Trekking through the Hills

In May, I took two final trips during my current tour in India: first, a three-day trip to parts of Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park, in the hilly wooded areas along the Kerala/Tamil Nadu border, just south of Coimbatore. And second, a six-day trip into the Himalayan foothills in the region of West Bengal around Darjeeling. A search of Google maps of either of these places yields little information about any roads or towns, indicating how remote each place was, which was exactly my reason for going: despite long train rides or non-discount flights, three-hour hikes through nothing but forests and fields were a welcome reprieve from the crowded cities of creaking coastal infrastructure, and a balance against some of the stark impressions I've gotten of urban India.

At the risk of creating poor knock-offs of National Geographic articles, I will resist the temptation of describing every last detail of these trips, and try instead to give you highlights. As usual, the pictures usually speak for themselves.