Whew!! I finally got an impulse and impetus to write in my blog which has been long dead,all thanks to an amazing river rafting trip at Dandeli which i had to pen down before it erases from my memory thanks to the sloggy brain of mine which has a very short half life period when it comes to remembering things.
Well this trip finally became a success after planning for 6 months. First in June,then in september,october,november and finally in december when it rendered its fruit. We were eight of us (Bhargav,Niru,Aks,Kulla,Kishore,Kiran,Naveen and yours truely), had a hell of a time getting these guys together,everybody is always busy. We booked tickets on Friday night 8.45 pm KSRTC rajahamsa bus to Dandeli. It is 12 hours to Dandeli from Bangalore. It was quite a comfortable journey till hubli and then the last 2 hours from Hubli to Dandeli is a sort of bone crusher though it was assuaged a bit by the Rajahamsa oweing to higher ticket prices. We were at Dandeli at 8.30 AM. I had made prior bookings at the Kulgi Nature Camp and had talked with a guy called Manju Singh Rathod for the transaportation in and around Dandeli. So the minute we landed in Dandeli ,everything was planned. Manju met us at the bus stand and after a bit of breakfast and freshening up (no bath- anyways we were going to the river) we left to Jungle lodges.Jungle lodges is around 2 kms from dandeli and they sort of hold monopoly over rafting in Dandeli.We had a rafting slot at 10 AM.
The actual rafting point is around 15-16 kms from jungle lodges where we were taken in jeeps. During the journey i was kept entertained by Yohan and Paul with some crazy stuff who i incidentally realised at the end of the journey were going to be our rafting instructors. Yohan is a graduate student from US who has taken a sabbatical for an year and has been touring india and currently is a rafting instructor at jungle lodges. He said he tried for the 'American Idol' but didn't make it through the audition round. He even gave me a rap performance on our jeep ride and was pretty good . Paul is from Austria and he is also touring india and he has some 13 years of rafting experience under his belt and he moving towards nepal somewhere in march next year. Paul and yohan did a dual rap performance with constant splutterings which i joined in at the end. Once we reached the rafting site we realised we weren't alone. There were infact a bunch of germans who have been touring around india on their enfields. After safety instructions and rafting instructions which was a laughing roit by yohan we were geared with a safety jacket,a helmet and paddles. Well the actual rafting experience was amazing,i especially liked rapid 1 and 6 a lot,you can just feel the adrenaline rushing through when you pass through these rapids and they are really very scary. There are around 9 rapids between grades 2,3. Somewhere around the halfway point where the water is a bit calm we are asked to jump into the river,if you dont then they push you in. Let me tell you the life jackets are amazing,though i know swimming howmuch ever i tried to go underwater i just couldn't ,the life jacket just keeps pushing you up and keeps your head above the water,so it is really a very safe sport and even non swimmers can take part in.
After around 3.5 hours of fun we finally reached our end point.We were taken back to Jungle lodges. From there we made to Kulgi camp where we had our bookings for accomodation. Its around 12 kms from Dandeli in a direction opposite to jungle lodges. We didn't do much that day as all of us were already pooped out by the rafting experience. we went for a walk through the jungle on the road in night for about 2-3 kms. One thing i noticed during this walk was the amount of stars which we could see which i had long forgotten exists after staying in bangalore. Next early morning at 5AM we went on a jungle safari,we couldn't spot much only a couple of peacocks,elephants,monkeys,some species of birds. Then we went to kavala caves. You have to walk down some 400 odd steps to reach these caves.These are supposedly very sacred caves on the lines of Amarnath. Just as you have a sivalinga of ice at amarnath, here you have a natuarally formed linga of rock. They supposedly call it the'Amarnath of south' - not sure about its validity though. After kavala caves we went to syntheri rocks. It is another nice place where in you can sit and relax for hours. You have caves cut into the rocks by the river and there is a nice small water fall. we sat there and enjoyed for quite a while. We then saw Supa Dam and visited a view point called Sanmuga view point.We had booked for a train to Bangalore from Hubli at 5.40 PM. So we rushed to catch a bus to hubli from dandeli at 2.30 Pm,reached hubli at 5,took the train at 5.40 and reached bangalore at 4.30 AM on monday morning. The rafting was an amazing experince and the gang made it even more fun with all the jokes,PJ's and antics.
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Some info:
Dandeli is reachable by road and train.
By road-
It takes around 12 hours from bangalore to Dandeli. Bangalore to hubli is NH4,from hubli its around 80 kms-2.5 hours journey- road is bad. There is a rajahamsa leaving at 8.45 Pm from KSRTC bus stand,there is also a later express bus not sure of its timing,VRL also operates to Dandeli.
By train you have to get down at Londa. From Londa dandeli is around 30 kms,but transportation from Londa to Dandeli is not regular. Haven't tried it personally- so information is based solely on others advice.
return - You have a 5.30 PM rajahamsa travelling back to bangalore from dandeli or else a VRL bus leaves at 8.30 Pm or alternatively you can book a train from hubli to bangalore(which we did) and travel from dandeli to hubli in a private jeep or local or KSRTC bus.
Accomodation- You can stop at
Jungle lodges -which is a bit costly(1500 per person per day inclusive of food,accomodation) but gives pretty good facilities and around 2 kms from dandeli .
Kulgi Nature Camp(where we stayed) - around 12 kms from Dandeli and operated by government of karnataka. Pretty reasonable pricing and pretty good hygiene maintained.(50 rs per day for a dormitory and 200 rs per day for a tent,15 rs for breakfast and 30 rs for a veg lunch and 60 rs for non-veg lunch)
Anashi Nature Camp- around 32 kms from dandeli- again a government owned camp but a bit far. If you are looking only for trekking in these areas then it is suggestable beacuse many of the treking routes are nearer to Anashi.
Lodging at Dandeli- Dandeli itself has a couple of lodges,costing around 300 rs per day.
Transportation between all these places within dandeli is through jeeps. They cost you around 20-30 rs per person from one point to another. You can alternatively hire a jeep for youself for an entire day.
Trip cost us around 2000-2300 rs for two days.
Split is approx
1100 - rafting
500 rs- to and fro journey
200 rs- transportaion within dandeli
Food+accomodation - 500 rs.
Some contacts.
Jungle lodges-08284- 233360
Kulgi Natue camp-08284-231585
Places to visit near Kulgi -
Kavala Caves(16 kms from Kulgi)
Syntheri Rocks(22 kms from Kulgi)
Nagzhari valley view(1 km)
Sanmuga view point,Sykes view point,Supa Dam.
Drop in a scrap if you need any more info.
