Dandeli Trip

My Dandeli trip pictures are now available on Flickr. Dandeli is by far the best place I've visited as a trekking spot. One can find more information on Dandeli from the master. I'll try and share some wisdom anyway.

• Visit during end of September or early October. Season starts from October to March. If September-end the forests are wet and have that rain-foresty look though most are deciduous.

• Book a good resort. All resorts are in Ganeshgudi and NOT in Dandeli. Dont think you can drop in Dandeli and expect rooms to be made available or expect to be in the middle of a jungle. Dandeli is a proper town.
• Take the private buses, Suguma Travels and TRL are better options than the 14-hour KSRTC bus. The best route is the Bangalore-Hubli-Dandeli-Ganeshgudi route when travelling by car.
• This is not the place to go with your family(grandpa's and grandma's and auntie's). If you have a healthy family then it's fine.
• Be prepared to walk atleast 10KM every day to really make use of the trip.
• Leech's will bite you. So learn to live with these parasites.

• You will slip, fall and have a few scratches.
• Syntheri Rock is a good place to die. Be careful on the rocks!

• You _must_ be _inside_ the Wildlife Sanctuary before daybreak (4:00 AM) or you've missed all the animals. Don't expect to see lions, tigers, (your favourite big cat). At the most you might see a wild-cat if you are really lucky.
• If you are planning to visit Kavala Caves, you have to explore them on all fours with bats flying at you if you turn on your torch/candle. Also the cave-surface is filled with bat droppings and it STINKS!
• If you see rapids don't think of swimming, most of the rapids have whirlpools and if you get sucked in you might emerge in Kerala.

• You might end up spending Rs.2000-3000 for the weekend. 1250/- extra if interested in white-water-rafting.

Have fun, Dandeli/Ganeshgudi is a thousand times better than Coorg, Ooty and (insert commercial hill-station) and at the same times thousand times painful/dangerous if you are not careful. All the pics were taken using my trusted Sony Ericsson k750i. A big thanks goes to lawgon who suggested the place.

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