Many of the trips / treks I have done more than a year back is still not been documented and I am struggling to catch up. Same for GBs of photos which I have in my hard disk! In the last few months I have managed to finish a few long pending trek / trip logs and hoping to continue atleast this pace. Thanks to all those who follow this site and give me valuable suggestions and encouragement. Its been a privilege to know that people are actually using the information in this site. I hope to keep the contents up to date and useful!
Even with Facebook making the "page" concept irrelevant, I am continuing to post links and pictures in my Facebook page to use it a repository. If you are active on Facebook, please like Sandeep 's World @ Facebook and follow the updates. I am also leaving the 'Like' button and comment option on individual pages, hoping to use it as a popularity indicator. But, please note that I dont get any notification with this, unless tagged explicitly.
I have also re-launched Thru' the Lens as an album cum photo blog. Hoping to post more frequently there.
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What's new?
After very slow progress of documenting a Kashmir trip we did in August 2013, I decided to post the trip log in multiple parts - excited to finally complete it. Part I, which covers Amritsar, Srinagar, Kargil and Sankoo, Part II is Leh, Khardung La and Nubra valley, Part III for Pangong Tso and Part IV, when we travelled to Tso Moriri and Rohtang La, before returning to Chandigarh. In hindsight, we needed a seperate trip and more time dedicated for Srinagar, Zanskar valley - which we had to skip and Nubra valley - where we spent less than a day! Even Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) and Leh town needed more time and a revisit :( Ofcourse, I could spend any number of days at either Pangong Tso or Tso Moriri! Eventually, we were too jaded past Tso Moriri and hardly anything registered!
Completed documenting a Italy / France trip we did last year - starting with two days in Rome & Vatican, followed by Venice, via Pisa & Florence and more than an evening in Paris.
I have found Mullayanagiri one of the easiest places to go back to, due to its location at a convenient distance from Bangalore. Reaching the peak too is relatively easy, in spite of it being the tallest in Karnataka @ 1930m. This time, we managed to do the complete Sarpadhari - Mullayanagiri - Kavikalgandi - Baba Budan Giri - Manikyadhara trek and was blessed with clear views all around.
Munnar is God's own hills in the God's own country and the view of Meesapulimala from Kurangini side is too majestic! I had been thinking of a trek from Kurangini to Meesapulimala via Kolukkumalai for a while now, which turned out to be quite challenging. We descended down towards Rhodo valley, eventually reaching Munnar. It was great to return to Munnar after the last two outings there - a trek from Kodai to Munnar and treks from Top Station to Kurangini and Vandaravu, left me wanting more!
Returning back to the Kudremukh ranges for a Mullodi - Hiremaleguppi - Navuru trek, was very rewarding - lush green grass lands all around, Kudremukh peak from Hiremaleguppi, twin peaks Hiremaleguppi and Thirumaleguppi, hill ranges hosting Hiremaleguppi, Thirumaleguppi and Athiberi ... to add to the charm, it was a challenging trek as well.
Thrilled to finally complete the write-up on a Pandiar - Daverbetta - Mukurthi - Western Cachement - Avalanche trek, with all the details I could gather. Thanks to Ramkumar Gopalan and Srinivas Reddy IFS to provide me with this rare opportunity to revisit the Nilgiri hills and grass lands, through which I was able to explore many important peaks in Nilgiri.
Trek to Narasimha Parvatha was a long pending item in my ToDo list, which did not happen so far due to the naxal threat in the area resulting in permission issues. Now that the situation is eased, we took Vishwa's help to organize a Malandur - Narasimha Parvatha - Kigge trek, coupled with visits to Jogi Gundi and Onake Abbi falls. The trip was double fun with my college gang.
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