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Old 9th July 2009, 12:48   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fazalaliadil View Post
Hellstar,
[b]Yes you are right about the unforgiving kalahatty route.
Luckily we took the Gudalur route by mistake as we had planned to take the 36 hairpin to save time but missed it, however after the repairs we took the 36 hairpin Kalahatty route.
Made the same mistake when I descended from Ooty in January this year.

And that was such a lucky mistake. The Gudular roads were simply fabulous. Soaked in the light mist and the fragrance of heaven.

Lovely pictures.

How did the brakes fail. What happened? and most importantly how did you continue the drive till they got fixed.
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Old 9th July 2009, 12:50   #17
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Originally Posted by fazalaliadil
matriach approaching us and making us nervous, two days later this Bandipur- Ooty highway was closed as a herd of elephants raided a jackfruit truck and were feasting for three hours and were very intollerant to any vehicular traffic.
Fazal, it was not the Bandipur - Ooty road which was closed but the Mettupalayam - Ooty road which was closed because of the herd of elepahnts feasting the jack fruits near Barliyar check post. That road sees atleast 10 times the traffic compared to the Bandipur - Ooty road.

Lovely pictures - especially of the cautious Matriach who looks very healthy as well, May her tribe increase.

Last edited by khan_sultan : 10th July 2009 at 16:56. Reason: fixed quotes
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Old 9th July 2009, 13:07   #18
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Dear All,
We started on this jungle sojourn with the idea of covering three forests Bandipur, Madumalai and Nagarhole. 30th June-2nd July.
Started at 8:30 am and made a first night halt at Mandya in a hotel, early morning day started for Bandipur, bypassed Banglore and Mysore through the outer ring road.
Reached Bandipur then Madumalai, did some roadside photography and at Masinagudi we learnt that three massive tuskers were frequenting the backwaters of the Masinagudi dam at late evening, we decided to try our luck, though we could hear the loud crackling and breaking of bamboo in this thick bamboo forest, the sounds were fading and getting away from us which was an indication that the tuskers were moving away from us and may have decided to come to the water much later, failing light made us abandon the wait.
Headed to Ooty after a quick late evening snack and reached there at around 9pm, a quick dinner and bed was necessary for us, as we were to start next day from Ooty- Nagarhole next morning at 7:00 am, which we did only to come back, as were descending from Ooty 22 kms down our brakes went limp, so we decided to do inclines rather than slopes on a 20% effective and 80% dead brake ratio and headed back to Ooty and got the master cylinder kit changed and again started at 3 pm to Nagarhole.
Reached the forest guest house by 8:30, only to be encountered by a huge wild tusker who was busy trying to fell a tree just beside the our bunglow, could not photograph it as the camera flash could trigger a unpredictable response which could possibly be doom for all of us within seconds, it took us and the bunglow caretaker 20 minutes to climb one flight of stairs to reach our bedroom, only after the tusker vanished into the dark forest, then at around 9pm, another quick dinner and bed, for the next day was a early one, from dawn to dusk (6am-6pm) we were in the forest with no lunch, only a flask of tea and other liquids.
Here we sighted and photographed many species with the exception of the tiger and Panther, our chances at Machan #1 were ruined as the drizzle continued from light to heavy all day through, which means the tiger would not visit the waterhole during day as the chill was enough not to make it feel thirsty.(for this we will be back in April-May next year)
The Sambar stag and Gaur mother and calf are shot from Machan #2.
The jungle was lush green, which gives the animals good cover, which is bad for sighting and photography and to think about it the rains just started in the south due to the delayed monsoons.
Headed back to our forest bunglow and proceeded to Coorg side for a late relaxed, non-veg dinner (we deserved it) next day we were out of Nagarhole.
As we proceeded towards Hyderabad, stopped by a bird sanctuary before Srirangapatnam and did some good photography there, night halt at Annantapur and back to Hyderabad by Sunday 2:30pm covering 1800 kms.
The team included Abbas, Devidas, Dr. Venkat and myself.
There are many photographs I would like to share with you guys on the forum, so I have divided them into different categories:
Random
Land and Jungle scapes
Animals
Avians

The pics in first post without text:

Hyderabad-Banglore highway.

A magnificent church in Mysore.

Arnold the scarecrow.

Sunflowers and Coconuts.

The BRAKEDOWN.

Ooty-Madumalai road.

Into Nagarhole.

Our forest bunglow.

View from our bedroom.
(The thick tree on the extreme left was the tuskers toy last night)

Three of the four member team.

Last edited by khan_sultan : 10th July 2009 at 16:56. Reason: all bold
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Old 9th July 2009, 13:15   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bblost View Post
Made the same mistake when I descended from Ooty in January this year.

And that was such a lucky mistake. The Gudular roads were simply fabulous. Soaked in the light mist and the fragrance of heaven.

Lovely pictures.

How did the brakes fail. What happened? and most importantly how did you continue the drive till they got fixed.
bblost,
The kit in the master cylinder needed to be replaced as the washers hardned or wornout. We decided to go uphill to Ooty than downhill to Gudlur, as the driver has better control at low speeds uphill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth View Post
Fazal, it was not the Bandipur - Ooty road which was closed but the Mettupalayam - Ooty road which was closed because of the herd of elepahnts feasting the jack fruits near Barliyar check post. That road sees atleast 10 times the traffic compared to the Bandipur - Ooty road.

Lovely pictures - especially of the cautious Matriach who looks very healthy as well, May her tribe increase.
Thanks for the correction and your kind comments.
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Old 9th July 2009, 13:50   #20
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Ascending machan #1.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-machan.jpg
Inside the machan, 20 feet above ground level.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-machan.jpg
Frontal view from machan, notice the rain, this waterhole is where the big cats come to cool the mid day summer heat and for a drink and sighting is very good in summer.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-machan-view-1.jpg
Left view from machan, a good sweeping openess for sighting.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-machan-view-3.jpg
Right view from machan, the deer look closer than what was in reality as this photograph was shot at 100mm focal lenght.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-machan-view-4.jpg
Deer by night when we reached Nagarhole National park, first night.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-deers-night.jpg
Entry into Nagarhole (Rajiv Gandhi National park).
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-entry.jpg

Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-sign.jpg
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Old 9th July 2009, 13:55   #21
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This time the F5 button on my keyboard really worked. Yippee, keep it coming Fazalbhai.
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Old 9th July 2009, 14:02   #22
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Wow, Just as the guy in the bigTV ad experiences, the pictures took me over to the locations they are shot at...I should rate the 3 landscapes in between as the best ones among the other lovely pictures.
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Old 9th July 2009, 14:34   #23
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FROM THE BIRD SANCTUARY.

White Egeret.

Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-heron.jpg
Great Thick Knee, no idea why this name , great wide eyes would be more appropriate.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-great-thick-knee.jpg
White Ibis in flight.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-ibis-flight-2.jpg
White Ibis feeding its chick by re vegetating.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-ibis-feeding-2.jpg
Heron.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-heron-3.jpg
Painted stork.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-painted-stork.jpg
Purple Heron Also known as snake bird due to its neck shape.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-purple-heron-2.jpg
Pelican in flight.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-pelican.jpg
Crocodile and painted stork. Birds of the same feather...?
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-crocodile.jpg
known as grey?
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-heron-2.jpg
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Old 9th July 2009, 14:39   #24
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Wonderful pictures Fazal saab. Which part of Nagarhole did you actually visit? You have got very good sightings
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Old 9th July 2009, 15:03   #25
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Hi Fazal,
Really beautiful pictures. Which SLR you are using or better to ask which all lenses you have used.
I have visited Nagarhole thrice but never got so many beautiful sighting. One thing I noticed that you have traveled inside Nagarhole forest in Gypsy. How did you arranged that. I am asking becasue forest office inside has Mini-bus service, and they didn't allowed the gypsy when I went there.
My second visit was the luckiest when I saw the Tiger sitting on the road side early morning 6 AM.
Hyd-Bandipur-Madumalai-Nagarhole-life-jungle-ii-23-24-november-2007-062.jpg

Couldn;t take a nice shot due to excitement
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Old 9th July 2009, 16:02   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by addyhemmige View Post
Wonderful pictures Fazal saab. Which part of Nagarhole did you actually visit? You have got very good sightings
addy,
Thanks for your appreciation, the parts I visited is not the regular tourist route, taken by JLR group. This was in arrangement with the forest department, this way we could visit the buffer and core zones.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vinay.pillai View Post
Hi Fazal,
Really beautiful pictures. Which SLR you are using or better to ask which all lenses you have used.
I have visited Nagarhole thrice but never got so many beautiful sighting. One thing I noticed that you have traveled inside Nagarhole forest in Gypsy. How did you arranged that. I am asking becasue forest office inside has Mini-bus service, and they didn't allowed the gypsy when I went there.
My second visit was the luckiest when I saw the Tiger sitting on the road side early morning 6 AM.
Attachment 156712

Couldn;t take a nice shot due to excitement
Vinay
I know exactly about the excitement you mention at the sight of a tiger, I have been lucky to see one here, three years back, but unfortunately did not have the equipment then, except a video cam. I consider you were luckier for capturing his majesty... however the quality of photograph is. Was there another vehicle behind yours, as the attention of the Tiger is fixed there?
The Gypsy belonged to the forest department and our timing was from 6am-6pm, while the tours in this forest are suspended this time of the year due to sludge and slippery interior roads. We too had to get off the Gypsy thrice and push it out of heavy sludge with engine on full throttle and 4 wheel drive engaged.
My personal camera was Canon 20D and 100-400 USM L IS, as my camera is not full frame, this works an advantage for the extra reach as the 1.6 crop factor enhances this 400mm to 640mm, so I actually shot some pics at 640mm through my lens.
Other cameras in our crew were Nikon with 400mm ED lens and the other Nikon was fitted with a 18-135mm which was mostly used to shoot habitat.
I am not suprised getting this many sightings as this forest has the discinction of being the the jungle with the highest density of wildlife in the world.
Regards,
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Old 9th July 2009, 16:30   #27
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Amazing pics Fazal. Truly outstanding and mind blowing clarity. Read about the break fail and am glad there were no casualties.
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Old 9th July 2009, 19:31   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muralisk View Post
Amazing pics Fazal. Truly outstanding and mind blowing clarity. Read about the break fail and am glad there were no casualties.
Dear Murli,
Thanks for your appreciation, and yes the partial brake failure could be a hundred times worse had we not accidentally missed the shorter 36 hairpin bend route which we had originally planned to take. The gradient on the 36 hairpin bend route is too steep and surely our brakes in those conditions would not be effective against the gravity.
Regards,
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Old 9th July 2009, 19:38   #29
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All usual very beautiful pictures! The nature's beauty comes comes really well through your pictures.
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Old 9th July 2009, 22:25   #30
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Fazal Sahab, Brilliant Pictures, the visuals leave you spellbound by their beauty. Thanks for posting the pics, its pics like these that fuel the nature lover's passion and spark the interest in the uninitiated
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