Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mountains in Chander Pahar - 2

The two major mountain ranges I will write about here are the Ruwenzori and the Richtersveldt - the latter is, of course, the more important as the location where Shankar's denouement with destiny gets played out.

The picture on the left is pretty amazing - it could be from the Alps or the Himalayas!

"The Rwenzori Mountains, previously called the Ruwenzori Range (the spelling having been changed in about 1980 to conform more closely with the local name), and sometimes the Mountains of the Moon, is a mountain range of central Africa, often referred to as Mt. Rwenzori, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with heights of up to 5,109 m (16,761 ft). The highest Rwenzoris are permanently snow-capped, and they, along with Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya are the only such in Africa." For more, visit this, and this; the latter is particularly beautiful.

The Richtersveldt is also a national park in South Africa, and is far from the forbidding and forboding mountain range where explorers died a horrible death. This could look like the place where Shankar was rescued - except that he was found in Rhodesia, and the Richtersveldt is in South Africa!


As this article mentions, it is "A favourite amongst nature travellers to South Africa, the landscape is sometimes described as "martian". Though barren and desolate at first glance, closer examination reveals the area to be rich in desert lifeforms, with an array or unique species specially adapted for survival." Wikipedia has a great article here, and if you love traveling, you must visit this as well.

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