kaas plateau

Kaas Plateau – a wonderland!!
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Panoramic view,en route Kaas. click here for complete view

My desire is to visit the “Valley of flowers” in Himalayas where hundreds of wild flowers of all colors bloom, though I dint get a chance to visit Himalayas but lucky enough to visit the wonderland Kaas ,it was on 17th September 2009 Me and my friend vivek left pune by 7:15am by his car and drove towards the Pune – Bangalore highway, we hit the NH around 7:40 am and on the way to Satara had nice chai and Vada Pav at Sherival a small village on the highway.Reached Kass around 9:30am and was spellbound by the rich flora.

Narrow road from Satara to Kass (25 km approx)

Satara is approximately 100km from Pune on Pune-Bangalore highway after crossing the town the uphill road takes to Kass plateau, this part of western ghat is famous for Flat table top mountains, with lateritic plateaus on top becomes home to millions of tiny flowers, the whole spectale is beyond words. Different types of wild flowers, herbs, orchids, shrubs, insectivorous plants etc., can be seen here.

Kaas - a paradise for flower watching, birding and camping around with a gentle road running across the plateau and flowers of varied colors in millions on either side, the view is simply superb!!

Lush green open land filled with flowers of varied colors and size



Vigna vexillata


Eriocaulon tuberiferum

Kass has a very good bird life with good sightings of Crested Buntings, common Crested Larks and Oriental White-eyes. For the first time I spotted the European roller.
Amazing place for Macro photography, one can go crazy seeing plethora of subjects to shoot.

Utricularia Pupurascens


Purple bed of Utricularia Pupurascens



Bee Pollination


Impatiens Lawii


Welcomed by the Pink carpet


Drossera Indica an insectivorous plant, interesting plant with sticky tentacles


Thunbergia fragrans - Chimine


Argyreia elliptica



There are few other places to be explored nearby like Kaas Lake, Bamnoli ,since we were running out of time and had to go to office that night so we left Kaas around 4:30pm and reached Pune by 7:30pm, the whole day was awesome, day before work was hectic hardly find time to sleep and today whole day went running for flowers, flowers and flowers :) but Kaas has this mesmerizing effect of making you forget all the tiredness, that's true! totally invigorated after my trip.

Murudannia Lanuginosa, अबोलिमा


Exacum lawii


Murudannia simplex,निलिमा


Impatiens Lawii flower




Peteshwar hill with small lateritic platue on top


Pleocaulus ritchiei (Topli Karvi) टोपली कारवी


Utricularia in white


Pogostemon Deccanensis, जांभळी मंजिरी




Grazing cattle


Fast expanding township of Satara - a threat to this fragile ecosystem

Sad sight is that most of the place has been littered with liquor bottles, plastic plates, covers and cups by the unruly tourist who visit this place. State forest department has to take some serious effort in conserving this place by increasing the forest guard to keep a watch or we will be losing this wonderland forever.

Reference: Flowers of Sahyadri by Shrikant Ingalhalikar.
Equipment:Canon40D with 18-55mm IS lens
For any queries and suggestions please contact me at cj.samson [at] gmail.com

Spinning autumn leaf

Shot this image during my birding trip to Thamini ghat in the Sahyadris, reached the spot around 6am. After spending some quality time observing the avian life , captured few frames of some birds. As the time passed by , birds population started to diminish. As the Sun was at it’s peak, we decided to follow the trail along the falls to shoot some macro subjects of varied interests. Due to the strenuous trekking ,felt exhausted and I sat beside a puddle,lo suddenly my eyes fell upon this exuberant fallen leaf floating gently amidst the ripples all around created by the water bugs(Heteroptera)present in the stream. This wonderful scene made me to think as to how often we are surrounded by the ripples of crisis in our day to day life . Are we facing these crisis as calmly and gently as this little leaf? Or just swept away …..???

It's just my thought,pls share if you have something in your mind!

Let there be light!!

Craziness for camping gear is not new for me , from kid the love for flashlights and head lamps was there used to fiddle with my dad's collection, after my Avalanche camp (SEACA) in April 2009 felt the need for head lamp and mini flash lights, so did some review of various model available in the market, finally decided to go for Petzl Tikka plus(available in India) or Alp kit gamma(available outside India).

Gamma’s features were appealing thanks to powerful 1- Watt LED spot which should provide enough light for night walk and treks i do, so order one from UK.

was looking for min flashlight especially to have one handy in the pouch or for every day carry (EDC) so fixed Fenix E01, Mini Mag LED and still some more but then the whole in my wallet was getting bigger and bigger :( so rite now only mini mag and E01.(will add the rest later)
E01 was not available so got the Mini Mag LED (2AA flashlight) these are new entrant to my toys collection.
Hope to have great camping season ahead with my toys!!

Features:
Alpkit gamma : Multifuncitional LED hadtorch with three 5mm LEDs plus one 1W LED plus red backlight LED, uses 3 AAA batteries (Duracell supplied), red and green light options for night vision, adjustable elastic headband, strobe mode on all lights plus instant switch off in all modes, water resistant.

Mini Mag LED (2AA flashlight):
LED: 3 watt
Projecting Beam: yes
Focusing Beam : Yes
Batteries required: 2 AA size Alkaline
(Please check the official website for more info)

Trek to Harishchandragad

Two day trek to Harishchandragad was totally a different experience, this time we joined with Giridarshan trekking club (GTC), its was a awesome experience with GTC team
People from different walks of life joined this trek. We met in Shivajinagar bus stand on 24 Nov 07, around 28 people have turned up.The trek was wonderfully planned and well organized, around 4:45 we reached the summit, then we went to Konkan kada to see the breath taking view and sun set.

We stayed in the cave, next morning after break fast we left to the base village.

Harishchandragad Paradise for Trekkers
There are 3 peaks in Harishchandragad namely Rohidas , Taramati and Harishchandra.

Taramati peak is the highest one in the fort. Many peaks , fort and other beautiful places like Malshej Ghat, Jivdhan, Nane Ghat, Ratangad, Kalsubai etc. can be seen. There are some old caves on Taramati which are used by trekkers to rest and relax. A beautiful temple of 'Harishchandra' is pride for the fort. The temple is very old and some sculptures can also been read. It is said that Sant Changdev stayed here for some time and completed his manuscript - 'Tatwasaar'. The Nandi and Shivling in the temple are really wonderful. A cave nearby is always full of very cold water.

Rajmachi trek

Rajmachi became my dream destination after knowing about this place from different trekkers and reading more about this place, so planned the trek with my Fujitsu friend's and decided to do a night trek, total team size was four including me because of last minute plan we had to go ahead with this small number.Sundeep my friend from Pune have been to this place before he was our navigator, we took the 11pm local from Chinchwad to Lonavala reached lonavala around 1215am.
This trek was one the toughest trek i did till this date, one should have high endurance even though the terrain is not difficult.

Rajmachi consists of two beautiful peaks namely 'Shrivardhan' and 'Manaranjan'. Rajmachi is very famous fort near twin hill stations in Maharashtra - Lonavala and Khanadala it is nearby 20 Kms from Lonavala but a nice way to reach the fort is from Tungarli Lake.
Shrivardhan and Manaranjan can also be considered as two separate forts. There is one small platue in between them. A temple of 'Bhairoba' is very beautiful. Shrivardhan is 'Bale killa' of Rajmachi. It is almost 3000 feet high. But it was mainly built to keep watch on Konkan area. The other - Manaranjan is 2700 feet high. Manaranjan consists of strong walls, 3 doors and many water tanks. One can see Ulhas river, Dukes Nose (Nagphani), Karnala ,Matheran, Mahuli and Bhimashankar etc. The old caves of 'Kondhavi' on Rajmachi fort are worth to see. The way to fort is long but truly with a good view. One can enjoy a nice forest, Tungarli lake and many waterfalls as well.Rajmachi is one of the good places to visit around Pune. And its the awesome place for trekkers and nature photographers.

Slideshow of Rajmachi trek