[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by CLIX

Beautiful Snaps!
Looks like a fun drive!

Thank You

Originally Posted by ravib

Mind blowing snaps... awesome awesome awesome..
You are making others too jealous to go and see Valparai right away
And i am recollecting my trip to valparai 10 years back.

-Ravi

Thank You Ravi, valparai is sure a place to be visited over and over again.

Originally Posted by driving_smartly

Every Travelogue in Team-Bhp is unique in it's own way and this one is no different from it either.

The Snaps are real treat for eye's.

Can you share some details about the food and Home stay (Resort) for the benefits of others ?

Thank You, The homestay is just amazing and so it the staff there. Food is good, but not exceptional I would say. The Bunglow and the location makes up for everything.

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Coooolcat21,

While on this trip, mostly the violet flowers decided to bloom. "Sinna Dorai's Bunglow" thoroughly captivated me, this is the kind of farmhouse I plan to build, with a luxurious front porch. The location, the height and the view here is spectacular.

The interiors are just beautiful and elegant, undoubtedly I feel the credit goes to "the Charismatic and Charming General Manager of the resort, Sujata".

The breakfast lounge and verandah are so colonial and period, makes your stay so memorable.

The place is very scenic and the weather seems awesome.
The Nilgri Thar and Lion tailed monkey are good captures, possibly a maiden appearance on T-BHP.

Rhesus monkeys are notoriously brazen at tourist destinations mostly they also raid the cars if windows are left open, imagine my open Jeep. This place is aptly named "MONKEYFALLS" as I can see the one that fell on your windshield. Thank god nothing like that happened at the "Tiger Valley". Should find out what "CHALAKUDI" means.

Looking forward to another beautifully narrated and photographed TL from you.
Regards,

Thank you so much for your kind words Fazal Ji.
Do let us know once you have found the meaning of "Chalakudi"

Regards

[Coooolcat21]

Continuing..
We started the next day morning with a nice breakfast under an overcast sky.
There was a picnic planned to the Sholayar Dam with lunch packed for us. Our guide was Mr Murugan as the previous day.




The drive was beautiful with greenery all around us.




Reached Sholayar dam and it had become quite warm by then. For the first time we saw shades of brown in the landscape.










It was a long walk to the dam.




























We camped here for a while and walked around the place. Decided to sit here a bit longer and have lunch too.










The tourist being forced to look out for the malabar squirrel. His objection was that its not a national park to be looking out for wildlife and it was more fun to be kicking the stones around

[Coooolcat21]

Pepper creepers on some trees.


Shocked to see our lunch that we had very much looked forward to in this beautiful location.
An extremely dried out chicken fry with lemon rice Dissappointed!
So my suggestion is to check with them whats being packed before you leave.


We were then taken to thier tea processing unit which was quite interesting.


Drove back to the bunglow quite tired but still with a hope to go bird watching later in the evening.










Back at the bunglow..

[Coooolcat21]

Continuing with the photolog my next post will the wildlife we saw over 4 days we spent there.

We were greeted first by the Nilgiri Tahr walking along the road.







While some were effortlessly scaling great heights.








And one being adventrous liked living life on the edge




The Lion Tailed Macaque is an endangered primate species.


Canopy connectivity has been provided at various places to safeguard the macaque from the need of using the raods to cross.








There was a large group of them feasting on the fresh fruits.






Feeding the macaque is strictly prohibited and there are people monitering the same. But then it should be our duty to follow and not fuel the deterioration of thier habitat .

[Coooolcat21]

Continuing..




Giant malabar Squirrel has vibrant colors. They often look and sound aggressive.








Red Whiskered Bulbuls in various moods in the wonderfull weather.
















Fresh leaves for the nest.


Could not make out which bird as it was too far away.




Spotted Dove.




Minivet.


Sunbird.


Oriental Magpie Robin.


Serpent Eagle at far of distance.


The langur can be distunguished by it long tail from a distance even thru a web.

[Coooolcat21]

Next is the star of our wildlife sightings in Valparai. Saw this huge herd of bisons at a far of distance. But then we wanted to have a closer , but Murugan was a bit nervous if we could drive thru the very narrow paths of the plantation. Well he was not aware of the kinds of roads we have driven before.
The stalks of the tea plants are extremely hard and our Tfort got scratched at a few places , but then it was finally all worth it.













This bison suddenly looked up at us, we just could not see him sitting there, it sure looked like a large one .




Thoroughly satisfied we packed our cameras and started our way back to the bunglow. A distance further just before hitting the main road we saw a truck had blocked this little service path to the tea estate with a huge mound of manure. With no choice but to reverse quite a distance and go back all the way, we saw the herd had moved on. It was getting dark rapidly and for our surprise we saw another herd of bisons crossing the road, but then we were not well prepared with our camers and hence missed another great opportunity.
















We generally are looking for wildlife that is elusive and often miss out on the ones who are there right in front of us but master the art of camouflage.




Close-up of the hind leg.






With this set of pictures i complete our wildlife experience.
In the next post I shall explore the Tea estate and the bunglow in its various hues .

[i.1979]

Coooolcat21 thanks for those nice photos. i had visited Valparai more than five times and i never spent more than a day over there. but now after seing your travelogue i feel i missed a lot. planning to do one more trip with proper planning.

[samarjitdhar]

Wonderful pictures. Rated 5 stars. I don't think I came across other travelogues on Valparai which covered the wildlife in such intricate detail. BTW may I ask what photography equipment have you used? I believe you have a Sony (I think I caught the brand in one of your pictures from your Leh travelogue plus the giveaway sweep panoramas ). What kind of post-processing do you do to the pictures?

The picture of the muscular bison crossing the road reminded me of the Dodge range of cars specially the Charger

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by i.1979

Coooolcat21 thanks for those nice photos. i had visited Valparai more than five times and i never spent more than a day over there. but now after seing your travelogue i feel i missed a lot. planning to do one more trip with proper planning.

Thank You, Valparai sure needs more than a couple of days to soak in the peace and serenity of the place.

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Wonderful pictures. Rated 5 stars. I don't think I came across other travelogues on Valparai which covered the wildlife in such intricate detail. BTW may I ask what photography equipment have you used? I believe you have a Sony (I think I caught the brand in one of your pictures from your Leh travelogue plus the giveaway sweep panoramas ). What kind of post-processing do you do to the pictures?

The picture of the muscular bison crossing the road reminded me of the Dodge range of cars specially the Charger

Thank You so much for the stars . You are right about me using a sony nex 5 that gives beautiful results. Along with that we use more of Canon 50d with 100-400L for the wildlife shots.
I use Lightroom for PP.
Yes I agree it does look like that.
Regards

[Coooolcat21]

Continuing with the photolog, the next set of pictures is from the Bunglow and Parry tea estate.

The beautiful and colorfull flowers that adorn the amazing Bunglow.


























An evening drive through the Parry estate.








Our ride on the most amazing drive.












The setting sun and the clouds turned on thier magic changing the hues by every passing moment.


The carpeted paths beyond imagination.

[fazalaliadil]

Coooolcat21,

Was out of station, visited your thread at the first opportunity after getting back, to a treat of very well composed images and a little write up.

The Gaur bulls in their magnificent muscular shine, too close for comfort, though a timid animal. The one giving his head a ground massage turned out very good from the low angle, wish you could recompose the electricity pole out. The yawn, fangs and the drool of the Lion Tailed Macaque, the drizzle in the 'dove on the ground' pic., the sun bathing Giant Malabar Squirrel, the activity of the Bulbul's, Mr. flaunting chameleon, are all very well captured. The bokeh on all the long shots is very good.

Did you feed the Horlicks biscuit to the primate in spite of the warning?

I presume that the long wildlife shots were 50D+100-400. The landscapes have turned out very well balanced in lighting, was it the Sony here?

The pans are equally good and the exaggerated curvature of the dam and bungalow are nice and dramatic.

"An extremely dried out chicken fry with lemon rice" sure looks disappointing.

"CHALAKUDI" I have received certain inputs from a learned friend about its meaning, will need to reconfirm it before posting it.


Regards,

[Coooolcat21]

[quote=fazalaliadil;2931557]Coooolcat21,

Was out of station, visited your thread at the first opportunity after getting back, to a treat of very well composed images and a little write up.

The Gaur bulls in their magnificent muscular shine, too close for comfort, though a timid animal. The one giving his head a ground massage turned out very good from the low angle, wish you could recompose the electricity pole out. The yawn, fangs and the drool of the Lion Tailed Macaque, the drizzle in the 'dove on the ground' pic., the sun bathing Giant Malabar Squirrel, the activity of the Bulbul's, Mr. flaunting chameleon, are all very well captured. The bokeh on all the long shots is very good.

Did you feed the Horlicks biscuit to the primate in spite of the warning?

I presume that the long wildlife shots were 50D+100-400. The landscapes have turned out very well balanced in lighting, was it the Sony here?

The pans are equally good and the exaggerated curvature of the dam and bungalow are nice and dramatic.

"An extremely dried out chicken fry with lemon rice" sure looks disappointing.

"CHALAKUDI" I have received certain inputs from a learned friend about its meaning, will need to reconfirm it before posting it.


Regards,
[/

Fazal Sir,
Thank you for following my log. As mentioned earlier its more of a photologue and hence the little writing. And you are absolutely right about the gear that has been used to take the pictures.

I did not notice it was a horlicks biscuit, that's a keen eye for details you have. There were many tourists there, and generally I have seen tourists here are very generous when it comes to sharing with the monkeys

Will await your inputs on "Chalakudi"

Regards.


Continuing,
The beautiful roads of the tea estate.




The Tourist enjoying it too.


Our ride on carpeted roads.








The Bison herd.














Back at the Bunglow and our favourite bench, just could stop taking pictures of this place as every passing moment the view would have its own charm.






























The tourist too soaking in the beauty of the place.

[Coooolcat21]

Posting the last set of pictures of the beautifull vistas of Valparai that kept us spellbound.
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The evening brought in the chill and musty smell of the wet mud with little tiny lights shimmering through the mist. We spent a long time looking at the glow worms creating a magical scene of little twinkling stars .
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Woke up to a beautiful morning, had a good breakfast and we started our journey back home.
Roti Kadai
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[laluks]

Coooolcat21, the attachments of the last post are not visible. I guess it did not attach properly, or is it only me who is not able to see them ?

[Coooolcat21]

@Laluks,
The pictures did not load properly. Will post them again.
Thank You