Recap of 2018

2018 was a crazy year when it came to travel, especially in the last quarter. While it took me 16 years to touch five continents after my first visit abroad, I visited countries in 5 continents in the matter of just 5 weeks in 2018!! The frequency of travel was low to moderate from January to September which changed with the visit to Jordan for 8 days in the middle of October. After 3 weeks, I went for a 21 day travel to Argentina and Antarctica. I came back to Bengaluru only to return to US within 20 hours!! A week later I was in Netherlands. I was in Bengaluru just before Christmas holiday but within 24 hours I was in a flight to Malaysia with my family!!

 

It was not planned that way. Circumstances, some of which were beyond my control put most of the travel in the last part of the year. In general, I travelled more than I could write. Here is the recap of 2018.

January

Travel with family to the temples of Lakkundi in North Karnataka. I could only write about the Basaveshwara statue in Gadag and baobab trees of Savanur. I also visited Netherlands for few days but it was limited to official purpose.

February

The only outing in this month was a day trek to Midigeshi fort with my friends Subbu and Krishna. 

March

A dry month. No trips.

April

A birding visit to Hennagara lake in Bengaluru. Later in the month, I visited Netherlands. The two weekends was spent in visiting Rhine river gorge in Germany and Switzerland. I visited many places in Switzerland during my 4 day visit but only documented few of them.

May

Another dry month.

June

A family trip to Malenadu area for a weekend. It was followed with a visit to waterfalls near Belagavi with my friend Sankara.

July

Visited few Hoysala temples near KR Pete. We also visited relocated Venugopala swamy temple near KRS.

August 

I went with Subbu to visit some waterfalls in western ghats. It was an amazing trip and we hoped to go on similar trips but it could not materialise. At the end of the temple, I went with my family to Chettinad area in Tamilnadu.

September

Utilised the official visit to Pondicherry to climb Gingee fort with colleagues. We also visited Thiruvannamali temple on the way. I had to visit Delhi for Argentina visa interview. I managed to visit Mehrauli archeological park and Hauz Khas fort during the spare time. 

October

Visit to Jordan with my family during Dasara holidays. It was also my first visit to an Arab country.

November

A solo travel to Argentina and Antarctica. It was also my longest trip so far. Though I had been to Manasa Sarovar and Kenya earlier alone, I was under the “care” of organisers once I came out of the airport.

December

Continuation of travel Argentina and Antarctica. Visited Pittsburgh in US where I got an opportunity to play with pistols. It was followed by a visit to Netherlands for a week. The year ended with a family trip to Malaysia.

Highlights/Lowlights of this year

• Covered all 7 continents.
• Visited 4 new countries – Switzerland, Jordan, Argentina and Malaysia.
• A long solo trip.
• I could visit to western ghats during monsoon multiple times.
• Considerable drop in the number of day hikes near Bengaluru.
• Focus seems to have shifted to abroad visits. The only out of state visit was to Tamilnadu and Delhi.
• No Himalayan treks. I purposefully kept it that way as I had to cancel my previous Himalayan treks for the last 2 years due to health reasons. I must say I was bit superstitious on this front!!
• Moved to a dedicated domain this year. I was thinking about it from sometime but had not acted on it.
• Many events happened in personal front. Let me not dwell into it as this blog is dedicated to travel experiences.

Plans for 2019

Nothing planned so far as I wanted to “complete” the back to back trips. But I do have some places in mind. Let me see how it goes.