Kilimanjaro and Serengeti in August of 2024

 It was something that cannot be anything other than once a lifetime experience. It was an experience which reduced 6 kgs of my weight. That is something I never thought would ever happen no matter how much I exercised. :)

Day 0: I fell ill on the evening that I reached Moshi Tanzania. Throat infection

Day 1: the start from Moshi Hotel Salinero. I was feverish and really depressed now. Could not eat. Had very little sleep over the last 2 days. Started off using crocin tablets. Reached the gate at the start of kili trek

Kilimajaro international Airport

Hotel Salinero, Moshi, Tanzania

Day 1: There was packed lunch at the gate. The climb then began steadily and I was feeling quite terrible and afraid that my strength would not last till then end of a 6 hour uphill walk on day 1. At the end of the day my legs did hurt a lot but thank fully no cramps. So I could recover slowly.

Start point of Kili trek... with Pakistani uncle

Day 1 Rain forest

Day 2: I was feeling quite sick by this time. The last night was too tiring and strange. Could not sleep properly in the sleeping bag. Feverish feeling was still there. I woke up thrice for pee. I think its because all those pills were making me have a high heart rate.

Day 1 camp... No sleep day 3 :)

Camp day 1

 

Day 3: By day 3, I had a very severe throat infection and it was time for Anti-biotics. Doc in the group said he had them but finally found some with Ashish by tent partner. How i had enegy left to take all these pictures I dont know :) Dancing on day 3 night.... and the summit in the background.

  

Day 4: Day 4 was special it was a climb up to a high point, have lunch there and then climb down to sleep at a lower altitude. The high point was called "lava tower"

 

Ashish, Doc, me, PD, Amit (Organiser)

Day 5: Started with a bang of a climb ... "Baranko wall" I was starting to feel a little better. There was a point where we had to hug a rock so tight that it was fondly called "kissing rock". It was up and up for a while and then down and down. I was doing much better than previous days.

 

Day 6: Summit day. This one started at 11:30 pm on previous day itself. It was a all night walk since the day time is hot and terrifying. I decided to take the shot. I was not fully recovered but strong enough to think that I can make it. It seems i have more energy than i think i have.

2022 is J Corbett time

 We went to Jim Corbett National park last month

Tigress

Rest house

Myself in a dull sky

beautiful bridge 

All of us in one shot

"The Secret" has worked for me

Of course I refer to the popular book "The Secret" which claimed that if a person truly and persistently believed in a certain kind of future or some sort of target, it does indeed become a reality.
For me, I first learned of this book around 10 year back. I was very depressed and sad around that time. I did not know why I kept failing at quite a few ventures in my life. I questioned if anything would ever work for me.
When I first read a part of this book "The Secret" and saw the accompanying video, I thought that it was some kind of mumbo-jumbo to sell the book. But soon I was analyzing

Pachgani

This year's Pachgani trip was all about walking to Tableland plateau each and every of the 5 days we were there. Also it was the first time I used Airbnb to book a flat. It was really quite nice and very affordable since we were there for a full week. It was also our first official trip with the kids and without any domestic help

Bitcoin - another wonderful opportunity that will pass me by

Bitcoin is a rapidly growing non-country specific digital currency that taken the world's economists by storm. Since it does not belong to one country no one can govern or control it. The acceptable is growing rapidly and soon we all are going to have to live with maintaining a bitcoin account too. particularly if we are travelling abroad.. Also bitcoin mining has gone crazy and there still is opportunity there. Hardware is fairly cheap and just like when I had predicted the rise of Android, in the next 3 years, I will be sitting back and wondering why I never set up a bitcoin mining company. :-)
I see stuff quite early but dont do anything about it. Only about one thing I am quite sure. In India living in rural places with a fair amount of city like facilities is going to become quite popular. The reverse migration of the rich from the cities will happen in the next 10 to 20 years. Thats when I will select where to go. No point in choosing a country house now and later not really liking it.

a sad day for Music lovers

Flipkart has shut down its Flyte MP3 store citing music piracy in India as a reason. Its a sad day for me personally since I was one of the biggest fans of Flyte. I dont know what to do to buy legal music in India now. damn
update: On that note, today will be dedicated to hunting down old and nice Hindi music and downloading the damn thing.

Sikkim's south east corner

me and T went to Sikkim's south east corner last month (Rumtek). For 6 days we trekked in the hills around Gangtok. As a town Gangtok itself is grubby and to be avoided by all nature lovers. The hills around it are magnificent and the air's great for walking even in summer. It rained sometimes but not so much as to bother us in any of our "us" activities.  It was a long deserved break from the kids. Its great that our parents agreed on taking care of the kids back home. Here's a gerat collage of the pictures from the trip.

The lake's called Tsongo and the ride up there was quite an experience. Camera: My trusty old Nikon D3100