Soon after Christmas Eve is over, everyone plans their big New Year Theme party with food, drinks, and music, well I am also one of them. But in 2020, as the Covid situation struck the world, most of the parties were canceled. So, I planned to Welcome 2021, a bit different and that is by taking a trip to Dandeli with my friends.
Dandeli is a small town in north Karnataka. It has a dense forest cover making it home natural habitat for wildlife. There are many resorts in Dandeli, but if you are a budget traveler like me, you can stay at Kali Homestay. The homestay owner provided us with a 2-day package of all meals, a 2-night stay, and activities like Kayaking, Jacuzzi Bath, swimming, and River Boating. You can get home-cooked food veg, and non-veg.
I traveled to Dandeli from Pune by private car. We reached in the evening, got freshened up and the staff greeted us with tea/coffee while we enjoyed the sunset. Later around 8 pm, the cook served chicken thali. At the homestay, we were the only group staying so we decided on the food menu, else the menu is decided by the cook. As the night passed, it was cold, the bonfire was lit and we spent the night singing songs and gazing at stars.
The next day early morning, we woke up at 7 am, Vishnu, a local boy working at the homestay accompanied us on a jungle walk. The route was completely covered with thick fog and the sun was rising to make the dew drops shine like diamonds. As we took a walk into the jungle, we saw colorful parrots, kingfishers, and different species of birds. Waling deep into the forest we reached a small water stream flowing. We sat there while putting our feet in the water, this felt soothing.
We came back from a walk, had breakfast and rushed to the adventure camp to take up activities at River Kali guided by Flycatcher adventure group, which was around 20kms from our homestay. We completed all the activities included in our package. There are also other activities like river rafting, river crossing, rappelling, water roller, etc. Please reach the adventure camp by 10 am, later there might be a rush and you might have to wait in a queue for your activity, especially on weekends. It took us 4 hours to complete all the activities kayaking, swimming, river boating, Jacuzzi Bath, and river rafting(paid extra), then we returned to our stay for lunch. Post-lunch, we also visited other places in Dandeli like Syntheri Rocks and Supa Dam. And we concluded our day, by having dinner at the bonfire under the roof of sparkling stars.
The next morning, we traveled back to Pune.
Best Time to travel: During summers and winters
Talking about the cost for two people, it was approx 13k for two people. Major Cost was: Two-day homestay- 7500(food, activities, and stay) and Fuel+Toll-4000
Feel free to drop any queries about the Dandeli, I will be happy to answer them. You can also connect with me on Instagram:theniveditashinde
Here are a few clicks from my trip to Dandeli.
