Staying at Sathyamangalam Guesthouse

Following Kodiveri Dam, we halt at Sathyamangal for the night stay. My cousin had booked at the Sathyamangalam guest house for us and it lies on the bank of Bhavani River. It was over 6 pm when we reached the guesthouse and the staffs were awaiting for us, and they took care of our need well. Actually there isn’t a need for them, because things were fine on their own and the couple of rooms were spacious with one air conditioned. I was surprised to see a ramp facility at the entrance of the house, which claims 5 steps.

I really enjoyed staying at this guesthouse, though it is a very old house and tiled roof, the interiors are renovated for moderate suite and its natural environment of river and trees around turned to be my favourite. When we arrived, found number of birds (mostly herons) perching on and off the branches of the trees while making the river its hunting pool, there was noise of birds amid the silence. At morning I got to listening different sound of birds and clear picture of things around.

Orange lily, showing stamens with pollen-covered anthers shot at the courtyard of the guesthouse.

The night spent comfort and cool under the AC and the weather wasn’t bad like the day time and it’s less hot because of the wind. But we experienced abundance mosquitoes outside the room and though they come and sit large on our skin doesn’t bite surprisingly! But one or two does. The dinner and breakfast was bought from the restaurant nearby and I really liked the ven pongal and idly as morning tiffin.  Once finished the morning activities I was out with my camera to take photos around.

The guesthouse is built facing the river and there’s a separate stair (but locked by gate) to get down to the river and I really liked the architecture of this house with wide portico and corridors on both sides. The courtyard is simply beautiful with flower pots, plants and trees giving a nice green environment to the house. The guesthouse belong to the highways was maintained well and their provision of ramp proves their concern for unable people and the couple of staffs were friendly and shareable.

From the guesthouse we could see the activities on the bridge across the river that connects Mysore road. And beyond that a steeple rose between the trees. The water flow in the Bhavani River is very less and this’s the water that overflows as waterfalls in Kodiveri dam. We moved out of the guesthouse after the breakfast and drove towards Athikadavu on the foothills of Nilgiris. 

Hideout

After checking Lovedale railway station, near Ooty, on the 3^rd day of our travel to Nilgiris we encountered a Bison while looking for a place to have lunch. Driving further on the isolated Lovedale road adjoining the backyard of the Lawrence School we come to halt on the roadside to have lunch, but we unnoticed there was a Bison (Indian Gaur) standing at a height of about 15 foot vertically from where we stood.

We almost decided to get down but heard the rustle sound in the bushes above and it was a bison grazing and hiding among the bushes. Though it isn’t a huge one and standing on the edge of the vertically down, it’s impossible for it to climb down or leap off but parents were not willing to stop there so we move on to another spot. Before doing so, tried to capture the Indian gaur hiding in the bushes and what you see here were visible then.

The Indian Bison or Indian Gaur is a strong and massively built species, the largest extant bovine, native to South Asia. Gaurs are black in color while females are brown, but both the hide of male and female Gaurs is white below the knee of each leg. I have seen Indian gaurs in the mountains of Kodaikanal and Valparai, but it continues to excite seeing in wild.  

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Amusement park’s gate and gateway

The yellow gate and the wall is a cropped version of the photo I shot on the façade of the first amusement park of Chennai, VGP Golden Beach and Universal Kingdom. There you could see someone taking photo on the gate or selfie, but I don’t have logic for him to take selfie with road behind him from where I shot this, from the slowly moving car.

Past the main entrance I got to shoot a blue gateway, belong to the same amusement park with parking lot inside. I had no idea about the gateway until Google down to know it’s a gateway to the Snow Kingdom, a part of the Universal kingdom, a family amusement park. Actually I decided to shoot this gateway for its beautiful architecture and coated in blue and white. The fence along also has a nice wave design.

Apt to the name of the amusement park (Universal Kingdom) the entrance has a wonderful look of a realm which I will post on some other time. 

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Shy Moon (and The final shot with camera)

வெட்கத்தில் நிலா!

நீல திரை பின்னால்

மறைக்கிறாள் தன் முழு அழகை

Moon in shy!

behind the blue screen

hides her full charm

P.s. The moon was captured during my visit to nilgiris (ooty) on the third day of my travel and this was the last picture I shot with my digital camera (P&S) before it slip down and lens hit the floor. Actually it was my dad who dropped the camera accidentally when tried to capture the sky on my insistence. He was standing on the balcony of our room and focusing on the sky when the camera slipped off, but glad he didn’t put hands outside the baloney  nor the camera could have smashed falling off from 25-30 feet height. Only the next day I have planned to visit a place I wanted to do for some long time and I was quite upset because of that, but I was also worried my camera and I was in doubt could I get back the camera with its original setting.

I have lost my early camera with the same problem, but it wasn’t because of fallen down alike but my uncle’s kid pressed the lens when it popped out. I didn’t lose my photos as it was safe in memory card and the camera opens to say only “lens error, reset the camera”. I didn’t want to give up so just tried with the in charge of the homestay and they called someone and he said to come next morning and repair the camera. But he didn’t turn up until 10.am and when enquire he told that he don’t know to fix Canon cameras and as a last chance I decided to look for a camera service in Ooty. We searched for an hour and dad climbed two shops and one was Sony, but they aren’t read to open a Canon camera. I don’t want to waste time and went ahead taking photos with mobile the remaining days. Glad my brother came up with his 13mp Xiaomi mobile and other than attending calls, it was in my hand most of the time.

The good news was the camera is back with me in its original settings. Back home I gave the camera at the Canon service centre and I was holding it back in less than two days’ time and they charged minimum (INR. 550) only. I was really tensed what the result going to be but they only put a smile. 

Kodiveri Dam and Waterfalls

I always prefer for leisure travel but we can’t anticipate it to be same when covering a long distance within a timeline. Either Ooty or Kodaikanal, it takes almost a day to reach with the destinations more than 500 kms we can’t spare much time on places en route, so I always look for a chance to stay close to the destination or less than half-a-way away experiencing the places I want.

My last month’s travel to Nilgiris happened to be one and we didn’t drove to Ooty directly but rather decided to stay at Sathyamangalam which got me chance to check couple of places that’s close to the destination. We had our lunch somewhere between Salem and Bhavani while going from Chennai and the weather was too hot and before we head to Kodiveri, halted on way for about an hour to have a cup of tea at my dad’s friend house in Kavindapadi.

Kodiveri is about 16 km from Gobichettipalayam on the way to Sathyamangalam, which is about 14 km away from Kodiveri... a popular tourist part of this region, in Erode district. An arch on SH 15 (state highway) welcomes us to Kodiveri dam and in about 2km we reached the parking lot and the weather was continued to be hot. Though it was about 5.pm the sun doesn’t show mercy but it wasn’t matter when got close to water…

I was unsure about the water flow at the dam come falls, as our entire state is facing drought, I was so glad to see enough water at the dam leading great flow in the waterfalls. A minimum amount is collected as fee to enter the dam area but I couldn’t get really close to the water because of the unfinished pathway that make its way through small park area. I was content with the views on the waterfalls from either above or the pathway.

Kodiveri is a kind of check dam built across the Bhavani River and the downstream of the dam forms the waterfalls. The name “Kodiveri” is originated from the Tamil word meaning Tiger, which represents the large number of tigers lived in the forest area around the Dam. Not to forget the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve isn’t far away. The falls being not heavy, people are allowed to bath and swim in the pool of water as well as the falls, and reaching is also not difficult.

Picture shot from few meters above the dam... and you could see the upcoming bridge to connect both banks of river

Entering of Kodiveri dam can be done from both sides of the Bhavani River, but the main entrance lies on the south through which we entered and to reach the other side there’s a separate route from Sathyamangalam. Right now an over bridge is under construction to connect the north and south side of the dam… but people also walk above the check dam on their own risk.  Similar to Hogenakkal, coracle ride is also available at the dam for fun and transport.

Coming to the important aspect of them dam was it was built 865 years ago! Constructed by the Kongalvan in the year 1125 AD, the dam was consisted of carving a 20-ft wall of rock. The stones were then interlocked with iron bars and lead in place of mortar.  There’s also two channels arise from the dam (Arakkan Kottai and Thadapalli channels) respectively, turning the land of Gobichettipalayam fertile due to the flow of channels.

The southern  side Arakkan Kottai Channel

Bhavani River seems to have different ups and downs and to meet the need of the farmers surrounding and to manage the water crises the dam was decided to build. Since then, the irrigation level increased in the surrounding area and the dam provides water for over 25000 hectares of land.

We spent about an hour at the dam site watching the waterfalls and the setting sun truly created an impact across the falls and I was delight to shoot utilizing the shimmering light effect. Glad they have laid some pathway at least to take photos from certain point of views… being Monday, the crowd was less at the dam site and mostly men were showing and swimming at falls and dam.

Kodivere is at a distance of 75-80km from Coimbatore and and it is well connected by road from any nearby towns and cities

Poor state of city goats

During my evening walk in neighbourhood last weekend, I come across some goats grazing around the garbage bins, few houses away from the pretty one you saw in my previous post. This is not the first time seeing them feeding on the waste matters thrown out as useless, this is a regular sight at this neighbourhood area, with a road lead to the corporation  school and a temple and another goes around a posh area. But this scene hasn’t changed for long.

I know these are goats reared by some people of the resident area on the road ahead and the goats were left always on the road and some time they come to our street in search of food and I have seen them standing on their rear legs munching on the leaves and branched hanging outside the compounds. I really feel bad for their state of living and I have no idea about their rearing in a city.  If they can’t feed them properly its better give up and they live well somewhere.

They not only feed on garbage but also wander on streets put risk on riders as well the goats. Goats need space or at least a shed to live together and taken care by the owner, but they well survive in villages than cities. (All were captured in mobile)

He posed to me but as i move closer he keeps away

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A pretty house in neighbourhood

Like I said in my previous post, I went for a long walking at the neighbourhood on Sunday evening and clicked some photos on the way.  And the house in the images wasn’t far from our home and I have passed this house much time but it haven't captured my attention alike now.

The house looked pretty new, perhaps it was freshly coated, but actually it was the blooming tree in front of the house wants me to capture. I liked the architecture of the house with open balcony and rails around, and a hanging rail making way for vines to climb over. The most attentive was of course the red brick wall and a wooden gate painted in grey.

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Pulimurugan

Watched this excellent action adventure movie in Malayalam that includes Tigers! The title itself inspired me to watch the movie that was released in mid-2016 and being an ardent of forest, nature and mountains I couldn’t miss the movie that shot at the lap of forest. Mohanlal is portrayed as Puli Murugan (Tiger Murugan) and he acted as a trained hunter killing the man eating tigers that invade his village. But the movie isn’t all about Tigers; he also fought against dangerous humans who forced him to move out of forest.

Murugan lives in a small village, inside the forest called Puliyoor and he lost his mother in childhood after his brother was born and later his father in a tiger attack took him for vengeance, where he traps the tiger with the help of his uncle and kill it. The Murugan grows into Puli Murugan, now a lorry driver, married and has a daughter, but he hunt rogue tigers whenever they invade the village.

Meanwhile he was forced to escape the forest/village for killing a tiger, and getting a job for his brother he smuggles Ganja (marijuana) in his lorry which directed him toward another face of trouble. How the hunter weed out all this using his Vel (a kind of spear, his main weapons) remains the subject.

Mohanlal is an apt fit to the subject and the character, and his physique and face structure led him valiant looking against the predators. But the movie doesn’t exhibit great violence yet knives pierce tigers, its watchable quite as family.  The most impressive thing about the move was its action and stunt sequences.  I think I don’t need to say more about it, because it was such skilful to won the first ever National Award for Stunt Choreography.

Peter Hein has executed the stunt choreography and Mohanlal himself preferred to do all the stunt scenes rather using stunt doubles, which is normally used in films where the heroes stand aside and dupes do the stunts. Mohanlal’s involvement really amazed me and having a considerable size structure he performed so well. The little boy, who done Mohanlal’s childhood role, too capture the attention esp. facing the Tiger without fear.

The tigers involved in the movie were real ones and the scenes fighting with tiger were all shot at Thailand using the tigers from a Buddhist temple there, since filming with wild animals is prohibited in India.  Though the tigers were trained ones, the shooting seemed to conduct according to their moods! So was the team hard worked for the success of the movie. An additional fact about the movie was it was the currently highest-grossing Malayalam film ever done and the film is expected to release in Tamil soon, along with a 3D version.

Pulimurugan has some lovely songs to soothe listening and excellent BGM! Kamalini Mukerjee’s performance as Mohanlal’s wife was fair and Lal bring out the best character and Telugu actor Jagapati Babu, Bala and Vinu Mohan (Puli murugan’s bro) were all done their job neat. And not to forget the cinematography, the capture of natural resource of God owns country was fabulous and the lorry chasing and action scenes were stunning.

Puli murugan – fair and interesting to watch

Fence and flowers

Here’s another beautiful fence and flowers shot from the same evening walk (in wheelchair) at the neighbourhood and this was taken at Besant 4^th avenue road unlike its sibling Blue Cross road (both are popular for local photo-shoot) here. After my Nilgiris trip last month, I haven’t stretched my walking beyond our streets but I’m thinking of catch up this weekend… let see what I get to shoot.

In the above picture, you could see the yellow bell flowers bloomed inside the fence that protects the roadside garden along the 4^th avenue and the pink flowers above the compound are bougainvillea. The following one has red-orange flowers, which I have no idea was shot few meter away along the fence. 

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Looking for shadow

Normally the national highways don’t have much shadow but the road from Ullundurpet to Salem is worst among them, and we fed up looking for a shadow to take a coffee break while going to Nilgiris last month. The entire stretch look deserted and being an extremely hot day we were almost baked! lol

Though after a while on road, we found a small temple adjoining a banyan tree provided some shadow off the road. Like a thirsty throat got some water, the shadow showed us some relief as we took a turn toward the same. The scene was really giving me a nostalgic feel with cows and bull tied around the tree, the munching of grasses and the smell of cow dung brought back to childhood days. The smell of cows munching grasses could be perceived amazingly through my conscious, as I have been through this lot in my growing day by visiting grandparent’s house with a cowshed beside.

Like human, the cattle’s too in need of shadow and the two oxen tied to the banyan tree doesn’t turned until we moved out of the place. So was they busy munching grasses except the one (check last  pic) giving me a side and rear view. lol

The temple seems to be under construct, has a little lily pond adjacent to the temple (with lily buds sticking out of water) and the cows were taken there to drink water. There was a farmer driving the cows around the temple and perhaps it was his land behind the temple and the bulls were belonged to him.  After 15-20 minutes we hit the road again before halt for lunch, again looking for a shadow. 

Oxen beauty 

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Invisible beauty

An invisible beauty
stands on the balcony
against the sea breeze
brushing off her face...
to never let comb hair
coming out of fresh showing.

Looking over the sea
from the beach house
she waits for her boyfriend
who went on voyage
to return to take her along
for a romantic sail across the sea.

Meanwhile at eventide
leaning over the pillar
she strokes her hair, gently
in fond memories of him
where they went hand-in-hand
before he went on-board.  

P.s. Inspired by the picture I shot at Covelong (Kovalam, Chennai recently, on a beach house balcony.

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Sunday Photos: Shimmering

My parent follows the custom of visiting a nearby temple before starting a long journey. Here, every street end or corner has a temple for Lord Ganesh the most and they chose to break coconut and pray at the shrine before we move. At our street there’s a small temple called Sri Valampuri Cithi Vinayagar temple and it has been their starting point for last few years following our shifting to the native area.

It was about 6.30 am when we started our trip to Nilgiris at the beginning of this month and as usual the car stopped in front of the temple and my dad and uncle get down to offer their prayer and right behind us the sun was raising up and the light just falls on the temple and across the sanctum, which inspired me to take the cam and shot at the glowing sight. I zoomed on the sanctum and quite impressed with the sunlight expose over the black sculpture of Lord Ganesh with the gold coated arch behind the idol makes it shimmering.

I have captured this temple few times before with the mobile during the evening walk, but this was a great chance to shoot with the morning sunlight. I am not a morning person and I wake up usually only by 8 am and only during the travel I wake up early or sleepless thinking about the travel, facing the morning sunlight is a delight I cherish until I get to face the same. 

Yellow Daisy-like Flowers

The Euryops daisy is a large perennial bush that bloom all season long or until cold temperatures appear with yellow daisy-like flowers. Euryops is a member of sunflower family, native mostly to rocky sites in southern African, but the photos were captured at Coonoor while detour around the hill station in the Nilgiri.

Euryops pectinatus is a vigorous evergreen shrub that grows up to 5 feet tall and wide, with silvery green, hairy leaves and yellow, daisy-like composite flowers; they bloom from early summer to autumn. The bush grows best in full sun and well drained deep soils, but need moist. The images were shot during evening sunlight. 

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Bid adieu

A farewell of love

or dispatch on a mission
kiss clings to bosom

ps. the haiku  was inspired by the photo i came across in Instagram

Sunday Photos: Palavakkam Beach

I was at the Palavakkam beach in the neighbourhood today evening with my cousin and got to click some photos with mobile. The day was very hot and being Sunday and summer holidays to kids the beach was unusually crowded and I could see people come as groups of families with boys playing beach crickets around.  

I was also greeted by nice blue sky and simple sunset

Fence across Golf Course

The photos were actually focused on the scene behind the fence, the Ooty golf course and fog making way through mountains and trees, but the fence was taller than our car to prevent interruption. The images were captured on the Old Pykara Rd that lead one side of the golf course and I have been on this road earlier and I like the serenity and with tall trees of eucalyptus and pine it always remains cool.

The road is entirely scenic and I find many yellow flowers in this area which has some education institutions and the popular Ooty Gymkhana Golf Club also reside on this road. I heard bison’s (Indian guar) are often spotted here, though I find some people taking walk on the road without any fear as it was evening by then. At the end of the road we explored a beautiful temple little further from the main road, which I will post on later. 

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A brief on my travel to Nilgiris

Kodiveri dam-falls, created by carving 20 foot wall of rock in 1125 AD

One week has passed since I came back from my travel to Nilgiris aka Ooty and its surroundings and it was about 2am when we reached home on Sunday (April 9). Begin on 3^rd April morning; we reached Kodiveri waterfalls by evening traveling about 450 km from Chennai via Salem ‘n’ Bhavani. It was very hot day and as we move close to Salem it turned terrific hot. Even the AC car couldn’t keep heat away completely and only thinking that we delayed the drive back home by wandering on hills until 2pm and leisurely dropped via Mettur ‘n’ Krishnagiri. I know the state has been going through historic drought but I still had hope there should be some water flow at Kodiveri falls come dam. And yes, there’s water more than what I expected and that surprise continued to flow throughout my travel.

The interior of our room

Though there were few disappointments when we tried to venture certain areas that I want to explore but the journey doesn’t went that way rather unexpected routes and doors opened for me. We had a comfort stay at the Nilgiris and just outside the Ooty town, called as Funcity, the area has handful of homestays and resorts but still quite calm always. Half a km inside from the Ooty-Coonoor main road, the couple of rooms we booked for 4 days (for 6 people) had beautiful views from the balcony overlooking the Elk Hill and fields of carrot and greenhouses. The interior of the rooms are very neat and spacious enough for 3 per room and well lit by led lamps. The travel wasn’t hurriedly and we moved around leisurely checking couple of places in Ooty and Coonoor apart a long drive to Upper Bhavani.

The view  from our balcony overlooking  Elk Hill

It was a long-time dream for me to check Upper Bhavani Dam. I have been to the backwater area of the Upper Bhavani (in 2011) traveling through the Avalanche forest and it was a great experience and sheer pleasure to venture the wilderness. Then, we had permission to drive up to Upper Bhavani dam but we turned back halfway as my parents hesitated to go deep into the wild forest. But that time visiting the dam doesn’t need permission to go via Kundha, which we tried this time and went up to forest check post and turned back as we denied entering the dam area due to the restriction  since some antisocial intruded the forest. When we tried to check the Pilloor Dam, while driving up to Ooty on the unusual road, we faced the same and the 3 check post we crossed had the photos on antisocial to mark the seriousness as well as warning.

A post shared by Jeevan Kumar (@jeevan.grp) on Apr 10, 2017 at 10:14am PDT

Tea plantations  and  pristine mountains  behind

By this travel I have covered the western side of the Nilgiris to the most but I still want to go there again sometime because the wealth of nature is abundant there and words could not describe the pristine I admire there. So far I haven’t written about the western catchment of Nilgiris and I believe people who are truly interested will seek information on available, alike me. And it is a great natural source of Tamil Nadu which needs to be preserved seriously and the forest officials are doing their best. Our stay at Sathiyamangalam, before heading to Ooty, was very convenient and guest house was spacious and disable friendly where I could come around the beautiful house in my wheelchair. Located on the bank of Bhavani River and canopy of trees create cool ambiance with birds frequent around.

@ Sathiyamangalam guest house

Look forward for more on my travel... decided to make many posts out of it

Off to Blue Mountain

 

The couple of beautiful views were shot from Doddabetta Peak - the 2nd tallest peak of south india, in Ooty, during my previous visit to Nilgiris aka Blue Mountain, which gonna be my terrain for next one week. 

Wild Fence and Flowers

A post shared by Jeevan Kumar (@jeevan.grp) on Mar 19, 2017 at 8:41am PDT

During an evening walk in my wheelchair at the neighbourhood and across the Blue Cross road in Adyar (adjoining Besant nagar) I capture this piece of fence that I find it to be wild. The entire road has been fenced one side that belongs to former Besant school (now The school KFI) and was covered by canopy of trees. Sadly many trees fallen on this road in recent cyclone Vardha, but still the road continues to hold charm by greenery and shadows. I also found some little flowers bloomed pretty in pink covers some area of the fences… and I do think this is some kind of wild flowers thrive on its own. 

A post shared by Jeevan Kumar (@jeevan.grp) on Mar 8, 2017 at 11:28pm PST

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