Monsoon Diary 2020 - The marvellous kundapura-udupi stretch

I have been going hither and thither nowadays fulfilling every family commitment. This swaying does not seem to be enjoyable job but I am making them joyous by stopping whenever I need and enjoying nature. Today, I did that exercise along Kundapura-Udupi stretch. Looks like the monsoon regained momentum. Thick clouds were seen hovering all through the region making it wonderful contrast show between lush green landscape, the murky water and monsoon filled sky. The true monsoon vibe is still alive.

Generally it takes 60 minutes to reach Udupi from Kundapura. Due to my intermittent stoppages, it took 20 mins additional which was worth it. Hitherto, I was just sailing through the highway by just glancing at the flamboyant landscape nature presented during monsoon season. This time, the mind was steady and captured the monsoon beauty for few moments. The hectic time was cooled down by the fabulous monsoon charm.  I nearly had 6-8 stops near the rivulets and backwaters and grabbed those majestic scenes in mobile camera. There was not enough time to safe-guard and tune the DSLR. Hence all shots are with mobile camera which was able to replicate the aura of monsoon season.

The mornings of coastal Karnataka village is always enticing with lush green paddy fields shrouded by dense monsoon clouds. This was just when I booted from the Hosaadu village

The pictures from lengthy Mabukala bridge over Sita River. Look at those dark clouds. This seems to be precursor to lengthy monsoon carnival

The glimpses from Heroor bridge. There are some extremely vibrant waterbodies nearby the bridge.

The final glimpses from Santhekatte bridge over Swarna River which concludes my hesitating but deserved photo stop for the day!

Ottinene revisit

23 December 2019,

2019 was glorious year for me in terms of travel especially the last fortnight of December. I visited many places which were in my hot list and fulfilled those long yearning dreams. There are many places still in hot list which are parked for further years. The unprecedented pandemic has stalled our travel plans. Its almost end of 2020 and there is still no signs of recovery. Most of the pictures now presented in blogs are those joyful memories which we we desperately missing now. Hope those memories will soon come back and increase our joy.

This stunning views of Ottinene view point was caught during memorable itinerary of 2019. Our travel to Sonda was concluded by beholding this magnificent sea-river confluence view. On our way back to Kundapura from Sonda, we briefly visited this place and enjoyed the scenic nature. These memories now look precious. The pandemic has taught us to relive every short moments with joy and consider every journey as precious.

Obstruction galore

Finally its happening. I am loosing those panoramic view of the city from apartment gradually. After nearly 2 months of stay at native, the views are obstructed by the adjacent residential building that rose above the apartment height. Now, when I am writing this post, the views have vanished from apartment terrace. Only vistas could be realized. There is not much enthusiasm to visit terrace during sunset. Probably, I need to reverse schedule from sunset to sunrise by waking up tad early. This will enable me to shoot beautiful sunrise along with season fog formation over city.

Currently only memory remains and the sunset views are permanently obliterated. Here is the final set of pictures captured from terrace before obstructions galore. I miss those days enthusiastically climbing stairs to watch the glory of sunset.

The pictures were shoot approximately during Ganesh festival. Lord Ganesh is the reliever of obstructions in Hindu Mythology. Even he cannot relieve these obstructions now. Probably he wants me to change the perspective and shift to East :-). For now, lets enjoy the delicacies prepared for during festival celebration

Monsoon Diary 2020 - The first visit to village

I dropped my family at in-laws house on the landing day. My father was hospitalized due to ill health. Had to bring few essentials from village to hospital. This was my first visit to native place. Due to complications, I could not directly visit my house.

On the way to my house, I grabbed many pictures primarily comprising of water bodies. To some extent I grabbed few streaming clouds from west. Here is the chronicle.

Lets start from Udupi. It was cloudy and rainy morning

Then comes the Udyavara river. How majestic it looks during monsoon season

Then comes Pangala stream. This place always entices me irrespective of seasons.

Few streaming clouds nearby

Here is the canal that passes through our village

Finally the splendid paddy fields. Let us pray for bountiful harvest output

Short video of the tiny dam that is located near our village. The intense monsoon season still keeping this water body alive. The Dam will be closed once the monsoon season is concluded. Hope you enjoy the short video. 

Finally Sun breaks out

07 December 2020

Here is quick micro blog with quick snap!

Literally the Sun was put behind bars by back to back cyclone for nearly 3 weeks. The lousy clouds are shrouding the city for long time and for no reason. It did not rain significantly but the chill was unbearable. The impact of Cyclone Burevi was predicted to last till 9th December and sun would appear in Benagluru only on 10th December.

Fortunately, we have visible sunlight now and I happily basked under the sun for 10mins. Not sure if the clouds would reappear again as day prolongs but the sunlight for few moments was treasure amidst the freezing weather. This picture I snapped today to indicate that till today, our Sun was virtually behind bars clutched by eternal streaming clouds. Today he is finally let go for a while after a brief isolation and people are happily welcoming him :-).

It looks forecasters are right :-D. The clouds have come back and blacked out region from evening 4PM. Fortunately, we had better presence of sunlight today. Hopefully we will see extended sunlight from Thursday as expected.

The monsoon memoirs from Charmadi Ghat

It was somewhere in June 2018, I was driving my new car towards native via Charmadi ghat. Thanks to prolonged concrete work at Shiradi Ghat, I chose route via Charmadi ghat to reach my native. It rained heavily overnight at ghat area but fortunately during my day journey, the weather was calm and rains had relented. Being onset period, There were no landslides either despite heavy rains. It's history that the subsequent rains in August were crazy and ferocious ones almost decimating the regions near Western ghats.

Meanwhile it was noon when I reached Kottigehara. The en-route fields had plenty of water. I was apprehensive and scared to pass through ghats. Probably, a psychological one. But things cleared when there were no rains on entering ghat jurisdiction. There were wonders all over path. The highway cutting the ghats are narrow and steep. There also menace of boulders falling over. None happened to my luck. As I drove past Kottigehara towards the door of western ghats, heaven unfolds. The never ending mountain ranges, myriad of silver streams, innumerable thundering seasonal waterfalls, impeccable Rainforest and why not the every enthusiastic monsoon clouds shrouding the hills eager to shower on the benevolent western ghats. The unison, undoubtedly creates natural splendor and a festival for nature lovers. Of-course, it becomes sometimes hell on the drive due to dilapidated roads.

Not sure when will I get chance again to have monsoon drive via these beautiful ghats. Currently the roads are completely blocked to unprecedented rains amounting to 1000mm in just 4 days. The ravaging monsoon is back and showing its might in this August too! A revenge of nature for 3rd consecutive year. It is clear that nature wants to reclaim its space in western ghats. It wants to replace the tea, coffee and rubber plantations with Rainforest trees. These tall pinnacles which underpin the mountains are being incrementally decimated owing to human greed. The nature has retaliated again and it may do so till the human race understands it.

Mighty mountains are crumbling due to lost foundation. These tall Rainforest trees were protecting the mountains for years. Now the endearing Rainforests are endangered by the human greed. The nature is silently retaliating in form of disasters and its recurring. Ironically, humans fail to understand the emotions of nature and grieve on these disasters. Lets distance away from abode of wild and leave it pristine. If we don't listen now, year on year the nature will render such places uninhabitable.

The Charmadi ghat stretch such a wondrous path. There are innumerable charming streams flowing down the mountains and every 100m stretch is a joy. At some points, the water slides down to main highway too! An exceptionally alluring place for nature lovers. There are instances of traffic jam too due to raise in visitors who wholeheartedly enjoy the majesty of nature.

Here is a short video to revisit those memories. Hope I can behold them eternally in days to come.

 

First spell of North-East Monsoon 2020 rains in my Village

13 November, 2020

Despite the thumping September rains and to some extent October month, the coast did not observe substantial rainfall activity for long duration. This though has helped farming community, at the same time withered the water bodies quite early. The coast expects some amount of rainfall activity during North-East monsoon season to sustain the water bodies till fag end of summer i.e. May. But the situation till now was not conducive for precipitation from North-East monsoon clouds.

Today during my casual evening cycling activity, I was awe-inspired by seeing these massive cloud bands due east which triggered hope of rainfall activity. These clouds were great surprise since their presence was feeble post monsoon. It was extremely hot and humid in village from past couple of days. The cold weather which was prevailing from last week was cut short by monsoon clouds streaming from North-East. The humid weather usually is a precursor to rainfall activity but not guaranteed. On many occasions, we saw blustering troposphere without rainfall activity. Hence there was always doubt in thunderstorm activity. These passing thunderstorms were like barking dog without a bite :-D.

The cloud bands which I witnessed today were heavy and should precipitate if they make landfall in our region. By twilight, the clouds flamed and lightning ensued. Mild rumbles were heard too! The show started around 7PM when the Deepawali celebration began at our house. The rains poured for nearly 20 minutes fleetingly obstructing our festival celebration. It was the first North-East monsoon rain of the season after a long wait. The temperatures though dipped did not reduce humidity. Hitherto, the ground was extremely baked that there was no trace of rainfall as we woke up to new morning.

The pictures presented in the blog were shot before the thunderstorm activity began. Look at the massive clouds approaching our village! They are beauty to watch.

Wow! What a surprise! We have first credible North East Monsoon clouds parked due east!

Some intense cloud activity :-)

Hope it rains, the bands are slowly approaching us.

 What! Are these clouds fizzling out? Disappointing

Nah! They are right on track. Look at the flaming clouds with prolific moisture ready to pound the region 

And here it goes at 7PM. The heavy showers finally dissipate over us. A short glimpse of heavy showers that lasted for nearly twenty minutes and thus increasing our festival enthusiasm.