25 March 2019
Some photos
at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/drprithviraval/albums
What do you do with those loose weekends? There are
several of those which come by in a year. When the weather is good, my
motorcycling gives me that meditative ride!
This past week end I took off to BR Hills via Kollegal to
meet my friend Mr. Ganesh who has been living alone at BR hills since the last
30 years. He simply loves nature, grows coffee and pepper on his farm,
and enjoys listening to the bird calls, a variety of them. He is fund of information
gathered over the last 83 years, and very well known in the HAM circles. His
personal telescopes are there to explore the universe and several images that
he captured are illuminating. His infrared video cameras have captured
several live animals on his farm including some kills from a leopard!
The Billigiri Ranga Swamy temple is under renovation since
more than a year. It is said to open in due course. “The Soligas’
are the tribal community around the hills in that area. BR hills is a tiger
reservation forest. K-Gudi or Katharayana Gudi has the jungle lodges and
can be booked via KSTDC. Hoping the upcoming rains will ‘green up’ the
environment more than the present.
A Soliga tribesman
I left at 6.30 am and had breakfast at the Thippiah Hotel,
downtown Kollegal at 9 am; reached BR Hills by 10.30 am. In between all the
lively discussion, we had calorie burning walks. I came back on Sunday. My
first (and last) stop was to have tender coconut at Ramanagaram, and twenty
minute butt break! Left 10 am was home by 2 pm. luckily for me, there was
minimal traffic on the road.
Both ways, my total Odo recorded 390 Kms
