Nature's fury...Live!!

Extended weekend, the plan to go to karwar was made when everything was "normal"
A friend of mine, had travelled to that place and said the heat was unbearable. We witnessed the rains!! And its affects. What we did not know that we were in for the experience of a lifetime. This was a trip that was extremely different, the travel bug in me is taking a break for sometime.

Day 1, we start our journey from Bangalore to Karwar. The Driver was constantly talking to this passenger who was next to him, and the bus was moving slower than the man walking on the road. Many complained, only to be told that the driver knew what was best. We reached Ankola, and there the Bus broke down. We were moved into a new Bus, then we reached Karwar..almost..few kms away from it when the Bridge was overflowing and the route to Karwar was blocked.

We were stranded in that Bus for quite smtime, spoke to the Driver who by now gave up on taking a reverse and going back to a nearby city. Luckily, we found this Volvo going back, and a good samaritan who let us in. This Volvo had ppl enroute to Goa. All worried faces, starved and very restless. We joined them, got dropped at Kamat.

Kamat Hotel looked like a refugee camp, and there we met this extremely helpful person. By now, our phones were dead, zero network and all the charging points had a queue. He helped us first, by getting food ontime :)
Then, informed us about the places closeby where we could get to and also access to the nearest Bus stop. Also, knew that the trains to Goa also were cancelled because of landslides.

We got onto the main road, and got into a Bus to Hubli, then the good times were back. We reached Hubli, got into a decent lodge. Had food finally, then got back to Bangalore.Trip ended, much earlier and most important we were back home..all safe..almost. Pri has had an injury in the past during a trip, and now again. Hopefully she shud be fine..

So, we all are back to our cosy home and to speak about a bad trip but tell you what? My friend who is a localite of Karwar is still in shock. The houses in Karwar have been washed away, loss of lives. And all this, when these ppl are staying here for so many years. She says, even during rainy season it hasn't been this bad. Its the first time in 100 years!!

On the entire trip, we were really really fortunate and thankful to God.
All that relief efforts that we see on TV is nowhere close to what is required. I pray, that man who gave us water and his thatched house is still there...safe and sound.

hmmmm...

Into the wilderness...

14km of River rafting in Kali River and my swimming practice in a river that was 70feet deep!! What more can be more adventurous I ask for now? There are many yet to be explored I realise, means more trips :)

As per the package and the season, we were told that the river rafting wudnt happen.With the rest of the planned activities, we headed towards Dandeli. This place located 481km from Bangalore and more abt this place at http://www.dandeli.com/

WHole bunch of absolutely fully faltoo jokes and the gr8 company marked the entire trip with an amazing experience for a lifetime.

Day 1:

We finished the Coracle ride with a very humourous guide, who splashed water on the crocs to make sure we dint mistake them for artificial ones. The Jungle Safari with the running commentary from Dileep and our 'bul-bul', turned out to be a laugh riot ;)

Spotted few bisons, lotta peacocks, few jackals, lotta monekys and few deers.The animals were not interested for the human safari then, most of them dint come out to greet us. We tried hard and spotted a few. The journey in the Jeep wuz fabulous, breeze and all that added affect of the jungle.

Campfire by the night and our version of 'truth or dare.' And so many spoilsports, I tell you. Still some of the secrets did cm out..hehe..

Day 2:

River rafting, by the Kali river. We split into two teams and there wuz a competition between the two rafts. We were headed by Mohammed, who provided crystal clear directions for "FORWARD", "BACKWARD", "HOLD ON" and many others. All of us got into the river and we had to be rescued back by the team mate as part of practice. The star of the day was Dileep, who was so relieved to be rescued back and vouched for the fact that he would never want to step into the water without knwin swimming.

I tried my hand at the backstroke, and realised it wuz too great to just float there and just do nuthin..woooow...loved it to the core.

The best part, goin thru those rapids!!! All that rowing, splashin water at our opponents..my..my..absloute fun. 14km wuz too less...

Spoke to Mohammed, he said they have started a 18km river rafting in Goa now. http://goarafting.com/ Other rafting points at Coorg as well.
Ones heading to these places, dont miss out on this...

Journey back and we had a 'LINDA BADMAN' at work. Jayant, and his wild guesses were inspired by too many hackneyed theories that he has. Provided fulltu entertainment though,as we were nearing Blore and there wuz depression written all over. I wished the trip continued for long u knw....

Did I stop blogging??

Bad habits, die hard...just have another blog id,

http://thotsfor2day.blogspot.com/