Fall Foliage in New Hampshire

My grandmother once told me - Even if you forget that nature is changing, nature will make sure to let you know. My previous experience in the US helped cement that statement. However, it was apparent that something remained to complete an unknown void. Vivid Fall Foliage. And that too in US North East.

So, this time around, I made sure that I drove up north to New Hampshire (NH) to see what is famously touted as the best fall foliage seen on Earth. While I expected to see a lot more colorful scenery, what I saw was not less than splendid.

We left last Saturday at 2:30PM and reached Keene, NH at 7:15PM. We checked into a hotel and then walked around Main Street. Keene is a nice little town, having an old English flavor. People are cordial and nice. I did not notice any other Indian family there other than us. And probably more than 95% people are White Americans.

The route that we took for the scenic drive was the same one as proposed on visitnh.gov. We drove through the towns of Keene, Jaffery, Dublin, West Rindge, Peterborough, Hancock, Stoddard, Marlow and Gilsum.

We left Keene at around 2:30PM on Sunday. It took us a good 6 hours to return because of traffic snags. You could see all vacationing people returning back to their homes in CT or NY or NJ or probably further on. We did some intelligent decisions by taking exits that took us on State Routes so that we could join the Interstates after the exits where snags were being reported. It did help us save upto have hour or so.

The pictures are uploaded on Picasa Google and Flickr. Though the colors were not as vivid as someone has seen in Vermont, I did get to see colors that NH is famous for. Check the albums for more. Here are some of my favorites.

Chunchi Falls trip-o-log

Ferrari has done better than I could have wished. So here it is.

Some more to aid the piece, if I may...
1. The roads are in pathetic shape compared to the hype that surrounds Mekedatu and other surrounding locations. Not worth it!
2. No food anywhere. We luckily packed food for our journey, including water. That saved the day for us.
3. When we reached the place and parked our car, we started walking towards the falls. Some distance later, we saw a long rocky bed that once could have been covered with frothy water. You could call this the rapids then... very dangerous nevertheless. But where was the water?
4. The place is littered like a dump yard. I hope people have better civic sense. You can see beer cans, broken glass pieces lying all over the rocks. Kingfisher Beer surely would not want such publicity.
5. We stopped at a small village en route and noticed the villagers were breeding silkworms. You cannot imagine the stench that these cocoons let out. Very pungent! Little does one know about this because all we see is only the silk cloth. I will post a pic of those cocoons in a while.

That said, we set out for the drive just because we wanted to go out and be back by 2PM or so. The drive was more pacifying than the location we visited. And yes, Ferrari is a great driver with just 2 months behind the wheel. Ladies, are you listening??

Did you know?! :- Research has proved that we Men do not think of our cars as a separate entity as the Women do, rather we believe it is just an extention of ourselves. That's why you see we enjoy our driving, and we take care of our cars like our babies. ;-) Last Word? Women are safer drivers than Men.

Jostling for Space

Clicked amongst the several water puddles that formed in the rocks that formed the bed of Cauvery River at Chunchi Falls. The lone white flower amongst everything green kind of attracted my attention. The puddle by itself was not more than 4' by 3'. But it was a world within itself. Ecology is so important, whether big or small, or even minuscule.

The terrain at Chunchi Falls was a stark exhibition of the gorge that Cauvery river has created in this area and a reminder of the force of water as a geologic agent. Hell, it created the mighty Grand Canyons (Arizona, USA) as well as a Mekedatu! :-) From huge sharp boulders to medium sized rocks that could not have been polished smoother by human hands, from small puddles to caves - one could see everything over there. More pics would follow that exhibit what I have just described herein.

Camera: Canon EOS 350D dSLR (Thanks to Prabhu)

A quick drive on NH209 and back...

6:45Am to 1:45Pm. Sounds good for a quick long drive? You bet. I am going to attend a birthday party now... and when I return, I am going to give you the trip-o-log! :-) Some nice pics as well...

C'ya...

Sunday Drive

Ferrari, Maverick and your's truly met today evening at Little Italy on 100 Ft Road, Indiranagar. Besides gulping down some great starters and pasta, we discussed among other things, some place to drive down to and be back in Bangalore by 4PM or so. After much discussion, it does appear that we would be headed in the direction of Kanakapura and visit Chunchi Falls and couple of other places in that general direction. Come back here tomorrow to read about it.

gute nacht !

PS: Amuzing to watch English Tail (Monty and Tremlett) lifting up and not relenting in the face of Indian attack. There is speculation that India might not enforce follow on and provide rest to the bowlers by opting to bat. Should be a nice strategy to pile on some more runs before giving English a chance at the target again. Congrats to Jumbo (Kumble) again!