sights in and around Discovery Village

March 16 and 17, 2019
It was a gathering of primary school friends at a resort off Bangalore-Kanakapura road. The resort had a great ambiance, thanks to the greenery and the friendly staff, we had a great time. This resort is the place for the outdoor types, and indoor types too. With so much greenery and creative designing, you'll keep discovering stuff.. no wonder its called Discovery Village.

Among all palm, Fishtail palm leaf is the most stylish looking one. The leaves look as though they have been torn off.

The pink-white-yellow frangipani. This bunch was found close to the amphitheater. What I found special in this view was the flowers are lit from inside. The effect of colors is pronounced due to the direction of light.

When I saw this flower, the first object that came to my mind was paper lantern. Nature's designs are so subtle.. its texture and shape, the soft colors, oh what a lovely creation.

The bulbous stem plant is Buddha Belly Bamboo. It is also called Wamin bamboo or Vulgaris bamboo, it grows fast but its a dwarf compared to other varieties.

Golden bamboo with green stripes. Wondering what decides the position, thickness and number of stripes.

Then we have the Florida bamboo which looks almost like one variety of sugarcane. I think these are the three bamboo varieties seen here.

The imposing Desert Fan Palm. The leaf and stem together look like a stingray. Palms and Bamboos are favorite for landscaping because of fast growth.

Here's another beautiful tree with small leaves as seen here. The leaves are usually in groups of 3 to 9. This is the Madagascar Almond tree.

The stem is straight and erect with prominent layers of horizontal branches. When sunlight is low, rays passing through the leaves makes them look like floating green bulbs.

About two kilometers from the resort is a village water tank which attracts birds like heron, cormorant, kingfisher and probably few other varieties. Here's a lonely cormorant waiting for a fish to come near it but our presence made it uneasy.

A heron, seen through eucalyptus branches, hovers around the pond.

An Indian Kite perched on a Peepul tree. The bird was bigger than the ones I'd seen earlier. It was watching something carefully. Almost suddenly it dove off the branch, out of view of few seconds, reappeared in pursuit of an owl. A sight to cherish.

As we climbed a hillock, its surface burnt out recently, I noticed a mud nest on a boulder. The tiny nest has several entry / exit points. Probably this belongs to a variety of wasp.

Grass in knots. I'd seen this first on Midigeshi hill. My guide there had told wind caused these knots.

Simmering charcoal under a layer of hot wood ash.

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Payyambalam beach, Kannur

It was in 1995 or 1996 that I last visited Kerala, to attend a wedding at Kannur. It was a one day visit, Anish was our host, Gulli and I had been to St. Angelo fort. Then Anish had taken us to a temple along with the newly married couple. Later we spent the evening at his parent's house before boarding the bus to Bangalore.

Feb-1, 2019
This was my first outing for the year 2019, a business-vacation trip with friend who's an architect. We reached Kannur Feb-2 just before noon, as planned we headed straight to a well known plywood factory. We met the managing director who arranged a tour of the factory with the production manager. This factory established in 1940s is spread over 40 to 50 acres; manufactures wood based products like plywood, soft-board, electrical insulators, and furniture; has its own chemical lab and material testing lab; has its own electrical station and for backup there are 3 generators capable of supplying electricity to Kannur city!

We called it a day by 5 pm and moved into the factory's guest house with an unhindered view of the sea. We had tea watching the sun fade into the mist over the watery horizon, listening to the sounds of sea and feeling the cool sea breeze.

Following day we resumed our tour of the factory, then some technical discussions. Our business part of the trip was done. Late afternoon we headed towards Payyambalam beach which was a 15 minute walk from the guest house. However we turned back seeing the crowd.. Back at the guest house, we found a path down the cliff to the little beach. We stayed on the beach until it was almost dark.

Feb-3, 2019
I woke up early and walked down to Payyambalam beach, small groups scattered along the kilometer long stretch, it was kind of serene out there.

Looking towards north.. this beach is almost 5 kms long.. you can spend an entire morning walking up and down.

Tide was receding, occasionally I would see 6' high waves. Far into the sea, there were fishing boats closing in the net cast previous evening.

Receding water churns up patches of white foam which create an interesting pattern.

Sand is mix of gold and grey. Up north i.e. Mangalore and beyond, sand is usually golden. As we go down south, sand is usually shades of grey. For example- Covalam beach sand is quite dark. The pattern is interesting, not many sea shells here.

The beach crowd had increased with every passing minute. Football seems to be a favorite sport here. There were at least five matches in progress. This lad kicks his plastic ball flying into the sea..

The way the ball rolled on the water, it seemed like Sea was dribbling the ball :)

Young men engrossed in matches, they are quite serious with the game.

Another team had setup proper goal posts with net.. 90% chance that its a fishing net.

Family having a peaceful moment.. no work, no school in their thoughts for the time.

I'd come out while my group was still asleep at the guest house. Hoping they'd woken up, I headed back to the guest house, 15 minute walk. Just off the beach, close to the bridge across the creek are graves with Communist emblems.. guessing these are the graves of political leaders of Communist parties.

That's the bridge which connects the beach garden and the beach.

This is a garden of sculptures. This standing fish.. there's another identical one. The detailing is superb. Plenty of trees too in this small garden.

This is the largest sculpture.. no idea what it depicts.

Close to the garden's other entrance is this ruined war machine. Its a tracked self-propelled gun without the firing mechanism. Such a nice piece of antique. Sad that its turned into a trash bin.

In the garden is a huge umbrella shaped tree, branches spanning 30 feet across. A kite had perched, probably taking a break from the bright light.

My presence startled it..

..took off swiftly and out of my sight.

Back at the guest house, the trio was up, sitting under the tree watching the sea. We had tea and made way down to the private beach. Compared to previous evening, the tide was still high, the water was knee high where the rocks met sand. Karun waded inward, almost 80 feet from the ricks yet the water was chest level. Slowly Chengappa and I too went further. Dancing with the waves was fun. Occasionally waves caught us off guard taking us along. Once I felt something slither under my feet, must have stepped on a fish. We played in the sea until about nine. I was the first to come out. Had fresh water bath and packed up for the return journey..

Here are couple of shots from the previous evening.

the private beach

end of Feb-1 day

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