Along NH8

I've been collecting photos along the road for a couple of months now. Today's shot made me decide that the time is ripe for posting.

I'll start with animals:

Here's today's contribution: chickens and veggies on the move.

While we've seen occasional horse carts on NH8, this time the horses were galloping, and doing a pretty good job of keeping up with traffic.

A horse cart being transported. These elaborate carts are mostly used for weddings.

This mobile shrine included a cow and calf.

Moving on to agriculture:

India needs vast quantities of marigolds for celebrations of every kind. (With marigolds harvested, this field will be planted in rice during monsoon.)

I couldn't get my iPhone camera to focus properly, but you get the idea of how agricultural fields are periodically burned over. I am amazed that these fires are contained. The surrounding land is filled with bone-dry vegetation, and there's no water around for fire suppression. Yet I haven't heard or seen of any "wild fires".

Now for landforms:

Between Vapi and Valsad is a quarry that is gradually consuming this substantial hill. (Of course, quarrying a mountain out of existence is not unique to India. In Virginia, Willis Mountain, near Dillwyn, is being similarly consumed by kyanite mining. And "mountain top removal" coal mining is an extreme example.)

And finally, an interesting camera artifact:

My out-of-focus camera not only gave blurred photos, but gave everything a slant. Apparently the exposure was long enough that the movement of our vehicle made the truck slant forward as the scene was scanned. (I wasn't even trying to take a picture of the truck -- I think I was trying to get the "chicken man".)

And that's the way it was on NH8.