Erzsebet Lookout, Nagyos Hill

I have been to Budapest a number of times before. But the way I am exploring this beautiful city now, I am beginning to doubt that I managed even half of it earlier. Budapest holds a really special place in my heart. My friends are all fed up of me telling them about this city, the people i.e, my friends there and not least, the local food there such as Langos, Turo Rudi, Goulash, and the beautiful bridges connecting Buda and Pest.

The bridges are lit up at night and if you happen to be at Gellert Hill, near the Citadel, then the view is to die for. I have been to Gellert Hill every time I visited Budapest, but I am still not satisfied with the pictures I have taken there. I am planning to go at the end of this trip and try my luck again :)

       

Last week, I came across a few pictures from Nikoletta Gólya's album, of Hungarian Parliament building, which were taken from Nagyos Hill. My immediate reaction was "I should go there". And once I decide, I just about always make it happen :) So I was there, and it was great!!!!! I loved the place. But getting there was not as easy as I had thought.

To go to Erzsebet lookout at Nagyos Hill, I searched on google, but didnt come across anything substantial. The bus numbers mentioned were either not working anymore or were not the right ones. Luckily, the magazine provided by the CEU Conference and Residence Center had a small half page article about the exact place and this is where I found the proper directions.

To reach the lookout, you need to get to Nyugati Palyaudvar (this is where the Trams 4 and 6 go through, and the Blue metro - Metro no 3 has a stop). Once there, you need to go to the bus stop, right in front of the Westend entrance. At one of the corners there is a small general store, and right on front of that is the stop for bus no 291. This is the first stop of the bus, and we need to go to the last. It takes about 45 mins :-s.

Once you get down, you will see the sign for camping and another for Libego (means chairlift). Just get in there and walk right up to the counter. A couple of reviews about the place said that if you want to walk, its a loong and very tiring trek. So to be on a safer side, I took a 2-way ticket (1300HUF = 7USD appx 4.9Euros) to the Erzsebet lookout point. The libego's are continuously moving, and you need to just go and stand on the big coloured circle, and they come and make you sit automatically while the person there will lower the safety rods. These rods also are your foot-rests.

The ride to the top is pretty comfortable and the birds seem to be so used to i that one landed about 3 feet from me and didnt budge from its place. They seem to have gotten used to the libegos, and if you dont move or make a noise they dont move from there. Once I reached the top, I was floored by the view. I started taking pictures of the landscapes with my 24-70 f2.8, but didnt feel like i was doing any justice to the view that I was so lucky to experience. Thats when i thought i should try panoramas, And the results can be seen below.

This is the overall landscape panorama from the lookout.

You can see the Hungarian parliament, Buda Castle and the Citadel in this Panorama. 

I must admit, the ride back was a bit scary. You can see the cars from up there which look really small, and then you are going from over the houses of others. 

I would definitely suggest everyone who is going to Budapest to go there. 
Bus No. 291 from Nyugati Palyaudvar :) :) 
And dont forget to share your pictures. :D

Regular blog posts

Its been more than a year, since i scribbled anything here, for lack of interest in writing and/or I would start to write something, and would eventually loose track of what my intention on writing that was. :-s :(

Hopefully though, I shall try to account for my trips again, in this blog. All thanks to a friend (if i may call that) who happened to visit this blog recently. I received brief insights on how to maintain and keep writing a blog, and hence, would try to adhere to them from now on. So this new year, lets see how many posts eventually turn up on this blog. :)

I just returned from my favourite wildlife place – Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. Fantastic sighting there, of 3 Tiger cubs. :) :)
Working on a blog post for that, so best of luck to me :)

 

  How’s this for a teaser from the trip ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flickr Tags: Tiger,Bengal Tiger,Tadoba,Ismail,Ismail Shariff,www.ismailshariff.com,www.thejunglecalls.com,Panthera Tigris,Photography,Wildlife photography,Nature

Tadoba – Andhari .. Finale.

 

After spotting a Tiger and 2 Tigress’, our trip was already fruitful in respect to the Tiger, but thorough humans that we are, for the last safari we were expecting to see the leopards too :)
We started pretty early, and were greeted with a dimly lit path. Just about 3-400metres inside, and we spotted a Changeable Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus cirrhatus), perched on top of a tree right in the middle of the jungle path, but this time me made a mistake of going a little too close to scare it away. We couldn't even take a single pic :( Moving forward, we came across a Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus). Then we came across a Pigeon, which i haven't yet been able to ID. Its either the Yellow-footed Green Pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera) or the Wedge-Tailed Green Pigeon (Treron sphenura). Why the wedge-tailed.. because of the wedge-shaped tail and the indistinct yellow edges to its wing coverts. This hasn't been spotted in the forests in here i guess, but I would leave the experts to identify them from below.

From there on, we went further ahead, and were lucky to spot a wild cat hunting a hare, though, because of the thicket again, I wouldn't get any clear shot. I don't even know whether it actually made the kill or not. Just about there, we came across a very high tree which had lines all over it, in a slant profile. Ravi told us that these are the marks made by the Sloth Bear, when it climbs the tree to get access to the numerous bee-hives on its top branches. I wondered what would happen if it looks down from up there :D :D

Further up we came across a Serpent Eagle, which was patiently waiting for its prey to come out of hiding, whatever it was. A few metres from there was a small waterhole, considerably bigger than all the ones we came across till now. It had quite an activity going on there. A lot of spotted deer and birds were out there drinking water and playing around it. The young Stags were improving their fighting skills, by fighting amongst each other. There must have been about 20-25 deer there. We could hear the sound of horns clashing against the other. We also saw Rose-Ringed Parakeets, Mynas, Asian Paradise-Flycatcher, a few doves, and some other small birds, which i couldn't click.

The highlight of the last safari was the guy below. He/she, posed for us for about 10-15 minutes. It gave us about 3-4 profiles of itself, to shoot, and later on it got scared with the extending of my lens and turned away. It was very interesting, and come to think of it, it was Ravi who spotted this one, when we wouldn't even notice where it was, after coming back to the same spot. A really good camouflage i must say, else i need to change my glasses :-s The best part about shooting this little thing was the bokeh.

After that, on our way back, we came across a group of Langoors, and a small patch of green with bright purple flowers all around it.

Nothing eventful, other than spotting the Indian Roller.

From there, we had our lunch, and set out for Hyderabad. All of us were pretty content with the trip, and thanked Ravi for coming along with us. I had packed my stuff and parked it in the boot, so on the way, when these guys stopped to take a few shots of fabulous landscapes, I was a little lazy to take it all out.
Wonderful places to see on the highway. The best was, about 2-300 ducklings, all walking by the side of the road in a line. Suman and Suraj got the shots for that one. It was really cute. Rest of the journey was pretty smooth and we were back in Hyderabad by about 9- 9:30pm.

I would like to thank Ravi Naidu, for his help and support through-out the trip. He was very thoughtful and proved to be a great teacher. Now all I can think of, is where do i go NEXT… :)

Flickr Tags: Tadoba,Tiger Sanctuary,Wildlife Sanctuary,Maharashtra,Tadoba - Andhari Tiger Reserve,Chandrapur,Ismail Shariff,Ismail,HPC,Hyderabad Photography Club,Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi/400D,Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM,Wildlife,Nature