Over 2000 Km by road, in around 10 days. Stunning landscapes, wonderful people. That sums up our Ladakh trip. But how did it actually work? How did we make it happen? Read on to find out! Leh, the capital of Ladakh , is accessible by air and road. Flying into Leh is the easiest, and time-saving option, while the road is the time consuming one, but with the added advantage of driving past some of the most beautiful landscapes in our country. Each option has much to recommend it, and we chose the road for just one reason – altitude sickness. Altitude sickness was one of my biggest concerns, since I suffer from motion-sickness. Yes, I do travel a lot, but that is despite my condition, and, over the years, have learnt how to handle it. I struggled with it when we visited Nathu-La in Sikkim, and wondered if I would be able to manage a week at the even higher altitudes that we would encounter in Ladakh. This was the reason we stuck to a basic plan, of only 9 days in Ladakh, though we
The Tungabhadra flows
between Hampi and Anegundi, and makes her presence felt all over the place.
That the land is so fertile even months after the rains is evidently due to
her, and the fact that even in January there is enough water is a sight which
makes us smile.
We crossed the river by
a coracle to get to the Navabrindavanam…
Our coracle driver was
Ramzan Amma, a Muslim woman who earned her living by ferrying people to and
fro, mainly to Navabrindavanam!
A dove peered at us as
we went past!
And while the river bank
on the Hampi side had been covered by sand,
we found a rocky bed on the other
side…. Covered with potholes! I had never seen potholes on riverbanks before
Nighoj, and was really surprised to see more here!
And then we took a motorboat
to get to the main portion of Anegundi to visit the other places…..
We expected to see many
birds at the Daroji Bear wildlife Sanctuary, but, in fact, we saw more while
walking around Anegundi, and every time we saw a bird, I realized that we were
on the banks of the Tungabhadra. It started with this purple heron we saw on
the river…..It stood on the rock in the middle of the river, oblivious of the
crowded motorboat chugging its way down the river….
I was able to take a
couple of photos before the rest of my co-passengers became aware of the bird
and started pointing the bird out and making a ruckus. The bird was probably
disgusted, and flew away…
But we saw it again,
and this time, it was
joined by a Little Cormorant…
Later, when we gingerly
walked across a makeshift bridge made of ancient pillars laid out across a
stream diverging from the river, we spotted this Pied Kingfisher….
Unfortunately this is all my poor camera could do….
A dove posed for us….
As, for the first time,
did a Little Green Bee Eater!
We did see more birds,
but unfortunately, not close enough to click!
We took a coracle to
get back to Hampi,and this time, Samhith
got to help while the coracle was being emptied of the water which had
collected!
Interestingly, all the
coracle drivers on the Anegundi side were women, and those on the Hampi side
were men! Each brought one load of people to the other side and went back
empty, even if there were many people waiting for a ride! When we asked why, we
were told that there were two groups of people running the coracles, and this
was the arrangement they had agreed on, so that they could both survive!
I was interested to see
that most of these coracle drivers were women (see the second pic in the post),
and they were as capable of handling the boats filled to capacity, as the men.
In fact, they were much more efficient, better at calculations, and got into
lesser arguments with the passengers than the men! Oh yes, and they were a lot
more united too! When one of the women refused to take us to a particular
dropping point, all the other women ganged up and refused to ferry us there! The
lone male driver at the moment dithered, but he finally gave up! We had no
choice but to go the way the majority wanted to!
The concept of women drivers
seems to work well, since it gives them something to do while the men are at
work, and it also adds to the income. The fact that it is a viable prospect is
evident from the new project the ASI is trying out at the Vitthala Temple.
Electric cars ferry passengers from the parking area to the temple and back,
and all these vehicles are driven by women!
It was at least a positive
note to look back on, as we readied to take our leave of Hampi and Anegundi!
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