Aquafun - Rafting in the Kundalika

Rains are synonymous with aquafun especially rafting. True to our word we went back to River Kundalika at Kolad to raft once again. This time it was an even bigger group of rafting enthusiasts – our parents! We were a group of 24 people, most of them my neighbour families, my office colleagues and other friends and their friends. In this big gang of enthusiasts, there were just 3 rafters and the others had absolutely no clue as to what to expect. Nevertheless they were all game to try out this aqua sport called “Rafting” on my sole insistence.

We had zeroed down to a bus as our mode of transportation for this picnic to avoid our fathers getting hassled by the task of driving. We were to reach Dadar at 12 noon to board the bus. Since we had a lot of luggage Nilesh uncle decided to dump it all in his Safari, deliver it to the bus and then park his car elsewhere. The bus was a comfortable 2x2 deal with enough room to stretch our legs and be comfortable for the 4-5 hours drive. The odd hour of starting at 12 noon left us stranded in between breakfast and lunch. Nevertheless, Nilesh uncle decided to treat us all with hot samosas from the famous outlet “Shree Krishna” at Dadar. These were devoured with enthusiasm amidst shouts from others for us getting delayed by an hour in by the act of buying samosas. However, there were arrangements made for lunch en route (packets of yummy Biryani) by our organisers – “The Windchazers”. Windchazers is a group of 7 young people who earn their living by working in varied reputed companies but arrange for treks and adventure activities over the weekend for the sole purpose of spreading fun and enjoyment among their friends and their friends. Komal introduced me to them and we dumped our entire planning to them. Trust me it was for the better. When I had tried to do it on my own I had to haggle with the resort in charge, the rafting organisers get in place cars and / or a bus! It was a herculean task which I willingly gave up to the so called “pros”. Vincy, Nehal & Bharti were the 3 Winchazers who accompanied us for this trip.

Having finally boarded the bus at Dadar we set off for Kolad. The drive took us nearly 41/2 hours. Once we turned off onto the village roads, all we could see on both sides were lush green paddy fields. We reached Pooja Farms around 5.30 in the evening. Pooja Farms is located in a small village called Sutarwadi near Kolad. From Mumbai you can take the expressway up to the Khalapur exit and then drive through the village roads to reach Kolad. This route is very scenic with farm lands on both sides but the drive can take you a little extra time as the roads are narrow and winding. Alternatively you can take the Bombay – Goa highway and proceed ahead of Karnala Bird Sanctuary, reach Vadhkal Naka and turn off from there towards Sutarwadi. The village is indeed a village with villagers living in huts made of bricks with no plastering and tiled roofs. Typical “kutcha” huts with bamboo patching on walls & roofs and mud plastering. It is definitely not a place which attracts fancy tourists and hence the poor standard of living. The only attraction at Sutarwadi is rafting in the Kundalika which normally is a year round activity but more frequented in the monsoons and hence there are not many fancy accommodation options available. The moment we got off the bus we were being ogled at by the village kids as if we were aliens. However it was just the fact that these kids envy us the good clothes and other stuff that they saw we had on us. The road being unpaved, we had to walk half a kilometer with our entire luggage and no concierge service up to the gates of Pooja Farms.



The moment we set our foot on the property of Pooja Farms we sucked in a deep breath and held it in for long in awe of the beautiful surroundings. Wide open space, a soft green carpet of grass made so by the recent monsoons, the wide expanse of the river and the scattered accommodation.

Pooja Farms had an interesting mix of the accommodation options – 2 tents, 2 regular cottages, 2 glass houses, 2 machaans and 2 aqua huts. All of these were unique and pretty in their own way. We dumped our bags into our tent no 1, got our folks settled into the 2 cottages and set off to explore the back waters and the other accommodations. The tents were raised on a concrete base and had a permanent roof of cement “patras” to avoid any water leakage.

Hence you can enjoy a tent stay even in the monsoon. The tents could easily accommodate a dozen people. It had 12 beds lined up, 6 on each side. There was also a rack at one corner to stash your luggage, 2 fans and tube lights. It was totally clean and comfortable. But of course you had to walk out and across the tent to make use of the sanitation facilities which were also well kept.

The regular cottages where our folks were put up looked plain from the exterior however once you stepped in they had a real cosy feel with nice and high double beds, attached bathroom and comfortable chairs. They also had a long verandah which we utilized to the fullest (tell you about the HOW later on).

The view from the verandah was simply awesome. All you could see was the backwaters of Kundalika at their calmest mood! The weather was breezy and you could see the light ripples being made on the surface of the water.

The cottages had lovely big windows that blew in really cool breeze throughout the day and night. The glass houses actually had half walls made of glass. Up to about 5 feet from the ground there was brick and then from thereon till the roof it was all glass. Amazingly one with nature! But of course you had cane curtains for privacy. The machaans were in a state of repair and hence no one got a chance to enjoy a stay there. However we climbed aboard one and had a look around which again was spectacular with just water and green fields all around.

Aqua huts – wow! These huts had a 3 feet long walkway from the edge of the river to the hut which was erected on stilts within the river. Once in you could see the back door bang in front of you and beds to the right and left. The floor was wooden planks and had big holes in them to let the water pass through in case the river level went up and thus, avoid a flooding in the hut. You could open the back door and walk on to the narrow verandah which was just extended wooden planks of the same flooring and no railing of any kind. You could just sit down with your legs dipped into the river and romance the time away.

We enjoyed some tea & snacks on the makeshift raft that they had anchored to the edge. In cases of high and sufficient water levels, they would let it off in the middle of the river for a short distance.

Once fueled up we set out to enjoy some water games. The aunties needed no push and were splash into the back waters and urging us to come in right away without wasting any more time.

The water was not much deep just about a maximum of 6 feet deep. However beyond a certain

boundary it got extremely deep and hence we were warned well in advance to stay within the prescribed limits. One by one the rest of us started entering the water. Dhaval fooled around with Nilesh uncle’s waterproof Olympus camera.

Nupur – our youngest member was the one filled with most happiness on seeing the water. She just couldn’t stay away and kept wiggling in her mother’s arms to be let down into the water. Finally we dipped her legs in and oh boy she went berserk with happiness. We were simply ecstatic just seeing her happy face.

The next couple of hours were spent just soaking in the water and chilling out literally.

Some people enjoyed swimming some played volleyball in the water, some played basketball and a few enjoyed romancing in the waters! Come dark people got thirsty and in the mood to get in a few drinks and dance awhile. We were still waiting for a group of friends who were to drive down from New Mumbai in their own car. They had left rather late and were finding it difficult to trace the route since it gets very dark in the surrounding villages and you don’t have people or signboards to guide you the right way. However we decided to continue with our plans rather than sit idle and wring our fingers waiting for them to arrive. Tables were set by Nilesh uncle with a variety of snacks (chakna), glasses and the chief guest - liquor (whisky, vodka). It was the funniest sight of my life, our parents and other elders sitting up on the tables and we all so-called kids lined up at their feet to have a drink ourselves passed on to us by our folks!

How nice to feel our folks spoiling us for a change. Nilesh uncle was the unofficial bartender and must say he made some real mean drinks that night. Spirits lifted we set in for a round of filmy dancing and photo clicking. Everyone let down their hair and moved their butts if not the other body parts.

Finally our much awaited group of friends arrived who got a real earful from all around. They were too late for the drinking and dancing session and had to make do with a few spoonfuls of vodka. I guess it serves them right for being so pricey and coming in late.

Call for dinner and we headed out to hog. The food was simple yet delicious and we ate to our heart’s content. One thing be said, we had abandoned our footwear long back to enjoy the mushiness of the green lawns. Post dinner our folks decided to retire early for the night considering the early wake up call for the next day. We were all sleepy too but in no mood to sleep. We had 2 tents allocated to us and in one tent we had 2 aunties sleep with us due to space constraints in the cottages. We settled down to have our midnight chats all the while trying hard to whisper and keep our volumes low lest we wake up the aunties and they wise up to our nonsense talks and doings. The second tent was being sparsely occupied by 2 couples and 3 other friends. They were looking forward to enjoying the empty space but there were other plans – a stray yet pet dog who resides on the premises of Pooja Farms had taken up 2 beds looking forward to a peaceful night. As much as they would push it drag it wouldn’t budge and at last they had to give in and curl up in the other beds respecting the dog’s presence. Pradeep regaled us with tales of how they kept hogging and getting hungry again and again on their way to the resort and how they would lose their way and end up nosing the car the other way. Finally we decided to call it a night and get in a few hours of sleep.

The next morning came bright and early. Before the wakeup call we were up one after the other between 6am to 6.30am. It was already bright outside but no rains. We freshened up, got changed into our rafting wear which was basically shorts or capris or tights and tshirts. We had a good breakfast as we had to be on water for almost 3 hours starting from 9am to 12 noon. We went about 8kms by bus from our resort to the river bank where the rafting activity kick starts. Ideally there are 10 rafts with a capacity of 8 each but being the peak season, there was more rafts bought it hiking up the total to 17. And instead of the normal crowd of 80-100 rafters that day saw more than 115 rafters with many rafts accommodating 10 people. It was an amazing sight to behold with rafts lined up back to back on one side of the road and people scampering There and there in all their excitement. It was a mela out there. There was this guy Ravi who was the head of the trainers. He stood bang in between the clearing where we were all gathered and announced loud and clear for all to assemble in a circle around him. At his feet there lay a big tarp on which were heaped helmets, oars and life jackets – the quintessential things for rafting. He welcomed everyone by saying “Welcome to the festival of rafting at Kundalika” and yes indeed the mood was festive with people chattering and all. The air was vibrant and you could feel the enthusiasm of the people percolate your skin. Ravi gave out some general introduction to rafting and Kundalika and heartily welcomed us aboard to try our hand at this safe sport called rafting. We then attacked the tarp and got us one helmet, lifejacket and one oar.

The trainers moved around helping everyone suit up correctly. We divided ourselves into groups of 8-10 and got allocated to varied trainers. The rafting world is so small that you just might bump into your trainer from Dandeli or from an earlier rafting expedition in the Kundalika or from Hrishikesh. The trainers usually keep shuttling between River Kali in Dandeli and the River Kundalika in Kolad. They have a passion for this sport and this passion rubs onto you as well from the moment you start interacting with them. They are cool, calm, composed, confident, smug yet not arrogant and full of enthusiasm and purpose to run along with the river and not let go.
Our trainer for the day was Shankar and he made it clear that he likes to stay right ahead and go with the river. To warm us up we were made to hoist the raft up to the river’s edge. The next 20 minutes were spent going over the theoretical dos and don’t and the varied commands (forward, back, right back, left front, right front, left back, all back, all front, get down, hold on) were explained & demonstrated to us.

At precisely 9am the siren was blown and water was released from the dam. The river already

resembled a midway pregnant lady with the rain water having settled onto the river bed and the addition of the dam water made its tummy completely round and huge. Unlike last time the river bed was not at all visible pre release of the dam water. We could only see the increase in river levels and strengthening of the water current post release of the dam water. The main purpose of releasing the water from the dam is to provide water to the farmers for agricultural purposes. The river passes through kilometers of fields all having turned green with the recent onslaught of the monsoon. Sutarwadi, as mentioned earlier, is not a tourist spot. It is a village where agriculture is the prime occupation and thus, the vast lands of green fields. We did not research into the kind of crops that were being cultivated but we did catch glimpses of paddy and paddy during monsoons is a sight to behold! It soothes the eye like nothing else. So humble and swaying with the breeze it makes you feel totally calm and peaceful. Considering the number of rafts that were to be on river this time, it started getting crowded at the edge of the river and we wasted no more time in getting onto the river. We pushed the raft halfway into the water and splashed in one after the other.

Some people were too scared initially to enter the water but then having assured themselves that the others were fine they all jumped in. Shankar himself jumped off and made Vanita & Mamta float far from the raft without using the lifeline and just holding onto one rope. Ravi who was the trainer in my father’s raft, made them all stand up on their raft as a sign of victory that they had finally rafted down safe.

Little did they know that they were being had! The moment they stood up the raft toppled over and all were splash into the water.

One guy held on to Pops (my father) in a death grip and just wouldn’t let go. He kept thanking Pops profusely and kept pleading not to let go of him. Finally we were tired after almost 45 minutes of floating and got aboard. We rowed back to the river edge’s and were so pooped by the time we reached the edge that all we wanted to was fall onto a bed after a hot shower. But we weren’t to be let off that easily. We once again hoisted the raft and carried it slightly uphill to the jeeps that were to carry back our rafts.

We trekked up a bit on the kutcha road and reached our bus where we had chips, chocolates & juices to refresh us. Once in the bus we were all just dying to sit down when Bharti screamt to us to remain standing lest we wet the seats. This so called “friendly advice” of her was not at all well received and everyone grumbled big time on their way back. People were so tired especially our parents and the aisle was too cramped for all to be standing. Some had to keep their heads ducked down and stand at their seats; some sat with their butts half out the window. It was a bad ride that we are not to forget soon. Once at the resort we changed, fed ourselves and relaxed awhile before finally having tea and pushing off for Mumbai.

All in all, it was an extremely tiring yet an adventurous weekend. We came back with many memories. If not rafting, Pooja Farms will definitely tempt us to go back there.

In hot pursuit of the Panthera Tigris

The sweltering heat of May had us running towards the Kanha NP, the land of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, once again to track the Panthera Tigris, popularly known as the Royal Bengal Tiger. Summer, is the idle time for tiger sighting due to reduced forest cover and the need of the animals to seek water.

We embarked on this hot trip on a Saturday night from LTT (Kurla Terminus) to board the Rajendra Nagar Express bound for Patna. Our destination was Jabalpur from where we were to travel by road for 4 hours to reach our final destination – Kanha National Park. We were a group of 36 people including 2 of my friends who joined us from Delhi. Surprisingly the train was on time. The entire night was fun filled with loud talks, singing & staying awake. Having reached Jabalpur on Sunday afternoon we piled onto a hot pink bus.

Predictably the bus broke down midway and we had to spend 1 hour in the middle of nowhere waiting for the replacement bus to come along. We idled away our time by introducing ourselves to each other, snacking & posing on a well nearby.

Finally when the replacement bus came along, must be a sibling in the same hot pink shade, we realized that we were a few seats short! 4 people had to travel on roof top in a typical filmy way. We kept hoping all along that no one would just fall off the side as the road was all curvy and our driver was a descendant of the Schumacher clan. Luckily we all reached Mogli Resorts in village Khatia late evening.
The resort was very close to one of the entry gates – Kisli.














Our resort looked really scary in the night time with just dim lamps lighting up the pathways and the rooms situated far from the main building. The first wildlife to greet us was a yellow frog on our basin. I actually mistook it for soap and thank goodness it blinked before I could hold it!
Makarand our tour leader told us that the wake up call next day would be at 4.30am. We would assemble for tea by 5am and leave the premise by 5.15am so that we could beat the tourist crowd. True to his word, we heard loud banging on our doors at precisely 4.30am. All set with our caps, cameras, monopods, tripods, water bottles & sun block, we headed off for our first safari trip.














Each gypsy had 6 people. I was the only one in our gypsy who had been to the jungles before and all others were first timers not knowing what to expect.














As I had been dreaming of Kanha opening up its arms to me on an early sunny morning, so I was greeted on that day! The sight of the barrier opening up, the gypsy sliding onto the jungle path, the wide open forest grounds, the rising sun, the quiet chattering of the birds, the soft thud of the spotted deer and the cool breeze are embedded into my senses making it an unforgettable memory. For me it was homecoming.












Driving at a speed of 20kms, we started exploring the jungle. We made acquaintances with the black faced langurs, spotted deer, peacocks, peahens, jungle fowl, wild boar, a pair of owlets, sambar deer, barking deer, barasingha and Indian Gaur. The sambar deer were busy licking at the soil to fulfill the salt deficiency in their bodies.







































The cool breeze and the slow rocking motion of the gypsy put many of my fellow adventurers to sleep. The morning session was an orientation to the jungle with no tell-tale signs of the tiger’s presence anywhere. In a way it was a good sign because one must first get the feel of the jungle and definitely try one’s patience before getting a glimpse of the mighty beast.
Post lunch we had a short rest break and headed off once again for the 3.30pm safari. We were moving around drowsily when we were snapped into awakening by the passing gypsies telling us about a female tigress in the vicinity who had just crossed their path. This charged us into full awakening and we all clambered up on our seats to have the first look at the tigress. We could hear her growling amongst the bushes and waited expectantly with our cameras on ready! Finally our patience paid off. She walked out of the bushes and without a look around, coolly crossed the road and went off into the bushes onto the other side. A few more gypsies had raced up close to us but they got just a glimpse of her rear as she was walking further in and was perfectly camouflaged by the dried bamboo all around. It was not a very heartening sighting because she was very skinny and tired looking. Later we were told by our guide and driver, Kishore that she had just given birth to a few cubs and thus, she was frail looking. This brought an end to our first day in the jungle.

The next day began as the previous one but with even more enthusiasm and optimism. Our cameras were being put to maximum use right from the time the sun peeked out of the clouds. The jungle mates co-operated with us by coming all out and posing for us.












The best experience was to stare into the eyes of a full grown Indian Gaur who was just 4-5 feet away from our gypsy. Its weight easily exceeded a ton.











The moment it made a move the guide asked Kishore to back up. They are known to be very ferocious and can easily upturn a small gypsy. Moving on we met another Bison, who seemed to be chewing gum whereas in reality it was busy munching on grass!

Driving further we came to a large open road where we could see 2 elephants and a few gypsies close by. We understood immediately that it was the tiger tracking elephants and the gypsies belonged to the forest ranger. They had spotted a tiger and were scrambling onto the elephant to have a closer look. How we envied them! The road was then blocked and no vehicles were allowed on that path. Infact the gypsy ahead of us got stopped and the driver was given an earful by the forest ranger for speeding.









We kept hoping for the tiger show to take place but unfortunately it didn’t happen. We spent sometime in between driving to hog our breakfast at the Center Point. There was an annoying quantum of tourists who had never been to a jungle before and kept screaming at their drivers to show them some tigers.

Our next tiger sighting was really frustrating. A tiger was crossing the road and the road was choc-a-block with almost 10-15 gypsies on both sides of the tiger. It was a really crazy scenario and the tiger got miffed and just walked off into the grassland not to be seen by anyone.
Not to be the ones to give up, we headed off again for the evening safari. To add to our frustration all we saw was the tigress strutting her butt!










Finally it was the last morning safari of this trip! I didn’t share my gut feeling with anyone that we would finally see the tiger up close. While passing by the Indri maidan we saw a huge forest fire raging. The speed at which it was spreading was scary. However the jungle officials were successful in containing it and it slowly died down.













We reached the center point earlier than usual that day to line up for the tiger show. We were on third place that day and luckily the jungle was not over crowded with tourists. There were hardly 35-40 gypsies as compared to a 100+ gypsies on the previous 2 days.

This gave us hope of seeing the tiger at close range. We waited a really long time for an update on the tiger show. Our luck stood by us! I saw our driving come running towards our gypsy and I instantly understood that the permission for tiger show had been granted and we were off to see the tiger at close range on elephant back. We paid for the tiger show and zoomed off with a jungle official to the spot where the tiger show was being held. There were just 2 gypsies ahead of us awaiting their turn so it was really a small wait. Finally! We clambered on to the elephant back, me and Prakash on one elephant and Dhiren and Varsha on the other. We headed off into the grassland where the tiger was sitting. The moment our elephant came close it got up and started to move away.











Our mahout would not give up and he immediately put his elephant into motion and started following the tiger. WOW! The fast bump bump of the elephant and the tiger walking coolly ahead of us was simply amazing. I can still feel the bump bump movement in my sleep. The tiger was a 4 year old male cub. It reached a bridge and got under it.
On one side was our elephant, to the left was Varsha’s elephant and to the right was another elephant. The tiger had no place to go but straight ahead. Instead it chose to go under and rest in the shade. This was the moment we got our prized shots!







It even had the cheek to stare at Varsha & Dhiren.













Sniffing around, moving around and then finally settling down to rest. The camera on burst mode we just went bonkers going click click click.










Once we were back it was Anita and Mitesh’s turn to go next. They were simply ecstatic when they returned.














On our way back we could do nothing more but talk about how majestic it was, how huge it was, how unconcerned it was, how confident it was and also beautiful.

On returning back to the Center Point we came to know that another tiger show was happening at the Kisli gate. We headed off there but unfortunately could not go for the tiger show as we were behind many gypsies and we had to rush that day to leave for Jabalpur at the soonest.
We left in the heat of the noon to reach Dhuandhar Falls that are just a few kilometers away from the city of Jabalpur. They have been nicknamed the Niagara Falls of India due to the identical horseshoe shape. Even in this heat they were overflowing with water.














We munched on cool cucumbers to beat the heat. From there we moved on to the Bhedaghat area which has marble rocks on both sides and the river Narmada flows in between.














We went for a boat ride and were regaled with funny tales of the marble colours. The boatman joked that the marble was pink because the actress Rekha once sat there and her wet pink sari had left some colour behind. The tales were really far fetched but did not fail to give us a good laugh.

Back on the banks we enjoyed a cup of tea while watching the sun go down. We were lucky to witness the unique aarti of the Narmada that takes place every evening. Almost a 100 diyas are lit and the Narmada is worshipped.












People could do a “deep dan” i.e. offer a diya to the Narmada river. It was all such a peaceful and religious environ. We purchased some real cheap marble rock carvings as small souvenirs to take back home.

We were treated to amazing thali for dinner where we gulped down glass after glass of buttermilk like we had never seen any liquid before and our thirst would never be quenched.
On reaching Jabalpur station we got to know our train was slightly delayed. Why waste good time? Me, Komal and Tanvi went off to sleep on the platform amidst our baggages.













Finally it was the end to our wildlife tour when we felt the hot sweaty air of Mumbai licking our faces.













Overall it was not such an exciting experience for me for the simple reason that the tourists were too huge in number and rather misbehaved. It is my request to all who do go to the jungle to remember this – the jungle is not a zoo, you are entering the home of wildlife and the way you respect a human being’s home, respect the jungle. Keep it clean, do not litter, do not scream and shout and enjoy the view. The more you respect it the more you will be rewarded as it unfolds itself in front of you and you will see the varied facets of this beautiful place that is home to India’s national animal – the “Panthera Tigris”. Save it from extinction! The count of tigers by the authorities of Kanha NP was 131 but the drivers and guides were of the opinion that there are less than 100 tigers in reality.