Call of the wild invites you!!. Review on Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary

Introduction

One of my favorite travel destinations happens to be wildlife sanctuary. The call of the wild has held a strange fascination for me, so I am always in the lookout for visiting these as and when a chance presents itself. Recently I visited the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary present in the Indian state of Karnataka. Here is my account of the the Sanctuary.

Dandeli - An Introduction

Dandeli is a small village in Karnataka which is around 500 kms away from Bangalore and around 125 Kms away from the port city of Goa. Situated on the banks of river Kali and spread over an area of around 800 sq. k.m. it is one of the biggest wildlife sanctuaries in Karnataka. Dandeli forest is a decidious forest and abounds in both flora and fauna. The animals found here include barking, spotted and mouse deer, sloth bear, black panther, tiger, gaur, elephant, wild dog, civet cat, bison, jackal, langur and giant flying squirrel.

The Low Down

Dandeli being a small village, there are not many resorts or accomodation around. The two largest resorts available are Jungle Lodges and Bison Resorts. Both have their offices in Bangalore. I decided to opt for Jungle Lodges. The lodging accorded two facilities, one was proper rooms, the other were tents. I was interested in tents, but when I found that the tents were camped on the corridor of the Jungle Lodges property, I opted for the rooms. The rooms were very spacious and decently maintained, but no A.C., but given the temperatures in October when I visited, it was not required.

Next up, the show begins...

Activities

The activities began with a Jungle Safari in an open jeep. There is one expert who goes with you. The safari started pretty well as we spotted some spotted deers and barking deers. But our luck ran out after that as heavy rains lashed out, cancelling any chances of any other spotting... boo hoo... But we could see some black widow spiders and huge spider webbings. We also were able to get an ariel view of the jungle below from a mountain top and believe me it was scary.

Unfortunately, the rain also cancelled out our jungle trek which we were planning to take.

Apart from these, the following activities take place at Kali river:

1) Coracle Rides: Coracle is a small boat, round in shape and there is a single oarsman who paddles the boat. This is an excellent opportunity to see the birds in and around the Kali river. We were lucky enough to spot some kingfishers, woodpeckers, snake birds and egrets around.

2) Rafting: This is a new activity which has begun in the Kali river with rapids of level 2 and 3 mostly. I did not go for this activity, but have heard that it is a quite good.

3) Visit to Syntheri Rock Caves: These monolithic granite structure in the middle of the jungle around 35 km from Dandeli is an awesome spot. This has lots of treks and fishing spots in and around.

4) Crocodile Sighting trips: Again trips down the Kali river where the crocodiles come out to rest. Boo hoo missed this one too due to the rains.

Time to visit

By now, all of you must have realised that rains happen to be the worst enemy for such activities. The best time to visit begins from November to around March. People not used to extreme Indian heat might prefer to wind up their tours before February though. But the most number of sightings, I am told happens around March.

November end also marks the beginning of various wildlife treks organised by the Kali Widerness Camp. So my suggestion visit between november end to february beginning.

Gear

In case, you plan to go to one of the treks, be sure to pack in your trekking gear with you. You won't find such items in and around Dandeli as it is a small village. Apart from this remember you are going into a jungle safari and not a picnic by the river spot, so have some thick garments on. Jeans and denims could be a good choice for this one here.

Food

The food served at Jungle Lodges was real tasty and I must compliment the Jungle Lodges kitchen guys for that.

Packages

You can go to https://junglelodges.com for the various packages they have. The costing of the tour for one day works out to roughly around Rs. 5000 i.e $100 per couple. This would include food and accomodation and activities. My suggestion is take at least a package of two days minimum. Otherwise it would be very hectic and you might have to opt out a few of the activity.

Verdict

I would rate this sanctuary as one of the decent ones, not bad, but not too hot as well. The reason is that as it is present in a village, the property has not been developed to a level where it can be compared with the best of the resorts in the world. But being a quiet and calm place and relatively unknown, this is a nice getaway from the hectic city life.

PS: Taken from my review published earlier at https://epinions.com/content_118794980996