Scuba Diving!!

Netrani is a tiny Island of India located in Arabian Sea, off the coast of Karnataka. It is also known as Pigeon Island. The top view of the Island appears like a Heart shaped besides Pigeon! So the name Pigeon Island. Netrani Island is one of the best destination in India for Scuba Diving specially for beginners.

Scuba diving was on the cards from long time and after many delays and postponement the plan was finalized "Trip to Netrani Island with GHAC". We were a group of Nine and had to board the bus to Murudeshwar from Hyderabad on Friday. The weather now a days is unpredictable!! It was in mid of May.. the sun was shining brighter in the morning and it started raining cats and dogs in noon!! Seven members have boarded the bus which is ready to departure and two of them are stuck in traffic. The unpredicted rain and the Hyderabad Metro happily blocked the roads. The bus departed from the station... after making several requests the driver agreed to wait for Ten more minutes and finally both of them are here.. tension relieved!!

Next day it was Five in the morning and here we are at Murudeshwar! The Dive timings were scheduled on Sunday, so we have entire Saturday to spend and visit half moon and paradise beach and trek all along Om beach at Gokarna. The drive to Gokarna is Scenic.. with mountains and Western ghats on one side and Arabian Sea on other side. Om beach is less crowded and it has a couple of water sports as well. The beach  is unspoiled and has clear water which is beautifully surrounded by the palm trees. Some fun time at beach and than a water sports and finally a boat ride to Half moon and Paradise Beach. Both the beaches are awesome!! and it has an amazing place for camping. One more place added to the list. Will be camping here one day for sure.. Till the time we reached back it was getting dark and we started back to Murudeshwara.

Gokarna

Sunday woke up at Five in the morning and went for a walk along beach. The early morning view was beautiful and amazing... waves cleansing away the foot and the refreshing cool breeze!! Back to hotel and we are all set for the Dive. Picked up the diving equipment and gear. Loaded it in a vehicle and started for training session in pool. After getting acquainted with the equipment underwater, we started towards the Island. Its one hour journey in boat to reach Island. As we kept moving the color of the water is also changing, now it's blue all around!! And so the under water visibility also increased.

 

Panoramic view of Netrani Island

And there we see the Island... Netrani Island. What an amazing view it was!! A tiny piece of land in the midst of the blue ocean! The water was Cristal clear at the Island and were able to see the playful and colorful fishes on the surface water.

Fishes on the Surface water

We put on the jacket, oxygen cylinder, mask and one fall into the water and here... we are into a different world!! Underwater. The creatures with fins and gills moving all around spending free and independent life. No aquarium, no tanks just spacious and never ending place with full of colorful life moving all around.

Sighted a hell lot of colorful fishes and little corals. What not... Experienced many joys, the feeling of weightlessness and the beautiful and colourful sight of under water. The journey beneath the waves is worth and is exciting and adventure.

It was amazing to be under water. An incredible and mesmerizing experience. Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed to the core.

Finally reached back to hotel and took a jeep to reach Murudeshwar and boarded the bus back to Hyderabad.

Exploration Trek to Kondaveedu fort and Sunrise at SuryaLanka

Kondaveedu Fort - 'The Hill Fortress' is located in Kondaveedu Village, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. The Fort was built and was ruled by the king of Reddy dynasty in fourteenth Century and later on it was concurred and was ruled by many kings starting from Vijayanagara Kings, Qutub Shahis from The Sultans of Golkonda have fought for this fort and after that it went into the hands of French and finally The Britishers.

Apart from the main fort, there are two other forts nearby. All the three forts are now in ruins. It is said that treasure hunters are the main reason to vandalize this fort. The fables of abundant wealth buried underneath continues to draw the attention of the treasure hunters and desecrating the few remains of the fort by digging away. Though we have not noticed any such miscreants all through our trek. Not sure if the miscreants have found some treasure here or not but the fort is completely ruined. There's only a small portion of the fort left out by which one can at-least recognize that its a fort.

Kondaveedu Fort

We have planned to hike this Kondaveedu Fort up the hill. Seven others have joined along with me and laxmi. We have planned this trip well in advance and booked the train tickets that were in waiting list. Finally till the day before the journey the tickets were not confirmed and we were pure unlucky in the Tatkal scheme by IRCTC and thanks for the super slow server of Indian Railways!! Since it's just a Six hours journey from Hyderabad to Guntur we have decided to travel with general ticket. So, the task is to get hold the seats for all the nine people. My self and Vishnu got into the running train on the platform and yes!! we blocked the seats for all nine. Task accomplished!! Luckily the train got delayed by an hour.. lucky coz the main person in the group, our celebrity 'Sreenath' was stuck in traffic. (Celebrity coz he look alike Virat Kohli). Our first travel in general compartment and this is what I noticed... On one side the passengers were waiting to grab the seats and other side the vendors selling the stuff... people climbing up and making the luggage place as their berth!! Train started.. but Virat is still not here!! All of us got settled... and here... got a call from Virat saying that he boarded the train and he is in other compartment, will join us in next station. Pheww!! Journey started with intro followed by a fun games and trying to bluff each other. Our destination was still two hours away, so we decided to take a power nap for couple of hours. and here we are in Guntur... that was a different experience, traveling in General. Hired a private vehicle and started the journey towards the Fort. Enroute had a delicious south Indian breakfast. And here we reached Kondaveedu Fort base!!

The fort is located 1700 feet above sea level, which has steps that takes you to the peak. What's so adventures if we take the steps to climb all over the top? So we decided to explore the place and started hiking from a different route. We have chosen a pretty long route to reach the peak... the group was full on energetic!! none of them got tired till we reach the top. Hike includes lot of scrambling and little climbing. Climbing was little challenging as there were no proper handholds.. we have used a little bit of palming technique to climb up. One by one started climbing and our cameraman 'Saiteja' was busy clicking!!

Hiking

In the midst of hike we found a huge tree with vines!! and guess what.. Its time for some Tarzan swing!! We spent some fun time in swinging and relaxed and continued the hike. After five hours of hiking.... there we are on the top of the fort!! The view from the top was amazing!! a small village at the base surrounded by fields and the blue sky!! It was very hot though. Relaxed for sometime and clicked few group pictures directed by Aparna and stared descending.

Tarzan Swing

Descending was the toughest part though we have chosen a short route, coz it was already noon and the sun shines hot. Rocks burning like hot pan!! and the worst part is descending in hot sun without having a drop of water. Pranav, Akhilesh and Abhilash descended little fast and reached base and were waiting for us at the home at the base village, where we kept all our backpacks. Here ends the hike to Kondaveedu fort and started the journey towards Surya Lanka Beach.

Suryalanka is one amongst many beaches... but with less crowd and less polluted beach. The specialty of Surya Lanka is it's an 'estuary beach' a place where fresh water from the river flows into the ocean and blend with salt water. It was almost dark when we reached the beach... first we setup the tents for camping just few steps away from the beach and ordered dinner at the local hotel and went on for a walk in the beach. Spent some good time at the beach chatting about haunted stories, movies and all... by the time our dinner was ready!! Steamed rice with fish curry was the menu for dinner! and the moment after we had dinner Akhilesh started dozing!! and he is the one in whole group who was sleeping most of the time. We all wanted a good, long sleep now...so that we can wake up early to see the sunrise.

Next day early morning five.. it was little cloudy. Behind the clouds is the sun... Hiding! Raising slow.. we had to wait for long time, but the sun rise was not that good as expected nevertheless we enjoyed the view.

Sun Rise

Early morning at the beach...sunrise time and who doesn't want to get into water..! after spending some good time in the beach we started walking towards the place where river water flows into the sea. It was amazing to see sweet water from river mixes with salt water and at the same time i pity... many people on earth lack drinking water and here it is wasted. And buried with sea water.

It was Eleven O'clock when we reached back to the camping place after spending some good time at the estuary. We still have enough time to spend, so we decided to visit Amaravati Temple near Guntur. Goodbye to Suryalanka!! Came back to Bapatla and started searching for hotels... and Its being a weekend, most of the hotels are filled up... and it was too late till the time we checked-In at a hotel. At last we have to cancel the plan to Amaravati and passed the time with some music and thanks to Abhilash for entertaining us with his mixed and funny facial expressions!!

A wonderful weekend spent with incredible group hiking all along the fort and beach!! Everyone got acquainted very much and decided not to sleep in the return journey as this will be the last night we gonna spend together. Eleven O'clock in the night we boarded the train and all our seats were not allocated in  serial numbers... tried swapping seats with other passengers.. but no luck, we just have to go and have a good night sleep!

Back to Hyderabad on Monday morning and ready for corporate slavery!!

Railway track trek to Dudhsagar Waterfalls

Dudhsagar is  one of the most scenic and beautiful waterfall in India and is listed as fifth tallest waterfall in India. The most spectacular natural phenomena, located on the border of Goa and Karnataka states.The cascading of water in large volume from the top of a hill appears like a milky flow!!

So the group of 20 GHACians started off with the Monsoon Trek on railway track passing through the tunnels and heading towards the beautiful Waterfalls. My self and Yogi being the host of the trek and were leading the group.The journey started with only few confirmed train tickets in hand and rest in RAC. So the adventure and the 'No comfort' travel started rite from the beginning! Thanks for the awesome group for 'No complaints' in regards to travel :) but luck favoured us... the other group from GHAC were traveling in the same train to Jog falls and were having few extra reserved tickets :) So, most of them got the berths and had a tight sleep night journey. Thanks for our sleeping bags which helped us in all the time when we don't have reserved train tickets ;)

Saturday:

The initial plan was to start the trek from Castle Rock station and reach Dudhsagar. It was a 14 Kilometer trek on railway track passing through the tunnels, but by the time we reach the waterfalls it will be almost dark and we cannot have the proper view of falls and most importantly we don't get the space for camping... and being a weekend this route will be too crowded. So, we decided to go little further and start the trek from Caranzol. From Caranzol the distance is around 5-6 Kilometer. We started the trek passing through the tunnels and mountains of western ghats. We entered the first tunnel...it was pitch-dark and we dint switched ON the torch light, just to feel a little adventure!! It's being a monsoon season, it was drizzling from top of the tunnels and the moment we came out of the tunnel we could see many tiny falls from the top of the mountains and of-course plenty of greenery all around!!
 

Tunnel

There were couple of falls on the way where we spent some time. Everyone in the group were amused and were rejoicing a fun filled trek. In the middest of the trek we saw a couple of goods transmitting trains with people on board. The guard allowed few people to board the train. We too had a chance, but we were happy to trek all along and reach the falls and more than that we do not want to miss the beauty of the nature and of-course the Adventure!!
 

View on the way

The views during the trek were immensely mesmerizing!! Deep valleys, water falls, railway track, tunnels and greenery all around... one must visit this place at least once in a life time!! The nature lovers were busy capturing the beauty of nature through lens and others were throughly enjoying the mother nature and of-course there were also few Kodak moments of the group!! Soon we reached the Dudhsagar station and we could here the sound of gushing water falls cascading down!! It was just a Ten minutes walk from Dudhsagar station to the actual water fall... and here we saw the spectacular natural falls... water plummets from hundreds of feet in cascade of large volume and creating a mist all around!! The cascading water appear like a milky flow!!

Water falls

The moment our eyes captured the spectacular falls we lost ourselves in the beauty of nature and were standing still and forgot about the world outside and were thoroughly, deeply rejoicing the waterfalls!! Living the life to the fullest!! After spending a good time at the falls we started pitching the tents for camping quite opposite to the water falls, and just beside the railway track... must be 4-5 steps beside the track not more than that. There is a small canteen at the water falls, where you have enough space for 15 people to accommodate under a shed. After pitching the tents we again went near to the falls... this time we descended little down from where we can feel the gushing water on our feet!! It was getting dark and we all moved to our camping place for dinner. We have enough packed food... a lot of varieties on the menu!! Dinner followed by lot of fun filled activities! It was a different experience to spend the night in the tent near to the falls and the track, lisitening to gushing sound of the water and shuddering sound of a train and feeling the vibrations on the ground!!

Pitching Tents

Next day on Sunday we woke up at Five in the morning and decided to go little further, cross two more tunnels to view the complete water falls from a distance. After crossing two tunnels from the camping place not more than a kilometer, just turn around and look back.... there you can see beautiful view of dudhsagar with a railway bridge passing along!! Words are not enough to describe the beauty!! Picture says it all! 

View of Dudhsagar

One more View

We spent enough time over there and whilst back to the camping place we saw a small water fall, where the water is crystal clear.

We have to catch the train at Nine in the morning from Dudhsagar station, the interesting part is there is no proper stop at this station, but the train stops here for signal not more than for Two minutes... with not much difficulty we have boarded the train and started towards Londa Junction from where we have to board another train to Hyderabad. After getting down at Londa we have enough time for the next train to Hyderabad so, we all had a leisure lunch at near by hotel and yeah... today is the birthday of 'Haripriya' one of the member in our group! So.. cake cutting, group pictures and some fun time and now its time for boarding the train to Hyderabad. The moment we boarded the train it started raining cats and dogs!! We have spent some good time in journey and thanks to the wonderful group for all the fun in the return journey.

Back to Hyderabad on Monday morning... toughest time starts now!! Office...

Finally the group

Monsoon memories - Kalsubai Trek

The phone rang.... "Hello!!... have you started? I am on the way... will be reaching in next Ten minutes!" said Siri. Yes, I am on the way too... will be there on time! - I said.

Yes..!! an another trip on the cards.. A weekend trek planned to conquer the Everest of Maharashtra/Highest peak of Maharashtra... whatever you say , its - Mt. Kalsubai this time!! It was all well planned... the route, meeting point and the group was finalized and all set to GO!!

Kalsubai is the highest peak of Sahyadri and heaven for nature lovers.
The group assembled at the meeting point and boarded the train and all were waiting for the Journey to be started. The first phase of the journey started from Hyderabad - Manmad. Everyone got settled and had a quick round of Intro. Rajesh was the only one 'college student' in the group... the youngest of all!! rest all were working professionals :) and in the midst of the trek we came to know that 'there is a hidden Poet in him' (You'll come to know about this later) while Aravind was a good company, earlier we have done Dudhsagar Trek together. Its good to have Avijeeth in the group and its fun to be around him. I've met him in Lonavalla trek. So only Abhishek, Karthik, Chakri and Uma were new to the group. And let me tell you Rajesh is also a professional photographer... and our official photographer of the trip and Laxmi was the regular one in the group, we have done couple of treks earlier... mentioned her in my previous posts as well. To kill some time and to get mingled we played some fun games, taught card games to few and moved on for a quick power nap. 

Next day on Saturday around Seven in the morning we reached Manmad. The second phase of journey is from Manmad - Igatpuri. We have plenty of time left to board the train to Igatpuri, so decided to have some Vada-pav and Poha for breakfast! Its a Two hours journey from Manmad to Igatpuri. The third phase starts from Igatpuri - Goti, the fourth and final phase is from Goti - Bari village in a private hired vehicle. See... there are many phases of travel in this journey!! Excitement increased.
Bari is the base village, from where we need to start the trek.

Bari Village

 The plan was to camp at the peak in night. So before starting off with the trek we have ordered the dinner at the locals there and asked them to deliver it at the peak. The week being a Navaratri season many of the devotees from surrounding villages are geared-up to climb the hill and offer prayers at the Kalsubai temple located at the peak. To reach the summit there are various routes, but we prefered the route that starts from the village Bari. We started the trek from the base village, soon after leaving the village there is a water stream, which we need to cross... though the water level is low compared to the last time when i visited this place.
 

Water steam

  Just after a little up-hill walk there is a Temple. The actual trek starts from here... the route from behind this temple takes you to the peak. Laxmi being a 'Flora lady', she noticed Berries plant just before the temple... and plucked some berries and few of them also tried their hands in plucking the berries. And the trek continued... We stopped at many places just to keep ourselves away from tiredness and to enjoy the picturesque of the place and also spent some time to pose in front of the camera! After an another hour of up-hill trek we saw many local people setting up the food stalls (Its business time for them during Navaratri). and from there you can see the ladder way. Yes... there are three ladders along this route, you have to climb-up to reach the peak. And in between these ladders there are rocky kinda steps. Its an easy hike but at few places its quite steep and the path is little slippery due to the rainfall last night. Its safe to climb the ladders, though these are Iron ladders, most of it's railings are standing with support of the bamboo and tied with binding wire. The first two ladders are easy to climb but the third one was the most Inclined ones. Just before the Third ladder there are couple of tea shops... and we thought one of these will be our camping place for the night. The first one was good enough and has enough space for Ten people to accommodate. The person running this shop allowed us to use this place for camping. We decided to drop our back-packs there and move ahead. And finally... it started drizzling!! Actually we were expecting for it rite from the start of the trek.

Berries

It took almost One hour from the third ladder to reach the peak.. and here we are at the Highest peak of Sahyadri... Kalsubai!! As we climbed up it became cooler and cooler. The view from the peak was simply awesome... surrounded with beautiful valleys and clouds passing through our feet. We spent most of the time at the peak, in the natures lap! Few were busy capturing the nature at its best and few posing for the pictures and others deep-extremely rejoicing the nature. Cool wind was blowing fast... its good that we took much time to climb up to the peak, coz now its the time for Sunset!! The hues of the reddish sun was mesmerizing! You can't take your eyes off it. It was a heaven on the top. Soon the curtain of the clouds covered the sun and we couldn't view the complete sunset. A guy came up and said "aapka Khana ready hai" (Dinner is ready) and is at your camping place. We came down to the camping place... just in front of the camping place there is a well. So, freshened up ourselves and had a not-so-tasty dinner. Post dinner we had some fun time, few narrated haunted stories and self experienced haunted stories :) and its time for a tight nap.

Ladder way

 Next day Sunday, we decided to start descending at Five in the morning.. so that we get some time to visit the near-by waterfall. As it was raining last night, the path was slippery and muddy. Coming down-hill was little difficult. 

Descending

While few of them had crossed the second ladder, Aravind and Rajesh were coming together chitchatting. Pointing towards a tree on top corner of the hill, Rajesh (R) asked Aravind (A)... whats your feeling about that tree? 'A' gave some random answers... but our poetic mind 'R' said that "The tree is challenging the people and says - if it was in the city, you would have killed me. If you are dare enough, come here and kill me". Seriously this silent guy 'R' is something special! and here's one more by 'R'... "Andham aadapilla ke kaadu adavi ki kuda untundi!". (Translated: "Not only women are beautiful... but forests are too!") 

View on the way

 It was almost Eleven'O clock when we reached the base and the vehicle that we have booked was there on time. There was no time to visit the waterfalls. So, we decided to skip it and go directly to Kalyan and catch the train to Hyderabad.

Next day Monday, back to the land of Bifurcation! Apna Hyderabad!!

Monsoon Trek at Araku valley

Yet another Trek with GHAC to the land of valleys - Araku

ARAKU Valley is a familiar Hill Station in the state of Andhra Pradesh. A valley in the Eastern ghats of INDIA. A wonderful Hill station with waterfalls, valleys, streams and greenery all around. Ananthagiri forest is the part of Araku valley surrounded by Galikonda, Rakthakonda and few other mountains. One must experience the climatic conditions and the natural beauty of this valley to relish the fog and to fell the feather bunch of the cloud.
It all started when Chandu & Siri initiated the plan and 11 other GHACians where excited to join the trek. Everyone were charged and eagerly waiting to get drenched in rain and explore the valley. 

Araku View

The day arrived and meetup point was at railway station as we were traveling by train. (Train journey is the bestest way to travel to araku). All set to Go!!
The group of twelve GHACians started from Hyderabd to Vizag and our Super Dude (Read as Professor) Lokesh will be joining us at Vijayawada. Goodbye to Hyderabd for the next three days. The journey started and excitement increased. Fun filled journey with lot of hilarious games, rummy and much more followed by dinner and yeah.. photo session of course! It was almost eleven in the night, the lights in our couch are still ON and were busy playing rummy and here enters our Super dude (Mind you -read as professor) Lokesh Sai Kumar, greeted everyone. And its time for a quick nap, will be reaching Vizag early in the morning 5.30

Red handed

Next Day.. here we come Vizag! Rishi is the one guy in the entire group, very energetic, wakes up first and gets ready. We just had 45 minutes to freshen up and have breakfast and board the train to Araku. All done and boarded the train with heavy back packs and tarps and tents. We planned to camp in the nature, no fun in staying under a roof and between four walls... The train started, it was a scenic view on both sides, thick forest, greenery all around. Pictures captured by professionals Satbeer paaji and Sunil. Time just flew away, we arrived at Borra caves station where we planned to get down and visit Borra Caves. Its a 2-3 Km distance from railway station to Borra Caves, so we decided to walk rather hiring a vehicle. Its like a warm up for the trek which we are going to start post lunch. On the way to caves we ordered the lunch in a small hotel. Visited Borra caves, captured few group pictures, profile pic, cover pic. whatever you say!! Came back, had lunch and here comes the much awaited part of the trip... trekking to Katiki waterfalls, which is about 8-10 KM from borra caves.

way to Borra caves

 

Borra caves

The first kilometer was all good.. as excepted it started drizzling..(we wanted it to pour heavily :)) and the moment we entered the muddy pathways between the patches of green fields.. few of them started to explore new route and other few were following the path.. Cool weather, greenery on both sides, rain,  steep and moderate path in between... imagine the scenic view!! all i can say is, it was awesome! We dint even noticed that we crossed almost 3KM of distance.. and here the fun begins! Priyanka is completely exhausted.. paaji was helping her and motivating her to move on..  just after a while in the midst we saw a water stream and decided to pass through the stream... who doesn't want to get into the water? It's monsoon after all! and we are here to get drenched completely. After looking at the water flow Priyanka's energy level boosted up! and wanted to get into water... we slowly started crossing the stream and Priyanka's "Hatrick fall" into the water... Yes.. she fell for every two steps she take!! We noticed that the water flow is getting high and decided to move out from water. Slowly one-by-one energy levels are getting down.. and now its sunil's turn, want to rest for a while because of leg cramps. The 4x4 vehicles were passing by and the people in it are happily moving with loud music. Than Priyanks says.. why are we walking? we can also hire a vehicle... than we decided to send Priyanka in a vehicle and Laxmi will accompany her.. believe me after that not even a single vehicle we saw :P... by than our Super dude Lokesh was aslo down. We stop many times, just to rest for a while. We almost crossed Seven km, there we can see the vehicles parked. aah!! relief.... we reached the destination... we asked a cab driver, way to water falls. Driver: straight route... just two km from here. One needs to walk from here, vehicles are not allowed beyond this point. What the hell! Still two kilometers? ah! Started again, we have to climb the steps, cross the railway track , pass through the steep slippery way... and there you can see the view of gushing waterfall from a distance of more than 50 feet height. It was a stupendous experience to watch the spray of water cascading down. We are ready to soak in the waterfall. The water was so pure, clean and clear, Very soon we get lost in the beauty of nature. spent much of the time under the waterfall. It was almost past Four'O clock. We were getting late as we have to continue our trek to reach the Galikonda view point before the sunset. Had a tasty & spicy Bamboo chicken! and continued the trek to the view point. 

One of the Hat-trick fall

The trek was a little challenge, not a tough one though. One needs to pass through the forest, the path was little slippery, ascending and descending. A local guy guided us. Gautham and Randy had a little tough time at the beginning, but handled very well till the end. Everyone kept moving, except me and Chandu coz we were accompanying Priyanka. Her energy levels were completely down and too tired. But nevertheless as a beginner she did a fantastic job! Good start Priyanka! Just few minutes before the sky is set to dark, we reached the View point of Galikonda. (View point from top of the hill) yeaah...!! we did it! climbed all over the forest hill.. amazing experience! We hired a cab to reach araku and the actual plan was to setup the tents and camp in the nature, but no luck it was pouring heavily.. so we have checked in at a Hotel.  By the time most of them were tired and drowsy. Post dinner few of them hit the beds and few others were playing cards, chatting and all fun... and its time for a tight sleep.

Way to Katiki waterfall

 

Katiki waterfall

Way to Galikonda View point

Next morning... I woke up at around Six and thought I am the first one to wake up! but as i said it earlier, it was Rishi who woke up first at early morning Five i guess. It was dam chill in the morning, cool breeze and dusky out side due to fog. Without wasting much time, we had a quick breakfast and moved towards Chaprai Waterfalls. Its not exactly a waterfall, its like heavy stream dodging across a huge rock formations. The whole area was covered by gushing stream. We slowly moved towards the top of the slide. The water forcefully makes its way down the slide. The moment we took the position we were dragged away by  the force of water and with in seconds we landed in the pool at the bottom. I bet, You will not find a single water parks that offers you a good slide than this natural slide combined with thrill. The only thing was the water was little muddy, but who cares? spent most of the time here filled with fun and sliding. It was worth spending time there. We dried up and changed & again its time to have the last Bamboo Chicken of the trip! 

Sliding at Chaparai

 

The Group

Than we moved to catch the bus to Vizag, no wonder we missed one bus as many of us were busy shopping ;) we do not want to miss the second one too. so everyone assembled at one place. Within few minutes bus arrived and started towards Vizag. 
 We reached vizag some where around 6'O clock in the evening and our train to Hyderabad was scheduled at 10'O clock. We have enough time to go around vizag, at-least visit one of the beach. So here we come R.K. Beach... spent some good time at the beach followed by dinner and moved towards railway station. Bid a final adieu to our Super Dude as he was boarding a different train. Next morning stepped into the land of Nizams! Apna Hyderabad!!
Now enough of having fun, traveling, trekking and all, hitting the toughest part of all. Getting back to work!!

White Water Rafting at Dandeli

Note: Hope i I didn’t run away with the length and i hope you guys like it!!

I am planning to pendown since long time.. so here i am posting this. A 3 day adventures trip with 12 adventurers from GHAC to the land surrounded by Forest and a River. 'Dandeli'. Dandeli is one of the best adventure destination in south India, located at northern part of Karnataka and on the banks of river KALI, middle of western ghats.

The summer had started and the temperatures are already soaring. and Siri (Organizer) had planned this trip in the month of April end. Though it was a good decision, as we are going to the place surrounded by thick forest and a river.. so obviously no worries about the temperature :) and we were excited. There can be no other feeling more wonderful than dipping your feet in cold running water and feeling the spray on your face!!

Day 1

So, the group of eight adventurers (Siri, lakshmi, Archita, Susmitha, Awinash, Chakri, Aditya and Myslef) started from Hyderabad to Hubli and the rest four adventurers started from Banglore to Hubli. As they were working in Banglore, we planned to meetup at Hubli. We are traveling by public transport (KSRTC) till Hubli. And Siri had already booked the cab from Hubli to Dandeli. We suppose to board the bus at 8.30 PM from Hyderabad, but asusual no wonders... the bus has been delayed and we had to wait till 10.00 PM. We some how managed to kill the time and boarded the bus at 10 O'clock. The journey started!! Though the bus was of Karnataka, the driver must be knowing the taste of hyderabadi people, he played Salman khan movie 'Dabang 2' :D In the midst, Awinash took out aalu parathas packed in a silver foil from his back pack. Parathas with Dabang 2.. ahh!! thats completely 'hutke'. Thanks to Awinash for Parathas!!

Day 2

It was half past Seven in the morning next day, we reached Hubli. The other four adventurers Uday, Abhinav, Anusha and Anusha were already there and waiting for us, (Yes! Ironically they two has the same name). And our cab was there on time... So, all the 12 adventurers are here... we had clicked a few kodak moments and without wasting much time we started towards Dandeli... It was somewhere around 1-2 hrs of journey and the whole route was through the forest with curvy routes. It's one of the route that is more attractive and spectacular. I wish i could someday drive on these routes. Finally we reached Dandeli!! and our accommodation was at Stanley's farm a jungle resort  in the mid of the forest. So we freshened up ourselves and post breakfast we started towards the first activity of the day 'Fox Flying'. 10 min. walkable distance into the forest and there is a small lake for Fox flying. though it was not that adventures nor any risk factor involved, it was fun and everyone enjoyed it. Without risk there is no Adventure!! So, we moved to the next activity 'River Crossing'. River crossing is not like simply crossing the river by swimming or rowing a boat but by using a harness and a rope. One needs a good stamina to do this. It is not so Adventures for the experienced, but it's quit challenging for the beginners (Most of them are beginners). We didn't even noticed It was almost half-day past...!! Back to resort for a quick lunch and after that we are all set for the much awaited and the main activity 'White Water Rafting'.

 

White water Rafting

White water rafting in Kali river is of 9 KM stretch. and the activity started with a brief training session by the Instructor (Stanley). We got the peddles and put on the life jackets and all set to GO!! We were divided into two groups of six each, coz only eight persons are allowed in one boat. Every boat has an instructor along. We started rowing, after a while Stanley asked us to jump into the water to get acquainted to the water!! than we realized that all of them were non-swimmers except Awinash and Lakshmi! Than with some courage we took a dive into the water...  and after some fun swimming we were back on the boat and heading towards the first Rapid, and first rapid of everyone's life!! We all felt the force of the water on our body as we slid through the boisterous water... and our other group were beyond us... very soon there was a second rapid. We passed through the rush of the water and noticed that Abhinav (from the second group)was thrown out of the boat! he was in river being washed away, but everyone who saw him pulled him back on the board!! We moved towards the third rapid and than fourth.... totally we passed 9 such rapids. The last rapid was the biggest one!! The water gushing heavily and we had to row in the opposite direction of the flow to go near the rapid!! We completely got drenched... Our instructor Stanley was so good that he made us slid into the last rapid 4-5 times!! All-in-All its a good Rafting experience and everyone enjoyed it!! and finally we are way back to the resort for a quick dinner and a night walk followed by a campfire!!

Water Rafting.

Camp Fire

Night walk was dam good!! We were already cautioned that the forest is famous for leopards and Bears... though we know its not a good sign.. still we went on for a walk. Siri and lakshmi were holding the tourch... as we were in the mid of the forest, there was no sign of lights, huge trees on both sides of the path... couple of them were like having a cold feet. After a furlong distance... the lane divides to the right... with the help of the torch light we noticed that there is a huge Peepal tree over there!! and no one was ready to get into that lane... however with some courage and braveness me and Abhinav started walking towards that tree and others followed back.. for some reason we took a turn and came back to the resort. By then the campfire was ready!! and its time for some fun... and we started dumb shell arts!! Chakri must be awarded as the Masters of dumb shell arts... whatever crap you give him, he'll break through the words and with his dumb movements the team will hit the right answer!! after that we left to steal a nap.

Day3

Woke-up before the Sun rise when the  sky was still dark, it was Four in the morning. It's bit chilly and the dew is definitely in the air. We planned to start the day with rappelling. Rappelling spot was near to the Bison River Resort, It was about 10-15 Km of travel to reach the Bison resort and from there a Kilometer of walk into the forest.. it was like a warm-up session in the morning and there we reached the spot. This place is known as the Birds resting area in the forest. Till the arrangements were made for rappelling, we enjoyed the beautiful sunrise. There was only one line to rappel down, one-on-one we started rappelling down.. Chakri, Susmitha and Anusha K had the hardest time to rappel down.

Sunrise

After we done with the rappelling... we were ready for the Forest Trek. Boarded the vehicle and started towards the starting point of the trek. We started the trek at Six in the morning, the guy from the resort guided us. It was a thick forest and path was muddy and slippery and in between it was steep . The path was full of plants with thorns.. We had to clear the path in the midst to move ahead. Almost after a 4 Km of trek, here we are at the Back Waters..! "Supa dam reservoir". The panoramic view of the reservoir was too good surrounded by mountains on one side and the forest on the other side. The best thing was the flock of birds hunting for the fishes... that was the best scenic view we saw. So after a fun swimming and relaxing we started way back. and finally reached the starting point till than it was somewhere around Nine O'clock. So whats next? obviously it's time for Pet Pooja! Breakfast. After a quick BF we started towards the Bison River Resort for Kayaking. Everyone spent a good time of an hour in Kayaking followed by Crocacle ride.

Supa dam reservoir

The final and the interesting part was "Jacuzzi". Jacuzzi is nothing but sitting in the river water and enjoying the force stream of water around you. It's the place where you get the natural massage from spilling water of river Kali. Nowhere else you find water so playful, so pure and crystal clear waters cascade down the rapids of Kali River gurgling, whispering, laughing & cleansing everything in their way.We spent most of the time in water.. actually we can spend hours there in water! It was half day past we were getting late, we have to get back to the resort and pack and start to Hubli to catch the bus to Hyderabad. At last we reached the resort, had a quick lunch.. packing was done and yeah... there were a final Kodak moments as well. We some how managed to be on time at Hubli and we have finally bid a final adieu to Bangloreites and boarded the bus to Hyderabad.

Day 4
Now get back to work!! This is the Toughest part i say...