Day 2 – June 25, 2011 Eager to reach Kanha, we were up by dawn break. Narmada was serene and the morning, calm and divine around her. We bade goodbye to Gwarighat Sahib and hoped that we would meet Narmada somewhere else on her course. We broke for hot tea and the much famed sev-poha…
Author: Shalini Gopalakrishnan
The Kanha Diaries… (Part I – A Day Away)
Day 1 – June 24, 2011 The Kolkata Mail came to a screeching halt at Jabalpur Station at its scheduled 13:20, marking the beginning of our Jabalpur-Kanha-Ujjain trip. Jabalpur welcomed it’s tourist with mild showers. Kanha National Park was the sole purpose of the trip. Jabalpur and Ujjain got added as complimentary gifts which in…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part VIII – Epilogue)
Day 8 – Jan 31, 2015 06:30 AM Bags packed, gratitude and goodbyes exchanged, we left for Dibrugarh Aiport. Sceneries, markets, stations passed by. Soon, we had left Arunachal and were in Assam. We halted for chai. While sipping tea, a sudden realisation dawned that we were in the Tea State and that we should…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part VII – The Final Countdown)
Day 7 – Jan 30, 2015 5:30 AM The morning sun was quick to wake all of us. My tent had withstood the onslaught. Water had seeped into two of the neighbouring tents. Their rucksacks which were kept outside were all wet. I checked for any congregation of reptiles beneath my tent. But there was…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part VI – Hornbill Again)
Day 6 – Jan 29, 2015 7:00 PM A lovely morning beckoned us. We went to the Namdapha River to say our goodbyes. I filled a bottle with the river water. It truly felt like the Ganges, embodying serenity and spirituality. Four years on, I still have it with me. 8:15 AM We gulped a…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part V – Namdapha River)
Day 5 – Jan 28, 2015 4:45 AM We were up with the first light of the day. We walked some distance and climbed down a tricky piece of slope to reach a clean stream of water. We brushed, splashed our faces, filled water for morning ablutions and went further ahead of the trail to…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part IV – Ranijheel)
Day 4 – Jan 27, 2015 06:30 AM Ready for another day full of trekking and birding, we set out at around half past six. Birds had already begun their day. Sunbirds, Bulbuls, Long-tailed Sibias, Pin-cushioned Pigeons, Blue-throated Barbets, Asian Fairy-blue Bird and many small birds (unidentified) were seen within an hour. Whiskered Yuhina and…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part III – Hornbill Camp)
Day 3 – Jan 26, 2015 – Happy Republic Day! 04:30 AM In the land of the rising sun, the sun understandably doesn’t tolerate too much sleep. Technically, it rises an hour before the actual IST. But I feel, it just waits there to peek-a-boo and light up the whole sky. At the stipulated hour…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part II – Miao-Deban-Namdapha)
Day 2 – Jan 25, 2015 05:00 AM We were awake with the first light of dawn intermittently streaming through the bamboo hut. Gradually, we took in our new surroundings. Tall Indian Grass grew in the garden. The Indian Coral Tree was in bloom and attracted numerous birds. We ate bread with freshly procured, thick…
The Mother of ALL Forests… (Part I – Journey to Miao)
(continued from ‘The Mother of ALL Forests…Prologue’) Day 1 – Jan 24, 2015 There was still time for the lazy winter sun to rise. It was quite dark outside. Bags packed and loaded into the cab, we were off to the airport. Traffic at 4:00 AM in the morning! Whoa! It can happen only in…
Walk the Wild... 