Dandeli, by chance….

Tags

Dandeli, Farmhouse, Forest, Goa, KaliRiver, Rafting, white water rafting

As they say, the best experiences of life are often unplanned!!

We had been in Goa for past 2 days and the next day we were to go to Dharwad to attend a friend’s wedding. That night, we were just chilling out by the swimming pool in our humble villa in Goa, having a ball of time, when our friend started telling us about his Dad’s trip to Dandeli. One thing lead to the other and finally, the next morning we were off to Dharwad – via “Dandeli”!!!! !! Quite some detour!!! The enchanting forest covered Goa – Dandeli road is truely the travellers’ paradise!!

Goa-Dandeli Road

We contacted Mr. Milind Kodkeni who runs a home-stay there; well this was what we knew about him till we went there!!

Milind and his family welcomed us with some amazing home-cooked lunch : Puranpoli, potato subji and rice.

He then took us for a small drive and walk in the jungle for some birdwatching. We were lucky to spot some eagles, blue kingfishers and many other birds, I don’t even remember the names of (Milind kaka knew almost all of them by the way…  🙂 )We also saw the cob-webs of tarantulas, black-widow and huge ant-nests. He also took us to spot offering majestic view of the valley – sort of an echo point.

A pretty little forest trail

Milind is not a person merely offering a homestay to earn money. But he is someone, who has been born and brought up in Dandeli. His forefathers owned saw mills there which were later shut down by the government to prevent further deforestations. His wife is a corporator and he himself is a farmer and a wildlife enthusiast.

Backwater of Kali river

The forest of Dandeli is extremely rich in its wild-life ranging from spiders, snakes, birds to black panthers. And we were fortunate to catch first glimpse of it with a knowledgeable person like Milind kaka, All this proved like a teaser and we left Dandeli wishing we had more time.

Hungry, are you??

Spot me if you can

We reached Dharwad at night with the same thoughts, and finally over dinner, formed yet another crazy plan of going back to Dandeli the next day, after the wedding was over. We were slightly sceptical about the feasibility but still we decided to give it a shot.

Next day after the weeding was over, we met the bride and the groom and after a hasty lunch, we rushed to Dandeli.

We had already called Milindkaka and the he had the whole excursion planned for us. It started with a trip to his friend’s Farmhouse. His friend Narasimha has a farm house on the border of the forest. A typical countryside home, there was no electricity there when we reached. It was a thrilling experience to just sit in the porch of the  house (osari), sipping tea and watching the surroundings get darker slowly!!!!

Feeling hot, buddy? A giant enjoying on the wash-basin on farm house!!

After some time, Narsimha kaka took us to another moonlit stroll in the forest. When we reached the trail and got out of the car, it was all dark. Frankly for some time, I was too scared to walk without the torch. Finally Narsimha kaka switched it off and ask me to shut my eyes for a minute. When I opened them, they were immediately acclimatized to the moonlight. I could now see the difference between the ground levels and all. It was so calm, serene and peaceful there… Narsimha kaka is a person who has spent all his life around the forest, seen plenty of wild-life including leopards, chitas and what not. He was sharing his forest experiences.. the earlier days of deforestation, and how “rare spotting of tigers” is an indicator of good forest health 🙂

As it gets darker!!

Finally we returned to his farm house and Milind kaka came there with delicious traditional home-made dinner and we returned to his Dorms late night.

Out of the dark!

Dandeli offers white water rafting in Kali river. Since we had absolutely decided to leave early morning the next day, we told Milind kaka that we would not go for it (silly us!!). But apparantly Milind kaka was resolved on making us go for it. While we were getting ready to leave the next morning, we got a call from Milindkaka telling us that there was another group interested in rafting and so he had made arrangements for an early excursion, if we were ready for it. And so, we changed the plan again (for the nth time) and went to the rafting spot.

The trainers gave the instructions, explained the signs and their meanings and we were off…. The Kali river offers the rapids of level 3 to 4. The cold, crazy water rapids kept on bumping on to the raft. After going downstream for a while, our trainer revealed a surprise to us. He decided to take us upstream and hell yeah!!!!!!!! It was as crazy as it could be!! all the water splashing on your face, the turbulence and the thrill!!!!! Wow!! by the time we reached the finish spot, we were drenched with water!!!!

We got back to the dorm, changed, had a nice good brunch at Milind Kaka’s place and the bid good bye to him and his family with a heavy heart, only with a resolution of going there again.

P.S. : other than the jungle experiences, there are quite a few places near Dandeli, which are worth paying a visit, like Sintheri rocks. One could do most of the things with 3/4 complete days.