Kaali River Rafting And Anashi Nature Camp to Kadra Trekking

Approximately an year back we had thought of trekking near Dandeli, We were not able to find much information about trekking places near Dandeli. At last we got to know about river rafting near dandeli. Then started collecting information around dandeli and got clueclue of  trekking from Anashi Nature Camp.

We six people Ravindra(mari), Manu, Kiran, Hari Kulaai, Shashi and Myself(Hari) planned to trek.

Plan:

• Start to Alnavar by Raani Chennamma train from Bangalore at 9:15PM on 26 Nov 2010 Friday .
• Reach dandeli by 9:00AM on 27 Nov 2010. Meet Pramod for River Rafting. Complete River Rafting by 2:00PM.
• Reach Anashi Nature Camp. If time permits go for sight seeing.
• On 28 Nov 2010 Start trekking from Anashi and end in Kadra.
• Start back to Bangalore by Raani Chennamma train at 8:45 PM.

We had the above plan one week before our trekking. I tried to book train to Hubli, it was already in waiting list, So I waited for 2 more days, so that I can book in tatkaal. Luckily we got 6 seats in tatkaal.

Now question is how to come back from dandeli to Bangalore?

I again tried to book tatkaal ticket from Alnavar Junction to Bangalore, this time I was unlucky, I could manage to get  6 tickets in waiting list number starting 22.

Our much awaited trekking day arrived. We can not go to railway station late, because train will not wait for us, unlike KSRTC Bus. All six started to dandeli by Raani Chennamma train.We reached Hubli at around 5:40 AM. Since we had reserved only till Hubli,3 of us started running to ticket counter in hubli, each stood in separate queue. We finally managed to get ticket till Alnavar Junction. We reached Alnavar around 7:30AM. From their we got a bus to halliyal. From halliyal we reached dandeli by 8:45 AM.

We met Mr. Pramod for our rafting, He is the private agency who conducts river rafting. We had time till 10:00 for our kaali river rafting. We completed our morning rituals in sulabh showchaalaya. It was well maintained. We got ready for our rafting in Mr. Pramod's office. It was very small office. It doesn't matter for us.

Sun Rise seen from train while going from hubli to alnavar

Got ready to start River Rafting.

We paid full amount(1300/head) to pramod for river rafting and started to river rafting place by jeep at around 10:15 AM, which is approximately 30 km from dandeli. We started river rafting at around 11:30 AM. It is not advised to carry camera to river rafting because there is no safety equipment to carry our camera. We carried camera till river rafting place and handed over to a person working in pramod's office.. 

Rafting in river kaali.

Before stating rafting our raft leader gave us instructions, and asked us to follow them. We saw many colourful birds during our rafting. Many were drying their feather in sunlight. It was very nice experience. It was unfortunate that we could not capture the all beautiful birds in our camera, since there was no safety for our camera. Our raft leader told all of us to jump in to water and get drenched in water. We all jumped and enjooyed much. After some time during conversation with raft leader, he told one of our ಹುಟ್ಟು was broken due to crocodile bite, then I was scared. Latter I realized it can never kill me because of helmet, life jacket and my dirty slipper. We jumped again in to water and enjooyed.

During rafting we came across 3 jumps which were good. Looking at very nice birds, forest, water etc, I was very much willing to sing my favourite kannada song "Naavaaduva Nudiye kannada nudi", Since another team of 3 people were put in to our raft I felt somewhat uncomfortable. Rrafting completed around 1:40 PM. We came out of river with nice memories.After completing our rafting we asked our raft leader to add few more commands to his instructions list(Like fast forward, etc)

After completing Kaali River Rafting, we started to dandeli. I wanted to sit on top of our jeep. I asked our jeep driver, finally he agreed to sit on top of the jeep. Latter Kiran, Shashi, hari kulai joined me on top. One more German lady also joined us on top of jeep. Kiran knew 2 German words, He kept asking the same words to her. After some time mari and manu also joined on top of the jeep.

We reached dandeli at around 2:00 PM. Now we have to reach Anashi Nature Camp to stay for the night and start trekking in the early morning. We got to know that there is a bus to Anashi Nature Camp(ANC) at 2:30 PM. We had breakfast as lunch in a hotel near "Kitturu Rani Chennamma" circle, where promod's ofice is. We reached to KSRTC bus stand. We waited for loooooong time, bus finally arrived at 3:15 PM. We reached ANC check post at 5:00 PM. We have to walk 3 km for ANC. Luckily we got a tractor (ರೈತ ಬಂಧು)which was on the way to ANC. We got in to tractor and reached ANC.

ANC was government controlled guest house. We had booked for dormitory. we kept our luggage  in dormitory and started wandering in the camp. It was very nicely maintained. We had our dinner in ANC. It cost 50 Rs per lunch.. We had enough and went to dormitory.

We played bluff game. Mari played first time in his life and got bluff. It entertained us a lot. Mari had sensation of fever, we were bit scared due to his illness, still he was stable. He took tablet and slept. I got up at 5:15AM. Some thing was sitting in front of my cot. It was a big cat trying to tear off mayyas kodubale pack. Covering of kodubale was very nice, latter we thought this could be taken as advertisement for mayyas kodubale. We all took bath and had coffee. Now our guide Sadanand joined us. We started trekking towards kadra view point.



Entertainment at Anashi Nature Camp

We walked through very dense forest. It was not much tyring. Almost plane land, very less leaches. On the way we saw colourful centipede. It was sooo attractive. I could not take its photo since it was moving very fast. Also some wild insects seen.



Touch me If  you can.

 At 12:30 we reached kadra view point. All along our trekking our guide sadanand was telling sea is visible from kadra view point. In kadra view point we asked sadanand to show us sea. Innocent person shown us kadra dam as sea. 

Kadra Dam seen from kadra view point.

We took rest for 45 minutes here, slept here for 30 minutes. From this kadra dam view point kadra is approximately 10km. It was very nice sleep we had. We had our lunch chapathi and uppinkaai. Mari took one more tablet and started to kadra village. we were suppose to walk in very steep terrain till kadra road.  We saw kadra dam. Kadra DAM from the view point was very small. When we reached near to it it was big enough and views surrounding was very beautiful. We had limited time to watch this beauty.

Sadanand told us there is a bus at 5:00PM to dandeli. Since we spent time in kadra dam, we thought we might miss that bus.Since we were yet to give money to sadanand for bus charge, I started walking fast. I reached kadra at 5:05 PM. By that time sadanand left to dandeli by van. we were unhappy because of, not giving money to sadanand and missing the bus to dandeli. After comming back to bangalore we paid him money by recharging his mobile.

Kadra DAM close view

Shashi Gave few chapathis, It refused to eat.

Totally we walked for approximately 23KM in foerst, Starting from Anashi Nature Camp to Kadra.

Swimming.

People in Anashi Nature Camp were really nice.

Now the question is how to reach bangalore. we were not sure of getting reserved tickets to bangalore. When I asked my friend Jagadeesh for our reserved ticket status, he confirmed that we got 5 reserved tickets which was in waiting list starting from 22. Still one of our six tickets was in waiting list. We were happy for getting 5 reserved tickets,  at the same time thinking of how to reach dandeli and latter Alnavar junction by 8:45PM.

Next bus was suppose to come at 6:00PM. Somehow  got a van which was going to dandeli. After we requested him to go fast, he successfully dropped us to dandeli at 7:30PM. We had dinner in hubli, reached Bangalore at around 8:15 AM.

The whole rafting and trekking was very nice. It was moderate trekking.

Contact numbers:

Kaali River Rafting:  Pramod:- +91 8971898749

Anshi and kulagi Nature Camp booking: Kiran:- +91 9916218630