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The Vaishnodevi Experience 2023

My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
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Asian Open Bill or Asian Open Billed Stork

We first saw these birds at the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, but on my recent trip to Tamilnadu, we saw this one in a rice field, somewhere between Mayiladudurai (Mayavaram) and Tarangambadi (Tranquebar)....



Would I be right in thinking that its the Cauvery which draws them? What do you think?

P.S. Posts on the blog will be erratic for a while because of some major renovation work in our house which has restricted my access to the computer. I will, however, be posting regular updates as well as photographs on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Please follow me there to see what I am up to. Besides, I am off on another trip soon, so stay tuned for a lot more photos!!! 
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  1. HaddockNovember 3, 2014 at 11:55 PM

    The beak is quite thick, compared to the regular stork.

    ReplyDelete

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