Tour Details

This bicycle ride takes you through one of the most difficult and remote but picturesque terrain that you can ever access by road anywhere in India. It is amazing to see how Indian Army (BRO – Border Road Organization) builds and manages roads in this stark and remote terrain.  The  ride takes you to magnificent scenery over a series of 5000m+ passes, starting from lush green Kullu Valley over to high altitude deserts and stark mountains Ladakh.

Join us for one of the most challenging and wonderful bike ride on this planet.

Dates  – 1 June to 10 June 2012.
Start – Manali
Finish - Leh
Altitude – Start 2050m (Manali) / max 5350m (Taglang  La) / end 3505m (Leh)
Accommodation & Support Level – Full Camping  services, Jeep backup and support.
Distance – About  500 Kms.

Detailed Itinerary

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Hi,

Hope the summer vacation marks the beginning of travel season for you. The hills are calling, so here is a desktop calendar wallpaper from the highlands of South India. Download April calendar wallpaper - an image from the tea gardens of Munnar.

Here is a quick look at the updates on India Travel Blog in the recent past.

Photo Essays

• Ten minutes of a black kite’s life - A collection of various moods of a bird in the span of about ten minutes. It is more diverse than you think it can be!
• People of Melukote - images from the streets of a small town near Bangalore.
• Fishing in Fort Kochi - collection of images of Chinese Fishining Nets in Fort Kochi on a glorious evening.

Also see regular addition of images on the paintedstork facebook photo albums.

Flying in Coorg! Read the experiences of taking off in an ultralight aircraft in Coorg and flying over the hills at 100kph at a height of over a kilometer.

Photography Tours

It is now more than a year since I joined hands with my colleague, wildlife photographer Shreeram MV to began Darter Photography, which conducts photography tours and workshops. We now do regular photography workshops in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Here is a quick look at our upcoming tours. Also see an faq on what our tours are all about.

• Landscapes of Munnar. Learn to make beautiful images of landscapes
• Tigers Reserver - We have two tours lined up to photograph tigers in their heartland - Tadoba & Bandhavgarh
• Bhadra Wilderness - A wildlife photography workshop to learn to appreaciate our biodiversity and photograph them.
• Lahaul & Spiti - Amazing mountain landscapes; too good to believe!

I do hope we will meet in one of our photography excursions soon. Happy Travelling!

Dates: July 14th to 21st, 2012

Introduction

One of the still unexplored and insanely beautiful stretch of the Indian Himalayas, Lahaul and Spiti is a valley of stark landscapes and high snowy peaks stretching to the sky. Gurgling rivers and crystal clear lakes dot the highlands of Lahaul, while an ancient civilization has survived for nearly thousand years and has preserved its culture against the onslaught of modernity in Spiti. The faraway valley connected only through a narrow road that traverses through mountains over 10,000 feet high, this region offers vistas and heritage that can keep a travel photographer in a click-frenzy for months together.

Scroll down to see the day-by-day itinerary to know more details and get a glimpse of incredibleness of Lahaul and Spiti Region.

Tour Highlights

• Easy, short duration treks specifically helpful for photography
• Camping in the heart of the mountains, near the clear blue expanse of Chandratal Lake surrounded by high peaks.
• Drive through some of the most amazing landscapes in one of the remotest regions in the Indian Himalayas.
• See and photograph the views from high passes of Rohtang and Kunzum La
• Visit the Buddhist monasteries more than 800 years old that have followed an ancient tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
• Visit to sights specifically chosen keeping photography opportunities in mind
• Expert help and advice with photographing culture and landscapes of Lahaul and Spiti
• Constant interaction and assistance on field by photography experts with an experience of travelling in Lahaul and Spiti
• Insights to nuances of travel and outdoor photography during the tour
• Image reviews by photography experts

See full details of the tour - Heart of the Himalayas – A Photography Trek + Tour of Lahaul and Spiti

Lush greenery dominates every inch of the rolling hills that surround the small town of Munnar. The emerald hues of neatly trimmed tea-estates and the thick jungles hugging the inclines go on forever, with clouds playing a game of light and shadow on the slopes. Perfectly still waters of the lakes and backwaters reflect the drama of the hills and clouds above. The tea estates, greenery, water bodies, waves of ridges reaching out to the sky, foggy sunrises and colourful sunsets are a treat to your eyes as well as for the camera.

Darter Photography takes you to the Kannan Devan Hills, to learn how to photograph landscapes in a way that justice to the scenery unfolding in front you. This workshop will take you through the secrets of making great looking landscape images and help you unfold the perspectives of a landscape-artist through your camera. Join us in discovering the joy of capturing the beauty of Munnar’s landscapes and learn what goes behind making permanent imprints of the colours of the hills in your camera.

See full details of the tour – Landscapes of Munnar.

A girl smiles at the camera, at the small market in front of Cheluvanarayanaswamy Temple.

A man walking past Cheluvanarayanaswamy Temple.

Gang of girls, who shared a short giggly conversation with us at the corridors outside Cheluvanarayanaswamy Temple.

A girl looks back impatiently at her mom, who was shouting at her, telling not to go near the water. At Akka-Thangi Kola.

A girl stares at the camera at Melukote Kalyani.

Pilgrims on the steps of Melukote Kalyani.

The evening hour on the streets of Melukote.

In conversation with a man, on the streets of Melukote.

On the steps leading to Yoganarasimha Temple.

Hills of Coorg – View from the top

I was on a short trip to Coorg on invitation from HummingBird Holidays, visiting some of their properties and enjoying the fresh air of the western ghats after a long time. I was a once regular to Coorg, travelling here several times a year on short visits from Bangalore. But as work took me to faraway places and I got busy exploring corners of the country, I had less and less time for my regular visits to Coorg. The invitation was a good opportunity.

When I arrived in the evening just an hour before sunset, the air was crisp and there was a slight hint of the cold winter night about to arrive after dark. There was a lazy yet cheerful mood in our eighty-year old bungalow, where the evening’s golden sunlight bathed the walls and furnishings and made them glow. I was considering a sortie in town after a cup of coffee, but as one hot cup led to another and another, I found no mood to kick myself from my sit-out facing a valley and miss the continuous supply of world’s favourite brew. After all, Madikeri’s sparse spread of tiled-roof houses and greenery amidst them looked pretty from my chair overlooking the valley, and there was no real justification to set out and discover more.

If the coffee made me lazy, the night’s dinner spread and the next morning’s dosas made me become completely idle. The cook serving with a smile dished out such delicious food that it would take me some time to realize that I had already overeaten. So, a temptation a of beautiful drive through the hills to other side of Coorg did not excite me much.

But get out I did, and was glad to have made that decision. The less taken road from Madikeri to Gonikoppa through Chettalli took me through a route not popular with tourists. It winded through the vistas of beautiful valleys and coffee gardens before descending near Gonikoppa and passing through rice fields and small villages.

The drive took me through the some of the best hillsides of Coorg, allowing me to see the region from up-close. Later in the day, I was about to witness another perspective – the beauty of these hills from high-up like a bird’s eye view. That afternoon, I drove with Muthanna to an open field for an experience that was to blow me away and show me a completely new way to see the hills of Coorg. Muthanna is a trained flier of ultralight aircraft. After a month of flying practice in Thailand, Muthanna returned to Coorg and ordered a brand new ultralight aircraft for himself. He has explored much of Coorg with his flying toy and knows where exactly to find the best scenery in Coorg from a mile high. Muthanna is one of the few people, if not the only person in this part of the country, who takes people on cross country rides and shares the joy of flying with everyone.

That day, when Muthanna opened his small hangar – big enough to fit just about three cars – and revealed his flying baby, I heard my heart speaking out loud to me and urge me to get on it quickly. I was eager. The fifteen minutes that was required to pull out the aircraft, warm the engine and inspect the runway seemed too long and too unbearable. When we finally took off, it was short and quick ascent and we were at the cruising height in less than a minute. Strong headwinds perhaps helped gain altitude quickly, but they made the flying difficult. When I looked down and gazed at the green earth, it appeared like we were crawling slowly against a strong wind, but in fact we were cruising at hundred kph at an altitude of about a kilometer. Down below, I could see paddy fields, coffee plantations, small hills, lone houses amidst coffee plantations and forest lands appearing not very different from a google-map satellite image. But only now, I was seeing the real thing – the undulating landscapes of the western ghats unfolding under me and drifting away at 100kph. After about 15 minutes of flying, we flew  across a pristine forest landscape where a river ran south in a deep valley. Further ahead and on our way back, we passed above the green hills of Tata Tea and several coffee plantations before making a quick but smooth landing. We were up in the air for fairly long time, but in the excitement of windswept heights and incredible vistas, it appeared as if barely a minute had passed. I wanted this flight to go on forever.

We ended the day with a visit to beautiful Irpu Falls, where River Lakshmana Teertha comes down through a series of steps to form a waterfall in the thick woods of Brahmagiri Ranges. Back in Madikeri that evening, at HummingBird’s Rio Restotel, I spent the night dreaming of flying over the undulating landscapes in which an end was never to be sighted.

The next morning, we drove from Gonikoppa to Dubare Elephant Camp, where Karnataka Forest Department rears a small herd of elephants on the bank of Kaveri. The elephants were being given a morning bath and the last few of them were herded out of water for their breakfast minutes after we arrived. In a small enclosure at the edge of the forest, where the camp is located, the elephants were lined up for their morning feed. The mahouts brought large, football sized spheres of a ragi and jaggery mix and pushed it though the mouth of the pachyderms. From their reaction, it was clear that the big fellows loved their meal and were eager for more. Some of the little ones were impatient and struggled anxiously as they waited their turn. And they demanded for more as soon as their share went into their gigantic tummies.

As the feeding hour was about to end, it was also time for us to head back to Kushalanagar and catch the next bus to Bangalore. It was a fruitful three days at Coorg. And this time I was returning home with higher probabilities of coming here again soon. Muthanna’s flight-magic, I know, will not let me stay away from here for long.

About HummingBird Holidays.
HummingBird Holidays has two properties in Coorg with a third one about to be commissioned. OldsVille in Madikeri is a small, cheerful and well-decorated 80 year old bungalow. Rio Restotel is a no-frills, well-maintained accommodation in Gonikoppa Town, which can server as a good base for visitors to explore Coorg and then find a convenient place to rest and sleep. The third property is a spacious bungalow in a large compound in Kushalanagar, right next to River Kaveri.

See more about HummingBird Holidays and their facebook page.