How to Prepare Children for a Snorkeling Adventure

Beach vacations are incredibly fun for families, and they are made even more enjoyable when you add snorkeling to your itinerary. You don't need to shy away from snorkeling just because you have young children. There are several things you can do to help them prepare for the adventure they will face once you reach the water.

Practice in the Bathtub

Give your children plenty of time to learn about snorkeling and the gear that is involved. Weeks before your trip, hand them a snorkel as they take their baths each day. Let them play with it and explore how to use it in the comfort of their own familiar bathtub. Not only will they learn about snorkeling, but they will also really enjoy their bath time.

Take It to the Pool

Once your children have mastered the use of the snorkel tube in the bathtub, allow them to take it to the pool. They can then practice using the snorkel as they swim in the shallow end of the pool.

Add the Mask

As your children get comfortable with using a snorkel as they swim, give them a mask to use. You may want to allow them to wear the mask without the snorkeling tube until they become accustomed to how it feels. Make sure that it fits wells, does not pinch and does not allow water to enter. After they have adapted to wearing the mask, attach the snorkeling tube. Some children may prefer to hold the tube as they view the sites underwater rather than attaching the tube to the mask. Allow your child to determine his preference.

Teach Them How to Clear the Mask

Your children will need to learn how to clear their masks in order to enjoy the beautiful view of underwater life. The easiest way for them to do this is by filling the mask with water and them dumping it out. Older children can blow water out the purge valve to clear their views.

Add Other Equipment

Your children may prefer to use other devices while they are on their snorkeling adventure. Older kids may enjoy using fins to improve their mobility in the water, while younger children can be toted around safely on paddleboard that will allow them to see below the water without trying to swim. You may also want your children to wear rashguards and wet suits to protect them while they are in the water.

Snorkeling is a fun adventure that every member of the family will enjoy. Just remember to be patient and allow your children to adjust to each new step before you take them to a shallow place in the ocean. Their confidence will soon grow, and they will learn to love snorkeling as much as you do.

On the Leopards' Trail in Marwar

Alert Leopard on a boulder in Bera

Trying to sight a Leopard (Panthera Pardus) in a jungle is perhaps no different than trying to find a needle in a haystack. On the many trips to the jungles of India, with some patience and luck, one can have excellent sightings of tigers, lions, even the shy sloth bear, and other mammals. But the leopard is an elusive beast. It can hide itself in any nook & cranny of the jungle, is smaller than the other carnivores, enjoys excellent camouflage, prefers hunting in the night, and with its acrobatic skills can perch itself on trees and boulders. Even if sightings occur, they are more in the nature of blink and you miss it. Though, we have heard stories of people seeing a leopard, sitting nonchalantly in plain view of the human eye, in the jungles of South India, such reports have been fewer from those of North India.

Despite several trips in the wild, we had thus far been unlucky in the matter of leopard sighting. The closest we ever came to sighting it was when we spotted a leopard’s kill but, not the perpetrator himself!

No longer wanting to leave things to a chance, we decided to take matters in our own hands and headed straight to Bera, a dusty village in southern Rajasthan amidst the Aravalli mountains and surrounded by water bodies. Here our abode was Thakur Devi Singhji’s orchard or rather the Leopard’s Lair Resort as it is officially called.

Devi Singhji & Me

Thakur Devi Singhji is a legend in these parts of Rajasthan for his work in the field of leopard conservation. The mountains in this belt do not have enough of a natural prey base for the leopards to feast upon; hence they were forced to hunt calves and goat. The villagers, who were naturally incensed on losing their livestock, would often kill the leopards. This was until Devi Singhji stepped in and started compensating the villagers for the loss of livestock. Thanks to his efforts, the man-animal conflict in the region has reduced to a great extent. Today, there is a thriving population of about 20-25 leopards in the area surrounding Bera! No wonder the place is on its way to planting itself on the wildlife tourism circuit of India.

Presently there are two properties in Bera that provide stay facility and game drives - Leopard’s Lair Resort (run by Thakur Devi Singhji) and CastleBera. We of course chose the former.

The leopard safaris (game drives) are lead by Devi Singhji himself and it is a pleasure spending time with him while waiting for the leopards to put in an appearance. A thorough gentleman, extremely polite and hospitable, he is a fountain of knowledge. Leopard sightings are very regular thanks to Devi Singhji's expertise and the fact that their territories are well defined. There's a rocky hillock, close to the farms, where a leopard's family is known to reside (male, female and two adult cubs) and it serves as a starting point for the safari. The leopards can be easily seen resting on the rocks or perched on the dry trees. The absence of any dense vegetation on the hillock makes the sightings easier (though for us mortals it takes a minute or two to sight the leopard in the yellow grasses). Devi Singhji also proudly informed us that he can count on his finger tips the number of days in a year when there are no sightings! Impressive!

We had visited the place in winter which, as Devi Singhji informed us, is also the best time for leopard sightings. This is because, unlike summers when they emerge out late owing to the heat, in winters they stroll out of their caves between 5-6:00PM, bask for a while in the warmth of the setting sun and then proceed to make their kill. The only negative, from my perspective, was that during winters the Sun sets exactly behind the hillock. As a result, leopard sightings occur in fading light and getting some good images becomes difficult. Though, we were more interested in the sightings (given our luck earlier) than in images.

The evening safari extends into the night and if one is lucky he might even sight leopards feasting on their kill.

Zara & her adult cub

On the first day, we got to enjoy the sight of a female leopard (named Zara) and her adult cub (named Nivaan, if my memory serves me right) for over an hour. They would occasionally rest on the boulder, move about on the hillock, and play on tree tops until they chose to disappear into the bushes, presumably, to make arrangements for their dinner! It was almost night time by now and Devi Singhji drove us around in the territory hoping to sight leopards indulging in some activity. In case you are wondering how it is possible to sight leopards in the dark - well, a helper sitting in the rear of your vehicle employs a large spotting light to sweep the area for any signs of the beast. The beast’s eyes reflect back the light thereby betraying his presence. After a long drive we did manage to sight the two leopards again (Zara and Nivaan). However, upon sighting us humans, they quickly made for the bushes and we lost them thereafter.

Our subsequent visits were not as fruitful. But we had enough memories to carry back home. On the first day, while waiting for the leopards, we sighted a pair of Indian Grey Mongoose and as the legend goes, sighting them in a pair is extremely lucky for the beholder. Well, so we were!


For a slide show of complete set of pictures from Bera, please click Here. 


A note on the resort: The resort package includes crocodile safaris which are conducted in the morning. These are a complete waste of time and should be exchanged for the morning leopard safari. The crocodile safari is lead by a village bumpkin who can barely tell a crow from a pigeon. As such if one is interested in bird / crocodile watching near the Jawai Dam, we would suggest that he personally hire a vehicle and drive down to the dam and explore the birds at leisure than be at the mercy of an idiot.

Asian Openbill Stork (@ Jawai Dam)

The resort by itself has a nice rustic ambience. The property is fairly large and the Thakurs have planted a wide variety of trees in the orchard, thereby providing habitat to diverse species of birds. One can easily spot about 30-35 species of birds within the campus itself. The food is home made (in traditional Rajput style) and tastes ok. 
The rooms are well appointed, large and clean. The sour point is that the hotel staff is not well trained in hospitality and their mannerisms can put one off at times. In such instances, one just needs to speak to Devi Singhji or his wife and things will be immediately taken care of.

Room Tip: Choose the ones near the bonfire site.

All in all, visit this place for sighting leopards, understanding their behaviour, watching birds and to soak in some tranquillity. We would suggest spending minimum 2 nights at the place.

Sun rises over Marwar

How to reach: The nearest railhead is Jawai Bandh. From here, the drive to the resort takes ~ 20-30 minutes. The nearest airports are Udaipur (East of Bera) and Jodhpur (North of Bera) both of which are a good 4-5 hours’ drive from Bera. We would suggest that you include in your itinerary a visit to Udaipur and the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary for a wholesome experience and to make the most of your time and money.

Plum Headed Parakeet (Male)

List of birds sighted by us in the region: Large Cuckoo Shrike, White Wagtail, Common Hoopoe, Yellow Wagtail, Asian Openbill Stork, Black Winged Stilt, River Tern, Red Wattled Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Grey Headed Canary Flycatcher, Eurasian Collared Dove, Laughing Dove, Spotted Dove, Plum Headed Parakeets, Rose Ringed Parakeet, Little Ringed Plover, Indian Pond Heron, Ruddy Shelduck, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Black Shouldered Kite, Indian Robin, Common Tailorbird, Common Crow, Rock Pigeon, House Sparrow, Long Tailed Shrike, Black Ibis, Black Headed Ibis, Little Cormorant, Little Grebe, Common Greenshank, Red Throated Flycatcher, Indian Peafowl, Jungle Prinia, Desert Wheatear, Oriental White Eye, Large Billed Crow, Red Vented Bulbul, Purple Sunbird, Jungle Babbler, Little Green Bee-eater, Black Drongo, Indian Roller, Grey Francolin, Oriental Magpie Robin, Crested Bunting, and Black Redstart.










Copyright Maneesh Goal. All Rights Reserved.

Shilonda Trail (Sanjay Gandhi National Park): Update

Here is an update to my previous post on Shilonda Trail in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Mumbai).

Last Sunday I traversed the Shilonda Trail again with few of my friends. Here is a bit of dope for those wanting to go on this trail. This trail is closed for the general public and requires special permission from the forest department to go. Good news is that the Nature Interpretation Centre inside SGNP provides this permission for a nominal fee of Rs. 50 per head, albeit for a group size of 10 people. In case you are fewer than 10, then a lumpsum amount of Rs. 500/- needs to be paid. The department issues a receipt so everything is above board. 

This time around our focus was on birds and we managed to sight around 30 species of birds (fewer than we expected - but that's luck). Our prize catch was a pair of Indian Grey Hornbill. However, we didn't get any good bird photographs... but got some decent nature and street photography images.


Check out the images here.

Spiti Valley - Article published in Hindustan Times

Himalayan Patterns @ Spiti

The web edition of leading Indian daily, Hindustan Times, recently published an article written by me on Spiti (Himachal Pradesh). You can read the article here.

Leap of faith!

Titled 'Discovering the charm of Spiti', it is a slightly modified version of the article I had written on this blog last year immediately after returning from Spiti - one of the most satisfying trips of my life!
Hope you enjoy reading the article. I also urge you to visit the place at least once in your lifetime for the spectacular sights it offers and the wonderful people who live there!

As always, I would like to personally thank each one of you for having patronised my blog and for supporting me. A special thanks to the team at Incredible Spiti for getting this article published in Hindustan Times, which is an esteemed newspaper of our times.

P.S. - The pictures published alongside the article are not mine. They have been mistakenly credited to me.

Kaas Plateau - Article published in Asian Age

An article written by me on Maharashtra's Kaas Plateau, along with some pictures taken by me, was published yesterday in the Delhi edition of Asian Age newspaper.

Asian Age article

I would like to personally thank each one of you for having patronised my blog and supported me. You can also read the original write-up, which I had published in October 2010, on this very blog here. The newspaper article is a remixed version of the same.

Also do not forget to visit the place in September!

Thanks once again :)

Ranthambhore National Park II - Charge in the Rajbagh Lake

Portrait of T-17 / Sundari Tigress

It was a cloudy evening on our third day in the Ranthambhore National Park. As I looked heavenward, I said - well, bad light to add to our woes! Thank you! So far on our current trip, we had tasted limited success with tiger sightings - none worth photographing (see details at the end). Hence, for our fifth safari in the jungle, we were at the same time desperate for a decent photography opportunity as well as nonchalant about the prospects. We were getting closer to a tiger with every passing safari and we still had two more to go after this one!

For a slide show of complete set of pictures from Ranthambore National Park, please click Here.

Also read about my previous visit and a detailed note on Ranthambore National Park Here.

For the evening we were allotted the scenic Zone 3. In the morning, during our tour of Zone 2, we happened to learn that the tigress T-17 (affectionately called Sundari) had been spotted around the Rajbagh Lake. We were hoping to sight her again in that area, praying that she would have chosen a spot in the adjacent bushes to rest during the day. We were completely oblivious to the fact that Goddess Amba (one of the most worshipped Goddesses in Hinduism and who has the tiger as her vehicle) had already given her blessings for this safari and what awaited us today was something we would cherish for a lifetime! As we neared the Rajbagh Lake we saw a few jeeps stationed near the bushes with the tourists inside animatedly motioning towards something behind the rocks. When we neared the spot, the guide pointed towards a stepped rocky area and said in a voice full of excitement "Sir, woh dekho pathar ke peeche T-17 tigress hai" (Sir, the T-17 tigress is sitting behind the rocks over there). We were struggling to spot her as the rock was also surrounded by bushes. Intermittently she would bob her head and that is when we would catch a glimpse of the stripes. There was not much happening for a good 20 minutes. An army of jeeps and canters had come rushing to the spot in the meanwhile. Our driver Mahesh, quietly moved the jeep away from the din and parked it in such a position that if the tiger were to move he would be best positioned to manoeuvre the vehicle.

Mahesh

I was peering through my binoculars and suddenly heard the rustle of the leaves and saw the tigress beginning to make a move. The whole crowd was now in a state of heightened alertness - like the army officers on battlefront! What followed was absolute madness! No sooner would the tigress take a step in a particular direction, than the battery of vehicles would start moving in that direction... come to a screeching halt and then move backwards again... trying to match the tigress' move step for step. Mahesh kept his cool all the while and began driving only when the tigress had started moving decisively. It was a mad scramble out there as everyone was trying to out manoeuvre the other and there were some close escapes. In the meanwhile, the tigress was walking straight behind the spot where she was resting...a path which would lead her to the other side of the Rajbagh Lake. The drivers sensed this, and rushed to the spot from where she would emerge.

T-17 walking beside the Rajbagh Lake

The light was bad and I was worried whether I would be able to get good shots. But the moment the tigress emerged in plain sight I started firing away. I also spared a moment or two to soak in the magnificence of the animal - the sight of a tiger always has such a profound impact on the beholder that he / she gets lost in the moment and needs to be stirred out of his stupor! The mad race for a vantage position amongst the jeeps was still on and sometimes we would have a clear view of the tigress and sometimes not. As such we were shooting from a moving jeep. However, luck was to be completely on our side from here on. We were helped, in large measure, by our driver Mahesh who manoeuvred the jeep like Lord Krishna manoeuvring Arjun's Chariot on the battlefield in Mahabharata. He drove on steep inclines by the track side and also managed to fox other jeeps to give him room to drive ahead. We were now ahead of everybody else, including the tigress. A supremely vantage position as the tigress was walking straight towards us - giving a full frontal view, sans the radio collar!!!

Here I must take a small detour and tell you an interesting fact about T-17 / Sundari. T-17 is the 4 year old daughter of the legendary tigress Machali (Machli) and lords over the territory around the Padam Lake and Rajbagh Lake. She has a radio collar around her neck which is used to undertake scientific studies on aspects such as tiger movement, extent of area covered, etc. It is strictly NOT used for tracking the tiger for the benefit of tourists during tiger safaris. The presence of a radio collar poses a peculiar problem for photographers... in that, nobody would love to have a picture of a wild tiger with a collar around its neck! The solution is to either photograph her from the front or at an angle such that the collar is not visible... but then, the angle is not under one's control since the tiger is the King of the jungle and it does not move as per a tourist's whims and fancies!

T-17 treads slowly on the vehicle track

The moment T-17 arrived close to our jeep, she was barely 15 feet away, she nonchalantly glanced towards us (Bah! Tourists - I could read it in her eyes!) and I managed to get some nice portrait shots of this sundari (beautiful) animal. She then moved out onto the vehicle track and sat down a few metres away from us. The jeeps behind us were yelling, because for them the tigress was almost out of sight! She sat there for a few minutes (her backside towards us), wagged her tail, glanced around and then she stood up and started walking, albeit slowly. Everybody instantly realised that she had now begun stalking the three unsuspecting Sambar Deers who were cooling themselves and feasting on the grass inside the Rajbagh Lake. She slowly descended from the tracks into the bushes abutting the lake. We were so positioned that our jeep, the tigress and the deers were all along the same line of sight!

T-17 Stalking the Deers - damn the light!

For around 20-30 minutes, which seemed excruciatingly long, she was stealthily making her way towards the deers. At times even we couldn't spot her - she was so well camouflaged. The light was fading fast now, damn! It wasn't to be long though. She was now within striking distance. There was an eerie calm all around. The spectators were watching in mute silence, numbed by the proceedings and the heavenly sights on display. It was to be a rare moment for everyone.

T-17, however, appeared to have revealed her cards a bit too soon as one of the Sambar Deers sighted the tigress, perhaps in the nick of time, and gave out a loud alarm call. At this very moment the tigress leaped into the waters, creating a huge splash akin to a tidal wave. But the Sambar Deers proved a bit too agile given that they got a few crucial moments between the sighting and the leap to run for their lives. The tigress charged in the waters after the larger of the three deers and also chased it for a few yards outside the waters in the woods. But, finally, she had to give up on the hunt. It was a kill not to be, sigh! The whole episode was over in less than 15 seconds!

Sambar Deers running for their lives!

All this while we had concealed our excitement and focused on capturing the wonderful, action-packed moments in our cameras. Once the tigress disappeared into the woods, we all broke into animated conversation and like sports commentators were giving suggestions on how things could have been different for the tigress. But the tigress, just like sportsmen, cares a damn for the commentators. We looked at each other's pictures, revelled in the memories and thanked the lady luck, our driver Mahesh and the guide. Back in the hotel, I showed the pictures to Desh Bandhu Vaid (the Guru of Ranthambhore). He was happy at what transpired and remarked that the sight of a tiger charging inside the Rajbagh Lake is a rare one and a photographer's delight!

For me Ranthambhore had once again lived up to its reputation. Long live the Tigers of Ranthambhore!

General brief on our trip and sightings - 
We sighted six different tigers during our trip -
Day 1, Evening - Zone 4 - Nil
Day 2, Morning - Zone 3 - missed T-17 by a whisker (she crossed over from Jogi Mahal to Zone 2)
Day 2, Evening - Zone 1 - T-24 Male and his female partner T-39 (they were mating) who we couldn't sight. T-24 was resting far away in the bushes near Kala Pani area.
Day 3, Morning - Zone 2 - Nil
Day 3, Evening - Zone 3 - T-17
Day 4, Morning - Zone 4 - Mating pair @ Berda: T-6 male and T-41 female - far away in the bushes! Also sighted Machali (T-16) near Adi Daggar but again far away in bushes!
Day 4, Evening - Zone 1 - Mating pair T-24 male and T-39 female. We had clear view for a while but from atleast 100 metres away!

Other mammals sighted - Nilgai (Bluebull), Sambar Deer, Chital / Spotted Deer, Wild Boar, Striped Hyena (in the night when out for a drive), Common Langurs, Pair of Mongoose.

Mr. (right) & Mrs. (left) Painted Sandgrouse

List of birds spotted during the trip - Bronze Winged Jacana, Shikra, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Darter, Little Heron, Indian Pond Heron, Black Kite, Black Winged Stilt, Great Thick-knee, Common Greenshank, Pied Kingfisher, White Throated Kingfisher, Green Bee-eater, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Asian Palm Swift, Black Drongo, Long Tailed Shrike, Red Vented Bulbul, Jungle Babbler, Purple Sunbird, Chestnut Shouldered Petronia, Greater Painted Snipe, Common Moorhen, White Browed Fantail, Collared Scops Owl, Long Billed Vulture, Red Headed Vulture, Painted Stork, Lesser Whistling Duck, Crested Serpent Eagle, Woolly Necked Stork, Painted Spurfowl, Eurasian Collared Dove, Rock Pigeon, Asian Paradise Flycatcher (female), Black Redstart (Id doubtful), Asian Koel (male), White Bellied Drongo, Painted Sandgrouse (male & female), Grey Heron, Intermediate Egret, Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Crested Bunting, Spotted Dove, Laughing Dove, Grey Francolin, Oriental White-eye, Indian Peafowl, Great Tit, Rufous Treepie, Large Billed Crow, Brahminy Starling, Common Myna, Common Tailor Bird, Oriental Magpie Robin, Indian Robin, Common Iora, Rose Ringed Parakeet, Red Wattled Lapwing, Pied Myna, Greater Coucal, Black Rumped Flameback, Eurasian Thick-knee, Indian Cormorant, Great Cormorant, House Crow and House Sparrow.

Copyright Maneesh Goal. All Rights Reserved.

Street Photography in Vasai

I am happy when my best friends have their arms around me :)

"When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!"  — Ted Grant

Street photography is all about wandering, with a camera strung around your neck - observing, soaking in the surroundings, and capturing the moments that define the people, their moods and their surroundings, often in a candid setting. Wikipedia beautifully puts it thus  - Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter, and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with. The best part about street photography is that it doesn't need fancy equipment! Often a point & shoot camera or even a mobile phone camera can do the job. All one needs is the eye to observe, the heart to feel the situation and the mind to quickly frame the scene!

The above photograph was taken inside the Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, near Vasai, where we had gone birding a few weeks ago. A photographer needs to be alert all the time about possibilities even while he may be out to specifically shoot something else, in this case birds. While that day didn't prove particularly lucky for us with respect to capturing birds, we made the most of the opportunity by indulging in some candid / street photography of people who visit the Tungareshwar temple as well as residents of the place. Later in the day we also visited the Bassein Fort, located beside the Arabian Sea in Vasai. There's a beautiful fishermen's village nearby and luckily we managed to get some good street shots of its residents!  - even though our objective was water birds!

For a slide show of complete set of pictures from Vasai, please click here.