Dandeli

Time: Jan 24-26 2009

Place: Dandeli

Company: Colleagues & Wife

Album: Click here and here for snaps and here for video.

Highlights:

Day 0:

Left in Hubli Passenger train at 10 pm to Hubli. Had to book the tickets in Tatkal as we planned late. 8 amongst the 14 were couples. Great time in the train, thanks to back-to-back cubicles where all 14 of us were put up. Nice stories all around & good jokes, esp about the slowness of the passenger train. Slept at 12.

Day 1:

Reached Hubli at 10 am. Breakfast at railway station. Resort’s 12-seater Cruiser was ready to pick us up at the station. 2 hr journey to Dandeli Kali Resort Camp (http://www.dandeli.com/jungle-lodges-resorts-dandeli.shtml). Anthakshari on the way. Reached Kali Resort at about 1 pm. Sumptuous lunch. Took bath and freshened up. Awesome campus – with nice tents, hammocks, treetop view points, Table tennis court, carrom boards, etc.

3 km Coracle ride (teppa in Kannada) at 4 pm. Sarcastic but rather funny guide. Nice view of many species of birds. 3 km nice trek back to the resort through jungle. Campfire at night to beat the cold, added with tasty pakoras and soft drinks. Great dinner at 8.45 pm.

Day 2:

Wake up call at 5 am. Left resort at 6 am in 2 jeeps for jungle safari. The safari covers only 1/4th of the whole jungle and hence could not spot any animal. Not even a stray dog or a bull. What with the track being a dusty road and the pollution caused due to the 40 odd vehicles that day, no wonder no animal wanted to venture near humans. But nice to be amidst thick jungle. Reminded me of Veerappan of Bandipur forest and how he had kidnapped Rajkumar and how one of Rajkumar’s aides escaped from Veerappan in the dead of the night.

Weaved through many small roads of the jungle, but no animal to be seen whatsoever. Not even near a small pond. Apparently, all the animals come to the pond at night to quench their thirst and hence previously, the safari was scheduled for the night time whence all the animals could be seen at the pond. But in 1994 a Bollywood actor shot dead an animal and from that day, the safari time was changed to early morning. What a sad thing that one man’s mistake makes so many others suffer.

Then climbed a small mountain, suddenly to beheld a magnificent view of 1/4th of the entire Dandeli Jungle forest. A true panaromic view which no camera can ever capture the captivating beauty. Spent quite an amount of time there, in the middle of the jungle, with a wonderful sight behind and the sun rising on the other side, casting its long shadow onto the great valley below. If it was an evening safari, then we could have seen the sunset.

Reached the safari back at 10.30 and waited for White water rafting scheduled at 11 am. Due to some technical issues, river rafting got postponed to 2 pm. Had to fight with the authorities – thanks to Niraj who played the role to perfection! - to plug in some activity till 2 pm. Finally the authorities relented and all 14 of us were heralded in 1 jeep (9 of them standing in the open-back) and made our way amidst thick jungle in almost non existent roads to a place where the Kali river made a natural swimming pool – unpolluted by humans and untouched. Also, just beside the natural swimming pool, there also were the rapids flowing which we will later navigate during the river rafting. Serene beauty all around, with just the 14 of us and the driver and the noise of the water rushing through. After splashing about the natural swimming pool, we just sat beside the rapids and enjoyed the rushing water.

It was then time to head back to the resort for another round of sumptuous lunch. Soon after, we were heralded in another posh 12-seater cruiser towards the base of the rafting expedition. Rafting is the only optional activity that we had to book extra. We had to wait for almost an hour as our raft hadn’t arrived. Since the raft can only take 12 at the max, one member had to volunteer to move to another raft (1 dropped out). We were then given instructions and life jackets to wear. We boarded the raft.

Once in the raft, we were then given more instructions. About how to paddle forward, backward, importance of being in sync, importance of front paddlers, what to do in case we were thrown overboard, how to behave in different situations and for different commands. This took almost half hour. Then came the roar of the first rapid. It almost had a downward inclination of about 60 degrees with jutting rocks all around. It was an awesome experience. Compared to this natural beauty, artificial water rides seem so thin! The first rapid was called Eddy’s Beard – as it seemed like a beard.

The second rapid wasn’t far off. Before we knew it, we got the hang of it, and became quite experts in maneuvering. Not to mention, the guide was an expert himself and guided us well. Six more rapids came in rapid succession! We were hunger for more, waiting to navigate. The calm waters which were a while ago so assuring, now seemed so boring! That whoop feeling when one goes down with the river, the fresh water waves that crash on top of you and fill the raft completely and the ‘completely drenched’ feeling is a thing to be experienced.

Soon, alas, we came to the last of the rapids. The supposedly ferocious of all. But more so, it was the guide’s navigating of the raft that made this last rapid so much more ferocious. He ensured that the raft stayed at the crashing point of the mini falls for as long as possible for maximum enjoyment. Just when we thought we had the money’s worth, he made us paddle back to the falls, paddling upstream! People at the front took turns within the raft so that everyone enjoyed the maximum impact of the falls crashing on top of the front portion of the raft. And so it went on and on and on until we had our teeth chattering with cold. We go below the water, we come away with the force of the river, we paddle back upstream to the falls and again enjoy the waves crashing on top of us – each time fearing the raft will topple! We might have done this about half a dozen times. At some point, we lost count. We just saw one another’s teeth rattling like a grinder! But everyone had a huge grin on their face. This was the ultimate experience. Experience of a life time!

Shivering, we arrived at last to the destination, where we hurrah-ed and hip-hip-hurrayed and took snaps with oars kept like a triangle! Shivering more, we boarded the same cruiser which was waiting here for us and went back to the resort, where we quickly changed and had nice hot shower. Perfectly in time for a deserving campfire beside the river again, but this time with French fries and coke. The fire beat the cold out of us. Soon after, had dinner and a nice sleep.

Day 3:

Woke up early morning again. Left the resort at 7 am and reached the base of the Sintheri Rocks by about 8. Had to walk about 2 km on a mud road because the check post was not yet opened. This compensated our scheduled Nature Walk which got eclipsed because of the postponement of the rafting by 3 hours. After a string of snaps, including videos of us walking – the best one being March Past and Salute, with today being Republic Day – we finally reached the Caves. Had to climb down about 200 odd steps to a breath taking view of a 350 odd feet of one rock that suddenly disappeared from view at the bottom to form the caves. The water was supposed to be about 60 odd feet in depth. During extreme monsoon season, whence the water falls down from these 350 feet rock, it will form a huge cascade of waterfalls – adding to it the resemblance of Niagara Falls. The current water was coming from the valleys on its own; not from any dam or river or rain water. Spent enough time taking pictures and enjoying the beauty.

Took the mud path ascent instead of the steps and felt the difficulty! Thankfully, within a kilometer or so, the jeep came rumbling towards us as the check post opened. Reached the resort back after an hour of traveling in winding and bumpy roads. After a quick breakfast, we checked out and had the same cruiser cruise us towards the Hubli station.

Took the Hubli-Bangalore Janshatabdi Express at 2 pm which promptly reached Bangalore at 9.30 pm. Not much interaction during the train but used the time to sleep and relax. Finally reached home by about 11 pm.

Logistics-wise, cost came upto about Rs 5550 per head. Easily can rate this as one of the best trips. And a very memorable one at that.