Map In My Pocket

Month: April 2016

Into The Jungle: Tada Falls

Ubbalamadugu in Andhra Pradesh is a popular trekking and road trip destination from Chennai. Located in Tada, deep in the jungle of Satyavedu just north of the Sri City SEZ, these waterfalls are more commonly known as Tada Falls.

A short walk through the trail gets you to the Jungle Pools and this is a lush green shady oasis where the water from the falls travels downhill to form clear cool pools. Which also gives this place its name, derived from the the telugu words Ubbari Madugu meaning spring pool. A further trek of 10 kms through the hilly terrain brings you to the actual waterfalls. But this is where you should stop, for though the trek is quite scenic it isn’t really a great trek for girls and a definite no-no if you are not with a group.

In fact, halfway along the trail, once we a caught a glimpse of the distant falls, we turned back because of that unmistakable feeling of unease to go ahead, heightened only by the isolated feel of the place and the groups of youngsters looking to break free! Even the monkeys don’t venture too far out here and like to stick around in the spots where they are sure to find leftover chips and coke.

It is nevertheless a beautiful place, so depending on the size of the group you are travelling with and the time of the day, you could pace your exploration.

April 30, 2016
Ameenpur Lake: The Flamingo Story

Flamingoes, vibrantly hued and long-legged have always been popular in pop art and now with so many designers borrowing from art to add quirkiness to everything from accessories to home decor, you see these pink birds everywhere!

For all the beautiful colours of its plumage, these birds are not as popular in India as say a peacock, so they become “exotic” when found in India. After the disastrous trip this year to the Flamingo Festival at Pulicat, when I actually discovered them here, right in the city, you can imagine my joy. :)

& now I am more than excited and content about the photographs I got to click of them. Though I wager I might still go back to Ameenpur Lake to get better shots!

Not quite common knowledge, the Ameenpur Lake in Hyderabad is an expansive lake of over 100 acres, right in the backyard of one of the Industrial Areas in the city. Though more than half of it has dried up – the lake bed is chock full with shells, clearly once part of the lake itself – it still holds its ground as an important wetland area and a safe haven for migratory and local birds alike. This lake was recently adopted by the Telangana State Special Protection Force and the State Government is working towards declaring it a Heritage Biodiversity Park and has granted funds towards restoring it.

Explorers Guide

Getting There: It is just off the IDA Bollarum Road, between Miyapur & Bachupally. Use Google Maps to guide you there, besides on a weekend you can always follow the trail of vehicles heading in that direction once you are on that road.
Remember: Be there at the lake early in the morning. The locals say the flamingoes leave by around 10 in the morning and are back only in the evening. I am yet to go there later in the day though, so I am not too sure about this.

Read Next: Its a small, small world.

April 22, 2016
Poetry in Pink

Spread over a 1300 acre sprawling campus and peopled with elegant old buildings is the Osmania University in Hyderabad. The seventh oldest university in the country was brought into existence by the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918.

This beautifully green campus is so vast that its roads have long come to become regular thoroughfares in the city. So much so that, one does not even know just how many buildings are scattered around here and does not even spare more than a glance. That too when the names on the buildings get you thinking as to all the obscure possible disciplines of formal education and research available!

So it wasn’t till I actually stood under the Arts College Building one Sunday morning after I had decided to photograph it, did I realise just how smartly and tastefully this graceful old building has been designed.

Born from a farman (Royal Charter) by Nawab Osman Ali Khan, this university’s buildings were planned by Mr. Jasper, a Belgian architect, who was “found” by an expert panel of architects and engineers who had toured through Europe, America, Japan, Egypt and Turkey in the quest.

It is of little surprise then that the centre piece of this spread, the Arts College is but Poetry in Pink.

This Heritage Building of Pink Granite, which took 5 years to construct, was officially inaugurated in 1939.

Read Next: The Lost Pump House

April 16, 2016
Abseiling in The Blue Mountains

Abseiling in The Blue Mountains was one of my most memorable adventures in Australia – besides surfing at Bondi beach, of course – and also more my kind. The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area is the ideal scenic weekend getaway from Sydney.

With the town of Katoomba as the base, you can spend all day in the Blue Mountains walking through the valley floor among forests that transport you to ‘Jurassic Park’, hiking back up to look out over the hazy blue forest (which gives this national park its name), all the while discovering waterfalls and rock formations along the way.

Of these, The Three Sisters sandstone turrets is the most iconic.

The Legend of The Three sisters has it that a witch doctor, Tyawan had three daughters Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo who accidentally anger the aboriginal mythical creature Bunyip, living down in the valley. To protect the sisters from the Bunyip, Tyawan then uses a magic bone to turn them to stone and himself turns into a Lyre Bird. But, in the process drops the magic bone and you see the Lyre Bird rummaging through the valley floor even today, it is said in search of this very magic bone.

In consequence, it is recognised as a place of cultural importance for the aboriginal people.

We were there for the weekend, put up at the YHA and spent a day hiking through the forest trails and up the Giant Stairway and another abseiling and sheltering under a cave watching the rain come in as the clouds closed in on us . While the evenings were spent unwinding in Katoomba. It was the perfect mix of excitement and idyllic.

I had never heard of ‘abseiling’ till I was in Sydney. Rappelling yes, but not Abseiling. Coming from the German term Abseilen for ‘to rope down’, it is a mountaineering technique where you use ropes and a belay to descend a rock face/cliff too steep to descend on foot.

As a beginner you start with 30 feet and then go on to a cliff with less foothold and more of a drop and then the final 60 feet sheer drop.

& trust me when I say you will get high on it.

For some one who loves the mountains and exploring, this was actually special, with that extra edge of adventure and I sure am glad that I did it when I could.

Imagine an escapade like that with a view like this!

April 8, 2016