A trip to explore, watch & feel nature, trek and clean up human irresponsibility's. We (Anu, My Sister, CG) decided to sign up for a nature trip to Kemmanagundi led by naturalists Suresh and Jaishankar from Vanamitra.
Vanamitra, is a Non-Governmental Organization for Nature Conservation with special focus on Wildlife Issues across the state of Karnataka, was established by 3 young Wildlife Conservationists who have been working relentlessly for 9 years supporting various other NGOs. More - http://vanamitra.org/about/
http://vanamitra.org/ | http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vanamitra-Conserving-Indias-Wildlife/177282218997090
We left by one of the smallest buses I have ever seen, comfortable nevertheless, Anu and me occupied the most comfortable seats of the bus, the last row sigh! We had a sleepy & bumpy ride and reached Kemmanagundi by 7. We stayed at the forest officers bungalow, a nice neat place bang in the middle of the forests.
Forest Officers Bungalow
Guard Dog!
Time for a concise write-up of the things we did and a short description of the photographs
Day 1:
> A 16 KM trek to a waterfall, fairly uninspiring locales along the trek, we had a forest guard for company. A notable sweet incident was from the start of the trek a group of 4-5 stray dogs started following us, they gave us superb company for 16 KM's and trekked with us, shared our lunch, slept for a while and followed us back, man's best friend proved it again.
> Nice sightings of a giant dragonfly, still not identified.
> We had to walk across beautiful streams, fun to soak our tired legs in the cold water.
> Major clean-up of the area close to the waterfalls, we collected close to 11-12 huge bags of garbage. We also educated quite a few visitors not to litter.
> Tired and we started the trek back, midway the thunders started and it sounded as if an army of angry lions were on the loose, the lightening slowly starting catching up to its personal best and lit the entire arena like a dance floor and slowly the entire area was looking menacing with dark clouds staring at us. Anu and me were tired and the destination just didn't seem to come.
> We had a discussion of important environmental issues at a small restaurant which according to me was a little out of place since we were all drenched to the bone and were dead tired.
> Dinner was done with candle lights and then till midnight we had a exhibition of superb performances by the fire flies.
> Presentation of wildlife conservation, current poaching practices and their conservation and rescue operations, was really nice and inspirational.
Trek - Difficulty Level
Wonders in Colors
Mountain Ranges under Wrap
Giant Helicopter
Flow of Life
Fight For Green
Day 2:
> A 6 KM trek to a hill peak called Z point, superb mountainous path with nice small waterfalls on the way.
> The view from the top is awesome.
> Good Sightings of few endemic birds and butterflies. My Butterfly collection got two new additions, Peacock Pancy & Common Bluebottle
> Had a cool leech bite that bled for nearly 50+ hours, guess the guy had loads of Hirudin in its system.
People Trekking
Tiger Pug Mark (Fresh)
Peaks of Kemmanagundi
Peaks of Kemmanagundi - 1
Kings Seat
Common Bluebottle
Holy Sprinklings
Photographs Set
Video of Kemmanagundi Z Point
On a photographic front realized that the mid day sun was a photographers worst enemy, the sky without clouds are all looking washed out.
Reached home by 1:00 AM and man never slept better before.
The next trip report is BR Hills, where I have had some life time sightings, waiting to process them asap.
Cheers,
Monish
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