Rahul Siddharthan: Photos

One advantage in spending 6 years in Bangalore was that one could frequently pack a rucksack and spend a weekend in the extremely scenic hills of the Western Ghats in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (and Kerala, but somehow I never went there).

This page contains photos from India: the next page contains photos from elsewhere (France, so far) and links to other peoples' sites.

Click on the pics for larger versions.

All photographs are by me except where otherwise indicated.

Kudremukh, June 1998

(Photographs by Dibyendu Nandy)

This was a long walk from a village called Samsa, through a jeeptrack and then through plantations and up and down several hills. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a picture of Kudremukh itself, a sharp peak which supposedly looks like the head of a horse. This was a small group of seven people.

Path back from Kudremukh

Steep descent

The mist over the hills

Plantations

Mulainagiri/Bababudangiri/Galikere lake, October 1999

These hills are near Chikmagalur; we first climbed and descended from Mulainagiri, which has a temple at the top, then went to the nearby Bababudan range to a lake called Galikere, camping on a jeep track on the way. This was a large group, and several people are not in the pic.

Downhill from Mulainagiri

That's the road we're aiming for

Dawn from the jeep track we camped on

View from near Galikere

Mulainagiri/Bababudangiri/Galikere lake (again!),
December 31 1999 - January 1 2000

On the Y2k night, to get away from the noise of computers crashing all around, a few of us went back to the same hills near Chikmagalur. (Only I had been on the previous trip.) On the return from Galikere we took a different route, through winding jeep tracks along coffee plantations. Holger's powerful high-tech electronic watch helped him give a commentary on which part of the world was being affected by crashing computers at what time... A great entry into 2000 (the new millennium, if you like to count from 1 BC).

Temple on top of Mulainagiri. L-R: Holger, Mangala, Rajguru, me

Bababudangiri. Road from village to Galikere lake

Galikere. The last sunset of 1999

The first morning of 2000

Leaving Galikere

Downhill on the other side of the hill

And onward, back home... (Pic: Holger Merlitz)

Avalanche lake, May 2000

In the Nilgiri hills, around 20 km from Udhagamandalam (aka Ooty), this was a beautiful walk along a lake bed. The first day was a bit wet, but we were rewarded with a spectacular rainbow on the second day. We also saw a herd of wild gaur at one point but backtracked quickly.

The lake bed, on the rainy first day

A beautiful rainbow, near our camping site. (Pic: Anuradha Bhat)

Another shot of the rainbow

The waterfall, with Kuntal in the foreground

A peculiar, "flat" rainbow which didn't rise above the hill

L-R: Holger, Raghu, Kuntal, Anuradha, me. Behind the camera: Siddhartha Lal

A herd of wild gaur. (Pic: Kuntal Das Barman)

Bhatkal/Nagavalli, May 2000

Pictures contributed by Chinmay Das; I wasn't on this trip. For more pictures and commentary, go here.

Kodaikanal, June and August 2000

These were short holiday rather than treks. Kodai is a hillstation in the Palani hills, not far from Madurai; it has always been a favourite with my family so I know the place fairly well. It has retained a charm of its own, and though it's somewhat the worse for an onslaught of tourists, environmental awareness is growing.

The Kodaikanal solar observatory, with an over 100 year old telescope and the oldest continuous solar records in the world.

View of the plains from the Greenlands Youth Hostel, where we stayed, near Coakers Walk.

View from atop the Bear Shola waterfall (then dry).

The mist descending rapidly over the hills

View of the lake from Levinge road, with the prominent Perumal malai peak in the background

The Pambar waterfalls; this was soon after the rains