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Mount Kilimanjaro: My Journey to the Roof of Africa-29th Sep to 6th Oct 24

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  Kilimanjaro: A Journey to the Roof of Africa Few experiences in life are as life-changing as climbing Kilimanjaro. My recent trek to the summit was an  adventure that pushed my physical limits, tested my mental resilience, and gave me a deep sense of accomplishment. Here’s a day-by-day account of my journey to the roof of Africa via the Machame Route, one of the most popular routes for its beauty and challenge. We selected Machame route as it allows better acclimatization. Kilimanjaro was formed from volcanic activity over 2 million years ago. It has three cones : Kobe ( dormant ), Mawenzi and Shira dead. The last eruption was 200,000 yrs ago. At the current rate of global warming, most of the ice on Kilimanjaro will disappear by 2040.  The 3D image below shows ice cap of Kobe cone.  Day 0 Arrival Sat 28th Sep and briefing sun 29th Sep.   I arrived at Arusha hotel after long connecting flights Kochi-Chennai-Mumbai-Dar Es Salam-Arusha. The Mum-DAR-Arusha sector was by Tanzanian Airlin
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An enchanting tour to Spiti valley- " a world within a world" * !

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In the mountains, there you feel free ! T.S.Eliot  After 2 years of suffocation and misery due to the pandemic, finally got a chance to revisit the mountains when I saw an ad by Mountain Academics in my runners group in social media. Having made few preliminary queries, I decided this is what I wanted to do and connected few people in my community TRITVAM and Sobha City. Gradually the team of 12 was formed and we boarded flights and trains to arrive in Chandigarh on 21st Sep 2022.  The route :  There is one more map that shows various valleys we encountered on the way..... Arrival : Sep 20th  Kochi-Chandigarh flight was comfortable. So was the stay at Holiday Inn Chandigarh. Got introduced to the team and party started at hotel room straightaway ! Narayanan Kutty from Sobha, Pady & Ambika from Tritvam joined me and my wife Suma from Kochi, Shaju joined from Abudhabi, George and Shirley from Wayanad. Day 1 Sep 21: Chandigarh to Narkanda We started around 11 and passed Solan, Shimla
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Pearling Trail trek on Bahrain National day 16-12-2020

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This was my first time to witness the joyful and vibrant celebrations of  Bahrain national day. Moreover COVID19 forced us to be within the country whole year and trekking on the mountains was not possible. So I decided to make use of the opportunity and explore Bahrain during national day holidays. I had read about the Pearling Trail last year but my plans to visit the trail were aborted due to the pandemic and the holidays for National day made the perfect setting to this exploration.  Bahrain has rich tradition and culture not much known outside the kingdom. The history and importance of pearl probably made the creators of the trail choose the name.  Origin of Name and a bit of history of Bahrain : Bahrayn  is the  dual form  of Arabic  bahr  ("sea"), so  al-Bahrayn  originally means "the two seas", It remains disputed which "two seas" the name  Bahrayn  originally refers to.  Today, Bahrain's "two seas" are generally taken to be the bay e
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Location: Pearling Pathway, المحرق، Bahrain
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