Journey of life...!: kalimpong

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Ferns from the Northeast

First thing that attracts me in a forest is a fern. I love seeing them in wild. For the way they are, they pull me towards them. Their beautiful leafy-greeny posture makes me wonder at them. Like how they make the whole habitat look beautiful, they make me feel very special when I'm strolling among them in the wild. And there are many species of ferns. Every new place I visit, I see different varieties of ferns.

Last month, for the first time I visited the beautiful mountain valleys of Northeast and felt heavenly being among those mountains for a short period of time. The highlight of my trip to those valleys was the visit to Neora Valley. It spreads over an area of 88 km² and is one of the richest biological zones in the entire Northeast. It is the land of the elegant Red Panda in the pristine undisturbed natural habitat with rugged inaccessible hilly terrain and rich diverse flora and fauna making this park an important wilderness zone. First thing that attracted me in this heavenly valley, was a fern. They were in all forms and sizes everywhere. They were the first sign of richness in the valley.

As much as I enjoy seeing ferns, I love photographing them as well. I only wish I could know more about them. Well, I'm getting there. Although I do not know their IDs, I did photograph some of them. Below are some of the beauties from the Neora Valley National Park.

The new frond of a tree fern unfurling

Tree fern species

A beautiful moth on the fern

It was a very spongy feel to touch this fern leaf

the bigger sized (perhaps a tree fern?)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

North-Eastern Panorama

As always, what I do like capturing during my travels are some panoramic shots of the places I visit. So, even this time, I tried capturing some wide angled shots of the huge valleys of North-Eastern Himalayas. Those high altitude serene lakes of Sikkim Himalayas and the huge valleys of Kalimpong mesmerized me enough to capture them as much as I enjoyed them seeing through my eyes. The only disappointment was that most of the time I had my macro lens ON to capture those beautiful orchids and I missed a lot on spectacular misty landscapes of Neora Valley National Park. Well, sometimes those disappointments are absolutely bearable. And those beautiful landscapes I witnessed through my eyes and could not enter my lens will remain in my eyes forever for sure. It was my dream to visit North-Eastern Himalayas and I've lived my dream for 10 days in my life. I treat it as my first installment towards a major commitment in the future! The following pictures may not even properly justify the actual scenery, but you will definitely get a glimpse of them!