Around 40 engineers from our team took off on 2nd Nov to Kali Wilderness & Adventure Camp located on the banks of River Kali, destination for River rafting and cave / trekking adventure.
Journey started with quick introductions with a twist, everyone had to share one secret. Though few shared voluntarily secrets about themselves, people were more eager to share others secrets. This was followed by Antakshari, dumb charades until we reached A1 Plaza for dinner. Journey was resumed with more Antakshari and dance but quickly most wanted to retire and catch-up with sleep (maybe they had already worked too hard). Enthusiastic event management team had also done elaborate preparation of some fun games with a questionnaire to vote for various types of personalities in FMS – some of them being Miss Team, Mr Team, Best Smile etc…, share snippets about each other, songs / dances.
CORACLE RIDE ON RIVER KALI
We reached Jungle Lodges, Dandeli after a tiring 16 hours drive by around 10 AM. Everyone looked tired but hungry as well, so we quickly assembled at Gol Ghar for breakfast. This was followed by Coracle ride.
Since we landed late by more than 2 hours, we had to do some replan and go ahead with Coracle ride after breakfast. With the breakfast, the team had regained its energy and groups got together quickly for some cricket, volleyball, football, caroms, table tennis etc.
This was followed by sumptuous lunch. Next on our plan was Safari and trek to Kavala caves. Drive to the caves through the thick green forest was awesome. We had to trek for couple of kilometers and climb down some steps to get to the cave. As per the Jungle lodges guide these caves were formed due to volcanic eruption some ages ago, it was pitch dark inside the cave, so we all got instructions and candles before we entered the cave. We had to remove our shoes since cave was also a temple with Lord Shivaling. With candles and our head bent we ventured into the cave.
As we went in, we had to crawl through and ensure that we are in almost sitting posture to keep our heads intact. We also had instructions not to take a right inside the cave, which we were told leads to deeper part of the cave with lots of bats. Got out through the other side (loop) and we were all soaked with sweat. Then it was time for some group pictures and we had to now climb the steps, which is when lot of them counted the exact number of steps as 375!! to climb up and then trek back to get to our jeeps.
Enroute back to lodges on open jeep with clear fresh air and darkness just setting in, with full moon day was perfect setting for some antakshari and fun. After quickly refreshing, it was time for dinner with camp fire, music and dance. We had good party music and everyone got an opportunity to shake their legs and dance. This included some scintillating performance by Santosh for Kajrare song. Post this there was an extended session of dumb charades. This Dumb charades session exhibited the hidden creativity of some of the members in the team, when a few Tamil speaking guys were given tough Hindi movie titles to depict, some of them did it amazingly by enacting them in Tamil given that they did not even know the meaning of the Hindi words!!!
Day 2 began with good breakfast and plan was to go for River Rafting. But first we got to know damn Supa dam officials weren’t going to release water and our rating plans were going to be cancelled and we had to switch to plan, which was trek to Syntheri rocks and swim in the kali river. But, with couple of phone calls and some luck, water was released from Supa dam and we were ON with our main event Rafting. We reached the starting point of our rafting (Ganeshgudi) in jeeps and then got detailed briefing, life jackets, helmets and paddles. Everyone got decked up with all this gear on and were ready for the plunge. With some more safety tips and basic paddling instructions, we set sail for our 9 kms of rafting through multiple rapids. The best part was keeping your eyes open and looking up at the cameraman (who was hired to take pictures of our adventure through the rapids). We got to know about some of the river side trees and plants. All of us dived into the water for sometime and was pulled up by our guides into the raft after some time. We also thouroughly enjoyed splashing water on each others’ rafts using our paddles, that’s a skill in itself and our guides did a good job teaching that.
Everyone got back tired from 4 hours of rafting by 2:30 PM, some had reserve energy left to have bath before lunch, but most headed straight for lunch. After lunch and relaxing / shopping at the store for T-Shirts and other souvenirs, team was all ready to head back. We started off earlier than planned by 4:30. Our enthusiastic event management team had summarized and announced the winners and runners-up for various FMS personalities and also read the snippets people had written for each other. Then it was break for tea and then dinner, one last group photo with the bus. On the return journey, energy levels were lesser, looked like most wanted to head straight back home and share all their adventurous experiences and spend time with their families and relive the memorable moments. The bus entered Bangalore in the wee hours of Sunday morning. After exchanging a few sleepy byes everyone was on the way to the get back to the normal lives.
Fact file:
Getting there: By Rail – Hubli, 85 kms from Dandeli, By Road – 481 Kms from Bangalore
Accommodation: Good tents and rooms at Jungle lodges
Best time to visit: September to November
Rating: *****
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