Saturday, September 17, 2005

Adventurous Weekend at Sitanadi Rafting Camp

My blog's turned out to be more of a weekend update now :-)

Finally got some time this weekend to just chill out and relax. Last weekend was pretty hectic what with white watwer rafting and beach-ing. Good fun it was.
Rafting was a great experience as you try to conquer to rapids in a rubber boat that looks like more of a garden pool tub. But looks do deceive and it was as sturdy as Rahul Dravid (and Steve Waugh) in a crisis situation.
We were at Sitanadi Nature camp in the wee hours of Saturday morning where we were supposed to spending the night as well. There were 10 of us. As soon as we reached, we were taken in by the splendor of the jungle and the river.

We were quickly shown our accomodation - spacious tents each having 2 beds. Each tent could have easily accomodated about 20 people sleeping on the floor. But we had the luxury of 3 per tent. All the tents were facing the jungle and the sounds of crickets were something different altogether!

After breakfast, we were told that our rafting session would be post-lunch so we just walked around into the jungles on a beaten track. After about half an hour of walking, we reached the main road where we just lolled around. Then we reached the camp in time for lunch. Had a sumptuous lunch that almost put us to sleep :-D
Finally, we got into our rafting gear (life jackets/helmets et al) and onto our dinghies. The ride was too good. Vikram once fell off the raft. Pulling as person back is pretty diffucult from both pulling and pulled parties :-))
Then at the midlle of the journey, you get a calm spot where you can dive into the river off a huge rock. All of us took a dip into the river which was refreshing after the rowing.
Finally, after about 3 hours of rafting, we were at the destination point after crossing about 6-7 rapids.

On the way back to the camp in the jeep, we shopped for the night. Snacks, soft drinks and the like.
Once darkness fell, the jungle really came alive with all the insects creating a real racket of a noise. We took a walk again just to savor the darkness.
Finally, went to sleep, exhausted. Next day was a trip to Udipi temple where we had our lunch, ice cream at Diana parlour, then off to TannirBavi beach in Mangalore. Frolicked around in the sand, played football as well (we bought a football especially for that).
That was how our weekend went. Next day morning, it was back in office as usual, tired n sleepy.
Photos can be found at http://community.webshots.com/album/452401787YqqMVe

Listening to songs from Aashiq Banaya Aapne. Good one. All the songs are catchy n peepy with a few remixes thrown in as well. Aapki Kashish especially is a great track! Again looks to be sung by a Pakistani singer...at least sounds like one.

Till next time, adios!

3 comments:

Chatter Box said...

Hey very nice pictures!awesome!

Pakku said...

snaps edde baidendaa..portrays as if u r out for some competition! hope u had a gala time

Lucifer said...

Dude .. the only things I rem from this blog .. Steve Waugh ;-)
Kidding .. nice informative blogs and looks like u have mastered the art of puttin pics in Blogs !