designs on the sand made by their flippers and bellies.

The sand is smoothened to allow them an easy waddle to the waterline.

Off they went!

Unfortunately, it was not to be.  After this, they were all hastily recollected, poor things, and placed back into the basket, as a phone call came saying that the turtles were to take part in a research on their reactions to different colours of light.  

I wished I could tell the babies to calm down and relax, but they continued their frenzied movement in the basket.  We left, (my son and I) as it got dark, and it would be another couple of hours before they would be actually let out again.  I hope they were not too tired to make their journey into the sea...

Maybe I will go for the complete walk next time - from Neelangarai to Besant Nagar, though the thought of no sleep is a bit intimidating - the walks are through the night.

Nice to see the amazingly dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers who do this day in and day out, year after year.  Low budget, no fanfair, minimal overheads, and a lot achieved.

The Mamandur sanctuary

For some reason, the Mamandur posting has gone down here:

The Bungalow on the Hill

Orang!

The one-horned rhino

WWF had announced a trip to Kaziranga, and as my husband and I dilly-dallied on should we shouldn't we (go I mean), the group was filled up. So, a set of MNS regulars went off to Kaziranga, and a few proceeded to Orang. Dont ask me where Orang is - I dont know!

Well, I just looked it up. Its 140 kms from Guwahati, closer to Tezpur. The Orang National Park is a small park - less than 80 sqkms and is in the Darrang dist.

So, here's Chitra's account of the trip, with pictures from Geetha and Arun:

Got back from a memorable trip to Assam – Kaziranga National Park and Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park on Saturday, 22nd.

Our visit to the former was organized by WWF-India and was a well planned, orderly trip with our stay in a posh resort and visits into the park arranged by the resort for WWF.

We returned to Guwahati on the 16^th, when the WWF camp got over.

Completely in contrast to this was our trip to Orang. Out of the 12 people who went to Kaziranga, 4 of us decided to go to one other sanctuary in Assam having come this far and we chose Orang, a small sanctuary (78sq. km) 145 km to the North East of Guwahati.

When I decided to join Preston, Arun and Geetha on the trip to Orang, I thought they knew what they were about and was planning to just be a passive member of the group. Arun had downloaded an article on Orang that said that for a small sanctuary Orang offered good sightings of Rhino, Tigers, Hog deer and even the Bengal Florican besides having some beautiful untouched wilderness. The descriptions in the article sounded really inviting.

All that was before we set off for Orang on the 16^th…

Once we started making enquiries for taxis/jeeps/buses that would take us to Orang… I found that all of us had only a vague idea of where the sanctuary was actually located! When the forest ranger, Mr. Joyonto Deka, was contacted for permission, he seems to have mentioned vaguely the non-availability of transport or food near the park, and asked us to bring provisions with us for our duration of stay. Of course, we didn't believe him completely, but we did stock ourselves with rice, daal, turmeric powder, chilli powder, oil (mustard), salt, tea, sugar, a couple of loaves of bread, jam, a few packets of Maggi noodles (If we had allowed Arun to buy the provisions we would have been stuck with bread, noodles and biscuits for the whole trip!), potatoes, tomatoes, onions and thanks to the vege vendor 4 large cauliflowers!

We managed to get a Maruti Omni driver to drop us off at Orang (after much debating whether to bus it), and the driver assured us that there were jeeps to be had at the park entrance for going around and we believed him. On the way we stopped at a place for directions and were told that Orang was a Bodo area and there was bound to be trouble there. Our driver, not the bravest of persons told us to keep our eyes peeled for signs of trouble. As soon as we heard this Arun stuffed all his money into his socks in the hopes that the smell would keep the Bodos at bay!

We managed to reach Orang safely around 7.00 ish and met the Ranger, who told us where we were to stay and introduced us to our cook cum guard –Rohit, who was to take care of us during our stay there. He did warn us that there was no running water or electricity but there was a hand pump for water. That was when he also told us that there were no vehicles in Orang save his own jeep!

So we were actually stuck there with no vehicle.

The guest house from the rear

The taxi took us 4 km into the forest and we found the guest house that was to be home for the next three days. It had two rooms, a dining room with a fancy glass topped dining table, and six porcupine chairs, and a fancier sitting room with cane lounge chairs and a cane roof! There were two more dining tables that hung around in the porch area. There was a kitchen with a single wood stove and store along with a room for Rohit in the adjoining building. We found that there was solar lighting in the rooms though the toilets were all in the dark. The less said about the toilets the better. That was when we discovered that we hadn't bought candles or matches. We managed to beg another guard to get those for us the next day.

Rohit prepared rice, daal and aalu subzi and we had eaten our first meal we were all set to crash when we heard a series of loud snorts so close that we thought that it was from outside the sitting room area. We all rushed to the windows of the sitting room only to confront pitch darkness outside. Rohit calmly informed us that it was the Rhinos snorting. We spent a slightly uncomfortable night when we realized how inadequate the locks of our rooms were and how close any animal could get to us!

Next morning the dawn chorus got us up and we got to see the breathtaking location of the guest house. We were perched on a high land, behind us were huge trees that formed a sort of small wood. Behind the trees was a sea of grass – mostly burnt out, rhino land. In front and below the guest house about 30 feet below stretched grasslands, immediately below us were the short grasses (up to ankle length) and beyond them were the elephant grasses interspersed with silk cotton trees (Semul) – a lush green vista.

Adjutant stork

There were a couple of small ponds with water in the smaller grass where the adjutant storks, would come and solemnly hang out. There was a grey fishing eagle that haunted one semul tree in front of the house. Our early morning visitor, was a shy blue whistling Thrush, who would take off at the slightest movement from us!

Black-hooded oriole

The ranger arranged for a vehicle for our first ride – but it turned out to be a Tata Sumo – not the kind of vehicle to go into the park and he (the Tata Sumo Owner) charged us the earth for the two hour ride that we decided to have no more rides – but we managed to cajole him into taking us to the nearest village where we got some more provisions. We did try to travel rooftop initially on the vehicle but before long we realized that we'd have no backsides to speak of if we continued.

The park has about 20 trained elephants which are used by guards for patrolling and which are also used to give tourists rides once in a while. We requisitioned two elephants for the three days we were there.

Chakradhar

Padma and Lohit

The first evening we had two elephants – one tusker called Chakradhar, who came all three days and one sixty year old matriarch – Padma who came with her latest baby Lohit a two year old shy and yet inquisitive elephant. Both elephants seemed well fed and huge! The little fellow was a delight to watch. He would gambol between the two adult elephants, but what was really fascinating was his attraction to the dung dropped by his brother Chakradhar (also Padma's son). Every time Chakradhar defecated this little fellow would joyfully break the ball open and pick a choice morsel out of it and eat it. We were horrified, but were told that all babies do that.

The elephant grass is truly huge growing to well over 10 -15 feet as we discovered on our elephant rides. Either the people ahead of us appeared to be suspended in mid-air or disappeared completely in the grass. Geetha and I rode Padma, while Preston and Arun had Chakradhar. On our first ride out, we saw many but it was going through the grass that excited us the most. About an hour after we set out, Chakradhar stopped suddenly and our mahout whispered 'Rhino' and eased our way abreast of Chakradhar. I had just had a glimpse of the rhino, and as I was getting Geetha's camera ready for a photo shoot, things happened quickly. There was a shout and I saw the Rhino charge, both mahouts, who were armed with guns fired simultaneously, the baby elephant charged into the grass behind us and Padma, catapulted and bolted after her with the Rhino at our feet snorting away! I never knew elephants could move, maneuver themselves so fast. Anyway the Rhino gave up the chase and went back to her baby which had been there all the time. To my surprise the mahout turned direction and we went back the same way, but we found that the rhino had moved off with her baby.

We had two more rides on the elephants – but nothing as exciting as the first day happened though all the rhinos we approached were all set to charge if we attempted to get close, which we judiciously didn't. We also found that Chakradhar was chicken hearted! Every time we sighted a rhino, he would about turn and refuse to proceed till he was whacked a couple of times. It seems he was attacked by a rhino when he was younger and has been traumatized by that since then! The last day Geetha and I had a Makhna called Indrajit (Makhnas are adult male elephants without tusks and are usually aggressive males). He was a stout hearted fellow and seemed unfazed by the presence of the rhinos. I believe he was attacked once by a tiger which tore one ear up. As tourists are rare in the park, these elephants are not used to wearing the howdah (seats) and after the first day, fussed and protested. But the mahouts would give them a couple of whacks and get them to wear them. Chakradhar would then come all the way to the mounting stage trumpeting loudly and with tail raised. It gave us the heebie-jeebies to see him thus!

On our second night there we experienced tremors, and were told that tremors were common there.

We met the Ranger formally on the third evening and he told us the sad story of Orang. For a 78 sq km sanctuary he is the only ranger with 40 guards or so. Poaching is rampant there, and the guards have no vehicles to move around, and have to rely on walking or the elephants. Till last year they didn't have wireless radios or even a phone for communications. So the guards are armed at all times. There is no electricity in the park. With poachers, Bodo rebels, Bangladesh refugees as well as all the animals to keep track of, the guards have a lot in their hands and not much help from the powers that be. I understand that for a sanctuary to get funds they have to meet some requirements which Orang apparently doesn't. I would have thought that with both Rhinos and Tigers (they have 28) Orang would have qualified for more funds for the upkeep of the park. Popular parks like Kaziranga and Manas seem to grab most of the funding. Assam has a number of small parks like Orang that may soon vanish for lack of funds and government attention. It would be a pity if like Manas, Orang loses all its rhinos and tigers to poachers due to lack of support and funds.

On day three we realized if we didn't get the ranger's vehicle we'd never be able to get out of the sanctuary! Both Arun's and Preston's mobile phones were not working and we used Geetha's phone sparingly and anxiously watched as the charge slowly get lower! The ranger went off to Guwahati the day after we arrived and got back only the day before we left… more anxiety for us but the poor man readily offered his vehicle to us when we asked for it.

Yet, We almost didn't make it to the airport on the last day. We were to be dropped at the nearest bus stop (Silbori) by the ranger's jeep early Thursday morning from where we were to take a bus to the main road and from there to Guwahati. But when we reached the Silbori bus stop we were told by a few villagers that there was Bodo trouble and buses wouldn't run. Just when we were beginning to show signs of panic the bus driver got into his vehicle and started the engine… Needless to say that there was no trouble at all and the villagers were indulging in some mischief.

We all flew to Kolkata, where Preston and I parted ways with Geetha and Arun. We were taking the train back and it was due to leave at 11.45 pm. We hung around at the airport till 8.00 before trying for a prepaid taxi and found that the taxi queue was a serpentine one! It took us more than 45 minutes to get a taxi! More anxious moments!

When we got to the station we found that the whole of Kolkata and the north east had decided to travel by train that night! The station was packed with families/ full tribes parked everywhere. We walked all over in search of dinner at 10.00 pm before we found a place! Did I mention that it was raining?

Our train arrived around 11.30pm to the platform and there was a mad rush to get in, Preston was traveling a/c and his compartment was quite close to the start of the platform but mine was a km away at the other end! Anyway that was the last I saw of him.

For any of you readers intrigued enough, please contact Chitra!

Great Knot 'LW' tagging record - India

Great Knot 'LW' tagging record - India

Remember E7, the bar tailed Godwit? Scientists put a radio tag on her, when she set off from New Zealand. She went from NZ-China-Alaska and back. The rounds trip lasted from 6th February to 7th September, and was a total of 30,000 kms or so.

Now the amazing thing was that on her return, she did something like 11,570kms NON-STOP.

Well, here are examples of further such epic journeys.

One, of a Great Knot tagged as LW was spotted in Bengal's Henry Island after flying in from China and Siberia! The link gives an account of the excitement of the birders who actually found the bird.

Another is of a Bar-headed Goose, C6, seen in Veer Dam, Maharashtra.

I shall keep my eyes peeled for such tags!

Should I join the Earth Hour?

A friend of mine pointed me to an "event" - Earth Hour
2008. The event is a strange one - no big party or
lights or anything.

Quite the opposite. We all have to turn out our
lights, for an hour on Saturday 29 March 2008 at 8pm!
Not only lights, but TVs, computers and the works I
guess.

It sounds like a strange and whacky way to make a
statement. Its really not a big deal in India, I
guess, with power failures a way of life, but coming
to think of it, here in Madras, the voltage is
appalling, but we really dont have so many failures
anymore....

So, will I be able to convince my son and husband to
turn out the lights, for an hour?!

Will let you know on the 30th!

You can sign up for Earth Hour by visiting
http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up and join the
movement.

Spread the word!

Yellow rain lilies make a beautiful sight!

A sight for tired urban eyes, definitely!

One day, there is just green grass, and the next day,
you are greeted by a sight like this!

The Whistling Thrush Bungalow at Nelliyampathy

The Bungalow

Now, that's what I call a name! So intrigued was I with the images of this little bungalow, tucked away in a sleepy hill town, surrounded by woods, birds, meadows and fresh air, that I dragged my unsuspecting husband and son to the hamlet of Nelliyampathy in Kerala and on to the Whistling Thrush Bungalow!

This is not recent, its another 2006 story, but I'm bored with work, the weather outside is conducive to story-telling, and so the regurgitation.

Getting there

Nelliyampathy is a Kerala hill station, a plantation town really, with coffee and cardamom plantations. We took the train to Coimbatore, though Palakkad would've been closer. We were picked up there by a cab, accompanied by the estate manager Mr Subramaniam Pillai, a serious gent - more about him later, though. Anyway, the driver Razzak was quite a speedking, and we all studiously looked out through the side windows!

From Coimbatore to Palakkad was about 45 mins, then without getting into the city, we drove straight on via Kodayur, Nemmara to Nelliyampathy. The hill drive was about an hour, from the Pothundy dam, which was very scenic, and Japanese-like.
Vistas on the way up

Pothundy dam

The hill road was pretty dicey, with most places only allowing a single vehicle, though the PWD was at work trying to broaden it. (I wonder if its been done now.) We saw one vehicle in the ravine below ... pretty hairy. Anyway, in the hills, Mr Razzak drove more cautiously, while giving us a cheerful commentary on all the various kinds of accidents seen along the way!!

I think the local Keralite has a penchant for the gory, and recount such stories with great relish!

The Bungalow is named after the Malabar whistling thrush, not a very impressive looking bird, very shy, but with a lovely call that makes you go looking for it. When we visited, the staff included Justin the cook, Vishalu the housekeeper and Sunil, our guide on walks. All would rattle off in Malayalam, while we grinned idiotically not having understood a word of what they said. We occupied one room, which had an attached bath, with running hot and cold water, a clean double bed, large windows which looked out into the garden. We also had use of the sitting room, a verandah, and our meals were in the dining room.







The garden of the bungalow had lovely crotons, flowers and a little enclosed lawn, where my son practised his diving catches and many a mini cricket match took place in our stay.

A grey wagtail would come every morning while we had coffee and rummage on the lawn for its breakfast, its tail furiously bobbing up and down. The bungalow was in the midst of a coffee and cardamom plantation, and tree pies, malabar parakeets and langurs would make a racket all through the day.








Workers were busy with cardamom harvesting as well. The pods are found at the base of the plant, and the workers have to root among the thick undergrowth to get at them. The humidity of the pantation makes if a happy hunting ground (quite literally) for leeches. The red berries of the coffee vines also looked ready for picking.

Above in the trees, a paper wasp colony had built a nest. When we looked at the nest through our binoculars, we could see the hive teeming with the wasps, which convert dead wood into these hives, mixing the material with their saliva.

Uh oh, leeches!
Morning came and Sunil decided to take us for a walk of the estate. He made us apply a mixture of tobacco and coconut oil and dettol on our legs, to keep the leeches away. My husband, like a hero decided not to use this, and on his son's advice they both tucked their pants into their socks and felt very safe from the leeches!! (For your information, Sunil was in a lungi hitched up over his knees, so bare legs and chappals!! Claimed he had used dettol.)

So we set out through the plantation, looking around and enjoying the amazing variety in shades of green. A mushroom-laden log lay by the side of the track, and down below we could see a little stream, through the trees of the plantation.



At this point, I happenned to look down at my shoes and let out a yelp - my shoes were crawling with leeches. And so were husband's and son's - and not one on the bared legs of Mr Sunil! Anyway, he calmly flicked them off us, even took a few and carefully put them away among the leaves in the undergrowth. I thought to myself this is the height of environental friendliness, I mean why doesnt he just kill them off? Only later did I realise that they cant be killed off by stepping on - I did try it - or bashing them! They need to be drowned in salt! My first encounter with these creatures.

I must say our ten year old son took all this with great equanimity, saying how he had already been through this in Coorg! After that, the walk was never the same - nervously looking at our shoes every now and then, and the husband urging us to move on and not stop and stare.

So we quickly went past the waterfall, where 2 men were bathing in their chaddis, while the wives looked on very unimpressed, up to the cardamom curing unit - where we got some respite because it was all bricked up and leeches dont like bricks you see. Then up to the top of the little waterfall, and onto the check dam.







Sunil then decided to bring us back through the wilder part of the estate, and we literally ran back, as the undergrowth was just crawling with leeches!! To further my belief about the locals sense of gore, Vishalu proceeded to tell us about how the plantation workers get bitten by leeches near the eyes, on the head, etc. Anyway what a way to earn a living, its no wonder they're having labour scarcity. I shall respect the yelakkai much more from now.

On our return to the bungalow, we all removed our shoes, which were crawling with leeches, Sunil calmly comes by with some salt that he puts on the ground, adds some water, and then one by one puts the leeches in it. Can you believe they were dead in less than 10 seconds? Inspite of all this drama, my son and I escaped unbitten, but husband, who had refused to put repellant did have a bite, and was given a lecture by Sunil. I must say, my good stoic husband did not enjoy it in the least, and declined all further invitations out of the estate!! Our son "comforted" him, and said dont worry daddy, it will stop bleeding (leeches inject some anti-coagulant so the wound bleeds more than a regular hurt).

Hungry after our walk, Justin and Vishalu gave us a sumptuous lunch. Post lunch,
I did go off, smeared with repellant to do some birdwatching - identified atleast 20 species I had never seen before - some really spectacular ones. It was all quite thrilling as my husband had just acquired a new Nikon binocular, which opened our eyes to the world of birds. Small minivets, white-cheeked barbets, racket-tailed drongoes, Malabar parakeets and bank mynahs and tree pies were in plenty. I did have one sighting of the whistling thrush, and a yellow-browed bulbul.

The brave men of my family stayed put in the house and its garden, only coming out for a jeep ride to some view points the next day. There's a place called Sitalakundu, which is like Coakers Walk in Kodai, spectacular views.


Then Sunil proceeded to give us graphic accounts of the various people who've fallen off the cliff! See, what I did tell you!

Mr Pillai saw no humour in our situation, and was rather indignant at our dislike of them leeches. I think he'll make a good president for the Society of Leech Lovers, or a Save the Leech Foundation or some such. For my anti-leech views, I earned a lecture on how leeches only suck the bad blood, are used for traditional medicine, dont pass on anything contagious, etc etc. If you have the stomach for this kind of thing, maybe you should watch Extreme Healing: Leeches in India from National Geographic. My son is fascinated with the clip and watches it over and over again!










While the leech was the primary "adventure", we city slickers also faced a stormy night, without power, and the winds howling through the estate trees. I was glad when morning came, and brought with it some respite from the rain.

The large malabar squirrels also came out, and their call pulled us into the garden.  Lovely, brown coats with a lighter coloured belly, we were lucky to spot a pair of them as they went from tree to tree above us.

Soon, it was time to leave. Our driver going downhill was quite the opposite of Mr Razzak, and we cautiously wound our way down to the plains, reaching Palakkad where there was no power, the roads were full of potholes, and the station had its familiar stench. Armed with freshly fried nendram and tapioca chips, we returned to Madras.

Of course, the veteran MNS members listened in amusement to our first encounter with leeches, having been there done that. And though the whistling thrush bird was a bit of a let down for me, the whole trip, the bungalow and the staff and the mountain terrain of Kerala will draw me back I'm sure.

Penchalakona falls in the monsoon

October 2007:

When MNS announced a trip to Penchalakona, I was totally clueless, never having heard of the place. With descriptions of waterfall, dense forest and good birding, I was enticed, dragged my husband along, and set off with fourteen other members of the MNS.

Dates were chosen with great thought. A weekend in October, after the rains was thought to be ideal, since the waterfall - which is not perennial - would have water.

After reading this write-up in the MNS bulletin, I was all excited:

"The proposed itinerary:

October 27 2007—Drive to Kandaleru dam, birding in the scrub jungles. After lunch leave for Penchalakona. Bird watching on the outskirts of the Temple village Watch for the full moon rising over the hills. Look for nightjars and owls. Next day trek to waterfalls and the hills. Look for the Yellow throated Bulbuls.

On Oct 28,2007—leave for Somasila dam after breakfast. Leave for Chennai in the evening.
The Penisula Narasimha Swamy Sanctuary is placed between two important passes Badvel–Nellore road and Kadapa–Rajampet road. The velligonda hill range of lush green luxuriant forests interrupted with hillocks of igneous rocks is a paradise for the rich and variegated life forms of animals and plants. The sanctuary is connected by two water bodies—Somasila and Kandaleru.
The flora is Dry evergreen forest type with species like Acacia sp, Cassia sp, Pongamia sp, Carissa sp, etc. Other trees that can be seen include Mangifera indica (mango), Syzigium cumini (jamun), Mahua, Pterocarpus marsupium (Indian Kino), Gloriosa superba (Glory Lily), Cochlospermum religiosum (Yellow silk cotton), Red sanders.
Birds that can be seen here include Rose Ringed Parakeet, White Eye, Pied kingfisher, Pied crested cuckoo, Open-billed Stork, Black-winged stilt, White-bellied drongo, Ashy drongo, Bronzed drongo, Black-headed oriole, Yellow throated bulbul.,Shama.
Other fauna reported include Leopard, Wild dog, Wolf, Sloth Bear, Chinkaara, Black buck, Slender Loris, Giant Indian Squirell. Marbled frog, Burrowing frog, common toad, common brown vine snake, common krait, Starred tortoise."

So, we set off by the Vijaywada-bound Jan Shatabdi for Gudur, and I was pleasantly surprised by the train, its seats and the concept of the Jan Shatabdi.

Cloudy skies, and light drizzle as well as the occasional heavy downpour accompanied us throughout our trip, and ths reduced the birding, but then we enjoyed the waterfall as a result.

Playing with crap on the Gudur tank bund!

Sorry, but that's what they do. The dung beetles I mean. Spend their lives playing with dung. These particular two were spied on the Gudur tank bund. It must have been paradise for them - the place was full of cattle and goat dung.

Scarabaeoidea - try saying that! Well that's their official name. I think I'll stick with DB.

So there we were standing on the tank bund looking for water birds, when I spied these two near my feet. I stared in fascination at the teamwork between the two, as they rolled dung to somewhere. So these then are the "rollers". Rolling dung to their nests. One male and one female? Could be. Female DBs are smart. They allow the guys to roll, and just go along for the ride!

Supposedly, there are also "tunnellers" who immediately tunnel and bury the dung when they find it. Then there are also "dwellers" who just luxuriate and live in it. YUK! I said to myself, when I read this They must really have some bad karma!

They are also picky, I discovered. Yes, please to dung of herbivores, and no thank you to dung from omnivores! Amazing isnt it, the food preferences of some people!

I had to admit that these creatures are useful. they put away the dung, clean up the place you know, and convert the dung into something useful in the process. So next time you find a lot of crap - from a herbivore - around, dont wrinkle your nose, but look for that DB.

And if you are in the jungle, look for the Elephant DB - the largest of its kind. Honest! Dont believe me? See for yourself -

From Gudur, we set off by road to Kandaleru. By now, a drizzle had set in and the sky was completely overcast and there was a dull light. While we were on the highway, the road was like a dream and we made good time. But once we got off the highway, we really had a bumpy ride. Since I was in the rear of the Qualis, every bump was experienced and all the breakfast had in Gudur was quickly digested!

Kandaleru

The earthen dam that enclosed the reservoir, has created a water body that stretched from horizon to horizon, filled by the current monsoon rains. It was a spectacular sight, and also reassuring for us Chennaiites, since it is an important water source for the city.

It was rainy and windy, and there was no prospects for birding, but we hung around just taking in the sight and envying the dam officials who had a lovely bungalow perched up on a hillock, overlooking the reservoir. We wandered down to the banks, which was ringed by scrub.

Suddenly, the rain stopped and there was a slight lifting of the clouds, and then the birds were back!

My favourites were The White-browed fantail flycatcher and the Pied Kingfisher.

The B&W copter

Or that's what I called the Pied Kingfisher.
I had a lovely display of this bird, famous for its ability to hover. Suddenly there was this little black & white fellow, in the air above us, on the banks of the reservoir, with a rather prominent bill. “Pied kingfisher!” an excited stage whisper to Sekar.

I was so delighted. He actually “stood on his tail”, as Salim Ali describes, before swooping down to the water, and then taking off with a cry.

After a huge lunch, we drove on to Penchalakona.

Penchalakona

On approaching, we had a grand view of the falls from the road, near the entrance to the Karunamayi ashram.
Click on the picture and enjoy a full screen view
We lingered here for a while drinking in the view, and wondering about this mysterious ashram (more on that later!) before moving on, into the "town" of Penchalakona. The high street consisted of the Narasimhaswamy temple, three roadside tiffin and meal shops and another three souvenir shops, selling a complete range of made-in-China bric-a-brac.

Herds of cows loitered around the temple, but what was most depressing was the plastic strewn across the roads and the fields. With the drizzle, the cow dung, plastic litter and the fruit droppings from the ficus tree combined to make a most unpleasant mess!

Accommodation was in the private choultries near the temple. Now, there were 2 such choultries facing each other, across the road. One was more "up-market" supposedly, while the other was "economy". What I found most interesting was that the Deluxe one was full, while we got acco in the economy one!!

After settling in to the accommodation, we went for a short walk to explore the territory. We found the lovely stream flowing through the town.

As we climbed up a stony path beside the river, we had a lovely view of the falls itself as well as the mountains around, which were dense with scrub jungle, looking green and washed in the rains. We resolved to explore the stream the next morning, as the light was fading.

The spooky ashram in Penchalakona

5:30 pm.
We strolled across to this HUGE, incongruous set of buildings in the middle of the forest area, away from the temple.

We were informed that this was the ashram of Mata Karunamayi, of worlwide fame. Much intrigued, we walked in (after paying a Re 2 entry fee I was told).

The "ashram" had electric wired fences and security cameras staring at us....
Deja vu
"You can check out anytime, but you can never leave
Welcome to the Hotel California!"

Huge statues, a water garden, a bhakta cleaning a room. Lights going off in a meditation room. An edifice built for amma to give darshan.
I wanted to leave in a hurry.

Amma was giving a lecture and darshan in one of the halls. Some of the more curious types decided to go in. The rest of us hung around. Sullen security guards looked at us suspiciously.

A gent strides up and asks where we are from. He's amma's brother. (Business manager?) Talks about the fame of amma - spread far and wide - Atlanta branch - devotees from all over- homams everyday -rooms available - surya namaskarams in the morning - meditation room for spiritual upliftment.

By this time, those who sought darshan have returned agog with excitement. Each with sundal in hand, which was prasadam - very tasty.
"She gave it to us personally"
What did she say, I asked. Oh I dont know, replied one. She read from notes. (What???)

I was completely bemused - you mean people actually fall for this stuff? Here she is, talking about love, brotherhood and sharing, ON FOREST DEPARTMENT LAND? Surreal, clean premises. Poverty and filth outside.
A cocoon of nonsense.

I had had enough. Scooted out into the real world. Aah what a relief to be back in the dirt of Penchalakona town.

Dinner was at one of the three tiffin shops. Raja decided to try his rather meagre Telegu on those who ran the shop, making the owner's daughter giggle with his "ledhus". Can you imagine going into a town like this and asking for oil ledhu dosais?! That's optimism for you, from Raja!

Post-dinner discussions on the ashram went on long and late, with many a spooky story being related by Vijay and Sudhakar of other such experiences! Sheila and I concluded that religion was a good business model these days!

Sunday 28th morning: We set off on our walk upstream, to locate the plunge pool of the falls. With thick undergrowth on either bank, we had to wade upstream for the most part, and after a couple of bends, we left behind traces of the town. I walked with my shoes as I thought it was better to have wet shoes rather than torn soles! A wise decision it was!

It was a rewarding and fulfilling walk, as we clambered over boulders, waded through clear, cool water, ducked under a thin waterfall, while all the time the roar of the falls got louder. With a thin drizzle overhead, there was hardly any birdcall on this walk.
We reached the plunge pool after a while and it was well worth the trouble, to see the water thundering down into the pool and rising in a mist and spray to drench us all. Some of the men “plunged” into the pool, but I didn't take my camera out, as it was raining quite heavily now. The local guide looked worried that the river bed would be unpassable soon.


So, we hurried back, only to find the rain stop when we reached the lower levels! But this meant that we were rewarded with bird activity. Suddenly, the forest was alive with sound, and the members had a good half an hour of sightings – woodpeckers, oriole, sunbirds, babblers and parakeets.

After breakfast, we went for a walk in the scrub jungle around, along with the rain, and saw Acacia, Cassia, Glory Lily and red sanders. Mr Ramakrishna remarked that this was a non-thorny scrub jungle, which is somewhat unusual. There were good specimens of ant nests in the leaves of a mango tree as well.

The Yellow throated bulbul and Shama remained elusive.

After lunch, we proceeded to the Somasila dam, where again the water was full.
The second batch of visitors – Mr Ramachandrandan, Mr Mrityunjay Rao and Mr Ramakrishna – saw all the gates being opened, and water gushing out at great force. They also saw the Penchalakona falls in greater strength, since they stayed an additional night, and therefore caught sight of the falls fed with more rain.

The stream was also full, and so there was no way we could have waded up, the next day.

From Somasila, we continued on to Gudur station, to catch our train back. By now, it was raining hard and the roads through the villages were in a complete mess. Progress was slow, and our initial good cheer slowly changed to mild anxiety about the speed we were travelling at. Anxiety then changed to panic, when we reached a closed railway crossing, and were helplessly stuck.

Our driver made a few calls on his cellphone and then announced that we were not to worry, as the train was running late. Finally, the railway crossing opened and then we were back on the highway! We could see the lights of Gudur in the distance, and we arrived at the station to see our train on the platform already! Yells of "Hurry, hurry!", "Grab your bags", "Move It!", came from the two Qualises as we clambered out. A couple of the travellers had no tickets as yet, but they dashed madly to the counter and did board. Sheila had forgotten her umbrellas in the van! Hats off to Vijay and Sudhakar for ensuring that we all got on, the drivers were phoned and thanked and umbrellas were to follow with Mr Ramakrishna!

All this excitement, made us rather giggly as we settled into our seats.

Flushing snacktrays!

This rather interesting set of instructions to operate the snack tray caught our eye on our return. I never did think it was rocket science to open the tray, but the Railways is obviously not taking any chances.

Given that we had a two hour ride, no reading material with us, and not even a portable DVD player (like our fellow passengers), we occupied ourselves in trying to follow the instructions.
To Open
1. We couldn't "pull the knob" as we were instructed - it just moved left or right like any regular holder.
2. There was no instruction to hold the tray while doing step 1. so the tray banged down on us. So that meant that Step 2 also did not work.

Now we had it open anyway, and very happy too. So we decided to check out the "To Close" instructions.
To our consternation, it was on the underside. What to do? Teamwork was needed. Sekar kept his tray shut, and Raji and I read off his instructions.
Step 1 - that was easy - we just had to hold the tray.
2. Lift it up (yeah, that's fine), and flush it with seat backrest. What?! Raji says," Ay, where's the flush ya?" At that point, the Railways lost us....

While we rolled around in laughter, Sekar says, "Dont laugh, read the warnings in red!"

Oh come on, IR, Indians are smarter than this dont you think?

The hilarity didnt stop there. We reached Basin Bridge on time, and all set to get off shortly, when the train decided to halt there for half an hour or more. When we get the go-ahead to proceed to Central, the display board in the coach lights up.

We are informed that "You are now approaching the centre of your destination. You are travelling at 5.36 kmph." Oh wow, we are all impressed. Of course, the effect had to be spoilt. We ground to a halt, and the board pipes up again, "You have reached your destination. You are travelling at 10.42 kmph."

Since the entire coach was jobless, there was a roar of laughter, with Raja's booming voice leading the pack. I think all our fellow passengers thought we we rather "high spirited"... more light headed I think!

Getting off and further adventures awaited us. It was now POURING! The station was leaking in several places and as we reached the cab stand, there was not a soul in sight. Wading in knee-deep water, we got an omni who for the risk of taking us wanted to be rewarded with Rs 500 for a rip that normally takes Rs 100! We bundled in - there were 6 of us and our bags - and we got home!

So, we lucked out on our trip. A day earlier and we would nt have seen the falls as strong as we did, and a day later and we would have been stuck in Gudur, as the depression strengthened and Madras shut down!