St.Marys island & Ghatikallu

After a lot of planning and change in plans, we finalized on St.Marys island and Ghatikallu. 12 of us had planned to go but 1 had to drop out due to high fever. The replacement was Ahi and hence our team consisted of Vj, Abhith, Manja, Shabnam, Andy, Swetha, Reshma, Prasad, Ahi, Nish, Sandy and me. Our prev trip was to Yana & Gokarna which was a grand success so our moto was to make this a bigger success !!

13th Jan 2011 - All of us gathered at Majestic by 10 to board the 10:55 bus to Udupi. We reached udupi the next day at about 8 in the morning.

We checked in to Karavali hotel, freshened up, had breakfast and without any further delays left to Malpe beach. Expectations weren't that high coz this was just another beach like OM beach but once we reached there we were all thrilled to know that there's jet skiing in Malpe. All of us did jet skiing and for most of us this was a debut ! Once we were done with this, we left to St.Marys island by a private boat. While nearing the shore, we felt like we werent in India. It looked like some foreign place and to our surprise there was no sand on the shore. It was all coral and white stones !! All of us were provided life jackets during the boat ride. We requested the boatman to give us the lifejackets to swim  in the beach !!

This reminded us of Yuva. All of us were Vivek Oberois and Kareena Kapoors floating in the water with life jackets singing "anjana anjani" :D....Non swimmers had a gala time coz this was a 1st hand experience for many. Though we had plans of exploring the island, we continued floating in the beach throughout coz we felt this different and interesting !! By about 3:30pm we returned to Malpe beach by boat.




We had to leave to Chikmagalur by the 5:30 bus so we rushed to our hotel, freshened up quickly, packed our bags and rush to the bus stand coz the last bus was at 6 ! We travelled by bus and then by a Qualis and finally reached Ghatikallu by midnight .Though it was dark we could figure out that we are amidst extreme greenary and felt that here nature was at its best !! Gals occupied normal rooms and guys had the privilege to stay in a bamboo house ;)

Next morning we woke up all thrilled and excited about the day ahead !! After having our breakfast at the homestay, our guide Sandesh escorted us to the open truck awaiting us and off we left for treking. Thankfully Sandesh was not just a guide but a good photographer too ! At the start of our trek we felt that our destination is far ahead and that we would be exhausted to the core by the time we reach there !! But once we started treking we realized that its not all that tough. We crossed 2 forests and 2 plains to finally reach fort which is at the peak.

A brief history behind the fort as narrated by Sandesh : When Tippu Sultan attacked that area, the queen at that time ran for rescue and hid in that fort. Later when she was intimated that Tippu had tracked she ran for her life through a tunnel which had an exit as a free fall. When she reached the other end of the tunnel, she had no other go so jumped off and gave her life.

 After posing for about n number of clicks we decided that it was time to leave coz we had to cover the waterfall on the same day which was actually part of the 2nd day's agenda (We had to leave early the next day so planned it this way).

The waterfall was much beyond expectations ! Though it didnt have a great height or force, the uniqueness here was that we were given life jackets to swim across the pond to reach the falls. We even jumped from some point into the pond which was something new for many of them in our group !! Again - non swimmers had a blast coz they could do things that they thought they could never do !
We spent about 2 hrs in the falls and then headed back to our homestay.

Most of them were dead tired and few fell flat on bed after reaching there. The rest of us played dodgeball which reminded us of how funfilled our childhood was !!
By about 7pm, the camp fire was set and we played dumb charads !! After a lazy but yet entertaining camp fire we had dinner by about 9:30 and returned to our rooms. Though our plan was to sleep and wake up early, we decided not to waste our time sleeping and instead played cards in our bamboo house. Our guide sandesh dropped in between to show us our pics. While watching the pics we were recollecting the fun filled moments that we had during the day !! By about 1am we fell asleep.
The next day we checked out of Ghatikallu after breakfast and left to Mangalore by jeep. 3 of them parted ways coz they had to reach blore the same day...remaining 9 of us headed towards Mangalore airport to bid goodbye to Andy who had to leave to Mumbai. So our gang size reduced to 8. We then headed towards Mangalore to spend the rest of the day in Panambur beach.
Unfortunately Mangalore didnt live upto the expectation ! The beach was overcrowded. Few of us got into the beach and played for sometime. Rest of them flew kites along the beachside. Though the crowd made us upset, the sunset view was a compensation ! We even had some fish fries from the beachside stalls. By about 8pm we left Panambur beach and with this an unforgetable trip came to an end. Im sure the 12 of us are going to cherish this lifelong ...!!  

Dandeli - Stanley farm house.

This was my 2nd attempt in going to this place about which I had heard lots of interesting stuff. Though rafting is the main attraction here, you can comfortably spend 2 days and you would still feel that you are running short of time to do few activities !!
Must do activities in Dandeli - Rafting, Kayaking, Coracle with Jaccuzi, Rapelling and River crossing.
Though there are lots of attractive resorts in Dandeli, I would prefer Stanleys farm house anyday not coz its cheap but because of their hospitality !

After a dozen round of interaction with Imam (the coordinator in Stanley farm), we finally fixed our plan. From my basic research in net I was informed that the minimum number for rafting is 6 so we formed a gang of 6 comprising of Alex, Johnson, Reji, Jacob, Punnoose and myself. We booked Jan 1st and 2nd.
Finally the day arrived...31st Dec 2010 - After the evening mass in church (New yr service), we rushed to the railway station to board the Rani chinnamma express.

We reached Alnawar on Jan 1st by bout 7am. From there we had to reach Dandeli by bus (Had to change bus at a stop called Haliyaal). On reaching Dandeli we spotted a Cruiser awaiting us ! Without wasting any time, we got into the cruiser, grabbed few necessary things from the nearby shops (coz there are no shops near the farmhouse) and reached the farmhouse by bout 8am. Imam was there at the entrance to greet us ! After a brief discussion, we charted the plan for the 2 days.

As per our plan, we freshened up, had breakfast and started off with a not-so-interesting activity called Croc trail. We considered this as a warm up. Mohammad bhai took us in his cruiser to some place where they tame crocodiles !! An old guide there explained the lifestyle of those crocodiles. It was more of a national geographic session. They even threw some meat into the water to demonstrate how starving crocodiles crave for flesh !

By about 12 pm we scooted from the croc park and reached Stanley farm. Post lunch it was rafting that was scheduled. We were all thrilled and excited as it was a 1st hand exp for all of us ! Though we had to wait for bout an hr after reaching the spot, it was playback time once the lifejackets were over us. We were divided into groups and our captain was a guy called Shankar. We all got into the raft and Shankar started off with basics. The total distance to be covered was 9.5km and there were 8 rapids. The 1st being the biggest (Grade 2.5). Rest of the rapids of grade 2 and each of these rapids had some wierd names like leopard hole, Adis beard, etc.

 During his basic training, he asked us to jump off the raft to demonstrate how to save someone whos fallen off the raft. This was one of the best moments during rafting coz we got to float and play in 60 ft deep river !! We took turns to row. There were few unforgettable moments like flying over some small plants in the river, sliding below a trees branches which missed our head by few mm's and many more ! But the best part of the rafting was undoubtedly the last bit wherein shankar did some stunts in the 8th rapid. In the end, we wished that this rafting could have been another 9.5 kms longer ;)

Once we were done with rafting, we returned to our farmhouse and freshed up. Campfire was arranged for us which we didnt attend coz 2 of us had a severe headache and rest were better off chatting among themselves rather than spending the night around the fire.Night stay was arranged in tents.

The next day we had to wake up at 5 in the morning for the morning trek to Cavala caves. Reji and Jacob dropped out coz of their shoulder pain. The remaining 4 of us got into the Jeep at 5:30 am. We could barely talk coz it was extremely cold outside ! Cavala caves was nearly 50kms away from Stanleys farm. After reaching there we had to trek for 3 kms and then get down 40 steps to reach the caves.. We had to literally crawl inside the caves to see a natural shivalinga. It was a bit disappointing coz we felt we deserved something better after 3kms of treking and getting down 400 steps. The return trek to our jeep made us feel even worse. The upcoming activities like kayaking, rapelling etc inspired us to reach the jeep faster !! By 11 am we were back to Stanleys farm.






After a late breakfast we were all set for Rapelling.Though rapelling sounded very exciting, we didnt feel all that great after getting to the spot. They made us wait for nearly 1.5hrs and we realized that our rapelling session would be further delayed by half an hr. So we decided to skip rapelling and moved on to Coracle ride with Jaccuzi and Kayaking.



We were 1st offered Kayaking. Alex had initially scared us that Kayaking isn't easy. But once we started it, we realized that there couldn't be anything more pleasant ! Though our hands were busy at work, our mind was completely relaxed. The guide accompanied us in his boat and kept clicking our pics !

Once we were done with Kayaking, the coracle was ready to take us to the other side of the river. This was another session of hognekkal falls. Pretty similar but much better. We spent nearly half an hr in the jaccuzi bath and then realized that it was time to leave else we wouldnt reach office on time the next morning. So we rushed to Stanleys farm, packed our bags, settled our accounts with Imam and Stanley, clicked few pics with them and then headed towards Dandeli bus stand. This was the end of our exciting and adventurous trip. The best new yr celebration that we ever had !

Suggestion to all those who are planning a trip to Dandeli - Stanleys farm would be the best choice ! The total amount that we spent for this trip was just Rs.3800 per head which includes transport to and fro from Blore ! What we need to note here is that Rs.3500 is the tariff for just food and accomodation in most of the resorts ! We couldnt ask for better hospitality from them !!

Contact no for Stanley farm house : 9448331729