Dandeli WLS 7-26-2010

7-26-2010

here m all set to go to kolhapur and then to dandeli For a camp taking 35 kids into two batches...

27th aug

the bus gets late and i go directly to the highway giving the riksha wala 100 buks ...isnt it funny bambay to kolhapur rs 350 and here for 4 kms 100..

well i reach there fill up the petrol tanks of the three tempo travellers with sunil sir and my self leading the campers.....the kids celebreating birthdays n offering snacks...and suddenly therz a voice SIR whats your name....i ignored then realised i was the guy who was been called SIR..!!! WHOA...!!

after taking a break att the panchvati resto for idli sambar...we move ahead and after an hr or so the green route starts of the jungle feel...spotted deer n peacocks every1 joins in....we just reach dandeli at abt 1.30....arranging tents at the kulgi campsite n breathing the fresh air we join in for lunch...!!

the formal intro session done by sir before lunch introduces us all..!!

kids were a bit non mixing me too but in the late afternoon when i went to call em all for a jungle trail at the near by watch tower they started listening n the friendships begin.....the kids were of 5th n 6th grade for the first batch.

i mean this is the time when theres innocence n u start loosing it being rough spoil brat when u enter 7th.

well

we headed towards the tower n giving instructions abt not walking into the cross country grass bushes cuz there might be snakes /scorpions n things that can hurt or get hurted..!!

the girls almost every 1 from the 15 were listning but the boys i say wer kids with no ears...well there were some xceptions though

mean while we first saw the tree where sir spotted slender lorris...then the one thats called the indicatin species called the

and finally the black panther story of sir that he witnessd over the bridge for 20 mins at night .....moving on we saw a gian squirell with her nest and then the tree on which sir had seen the python n its sad story,,,,also the wood spider was quite fasinating how it builds its web n the the size difference of the 10 males and a huge femal in the web...reaching at the tower and lookiing at the mesmerising view of the naagzari view the 8 valley zigzag river was nice and the the night approaches with sounds if the waterfall and insects around....shhhhhh dont make noise....kitni baar bolneka....walk together.....on the road...was fun actually.

thus the pickups soon came and we went to the camp site after an hrs walk

tea time stories.....with sir and others were really nice ...after the that another session after break where sir takes them for anight safari and i was down with an head ache....damm i missed it when sir told me that they saw a hump nose pit viper and cobra crossing..OMMGGG

at 3.30 night i heard some kids quarreling n then sir went to chk their tents and he found cards...n detroyed em.....wake up morning 5.00 am

28th we go for Syntheri rocks...and along the beautiful road drives and switching buses we find sloth bears excreata with sirs gyaan...and then finally reach the entry of S rocks...getting down of the bus....dont make noise..we spot afew mallabar grey hornbills a giant squirell n GB woodpeckers....moving the trail along cux there ere no cars gates open with sir giving them info on babmoos the worlds secong largest found in dandeli the termite ant hills ,the milipeds,and the sexxy wood rouse crossing road...sudeenly sir listnins a languur alarm call and calls me up..!!

every silent face expressions changed and we here the calls for both the side now....i wanted to move ahead but i had kids n teachers with me so i didnt.....after a 15 min heavy calling we visualised that it was indeed a panther somwhere in the bushes....a teacher hold my hand tightly scaring the shitt outta her....i told her not to worry its no danger if we behave ourselves.....but the kids were thrilled cuz we were in foot and the calls wer coming from almost abt 15-20 fts...the calls ended and sir movved ahed to chk what happnd....and aPanther croseed in a zoom ...no pics no sights ..only sir did watched it..!!! every one charged up and asking questions for more info..!!

thus the busses arrive and we hopp on we reach the rocks up down taking pics n sir giving the basic info abt the places..!!

returning back to lunch and afternoon bath ...comon kids fast with in an hr i want every 1 in the dinning shed for lunch....had lunch n then ready for the 3.30 drive.....with kids now being more friendly me too got casual rather than strict..!!

smiles all a group of 5 girls around there caught my eye

divija...charoo..and others i dont remember the names..!!

now there are my favs cus they obey answer and show interest in the camp activities sir gave then projects in the afternoon abt dandeli to be prepared with colours and papers which the macaqs actually stole from our dormitory..

kids started workinn then in the late eve we move for the dam site where sir has vied elephants n others...enjoying the view there were families spreading noise n litter and sir askd the girls to take it back and he apologised bears scratches on the ant hills were seen then and we came back to the tents....after snacks n tea we notices a girl snehisha got ill but then we started the game of observation that sir acted a mahawat bathing an elephant opening closing the tap splasing the water and riding it wasing its trunk and legs and not to forget it farted too ;) the kids acted the same sportingly devija was really cute my fav my fav...haha

so after that we moved on and told thm to report to the dining shed at 7.30

kids arrived and sadly shehisha had high fever...sir told me to take asession on photography by the timehe;ll b backi accepted the oppotunity and thus when sir went to the hospital i controlled the kids for abt 1.30 hr and that was funn

but i was not equipped with perfect book knowledge and answers so i took abasic interactive session abt water distribution...global warming...trees ...conservations and experience ...devija stood her hand on almost every question i asked and thus we were close enough to be friends also charu asking me for FAST hai na so dont eat..!!

well after the long session kalpana tacher asked me wherez Sinil Sir n i was like mmmm bus aa rahe hai i know it wa dinner time though....thus after 2 hrs Sir came by and i was Free ...some of the Kids really had fun and that was a great appreciation for me..man i love kids.....!!

then after dinner and all sir did took a session with some similar question of mine and then i put the back to the tents for a good night sleep before spotting ajackal at our campsite every one was thrilled n thinkin twce before comin outise of the tent....

29th aug

early morning 4 am get ups kids

for a jungle safari inside the park..!! tea done n we move ahead

i had the jeep with some boys the drunk babu b the busty driver who never looked interested in a safari

though after holding up the tower for no reason i told babu to move on n we headed towards the view point of the whole Forest ...on the way there we spotted tortios,Great black woodpecker ...2 of em...crakes....grey jungle fowl.....spotted deer...brown barbet and thus reached the view point ....discussing there that other with sir had seen tiger scat and panther pugmarks also procupine hairs.and three great pies horn-bills....!! aahhh theres always a feelin of jeleasy in the jungle..!man ..!!

well while my jeep in the front i spotted ahuge monitor lizard climbimg up a Saagwan tree 9very unusual site though]baskin...n i stopped for a click...soon sir joined n we mover ahead to the tents it was really heart warming that the kids will soon depart in my mind but i had this feelin before a 100 times n moved on....well reaching the campsite we had tea puri bhaji/upma and told kids to meet at the session shed up corner for the final session and certificate distribution.!!! there kids got more involved in me...i was chekin their notes..!!! ....they started copying from each others and thus after a simple session sir distributed the certificates and for the best campers were divija her best friend.....and amonsts guys were the two specks holder with hunger of keen need abt knowledge abt wildlife n conservation...after that we headed towards lunch told kids to pack up in 5 mins n reach the bus to lods it up...thus departing kids was an emotional moment for myself but then there were other batched in roe to come at 1

they already ahd arrived and i wanted to spent every minute left at the camp with the 6th grade kids and thus divija and group came to me n said sir aapka address/phone no. n things i never gave them but then i told them to get a picture of me with em n..she said sir muje bhul mat jana...typical bolly wood but i had goose bumps in real...seeing them off thill the last fram i cud memorize in my eye..!! i returned for the volenteering of other batch..!! i know kids grow up they change even we move on but the memories never vanish so i did captured som pics in my cam durin sessions of all of em...!!

Batch two arrives with some adoselent kids on the roar with some innosense left..!!

Here comes the second batch..

dinner done but no interaction.....kids were a bit obssedd but cute.....went for a eve trail to watch tower n back at night we find a deAd small snake in the garden ...sir taki9n session n thats it we go to sleep at 12...

at night suddenlu somesh wakes me up n says bhavik its a call common lets rush..!!

i was like what m i dreaming sleeping what..??

n then i realised that he had already left.....just when i wore my floters n left running in the chilled air towards sirs doemitory...took that long ranged torch and sir told it wud be a snake or so cuz there was just a single spotted deer call...well we went thru the bridhe chking the floor to be aside of scopions n snakes..!!! well we reached the route to the watch tower of the birding trail and followed the calls...step by step the calls became more stronger and sharper i and somesh wer thinking there wud definatelya leopard around but cudnt find n e thing ...that calls got stop n we left then......after reaching the tent i realized what the hell did happn from 1.17 to 2.10 midnight n slept in the thoughts....morning i gotup with a dream of spotting black panther and jackal side by side wooooo ..........so we move to syntheri roks agin in the mornin full trail of 3kms on foot missed an awsum shot of the giant squirrel then grey horn bill not much of exvitement after missing some things we reached to SY rks and took some pics.....tired n sleep in the bus while returning nazin driver saw a snake passing by and here therer was a green vine snake beauty wow exitement of taking its picture drove me to the hill haha....well sir told me to take it to the camp for afotoshoot like we had taken the ground gecko and hammer head slug which eventually never happnd

well returned to the campsite took some pics and was funn really handling the vine snake the day wasnt quite exciting but inthe evening we had got the permission for SYKES POINT had no idea what wud be it but when i heared it was aview point left the idea of fun .....cameras not allowed i thought there wud be something interesing ...a smart man in khakhi gave us the permission and took us along we reached there got out and he actually started giving us info on everu tree bit frog snake n whole bunch of wildlife man he was great ...then he started the meanings asnd uses also some vedic mantras....i thought he must be abig forest offivcer or so but then sir told me he was just aforest guard ..with so much of conservation he was asnake catcher alocalguide for reseachers and a nature llover that friends us he shaked hand with me n asked have we met before r u frm banglore....i told no my hair is abit identity for me know but we can be friends either ways.....he tod me to came again and we shall got to the deep forest near kali river caves .......as he had his bdday on the 22 april these guys celebrate it there i was so fasinated n energised after the meet i hugged him n invited for asession at our campsire CR NIAK or something was his name khusi hua ji..!!!while in the conversation we spot ahuge bird flying by us and sir stated that it was an Oesprey wow what asight was that to memorise..!! one of the greatest views of the forest jungle in my life was it

with all the beautiful gigantic vews of the mountains i bet taking a pic of the wub e insulting..!!! sun setting n we movednext day was the 4o clock safari so we reached the campsite had dinner n sir took interesting sessions on water plant cycle thus the night ended and in the morningsir told that there was asambar call behind our tent and was scary man i thought there was definatel panther movement around our campsite..!!!we went for safari in the bus saw some wood pecker nestssecnes the trees with reddis flower sn reache d the view point....black eagle in flight ..!!! returned to camp with nuthing much exiting by green stick insect n kidswe returened to the campsite n then had to have lunch n leave after the closing session...i and somesh decided to go for a walk to that bird trail...when we entered the place i visualised the feel of the dark that wud have been that night just we spotted a grey malabar pied hornbill at top took some pixc then a giant squirrel and moved on to the green fields of jungle n timer factory.....returned to the camp at 11 n we saw naik sir sitting besides sir n thus sir gifted him with the amazing panther pic which he tookat tadoba man that was amazing..!!every1 got their appreciation n we left for the 2 pm bus after lunch .............

was never in a mood to leave dandeli this timne but had to we moved on to the bussed and domesh told the kids ....jewda hoto tewda dandeli la aaplya dolyat samwun gyaa....i was soo touched man....really was a magnificiant experience after what i had before with the senior citizends..!!1hahahhaa

well the driver spotted a jackal n snake while returning slowlo the lanscapes and the voices followed by air changed in an hr as we slowly atarted entering the city of belgaum took chai and left for kolha pur on the way back i took the naughty kids by me side and just ske dthem general questions n got friends....abt non veg n good being..!!!

just by we dropped to shantiniketan school all the cute face dissapperaring 1 by 1 and we left for sirs home...n then i returend to bambay taking abus at night n to home by 7.30.

Some Pics are here

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=452898096999&set=a.401288521999.184855.635236999