The very first time I heard about Aberdeen was around July 2009. That was the time I was trying to settling into the fast and busy life of London. For someone like me who prefers a slow and peaceful small place, London was not a preferable choice. That meant browsing through google maps looking into different small places around UK. That’s when I first got to know about Aberdeen. Little did I know that, one and half year later I would be standing outside the Aberdeen airport on a cold winter evening waiting for a taxi. During the interview a month before, I was caught without any answer when my manager asked me, ‘Why of all the places are you coming here?’ referring to the cold weather which had gone down all the way to -16 degree C.

I was all eyes when the flight was landing in the Aberdeen airport, looking out for snow. Having missed snow previous winter, I was disappointed again. Within a month which had seen -16 degrees, all the snow was gone. Nevertheless, I managed to almost get stranded in a snow storm in Aviemore an year later. During these almost 500 days of my stay here, I visited quite a few interesting places, witnessed my first ever airshow, went on a short hike, visited plenty of castles.

After 16 months of my stay here, I flying back home. I am going to miss this place (not the weather though), friends, long walks along the river Don, getting fooled by daylight during summer thinking that its still 6PM eventhough time is past 10PM, the zombie walk back home from work in the dark during the winter days, get togethers with friends, traffic less roads and many more. With office located road across the runway, watching out of the window to see the flights taking off and landing will be missed the most. (Posts to follow on all these trips)

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Background image: View from the top of Mither tap of Bennachie mountains. Peak in the center is Oxen Craig, the highest peak in Bennachie.

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Background image: River Don, near Aberdeen.

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While searching for an old file on my hard disk landed me in to a folder which I had thought lost it completely. It was of the photos taken during my trek in Sharavathi valley back in Feb 2008, which was an exploratory trek to Kanoor Kote (Kanoor Fort). Though Kanooru kote trek is one of the widely known and trekked place, we went on an unused/less known path filled with thorns and bushes. The route we took turned out be a shorter one than the regular route, but at the end of the day we were left with scratches all over our hands and face.

Despite trekking all the way to Doctor’s house (House of Mr. Thomas, also know as Doctor, who near Kanooru kote and welcome all trekkers who seek shelter), we returned without visiting the fort, as we had a longer route return.

Background image: Dunnottar Castle, a ruined medieval castle near Stonehaven. This place is approximately 180 KMs north of Edinburgh and 30 KMs south of Aberdeen.

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One of the many things which I like about London is the people. Walk down a street near a tourist attraction, you get to see people from all parts of the world. I had posted earlier few photos of people from the streets of London which I had taken during my stay in 2009. (Here). I was back again in London last August for a week. Below are few interesting people I captured during the visit –

A tourist completely lost in her thoughts near Trafalgar square

A busker near Millennium bridge

A mom and daughter having fun near Westminster

One of the most common sight on the streets – posing for the photographs

A lone protester – follower of Brian Haw at Parliament square

Yet another common sight, (mostly non-tourists) – waiting for the special someone.

One of the many things I missed during may six months stay in London two and half years ago was going on a ride on Thames river. When I visited again for a week in last August, I didn’t miss it this time. We took the ferry from Westminster to Greenwich, since we had plans to visit Greenwich museum. As the cruise sailed along the river we were in for a surprise. Along with all the historical buildings along, either side of the river were lined up with buildings with bright, vibrant colours and even some of them with weird combination of colours on the. Here are some of them –

Despite spending two winters in UK, the snow eluded me. When I landed in UK for the first time, it had cleared out a week before. And the second winter, it started within hours my flight took off from the Heathrow airport. When the time came to land in Aberdeen on the third winter, it was action reply of first visit – no sign of snow again and I had to wait for another winter. With numerous number of warnings/stories about the previous winter which went as low as 16 degrees below zero, I waited eagerly to face the sub zero days and the snow. But alas, snow eluded me again – except for just a day when it snowed in December. We were woken up to a white day, but only to melt off quickly in next two days.

Background image: A white winter morning at Aberdeen as seen from the living room window.

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After two years I visited Loch Ness and Urquhart castle, I was there again. Unlike last time where we drove all the way to the castle, we decided to take the cruise on the dark waters of Loch Ness to reach Urquhart Castle. It was a windy day, but the clear sky and a bit of sunshine made it an enjoyable ride to the castle. Here are few photos taken while searching for the mysterious monster of Loch Ness. :)

Dark blue waters of Loch Ness

Hotel Loch Ness Clansman – starting point of cruise journey

Another view from the cruise

Urquhart Castle, as seen from the boat

Closer look of Urquhart Castle

Kavishaila is a rock monument dedicated to Kuvempu, one of the greatest literary giants of Karnataka. More than a monument, its the place which inspired Kuvempu to give us the wonderful pieces of Kannada literature. It is on a small hillock right next to his childhood home Kuppalli. Kavishaila is also the place where Kuvempu and his son Poornachandra Tejaswi, a famous Kannada writer himself were laid to rest.

And in case if you are plannign a visit to Kuppalli, here are few near by places of interests – Kundadri, Mandagadde bird sanctuary, Agumbe, Sringeri.

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Mid August and five days with us to spare for three of us. After countless number of lengthy discussions on places to visit and itinerary, we were still clueless on where to go. Finally, we decided to reach Goa, spend a day and come back. But with no any fixed plan on route, stop-overs, places to visit en route. That’s when we chanced upon to visit Gudavi, a small less known bird sanctuary in Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

It was almost noon, by the time we reached there. But the overcast sky and drizzles made us feel it was still 8 in the morning. As we entered the sanctuary, we were welcomed by squawking of countless number of birds. The area was completely filled with hundreds of Black headed Ibises and a few Egrets which were complete minority among Ibises. The view from the watchtower was much more beautiful – white dots sprawled all over the green scape. But only sad part was we were not able to spend more time at the place due to intermittent rain and the birds too were not happy because of the weather.

Gudavi is 15 KMs from Soraba taluk of Shivamogga district. There are no facilities to stay at the bird santuary. Nearest places for a decent accomodation are Sagar or Shivamogga. Along with Gudavi, near by places of interests – Keladi, Banavasi, and of course the well known Jog falls.

I tried hard not to write ‘year that was’, but couldn’t contain myself. Hesitation to not write was due to two main reasons – one, travel took a back seat though I flew to a different continent in the beginning of the year and two, writing too took the other remaining back seat.

Long walks on the banks of river Don

First week of the year 2011 saw me packing my bags and travelling to UK, my third visit in as many years – which was exactly on this date. First quarter was dormant one, thanks to winter. I was restrained to four walls except for few long walks along the river Don, which flows right next to the place I was staying.

Balmoral castle, one of the residences of British royal family

Second quarter and first month of third quarter saw me exploring the castles of Scotland, mostly in Aberdeenshire. Castles I visited ranged from completely ruined (Urquhart castle, Dunnotar castle to inhibited by the royal family (Ediniburgh castle, Windsor castle). In between the visits to castles I went on a hike to Bennachie, a mountain west of Aberdeen – a hike after more than two and half years!

St Pauls cathedral, as seen from the far end of the Millenium bridge

Third quarter turned out be a fruitful one in terms of travelling. I was in London for a week – acting as a guide to my mom who was visiting me. I felt strange to visit a place as a tourist where I had lived some time. In a way it helped me to plan our outings during the week and being a guide I ended up revisiting most of the major tourist places in London (Photo sets one and two). In that week’s time I managed to visit Warwick castle and Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’ birthplace.

Luechars air show

Fourth and final quarter was the pick among all as I paid a visit to home and a well deserved break of two and half weeks. And before my vacation, I got to witness an airshow at Luechars. That was my 2011 in terms of travel, a relatively dull one. But only to start the new year with a bang – we almost got stranded at the base station of Cairngorm mountain due to snow storm. But thanks to the staff of Cas bar at Cairngorm mountain who helped us to safely get back, await for more details.