A Green Treasure in the Blue Mountains

Globetrotters March Monthly Challenge

It was on March 15, 2023, at 5 p.m., I received a call confirming the meeting with the investor the next day at 1 p.m. So, I told my son to pack up his bag.

A few storybooks, a tab, binoculars, a notebook, and a pen, all go in the backpack in a jiffy. The jackets? Yes, we might need them. “All set mom!” said my son.

Exciting Rendezvous

The next day morning, we started our journey off to Coonoor in The Nilgiris, India. It’s the beautiful mountains, also called the Blue Mountains, only a one and a half hours drive away with 14 hairpin bends. We frequently travel to this place and we enjoy the drive.

The only problem is that our son has motion sickness and we would have to pull over a few times.

That day, as we passed the fifth hairpin bend, we had to make our first stop. After helping my son, when I turned to get into the vehicle, there was this huge hourglass-shaped tree on the opposite side of the road.

I just couldn’t resist clicking, walked a few steps and as it was a busy road I didn’t wait to check the angle. My aim was to just capture.

As I turned around, my son called me, “Mom! Come see the view, it’s so beautiful out here!”

I turned right and looked down. Wow! You see how gorgeous! How many shades of green do you see?👇🏻

Are you crawling up the ladder to aboard the floating clouds?

I turned to my left and aww! there she is. The Jacaranda tree with its first blooms of the season. It’s such a captivating feast to the eyes even though there were only a handful of flowers. The purple-blue bell-shaped flowers with unique fragrance is a tourist attraction in summer.

I couldn’t get a perfect shot as we were kind of rushing so as not to disturb the traffic. I could hear my husband shouting, “Chalo! Chalo!” which means let’s go in Hindi.

But, I think you can still see a tint of purple here and there!🧐 See to the middle left of the picture.

Another stop a few minutes after and we reached our destination. I think, my son is getting used to traveling! Oh! I’m so relieved.

We then had a nice meal for brunch. We were a bit early and so we decided to go on a short pleasure drive through one of our favorite routes nearby.

We just turned off the main road and the phone rang 🤳 It was the call from the friend who has arranged for the meeting and we had to pull over.

I clicked this one from there!😉

It was the captivating vibrance of the morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) that caught my attention and only when I tried to get a quick shot, I noticed the wild shrub, Rubus ellipticus (👆the trifoliate elliptic leaves on the lower right corner), commonly referred to as mullippazham in Tamil. It’s also known as yellow Himalayan raspberry or golden evergreen raspberry.

It’s one of my favorite wild fruits. Do you know it’s a favorite for the birds too!😊

🐧🐦

We then quickly went for the site visit, a perfect place for my new project. There’s already a small beautiful lake. It’s all green but perfect for our March theme, right? 😉

See the enchanting beauty. The tranquility and energy of that place were so soothing.

The investor shared an interesting incident that happened the week before. Do you want to know?

🐘🐘🐘🐘

Yes! You got it right! It was a fun party time for a herd of elephants. They had a nice swim, played with a few broken branches, and had a nice meal of bamboo and bananas.🐘😋

So, by that, the structure is really sturdy! ✅ Check!

Aww! Can you see that? Is that a rainbow? OMG! Yes! It is a rainbow 🌈

As I was just clicking between discussions, I didn’t wait to get the perfect shots. When I clicked this one, it just felt like a blur and I remember wondering what it could be! But, soon got diverted and completely forgot about that.

Only now, while writing, when I noticed that again and looked closely I could see the colors. I went back to the gallery and zoomed in to confirm and it is a rainbow!🌈

There’s a spring down there, wow! And, I love the ferns.

Lichens! They are my favorite.

Lichens are not plants. They’re a symbiosis of the two organisms, fungus and algae. They are not parasites, but use the surface as a substrate. They grow on bark, rock, walls, roofs, gravel stones, exposed soil surfaces, etc.

Lichens are excellent indicators of pollution and can absorb heavy metals, carbon, and sulfur through lichen biomonitoring. Their presence indicates a healthy environment.

There are many interesting facts about lichens. I think I should keep it for another story.

Are you interested in learning more about lichens? Ref. Livescience, Wikipedia, PlantersPlace.

Now, the real adventure begins! We had a nice trek of about half an hour and we reached the top of the mountain and this beauty was right there.

I think it’s the Yucca filamentosa, a succulent. This is the close match I could get (correct me if I’m wrong).

Wow! It was a beautiful view from there. I somehow managed to take a few pictures and rushed before I’d lose others from my sight.

They used to have regular visitors, the Indian Gaur and sometimes even the leopard! 😧

We trekked back down the hill and as we reached the road, just before getting into the vehicle, I noticed this beautiful fern. I’m so fascinated by the beauty of the fronds.

Cyathea Nilgirensis, again I’m not sure about the name, best match I could find.😊

I ran to it along with my son and I showed him, explained a few things about it quickly, and yes, didn’t miss clicking.

The green adventure and photo session all ended here.

Thank you Anne Bonfert for this wonderful prompt. I really enjoyed writing this, as I breathe Nature and live Green.

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A beautiful story of changing seasons and beautiful life in Nature by Joyce Nielsen 👇🏻

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