3rd March 2010, 15:59
| #16 |
| Team-BHP Support   | Shringi Vatika, and the valley Shringi Vatika is a slow place. You need to wait for an hour, or more for food. So its best to go down and enjoy the river. Thats what we did. Waterfall at the Vatika  The river   After that it was lunch time. It was almost 4 when we moved out, towards flowery pastures but before that, one parting shot  And then, time for spring. why is spring so special in tirthan? Well its the orchards. The apple orchards. At the lower altitudes they bloom fully by late feb. By end of april even the high altitude ones bloom.  couple of safari pics!   Do the pink flowers mean the apples will be pink? Well I dunno, white flowers do not give us white apples. And green apple trees do not have green flowers. But then what do I know about apple farming   In case you look closely, the safari is very very dirty. Its all due to that jalori pass stretch.    We proceeded down and I started looking for car wash, but none of them were accessible. So washing will be done tomorrow only when I find the car wash point Up here, no such luck. finally we headed to the bridge before Ghusaini. We will take U turn from here. After pics of course. At the same spot the black indica was shot, and now it was time for the white elephant to smell the flowers    It was getting dark, and we decided to head back to the resort, and laze by the river. Nothing much to do, except take couple of night pics. So how do you turn night into day? Well you take a 674 seconds shot!  Final shot for the day!  |
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3rd March 2010, 16:20
| #17 |
| Distinguished - BHPian   | Absolutely mesmerizing pictures Tanveer. Some of that area looks like its switzerland  Well, your a master with those long exposure shots  |
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3rd March 2010, 21:23
| #18 |
| Newbie  Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Delhi
Posts: 4
Thanked: Once
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4th March 2010, 11:12
| #19 |
| Team-BHP Support | The last day We woke up not very early to a very cloudy morning. It had rained at night, and we had high hopes of snow or even snowfall at jalori pass. Some morning shots   Clouds!  The resort dogs lalu and seema.  After that its my wifes turn to get on the pulley and go to other side with luggage, while I drove via the longer way This is the narrow wooden bridge. Its barely as wide as the safari. If any pedestrian comes, they have to jump in the river  After that we hastily made way to Jalori pass, and as we got near we realized it was time for dissapointment. There was no fresh snowfall, and clouds also were mostly patchy. Talk about rotten luck!.  So all we did was check out the existing snow for a few minutes and have tea  The road down was atrocious as expected, and a bus had also gotten stuck, Thankfully there was room for our steed to go by. More than an hour wasted for nothing!  The rotten road of the jalori pass  All that mud and dirt now coated the white elephant. Even the floor mats had gotten very dirty with us stepping out and all. We badly needed a car wash. I drove back, with one eye dedicated to looking for a car wash. As I came out of the valley and neared larji, I found one car wash. There was a bulldozer parked there busy with something, but we had enough space to go in for a quick wash  TO BE CONT........ |
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4th March 2010, 11:51
| #20 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 1,441
Thanked: 65 Times
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4th March 2010, 12:00
| #21 | |
| Team-BHP Support | Quote:
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4th March 2010, 12:13
| #22 |
| Team-BHP Support | Car Wash, and journey back In kerala, people take their black elephants to rivers for a wash. Well why should it be any different for the white elephant? There is a very narrow trail with rocks and all going steeply downwards. Probably made by bulldozers mining rocks from river bed. the bulldozer is parked on a makeshift island in the middle of the river, with river flowing around it. I slowly take the trail in low ratio, and park her in the middle of the river  Its wash time now.   The water is cold. Very very very cold. the moment I put my feet in water I thought "bad idea". But I grit my teeth and carry on the wash anyways. After the body wash its time for floor mat wash etc., and though she is not gleaming, the hard stuck dirt is washed off. The water itself is not too deep, maybe 6 inches to a 12 inches, but the round stones make walking tricky. We are jolted out of the wash session by the shrill blast of the air horn. A truck is waiting to come down to load the rocks dug up by the bulldozer. So time to head back. There is no way I am going to reverse up that slippery slope! That means, taking a U turn on the river bed. when you have the turning radius of an airbus, its tricky. Among the rolling stones sit boulders, which I have to avoid  In progress  Deal Done!  One parting shot of the slightly washed elephant  After that its a slow 1st gear 4L climb on the dirt trail. Short distance later, I change back into my shoes, put some old newspaper to avoid getting the clean floor mats dirty, and take the final pic of the trip  Its quarter past 1, and we make a quick run to Delhi. Due to holi, NH1 has low traffic, but now and then some drunken men jump out of the berms in a drunken bear mode to scare people driving. Holi near Panipat/Karnal/Ambala seems to be really rowdy, and I decide to stick to right lane, with an eye in the center berm for such idiots. Some of them will definitely be roadkill by morning, but I don't want myself to be responsible for such deeds. Thankfully, with no incidents, we reach delhi before 11... and the trip comes to an end THE END |
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4th March 2010, 12:52
| #23 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Great stuff Tanveer, I like the way you guys make these quick three day dashes at every opportunity! Way to go & thanks for sharing the wonderful snaps |
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7th March 2010, 18:47
| #24 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Wonderful travelogue, I really admire your spirit and the pictures that you take are simply WOW!!! Me personally would love to write travelogues for my trips but cant seem to get it all together Will definitely be making a start soon |
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