Blind Earthworm

I never paid much attention to the earthworms previously. Yeah, I used to see many of them particularly in the rainy season and sometimes digging the wet mud. We used to use them as bait for catching fish, but it never occurred to know more about them. Only recently I found them interesting, when I saw one of them going on the walkway in my apartment. I noticed it was blind and just to confirm it picked it up and displaced it by 180 degrees and there it was just following the new course going in the direction I put it. A quick search resulted on this page which had many interesting facts about earthworms:-
http://www.biologyjunction.com/earthworm%20facts.htm

Dew worms can live for approximately six and a half years.

They do not have eyes but they do possess light- and touch-sensitive organs (receptor cells) to distinguish differences in light intensity and to feel vibrations in the ground.

 Earthworms are hermaphroditic meaning each worm has organs of both sexes.

 Earthworms respire through their skin, and therefore require humid conditions to prevent drying out.

Squirrel's Nest

While I was walking around my apartment community today, I noticed a squirrel carrying grass in it mouth onto a Pine tree. It caught my attention and I followed the squirrel to find that it was actually making a nest on the Pine tree. It was kind of a surprise that squirrel's live in/make nests. I never thought about it and I didn't know they make nests on trees like birds. I came home and googled to find some interesting facts about squirrel's over here:-
http://www.squirrels.org/facts.html
Some interesting excerpts:-

Squirrel's belong to the order "Rodentia", with 1650 species, it is the largest group of living mammals.  It also comprises forty percent of all present day mammal species. 

Squirrels chew on tree branches to sharpen and clean their teeth. That's why you may see many small branches on the ground around large trees. They will also chew on power lines for the same reason, this has caused many major power outages throughout the country. 

A female squirrel will choose the strongest male during mating season, but is unlikely to breed with that male again. This is natures way of reducing inbreeding,  and to preserve the species. 

A squirrel will break the shell of a nut with its teeth, then clean the nut by licking it or rubbing on its face before it is buried. This action applies a scent to the nut which helps the squirrel find it later, even under a foot of snow.

 

Road Trip to Death Valley

Date: 22nd-25th Dec 2006
To : Death Valley National Park, California
With : Vikram and Pradeep
Photos are here.

How could be a desert beautiful? I always associated beauty with greenery. That was my thought before going on this trip. But my opinions completely changed after going there. I realized how narrow my definition of beauty was.

We went in Vikram’s BMW X5. They were both driving, taking turns, and I was relaxing in the rear seat. Pradeep had already been to this place many times and he played the role of an informed Guide all through the journey.We started at around 2.30 pm from office in Palo Alto. Our destination was 450 miles from our place and it was expected to be completed in around 8 hrs. Enroute I saw lot of oil wells. California has good farmlands. I was amazed to see such huge farms. Agriculture is completely mechanized over here, otherwise there was no way they could cultivate such huge farms. Halfway through the journey, we stopped at Bakersfield to fill our bellies for the night. US has allround development, wherever you go you’ll find good roads and the same stores/restaurants/banks etc. On the way we stopped at a lonely/dark place to gaze at the beautiful star-studded night sky. In the dark, we descended into the valley. Before we started descending, I got the first glance of snow after coming to bay area. I was eager to touch it and I did that. But soon I would see lot more of snow. It was around 11 pm by the time we reached Furnace Creek Ranch, the hotel where we would stay for the next 3 nights. This place is rightly named as Furnace Creek as it’s right inside the Death Valley and the temperatures in the summer over here go upto 115 degree F. Furnace Creek was standing as an Oasis in the desert with the only place I could see greenery. Once in the room, we retired to bed so as to get up early so that we could make the best of the available time.

First Day (23rd Dec 2006)

Our Guide decided that Race Track would be the first place to visit. It was around 70 miles from our hotel. I had no idea what we were heading for. The last leg of the journey to Race Track was to be covered on a kuchcha road. It completely reduced our speed, but it was worth it. On the route I could see snow in the light of the day. Later while returning I stopped by the road-side to hold the snow in my hands and play with it. The picture of the Race Track from the car itself was great. It’s a incredibly vast flat lake-bed surrounded on all sides by the Mountains.

As soon as I came out of the car and stepped onto the race track, I couldn’t stop myself from running from this end to the other end and then come back. I dont know what made me do that, it was more than a mile one-way and it was cold too. Standing in the center of the Race Track and looking at the panorama around you covering mountains was an experience to my eyes. I felt like playing football and cricket there. The Race Track is also known for the moving rocks. It’s seems nobody has ever seen those rocks moving, except for the tracks which show their path. It seems that these rocks move, when the Race Track becomes wet.

From here we went to the Ubehebe Crater. I had only seen pictures of volcanic craters till now. And now I was seeing a Crater with my naked eyes. It was 600ft deep and I went till the lowest point. Pradeep and Vikram came half-way down. I yelled in my full pitch to hear my yell travelling through the walls of the crater and reverberating. I collecteda few volcanic stones as souvenir. Only when we were climbing up, did we realize how difficult was. The ascent completely sapped our energy. Once we were out of the crater we relaxed for a while and then headed towards the Titus Canyon. It’s a long canyon, but it didn’t look that appealing and further we were tried, so we decided not to go along the Canyon. We had our lunch there and got some energy to go for the next target.

We then drove to the point where the Sand Dunes were there. I had seen them from the car, when we drove to Race Track in the morning. I cant understand, how these dunes formed, because at no other place in the Valley could I see such kind of fine-grained sand. It’s only at this place and I heard it’s spread on an area of 15 sq. miles. We had little time as the Sun was about to set. I took off my shoes, and ran on the Sand to feel it by my feet. There were a couple of big Dunes, but I couldn’t afford to go that far. I liked it and now I feel like visiting Rajasthan. From there we went to the Mosaic Canyon, which was a short but good one. It had nice marble stones along it. By the time we came out of the Canyon it was dark enough and we decided to be done with the day and returned to Furnace Creek Ranch. Had Dinner at the 49ers Cafe and strolled in the souvenir shop for a while and then went to our room. It was a tiring but wonderful day. We watched the famous Sholay movie that night (courtesy Pradeep and his IPod).

Second Day (24th December 2006)

The first spot on the itinerary for the day was the Bad Water Basin. We drove for less than an hour along the descending road to reach the lowest point in North America: The Bad Water Basin. It’s 282 ft below the sea level. It’s a very very big salt-basin. It’s like the Race Track, filled with layer(s) of salt. I dont know how thick the layer of salt is. It was formed over the years, because of the water from the surrounding mountains accumulating over here and as there is no outlet for this water, the only way it could disappear was the intense heat in the summer, leaving behind the salt. We played football with a tennis ball over there for a while. Beauty is of different kinds.

We then headed to the Devil’s Golf Course: A funny name. It was named so, because the land there was like tilled land (with salty masses), and it’s so rough that only Devil’s can play golf there. From a distance it looks like there only a layer of salt on land, but from close inspection you’ll realize that it’s all salt mixed with soil. Again, dont know how thick it is. Then we drove along to the Artist’s Palette. The naming comes from the various colors of soil/rocks on the small hills, which get their color from the minerals present in it. We could see tints of Green, Red, Yellow, Brown and Blue. It was nice.

Our next spot was the Golden Canyon. There’s a trekking path through the hills which starts from the entrance of the Golden Canyon and ends at Zarbiske’s point. This trek was one of the best parts of the trip for me, although we decided not to go till the Zabriske’s point as it would eat up some of our valuable time. I found stones of various colors, of which I collected as many as my hands could hold as souvenirs. In the trek, there was a path which was along the body of one of the highest peaks. (I am limited by my vocab to describe it, but this is what I intend to describe this path http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhiraj/346362707/). It was particularly interesting. The area was containing of lots of short hills, which we could have had explored completely, had we got the time for it. There was another spot called the Red Cathedral, yet another mid-sized hill named like that because of it’s color and shape.

After having lunch at one of the camping locations, we headed towards one of the high-altitude peaks. This is called the Dante’s Peak. As we were driving towards it we could notice the drop in the temperature and also patches of snow. I wasn’t aware of how big a surprise was awaiting me. We reached the peak, and it was very very chilling there. For the first time I had to wrap myself in two layers of sweaters. I was enthralled by what my eyes were showing me. From this point, we had an amazing view of the Bad Water Basin and all the salt where-in we were playing that morning was looking like water. The best vantage point to see the Death Valley. The Sun was around an hour away from setting, and we were yet to see Zabriske’s point. So we moved on, although unwillingly. The Zabriske’s point was very close to the road and very much accessible. From here we could see all the small hills around Grand Canyon, where we were trekking in the noon. It was getting dark. I wanted to stay there and watch the start-studded night-sky lying on my back, but the other two were of a different opinion and so headed to our hotel. Had dinner at the same place and retired to our beds.

3rd day (25th December 2006)

It was Christmas day and also the last day of our trip. I got up early and took some of the pictures around Furnace Creek Ranch, at the time of sun-rise. There’s a golf course in the Ranch and it was looking beautiful with the mountains in the background. We packed up all our stuff, checked out of the hotel and drove out of Furnace Creek. Wildrose Charcoal Kilns was the only item that we thought of covering. Along the route to the Kilns, for the first time I could see some greenery and trees. We thought of going to the Aguereberry Point, but the road was very bad and so we had to back-off. After driving for some time we reached the place where Charcoal Kilns were there. There was a lot of snow at this place on these mountains and I was excited. There were a total of 10 kilns which were built in the later half of 19th century to make charcoal required during mining. They were still intact. The road near that point was slippery because of ice and the car even slipped. From here, had we got the necessary equipment and time, we could have hiked along the snowy route to reach the Telescope peak, which is the highest-peak in the Death Valley, stading 11049 ft above sea-level. It’s a pretty tough trek, but would have been great had we done it. Maybe the next time, if at all there is one. That was the last item from Death Valley and the we started on our journey back home.

It was my first road-trip and it turned out to be a wonderful one, beating my expectations and changing my definition of beauty. There were a couple of places that we missed due to lack of time, like the Scotty’s Castle and Panamint Springs. There were lot of nice places to hike and also camp, which can never be covered, no matter how much time you have at your disposal. Death Valley is such a vast and beautiful place.

Here’s my rating of all the places that I saw:-

1. Dante’s Peak
2. Golden Canyon
3. Race Track
4. Ubehebe Crater
5. Mesquite Sand Dune’s
6. Bad Water Basin
7. Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
8. Mosaic Canyon
9. Zabriske’s Point

Kabini Trip

Trekking into the jungles of Nagerhole (Kabini Trip)

Date: 14/05/05 - 15/05/05

This is about my expedition into the jungles of Nagerhole. The journey
itself to this place called Kabini Jungle Resorts was an experience. We hired
a Qualis and an Indica for this. Started at around 7.30 am from hotel Kanishka,
Bangalore. (The previous day we all had descended to Bangalore from Hyderabad
for Kiran's wedding). The older people were sitting in the smaller vehicle
and the rest eight of us were in the bigger one. Our driver Prakash was taking
us at 90-100 kmph and at times beyond that. We were just horrified at this. Uma
was regularly entertaining us with his vast knowledge of Hindi.
After travelling for about an hour we halted at Kamat hotel to have
breakfast. Eased ourself and then continued our journey. Went through Seriranga-
-patnam, passed by Mysore. All along this journey we were on the highway, but
as we went past Mysore the roads deteriorated, reducing our speed. The whole
of Mysore and infact the whole land that we saw was very fertile. This was
summer and we could see lush-green paddy fields on both sides of till the points
our sight could reach.
There weren't any signboards or milestones indicating where this place was
located and this made our journey very difficult. We had to stop at every other
junction and depend on local people to lead us. As our driver was a Kannadighan,
we didn't have to interact with the local people. Once I changed my seat with
Swathy to occupy the seat besides the driver, I put the cassette: 'Gilli' (tamil
movie in which Vijay & Trisha played the lead roles) and played it. I had heard
one of the songs earlier when I had been to Chennai and I liked it very much at
that time. The music was awesome and I enjoyed listening to it all the time.
Along the journey we played Antakshari. Neha's got a sweet and melodious
voice and Swati's was also good. The trio: Neha, Swati and Snigdha had a good
repertoire of songs and they were leading the game. Due to this all the time just
passed by and it was 3.30 in the afternoon, by the time we reached the resort.
The resort was built on the bank of Kabini River (or rather the man-made lake).
There were nets tied to the trees and I had seen things like these only in the
movies. We climbed the nets and danced and jumped like monkeys. I forgot that
I was no longer a child, but that's ok at times it gives you so much pleasure to
go back to childhood even for a few moments.
We were all hungry and so immediately had our lunch, got ourselves freshened
up and were ready for the Safari. We boarded the open top Jeep and embarked on
the journey through the jungles. Afsar was our guide. Initially for half an
hour we couldn't spot any creature other than birds, but soon we were all on our
feet looking at all the wild animals. There were plenty of deers and they were all
in big herds. Soon we spotted jungle fowls, bisons, Sambars, peacocks, wild dogs,
wild pigs and elephants. I missed my camera very much. There were many elephants
grazing the grass on the bank of the lake. Because the lake was man-made, we could
see dead trees amidst water (which had died of sumersion).
It was 8 pm by the time we were back to our tents. Had dinner and then roamed
for some time around the resorts and I could feel the mild breeze flowing. Later
we watched a documentary shot in the Nagerhole forest. Watching it sitting inside
the forest was an experience by itself.
Next day early in the morning at 7 am we started for another safari through
the jungles. The jungles were dense at some places but really not as dense as I
had expected. Perhaps visiting the place sometime during the monsoon would turn
beauty into it's superlative form. This was the first time I got an oppurtunity
to ride an elephant. It was good. Mary & Sundari were the elephants that carried
us on their backs. We got the chance of boating in those small-circular boats.
On this boat we entered the jungles in the water (the dead trees emerging out of
water). Some of use even rowed the boat. I too wanted to. Again I missed my camera.
We then returned to our tents, vacated them and started on our journey home.
Overall it was a beautiful experience in the company of my colleagues and nature.
I was enjoying every moment of it. How I felt I should leave everything and stay
in these jungles with these animals. There was this person called Wakefield, who
supposedly started the resorts and has been staying there all alone (without family)
for 25 years. He had followed his inner calling.
Some images here