Part I - Dandeli and Doodhsagar trek

Hello friends, I know why you all are here, excited about Dandeli and Doodhsagar trek? Oh, that's great, I'm ready to share my good times of it.

You could assume this as our farewell trip to our friend Ramya. She got engaged in Jul-2012 and her marriage date was scheduled on the same November. We planned a vacation to mark our memorable friendship. Since, we had never been to North Karnataka we zeroed in our destination to Dandeli and Doodhsagar[Goa border].

With everything finalized, this time we wanted to avoid the private mode and hence opted for the public transport. Rajesh booked the train tickets to Dharwad. As usual we started the Friday night from Bengaluru city railway station. The next day morning around 6:00 AM we reached Dharwad and from there we boarded a local bus to reach Dharwad main bus stand. From there we hopped into a direct bus to Dandeli. 

It's a 2.5 hour journey, everyone started to snooze and after an hour or so we reached a place called Haliyal. Since, it was not a non-stop bus, it entered the Haliyal bus stand for the passengers to alight and board. We were about the leave the bus stand but within a fraction of time the KARNATAKA RAKSHANA VEDIKE troop called for a bandh[Cauvery river water issue]. 

So, our journey came to stand still at Haliyal, then with the guidance of some localites we walked some distance off to the main road connecting Haliyal and Dandeli. Some suggested us to hop some private vehicles, we waited for half an hour and finally a passenger carrier vehicle arrived and we all boarded with a charge of Rs 40/- per head to Dandeli. Again it was an hour journey and finally we reached.

Now, with these niggles already faced, some of us suggested to book a resort instead for a lodge. With everything finalized, we contacted a near by cyber center and booked "White water resort" for our stay. The rate was reasonable and had an attractive package. If I could remember it correctly here is the details,

Package per head -> 2500/-

Food: Breakfast, lunch, snacks, Dinner, Breakfast

Activities: Boating, Jaccuzi bath, camp fire, night forest trek, coracle riding

After finalizing the resort we had to reach the resort, there was no other modes of transportation except the same kind of passenger vehicles through which we traveled all the way from Haliyal to Dandeli. Since, there was a bandh being called, the drivers charged a bit more and we also had no other options. For a total of 7 member we paid 600/-. 

Finally, we reached the resort which is located on the banks of the river kali. It was 11:00 AM. Here is the first glimpse of the resort,

and river Kali view from the resort,

By this time the breakfast was ready, we got freshen up and had it. To my consent the taste was average. Some more pics to around the resort,

Then everybody took a light nap and back to action by 1:00 PM.

We told the resort manger to arrange for the activities and he asked us to visit the near by BISON - River resort, since they had no guides. The additional activities apart from the above mentioned list are of separate charges. We wanted to play kayaking and river crossing as an additional events.

Kayaking -> 200/- per head[40 min] and River crossing -> 300/- per head.

After finishing both events, we went for boating[20 min, with guide] and then Jaccuzzi bath for around 30 min. Sorry, couldn't take any snaps as I wanted to take part in all the activities. Our main intention was to go for rafting but it wasn't available during that time.

Then we came back, got freshen up one more time and had lunch. We had chapathi, plain rice, rasam, sambhar, chutney, a non veg dish. It was OK kind of taste.

It was time to take a nap again and by the time we woke it was 6:30 PM. Coffee/tea was ready and we asked for a night trek, this was the funniest of all the activities. Since, the supreme court has banned the trek in forest, the guard just took us around the resort for half a mile and we returned back. 

After this we asked for a camp fire and it was life time experience for all of us. We played antakshari, jungle dance and bit of chit chat. The dinner was ready, the same menu but the ingredients were different :(.

The next day we planned to have a trek to Doodhsagar. Will share the lighter moments of it in my next post...

Bye!