River Rafting in Dandeli was always in my TODO list after doing Rafting in Bheemeshwari. At last got a chance to try out river Rafting in Dandeli with BASC team. I really thank Raveendra for organizing this event and giving a chance to all of us to participate .There are so many memories in detailing. Its a good test to my memory and writing skills.I hope to keep it crisp and still penning everything down.
The kali river has 9 rapids on a 9 kilometer stretch where they have different names for rapids which were addressed by the rafter. Wish i would recollect it. Once we started off - after few minutes rafter asked all of us to jump into the water I happily jumped as we had life jackets so trusted our lives on it:) and floated along the raft downstream. We enjoyed and did swimming and got back into the raft. The water was very soft and clean. Wanted to stay there for a long time. We cheerfully enjoyed those moments. The first two Rapids were very high and all posed for the photo. The Photographer was waiting to take our snaps. Everyone posed for the photo and were also active listening to rafter instruction. We spotted some birds like Horn bill, Robin and cormorant while doing rafting. We finished the 9Kms stretch then got into the jeeps waiting for us to take back to Base camp i.e Kulgi Nature camp. Reached base camp around 3.00 Pm. we all got one hour time for relaxing and to get ready since we were supposed to move to sunset point.
Little far from our base camp we all went to watch the sunset, unfortunately we were not able to see since tress were covered completely. In mean time some started clicking photos and Suresh gave idea to Devendra to stand like a Krishna and all the girls to pose like Radha very funny it was:). After that we all wanted to capture photos jumping in the air and asked Suresh and Devendra to capture our photos. But suresh had some other plan running in his mind to make us fools by asking us to do one two exercise where the photos will come awesome all got fooled completely except Ashwini but even she was fooled for the first time by doing one two. This numbers created guffaws and chuckles to whole team busted out laughs till the next day. After some time we all spent some time sharing our funny experiences. Listening to each one's experiences we all busted out laughing and had nice dinner. During dinner Raveendra wanted to have some cucumber unfortunately he did not get since Deepa had all the remaining cucumber. 
Next day we all got up around 4.00 AM as per Organizer instruction and all were ready by 5.00 AM in the morning for Wild safari. It was extremely beautiful walking early in the morning with the torches in the wild environment where you have chances of animal attack. I really enjoyed that part and got a jeep after some time where he dropped us to safari main point. Morning 6.00 AM started our safari It was still dark we had to use our torches to spot animals. In ten minutes we were able to spot one group of Deer and few Birds no one seemed happy about the safari part. After that we all reached back to our base camp had our breakfast poori palya and chatni. It was getting finished as soon it was served. Packed all our luggage's and started off our journey to Syntheri Rocks. I can say Syntheri really rocks, with its 300-ft tall monolith granite on the banks of Kaneri river (a tributary of Kali river). A gushing waterfall adds to the fierce beauty of this place. It’s too dangerous to venture into the water. So far, it’s claimed 12 lives; so says a board nearby. Next our plan was to explore the Ulavi caves in Dandeli Trek up a thousand steps through dense virgin evergreen forests to reach the caves. Said to be inhabited by humans since prehistoric times. You need to crawl to enter into the caves Anshul, saswata, Naveen and Suresh explored the caves completely. And briefed all of us that they all saw a small room with idol and there was water inside the caves where the water level was till the knee from there they had two path to explore from there one path will lead to the back side view of the cave. We all had to stop for some time since guys who had entered into the caves wanted to take bath, All were so hungry since it was already 3.00PM in the afternoon and everyone wanted to have lunch. Stopped for lunch and then started our journey towards backwaters and spent some time there and moved to Dandeli. Reached railway station around 7.30 PM and Raveendra took all our feedback at the railway station. We started our journey back to home sweet home and reached namma Bengaluru by around 7.00 AM.
Memories of our trek members.
1) Saswata Goswami - Bit silent but was completely active.
2) Tontri das - Cute and Very active.
3) Rajdeep mondal - Umbrella Man.
4) Naveenkumaar SM - Snail Father
5) krutika - Photograpghy.
6) Suresh - Ek doo Ek.
7) Lakshmi - Mooshaleee.
8) Devendra Reddy - Got different names like Devanand, Reddy garu, Devegowda.
9) Vandana G - Active Participation.
10) Ashwini S - Whatever it is i wont do 1 and 2 .
11) Deepa - Three things about Deepa firstly her dialogue (Papa kane bare 1 2 madonna he is asking us to do from so long, Next she is afraid of injection Thirdly CD (Cucumber Deepaaaaaaaaaaaaa).
12) Anshul Chaurasia - Got fever on first day and wherever he gets a chance he was trying to sleep.
13) Raveendra GN - Organizer, OMG his jokes and MTR dialogue to Naveen (u don't know MTR what kind of trekker you are:)).
Thank to each and every person for making this Treknic so memorable.
Written by: Yashaswini
Post 2
Though the initial reason was to go for an outing with my friends (Deepa, Vandy & Yashu) and to have a good time with them, it turned out to be a fantastic experience. It all started with our very own Yashu suggesting that we must go for this trek and all of us immediately agreed and registered ourselves a month before the treknic was scheduled. With all the apprehension, I was eagerly waiting for 21st Feb and the day had finally arrived. We were to meet at the Bangalore Railway station at 9:00 pm and move towards our train which was scheduled to leave at 9:15 pm. I reached station by 8:45 and meanwhile all my friends had reached and collected the train details, seat numbers and so we were seated inside waiting for the train to depart. Till then I had not met the organizer or the others with whom I was going to be with for the next two days. We four were totally busy with ourselves chatting and having fun and Yashu now and then hopping out and inside the train to check on others. Finally we got to meet Raveendra, the organizer of the trek and Lakshmi a veteran of BASC and we left to Dandeli.
We reached Alvanar on the 22nd Feb, 7:15 am and had a quick introduction with the other folks. That is when I actually met all of them and this treknic was turning out to be an interesting experience. We had breakfast and left for Dandeli - White water rafting. The team got split into two and we got into our respective boats and were ready to go and first thing after instructions the instructor asked us to jump in to the river and I was shocked for a moment but yet confident I won’t drown with our life jacket on. So all of us just jumped! We started getting comfortable in water that is when we were literally pulled back to the boat and we started the rafting and there comes our first and most amazing and memorable rapid woooowwwww that was one hell of an experience which make you feel want more such rapids. It was absolute fun. People who are scared of water must definitely try once.
Our next destination was this amazing place where we had our lunch, it was this typical North Karnataka style food which I relished completely and then headed to Kulgi Nature camp and from there we went to the Karnataka Power Corporation LTD. It was a visual treat to have seen that also, could feel the strong wind blowing against your face and you cannot miss to hear the sound of the river flowing through the channels which is that powerful. We weren’t allowed to stay there until the sunset so we were on our way back to the Camp. Later, we had a great evening which included a round of photo session followed by chat session where all of us laughed our hearts out at some of the funny experience shared which continued throughout our dinner.
On 23rd Feb, we started off quite early at 4:45 am as we had to go the Dandeli Safari, it was little disappointing as we could not find anything exciting but managed to find Deer, and some wild animals foot prints. After safari we were back to base camp packed our bags left for Syntheri Rocks. On our way to Syntheri rocks we had nice Jamming session inside vehicle which was quite memorable and most of us enjoyed. After that we went to Ulavi caves. I had almost lost count of the steps we had to take to reach there and at a point when we had to get down I thought was definitely going to trip n fall and but managed to land safely thanks to the Raveendra. The journey back to the vehicle was another tough task we tried walking Criss Cross on steps so that it would be little easier to climb which actually worked at least I believed so. We tried walking backwards as suggested by Suresh and somehow managed to reach our vehicle and we headed towards Supa Dam back waters after having lunch. Though we had very little time to spend, it was really peaceful after which we headed towards railway station to head back to Bangalore. All in all it was a fantastic experience and it was even more memorable because of each and every one who was a part of this trek.
My Most fond memories:
Deepa being really scared initially while rafting but end of it she totally enjoyed it.
Suresh’s “the fall” from the boat when the other boat hit ours from behind, we had to lift him literally we had laughs of our life time.
Suresh’s unsuccessful attempt in making us look as fools.
All the funny stories we shared at the camp.
Naveen’s “feeling fatherly” comment on snail he had.
Looking forward for some more Trek and Trecknics..
Written by: Ashwini
Post 3
It was really an awesome experience we had in Dandeli. This was the first trek I had been and enjoyed to the extend which cannot be explained in words.
Team was really very good and our Organizer RAVEENDRA guided us very well.
As soon as we reached Alnavar junction, we went to Dandeli with short introduction of the Team of 14. After reaching, we had breakfast and left to river rafting. River rafting was wonderful experience and I wish all get to experience once atleast. Those who know swimming will enjoy more since they allow you to jump into river for some time. This was most memorable event in this trek.
Then we had Rotti for lunch and took rest for some time and left to Sunset point but badluck we couldn’t see the sunset. By late evening we were back to our Dormitory. Chatting, jokes Raveendra's jokes, had good time altogether.
2nd Day early morning by 5am we all went for a walk in search of wildlife. Unfortunately we didn't see any wild life even after safari except deer & peacock. But early morning walk was very refreshing, we liked it. After breakfast we left to Synthery Rocks, Ulavi caves and Haralayana chilume. Ulavi caves was kind of trekking and it was my first trekking.
Our last destination was Supa dam back waters which was a good place for relax. People who trek often are really great.
Finally we were at the end of the day of our treknic, we were back to our places with lot of beautiful memories.
THANK YOU ALL FOR SUCH AN AMAZING TREKNIC!!!!
Written by: Vandana
Post 4
It was really a fun trip to the beautiful Dandeli forests. Thanks to Raveendra, for all the arrangements and planning.
The trip started with river rafting. The rafting experience in the Kali river was indeed great- getting into the cool river waters, surrounded by the forests and chirping of Horn-bills to encountering the rapids along with the group members made it a fun and thrilling experience.
We stayed at the Kulgi Nature Camp. The place is in a great location - just by the edge of the forest - and is an ideal location for spotting birds and enjoying nature. Towards the end of the day, we visited the Reservoir view-point. This place provides a beautiful view of the river snaking through the Dandeli forest range and would be a great location to enjoy the sunset. Even at this time of the year, the surrounding forest were green, so it would definitely be quite a sight during monsoons.
The following day started with a walk through the jungle at 5 in the morning, in absolute darkness to reach the safari start point. This was an exciting experience, especially because the camp guards already warned us against taking that walk in the dark due to animal movements. We were in constant anticipation of spotting something in our torch beams till we reached the forest gates. We entered the jungle for safari as soon as the gates opened. Although the forests looked great as the sun was slowly coming up, we were not very lucky with animal sightings except for a few deer and birds.
After breakfast we started for the Syntheri Rocks. After spending sometime here, viewing the rock formations, we headed to the caves near Ulavi. You reach the caves after a downhill trek and a short climb to reach the cave entrance. A few of us made it into the caves, crawling through 'not-so-clean' waters.
Post lunch, we headed to the Supa Dam backwaters. Even in the small area that we were in, one could get an idea about the expanse of the backwaters. The location was just perfect for relaxing at the end of the day and although we would have liked to spend more time there, we had to head back to catch out return train from Alnavar.
I would say it was a great trip and would like to thank all the members for making this trip a fun and a memorable one. I hope to meet you all in some other trek/trip in the future!
Written by: Saswata
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Image Gallery: Yashwaswini, Suresh Sunder, Naveen
Composed by: Swetha Padakandla
Event organized by: Raveendra G N
Event Date: 22nd and 23rd February 2014
The Crew: Saswata Goswami, Tontri das, Rajdeep Mondal, Naveenkumaar SM, krutika, Suresh, Lakshmi, Devendra Reddy, Vandana G, Ashwini S, Deepa, Anshul Chaurasia, Yeshaswini, Raveendra GN
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