Looking back into year 2008 in terms of travel - January was a lull. And to compensate that, I managed three trips in a span of five weeks. First of the three was a two day road trip in first week of February - to Hariharapura and Sringeri in Chikkamagalur district. Two weeks passed and I was trekking from Kanoor to Nagavalli in Sharavathi valley (the last trek before the summer). Another two weeks down, it was time for a long ride. The ride of the year to West coast, covering 950 KMs in bike plus 250 KMs in car. We travelled across 10 districts, visited 15 places in four days.

April, I went on a day visit to Melkote (summer - wrong time to be in Melkote) and Kokkare Bellur. Month of May, another lazy day drive to Nanjanagudu & it was time for a dip in river Kapila. End of June, I was climbing up the hill Parvathamalai near Thiruvannamalai in Tamilnadu.

It was another lull barring 2 short escapades before the Blogger’s trip to Binsar in October. Between July & October, I just managed to visit Kaidala & Mandharagiri (Basadi betta or Basthi betta) both near Tumkur and Kaigal falls in Andhra Pradesh. October, and time to head North. I was in Binsar, Uttarakhand along with fellow travel bloggers for 4 days lazing around the Kumaon mountains. End of October, it was time for long drive with family. We visited few places in and around Shivamogga including Jog falls. Details to follow soon.

In first week of December, I went on a day ride visiting Chamundi hills in Mysore, Nanjanagudu, T Narasipura and Somanathapura. It was some what happy note to end the year. I trekked up Kodachadri peak in Western ghats, the highest peak in Shivamogga district.

Year 2009 has started on a wrong foot quite similar to last year. All work and no travel. Couple of travel plans got cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances. Searching for a silver-lining & hope to travel soon.

I know its little late, but still here is the round up of 2007. I wanted to post it in the beginning of the year, but got occupied with work resulting in the delay.

The year started with a weekend trip to Mysore & Ranganatittu. Followed by a short bike trip & trek to Skandagiri in Feb. And then a long ride to Sakaleshpura to end the quarter.

Summer and it was trek time. Visited Western Ghats twice, first a three day trek in Sharavathi valley. And then to Kuduremukha. After that I went on a short solo ride to Kambadahalli, a small Jain pilgrimage and then a group ride to Gopalaswamy betta.

After two visits to Western ghats in summer, I paid another visit in peek monsoon. This time, a futile attempt to climb Kumara Parvatha. Come August, went on a 5 day road trip to Goa - 1700 KMs (trip log yet to come).

Last quarter was a bit disappointing one. Managed to visit Coorg on bike (again, trip log yet to come). And then short visits to Devarayana Durga and Nandi hills to end the year 2007.

Year 2008, a month has already passed without even a chance to step out. Plans for a two day trek and a weekend ride in the next month is cooking up. Eagerly waiting. Fingers crossed.

Arun of India Travel Blog has tagged me. Here I’m sharing three of my dreams. I call them ‘my popular dreams’. Reason, I dream of these very often. And explaination why I’m posting here instead of at avalokana is, two of the dreams relate to travel :). So here I go -

3. This one goes back to my school & college days. And I’ve already shared this in Mridula’s Dream post. I used to always get up late on the exam days. If exam day is at 9AM, I used to get up at that time. And reach the exam center late, sit whole three hours staring at the first question, thinking for the answer till the last minute of the exam. Luckily it has remained just as a dream, & never happened in reality.

2. I’ve got a supernatural power. I can float in air, but I can’t fly high. I can just float about 5-6 ft above ground level. And I can travel miles and miles just by doing somersaults in the air. but I’ve a slow speed as I don’t sail like a Superman and I have to gain speed by doing somersaults. And using that momentum, I can sail to a small distance. I traveled home floating from office just three days ago.

1. This happens only during day time, that too while traveling. Usually I do only two thing while traveling - its either I read a book or else just sleep(I can sleep for hours even in a moving bus/vehicle, irrespective of the conditions of the bus or the road).

Everything disappears around me & I’m the only person. No one, nothing is around me. Its blank everywhere. A very mild lighting as if a cloudy evening. Suddenly out of no where comes a piece of sweet, floating towards me. As I’m about to open my mouth, I wake fro the dream to realize that I’m actually trying to open my mouth in the real world :)

Done that, now I’ve to tag five other bloggers. So I pass the baton.

• Bellur
• Shruthi
• Sigma
• Srik
• Vani

Now its your turn, tell me your dreams :)

Here is the new template for payaniga. Thanks Gecko & Fly for the new blogger beta template. Struggled a bit in the beginning with the new tags and formatting. After an hours hardwork, here is the fresh look (but with same old header :). And now I can sit peacefully and write the final leg of th Goa trip log.

Let me know what you think.