Dandeli, Karnataka
As the January was coming to an end, the first month of a new year and a new decade, I realised that I didn't go visit my true love - NATURE!!
After googling various options for a weekend get-away spot, the destination was zeroed in to be Dandeli. And to add to the spice of travelling to a nature's paradise, we decided to make it a camping trip.
The broken chariot
The adrenaline rush came even before we hopped on the bus when we had to gather all the equipment for camping and it started with borrowing a 2 man tent from a friend and renting sleeping bags form an adventure sport store. But the same rush was killed once we set a foot on the local over night bus which was supposed to be our chariot to our destination. Only thing, the chariot's wheel had some other plans.
A simple 8 hour journey was converted into a 14 hour journey but we finally reached or should I say almost reached our destination at 10 in the morning. The bus station we got off on was 30 kms away from where we wanted to go so quickly grabbing a beer, we took a cab to the place.
Valentine's day
Beautiful thick forests with that cool breeze and the sun shining hot, just made me think of sitting in front of the refrigerator when I was a kid in those hot summer days waiting for my mother to open it. Well, coming back to the present, it feels like it is nature's way of saying welcome by satisfying all your senses. And I was still trying to consume as much of the view as I could, the river decided to show up. The river right in front of my eyes swirled as it got lost into the dense forest around it. However, standing on the bridge when I turned around to see where it came from - was in front of me the big disappointment of my life - A monstrous solid DAM and that's the word that came out to describe the feeling as well.
Moving on from the disappointment of seeing a man-made monster spoil the beauty of what evolution had created and after find a place to throw our stuff at, adventures began with a hike to be followed by Rappelling our way down on a flat face rock. The 1 km hike through the forest was rather exciting as our rappelling expert narrated his stories of living in the wild while we walked through it.
Once we got there, the excitement was all gone and the way down seemed the wrong way down. But getting over the initial fear, once the rope was in my hands and I was hanging on the verge of the rock, to my disappointment, it was not a rock at all. We were rappelling down on a side of a hill which has been a victim of soil erosion and those money making resort businesses that probably chopped of some trees to make a rappelling spot there. Once down, we were already thinking of the next target, white water rafting. Without giving you too many hopes, let me tell you that we didn't do it. It was level 2 and more expensive than level 4 and level 5 we had experienced before so we made a switch to kayaking.
The love for the peaceful part of the river made me row like I have been doing it for years. The calm unending river surrounded by green forests in front of me and a busy resort behind me, I just wanted to row, row and row to get away from the human world and complete give myself away to nature until my arms gave me a wake up call when they started hurting. Being in the middle of the river with the sound of silence surrounding me, life could not have been better at that moment. The reflection of the surrounding trees and the open skies in the river gives you a joy that no modern architecture can provide. Nature must have been the finest architect of it's time to build something that can connect to your soul through all senses and take all negative thoughts and feelings away.
Anyway, stepping out of that thought process to complete this blog, we found a land to camp on and made friends with the locals who gave us enough stories over campfire to get us to sleep. The day after we changed 3 buses to get back to our materialistic life. Even though urbanisation has crawled into this land of the wild, nature gives you a canvas big enough to find your spot to paint your day the way you want.
Artistic me
And this is how I painted mine!
As the January was coming to an end, the first month of a new year and a new decade, I realised that I didn't go visit my true love - NATURE!!
After googling various options for a weekend get-away spot, the destination was zeroed in to be Dandeli. And to add to the spice of travelling to a nature's paradise, we decided to make it a camping trip.
The broken chariot
The adrenaline rush came even before we hopped on the bus when we had to gather all the equipment for camping and it started with borrowing a 2 man tent from a friend and renting sleeping bags form an adventure sport store. But the same rush was killed once we set a foot on the local over night bus which was supposed to be our chariot to our destination. Only thing, the chariot's wheel had some other plans.
 |
| Preparing the firewood |
Valentine's day
Beautiful thick forests with that cool breeze and the sun shining hot, just made me think of sitting in front of the refrigerator when I was a kid in those hot summer days waiting for my mother to open it. Well, coming back to the present, it feels like it is nature's way of saying welcome by satisfying all your senses. And I was still trying to consume as much of the view as I could, the river decided to show up. The river right in front of my eyes swirled as it got lost into the dense forest around it. However, standing on the bridge when I turned around to see where it came from - was in front of me the big disappointment of my life - A monstrous solid DAM and that's the word that came out to describe the feeling as well.
Moving on from the disappointment of seeing a man-made monster spoil the beauty of what evolution had created and after find a place to throw our stuff at, adventures began with a hike to be followed by Rappelling our way down on a flat face rock. The 1 km hike through the forest was rather exciting as our rappelling expert narrated his stories of living in the wild while we walked through it.
Once we got there, the excitement was all gone and the way down seemed the wrong way down. But getting over the initial fear, once the rope was in my hands and I was hanging on the verge of the rock, to my disappointment, it was not a rock at all. We were rappelling down on a side of a hill which has been a victim of soil erosion and those money making resort businesses that probably chopped of some trees to make a rappelling spot there. Once down, we were already thinking of the next target, white water rafting. Without giving you too many hopes, let me tell you that we didn't do it. It was level 2 and more expensive than level 4 and level 5 we had experienced before so we made a switch to kayaking.
The love for the peaceful part of the river made me row like I have been doing it for years. The calm unending river surrounded by green forests in front of me and a busy resort behind me, I just wanted to row, row and row to get away from the human world and complete give myself away to nature until my arms gave me a wake up call when they started hurting. Being in the middle of the river with the sound of silence surrounding me, life could not have been better at that moment. The reflection of the surrounding trees and the open skies in the river gives you a joy that no modern architecture can provide. Nature must have been the finest architect of it's time to build something that can connect to your soul through all senses and take all negative thoughts and feelings away.
Anyway, stepping out of that thought process to complete this blog, we found a land to camp on and made friends with the locals who gave us enough stories over campfire to get us to sleep. The day after we changed 3 buses to get back to our materialistic life. Even though urbanisation has crawled into this land of the wild, nature gives you a canvas big enough to find your spot to paint your day the way you want.
Artistic me
And this is how I painted mine!
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