Ramblings from Dandeli

Supa Dam - GaneshGudi

3 holidays in a trot (and that too a non Diwali offering) is a rarity, particularly for us, those who are associated with the manufacturing industry. The grey cells start to slog faster than they normally do and the plan is on. Dandeli, a wild life sanctuary was supposed to be Aarohi’s ** next destination. The internet search engines were pumped to find out the best possible route, the spots & the hang-outs in and around Dandeli. Resort accommodations were abundant and their charges were also exorbitant. An apt time for some of us to utilize their networking skills - we got hold of two possible options. The one that finally got materialized was a farmhouse about 6 kms from Dandeli and some 20 kms from the actual forest limits, but I still believe, the second option of the tents offered by Karnataka forest departments were by far the best - authentic and rich forest experience and yet cheap to the core (me plannin' to visit there on a yearly basis). Its not that the farm house was any less compared to an experience, but I still woo the fact that we couldnot get those tents, since they were booked about a month ago. The farm house, I personally felt, was crowded with people (another group shared the accommodation with us) and a variety of insects as our hosts (God knows - how did they manage to know that we were supposed to visit that place). The nights at the farm house were extremely vocal with filmy songs, PJs and the laughter associated with them around that camp fire. Luckily we were far off from the forest or else we would have some elephants and tigers knocking on us and yelling at us "bhai sahab!! abhi humara sone ka time hain - can you please slow down your voice".

One thrilling experience (unlucky me, couldnot be a part of the team) was when a few of us visited that stream flowin’ some 500 mts behind our camp, in the midst of a dark, silent yet vocal (birds and animals engaged in making some of the threatening voices) night. I can imagine the group’s plight in fear, since I couldn’t stop from getting afraid myself, even though I went there in the morning. Very true!! – Man may be the king of all the living beings in the city, but in the forests, it’s the beasts that call the shots. The birds around that stream were just unimaginable – plenty of them and in varieties that we may not have imagined. Early morning – we had to reach the forest office at 6 am, wherein our contact had arranged to take us in the forests in a forester tempo. That 20 km ride in the early morning was just unbelievable and scary to the core – we were able to trace 2 foxes and rabbits enroute to the forest office. The tragedy was that these were the only beasts that we would be seeing in our entire trip to Dandeli. It’s the forest office, where I caught up with the “Frugality is India’s Tradition. Modernity sees India’s frugality as Poverty” poster – the theme for my next blog. Thanks Ashu!! for capturing that for me, I doubt whether me in that cold and sleepy mood, that I was in would have bothered to click a snap. The tempo ride was fun, even though it did not fulfill our original aim of having a glance of those wildies – It offered a rich blend of flora – even thought the fauna part (except for those birds, butterflies, insects and a snake) was missing.

Fauna - That we Could Capture

The 45 Rs. for a 5.5 hr ride / walk in the jungle were well spent. The safari route has become so common now, with all those resorts and private vehicles doing their rounds on a daily basis that the path has submerged down by 8 inches below the ground level and is much smoother than a Pune road, may be. Over a period time, the animals would have passed on this route’s information to all their offsprings – that this is the route that you must not venture into even before they told them about the water sources, near by.

Jungle Walk

We went to the Kawala caves – another piece of nature’s wonders. It’s a 500 mtr crawl in the caves with all those gods sitting there, inside to watch us resorting back to the 4 legs. The 4 legs stance is supposed to be the most natural for all the living beings, and we, homo-sapiens, have literally forgotten the art of walking with 4 legs. The funniest part for me was that, after that 500 mtr drill exercise, we ended up in an opening which was merely 18 inches apart from the opening that we started off. The 200 stair descent to Kawala caves and its corresponding ascent back to the point was not enough for Ashu, who forgot his camera near the Kawala caves – Had to sprint those stairs to catch hold of a group who were busy clicking photos with his camera.

Kawala Caves

While that was not enough, Amya dropped his cell phone back en route to the forest tempo - thought that one of those monkeys would get it back to him and very truly a group of monkeys actually saw that cell and gave it back to him – the group was actually headed by me, with pd, aj and amlya the rest of them. When we actually reached the forest office back we were so hungry, that the 8 of us actually ended up eating a whole canteen literally – 14 dosas, 12 idli plates was not enough that we ended up eating up buns and cakes to fill our tummies.
Our next spot was the Cyntheri rocks and as rightly read somewhere about this spot, we literally felt that we were a microscopic single celled organism in the presence of the 300 foot tall monolith of called Cyntheri Rocks.

Syntheri Rocks

This is on the banks of river Kaneri, which is a small river that eventually merges into the Kali. Its beauty is breathtaking which is accentuated by the small waterfall that gushes into a deep rocky ravine. An interesting take away from this spot was that billboard alerting the people not to swim there – an innovative way of putting your say.

One blip spot was that we as a group was never able to come to a consensus on the white water river rafting – Nevermind Shrivijya, you and me have to return to Dandeli to have that experience again – Cannot miss out on that action anyway!! The night to be followed was to be spent in darkness – as 8 engineers failed in connecting the wiring to the main electricity supply (Ironically, the group of masons was able to do that the earlier night). Sunny – our local guide (how can I miss out on this character, for so long) tried his hand in connecting the wires, ended up creating a fire around the electric pole – the fire which literally bought the whole of the village together in fear – we ended up as heroes, by extinguishing the fire – the fire that we were responsible for – a corporate lesson for all, create a fire, extinguish it and become a hero. Ah!! Back to Sunny. Boy!! the food that he gave us on both of those 2 nights would just remain a memoir for the whole of my life, first night – the cabbage vegetable, the dal and the pappad and the the night to follow – something more tastier – the chicken fry and the gravy – huuun yummy.

Sunny's Place

He was more of a “one-stop solutions” for all of us – Be it the travel guide, the chef, the light man. He provided it all - that essential lantern, the snacks the battery charger and the cricket scores updates. Jagya, I still wish he might be able to find out those spectacles of yours. The return journey was more of a nail-bitter than anything else – 120 kms to be reached in 120 mins – We made it back safely, but not without those scares that PD provided me with at the end of the journey. PD, next time se khayal rakh baba, meri shaadi nahi huyi hain, abhi tak. At the end of it all, thanks to the helmet rule in Belgaum, Ajya was able to lose his red cap. That’s all folks, time now for me to sign off for today – but before we leave, heres have a look at the some of the photographic sunset memories of the Supa Dam at Ganeshgudi, which we clicked on our way to Dandeli.

Sunset at Supa Dam - Ganeshgudi

** “Aarohi – The climbers” for me personally, means a recreational group with values in pursuit of the nature’s offerings - More to be featured in this space.