Balancing Rock, Tamil Nadu

 

 
Balancing Rock is 60 km from Chennai in Mahabalipuram. Often referred to as Krishna's Butter Ball, it is a huge boulder resting on a narrow rock base.

The rock is so precariously perched on a small surface area that as one TripAdvisor travellers says, "You almost don't want to stand in front of it." This is an excellent place for all the shutterbugs.

 

 A massive stone, popularly known as the Krishna's Butter Ball, has balanced itself precariously at the slippery edge of a hill for ages. Looking at it, one wonders as to how come a 20-feet-high, 5-metre-wide and 250-ton stone stood the test of time to remain stuck at that place for so many years. Apart from attracting travellers, the rock also serves as a shade for animals who want to stay away from the sun for a while.

Balancing Rock at Mahabalipuram

Located in the Mahabalipuram town of Tamil Nadu, the balancing rock is originally known as Krishna's Butterball which is serves as a one of the major centre of tourist attractions in the town.
The “butterball” is actually a giant balancing rock which is 5 meters in diameter, is perched on a smooth slope, seemingly defying all laws of physics.

There is a round rocky huge ball that is miraculously balanced in place at an angle of 45 degrees.

Goats with a tale to tell

Wildlife

Country diary

Four billy goats with a tale to tell

Coignafearn, Highlands There is something about wild goats that appeals to me – perhaps their look of superiority?

 

A wild billy goat sitting down in the shade of a birch. Photograph: Ray Collier 

Ray Collier

Saturday 25 June 2016 05.30 BST Last modified on Saturday 25 June 2016 05.31 BST

Standing on the side of the burn, I watched the water flow past my feet, gurgling and murmuring as it continued on its way to the river Findhorn below. After the cold spring, the spring and early summer plants were all flowering together. The yellow carpets of bird’s foot-trefoil, or “eggs and bacon” as I prefer to call it, dominated the scene. On the drier areas were small groups of mountain pansies whose flowers varied from red to intense violet.

The butterworts in the splash zone of the burn were such an outstanding purple that their tiny flowers looked much larger than they actually were. Lady’s smock plants – also known as cuckooflowers, because they bloom when the first cuckoo begins calling – stood out above the others. Their slender stems topped with tiny pale lilac flower heads looked as if they were just waiting for an orange tip butterfly to lay its tiny orange eggs on them.

Eye to hypnotic eye with a one-horned nanny

Large tracts of junipers, blue-green in the strong sunshine, have spread up the hillsides, making them impenetrable in places. On the scalloped margins, browsing by red deer on the outer shoots has formed unusual shapes, like topiary. Junipers are among my favourite shrubs, although, as they stand up to two metres high, perhaps “trees” would be a better word. 

Coignafearn is a strath favoured by golden eagles and peregrines as a hunting area, but even with binoculars I could not spot any of these raptors. However, as I was scanning the open hillsides I did have a strong feeling that I was being watched. Eventually I spotted them. Four large, dark, wild billy goats, sitting down in the shade of a solitary birch tree, all panting in the heat.

There is something about wild goats that appeals to me – perhaps their look of superiority? All four billies had huge, gracefully curved horns, and I counted the annual growth rings on one. He was between eight and nine years old. What stories he could tell of his tribe in that strath. I nodded my head in respect and left.




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