The search for some of my ants in saltpans resulted in a drive towards Yulara. The saltpan was snugly fit in some private land but couldnt resist the thought of not checking for ants and we drove into the private property. Yup! found the ants, lots of them infact..and lots of nests aswell. Here are some pics of the day, the day before and days following the find. [View Full Entry]

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Finally got hold of what i had been dreaming of for the last year, a Canon 350D SLR with an array of lenses. Have been shooting crazily day in day out..so couldnt stop myself from making this a complete pic blog. [View Full Entry]

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Hunt for the elusive black morph Jumping Ant started off where I had seen it last time, a good 4 years back, in the valley of Evergreen forests in a village called Sullali, some 2 hours away from Sagar, Shimoga. We measure distance there by the time taken to travel rather than actual meters itself. Reached Sagar early in the morning with a bad tummy (groan...) and had the best food one can with a bad tummy, idli, vada, sambhar..yumm.. It was heavenly to get back to paying 5 Rs for a plate, compared to exhorbant prices in Bangalore. With still [View Full Entry]

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Finally reached Hungary!! Long loooong flight it turned out to be. Due to flight delays I didn’t get more than 30 minutes in transit..which was great. Got here on 16th morning and staying in a university hostel, 2 minutes away from Danube :)). Budapest has that feel to it...you know chaos amidst orderliness!!. Ate as soon as I got here in a dingy underground place…Mexican chillies and tortillas and all sorts of mixtures. Trams seem to be big here..along with metro buses and suburban trains. Already traveled ticketless once!! Went around exploring around the city, walking along [View Full Entry]

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Few more days and then I am off to Budapest..Paris of the east isn't it?...all perked up and excited....got guides in...convertors..and all that sort...tickets...not yet :)...cant wait to get to those cobblestone streets..side alleys...the Danube river...more kicked since its not a 'typical' european culture up there...and ofcourse the castle hills in Buda and the "supposed to be" scenic plains of Pest....cant wait....heard there are also plenty of world heritage sites in this small country. [View Full Entry]

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Driving through a desert, crossing the tropic of capricorn, then entering the sweltering tropics in Australia, the crocs, the waterfalls, serene lakes. Tonnes of pics!! [View Full Entry]

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As the day began four of us left Alice towards the west McDonnel ranges, in quite decent weather. I did a few walks but primarily satisfied myslef by finally doing the tourist kind of things. But well by the time we were back in the late afternoon, temperature was soaring in early 40 celcius, which wasn't that pleasant after all :( Dropped into Glen Helen, Ormiston gorge, Ochre Pits, Ellery creek, Standley chasm and Simpson's gap. Amidst the touristy stuff, all excited about spotting my first Psuedomyrmicine ant in Oz which was on the the Larapinta drive. Well first ant..is first [View Full Entry]

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Hellos :) Had a wonderful time travelling from Narrendra to Alice..a fabulous 5 days of driving, camping in flinders ranges, staying in underground houses in Cooberpeddy, watching wedge tailed eagles feast on roadkill kangaroos, fighting boredom of driving on really straight roads, escaping monstrously large road trains and gaping wide mouthed at the milky white salt lakes. Details in previous entry..but, here are some of the pictures. [View Full Entry]

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After all the dawdling, and people gawking (u will never make it there) followed by a "go soon people" send off at "The Ranch" in Sydney, me and dinesh finally left on our first and longest road trip till date. Sydney to Alice Springs, ya right, to a town called Alice. We took off in a rental station wagon a ford falcon, and since we rented it out from a german company, everything was in order. Only missing was a satellite phone, heard it was essential, but well cant have everything... We actually bought a first aid kit, which come to [View Full Entry]

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G'day! Just back after spending sometime in the Saharan summer, in Tunisia and Algeria. Rickety bus rides, train rides, packed louages, 4WD driving with no maps, hitchhiking, cycling. Randomess in order was back, and then there were colourful carpets, carthagian ruins, roman towers, presidents poster pasted everywhere, stupendously beautiful mosques, vegetarian salads with fish, or beef, or pork, slyly buying beers, though beer cans are strewn all over the street, lovely beaches, houses with flat roofs, gorgeous sky, extreme sandstorms, one of which blew the car off, patterned veils, marked a [View Full Entry]

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