55,000+ Kms

Our Swift has already clocked 55,000+ kms on the stock JK Vectras in just over 3 years. Though bald on the side-treads, they just don't seem to give up on the tarmac. Wet roads - thats the only place where they almost close their shop - having learnt that on our return from the last Pondy trip with quite frequent lateral shifts and roll in the rain.

Safety first - comes to the mind immediately - thanks to the trigger happy driving style which almost every day pushes the loyal Swift to its limits. Internet shows various colors and creeds - talk about rubber grade, tread patterns, season choices, terrain specifics, driving styles, not to miss 'what does 185/70R14-88H means?' Narrowed the list to Bridgestone Potenza G-III, Yokohama ES100 and Michelin Energy XM1+. It's now time for some field work.

Most of the dealers in India are actually unaware of even the basics; with recommendations primarily based on the economics - which ones sell more! If the customers are young & racy, the funkier the tread pattern, the better the tyre. The deeper the customer's pockets, the latest in the foreign brands is the best one in the lot. The location of the shop also determines which tyre is better, and so does what the dealer has ready in the stock. Thank god we have internet and reviews from trust worth sources! No wonder anything sells here, all you need is 'Yes sir, this is the best; everybody is buying this only!'

Though hard to find, you also have a handful of genuine dealers who would not sell things to clear their inventory, or because something sells like hot cakes, or try to corner you to make a particular choice. Yes they are there to make a buck too, but not at your cost; they don't just do a job, they are passionate about what they do and know what they sell. They woud listen to you, understand your need, show you the range, state the pros and the cons, and assist you in making the choice - your choice and not theirs.

Call it luck or our hard search, after tumbling through dealers of the first kind, we finally reached the one stop shop for what we were looking for. All the top ones displayed, explained and compared.  It took us no time to strike the deal in line with the recommendation, and the Swift was up on the jacks. In all it took around 45 minutes to get all the work done including balancing and alignment, and we were back on the road, ready to roll again, full on life, with the shining new Michelin Energy XM1+! :)

Michelin Man Logo courtesy Michelin website.

Safari or Roller Coaster?

Late afternoon, good weather, friends, vehicle with full tank, zest to go out, good old memories - I think are enough to drive you outta home and seek adventure. As it is not  good planners, there was little that could hold us back at home. We hardly realized when our initial plans to go out on weekly grocery shopping turned into adventure trip to the Bannerghatta National Park. Flying over the new Electronics City express way and onto the nice road, we joined the Bannerghatta Road somewhere near IIM Bangalore. Headed straight for a while and took a right turn towards the National Park Office. Not sure of the exact route, I think we took the one right earlier than what we should have taken, continued for a while, and a while more, through some two or so small villages, before landing up at the park entrance. We were just on time for the last safari trip, and managed to grab the the tickets and headed straight for the queue.

A few minutes of wait and soon we were on the shabby safari bus. The driver choose to wait till he had enough "passengers" aboard before sprinting into action. Yes you got that right - "sprinting". I think he shared the genes with Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Loeb to a large extent, just happened to be born at the wrong place at the wrong time. The bus itself was almost in ruins - there wasn't any surface which did not sport couple of dents, there was no window glass that did not rattle, there was no seat which was not squeaking and swaying away to glory, and last but not the least - the combination of missing shock absorbers and the rally road inside the park - literally enhanced all the (mis)adventure! Almost all of the time I was protecting my camera from dashing it against the swaying seats or hitting the ceiling with me along flying off my seat, than enjoying the view and the ride. The only exceptions being the few predetermined stops enroute where the so-called-wild animals could be sighted because of the feeding centers in the proximity. Something is better than nothing - took the very opportunity in those exceptions to get a few clicks.

I guess our prayers were soon answered and the ride came to an end. For five minutes after getting off the bus we were still feeling the sway and the wobble. Awesome ride indeed, never to be tried again for sure. To make up for it, ventured in the zoo section, checked out a few cages. Cobras, Pythons, Rat Snakes, Peacocks, Parrots, Deers - Sambar, Chital, Black Bucks, a lone Zebra, Elephants, Jackals and Leopards were definitely a relief from the earlier joyride through the park. Though not anywhere near the quality and standards that one would expect from a national park, lotta people from different walks of life have adopted the various animals by pledging a donation for the upkeep of the facilities and the animals themselves. Thats is something really appreciable, though looking at the overall state of the park, we were not sure if the collections were really put to good use. It was already late in the evening, the twilight was fading away soon and we decided to wrap up the day and return home. Safari or Roller Coaster - it was definitely fun.     

Exploring the wilds..

Taking a break from the otherwise monotonous modern lifestyle does bring in excitement. Specially if the break is into the wilds, has tempting drives and awesome scenery. Thats what exactly we did over the last weekend. The wee hours of morning, may be not for everyone but surely for us - 04:30 am - were as hard to get up at as they were scary to think of in discussions the day earlier. Dragging our feet to the restrooms and constantly reminding and motivating ourselves about the trip that early in the morning, did pay us back by constraining our start up delays within 1 hour of the projected time. 06:30 am, and we were rolling fast on the Electronics City expressway to catch the NICE road just before Phase-I. The Mysore highway is virtually an extension of the NICE road in the early morning hours with very less traffic and enabling you to keep up a fast pace. A quick coffee break at Barista just before Maddur wakes up everyone for the upcoming trip, while the Rich Choco Shake revitalizes the body and the mind. Passing through Mysore city was faster this time - we did not lose our way even a single time as we have had multiple times in past!

It was the first time that I saw Sunflower plantations alongside the road on this route. Fascinating vast yellow fields full of sunflowers all looking in one direction at the same time is quite a view. We could not help choosing one such spot for breakfast which we had carried along. A bed spread in the open field with teak and coconut trees on one side and sunflowers on the others was a picture perfect setting. The weather complimented it all with cloudy sky and cool breeze. Back again on the road, we made a final stop at Gundlupet to grab a quick tea and headed straight for the forest.

The road between Gundlupet and Bandipur check post which was earlier a dirt track has now transformed into a neat road. From an average of 20kmph over earlier visits, we could now zip at 60kmph average. Both the Bandipur and Mudumalai were much greener due to rains, but still not "lush green". Perhaps it would take a few more rains from this monsoon to get into that state. No matter how many times you go through this route, you can't ignore the scenic beauty of the forest. Herds of spotted dears shying away from the onlookers, peahens crossing the road, to loner male elephants busy munching away on the forest vegetation, are abundant in these forests and a common sight with passer-by vehicles stopping over to have a glimpse.

Arrived at New Mountania at around 11:30 am and occupied the 3 rooms on the 1^st floor reserved for us. The hospitality of the staff is one of the best in the place. Settled down a bit, adored the place, and rested for a while before heading for the lunch at the cafeteria. Lunch, a bit spicy though, was full of variety and delicious. A little drive through Bokkapuram side, and a small walk from the Bokkapuram Temple till the Glen View resort, took most of our post-lunch time. The whole place looks carpeted in green with thick lush vegetation all around, cloudy weather with cool breeze gave it a quite a serene feel. Back to our resort for a quick tea and hopped on for the Night Safari through the forest. Stretching the limits of vision to scan through the forest vegetation in the hope of seeing some wild life in indeed tiring. But we finally managed to come across couple of elephants groups who saved our stretch-vision efforts from going waste. Seeing them up-close in the wild is quite an experience. Wrapped up the day soon with a camp-fire dinner and were off to bed in no time.

The day started early - in the wake of seeing deers in side the resort, who unfortunately decided not to turn up. But the monkeys with their early morning fun and frolic kept us entertained. A relaxed breakfast, settled up the bills, and we are on our way to Ooty driving through the 36 hair pin bends. Stopped at the Bison Valley to enjoy the view, clicked a few quick snaps before arriving at Ooty. Since it was still early for a lunch, decided to head towards Dodabetta before returning to the city. For some unknown reasons, the place was over crowded and flowing with lots and lots of visitors, which for sure gave us hard time finding a parking lot. Otherwise, the scenic beauty was at its peak - full cloud cover on one side, sunshine on the other, with clouds flowing swiftly in between. With weather becoming more pleasant, the road back to the city was full of flowing clouds among the tall trees on both the side giving a mystic touch to the scene.

Its Lunch time! Two amazing family dosas at the Nahar Hotel ensured that no one went hungry. After shopping lot of Ooty tea varieties and Ooty Chocolates, we soon started off the return journey via Gudalur. The Pykara lake was next on the list. We mistook a tourist spot for the lake, and started our climb up the hill thinking that the lake would be visible or approachable from there. Unfortunately, the lake was a 5km walk from that point. Fortunately, we were treated with the most amazing scenic view of the trip from the hill top. The breeze had turned into wind and the chill was beginning to show now. Stayed there on the top for sometime and enjoyed the view. The Frog Hill View was the next pit stop over the rest of the way through the forest. Stopped at the Gundlupet Coffee Day for refreshments and then straight at Mysore Palace for the the beautiful view of the lighting which makes the whole palace glow to its fullest glory.

The dinner was on our way back near Maddur - the MacD and Kamat are side by side at a petrol bunk and offer a decent choice. The night drive on the highway is fast - thanks to the neat roads. Reached Bangalore almost at the midnight. Tiring, but another great trip on our list! :)

How much is too much?

They say every day is a new day. And I strongly believe in that. After experimenting for quite a while now, having clicked around four thousand images, giving me 100 odd which I marked 'better', if not the best, than the rest, my D300s keeps hurling surprises at me every day. Keeping everything on auto mode is quite a good and safe way to shoot, but I could have bought a point-n-shoot instead. Having invested so much in the equiment, I think I need to up the risks and explore more. And there I was trying to tweak every setting one by one and checking the results for the differences. Switch the White Balance, and you get Blueish or Orangish images when you forget to flip it back to the correct setting. Switch off NR, and you get noisy images in twilight regardless of the ISO because you forgot to turn the NR back on. Suddenly the images are dark or burnt, I guess this time its the forgotten EV compensation from the earlier shoot. And the list goes on and on.

The good and the bad parts come hand in hand. Good that I have clicked all the images and they look fabulous in the small camera LCD screen. Good that I clicked all that shoot which I wanted to, when I wanted to. Good that I feel an eternal hapiness to hear the shutter release of a DSLR which I always wanted. Bad that the images look not-so-good when I download them to the PC. Bad that some have considerable and visible noise, some with wrong exposure, and some just do not look like the scene as I saw it with your eyes. Bad that most of them need composition correction. Bad that I would be spending five times the time in post processing the images than what was spent clicking them in the first place. I didn't bargain for that, did I?

I think I do not like post processing because I believe the images should be as natural as possible, as real as possible. There is definitely the other side - contrasts, saturations, highlights, midtones and the shadows, making the images catchy, vibrant, and surreal. I like them real, not surreal. To admit, the dark side did lure me in, and after exploring a few images in Lightroom, I did achieve the effects, though not to the level of professional, but quite acceptable. A little tweaking did help to bring out the depth in the images, taking them a little beyond the limitations of 2D. The little for me might be quite a lot for someone in the same way as someone's little is quite a lot for me.

How much is too much? Well, I guess thats what 'every day is a new day' is all about. Every day we learn something new. I think I would carry out my little bit tweaking and grow towards a point where all I need is the camera and the light..

Marshes and Swamps..

Wetlands.. Yep! That's what we are talking about. The words Marshes and Swamps remind us of the vast wetlands from NatGeo or Discovery programs, sometimes also from real life adventures, treks or other nature trips we have had made. But were those Swamps, or were those Marshes? Aren't the two same? Both have lots of standing water, some rotting and some healthy vegetation, lots of mosquitoes and alike breeding and buzzing in the surrounding regions, loud calls of toads & frogs from sun-set through the sun rise, a variety of ducks, geese and birds during the day, and what not!

Well, practically all is true about both. A Swamp or a Marsh can have fresh water, brackish water or even salt (sea) water. Typically, a Marsh has shallow waters from frequent or continuous flooding, mostly covered with low-growing grasses, reeds, typhas, and other herbaceous plants, and is void of any woody vegetation. A Swamp on the other hand, usually has very slowly moving waters deeper than a Marsh, may have a number of dry-land protrusions (or hammocks), and supports woody vegetation (like trees) along with the type of low-growing vegetation found in the marshes.

Marshes and Swamps are characterized by rich biodiversity they support and are critically important to wildlife habitats.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp