Travel With a Couple

A five-light junction. A cow and a calf wandering around. A small bus stop. A public tap. Two or three shops. A slice from the enchanting Malgudi town was coming alive, at Kulgi barely 12 kms away from Dandeli town.

Arun Bandekar’s Hotel Apoorva is an extension of his small, non descript shop selling some snacks for the school children and perhaps a bit of grocery for the locals. Arun, who came from Sawantwadi in Maharasthra to Dandeli some three decades ago, runs his enterprise along with his wife.

The Bandekars’ hospitality and culinary expertise eventually made Hotel Apoorva the base camp for many of the ‘non-touristy’ travelers as well as a chosen destination for ‘khana’ (food – lunch & dinner). There are a few ‘loyal’ families who drive from Mumbai and Bangalore every year, stay at Hornbill or Bison resorts but have their food at Bandekars’.

They have now converted some available place at home to rooms so that a few guests could stay over. There is a large hall, which is under construction. Many trekking groups and backpackers stay at Bandekars’

It is not just the great home cooked food. Bandekars will also help you get everything organized in Dandeli – the safari, local transport, kali river rafting, trekking, hiking and more…

In two days , we were done with the touristy stuff (the safari) and the explorer stuff (the extended crocodile trail). Yet there was a feeling of incompleteness. Two days in a forest country! The ever fascinating western ghats and rain forests. And yet! Something was missing! While we contemplated leaving Dandeli for a drive to Karwar, through some more dense forests and the Anshi National Park, on the advice of our guide, we checked at the Kulgi forest camp on the possibilities of doing a deep jungle trek.

The camp in charge, Mr Naik was helpful and gave us a couple of exciting options. But he we was not sure about the availability of guides for the full-day 16-km trek. So we opted for the half-day one to Nagzari Falls, with Mr Babu, the oldest and the most experienced guide in Dandeli Forest Dept to guide us.

Though we reached Nagzari Falls in less than two hours, the route was slightly treacherous. The leeches that even pierced our shoes didn’t help it. Babu moved ahead with his sickle, clearing the way. Halfway through, we slid down the valley to the gushing stream deep below. We had to cross the stream twice, but most of the time it was an acrobatic exercise along the stream, hanging on to the roots and climbing on the rocks.

As we reached the roaring Nagzira falls, it was climbing on all fours. Water gushed from height, cutting through the rocks, changing its course many a time and creating landing pools in between. Had it been summer, we could have climbed to the topmost point.

A short break. A quick breakfast that we carried with us – tasty upma from Arun Bandarkar’s homestay. And we were ready for the return trail.

Finally, a wee bit of satisfaction of having done something adventurous.

The complete Photostory here.

Crocodiles, it is said, prefer dirty water. And the West Coast Paper mill at the banks of Kali River in Dandeli is pushing it down the river all the time. We are parking the environmental debate aside for the time being.

Rajesh (our guide) had been warming us up on the idea of a short trail spotting crocodiles in the river. So we set aside a half day for this. A little over a kilometer from Dandeli town is a small village temple by the banks of the river. We started our trail through private farm lands, moved along the jungle, walking carefully with an eye on any movement in the water.

Ten in the morning is certainly late for tracking crocodiles, for when the sun is up, most of them return underwater. We did spot quite a few heads above the water, slowly floating. A few ducked into the water, the moment they heard a sound. Finally, we saw one resting on the opposite bank, oblivious of us watching.

But the crocodile trail turned out to be an interesting birding trail as well with a wide variety of birds feeding on the aqua life.

The complete Photostory here

There is a warning board which says ’12 dead till now. Please do not add to it’. And there is a lone watchman by its side  – Lost in his thoughts and bidding time looking at the ferociously flowing water deep down. Deep inside the jungle, in the middle of nowhere.

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Syntheri is a good 30-km drive from Dandeli town. The narrow and pot-holed roads meandering through the forests rarely have sun rays touching the ground even on sunny days. Apart from langurs and monkeys, all we saw were a couple of snakes crossing the road. But trampled bamboos along the road suggested that mighty pachyderms had fun last night.

Syntheri Rocks is a huge 300-ft tall monolithic stone deep inside the jungle. The Kaneri River gushes fast and furious by the side. The rocks are chiseled fine with flowing water over the years, as if it is done meticulously on lathes.

The forest department has done some interesting informative work here: sort of a rock museum. Different kinds of rocks are installed along the pathway with an explanation on each. Tastefully done.

The Photostory is here

As we decided to go to Dandeli pretty late, all the popular resorts were full. On our first day, we managed to get a room at the State Lodge in Dandeli town. As we explored the ‘things-to-to’ in the next three days, we thought it would be a good idea if we could stay in a place close to the forest rather than in the middle of the town. The friendly manager at State Lodge suggested the Tree-House at the Hornbill resort. He called up the place, but it was full for the next few weeks, even at an exorbitant rate of Rs 3000/- per head. Next, he called up Stanley Farmhouse, where they provide tents to stay. One tent was free for the next day. Lucky, we thought, and decided to shell out Rs 850/- per head for a night’s stay, dinner, and breakfast. Night trek was also included in the package.

As we reached this so-called farmhouse, with mostly un-farmed surroundings, we realized our folly. There was a paddy field in the front, and a patch of sunflowers nearby. Tents were the same ones we use during treks. Not the ones, where you can stand and done up neatly. We waited for two hours before someone showed us a room to freshen up. To add to this disappointment was a group from Pune, whose idea about enjoying near a wildlife sanctuary was to blast Hindi songs and drink. Bored and tired, we slept in the room till dinner time.

The manager, who was out when we came, met us and apologized for the inconvenience. They were trying to be helpful, but we had too much expectation about a quiet night in the lap of nature. After an uninspiring dinner, we opted to stay in the room, instead of the tent. We didn’t even bother to check about the night trek!

After an equally boring breakfast, we checked out.

The only good thing that came out of the whole episode was that we came to know about the treks organized by the Forest Dept. The manager told us that he could arrange it for the next day, after checking with the authorities. We said, we’d let him know soon. Refusing to shell out any more money to the ‘farmhouse’ we went directly to the authorities and arranged for a half-day trek to Nagzira Falls.

We prefer the subdued Diwali celebrations in villages rather than the high decibel gala in cities. So last diwali (2007) also saw us packing our bags, and this time it was Lonar that caught our fancy. An overnight bus journey to Aurangabad, and we were 145 km away from Lonar. After a 2-hour fruitless wait for the state transport bus, we caught a bus that took us a little closer to Lonar. One more bus, and 2 taxi-jeeps, the last one packed beyond imagination, and alas! Lonar was just a few kilometers away. The last stretch was covered in an auto. The original group was meant to be a large one, so we’d booked 16-bed dormitory at MTDC, the only accommodation available in Lonar. The final group had just four, and that meant 4 beds for each!

Whatever, the trip was memorable. Lonar crater, world’s only hypervelocity natural impact carter in basaltic rock, is a place where history, geology, astronomy, ecology and mythology meet to give a unique experience. One can get overawed by the facts about origin of the universe, trek down to the crater, listen to the stories around the many 12th century temples built around the lake, watch and listen to the hundreds of birds, walk through the unique forest surrounding the lake or take a 6-km walk along the rim of the crater. And at the end of the day, when night falls, lie on your back and do star gazing.

Click on the crater for the photo feature.

Some more Lonar snippets here and here