The Days of Travelling
It has been a while since I have made a long journey. I have mostly stayed back home in the last three months, completing a lot of work and trying to give some impetus to my commercial photography work. I think all my travel plans get jinxed in the monsoon season. It is not that I prefer to sit at home and watch the rains; I would rather be out during the rainy days seeing and capturing the bounty of nature. In the last three years, I have always thought of making many trips to the western ghats once it starts raining. But that has never materialized. This monsoon season, I allowed some work to take priority over travel and hence gave a slip to some opportunities to travel. Some poor planning also kept me at home. In my mind was a visit to Sakaleshpur, one to Ooty, one to Kaas plateau and to a few more places. I also made some longer travel plans for October, which did not materialize. All that I could manage was a visit to Chikmagalur to see the monsoon at its best, besides a short visits to Mysore and Manchanabele. But it looks like I will have plenty of opportunities to be on the road in the next few months.
Beautiful window of a house in Gangtok, Sikkim
To begin with, I have an invitation to travel to Sikkim for a few days next week. It is a little more than a year since I have visited the Himalayas. I can’t wait any longer. Another invitation may see me going to Goa in the first week of November. Following that, I am looking forward to a visit to Bharatpur bird sanctuary in mid-November. While there are no concrete plans made for Decemeber, I might take up an invite to be in Kanha National Park early in December. The last weeks of December are the times when everyone will be on the road, when I feel better off staying home. January 2011 is the month I will be looking forward to. It is the time when I will finally get to go on Chadar Trek – something that I am organizing with a friend. I have been looking forward to doing this trek for almost three years now. Looks like what is in store is a quarter full of fun.
Now that the winter is here and there are many holidays lined up, I am sure most of you would be making some travel plans as well. Where are you heading this winter?