On Thursday night we took the overnight train to Bellary, where Santosh Martin was to meet us….and that train, in many ways, is one of the reasons for my not being able to post anything yesterday, not even to upload photographs.

Though we took an overnight train, the visit really started with the sunrise after we got out of the train and were speeding towards Valparai from Coimbatore after a quick breakfast at Annapoorna….

You’d think the guy would get a headache!

Valparai is a great place for the endemic mammals, that is, the ones that are found only in this area. “Malabar” is the ancient name for Kerala, and this name is attached to many of the birds and animals found here. (Eg. Malabar Trogon, Malabar Whistling Thrush, and so on.)

Most of the butterflies we saw are completely unknown to me, so I am just going to post the pics here and ask one of my better-informed friends for the id’s and update…