Impressions from Masai-Mara | Wildlife

The Mara is beautiful and incomparable. It’s a sprawling grassland of gold, fringed with green around the twisting rivers where the animals gather for drinks and snacks. Even before one reaches the national park, glimpses of overwhelming numbers of animals around it can cause memory card overload. I’m going to take my time to share the photos from the region but to begin, here’s what the average visitor will glimpse over their first few first game drives. Why do they call it the game drive? Because what you spot, is a game of chance. Herds of zebras, gazelles, giraffes and wildebeests stretch out on both sides of the dirt tracks as you drive down towards the Mara. And inside the reserve park, you see things the way they were before us humans got too big for our boots and trampled this lovely planet down.

Here’s a quick run up of some of the animals we bumped into at the Mara.

The first thing you spot in the distance are the scores of gazelles. Thomson Gazelles, Grant Gazelles and Imphalas flock by hundreds, fleeing with a quick spring from approaching cars and humans.

Thomson's Gazelle

Impala

The Topi is super social and loves hanging out with friends and family.

Topi

In the distance ruminating zebras create a psychedelic effect on the horizon.

Plains Zebra

While Giraffe families loiter about, picking at the top of trees and gazing out into the distance.

The Maasai Giraffe

The Wildebeest grazes in large herds too, and prances off as vehicles approach.

Wildebeest

The Mara’s smallest antelope, the shy dik-dik is highly territorial, monogamous and look like they’ve stepped out of a comic reel. They’re spotted in pairs usually.

Dik-dik

The Mara’s largest Antelope, the Common Eland emerges in early morning and late evening to avoid the heat.

Common Eland

Further downstream, Hippos head back into the river after a night of munching.

Hippopotamus

While a Nile Crocodile suns itself on an embankment upstream, right outside our tent.

Nile Crocodile

Elephants lumber out in the grasslands, grazing in herds.

Adult Male African Elephant

Baby African Elephant

While a Lioness stalks it in the long grass.

Young Lioness

Mamma waits for the right moment on the side.

Simba Keki

After the meal, his majesty pants away having not done any work at all.

Simba Duke

Beware of the Cape Buffalo aka the Widowmaker, they kill more humans each year than Lions do. The single ones are more dangerous.

Cape Buffalo

And the lone Cheetah kills solo. It stalks with care, springs gracefully, grabs the intended victim by the throat and cradles it while it dies. The Cheetah kills cleanly, without spilling a single drop of blood. Or the scavengers will steal its meal.

Cheetah During Supper

Around the kill sites, the scavengers gather, the spotted hyena, silver backed jackal, white headed vultures, but we’ll leave those for later. Follow or subscribe to my blog for more stories and images from the Mara. I’ll be posting a lot more of these, so let me know what you guys like.

Patterns In The Sand

The wind is a versatile artist. It shapes stones and sand.

Free flowing sand and seemingly solid dunes fascinate me, just as much as waves upon the sea do.

I can spend hours photographing dunes and sand with all the varying textures and patterns that emerge from a good sandstorm. I can wax lyrical for pages on this matter, but instead, I’ll just share a few close up shots from the desert. I tried to record the patterns in the sand so these images do not include wide desert landscape shots, instead they focus on up close ripples and wide sweeping sand only shots. The sun was high in the sky and shadows were short when I started, the light was way too harsh but within a few hours, the conditions changed to too dark and too many shadows. These images were taken between 2 pm and 6pm in Oman’s Wahiba Sands, I’ve avoided the bright sky to avoid taking flat, lifeless pictures but despite the heat and the sun, taking these rippled images, was pure pleasure. I did manage some lovely sunset shots, but we’ll save those for another day.

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If you like desert landscapes, look at these Nat Geo shots and check these out too. Personally, they’re among the best I’ve seen in a while.

I’d love to get some feedback of these pictures, so please do leave a comment.

PS: It’s the first time I’m using it, but I think I love this slideshow option by WordPress.

Around Old Muscat & Muttrah Souq On Friday

Wikipedia, Lonely Planet & Co. say Muttrah souq is one of the most authentic and gorgeous marketplaces in the Gulf. So of course, that’s one of the first places that me and my Nikon D90 went to in Oman, and we were glad to be there.

The souq is a 15 minute drive from Al Khuwair, along broad perfect roads that fly past Ruhi towards the coastline. It’s pretty much opposite Muscat Port, one of the largest and oldest used ports in these parts of the world. European cruise liners and the Sultan’s royal yacht are docked out at sea while the shore is lined with rows of traditional white homes with intricately carved balconies, stained glass art and elegant eaves.

Personally, I found Oman’s old-world appeal infinitely more charming than the Abu Dhabi Cornish or even Dubai’s  skyscraper lined glass and concrete beach fronts.

Desert Safari Camp

Here’s a factoid. The Omani people love camping in the desert. Every Wednesday, hordes of people drive into the desert. Some haul their own gear and set up camp under the stars while others head to places like the one we were off to. They all seem to have but one credo, maintain peace and quiet, mind your own business, don’t litter and enjoy the countryside.

So, we drove down from Muscat on 1st March, on a bright and sunny as hell Thursday morning. We left the city behind us in minutes and soon we had crossed the rocky cliffs around Muscat. Quick geography lesson here, Oman may be one of the tiniest GCCs, but it sure has variety packed into its 309,501km2. They’ve got amazing white sandy beaches, sheer sandy dunes, rocky cliffs that make you want to clamber over, lush green wadis or valleys where rainwater flows to and even a 3000 meter high mountain where it snows in winter. Our drive took us across the spectrum minus the mountain.

The Muscat Festival

We read about the Muscat Festival in Oman Air’s in-flight magazine and that’s the first place we visited soon as we dumped our bags in Al Khuwair and had a cup of tea. We went straight to the village, arts and handicrafts area, which in retrospect was a great summarization of life in Oman.

The Wilbur Phenomenon

First Class Logo

On Tuesday night, Opus (Bangalore) was blown away by an unusual performer, a man called Wilbur Sargunaraj. Mr. Wilbur Sargunaraj was in town for the launch of his second album, Simple Superstar.

Labeled “India’s first Youtube Star” by the mainstream media, Mr Wilbur Sargunaraj took his audience of 200 plus by storm, and within a minute of walking on stage, everyone around him was dancing wildly and singing along to his starter, Chicken 65.

The first time one watches a Wilbur video, one is stumped. Is he joking? Is he for real? Is he laughing at India and Indians? Or is he like this only? Despite these doubts, one can’t help but smile through his antics and videos, and so it was with these questions, (and many more) that believers, doubters and borderline fans made their way to Opus, to watch this strange, funny phenomenon called Wilbur Sargunaraj. But once they saw the man in action, all doubts disappeared and everyone present became an instant fan.

Nostalgic For Old Libya

My father worked in the Rasco refinery, in Libya‘s booming oil industry, pride of Libyans and envy of every other nation to its west. I did my primary schooling and learned the language that enables me to write (English) and make a living, right there at the Ras Lanuf Oil Company School.  Growing up in Libya defines who I am today.Wandering the lonely stretches of sand in Ra’s Lanuf, finding sea shells miles away from the Mediterranean beaches, discovering fossilized sea critters on sand stone rocks is partly what launched my curiosity and fostered my imagination along with the need to express myself. The harsh barren landscape, lined by the deepest, clearest blue imaginable set me in awe of nature forever, as did the extreme temperatures.

As a child I remember being awed by Colonel Qaddafi’s face which loomed down from every wall there was. He stared down from airport walls, from the school’s main hall, in the hospital waiting room and every other place I remember. He rarely smiled in any of these images and his eyes were often obscured behind dark glasses. I almost believed that Libyans loved him madly, that he was everyone’s favorite dictator, but to me he was a bogeyman who watched everything we did there. Silly me, I thought he owned everything there and in a way, he did.

Why Debian Is So Awesome

Image via Wikipedia

Debian is among my favorite Linux flavours. Debian is definitely the chocolate of all Linux flavours. Melt it, chill it, blend it, chocolate rocks in all forms, like Debian and its derivatives Mepis, Mint, Knoppix, Damn Small Linux. It’s the fall-back, the old reliable that always gets you up and cheery cos it never lets you down to start with. Even Ubuntu, the most famous open source operating system to ever penetrate the mainstream, is a Debian derivative.

Debian has enabled my easy exploration of Linux as an all-Windows, Linux-in-crisis computer user. In fact, when you get down to brass tracks, Debian converted me. Hallelujah! A kindly friend installed Simply Mepis (KDE) on my 2 year old HCL and I simply fell in love with it from Day 1. Debian (including pre-release Squeeze), is stable, never breaks and is unbelievably easy to use.

So why Debian?

The answers are the same as Why Linux?.
It’s rock solid stable.
It’s free.
No Viruses.
The latest version is just one click away.
Upgrades are just a single command away.
It’s a DIY thing. Or not, if you ain’t the tinkering kind.

Janta Khamba Update III | Fruit Flies, Maggots and Rich Compost: The Perils Of Composting

Recently while we were out of town, we received a very sweet phone call from Daily Dump proprietor Mrs. Poonam Bir Kasturi, the brain behind this whole, make your waste productive thing. She called to check on us as its been over a month since we picked up our Khamba from her quaint home-shop in Indiranagar, just off the 100 Feet Road. She just wanted to ensure everything was coming along as meant to.

3 Tier Clay Composting Unit

 

This reminded us that an update was due from us as well.

The Walled Temple Town of Shrirangapatna | Shrines, Palaces & Dungeons Near Mysore

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, we rode into Srirangapatna, 19 km from Mysore. Srirangapatna is a tiny walled town on the Bangalore – Mysore Road. We pass it every time we’re heading out of Bangalore, but we never entered the town till date. This was a first.

Ye Olden Bullock Cart Stop

Outside Tata Memorial Hospital…

There are terminally ill cancer patients who cannot afford rooms at Tata Memorial. They’ve laid down their bedding on the pavements and lie there puking from Chemo, with pipes sticking out of their chests and noses. Tata’s is the best institution for Cancer in the country with tonnes of donations and grants, I’m stunned no charity has thought of providing a Dorm/Ward for BPL families. Why are these people suffering on the streets?

The Khamba Project: The First 10 Days

The composter is here. A couple of weeks ago, we  visited Daily Dump with friends from The Potted Garden.

Daily Dump founder, Poonam Bir Kasturi graciously answered our thousand and one queries. She obviously gets a lot of whacked out questions from wannabe composters like yours truly. Poonam’s confidence in everyone’s ability to deal with the perils of wet waste composting put our minds at ease and boosted our confidence. Plus she left quite an impression on us with her generous, open-source approach towards her very unique and potentially world-saving product. 

This is Varanasi

Image via Wikipedia

They say Shiva lives here. With his wife Parvati. This is Kashi, a city built on myths.

On the way to the ghats

They say both life and death end here. And pass into non-existence. And that this is the last leg of the pious Hindu‘s life’s journey. This is Kashi, a city of release.

They say wisdom lurks here. Within the hallowed hallways of Benares‘s many universities and centers of learning, in the scriptures and the books, in the minds of the well read ancients rotting in its ancient infrastructure. This is Benares, a city guided by knowledge.

The Wise Woman's Way To Sensible Waste Management

It Doesn’t Take A Genius To Figure Out That Like Charity, Conservation Too Begins At Home.

It starts with simple gestures, like saving the water you use to rinse your dinner ingredients. It takes an extra two minutes to rinse over a bucket and the occupants of your kitchen window garden will be grateful for it. 

Green Life

Image via Wikipedia

Green Life is this event I’m promoting. Since I’m currently green-brained and stuck on everything environment related, I thought it might be a good idea to write down my own green meanderings and experiments here.