Photo of the Week (03/05/2012): Wilpattu Villu

An elephant feeds in a villu in Wilpattu, for me a timeless image of what once was and can be if we do everything we can to protect our natural heritage for future generations.


IMG_6588

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Memorable Ocean Experiences of 2011: No. 01 � Swimming with a Flatworm

Image
It�s 2012 and I�m looking back on a 100 dives in 2011 and 200 since I started diving way back in 2009. Since this was my first full year of diving with somewhat reasonable dive skills and a camera, I figured I would put down some of the most memorable dives/events that I have had the privilege of experiencing during the season. Of course a lot has happened so expect a multi-part post with the events in no particular order of significance. I will start of with a characteristically geeky event, my brief if surprising swim with Thysanozoon nigropapillosum which rather less jawbreakingly is known as a Polyclad flatworm. Usually you see these vivid black and yellow flatworms innocuously sitting on the rocks on shallow reefs such as Palagalla so I have come to associate them with brown, murky water and silty dive sites. I did see one launch itself for a brief swim, undulating gracefully through the water so I knew that they were quite mobile as well. Thysanozoon nigropapillosum sitting pret
Read more

Hemkund Sahib Revisited

Image
The Journey begins at Govindghat which is a 9-10 hour bus ride from Rishikesh. There are many ways to do it, by  taxi (expensive), shared taxi, small bus; and  one can break the journey or do it at one go.  I  spent the night at Srinagar and so had a shorter journey to Govindghat the next day., here I spent the night so that I could start my walk early next morning. I have been to this region before and both times have combined a pilgrimage to  Hemkund Sahib with hikes to the Valley of Flowers.  My blog to the Valley of Flowers this year is placed  here .  For a blog of my previous hikes please see  Valley of Flowers and Hemkund -a Trek to Paradise  ;  the photographs I took are at  Valley of Flowers   , and at  The Flora Around Hemkund .   From Govindghat to Ghangariya is a journey that is now made easier by riding in a  shared taxi for 4.8 km until Pulna and walking 10 km from there to Ghangariya, which is to be my home for the next four nights. The walk is along an easy, well paved
Read more

The 1st Morning (Yala for 31st - Part 2)

Image
The first morning was a tough one to wake up to, my ears still ringing with the whines of the dive bombing mosquitoes and feeling a bit weak from losing a couple of pints of blood to the beasts. Shaking the grogginess off, Nalin and I headed back into the park, picking up Dhammika and Nana along the way for good measure. There were a lot less tourists this morning than on the penultimate day of 2009 and it looked like it was going to be a quieter morning in the park as we started on our search for wildlife, with a perky mongoose starting the day's tally. Ruddy Mongoose There is often a fine line between luck and instinct when it comes to trackers successfully spotting leopard and our first sighting of the day might have bordered on the former. While it was Nana who suggested the Gonnagala para as an initial route, it was Dhammika, fortuitously looking left and behind him, who made the spot. And what a spot it was, a massive male leopard stalking through the lush green undergrowt
Read more