Off beaten track

Valley of Flowers and Hemkund -a Trek to Paradise The Valley of Flowers     Climbing the last kilometer is strenuous, I sweat despite the mild cold, the thin drizzle permeates my clothing with dampness and the wet mud is slippery.  As I round a bend in the mountain side rapt in my misery, almost theatrically a wide vista unfolds showing a wide lush green valley with patches of colour and Mount Rataban proudly at its head.  It is magical, the tiredness of the climb falls away and the spellbinding view makes the arduous climb of two hours so very worthwhile.  Angelica with cloud veiled mountains in the background My trek to the Valley of Flowers (VoF) has been a dream for many years, a dream that I was determined to turn to reality for a week in August 2015.  There are many travelogues of �how to and where to� on a trek to VoF so it is not my intention to replicate these. I will put together a kaleidoscope of thoughts and suggestions giving more of a flavor t...

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...

A view of  Table Mountain from the Lower Cable Car Station. This is the start of the climb. Table Mountain is an iconic landmark towering in grandeur above Cape Town, the southernmost tip of South Africa, exudes a powerful but inviting presence.   Its slopes have wildlife, an exquisite range of flora and the homes of the rich and famous. Even today, despite human habitation creeping up its slopes, it is an imposing sight, particularly from the suburbs of Cape Town.   Huge blocks of stone, almost artificially cuboid, make up the steep cliffs crowning the summit.    Presiding majestically over the city of Cape Town, adventurers will feel compelled to conquer the giant by walking to its summit. Take the cable car back to the bottom if your legs are too tired to descend on foot, which is what I did. After a short while looking down at the  lower cable car station. The view of Table Mountain is an ever changing kaleidoscope of vistas, sometimes clear and stark s...

B rig (retd.) Xerxes P Adrianwalla  spends a day in the monsoons driving from Lonavala past the many waterfalls that line the drive to walk up to Koraigarh fort. He recommends it as a perfect family outing. I t looms out of the mist like the prow of the Titanic; enigmatic and majestic, caped in the monsoon green so typical of the region. Koraigarh (or Korigarh), in the vicinity of Lonavala, is a day's nature walk, ideal for the monsoon season when it is a verdant green, swathed in chill mist at the top. F rom Lonavala towards Aamby Valley is a 20 km drive past innumerable waterfalls, till one reaches Shahpur (Shivpur) village where you park your car and pay a local shop keeper to look after it. From there it is an hour's easy, but fascinating, walk up the hill. A round the base of the fort there is dense jungle. A path through it takes one to the steps of a fort. This jungle, with dense bamboo thickets, abounds in flora and a fascinating variety of birds and insects. The steps ...