Lonely Traveller

Nature's way

2008-11-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. This has been the longest break I have taken from blogging so far. Events in the career front got too heated up leaving little spare time and energy for everything else. Anyway, I am back in action with a post on my recent trip to Kakadu on the Nature's way loop.

Kakadu has been on the itinerary since the day I landed in Darwin. Finding a weekend when all of us were free took a while though. We picked the most uncomfortable time of the year to travel to Kakadu.

Unlike most other places, Australia's Top End has only two seasons. The 'Dry' is between March to October, when its warm and pleasant with clear skies. That is when tourists from all over visit Northern Territory.

The other half of the year, the 'Wet' is when heat, incessant rains and if you get lucky, a few cyclones keep everyone in there homes. The interlude between the two, in the October, is the 'build-up'. That's when heat slowly climbs to unbearable levels and moisture reaches 100%, enough to make you not leave the air-con, or run back to where ever you came from. Once it starts raining, the moisture climbs down a bit providing some relief.

Its in that hot, sticky October that I planned the visit to Kakadu. Being the end of dry means that all the water bodies and falls were reduced to a trickle.

Kakadu's landscape takes a distinct hue each season. The Wet has huge areas of flooding, overflowing water falls, green landscapes and fantastic views from the air. In the Dry, millions of birds fly from the north to take refuge in the pleasant weather, until the heat starts building up when they escape back to cooler northern hemisphere. Many places that will not be accessible during the Wet due to the flooding will open up to the tourists in the Dry.

Kakadu is on the UNESCO heritage list, and one of the very few that is on the list both for natural beauty and cultural value. Aboriginals lived in this place for about 60,000 years or more and are the traditional owners of the entire park. The place is rich with ancient rock-art and signs of human activity going back millennia.

Nature’s Way drive is a loop from Darwin through Kakadu and back to Darwin covering approximately 900km.

We started early in the morning just before sunrise. The first stop was at the banks of the South Aligator river where we recharged ourselves with fulfilling tapioca and fish, and headed off to Mamukala. Mamukala Wetlands are marshes with an abundance of birds and wildlife, where a covered observation deck allows us to sit and view the birds at leisure. There was a few moments of excitement as we watched a large kangaroo hop about at the edge of the marshes.

After a short stop at the Bowali visitor centre, where we gathered enough info and maps of accessible routes, we headed off to the Nourlangie Rock, Kakadu’s second most famous rock art site.

A short loop walk led us past several art sites to the main Anbangbang rock shelter. Nabulwinjbulwinj, the evil spirit and the images of the dancing men were probably the most impressive images. The view from the top of the rock was beautiful.

After a careful climb-down, we visited the Anbangbang billabong. Filled with native birds and with the hulking Nourlangie Rock as its background, it’s one of Kakadu’s signature scenes.

The most awaited destination of the day was Ubirr, the most famous of Kakadu's 5000 recorded art sites. Watching the sunset from the top of Ubirr with the unobstructed views over the floodplains and escarpment was every minute as good as has been told to me multiple times by everyone who has been there before.

We reached our rented cabins late in the evening, very tired and exhausted and went to sleep early after a barbecue. After all, we did not want to be late for what was awaiting tomorrow. A cruise on Yellow Water Billabong just as the sun was rising was definitely the high point of the tour. We started in misty flood plains and spotted a huge variety of birds. I was surprised at the density of salt water crocodiles in those waters. In fact within the two hours, I must have spotted about three dozen of them, from smaller ones, to ones more than four metres.

After a brief stop at the Maguk water falls, we proceeded to our last stop in Kakadu, the Gunlom falls.

The waterfall at Gunlom was only a trickle, but the pool below was a good spot for swimming. We decided to climb the huge rock, onto the top of the waterfall. Given our fitness levels, it took lots of sweat, gaspings and stops before we reached the top. There were beautiful small pools at the top and gorgeous panoramic views of the entire south Kakadu region. We soaked for a while in the pools and returned back to the ground, to start our journey back home to Darwin.

On the whole, the trip has been every bit as good as I expected. I am already busily planning a return to Kakadu in the Wet season, hopefully with an arial view of the flodded plains of Kakadu.

Skandagiri Hills @ Bangalore.

2008-09-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.. As much as I want to travel all the time, my bank balance does not really sustain my nomadic lifestyle too well. So Peru and Antarctica and all the other places on my never ending list have to wait for now. Meanwhile, to keep you busy, I have asked Sunil to contribute on Lonely traveller and start with his recent amazing trekking trip to the Skandhagiri hills. Over to you Sunil..

Thanks Harish. Hello everybody,

Last week a few of our collegues and friends planned to go to Skandhagiri Hills on a weekend. It is also called as Kalwarbetta and close to the more famous Nandi hills. It is 80 Km ride towards Chikkaballapur from Bangalore. A total of twelve people started on 6 Bykes at 01:30 AM and reached the place in 3 hours.

From the base, we began the trek, which took us around 2hrs in total to reach to the top.The way was covered with bushes, steep slopes and loose rocks in some places and we needed to be very careful . Must admit it is an wonderful trecking experience. Unfortunately, as it was too early in the morning, we couldn't took any snaps. After reaching the top around 6:00am, we found ourselves on the clouds.

There is Fort and a small temple. This fort was occupied by the British troops in 1791 during the Anglo-Mysore wars. Dont know who built a fort at the height of 1750 Mts from sea level and who lived there.We were eagerly waiting for the sun rise sitting on the top..we failed to see a clear sun rise as it is the monsoon season and the sky was too cloudy. We sat on the rocks and rested there on the rocks for about 2 hrs( !! Slept in clouds..).

We started to come down around 9:30. In the way we could see some beautiful locations what which we were unable to see in dark.

Its a great place for trekking during a full moon night or during January, after the monsoon season. Water,snacks and First-aid kit is a must, you won't find any thing on the top.
Meet you sooon with the Nxt trip..

Sunset at Mindil beach

2008-09-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hi guys.. just some random snaps I took at Mindil last week. Mindil is one of Darwin's good beaches. It comes alive during the dry season, with markets on the evenings. It looks like a hippie paradise with all sorts of jewelry, paintings, music and foods. The dry is almost comming to an end and everyone is out there to make the best of it.

పాపి కొండలు

2008-09-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

The original plan was to rent a private boat and spend the entire night and the next day in Godavari. However, nonstop rains the preceding week resulted in Godavari running at the brim and all boats except the tourism department's were cancelled. So we got onto one of the overcrowded and noisy boats.

The panorama was fantastic. Rains turned the hills into lush green carpets. The river was full of flood water and roaring with frightening intensity. Also got to see one of the police stations that revolutionary Alluri Seetharamaraju famously raided.

The small beautiful hamlets on both sides of the river are so cut off from the rest of the world, with no power, road or phones, and yet have a captivating allure about them.

The swelling river and huge whirlpools meant that the boat had to move much slowly and cautiously taking twice as much time to reach the hills and leaving very little time for us to explore.

Its a beautiful place and I would recommend the boat ride to a medium sized group. But u need to be quick folks. Once the Polavaram project is built in the next couple of years, the whole area will be submerged under water.

Maredmilli

2008-09-01T01:58:00.001-07:00

It was probably the first time the entire family got out together. Everyone was traumatized and shaken when the train we were on got burnt. Thankfully, all of us got out of it alive. We lost a day as the result and had to abandon plans of camping overnight.

Determined to make the best of what we had, me, Vamsi, Nani & Sudha decided to go there anyways.
So we dropped everyone else in the guest house and walked a couple of kilometers in absolute darkness of a new moon day, aided only by the light from the display of the cell phone to reach the camping site.
It was pretty scary folks!! and more than once did we consider returning back.

The place was lush green, helped by the recent monsoon rains, and all streams full and flowing. There is no cellphone coverage in the area and that was the best news for me.
Fantastic place for a large group of friends, family or workmates to camp for a couple of days and get away from civilization.

Went to sleep very late after some fun around the camp fire. Woke up early in the morning and explored the place. The chaps there made some tea from the root of Sugandhi, a medicinal plant. It tasted great. I tried unsuccessfully to buy some of it .

Another delicacy was bamboo chicken- The chicken is put into the bamboo stick along with some spices, and the bamboo put in hot burning fire, to let it slowly get burnt. The juices oozing out from the bamboo provide the salt and distinct flavour to the chicken. Must try sometime at home on a BBQ.

After a while, the rest of the family joined us and we roamed around the place. Had good fun getting wet in Jalatarangini, a nearby waterfall.

Everyone was exhausted after that, and we had to skip a couple of other falls and head back to Rajhamundry for the night.

Alampur

2008-08-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

In what became a whirl-wind tour, went to India for 2 weeks. Found time one of the days to visit Alampur. For those who don't know where it is, its a 30km away from my home in Kurnool.. and it took me this long to visit. I guess most of us are guilty of not exploring enough of our own places, while spending tons visiting exotic places.

The temples themselves were amazing and I was completely overwhelmed by their beauty. Built in the 6th/7th century, by the Badami Chalukyas, they were reeking with history.

The priest at one of the temples, a hereditary job that has been handed over to him by his father, and generations before him, took us around the place, explaining each work of art and its historical, religious and artistic significance.

Most of the sculptures were defaced by the Islamic rulers of the later age. The Nava-Bramha temples were in a decaying state, not unlike most of Indian archeological sites, for want of proper restoration.

The archeological museum at the site, with an entrance fee of Rs3! - yes really- 3 rupees, had some more beautiful sculptures from the same period.

Time for Goodbyes

2008-08-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

I am almost at the end of my 6 months term in the Emergency Department at the Royal Darwin. Was an amazing roller-coaster experience. Have met some very nice and interesting people and some not very nice ones. Embarrassed myself before my colleagues with my drunken antics. And the work was great. Learnt lots of stuff, or at least as James said, got more comfortable with my level of stupidity.

There are very few emergency departments in the world which can offer the kind of diversity of cases and weirdness that Darwin does and as Dr.Palmer said,there was never a boring day at work.

Great Ocean Drive

2008-07-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

Set off for the drive the next morning. Was overall a good day except for a few minutes of showers at the near end of the trip.

There was some fabulous coastline and greenery on the way, but I must say, given the number of sites with natural beauty around Melbourne, I felt that the drive is slightly overrated as THE tourist destination.

The walks were good. We were short on time and in a rush to see the Twelve apostles before sunset, so had to whiz through. One of the good short walks was the one to Sheoak falls.

Twelve apostles was a glorious site, especially as we arrived exactly at sunset, fulfilling one of my long held desires to see the site at sunrise or sunset. Missed the last helicopter ride over the apostles by a few minutes, but we were in no mood to complain, especially as we had just survived a nail biting prospect of running out of fuel in the woods before we reached the nearest town.

Melbourne in winter

2008-07-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Had 5 days off and decided to visit Melbourne. Landed in the morning. After the tropical heats of Darwin, was nice to be in a cool country for a change. After a good long coffee, were joined by Sudhakar and set off to Yarra valley. The drive was beautiful. Being winter, the vineyards were just stumps of stick, but that did not stop us from wine tasting.

Came back in the evening and went around the CBD of Melbourne. Went to the 88^th floor of SkyDeck to see a bird-eyes view of the city in the night. Was an adrenaline filled feeling to be there on the top and watching the streets below.

Went back to the apartment with some take-away and opened a few bottles of very good Chardonnay we bought at Yarra, all of which we finished the same night. Must say, that was the best Australian wine I had so far.

Lunar Rendezvous

2008-07-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

NASA is going back to moon and is sending the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as the first step before sending humans by 2020.
To commemorate this historic mission, it is giving us a chance to put our names to be placed onboard the LRO spacecraft on a microchip to send to the moon. I have put my name along with a million other people, and I have got a certificate to prove it..

They have extended the deadline by a few more days until the 25th of this month. So if you are as nerdy as I am, here is your chance to go to the moon...

Hardy Heron

2008-06-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

After a few disastrous crashes, successfully installed this Ubuntu's latest release on my laptop. The interface looks very simple and uncluttered. Next step is to figure out how to connect to net and add a few basic applications to get me going. Who knows, maybe I will get comfortable enough to renegade Vista to backup option only.

Chilli Crab

2008-06-02T14:34:00.001-07:00

After a successful fishing expedition on a Sunday, Jens brought home some fish and huge mud crabs. Barbecued the fish and cooked delicious chilli crab, and invited me for dinner. Was the best crab I ever had. Could not resist taking a snap and putting it on here.

Fishing

2008-05-26T23:47:00.001-07:00

John, our house owner, has a boat, and one day, all the boys in the house decided to go fishing. So we cooked our meat, got our drinks and fishing rods and got onto the boat in the morning. The boat is anchored at Cullen Bay, probably the costliest place in Darwin to live, with each house costing a few million dollars.

So, we got outside the bay and set off to the sea, but then someone told us that the sea was too rough that day for fishing, and we ended up taking a roundabout to go to the mouth of a close by river.

Beautiful green mangroves lined both sides of the coast.

Resident fishing expert Jens helped set my fishing rod, and after a basic lesson, I set off fishing. Did not have a successful stint, but we managed to catch a shark and a para fish.

Released the shark back into sea, and fried the para for dinner. Maybe next time, we will manage to catch the famous Bara.

Food for thought

2008-05-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

The chance to experience the local cuisine is one of the best benefits of travel. Yes, it does occasionally put me in some unpalatable situations, like those times that I had to eat frog legs or raw fish, but most of the times, I have been glad I did it. Food is so much intertwined with local culture and ecology that its impossible to understand a place well without tasting the local diet. Most of the popular food in any particular place is something made of locally grown and therefore fresher stuff and definitely healthier than the fast-food alternative.

Darwin, because of its tropical climate has a much greater variety of fruits and veggies available than many other places. The best place to find fresh stuff is the Rapid-Creek Sunday market, although getting up at 7am on the rare Sunday I am not working, needs quite a bit of motivation.

Anyways, the reason for the huge prologue is the new fruit I have recently discovered. With a red hairy exterior and white flesh inside, Rambutan tastes very sweet, and almost like తాటి ముంజలు from back home.

With my latest food fad now being to increase my fresh fruit intake, I am gulping as many rambutans, pears, kiwis and melons as I can. Another recent introduction has been the Avacado. I had it the first time in Nani anna's place in San Diego, and was surprised to find that it was grown here too in NT. A bit scared to eat it too much though due to its high fat content.

My next aim is to find some bush tucker- food eaten by native aboriginals.

Interesting tit-bit - the 'Kiwi' fruit is actually a native of India and has been brought to NZ by a missionary from India. How come I never came across this stuff back home!!

La Brea Tar pits

2008-05-19T04:46:00.000-07:00

Visited La Brea with Nani anna in Feb this year when I went there for my exams.
Strangely, this find of ancient fossils is located at the heart of the urban metropolis of LA.

Asphalt (tar), has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years, forming hundreds of sticky pools that trapped animals and plants which happened to enter. Over time, the tar fossilized the remains. The result is an incredibly rich collection of fossils dating from the last ice age.

These pits are supposed to have helped us understand a lot about the ice age animals and might still throw more surprises in future. The fossils have a reddish bronze look about them and look like beautiful sculptures of art. Couldn't help wondering how majestic all those huge mammals might have looked - especially the woolly mammoths and the saber-toothed cat.
One of the pits, is still regularly excavated for a couple of months each summer by volunteers and we got to see the work in action.

Litchfield National Park

2008-05-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

Been to Litchfield yesterday. It’s about 150km from Darwin, located in about 1500sq km, with

lush green forests and gorgeous fresh water holes and falls – some of the most unpolluted water
sources.

Got to see my first marsupial in the wild – a Walaru as it was drinking water from a waterhole.

The magnetic termite mounds are fascinating. All aligned in North-South direction so as to minimize sun exposure and tall enough to survive wild fires and flash floods. Also famous for their inbuilt air-conditioning systems. Architects are increasingly studying and copying them to build greener and energy efficient buildings.

Florence falls was fantastic. Will definitely go back again, this time, better prepared for a swim.

The next stop was Tolmer falls. Had a nice walk through the forest there.

Wangi is the most famous of all falls. Sadly, the water was off limits as there has been recent flash floods in the region. But still quite a gorgeous site to see.

Flying-fox is a type of bat which is very human-shy and the particular species found in Litchfield is rare too. So we were fortunate to see some of them, albeit from a respectful distance. Can u spot them in the photos?

Wild fires are part of the natural cycle here, occurring in every dry season, followed by fresh growth of foliage during the wet season. You can see the burnt forest floor in some of the snaps.

At the end of the trip, we took a wrong turn and got lost in the wilderness and drove for what felt like ever through the green bushes with absolutely no human contact. The roads reminded me of the bike trip I did through the Nallamalla forests few years ago. Anyway, after a few nervous moments, finally managed to get back safely to Darwin, although Roy's two week old car needed a good wash desperately.

Crocodilus Park

2008-05-10T01:16:00.000-07:00

Went to the famous Crocodilus park in Darwin last weekend and guess what we saw- yes crocodiles and lots of them. Managed to feed them and hold them and everything. Was fun. Saw some other native fauna as well- the Walarus, dingos ( local wild dogs) and some species of birds. There was also some aboriginal art depicting crocodiles.

Little India @ Singapore

2008-05-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

Spent about a day in Singapore. Because of the short time, decided to see only as much as I can and come later for a more relaxed visit. So, desperate for good Indian food, went to Little India. Was not to be disappointed.

Shops, film posters and good cheap south Indian food everywhere. The place reminded me of some of the small towns in India with their relatively slow pace of life and beautiful colorful streets. Within a few minutes of arriving there, I felt that the title does not suit this place and it should instead be called Little Chennai as everyone who approached me would start speaking in Tamil. Nice place to shop too with everything cheaper than in Darwin.

Helen is coming

2008-01-15T01:17:00.000-08:00

It’s the wet season here in Darwin and the season’s first cyclone alert has been given. Its called Helen and its on its way, expected to hit Darwin this midnight. It’s raining like heavens are falling down with wind speeds of 165miles/hr, and non-stop lightning and thunder. Huge trees are being uprooted by the wind, falling all over the place causing traffic jams, hundreds are moving to the cyclone shelters setup across the city. Large parts of the city have lost power. The hospital is getting ready with emergency preparations. As most houses in Darwin are not 'cyclone proof ' quite a few medical staff are staying back in the hospital for the weekend making sure they are not blown away. Royal Darwin Hospital's bottom floors are apparently cyclone proof. Those who are working over the weekend have been ordered to stay back as well, to make sure they stay alive and more importantly come to work when they are supposed to. I could not be bothered to stay in the hospital over the weekend. So against the advice of my friends, I am back in my room, waiting to see as to what is going to happen. More soon if I don't get blown away tonight....

The travel bug hits me

2008-01-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

2007 has been a year full of travel for me. New job in a new country and attempts to kick start a career in the US meant that I had to travel like mad often with crazy schedules. Its interesting to think that I have completely encircled the globe twice in 2007. From Hyd to NY to the west in April and then again Hyd to Darwin to Sydney to NY , it was a full circle and then back. While I do like to travel and see new places, accumulating 60,000 air-miles in one year was not exactly what I had in mind. 2008 is not looking any better either with tickets already booked for my next visit to US for my Step3 exam. God save the planet.........

Darwin

2007-09-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

Darwin is an experience that will stay with me for long. Had no clue as to what I am going to find when I accepted the job here. But adventure loving that I am, just set off to the place, and here I am for 3 months now. It’s the capital of the Northern Territory of Australia. A small place for a capital, but then NT is a very sparsely populated place. Darwin has been destroyed by cyclones quite frequently and rebuilt about 5 times so far – the last time in 70s I think.

There is a huge number of aboriginal population here. In fact NT has the highest aboriginal population in Australia. In the hospital itself, about 50 to 60 percent of patients are aboriginal. Most of them speak in their local languages and have very basic conversational English. There are so many diverse tribes among them with varied cultural practices. I have particularly found their paintings very beautiful. Most of the themes of these paintings are animals and nature or the story of their ancestors and creation. I would have loved to buy a few of the paintings but they are quite expensive.
So is their music instrument – the Didgeridoo -Its made of wood – from a particular tree, and used to produce crude but entertaining music.

The job itself is interesting, with lots of tropical and infectious diseases seen. Good addition to my resume.
Haven't visited a lot in NT yet, but hopefully, will see a few places before I finish this job and leave Australia.

Bagot

2007-09-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Ming, one of our Paediatric residents in Darwin asked me and Roy, another Indian doctor to attend the church with him on a Sunday. So we went along with him to the Bagot Victory Church. Bagot is one of the first aboriginal communities in Darwin and all its population is indigenous. The church is not anything like a typical traditional one. It’s very basic -a shed in a open space. We were the first people to go there. Then Ming got into his routine of going from home to home reminding people about the service and asking if anybody needed lift. Given the level of alcohol and other problems among aboriginals, attenting the church is not exactly the top priority for even those who believe in Christianity. Slowly people – mostly middle aged ladies started coming one by one. People were interested to see new comers and we were asked to get to the stage and introduce ourselves. Aboriginals have their native beliefs & religions mostly revolving around nature, animals and spirits and Christian churches are trying hard to gain inroads into them. After the necessary corum was gained, the service began. There was lots of singing by the ladies and then prayers. Very frequently prayers were centered around how the Lord should forgive those who have not yet converted and release them from their ‘ bondage’ soon by showing them the ‘true path’. After that we all had a light lunch of dry bread and coloured water.Good experience. Took a few snaps but lost them somehow.

Melbourne

2007-09-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

Had to go to Melbourne for the USMLE exam. Luckily Sukanth was still there for one more week – looks like we meet up every where across the globe now. Asked Narendra to join us from Brisbane.

Spent the first day by myself as Sukanth was working and Narendra’s flight was due only in the evening. So walked about the central city. In the evening all of us went for a quick trip around few suburbs. One of the places reminded me of London- with all the Indian restaurants and Punjabi shops. Had dinner in a nice Indian restaurant.

Next day we rented a car and left for Mount Buller, a mountain about 250 miles from Melbourne. The journey was stunning with lush green landscapes. Think Australia and most of us think sunshine and beaches. So surprised to see green mountains and snow – looking almost like the Scottish countryside.

It was snowing at the mountain and we had to rent some protective clothing. So many guys skiing there – looked like a fun game but did not try as did not want to end up with a broken leg, especially as I do not have a medical insurance here. Went up in a ropeway car. It was freezing cold and visibility was only few metres. Played with snow until we got tired. Especially was fun to roll around the slope in snow. After that had a hot coffee before getting back to Melboune.

Sydney

2007-09-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

Been to Sydney the last weekend. Sukanth came from Melbourne to give me company. We went around the city and saw most of the famous landmarks.

The weather was excellent and it was a bright day thank god we could get all the beautiful photos on our camera especially the ones on the seaside with the sky and sea as background. Sydney is a nice place, quite cosmopolitan, with lots of places to hangout.

My favorite was the Darling Harbour. Nice walk with all the restaurants. Just sitting there on the evening and having my favorite coffee was fun.

The main tourist attractions are all in one place and the public transport is quite reasonable. Went to the Opera house both during the day and night and took photos until we got bored.

There’s so much of Indian population in Sydney. Would like to come back and work for a few months in this place. Spent an evening in Bondi Beach. Nice to see somany surfers trying to ride along the wave. If only I knew how to swim!!!!

Hello

2007-09-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody. This is an attempt from me to update everyone about things happening with me. Lazy that I am, expect this to be slow and crude.