Ajayji nice pic of this Mothi Sonaki...
-- Regards Rajesh Sachdev http://www.facebook.com/leopardguy >> >> On 5 January 2012 22:45, Ajay Ramakrishnan <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Though I am a brand new member of EFI, I have been passionate about >>> flower photos since August-September 2010. Around that time, I heard about >>> Kaas for the first time. But that year I was not able to plan the trip. In >>> 2011, I made the long awaited "pilgrimage" along with my brother and cousin >>> >>> But the dream almost became a nightmare... First, the Neeta Volvo that >>> took us overnight from Mumbai to Satara was 2 hours late. Then, the driver >>> dumped us on the highway instead of taking us to the Satara ST stand as >>> advertised on the Neeta website. Then, we had to pay an auto driver 90 >>> rupees just to take us the 3 or so kilometers to the stand. Then, we learnt >>> that we had just missed the 6:45 am ST bus to Mahabaleshwar that would have >>> taken us directly to the Kaas plateau and that the next bus was at 8 am, by >>> which time the sunlight could get too bright to take good photos. Then, we >>> asked a tourist taxi operator what he would charge for the round trip to >>> Kaas, and he quoted an eye-popping Rs. 1200 >>> >>> Okay, now for the twist. Telling the taxi driving con artist we'd get >>> back, the three of us started bargaining with some auto drivers near the >>> bus stand. One of them finally agreed to take us first to Kaas, then to >>> Thoseghar waterfalls, and then back to the ST stand in the afternoon, all >>> for Rs. 1200. We grudgingly agreed to the fare and hopped in. On the way to >>> Kaas, the hillside road was lined with beautiful flowers, including some >>> light blue morning glories that I had never seen before. But since I wanted >>> to reach Kaas by 7:30 am, which I had been told was the best time for >>> flower photography on the plateau, I sacrificed the blue ipomoeas and >>> probably many other rare morning flowers. But it was worth it, since the >>> auto driver stopped on top of the Kaas plateau, which was only slowly >>> filling up with tourists, at precisely 7:25 am >>> >>> We spent 90 minutes of exploring the plateau to find the few rare >>> species left other than smithias and balsams (it was already October 1, the >>> fag end of the season). Among the beautiful flowers we did find was this >>> bunch of Adenoon indicum - Blue Sonki. Hope you all like the photo >>> (resolution reduced for sending to the EFI group) >>> >> >>
