crowning glories... continued

... we saw it just for about 3 minutes... till the clouds came back to hide it...

Just like the painting which could never do justice to the actual feel of its splendour...none of the photos we took could capture the wonder of the moment...

All four of us have been travel buffs... during each of our trips we have noticed that there would be moments like this that would capture the essence of the trip... a moment that makes all the hassles of travel seem trivial.... make us feel 'this is IT'.... worth all the money...pains of booking, planning...inconveniences of unaccostomed food, discomforts of finding good accomadations... A moment that will remain fresh, long after the travails of travel are forgotten....it is an unexpected moment... catching u by surprise... comes when u least expect it...We call these moments the 'crowning glories'

In Africa, we had gone to Ngorongoro crater... We were really impressed by the wonderful natural phenomen...had the thrill of seeing all the wild animals in close quarters….

We stayed at the beautiful Sopa lodge… situated at the rim of the crater… The room had a small, open portico furnished with cane that looked straight into the crater with just a small expanse of wilderness separating it…
I woke up early and was idling on the cane sofa…when I suddenly saw this extremely young, small deer… it must have wandered in from the forest… it was frisking about and came very close to me… touching distance….then he slowly raised his head and looked at me...
For one eternal moment both of us looked into each others eyes…. not moving….not consciously breathing… i did not reach for the camera lying on the table... the thought of calling out for the others did not enter my thoughts... Then he started nibbling on the grass and nonchalantly walked away....little realising he had given me my own crowning glory moment of that trip….

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