Our journey begins
It’s been long since I went to the jungles, this time a trek in the jungle and river rafting was being planned by some old colleagues. I wasnt very sure about going, I had a release during that week. But reserved a place just in case 
On friday evening, I decided to join them. Five of us started out to Dandeli, about 125kms from Goa. Lepaksha, kiran, Rajesh, gaurav and me The peak season for this place is supposed to be oct-dec. Our main intention was to do the white water rafting.
It was my first time with couple of folks. It seems the original plan was for 8 folks, 3 had backed off.
Our Toyota Qualis was quite comfortable, there was a DVD player with front screen. The windows were sunglassed. We had a small tour within bangalore to pick up everybody. No trip of ours is complete without eating in the kamat yatri nivas. So we head straight to yatri nivas for dinner. I had poori, while the others had idlies and meals too.
After dinner we set off towards dandeli. The road was kind of ok, with bad patches at a number of places. The driver was quite skilled at driving as well as talking. Taxi drivers have this advantage, they have seen so many people and know so many things. On top of it they talk multiple languages. Our gang was a mix of all languages, and he managed everybody well
The qualis was cruising at 100kmph. My ‘racer’ instincts did come out at a few places, but I was able subjugate it 
I was too tired to stay awake, gaurav had cold and couldnt speak. But the rest of them were literally non-stop, the driver included. I woke up now and then, because they were laughing so loudly… Some were cheap jokes on some bakras, some were genuinely good. I was quite sleepy so the whole stuff was transitive. Lepaksha was the most energetic, all through the night. We stopped at a couple of places, the guys got down to drink tea and stare at the open skies. So much of stars, we rarely get to see in the city. Out there, with no city lights, the night sky was sedative.
We had reached the place in the morning, some confusion about where the Jungle lodges resort was (there are 2 in this region, one handles the rafting the other is more like a backwater resort and safari stuff) We were directed to the correct one.
We crossed a bridge that appeared so sleepy and beautiful in the sunrise. But none of our camera operators were ready to take their cameras out. It took us a lot of cajoling to make them get the cameras out. So the first shot of the trip was made after we reached the place.
Jungle lodges resort
The resort was quite peaceful, looks like only our gang had booked it at that time. We had taken 3 cottages in anticipation of 8 folks. Since only 5 of us were there, we took 2 and let the driver have the other one. Normally they have dorms for the drivers, but they wouldnt refund the amount paid. The cottages were quite ok for the amount they charged (1500 bucks per head with food). My only disappointment was that it was not on the river banks. The other JLR was supposed to be on the river bank.
We were to get to the river for rafting by 11am. We were all so hungry that we went to eat first. Gaurav had some fasting that day and didnt have anything. The rest of us ate pooris, bread toast with cheese and jam, omlette and coffee. The quantity was quite filling.
There were some pots kept on poles, filled with water, we recognized it as bird baths. There were plenty of them, after inquiring we came to know that the place is a haven for birds. Folks from the Indian bird watching association come here to take snaps. Someone had gifted them with nice photos of all the birds taken and they hung it all around the dining place. The dining place looked neat and built well. They had a camp fire area just near that under a huge tree.
Off to rafting
After breakfast, we whiled away till till it was close to 11am. At 11 we got ready to head to the river. We got into their jeep that was tied to couple of rafts. We had to drive about 3kms from the resort to reach the place. There was quite a crowd. This rafting is being offered by several agencies, only JLR was government. As we were getting into the life jackets we saw a number of people coming in.
Finally we got into the raft; our raft had 6 including one of the guides. He was supposed to instruct us and do the navigation. Two other folks came in the second raft for safely. Our navigator spent around five minutes talking about the safety features of the raft and trained us how to use the oars
So left forward, right back the raft rotates in one direction; left back right forward rotates in the other. All forward moves the raft forward. Luckily he used “get in” to mean that we need to sit down into the raft and hold the lines. If he had used jump in, probably one of us might have really jumped into the river.
Heading into the rapids
The water in the river is actually release from a Dam. So there is flow, but controlled flow. It wasnt scary at all. Rajesh and kiran jumped into the water even though they didnt know swiming as the instructor showed how to rescue someone who had falled into the water. The jokes and demonic pulls continued as we laughed like maniacs in the middle of the river. There were 8 rapids, a few had names: stitch, eddies beard, leopard hole, blah blah. Of the 8 around 4 was good, the others were just there. We didn’t fall or over turn anywhere, the rapids were not that high. But it was wonderful to feel the drag of the water as it rushes over the rocks. Here and there we crossed resorts on the river banks. One even had tree top house.
Its not necessary to know swimming to do the rafting. The life jackets keep you afloat; you just need to lie still till help comes.
We were completely wet, but didn’t wait to dry ourselves, we got back on the jeep (it had come down “using the road” to pick us up). We reached the resort just in time for lunch. Though we enjoyed it, we were really exhausted. We ate food till the stomach cried. A little bit of rest was planned before we headed for the small trek to a sunset point.
Sunset point
The guide insisted that we should start at 4pm so that we can see the sunset. It was supposed to be a short 1 to 2 kms trek, so I was not sure why he insisted at 4pm. After taking bath and resting ourselves, we got ready for the trek. The path was right behind the resort, but it was quite steep. We could feel the inclination , gravity was pulling us down. Either the guide underestimated our fitness levels or we were over enthused, we reached the spot much before sunset. It was a clearing on top of the hill, extremely steep just at the edge of the clearing. There was poop, cow’s poop here and there, how the hell did it climb all the way up.
We could see the back waters of the Kali river, one of the dams and a whole lot of forests. Here and there some colored birds were flying. A languar was playing on top of a tall bamboo tree. Our cameras were doing all the work as we sat down to rest and wait for the sunset.
The sunset was magnificent. we waited till it was completely down. Now it occurred to us that we need to get down before it becomes completely dark. The guide had a torch, but we were in no mood to let him lead the way. So we reached the ground just when darkness surrounded us. We headed straight to the camping area.
Hi-tea and bon fire
As we sat down to have a tea, they lit up the bonfire. Lepaksha and Rajesh dried their shoes in the flame; we just sat around it and watched the dancing flames gobble up the woods. I was reminded of the small animation bit from the movie “The chronicles of narnia”. They show the flames taking the form of a couple of antelopes and dancing away to the music.
Our non stop chitchatting continued here too. Kiran became silent suddenly; we started bugging him for that. Later he revealed the reason to me, which I am not going to let you know 
Dinner time was up, so we rushed to have dinner and sleep early.
Day two
Next day we got up early. First thing on the agenda was croc-trek and then we were supposed to check out from JLR and head towards cavala caves. Croc-trek had nothing to do with crocs; it was more of a joy ride on a coracle mainly for bird watching. But we guys were making fun of each other. The “pilot” would now and then call out; “see sir, the horn bill”. Lepaksha was trying to take a snap, all others sighed like “where.. oh yeah, what else?”
Cavala caves
We refresh ourselves, have breakfast and then checkout of the resort. Our next stop is cavala caves.
This was supposed to be a 3 hour trek to reach the caves. We heard there was a naturally formed shiva linga inside the cave. I’ve never been to a cave so the prospect really excited me. We had only one obstacle, we had to get the permission. We came to Ambica nagar, which was the place to get permissions. The locals told us that permission need to be obtained one day ahead of the trek. The guys who knew kannada were deliberating with locals, we were just mute spectators. There were a few street dogs to play with
Finally we got was the “solution”. He was a local who works in the Power station and has ‘contacts’ to get us permission. We took him along and reached the PowerStation. But no permission was coming. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Finally we started towards the caves, I never bothered to ask if we got permission or not
There are two ways to cavala caves one was a steep 800 steps climb, the other was a 3km hike followed by 200 steps. The way we came led us to the 800 steps. On the way we crossed a small steam the water was crystal clear, as it followed over the rocks, it created a nice sound. Our guide claimed he was old to climb and asked us to proceed on our own. Our driver and he stayed back as the five of us started our climb. We did count the steps, counted and fought over who’s count was correct
Gaurav offered to lead the way and count 50 before taking rest, But he pushed us and we were resting only every hundred. We cursed him but stayed together, finally we made it to the top. Some one had written their names and that they had climbed 813 steps. At the top it was neatly grilled. We came to know that during shiva ratri, huge crowds throng the cave temple.
Inside the cave
The entry to the cave was wide, there were Karthikeya and ganesha statues. We figured out a door with nandhi in front was the main door to shivalinga. Oops, we forgot the most important thing. The shop owner from were we got our guide had given us a couple of candles to be used at the caves, we forgot it in the car. It was quite demoralizing to have come so far and go back empty handed. We tried mobile torches (sony ericsson was brighter than nokia )
3 to 2 the vote was to turn back, who know what could be lurking inside. A snake, a wolf, some wild dog… But me and Rajesh who were voted out decided to go inside anyway. Curious lepaksha and Kiran decide to join us. Gaurav stayed back. We had to bend and walk inside pitch darkness. The light from sony ericsson and a small left over candle that we found outside, showed the way. We had not traveled much, It took a turn and ended in a bigger hall. We could see a huge shivalinga in the middle. There were other statues of ganesh and some other gods that we couldn’t make out.
Lepaksha tried to take snaps but nothing came out. Meanwhile Rajesh went to fetch gaurav. All of us stood there in silence for a few minutes. Finally when we decided that we had attempted enough number of times to take a snap we moved out. There were power lines laid into the cave, there were bulb holders here and there, but no bulbs. May be they put in only during the festive season.
Downhill
Finally we descended down the same way, it was quick. We were literally running down. As we reached the stream that we crossed earlier, we met the driver and the guide, they had come to search for us Me and rajesh had a nice bath in the stream and the other just lazed around. Twenty minutes later we were back in the car, heading back to ambica nagar, to drop our guide and have some food. The small hotel in Ambica nagar reminded me of the hotel in my home town. I used to get free food there
Food tasted outlandish, we were hungry too. We gobbled up as much as possible, for all the food we ate, 60rs per head seemed cheap in bangalore terms. But for that village that sounded like day light robbery!!
We had couple more place in mind, one was called sykes point, that we didn’t go because of permission problems and syntheri rocks because it was a detour.
Happy times over, head back home
Time-out. We had completed our expedition. Now we have to head back to bangalore. We had dinner in a dabha on the highway. The return journey was a lot quieter, since lepaksha had to get down on the way to return his home town and we were all exhausted
We reached bangalore quite past midnight, but had plenty of time to catch sleep and get ready for monday morning!
