The High Five - Pick of my Pics

Ask a mum to choose her favourite among her children!! Blogadda gave me a taste of the same feeling when I decided to participate in Travel Photo Contest, since I had to pick 5 photos from my collection of travel photos.

I travel for 3 reasons. To Ride/drive, to capture the frames and to explore the unexplored places around me. I take loads of photos of the places which I visit and it was difficult for me to select the one which I like the most.

Kerala - God's own country has no dearth of beautiful landscape and this prestine state is bestowed with diverse landscape engulfed between Arabian sea in the west and the Western Ghats in the east. Lots of rivers, backwaters and lakes criss cross the state.

At certain places, lakes ought to meet sea and wherever this happens the landscape is beautiful. What if, the sky too is generous to provide a splendid backdrop with the setting sun giving the brightest of possible colors to the whole scene. The resultant frame is this. 

This image taught me that pixel count does not matter much against natural splendor as this image was shot in 3 Mega Pixel camera. This beautiful sunset was captured at Veli, a beautifully landscaped tourist village near Thiruvananthapuram during one of my regular visits there.(View more of Veli by clicking here)

Many a times when I see the advertisements of 3D screensavers of the flowing rivers, as pop ups in some of the websites, I had wondered whether there will be any such scenes in real life. Little did I knew that such places exists very near to where I reside. One fine sunday afternoon, while I was on a boating trip in the beautiful Neyyar Dam, it was raining 3D screen savers around me. I cherish this picture a lot and I believe it is the sky which gave that perfect finish to this frame.

Eventhough this dam has been one of the favourite picnic spot right from the school days, I began to really appreciate its beauty once I began to capture frames and as was rightly pointed out the picture tells the story. (See more of this place here)

Why is it that we never gets bored of the beaches even though the waves are repeatedly doing the same thing at all the beaches. There is something special and two beaches are never the same. Even the same beach has different feel each time we go there. I too goes to beach every now and then and my camera always captures those moments. One of those shots reminded of another way to touch the sky. Yes, all of us are taught to aim for the sky, and to reach the sky we need to fly high or in a lighter note, we can take swim to the Horizon, where sea touches the sky. Can we take a walk to the horizon through this bridge

This was shot in a place called Beypore, where there is a long sea bridge, extending almost 1km into the sea. (To have a glimpse of this port town, click here)

Carving sculptures in rock is an art and only master crafters can do this precisely. Then can we call water a master crafter. Who else can do such a craft work on these rocks.

This photo was captured from the unheralded Perunthenaruvi, where water flows through these rocks creating lots of patterns over the years. The place is so beautiful that I just spend almost a day sitting here just enjoying the water, the sound of gushing water and the master craftsmanship. (To see more photos of Perunthenaruvi, Click here )

Worship or rather belief in God, be it in any religion, according to what I have understood is to make one humble, to make one feel being monitored by some divine powers so that one leads a life of peace and harmony without hurting other fellow beings and not becoming so much proud of the material possessions he/she has. I too thank God for letting me find happiness in exploring places, shooting down pictures and for having a loving family behind me, supporting me always, be it in my profession or for pursuing my hobby. I treasure my visits to unexplored places as much as I treasure this one photo, since the lovely little kid of my friend showed me how one can pose so perfectly atop the hills of Panchalimedu.

The trekking experience in the Panchalimedu was unparalleled as we really felt like being so close to Heaven once up there. (More pics can be seen here)

I thank Blog adda for tempting me to enter this travel photo contest as a result of which, I literally travelled through many of pictures in my collection, reliving those moments before finalizing five which I showcased above.

Contest result announced - you can view it here. 

And the important thing for me is that the judge has made a special mention of this post. 
Thanks to Blogadda for giving me this distinction !!!!!. 
I really value this, for it is the first time I am participating in a blog related context

Thanks to all my readers tooooo!!!. 

I create content and you give life to it.

Please do keep visiting and help me know your views on my travelogues

Pringoo.com

Mysterious Mysty Mountains Part 3 - Panchalimedu, Heaven so cloooose !!!

 

Continued from Part 2 - Unfolding the mystic moutains

Starting our return journey from Kuttikkanam at 4pm in the evening means, we had still some more daylight hours left, to be spend in some good locations. Two options sprang up, one was Parunthumpara, the place which became famous because of one recent movie and another one - Panchalimedu (Panjalimedu), was suggested by the resort staff. The resort staff had favoured Parunthumpara as it was most visited by tourists, but somehow we decided to check out Panchalimedu, since we had not heard about it before. As per the resort staff, it was just a hill, which doubles up as a viewpoint.

The route taken was from Kuttikkanam drive towards Mundakkayam about 3 kilometers, then take a left turn. Once the turn was taken, roads became very narrow.

  

As we proceeded further, we could see no homosapiens around and the incline was quite steep too. I felt like, it would have been rather fun to explore this place on a motorbike, because of the narrow winding roads and the steep climb up. The scenery around was pretty good too.

After travelling some distance we reached a place which seemed like a viewpoint because of its height. Stopped at this point to have a look around.

  

On enquiring with one of the rare mankind around, we found that this is Panchalimedu. It seemed like what the resort staff told was correct. Anyway we decided to spend our time here till sun sets. There was a small hill behind where we parked our vehicle.

  

Some among us suggested that we will climb up this one for fun. But I decided to just click around.

  

My son also went along with the gang who started climbing up. I took one more snap of the hill which they were climbing.

  

On a closer look found that there is a cross at the top.

By this time my friends who already started climbing had covered a fair distance up.

  

Soon I could see my son calling me up for helping him go up. That was the trigger I needed to trek up and started moving upwards. Once I moved up I found that the slope was increasing.

  

The most interesting part of this trek is to enjoy the scenery behind you, since as you go up the scene behing you changes with each step upwards

My friends who did not climb up has become so small.

  

By this time I reached near my son and started to climb further up, in between stopping to enjoy the scenary behind.

  

One closer look at this frame, I could see some interesting structures towards the middle of this frame. Naked eyes was not enough to clearly identify what it was. Zoomed in using all the power which my medium range (non DSLR) camera can and found out that it is a beautiful church.

  

The approach road was giving it a special facelift.

Another view of those waiting down, gives an idea of the height that we were gaining.

  

More and more thingys begin to be visible now. Just watch those fields towards the left bottom of this frame.

  

We are nearing the top and now the thought of how to climb down striked us. It is easy to climb up, but trekking down through this route will be a pain. Still the trek experience was worth it. Still we had not reached the top.

  

Soon a moment of glory came when we stepped to the top of this hill. My God, it is damn beautiful. What a place? Wondered whether it is heaven on earth. The excitment was so high that I didn't know what to do. Just stretched my hands up and enjoyed being near to the sky.

  

Did I hear someone singing, "I believe I can fly".

Toward one side of the hill there was a hilly path one side of which was adorned by Cross, not one but many of them, no wonder why this hill is also called cross hill. We called up our driver and asked him whether he can come up through this path.

  

Remains of some ancient constructions were seen on the other side of the hill. Panchalimedu means Hills of Panchali, and this was one of the hiding places of the Pandava brothers and their wife Panchali.(This is part of the epic Mahabharatha)

  

The pond seen in this frame is the Panchalikulam, means the pond of Panchali. The divine makaravilakku of Sabarimala is visible from this location. (click here to know more about Sabarimala)

By this time my eye was already on the giant cross. Soon I began to try and click some pictures, coz you don't often get these kind of background every other day. My friend's daughter was happy to pose too and this resulted.

  

I didn't expect this little girl to pose so nicely when I asked her to kneel and pray in front of the cross. She did it so perfectly and passionately that I could click my best picture of the day.

  

The same shot, another angle another settings

  

Time again for shooting down more scenary around as I began to go crazy seeing this landscape, shooting down pictures.

  

  

I laid down to enjoy the closeness with the sky, only to find that sky is so beautiful.

  

Everything here seems to have a charm. The skies, the moutains, the cross, the ancient structures everything. Now that I found the sky in such a color, how could I leave it out from my shots.

Some beautiful little birds flying around

  

This place was simply amazing and there seemed to n number of ways to capture magnificient shots all of a sudden.
Just laid down to click this and stayed like that for some more time watching just the sky.

  

Meanwhile my friends were walking around exploring heaven on earth. The pandavas seems lucky to chose such a place as their hiding destination.

  

Light was fading fast, but by this time our driver managed to bring the vehicle half up through another route. We climbed down to join others.

How can I leave, without clicking one pic of my little cutie in this backdrop.

  

Walked down further, bid goodbye to this place. The place looked quite beautiful from this point also with those Cross lined up.

  

All good things must come to an end. The daylight was almost withdrawn when started travelling down the hilly route, which was a pain to negotiate in this kind of a vehicle, but worth exploring in an SUV.

  

The climb down was very steep and people were discussing on the dangers of driving through this route. One small wrong step and you are gone.

We were just finished climbing down the steepest part when I could see the driver panicking while applying brakes. On enquiring he told us that the brakes are gone. Immediately we requested him to stop the vehicle. We were in a plain land, so he could stop it by turning off the engine. The road was narrow, but we had no other option. We thanked god, for it did not happen while we were negotiating those curves coming down steep hill.

The driver went in search of a workshop in another vehicle and we were left stranded in a hilly village. We could really understand the warmth of the people in such virgin villages when one of the family invited us to their dwelling and we were treated like guests which was a huge relief for us especially the women and children in our gang.

Found out these cranes in a nearby tree, getting ready to take rest after the days work. F(rame shot in night mode)

 

It took about 2 hours to sort everything out and we were back in the roads aiming our homes.

The memories of this trip are sure not to fade, for it was so eventful. We cherished the company of each other. The kids too enjoyed for they were asking us to stay back and not return. The mystic mountains was truly mystic. But the ultimate find was Panchalimedu, where we found that heaven is so close. Vowing to make such trips together again soon, we parted to our own home sweet home.