A weekend getaway to the Nilgiris

I had been dreaming of the Nilgiris for the last few weeks. They kept surfacing in my conversations and thoughts. So I decided to head out there this weekend. I am going to be in Coonoor and hope to roam around if the weather holds. I have no agenda and I hope to just relax and take it easy . See you guys next week and have a great weekend.

 Backpacker has loads of updates and stories coming up for you this week ; so stay tuned. Ciao !

Birding in Masinagudi

I was in Masinagudi a few days ago and went on a birding trip with Atul, the manager of Club Mahindra Zest property - Casa Deep Woods. My first visit to Casa was almost a decade ago, when it was not a Club Mahindra property .Incidentally it was my first ever trip to Masinagudi. It was sheer serendipity as we drove towards Mudhumalai forest after being told that we had no accommodation in Bandipur. The property was very new and Masinagudi was still very much not a tourist destination. I have visited Masinagudi several times, but this trip was sheer nostalgia.

And what a birding haven it turned out to be -the iora, the sunbird, the white eye, the warbler, the flycatchers, the thrushes - we sighted almost 50 species of birds in just one session and the best sightings were that of the pitta and the paradise flycatcher .While the pitta was hanging around for more than half an hour, walking around the dry stream , barely a few feet from me and at eye level, the paradise fly catchers were rather elusive. An entire family was high up in the leaves , right above us and we watched them fly with our binoculars.

The pitta chased the orange headed ground thrush that landed finally up in the branches of the trees.

My favourite of course was the poser tickell's blue flycatcher. For more birds and photographs, do see my album on my travel page on Facebook. For the entire story, please read here

The Misty Nilgiris

We were in Masinagudi a few weekends ago, a town located at the foothills of the Nilgiris. The mountains were giving us company as we drove around and giving the mountains company was a thin veil of mist..

To see more skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday

Back from the jungles

I was lost somewhere in the dense forests of interior Masinagudi during the weekend ; not amidst the row of touristy resorts, but somewhere in the interior where forests and wilderness merge in a place aptly titled Wilds.I will blog about this sometime when I have a little more mind-space , but for now, a quick update to say I am back in rain swept Bangalore