It was another of those exciting mornings. Hearts filled with curiosity and thrilled, I just couldnt wait for evening to come. For what laid ahead for my weekend was a beautiful getaway from the regular skyscrapers, noise pollution and traffic. I was going to live in the forest for the next 2 days.
Excited I took Casper for a long walk than usual. His golden locks were jumping with excitement. He was also in a holiday mood. He knew when the weekend was around. I was playing with him. My golden retriever had grown up to be a big dog from the time I had bought a small puppy 8 months back.
Something distracted me and turned around to see what was happening. Casper unknowing of the fact that his owner's concentration has moved came running to me and jumped on me. I just felt something heavy coming and hitting me. And I could feel my ankle bone dislocating from its safe place. What followed was a excruciating pain. More than feeling bad of what was my plight with a broken leg, I could see my dreams of Dandeli crumbling down. With great courage I tried to move and the pain vanished as soon as it came. My happiness knew no bounds. I came back jumping.
Before evening there was a long day at work to be spent. I went to office with a singing heart. Work was as usual loaded over my desktop. Mails started pouring in as soon as i opened my mail box. Gosh!! I continued with my work. After some time I started getting a small pain in the leg. I tried to ignore it. But after somtime, the pain became severe that I couldnt bear at all. I tried to get up from my seat and learnt that I was not able to keep my foot down. I couldnt believe of what was happening. Didnt I come walking on these same legs. I was carried to Hospital where I was robbed of 3000k for all the check up and xrays with no particular outcome. Doctor asked me to take bed rest for 2 weeks. Now that was the last thing I wanted to hear.
My Dandeli trip for which I craved so much was at stake. And as time passed I could see it slipping from my hand. I couldnt take a step on my own and here I was all prepared to go to dandeli. I finally decided that nothing could stop me from going. I started my journey with my so called sprained leg.
We had booked our night journey in the bus. I limped myself all the way to the busstand. Thanks to the pain killer injection. Atleast now I am able to limp. People around wondered where I was pulling myself to. It was damn hot in Bangalore then. We were getting burnt inside the bus. Finally after crossing bangalore we got some relief and we finally slept.
Morning we were welcomed with beautiful green view of the Forests. It was so cool climate. We had reached Dandeli. And my foot was surprisingly paining less. We got down at what was known as the main bus stop of Dandeli. It was a small village bus stand, which was built and left for its fate. We were advised by a friend not to take auto to reach our destination. We enquired for the bus. We were shown an old bus which we doubted how long will it be since it breaks down. We sat in the empty bus taking the first pics of our journey. It was a while when all the localites started getting into the bus. And by all ways we were the ones who were left out among the entire bus occupiers. But the localites seemed to be least interested in us. As everyday they would be seeing hundreds of travellers from all over the world.
The bus started and initially we were amazed to see how the houses were located inside the forests, with all amenities so far. I guess this bus was the only option for all the residents. Then started the roller coaster ride. We had to agree that the driver and the bus were very much capable of driving through the hills. We were awed by the expertise that the driver showed on the road. We saw many langurs passing us. The whole langur family having a good sight of all the 2 legged animals travelling on a 4 wheel machine.
We had booked one of the jungle lodges to stay in. The conductor was a very friendly person who guided us when the bus reached our destination. We stood on the road with four roads to four different directions. Luckily we found the resort board and arrow indicating the direction. We started walking in that direction. The road was filled with mud which shown the impacts of a heay vehicles tyres spluttering through it regularly. On both the sides there were variety of flora. After a while we lost count of the time since we had started walking. We wondered whether we were on the right path or some wind has changed the direction of the board. Luckily a faint structure started to be visible to us. We believed that to be the entrance of our resort. We entered the gates and were happy to see the housed constructed at distance and on bamboo sticks. It was really going to be interesting stay.
We got freshen up. We realised that we had chosen a totally wrong time which was in June to visit Dandeli. We were told that all water games including the most famous Rafting was stopped by the government due to fluctuations in the water level of the dam. I cursed each and every site which I had referred to before planning for not putting that piece of information in the sites. We were heartbroken. We couldnt believe that we had come all the way for nothing. Our hotel manager informed that we could still do trekking and some bird watching. Now that was a drop of hope. But still bird watching was not our cup of tea. We saw many photographers with their SLR's and DSLR's and silently sitting among the trees, eyes deeply fixed onto something. Only we couldnt seem to see what intrigued them so much.
We remembered our friend who was a localite of Dandeli. Maybe this was when we realised how true the Airtel song was " Har ek friend zaroori hota hai". Our friend recommended a place where all water sports were available. We contacted a person who he said was his friend. We were most warmly welcomed by the guy. Thanks to our friend. We planned our day excitingly of what we have to do. We wanted to do each and every thing like coracle ride, trekking, kayaking, water fall rappelling etc.
We first started out with Coracle ride. We were taken in Safari Jeeps to a river bed. We wore our life jackets on which we held our lifes. We went for a ride in the basket which carried we four and a driver. I wondered how it is holding so much of weight. We were shown Hornbill birds which were found in abundance in Dandeli. While we heard interesting stories about Hornbill we finished our Coracle ride. The driver seemed to be happy letting us know what little he knew. We were allowed to swim in the river with our life jackets on. We had great fun playing and swimming. After that we were shown the big dam which was the forefather of Dandeli and water sports.
After we had a good lunch, we went to meet the guy our friend recommended. We went for kayaking for a long time in the river. After finishing the kayaking we were thrown into the river by tilting the boat when we least expected it. After that we got freshen up and went for trekking. The path was too steep making us pant and breathless. But what view we had on reaching the top was something which was worth all the pain. We had a beautiful view of the sunset. We saw some bisons crossing the jungle. We climbed down the hill and by the time we reached, it became dark. We had a great dinner and whole night we chit chatted and enjoyed our gossips and pranks on each other while the langurs jumped around all the night over our roof.
Next day morning we got up at 04:00 and got ready to go for water fall rappelling. 80kms through the jungle, a safari early in the morning was of great fun. We saw many fox on the road. We reached the destiny and the trekked our way down. We were awed to see the waterfall and when the guide demoed to show how to climb down we were literally filled with fear. We went one by one. I was the third to go. By the time the first 2 went my legs started shivering. I was tied to rope and all other safety things. I started to descend slowly the rocks through the water fall. First all it went very well. But then on reaching half way it was becoming difficult for me to get grip on the slippery rocks. I slipped and fell leaving my rope. I was hanging in mid neither going up or down. I couldnt see a thing in the water fall. I tried to get hold of the rope. Finally after a strenuous effort i succeeded in getting hold of the rope. I went straight down in the small pond below.
It was the best experience we had ever had. We enjoyed the adventurous trip in dandeli. Seriously it was the best ever adventurous trip we had. We were disappointed that we couldnt do all the sports like jacuzzi, river crossing and mainly the rafting. Hoping we could come back some other time for these we bid goodbye to dandeli while we headed to railway station. Only after coming out we came to know that the nearest atm is 30 kms away. And we were famished and hungry. Not having ate anything since morning we couldnt find even a single food outlet in that area. Later we understood how difficult it was to get food and drinking water outside the resorts. Finally we got a small hotel where we got some rice and chicken curry. We ate it more fast than chicken biriyani.
We reached the railway station and waited for our train while we went back our memories in dandeli while we browsed through the photos we had taken....
Excited I took Casper for a long walk than usual. His golden locks were jumping with excitement. He was also in a holiday mood. He knew when the weekend was around. I was playing with him. My golden retriever had grown up to be a big dog from the time I had bought a small puppy 8 months back.
Something distracted me and turned around to see what was happening. Casper unknowing of the fact that his owner's concentration has moved came running to me and jumped on me. I just felt something heavy coming and hitting me. And I could feel my ankle bone dislocating from its safe place. What followed was a excruciating pain. More than feeling bad of what was my plight with a broken leg, I could see my dreams of Dandeli crumbling down. With great courage I tried to move and the pain vanished as soon as it came. My happiness knew no bounds. I came back jumping.
Before evening there was a long day at work to be spent. I went to office with a singing heart. Work was as usual loaded over my desktop. Mails started pouring in as soon as i opened my mail box. Gosh!! I continued with my work. After some time I started getting a small pain in the leg. I tried to ignore it. But after somtime, the pain became severe that I couldnt bear at all. I tried to get up from my seat and learnt that I was not able to keep my foot down. I couldnt believe of what was happening. Didnt I come walking on these same legs. I was carried to Hospital where I was robbed of 3000k for all the check up and xrays with no particular outcome. Doctor asked me to take bed rest for 2 weeks. Now that was the last thing I wanted to hear.
My Dandeli trip for which I craved so much was at stake. And as time passed I could see it slipping from my hand. I couldnt take a step on my own and here I was all prepared to go to dandeli. I finally decided that nothing could stop me from going. I started my journey with my so called sprained leg.
We had booked our night journey in the bus. I limped myself all the way to the busstand. Thanks to the pain killer injection. Atleast now I am able to limp. People around wondered where I was pulling myself to. It was damn hot in Bangalore then. We were getting burnt inside the bus. Finally after crossing bangalore we got some relief and we finally slept.
Morning we were welcomed with beautiful green view of the Forests. It was so cool climate. We had reached Dandeli. And my foot was surprisingly paining less. We got down at what was known as the main bus stop of Dandeli. It was a small village bus stand, which was built and left for its fate. We were advised by a friend not to take auto to reach our destination. We enquired for the bus. We were shown an old bus which we doubted how long will it be since it breaks down. We sat in the empty bus taking the first pics of our journey. It was a while when all the localites started getting into the bus. And by all ways we were the ones who were left out among the entire bus occupiers. But the localites seemed to be least interested in us. As everyday they would be seeing hundreds of travellers from all over the world.
The bus started and initially we were amazed to see how the houses were located inside the forests, with all amenities so far. I guess this bus was the only option for all the residents. Then started the roller coaster ride. We had to agree that the driver and the bus were very much capable of driving through the hills. We were awed by the expertise that the driver showed on the road. We saw many langurs passing us. The whole langur family having a good sight of all the 2 legged animals travelling on a 4 wheel machine.
We had booked one of the jungle lodges to stay in. The conductor was a very friendly person who guided us when the bus reached our destination. We stood on the road with four roads to four different directions. Luckily we found the resort board and arrow indicating the direction. We started walking in that direction. The road was filled with mud which shown the impacts of a heay vehicles tyres spluttering through it regularly. On both the sides there were variety of flora. After a while we lost count of the time since we had started walking. We wondered whether we were on the right path or some wind has changed the direction of the board. Luckily a faint structure started to be visible to us. We believed that to be the entrance of our resort. We entered the gates and were happy to see the housed constructed at distance and on bamboo sticks. It was really going to be interesting stay.
We got freshen up. We realised that we had chosen a totally wrong time which was in June to visit Dandeli. We were told that all water games including the most famous Rafting was stopped by the government due to fluctuations in the water level of the dam. I cursed each and every site which I had referred to before planning for not putting that piece of information in the sites. We were heartbroken. We couldnt believe that we had come all the way for nothing. Our hotel manager informed that we could still do trekking and some bird watching. Now that was a drop of hope. But still bird watching was not our cup of tea. We saw many photographers with their SLR's and DSLR's and silently sitting among the trees, eyes deeply fixed onto something. Only we couldnt seem to see what intrigued them so much.
We remembered our friend who was a localite of Dandeli. Maybe this was when we realised how true the Airtel song was " Har ek friend zaroori hota hai". Our friend recommended a place where all water sports were available. We contacted a person who he said was his friend. We were most warmly welcomed by the guy. Thanks to our friend. We planned our day excitingly of what we have to do. We wanted to do each and every thing like coracle ride, trekking, kayaking, water fall rappelling etc.
We first started out with Coracle ride. We were taken in Safari Jeeps to a river bed. We wore our life jackets on which we held our lifes. We went for a ride in the basket which carried we four and a driver. I wondered how it is holding so much of weight. We were shown Hornbill birds which were found in abundance in Dandeli. While we heard interesting stories about Hornbill we finished our Coracle ride. The driver seemed to be happy letting us know what little he knew. We were allowed to swim in the river with our life jackets on. We had great fun playing and swimming. After that we were shown the big dam which was the forefather of Dandeli and water sports.
After we had a good lunch, we went to meet the guy our friend recommended. We went for kayaking for a long time in the river. After finishing the kayaking we were thrown into the river by tilting the boat when we least expected it. After that we got freshen up and went for trekking. The path was too steep making us pant and breathless. But what view we had on reaching the top was something which was worth all the pain. We had a beautiful view of the sunset. We saw some bisons crossing the jungle. We climbed down the hill and by the time we reached, it became dark. We had a great dinner and whole night we chit chatted and enjoyed our gossips and pranks on each other while the langurs jumped around all the night over our roof.
Next day morning we got up at 04:00 and got ready to go for water fall rappelling. 80kms through the jungle, a safari early in the morning was of great fun. We saw many fox on the road. We reached the destiny and the trekked our way down. We were awed to see the waterfall and when the guide demoed to show how to climb down we were literally filled with fear. We went one by one. I was the third to go. By the time the first 2 went my legs started shivering. I was tied to rope and all other safety things. I started to descend slowly the rocks through the water fall. First all it went very well. But then on reaching half way it was becoming difficult for me to get grip on the slippery rocks. I slipped and fell leaving my rope. I was hanging in mid neither going up or down. I couldnt see a thing in the water fall. I tried to get hold of the rope. Finally after a strenuous effort i succeeded in getting hold of the rope. I went straight down in the small pond below.
It was the best experience we had ever had. We enjoyed the adventurous trip in dandeli. Seriously it was the best ever adventurous trip we had. We were disappointed that we couldnt do all the sports like jacuzzi, river crossing and mainly the rafting. Hoping we could come back some other time for these we bid goodbye to dandeli while we headed to railway station. Only after coming out we came to know that the nearest atm is 30 kms away. And we were famished and hungry. Not having ate anything since morning we couldnt find even a single food outlet in that area. Later we understood how difficult it was to get food and drinking water outside the resorts. Finally we got a small hotel where we got some rice and chicken curry. We ate it more fast than chicken biriyani.
We reached the railway station and waited for our train while we went back our memories in dandeli while we browsed through the photos we had taken....
