Off beaten track

�We all have forests on our minds. Forests unexplored, unending. Each one of us gets lost in the forest, every night, alone.�  ?  Ursula K. Le Guin ,  The Wind's Twelve Quarters Alas, it is difficult to get lost in a forest in India, there are few unexplored forests left and it is difficult to be alone. However the Satpura Tiger Reserve is one such forest where the crowds are less and the resorts are sensibly made to merge into ambient nature. Our welcome by a leopard by the side of the road as we drove in at night was a wonderful precursor of the two days ahead.  The haughty animal, disdainfully looked at us and slowly walked away into the jungle.  Here is where we let go of  our  daily electronic cocoons and freed ourselves to the joys of  simply being at one with nature. The bridge and a hut at Reni Pani Resort... ...is a perfect example of being one with nature. Local material is used on the outside  to give a natural ambience to the...

"life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's learning to dance in the rain."  Amboli is a deluge in June, (it rains an average of seven metres per year) and coupled with lush forests, it is the ideal environment for a host of insects, amphibians and snakes. All celebrating the monsoon in their own way, quite literally singing, dancing, mating and eating in the rain. About an hour from Sawantwadi station on the Goa/Maharashtra border, probably the resort is protected by its inaccessibility as one can only get up by road.  Room with a view We stayed at Mrugaya, a small but very comfortable homestay run by Parag Rangnekar.  It has three rooms, very neat and clean, with a large verandah and sit out. The Parag is also a very talented nature guide with prodigious knowledge of the local flora, fauna and trails.  His patience and pleasant demeanour add to the experience. Eat at the many restaurants in the town, if you are non-veg the fish thali is particularly delec...

Beacon to nature lovers and trekkers far and wide. Located just off the National Highway Mumbai-Goa, the central basalt rock pillar of Karnala Fort, often referred to as 'Pandu's Tower', is visible from great distances. I saw it close while up in the air flying by in a helicopter, picture here. It was then I decided to climb the fort. An encouraging 'Thumbs Up'  Generally built on two levels, the landmark pillar is at the higher level of the fort which is at a strategic location guarding the Bor Pass.  It has changed hands many times and Marathas, Portuguese and the British have all in turn held this important fort. Today it is far more peaceful, beckoning birders, walkers and picknickers from afar.  There are two distinct aspects to Karnala, a climb to the fort itself and nature trails in the forests around. The Climb The trek to the fort starts at the forest office complex inside the park gates. It is about an hour's moderately stiff climb for the fi...

While trekking to the Valley of Flowers a few weeks ago, I met a mountain guide and we got chatting about matters outdoors.  When I commented on a trekker in his group, ill-equipped and ill-shod, slipping in the wet mud, his reply was so apt �trekking was earlier a passion, but now it has become a fashion�.  Here is my advice to the �fashionate� trekker. It is great to see many youngsters taking to the great outdoors, most of them truly enjoying nature and the �get-away-from-it-all� feeling that a trek to a remote area offers. However there are many who are there just to say �been there, done that�, they waft through the experience, shrouded in their social cocoons, immune to the joys of smelling the roses on the way. It is this category of trekker who is careless of the environment, who with a mindless flick will throw an empty bottle by the way, who will leave the detritus of his lunch amidst the flowers, who will trample over delicate terrain to take a selfie, who will play...

Shards of living glass Dive any reef or wreck in Colombo and you will see them. Small shoals of shining glass fish, shining that is when the light hits them. They blink in and out of existence as the light hits them for a kaleidoscopic experience that is sometimes unreal, especially when they congregate in a huge shoal that engulfs you and surrounds you in small shards of sunlight. Glass fish on a reef Glass fish and cardinal fish on the Cargo wreck Usually the glass fish aren�t so spectacular, they hang around in a group of about a dozen close to any sort of crevasse on the reef or �caves� formed on wrecks by the structure of the sunken ship. Presumably they do this for shelter with a place to retreat to if a predator attacks. What they don�t seem to realize is that their shelter is most often where the attack is launched from. You don�t have to look too closely at the crevacess and cracks to see them. The groupers lie there innocuously, seemingly somnambulant. Blue line groupers are ...