Topic: Wildlife and Natural Places

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

I thought I'd open with the most legendary naturalist of our times. A man who has inspired generations and can find absolutely anything in the natural world fascinating; be it a coelacanth, a pride of lions in the Ngorongoro crater or a ladybird on the end of his finger. There is nothing in nature that is insignificant to him. So, taking his lead, this thread is for all the wild places that still remain. If you're luck enough to have gone to the Masai Mara, I would love to hear about your experiences. Equally if you walk your dog in a pleasant part of where you live, I love to hear that too. You never know when one of us might suddenly find ourselves in your area and the info you've passed on would suddenly become relevant.


Location: Yala National Park, Southern Sri Lanka

Visited: June/July 2014. The dry season. Yale is shut for a month in September so that the animals aren't disturbed towards the end of the dry season.

History: On March 23, 1900 the government proclaimed Yala and Wilpattu reserves under the Forest Ordinance. Initially the extent of the reserve was 389 square kilometres (150 sq mi) between the Menik and Kumbukkan Rivers. At that time the reserve did not bear the name Yala. The park has been expanded over the years and now consists of five blocks. Visitors are only allowed in Block 1. You need a permit for scientific study if you want to go there. So, the majority of the park is just for the animals.

Habitat: Typical dry zone scrub jungle with some riverine forest along the Menik Ganga (River of Gems). There are also open plains (tiny by African standards) which would be called maidens in India. Yale is on the coast too but you won't see much in the way of wildlife there.


Because of the nature of the park, jeeps tracks through the jungle and past waterholes, you can get by with a 300mm lens. You'll either see mammals quite close up or not at all.
Fauna: There are 44 species of mammals are resident in Yala National Park, including the Sri Lankan Elephant, Sri Lankan Sloth Bear, Sri Lankan Leopard, Sri Lankan Sambar, Sri Lankan Axis deer. As the names suggest they are all subspecies unique to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Elephant, Elephas maximus maximus are the largest in Asia (as a general population) and there's around 300-350 of them in the park. It is the park where you have the greatest chance of seeing a variety of Sri Lanka's wildlife. It also has one of the highest population densities of leopards in the world. As the apex predator they're no as skittish as they are in other areas, which makes Yala a popular destination for Wildlife Film Crews.


Yala is (apparently nicked this off wiki) one of the 70 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Sri Lanka. Of 215 bird species of the park, six are endemic to Sri Lanka.
There are also 46 types of reptiles recorded from the park is 46 of which 5 are endemic. You will see crocodiles; Mugger definitely,  Saltwater Crocodiles less likely. I've seen a python once and an Indian Cobra once. Bit tricky to spot from a moving jeep. All five globally endangered sea turtles (Leatherback turtle, Olive Ridley, Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Hawksbill turtle, and Green turtle) that visit Sri Lanka can be found on the coastal areas but there are far better places (turtle hatcheries) to see them than Yala.


Accommodation: We heave always stayed in the park in one of the bungalows. They have solar power though you're not allowed to charge your cameras or laptops. They have spacious bathrooms with open to the sky showers. There are lockable bedrooms but we only use they for keeping our stuff. We take all the beds outto the verandah and sleep as close to nature as we can. You get in the rhythm of the place hearing Leopards 'sawing' and the alarm calls of deer. And you're woken by the dawn chorus. You get up when it's still dark so that you can head out just before six o'clock when the park 'opens'.
For us there's nothing like staying in the heart of the jungle but if you want to visit Yala, I'd recommend staying in one of the new eco-resorts that have been set up just outside the park borders (there aren't fences). A good friend of mine stayed in one in August and couldn't speak more highly of the place.



There was an on-going drought in the park as the rains failed in December. The drought is limited to the park, as Sri Lankan's have managed their water resources for the last two thousand years at least and we're very good at it. Aththa Gala i(Tusked Elephants in the background, dominating Yala as it does. There's at least six crocodiles in that shot, still holding out in the meagre water that remains.



This is was taken in May 2011 and shows you what it should look like. As a bit of Chakanism the grey blob just off-centre to the right is a large bull elephant, right up to it's chest in the water as it eats lotuses. This is one of my favourite spots in the world. Usually so beautiful and serene, it was a little bit sad to see it as it was above.



This is Heenwewa which gives the bungalow we stayed in it's name. You can see how big it ought to be when full from the tree line.There's usually tons of lotus in evidence. Interesting that it's dies back in the drought.


Heenwewa is also full off Sri Lankan mugger crocodiles, Crocodylus palustris kimbula.


This shot is particularly galling. In the 40+ years my wife been alive, in all the countless times she’s visited national parks, she’d never seen a sloth bear. This means in the fourteen years I’d known her I hadn’t seen one either. “I’ve seen plenty of bears” I’d tell her “it wouldn’t bother me if I never saw another one. I've probably seen too many bears already”. The only time I took our son to Yala without her, we saw one. Savoured showing her the photos of that trip I can tell you. So how gutted was I when on the first afternoon game drive the tracker found us a bear. No longer can I refer to her as “My Bear Repellent.” Anyway to my mind, the photographic evidence is inconclusive. It might just be a black shadow or possibly we had a group hallucination. (The bear is facing right. The solid white patch furthest right is light reflecting off it's muzzle. If indeed it was a bear...)


This is a better look at a sloth bear, taken at the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka, in Dehiwala a suburb of Colombo. It's a pretty decent zoo and is encouragingly rapidly upgrading the living environments it offers. According to the Veddahs, Sri Lanka's aborigines and the original inhabitants of the island, a bear is the most dangerous thing in the Sri Lankan. Because both bears and humans have poor senses it's easy to suddenly surprise one. If you do, they will attack you (in self-defence) with those very long claws, with which they can break open cemented termite mounds. Messy.



Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl, Gallus lafayettii,just about to take flight. Endemic and the national bird.





The Sri Lankan Golden Jackal the island's only canid, Canis aureus naria, eating fallen pallu fruit. The female is closest to us, with it's mate in the background. I love the way how often the Sinhala term for an animal is used when defining the Sri Lankan sub-species. Naria=jackal, Kimbula=crocodile, kotiya=leopard, etc.



Wild boar, Sus scrofa cristatus, scavenging a young axis deer carcass. Both wild boar and sloth bear will drive a leopard off it's kill. As omnivores they have other means to sustain themselves if they get injured. Not an option for a leopard which has to keep itself as close to peak condition as it can. Or face death. It's why, though the leopard is the apex predator in the Sri Lankan jungle, it'll still take it's kill up a tree rather than risk getting injured.



This baby elephant is under six months old. The elephant equivalent of a toddler. You can tell because it's still hairy. Elephants truly are fascinating as they are highly intelligent and as social animals they are sophisticated communicators and run their small social groups much as we did. Watching this baby elephant it's clear that elephant toddlers behave much like our own.



They tussle with their siblings (or cousin)



Investigate stuff by doing a bit of tree-climbing



When the matriarch of the herd decides that it was time to move out, the baby elephant demonstrated, as our toddlers do, that it clearly understood what it'd been asked, by doing the complete opposite. Testing boundaries. The baby elephant has it's back legs braced and wasn't easily shifted. One swift kick from her got it going though.



Here you see it being literally marched in the right direction because of the way the skin on it's back is rippled as the aunt leans on it. "This is how you behave in elephant society".



A Ruddy Mongoose, Herpestes smithii



The highlight of the trip for me (though I know someone else would say the possible bear spotting). This is a young male leopard (squarish head) and it just watched us (loads of jeeps) fussing about him. We literally drove right under him. He's waiting for dusk to fall around 18:30 before going out to hunt.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

A quick note on pricing in Sri Lanka

Now, one thing tourists will meet when they visit Sri Lanka is that there is one price for foreign nationals and a much lower one for locals. You will be effectively subsidising the local population. For that I thank you. If we were to equalise the cost of entry to our National Parks then the average Sri Lankan would have to think twice before visiting.

In recent times, say the last 15 years, it has become fashionable to become a “Leopard Spotter”. They visit Yala two to four times a month and are barely interested in the other wildlife. Sir David Attenborough would not approve. I happened on a conversation between them, concerned with the fact that with tourist arrivals up, there was a too much disturbance in the park. They wanted to raise the cost of admission, to basically price out the 'riffraff'. I suggested that we limit people to one visit per year. It wouldn't affect the tourists and I was sure it would help control the number of visitors to the park. I could live with that. As you can imagine my idea went down like a lead balloon. But it killed their debate stone dead (job done). I can't stand people who pontificate on how "sacrifices need to be made" but always expect the sacrifice to be made by other people. Fuckers.

There are Buddhist places of worship, one of which has been there since the 3rd century BCE within the confines of the park. There are also Hindu pilgrims who come down from the far north to the deep south to visit Kataragama. Now that the war is over the armed forces are utilised for public works. They are disciplined and industrious and work to higher standards than the Sri Lankan road worker we were used to (One person working, whilst five of his mates watch him). The Sri Lankan Army feed the pilgrims as in Sinhala-Buddhist culture it is considered a meritorious act to help a pilgrim, irrespective of their religious beliefs, to their destination. All our remaining wild spaces are managed and this is another way of managing both sets of pilgrims as they travel through the park in increasing numbers.

I once explained to my seven year old cousin when she complained about people coming through the park (only the main road) in their buses, laughing and singing, but scaring away the wildlife.

Listen, not everyone is a lucky as we are to be born into a family that’s been visiting Yala for decades. Not everyone can afford their own jeeps. Let them enjoy the park the way they want to. If we encourage them, they’ll value our wild spaces much as we do. Which means we far more likely to preserve what we have for future generations.

If you visit Sri Lanka and you find yourself wondering why you have to pay more to visit our parks or the Cultural Triangle, consider yourself doing a compassionate, selfless and meritorious act, totally in keeping with the culture of the country you’re visiting.

I strongly believe that our heritage should accessible, appreciated and enjoyed by all the citizens of the country and not the preserved for the privileged few. So, when you pay a bit more than a local has to, think of it as helping to keep things the way they should be.

[Abraham]

That's a beautiful and informative start to a thread Zero, I'm not sure how to follow it up it is so complete. That said when I have a little more time, I'll grab a few shots together and see what i can come up with. Great post 

[A weatherfield winter wonderland]

Excellent post zz. Just about to prepare Sunday lunch but wanted to bookmark the thread so will attach a few shots from our visit to a park just on the edge of Kruger in South Africa.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Excellent post zz. Just about to prepare Sunday lunch but wanted to bookmark the thread so will attach a few shots from our visit to a park just on the edge of Kruger in South Africa.

Thanks Nick. Leopards truly are beautiful, aren't they? I love that second shot; such a typical pose. You've got some great shots of rhino and lions too. I would like to hear a lot more about South Africa.

That's a beautiful and informative start to a thread Zero, I'm not sure how to follow it up it is so complete. That said when I have a little more time, I'll grab a few shots together and see what i can come up with. Great post 

Cheers mate. I think a simple "Where" and "When" (month/year) would do to kick things off. Post up your pictures and we can discuss your experiences.

I've been thinking about starting this thread for about two years. I've been lucky enough to have been going to Yala for almost all of my 41 years. My first visit was when I'd just about managed to sit up unaided (still a bit 'slumpy'). It's the park I know best and my favourite place in the world. Though, on the other hand, there is nothing quite like Africa.

[Elf MoFo]

Just had a couple of days in Algonquin National Park a couple of hundred miles north of Toronto.  Unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife apart from chipmunks and birds and the beaver dam below but we did hear plenty of wolves howling at night.  We were canoeing so most of the pictures are from the water.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Just had a couple of days in Algonquin National Park a couple of hundred miles north of Toronto.

How beautifully tranquil that looks, elmo. One of the drawbacks of going on safari is that you are stuck in a diesel vehicle for hours at a time. And quite a few other vehicles too. I can certainly see the appeal of having a bit of a paddle with just your group for company.

Unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife apart from chipmunks and birds and the beaver dam below but we did hear plenty of wolves howling at night.

That's the thing with going into the wilds, there's no guarantees. If you are lucky enough to see something it becomes all the more precious as an experience. Though when you're enjoying just being out there, actually seeing stars because you away from all the light pollution of a city, it doesn't really matter if you see anything or not. But if you hear an alarm call, or in your case the evocative howling of wolves, it's enough to know that they're somewhere out there.

[Chakan]

Location : Black Rhino Lodge, Pilanesberg Game Reserve, South Africa

Visited : 5th/6th April 2013. Coming out of summer and getting cooler heading towards winter.

History : In the late ninteenth century, Pilanesberg served as a sanctuary to Mzilikazi’s rebel Zulu warriors who passed through the area as they fled the wrath of the Zulu king, Shaka. A mission station was established more or less in the northwestern part of the park, on the farm Driefontein, which lay wedged between a large section of land traditionally owned by the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela (commonly known as the Bakgatla) tribe. This land constitutes much of the northern region of today's Pilanesberg reserve.

The size of the park was increased from 552 to 572 km² in May 2004 as part of a workable 10 year plan to establish a corridor between Pilanesberg and Madikwe Game Reserve. The 20 km² that was added on the north western was the first bit from Pilanesberg's side. On the Madikwe's side there has already been several additions towards the south east. There are also several private owners dropping fences from the middle moving towards Pilanesberg and Madikwe. Property, that was selling for R30,000/km² 2 years ago, is now selling for R500,000/km². Plans are being concluded to add a large piece of land to the park in the next two years. A recent poll conducted by the South African Tourism Board found that the Pilanesberg has jumped to the number 1 ranking on the list of most popular public game reserves in South Africa. This comes after many years of trailing the Kruger National Park. It is thought that Pilanesbergs close proximity to Johannesburg coupled with the fact that it is malaria free has led to its new-found popularity.

Flora and Fauna :The scenic terrain lies in the transition zone between Kalahari and Lowveld, and both types of vegetation are found here. As a result of the park being on a transition zone there are overlaps in mammals, birds and vegetation. Today, Pilanesberg Game Reserve accommodates almost every large mammal of southern Africa

The park has a rich array of southern African wildlife including the Big Five, the five most dangerous game animals in Africa. In the Pilanesberg Game Reserve today live most of the animal species of southern Africa these include lions, elephants, black & white rhinoceros, African buffaloes, leopards, zebras, hyenas, giraffes, hippos and crocodiles. The Painted Hunting Dog, Lycaon pictus had been extirpated from the park, but reintroduction efforts have been carried out recently, with uncertain outcome. Over 360 bird species were counted. The Pilanesberg is not in a location which the Big Five animals would naturally inhabit, however they have been brought into the 550 square kilometres of African bushland.

As of December 2006 the total count of animals was approximately 6,000 including:

    35 Lions
    12 Cheetahs
    167 Elephants
    Black Rhinoceros
    White Rhinoceros
    8 Sable Antelopes
    150 African buffaloes

Other cats can be found, such as Caracal and Leopard.

The only indigenous southern African mammals that are not there are - bontebok, blesbuck, spotted hyena, nyala and Roan Antelope.

The Bird life diversity is excellent with over 360 species having been recorded. Though some are migrants, most others are permanent inhabitants. Their food sources vary with some eating carrion or live prey, others eat seeds, fruit or tiny water organisms.

There is a self-guided trail in the Walking Area at the Manyane Complex in the east, which offers environmental education whilst game viewing and bird watching on foot. Also at Manyane there is a walk-in aviary with over 80 species of indigenous birds.

Accommodation : I stayed in a 2 person Chalet, which had a king sized bed, lounge and bathroom en suite. They had a communal pool right outside my door and an outside shower, for those hot nights The Chalet is surrounded by fencing but the animals can be less than 50feet away. I was lazing by the pool and an Elephant strolled up to the fence and then continued to walk to the watering hole. Must have been 30 feet away approx. For 1 night it cost me around R1300 pp sharing. Which works out to around £73pp or $120pp. This included 2 game drives, accommodation, 3 meals a day. It is 4 star accommodation.

Outside with pool



Inside facing the bed and bathroom



Inside looking into the lounge



Outside shower



Bathroom



I will say the quality of your stay will depend on what you see and getting a competent guide. We had a very interesting guy who took us out, he told us all sorts of fun facts about the animals, why they did certain things and he was willing to take a risk here and there. Like navigating through a deep bit of water to get us closer to the animals and on another trail. On the night out we stopped off at a watering hole and he proceeded to tell us all the star constellations and their origins (was a hobby of his).


Now for the animals. Apologies for the shoddy camera, all taken on an iPhone.

Elephant at the watering hole.








Giraffe




Wild Dogs beside the Bakkie












Rhino












Impala



African Sunset

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Wow Chakan, very nice. Like I've said there is nothing quite like Africa. The huge skies and some of the evocative wildlife; giraffe, zebra and ostrich are so unique in that landscape.

I'd never even heard of Pilanesberg, so thanks for the info. From the outside I thought everything revolved around Kruger and the private parks surrounding it.

Lovely photos, mate. How close you were to those rhino!


I loved this film growing up - Duke Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Red Buttons, Elsa Marttinelli, tearing it up on the plains of Tanganyika as it was then, catching animals, getting drunk, surly Frenchman, Directed by Howard Hawks and a score by Henry Mancini. What's not to love? I totally bought into the romance of Africa from a young age.

I'd love to know more, so I'm looking forward to your accommodation photos. £76pp sounds very reasonable indeed.

[Chakan]

The main park in Africa is definitely Kruger just because it's HUGE! It's also the most diverse. Pilanesberg though is fast becoming a real competition mainly because it's about a 2 and half hour drive from Johannesburg, while the Kruger is about 5/6 hours. Plus accommodation is pretty cheap and the level of service is fantastic. Added bonus is that it's a 10 minute drive from Sun City.

The Rhino were about 10-20m away i'd say. Close enough to get good shots but far enough way to start the car and backup if needed. Those pics are from the iPhone with no zoom on it so pretty close. Usually if you don't bother them they won't bother you. We saw them pulled up and the guide turned off the vehicle and we just watched.

I'll post the accommodation pics when I get home, they are on my other phone.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

The main park in Africa is definitely Kruger just because it's HUGE! It's also the most diverse. Pilanesberg though is fast becoming a real competition mainly because it's about a 2 and half hour drive from Johannesburg, while the Kruger is about 5/6 hours. Plus accommodation is pretty cheap and the level of service is fantastic. Added bonus is that it's a 10 minute drive from Sun City.

The Rhino were about 10-20m away i'd say. Close enough to get good shots but far enough way to start the car and backup if needed. Those pics are from the iPhone with no zoom on it so pretty close. Usually if you don't bother them they won't bother you. We saw them pulled up and the guide turned off the vehicle and we just watched.

Who provides the guide? Is it the lodge or the Wildlife Department? In SL there has to be a tracker from the Wildlife Department for each party, which has the benefit of keeping the numbers down. This means if you bring your own vehicle you get to do the driving! It's quite exhausting knowing exactly where each wheel is and what it's doing.

I'll post the accommodation pics when I get home, they are on my other phone.

Nice one

[Chakan]

Who provides the guide? Is it the lodge or the Wildlife Department? In SL there has to be a tracker from the Wildlife Department for each party, which has the benefit of keeping the numbers down. This means if you bring your own vehicle you get to do the driving! It's quite exhausting knowing exactly where each wheel is and what it's doing.

Far as I know the Lodge itself provides the guide. There are rangers who patrol the area for the Wildlife department, for poachers and whatnot. But I do remember the Black Rhino Lodge having their own guides and vehicles.

I think it's the same for the Kruger park, whatever lodge you are staying at they provide the vehicle to go out. Although you can drive your own car in teh Kruger. I don't know if you can drive in the Pilanesberg by yourself. I'll have to look at that up.

Edit: You can self drive in Pilanesberg, park fees will have to be paid, like any other National Park.

[Chakan]

Updated with accommodation photos.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Thanks Chakan, that looks great. South Africa safaris are definitely is on my to do list. Far more reasonable prices than Kenya/Tanzania. Excellent mate, cheers for sharing all that.

[Abraham]

Some amazing wildlife above! I spent about a month in Dal Lake, Shrinigar, Kashmir in India, back in 2009. I didn't get much in the way of wildlife. But as a natural place, with whole communities still living and travelling around on boats, it was truley beautiful.

I kind of winged it, in as much as I flew in from Delhi, stayed one night in a hotel in Shrinigar and just asked about for people renting out houseboats. The next day I found a beautiful one and rented it for a month for about USD120. The people living on the lake mostly depended on tourism and were as welcoming as I've found anywhere in the world. I was invited into many a home/boat for dinner. I had a boatman who would drop by each morning and arrange 'water taxi's' if I needed them for any time during that day. Equally you could have food/fresh flowers etc from the market delivered to your boat every morning. I found it a very hard place to leave.

[Chakan]

Nice Abraham.

Btw the "Unknown Bird" in the pic is an Indian Myna.

[Abraham]

Nice Abraham.

Btw the "Unknown Bird" in the pic is an Indian Myna.

Cheers Chakan, you know there were days when I thought it was talking to me 

[Chakan]

Cheers Chakan, you know there were days when I thought it was talking to me 

They're annoying as hell those birds. Very very common and make a huge noise.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Cheers Chakan, you know there were days when I thought it was talking to me 

They're well known for it.

Glorious sunset, Abe.

[Abraham]

They're well known for it.

Glorious sunset, Abe.

Thanks!

[Christmas cabbage cocktails]

The highlight of the trip for me (though I know someone else would say the possible bear spotting). This is a young male leopard (squarish head) and it just watched us (loads of jeeps) fussing about him. We literally drove right under him. He's waiting for dusk to fall around 18:30 before going out to hunt.


[/font]

Wow great pic that

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

I'm going to put up a little write up about Richmond Park, London to prove that this thread isn't just about the glamorous natural spaces in the world. But, before I do, here's a few more shots from my last trip to Yala.

A Grey, or as I prefer, Hanuman Langur, Semnopithecus priam thersites, named after that Hindu monkey headed god mentioned in the Sanskrit epic poem Ramayana. Hanuman and his army of monkeys built a causeway between India and Sri Lanka to rescue Sita who had been abducted by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka.


The shadow thrown by the rising sun of our jeep. We're sat tight listening to the alarm calls of deer.


Axis axis ceylonensis, Axis deer, the chital that the late great Jim Corbett refers to in his fabulous writing, drinking at a very diminished waterhole.


Axis deer stag




A female, Malabar pied hornbill, Anthracoceros coronatus



A Black headed Ibis, Threskiornis melanocephalus, on take off from paddy fields. Outside the park but should give you an dea of what the country looks like when the water resources are managed. Inside Yala they have to let nature takes it's course.

Wow great pic that

Cheers mate. Post your own.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Location: Richmond Park, SW London

Visited: September 30th 2014

History: Richmond Park is a park, a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation in south-west London. The largest of London's Royal Parks, it is included, at Grade I, on English Heritage's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England. It was created by Charles I in 1634 as a deer park and now has 730 red and fallow deer.



I mentioned that I can hear the Red Deer stags rutting, so I popped down to get some pics. As I didn't want Londoners to read "Idiot gored in Richmond Park" tomorrow, I let his one get used to me first.





The bloody thing kept following me when I tried to loop round and get in front of it, so by the time I got a shot looking down it's throat, there were buildings in the background. Oh well. It was a beautiful, warm summer's day today, but I'll be back when it'll be cold enough to see their breath. Hopefully it'll snow too in the new year.




Treated to a low fly past by some Canada Geese which was nice.

[leivapool]

The bloody thing kept following me when I tried to loop round and get in front of it, so by the time I got a shot looking down it's throat, there were buildings in the background. Oh well. It was a beautiful, warm summer's day today, but I'll be back when it'll be cold enough to see their breath. Hopefully it'll snow too in the new year.

I actually love the juxtaposition of the wildlife with the tower blocks behind

[Abraham]

I actually love the juxtaposition of the wildlife with the tower blocks behind

Same here. Brilliant.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

I actually love the juxtaposition of the wildlife with the tower blocks behind

Same here. Brilliant.

Thanks. Shows how much I know Wildlife observer first. Pointing lenses at the things, a distant second.

[Komic]

Just been away to the Bavarian Alps,

A narrow gorge called Partnachklamm, it was raining so mini waterfalls formed into the gorge.



An Alpine lake, Koenigsee



A nice picture that shows how it goes from flat to mountains quite quickly

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Just been away to the Bavarian Alps,

A narrow gorge called Partnachklamm, it was raining so mini waterfalls formed into the gorge.

That looks very special, Komic. Flowers have an obvious beauty, but there's something to be said for moss and fern covered rocks. Are you white water rafting in the first pic?

[Geppvindh's]

Bookmarking this. I'm going to write about Ladakh later this evening. Watch this space

[Komic]

That looks very special, Komic. Flowers have an obvious beauty, but there's something to be said for moss and fern covered rocks. Are you white water rafting in the first pic?

Thank you, no I wasn't there is a footpath carved into the cliff face its about 1km long. In the winter the waterfalls freeze which sounds spectacular. I agree with the beauty of moss and rocks, the holiday was designed to look at a lot of beautiful places and I think the gorge was my favourite.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Thank you, no I wasn't there is a footpath carved into the cliff face its about 1km long. In the winter the waterfalls freeze which sounds spectacular. I agree with the beauty of moss and rocks, the holiday was designed to look at a lot of beautiful places and I think the gorge was my favourite.

I think you managed that. Love that gorge.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Bookmarking this. I'm going to write about Ladakh later this evening. Watch this space

Right. Was really looking forward for this before. Could really use it right now Break it up into a few posts if need be mate.

[Abraham]

Apologies to Gerrvindh, but I was waiting for your post, and just thought fuck it, two posts are better than one. But I spent some time in Ladakh also and loved it. There are too many images to post but here are a few of my favourites. These are all taking place in a small village that used to be part of Tibet called Lamayuru. It is a very special place, based around an 11th century monestary that I stayed in, with temperatures of -20 in summer, it kind of has to be. But I feel nothing but gratitude for my time there and the people I met.

[Geppvindh's]

I'm sorry for being late, ZZ and the more the merrier Abraham (those are incredible photos btw.)

Here goes. I visited Ladakh in October 2013 while on holiday in India (Ladakh itself wasn't the holiday, I was visiting family and with a few friends over dinner, we decided we'd just go to Ladakh!). In hindsight that was a rather silly thing to do because so much could have gone wrong and made our entire trip unpleasant. The nature of the place demands advanced planning, and I mean 3-6 months in advance.

Location: Ladakh, J&K - comprising Leh town, Lamayuru, Hemis, Thiksey, Nubra Valley, Tso Pangong and Tso Moriri.

History: I am blissfully unaware of what went on in the region pre-partition but I know that Ladakh was and is still a bone of contention between the Indian, Pakistani and Chinese governments. Pakistan itself invaded Ladakh and occupied a large part of the Zanskar and Kargil regions, which led to what we now famously know as the Kargil War. India won the war and have recovered most of the land. China on the north-eastern side of the district have occupied some portions too.

Topology: Ladakh is a weirdly beautiful place. I am no geologist but this was something else. Most of the mountains to me resembled the surface of the moon as shown to me by cartoons, magazines and pictures on the internet. You have to be there to believe it. Sample this:






The beauty of it all is that Ladakh is a desert in essence. At about 4,000m above sea level.

Leh:
Leh is a tiny city with a very vibrant culture. It is inclusive, highly hospitable and very very beautiful in itself. It serves as the base for any traveler to Ladakh, cell phone towers find their last point of reception here, taxis/buses/vans to take you around Ladakh itself can be hired here. The food is sensational too.

Getting there:
The airport in Leh is operated by the army and is a base. So private/commuter airlines can fly/out in only before noon. Our flight from Delhi was delayed by an hour which meant it had to be cancelled. So prepare to be frustrated. In Leh, you would want to hire a taxi/cab for the rest of your service. These are generally SUVs, built for the rough roads (or the lack of them). Your ascent to Leh would be around 4000m and the oxygen here is well short of what you are used to. You would be asked to be in the confines of your room and relax for the first couple of days. We felt our hearts pounding heavily on our flight up 3 sets of stairs to our hotel rooms.

Our itinerary was itself for 10 days and covered a large part of Ladakh. Following are some of the highlights.

Monasteries:
Ladakh has a thriving Buddhist culture and numerous monasteries which are the embodiment of calm. You have to hear the silence to really understand what goes in there. I spent a lot of time in these monasteries and never wanted to come back. Major monasteries in Ladakh - Lamayuru, Thiksey, Hemis, Spiti, Lahul, Shanti Stupa off the top of my head.







This is such a rad setting:





Water Bodies:
Ladakh has numerous lakes, some virtually untouched by civilization and many in the process of being ruined by boisterous tourists. Pangong is the most famous lake, a throbbing tourist destination largely thanks to the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, who shot their climax sequence here.

Here's Pangong:





But the lake that most captured my imagination was the Moriri. This is a rather obscure lake that nobody really visits because 1) Pangong is where everyone goes and 2) it's 250km from Leh, which might sound reasonable on normal road conditions but the final 50km stretch to reach this lake was off the road. This is nearly in Tibet, and apparently around 70% of the lake is in Tibet. It's become a landlocked lake over the years, which has rendered the water saline.

The major beauty of this place that absolutely made me fall in love with it was the bareness, the remoteness of the whole thing. We were to be put up in the tiniest of villages you could imagine called Korzok, which had one lodge, with no electricity or running water. It had one thatched breakfast joint, where a liter of milk was Rs. 50 (it's 20 in mainland India in comparison). The nighttime temperature was approaching -10c and there was no heat. We slept huddled in one bed in our winter wear, I kid you not

I'll let the pictures speak to you with no further ado.

30 km from Moriri, we saw this and thought we reached the place. Turns out it was just a pond! If this was only a pond...





This is one of my favourite pictures. The falling clouds, clear skies and the shadow of our lonely car.



We thought we'd take a walk out after dinner to this sight. Talk about a lack of pollution. Never seen a clearer sky in my lifetime. I wanted to die then and there!



And finally the lake. It felt like we had completed an expedition to the Arctic circle, a climb up Everest. This was our little expedition, and to this day I am unable to articulate it well



That's all of us



It's an incredible place not just for its beauty but the sheer closeness to what I believe is God. It's got it all- beauty, peace, love, and an immensely hospitable local populace. I am agnostic but I truly wanted to believe.


Apologies for the typos. If you would like to organize a trip to Ladakh feel free to PM me [/size]

[Abraham]

Cheers Gerrvindh. Your post brought back some beautiful memories. Many thanks

[CheshireDave]

Some really excellent photos in this thread. Really like the one of the young male leopard. I wish when I was in Sri Lanka I would have had chance to see a few of the places and animals, ZZ posted. Did not have time though due to constantly moving around. I did however visit an Elephant sanctuary there. A sanctuary it definitely was not. Going to travel around Malaysia for a bit in April and looking for recommendations of must see areas of natural beauty. 

That said you don’t need to travel half way around the world to see natural beauty. Fortunately in the UK we have an abundance of stunning areas. I love getting up early on a Sunday morning when it’s a bit frosty and going on a walk often to clear my head of sins from the evening before... I am so glad the fact that from my house I can walk for 10 or so minutes into the countryside and often just bump into 1 or 2 dog walkers for an hour or so. There is this one place quite high up and it is really quiet and it is really nice of a morning.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

But I spent some time in Ladakh also and loved it. There are too many images to post but here are a few of my favourites. These are all taking place in a small village that used to be part of Tibet called Lamayuru. It is a very special place, based around an 11th century monestary that I stayed in, with temperatures of -20 in summer, it kind of has to be. But I feel nothing but gratitude for my time there and the people I met.

Monasteries:
Ladakh has a thriving Buddhist culture and numerous monasteries which are the embodiment of calm. You have to hear the silence to really understand what goes in there. I spent a lot of time in these monasteries and never wanted to come back. Major monasteries in Ladakh - Lamayuru, Thiksey, Hemis, Spiti, Lahul, Shanti Stupa off the top of my head.

Thank you both gentlemen (if you are gentlemen, difficult to know for sure). Ladakh looks a truly breathtaking place. You get some feel for the place from your evocative write-up Gerrvindh. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.

We thought we'd take a walk out after dinner to this sight. Talk about a lack of pollution. Never seen a clearer sky in my lifetime. I wanted to die then and there!



It's an incredible place not just for its beauty but the sheer closeness to what I believe is God. It's got it all- beauty, peace, love, and an immensely hospitable local populace. I am agnostic but I truly wanted to believe.

These thoughts strike a chord, G. There's something very spiritual about leaving our modern world behind and getting back to the wild spaces of the planet. You look at the sky and for the first time see the stars, the universe just as our ancestors once did. And our thoughts begin to run in a similar direction. I'm a secular Buddhist but if I did choose a religion it'd be to worship The Great White Spirit of the Native Americans; basically nature in all her awe-inspiring splendour.


"Grandfather, Great Mysterious One. You have been Always. And before You, nothing has been. There is nothing to pray to but You" - Black Elk.

[At the Xmas works do asking someone to give them one]

Some really excellent photos in this thread. Really like the one of the young male leopard. I wish when I was in Sri Lanka I would have had chance to see a few of the places and animals, ZZ posted. Did not have time though due to constantly moving around.

Yala is great and very close to Hambantota if you ever want to mix cricket and wildlife.

I did however visit an Elephant sanctuary there. A sanctuary it definitely was not.

Do you mean Pinnawela? Not for me either. You must remember a) Sri Lanka has been domesticating elephants for thousands of years b) Those elephants are destined for a lifetime of compliance to humans. The mahouts methods may seem harsh to our eyes and ears, but if they don't keep the upper hand with such a bright and powerful animal, they can have the life crushed out of them in seconds.



Sri Lanka's relationship with elephants is almost spiritual, not least because the Buddha's tooth relic, is carried through the streets of Kandy during the Esala Perhera on the back of one. It's nice to observe, even now, that if people see a working or temple elephant wandering by, everyone will stop to watch it. I used to take a slightly longer commute when I lived in Colombo just so I could see an elephant on the way to work.

If you want to see Sri Lanka's efforts of re-introducing elephants to the wild (which is second to none, btw), you need to go to the Elephant Transit Home that adjoins Uda Walawe National Park (I'll do a write up at a later date).

That said you don’t need to travel half way around the world to see natural beauty. Fortunately in the UK we have an abundance of stunning areas. I love getting up early on a Sunday morning when it’s a bit frosty and going on a walk often to clear my head of sins from the evening before... I am so glad the fact that from my house I can walk for 10 or so minutes into the countryside and often just bump into 1 or 2 dog walkers for an hour or so. There is this one place quite high up and it is really quiet and it is really nice of a morning.

Absolutely agree, Dave. Look forward to you posting up some pics and telling us all about it

[CheshireDave]

Do you mean Pinnawela? Not for me either. You must remember a) Sri Lanka has been domesticating elephants for thousands of years b) Those elephants are destined for a lifetime of compliance to humans. The mahouts methods may seem harsh to our eyes and ears, but if they don't keep the upper hand with such a bright and powerful animal, they can have the life crushed out of them in seconds.

No, not Pinnawela. The place where I went was fairly close to Sigiriya and Dambulla. It was a small place by the side of the road which this Sri Lankan lad I was travelling about with knew about. We did not go there just for this. It was on the way to somewhere else and decided to check it out. I don’t know, when you hear Elephant Sanctuary and Elephant Orphanage you conjure up an image in your head and it was nothing like what I had envisaged. Don’t get me wrong mate, I am not saying the elephant was particularly mistreated or hungry (God knows I gave it about 30 bananas!) but it did have a whiff of exploitation about the whole set up. The elephant’s handler (?) was hitting it with a thin stick pretty hard although the elephant did not seem to mind and it probably doesn’t even hurt an animal of that size! And I think the walk around bit with the elephant would have been a bit different and involved a lake or something but it had not rained in that region for months! Not criticizing them, I will just do more research next time.

I did laugh though when I first got on the back of the elephant the guy there said “The elephant said he is hungry, buy him some banana?” and I said “He told you that did he?!” and he just said “Yeah” hahaha

I'd have bloody loved to see those one of those parades in Kandy. I think there was a big one going on just before or just after we'd left. Shame, because the pictures I have seen looked amazing.

[CheshireDave]

Absolutely agree, Dave. Look forward to you posting up some pics and telling us all about it

Will do mate. I do take some pictures and send them to a friend who lives bang in the middle of Sao Paulo. She'd give anything to be able to walk out of the town and be straight into countryside and away from traffic, pollution and the craziness of a city. Keep telling her to just move to the rain forest...