Dandeli India Holiday and Travel Guides.

Information about our few days holiday out to India's State of Karnataka looking for Wildlife in the Indian Jungle near Dandeli.

Several weeks before we were due to fly out to Goa, India for our two week holiday in the sun we thought it would be nice to include a trip out into the Indian jungle. We found a place called Hornbill which is located at a village called Ambeli around 20km from Dandeli in Karnataka State, India - and decided to book ourselves a several days holiday out there.
On offer were various "jungle" orientated trips including some hiking, trips quite deep into the Indian jungle to try and spot tigers, crocodiles, leopards as well as the myriad of birds native to the area plus options for other excursions.
If you are staying in Goa then getting down to Dandeli from the railway station at Vasco da Gama is a little involved - there is a train available which does the 4 hour trip several times a week - this gets you as far as Londa. The fare was around 5 UK Pounds each to get a roomy sleeper compartment - you can travel down much cheaper than this but then you will (if there is room) be squashed onto wooden bench seats which is perhaps not too good for that many hours). From Londa you have to hire a jeep or take a taxi to the City of Dandeli - this trip was on quite poor roads and almost tracks at times but in our case we were in a quite old landrover and it was pretty good fun. From Dandeli the journey continued out through the Indian Jungle and quite remote countryside for another 18kms or so to reach the adventure park situated alongside the River Kali at Ambeli which we had booked into.

Our original return to Goa was planned to be by train as well but the time timetable got changed at the last minute and so we had to get a taxi all the way back to Goa - by no means as expensive as you might think as this cost around 30 UK Pounds for the 180km trip. Of interest and perhaps to indicate how the Dandeli area is real Indian jungle, the taxi driver took a co-driver with him so that he had someone with him on the long return trip through the Karnataka Jungle.
This was mainly because the roads in the jungle are dangerous particularly at night with the constant possibility of leopards, wild elephants and wild boar being around so if they had to stop for any reason - for instance a puncture - one of them could be the look-out for any dangerous animals. Our driver said every time he had driven along this road he had seen at least one and sometimes more of the above-mentioned animals somewhere along the road.

Currently trains from Vasco-da-Gama run on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays leaving approximately 07.00; they return from Londa Junction on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at around 14.30. If you wish you can buy general tickets 3 days in advance at Vasco railway station for about 1 UKstg and then all you do is pay the extra on the train depending where you sit. The times/days given above should be checked with the Indian Railway website since they are liable to change of course as are the ticket prices.

As mentioned we stayed at Hornbill - a glorious spot with the fast flowing River Kali only yards away from our wooden cabin - it would be and therefore was easy to laze about sitting on the veranda watching the river - and enjoy the kingfishers catching and eating fish whilst hornbills and other birds were busily going about their business.

No alarm clocks are needed at Hornbill - the monkeys arrived quite early to noisily play chase on the roof whilst the hornbills flew in to have a good quarrel in the trees - at least the squirrels were reasonably quiet.

Described below are the various trips we did in Karnataka with costs - plus a few photos

White Water Rafting - 20 UKstg each. We were taken by an old jeep for a few KMs to a clearing alongside the River Kali so we could do a little cruising on the water. Firstly we had to sign a disclaimer and then we were kitted out with lifejackets and helmet etc. and got onto our raft. There were three rafts with half a dozen of us on each going on our trip - the rafts each had a fully qualified instructor plus another instructor was out on the river in a kayak. We were given around 45 minutes of safety instructions - this also involved us having to jump into the river and be "rescued" and have to "rescue" other raft crew. We did sort of mildly wonder as we bobbed around in the water if their were any crocodiles around but were told that there "probably" were not... Once back on the rafts we were off to experience our first of five rapids - the whole trip down the River Kali took abut 75 minutes but it was really exciting and we all survived it and nobody got eaten either.

Trek in the Jungle - 5 UKstg each. This was simply a morning walk which took us high up into the jungle mostly on a narrow path and then dropped down a little to a huge lake and the Dam. Our guide gave us lots of information about the jungle we were passing through and the whole thing was extremely interesting.

Along the way we saw quite a few different birds, all manner of trees and shrubs but no animals were to be seen. Our guide told us that there were plenty of animals around (and told us what to do if such appeared) including snakes, leopards and wild boar but they did not show themselves sadly.

Syntheri Rocks - 5 UKstg each. Our Syntheri rocks trip was also really interesting - we went to them by jeep one late afternoon and walked the many steps down through heavy forest to the river Kaneri and the beautiful rocks and cliff face. The rocks comprise of monolithic granite and have been carved into caves and crevices by the strong river current - there are lots birds around plus many bats occupying the caves. As the evening drew in the whole area was quite magical and we spent an hour or so sat on the rocks watching the busy river and simply enjoying the peace and quiet. It was a pretty hot and humid climb back up the many steps to where our jeep was parked however so on the drive back we stopped off at a small jungle cafe for a welcome cup of tea.
The guides at Hornbill are really good and try hard to find us as much wildlife as possible - after our cup of tea and although it was not part of our payed for itinerary we diverted back into the heavier jungle and went back onto the tracks again for another go at wildlife spotting for an hour or so.
Crocodile Spotting. - 5 UKstg each. Although we had seen crocodiles in India at a Goan wildlife park we wanted to try to see them in the real wild i.e. on a river bank. This trip took us back to the outskirts of Dandeli and the banks of the River Kali where a local villager said he could probably find us a crocodile or two for us to look at. A little way from the main river on a small tributary along the bank we soon spotted several small crocodiles but we were probably too noisy and they quickly disappeared into the undergrowth. However shortly afterwards just across the river we saw a 13 to 14 foot crocodile sprawled on a mud bank apparently asleep. By now we had several local villagers with us and they started throwing stones into the river to make splashes and wake it up a little. It eventually opened it's eyes and then did a half yawn so we could clearly see it's massive mouth and impressive teeth - crocodiles certainly do have very impressive teeth when you are this close and there is no fence etc between you and it beleive me. A few minutes later our crocodile got fed up with us and went into the water - the speed at which this huge crocodile moved was really impressive - the huge reptile was into the water in a split second despite it's bulk. We sort of wondered (...) if it would continue heading across the narrow strip of river towards us but our local Indian villager said not - that it had headed off down river out of the way. However he was high up on the river bank whilst we were on the water's edge so we sort of meandered up the bank (as fast as we could) just in case....
Evening Jungle Safari. - 7.5 Ukstg each. Another of the things we really wanted to do whilst in India was go into a real jungle and hopefully see some tigers and leopards etc. - this trip took us by jeep into the jungle to try and spot them. The trip started a little before dusk and we spent hours slowly driving along jungle trails and tracks - once darkness fell the guides were trying to spot the animals using powerful spotlights (to pick up the animal's eyes amongst the often dense jungle). Sadly apart from some antelope and a few monkeys we did not spot any cats - apparently there are only 9 tigers in this extensive protected zone at the moment although the park authorities are planning to bring in another 25 tigers soon.

In the end we therefore returned back to Hornbill cat-less but the experience was pretty good nevertheless. The evening ended with us sat round a huge log fire drinking some beer, eating various curry dishes and having a good chat. (My son said that probably several leopards were also sat around watching us watching the fire thinking about their next meal...).
We did find that the evenings out in the jungle in Karnataka got surprisingly cool and we needed warm clothing - something to remember to take if you go out there. We did get warmed up one evening around midnight when the owners decided it was time to head off into the jungle just on the off chance of spotting a leopard so we all crammed into jeeps along with a couple of locals and off we went for an hours somewhat fast drive up in the hills in the jungle - great fun.

The Indian City of Dandeli - Karnataka State. Dandeli is quite a busy place especially around it's main street with loads of people moving about plus taxis, jeeps, scooters, lorries and bicycles etc. flying around seemingly everywhere - but it is a very interesting place to wander around since there just seems to be something going on - hard to explain really.
The gorgeous River Kali goes through Dandeli city with various tributaries connecting - one of these was where we spotted our crocodiles with the help of a local guide from the nearbye village.

Our other items about holidays and travel in India are:
Goa, Delhi, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Orccha, Udaipur-Chittorgarh-Ranakpur-Kumbhalgarh, Jodphur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, plus a general information topic About India.

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