Continuing from my previous post - where were we?? Ah yes - the post lunch naps. Most of the BHPians and families dozed off for a while, and the bikers preferred to relax in a "shack" next to the restaurant, because I didn't seem to see them post-lunch.
The watch was reading 3.30pm. I never take afternoon naps, because I end up struggling to sleep at night if I do. While the rest of the BHPians took afternoon 'naps', I went out for a stroll in the adjoining coffee estate and took 'snaps' instead. These snaps don't have any members in them, so they might be a bit boring if you are looking for more mugshots of members. The mugshots will follow in my next post. These pictures now are mainly photos of the surrounding landscape in the resort. The only thing I was missing here was my 10-24mm lens for scenery shots, which I should have brought along
.
The estate was dry in this season and the terrain was mainly made up of dry leaves. The trails were all dusty and my black shoes became brown, thank you very much!
On the way, I saw what looked like a big lizard, but when I went closer I found it to be some kind of small brown snake, around 1 foot long. Before I could get my camera out, the creature had slithered away between the dry leaves and I didn't have the patience to pursue it any further.
For an hour, I was wandering around the estate for photo subjects like an animal in search of food, but I am more of a landscape enthusiast and can never find interesting subjects apart from landscapes. Anyway here are a few shots of the landscape here, and some shots of the resort
View from the reception area
Sun rays beaming down
View from the resort's reception area
Some eye-catching Flora at the entrance
Taking a hike up the hill
The resort - here's the clean front yard
And here's the dirty backyard
Impromptu parking lot!
Eagle Eye estate in HDR glory
A fallen, rotting tree trunk
Estate trails through dry leaves
A Touch-me-not plant in macro detail
Treading through the coffee plants at the estate
Coffee flower about to bloom. These are the flower buds
The resort building which was allotted for BHPians
The other BHP cars parked randomly
After I got back to the resort, royalcruiser, arin_12 and chethan_l set out for a bird-watching hike down to a lake, around half a kilometre away from our building. For those of you who don't know, royalcruiser is an expert bird enthusiast and knows the names of almost all species that fly around. I could only my nod my head in agreement when he spotted something and said "red headed bulbul", "blue breasted kingfisher" and such terms (latin and greek to ignorant people like me)
. To me, every bird here looked similar and every bird was quick as an arrow. Before I could focus, they would change their locus! My attempt at bird photography was futile. @royalcruiser has taken some fantabulous shots of the birds here and I am eagerly awaiting his uploads. Hopefully in our next drive, you can teach us some more bird watching and photography
A macro of another unknown thread-like flower. Botany enthusiasts, please pardon my ignorance
Spot the bird contest. @royalcruiser - no answering please
A small lake in a clearing
Sunset on the way back from our birdwatching expedition
The bike garage in a firewood yard.
At the bike garage, the green ninja was getting some amazing amount of attention from other passing guests who wanted to sit on it, stand next to it and take pictures, much to n_aditya's dismay, so much that n_aditya wanted to sleep here to guard the bike from vandals *lol*
After the bird watching session, the 5 of us and the biker group went to the dining area and took our fill of bajjis and evening chai by around 6pm. The Bajjis had become cold by the time we went there, they were more like rubber bands and pencil erasers deep fried in oil. While I was just about to complain to the resort waiter, some freshly fried Bajjis arrived by then and we switched over to experience the real taste of the bajjis. Chapter closed.
The resort had become crowded by dusk. We thought 49 people was a big number. No no no! There were another 100 guests located in buildings we weren't even aware existed in another part of the estate. There was some company outing on the same day and the resort was full of people. There were people in the badminton court, people in the dining area, people on pathways, people in parking lots, people in construction sites, people in the estate trails. Was this really a getaway??
When asdon dada is around, why worry? He had asked for some private space for team-BHP group for bonfires and interactions. Voila!
More on the evening events in the next post. To be continued...