(Photos/pics for this travelogue might be available on My Tourism Photo Album)

Started from Bangalore for Dandeli by KSRTC bus at 2045 hrs on 30th Dec. Dandeli is 481 km from Bangalore and hence overnight journey by bus.  The road is in good condition as its NH4 (upto Dharwad). So a good night's sleep is possible in the bus.

Reached Dandeli in the morning at 0730 hrs.  Freshened up at State Lodge, bang opposite the bus stand, had quick breakfast, and moved to Jungle Lodges Resort by auto.

The resort is neat and well equipped.  One can stay in permanent tent- cottages.  There's Tennis Table, Carrom, Volleyball court etc to warm up and hammocks to relax.  The staff is quite friendly.

Started for our camping site at 1030 hrs by open Mahindra Jeep.  This ride was just superb.  Landscape around Dandeli is plush green and abundant with bamboo shoots.  The jeep goes all the way through jungle and all upto the actual camping place!! There we met another group of 10 people.  They were all childhood mates. They were the ones who provided us with food, tents, and sleeping bags!

After a small trek, we jumped into the waters.  It was seriously cold. After an hour or so the water level started going down.  So we came out and had lunch.

We were supposed to go for white-water rafting in the afternoon but the group which had gone in the morning had faced some problems due to the low level of water.  Hence this was postponed for us to the next day.

The nearest village is Ganeshgudi, 1km from the camp.  The camp is just by the river Kali and the site offers some trekking opportunities.  A trek to the main road is also interesting.  Just coming out at the road, there's a picturesque bridge over Kali with the dam in background.  In the night you can see Ganeshgudi's lights from a distance.  Across the bridge, there's a small tea shop which will server food also if you need.  Fish, Chicken will be counted as special food.  In the evening me and Hari went to this shop and we also got invited to new year's celebrations by the villagers!!

Anyway, came back later in the night and played antakshari etc with a kid from the other group managing the show.  After dinner again went on a trek, this time to Ganeshgudi.  While coming back, even though we jogged a bit, 0000hrs struck on the way to tents. So we celebrated new year on the way to our tents!!!!! It was fun.

Next morning was meant for white-water rafting.  It was 1100 hrs and raining and our guides hadn't arrived yet (probably had partied late on new year's night), so we weren't sure whether we would be able to do rafting today as well or not. But sure as sunrise, there came our guides at 1130 carrying rafts in the trolley-jeep.  These guides Chris, Clause and others (I couldn't remember all the names) are from Austria and teaching this adventure sport in India because of their deep love with it.

After getting equipped with life-jackets and paddles, we boarded the rafts. There were total of 3 rafts.   In our raft, we were 8 people including Chris, our mentor.  For first 20-30 minutes, he gave us the basic training like commands and actions, modus operandi, safety precautions, and what to do if you fall in the rapids (very important, i must say!!).  Two gloden rules, as per him, of white-water rafting:
1) Stay Calm.
2) Be with the boat.
There was something called throwbag to rescue a person fallen in the rapid.  It's a 15 meters rope which is contained in a small bag. That bag is thrown on the head/face of the person in the water so that it hits him/her as people kinda get paralyzed in water, esp. non-swimmers.

End of the training was satisfaction of Chris with our paddling capabilties and ability to understand his commands. After basic training started the adventure.  The first rapid was 'Adi's Beard'.  It was a class-2/class-3 rapid depending on the water level (governed by the dam upstream).  The rapids are categorized in 6 classes. Class 6 is the most dangerous and the one where if you go you die. Even the most expert people wouldn't dare to go into a class 6 rapid!! And there are only 6-7 rivers in the whole world which offer class-5 rapids.  Ganges in India offers class-4 rapids.

Adi's Beard, the first rapid, i guess was the best of the whole 2.5 hours trip down the river.  We were quite violently shaken by the water and were ordered a get-down (inside raft) for non-swimmers by Chris while in the rapid.  Just after rapid, we paddled a bit upstream and crossed the violent stream just at the bottom of the rapid.  And then it was time to celebrate: We put the blades of our paddles on top of each other's and then in a quick move lifted them above our heads and splashed into the water behind our back.  Then everybody jumped into the water!!

Then came the second rapid, 'The Stitch'.  It derives its name from the fact that its a wide intermittent formation of rocks over which water flows across the width of the river.  It was again a good rapid.  By now we were confident enough to splash water on other rafts when they came near us!!

Then came other rapids like the Smugglers' Trove, the Stanley's Squeeze, etc. Each one had a peculiar feature of its own and hence giving us a new joy everytime.  The whole rafting ride got over in a jiffy!!

Then we were picked up by junglelodges jeeps at the end point.  I stood on the footstep at the back of the open jeep on the way back.  This ride was really superb.

After having lunch at the resort, we started for Bangalore by 1800 hrs bus in the evening.

Recommend:  A must-see, must-do place for adeventure-sport/nature lovers.

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 Last updated: Nov 21, 2005