Dandeli Trip

This was a wonderful and a memorable trip for me because of multiple reasons:
1. Only out of hyderabad trip during ISB's hectic year
2. I did white-water rafting for the first time
3. It was a trip along with my dear friends

This was a short trip, actually just for one day. As I had some work to finish in bangalore, I went to blore from hyd and then joined my friends at Dandeli for the water rafting.

Trip Details:
Date - 2nd April 2008
No. of days - 1
Travel Mode - Bus

Leg 1:
From - Bangalore
To - Dharwad
Bus Agency - VRL Travels ( A very good bus. I took the sleeper volvo. The road from blore to dharwad was a very smooth one and hence no issues while travelling)
Booked thru - www.redbus.in (Booked thru phone and got it delivered to my place. Very prompt. Only issue was I did not get the seat I wanted, but no problems as the bus was good)

Leg 2:
From - Dharwad
To - Dandeli
Took normal karnataka bus. The route was terrible, a painful one. Only the desire to do rafting helped me bear the trouble!

Return Leg:
From - (Nearest station to Dandeli)
To - Hyderabad
Mode - Train (Haripriya Express)

Resort Details:
Stayed at Kali Resorts. We had booked them over phone. Be careful while booking them through an agent...they usually demand for total payment even before reaching there. One of my friend got the direct number and called the resorts and they agreed to take the payment once we reach there.
We had booked the tents and these were really good. It has two beds, an attached bathroom and good facilities. The housekeeping was good too. The food was also very good. It was a nice experience too.


Rafting:
The rafting was for a 9.5 km stretch in Kali river. It took us nearly an hour. We were 7 friends who went to rafting. 5 of us were in one raft and the other 2 joined another group of 4 people in the 2nd raft. There were 2 trainers who were very enthusiastic and really made our experience memorable. The Kali resort people arranged for a jeep that took us to the start of the stretch (nearly 22 kms from the resorts) and then picked us up from the end of the stretch. The trainers told us that there were 7 rapids in the stretch and the highest level was 3. Fortunately for us, water from the nearby dam was released that morning and hence we had a good time rafting. (One of our friends' group that did rafting 2 days earlier did not enjoy it as there was not enough water in the river). As far as I remember, the charge for rafting was Rs. 900 (on student concession).

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed it a lot!!