Trip to Ramanguli and Dandeli

Malabar Hornbill

Our trip to the Karwar coast just happened, as we were searching for wildlife sites and some relaxation. We came across this site about Dandeli, and immediately decided to block our tickets through this tour operator(TO). We had to reach Hubli and from there the TO picked us in an Innova and drove us down to Ramanguli, a plantation on the banks of river Gangavali. Our home for the next three days was Sri Sai River Resorts, a very beautiful and enchanting place on the foothills of the Western Ghats.

Yana Rocks

We indulged in boating activities, trekking to the nearby forest for bird watching, fishing on the river Gangavali apart from enjoying the whole plantation.We also went to "Vibhuti Falls" a small and beautiful location. One has to trek quite a distance to reach the falls. Post that we moved to see the Yana Rock formations. These formations are a nature's wonder and at the bottom of these rocks is a temple - which is visited by lot of devotees. In the evening there was tribal dance organized by the resort and it was good. The resort has White Water rafting facilities however it starts only after the Monsoon season.

After our quite sojourn in Ramanguli, we packed our bags and drove down to Dandeli to visit the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary(DWLS). Our one night stay was at "Dandeli Jungle Camp Resort", not quite a good place for staying with average food quality and amenities. That night the owner of the resort took us on an unofficial night Safari along the roads - however apart from a civet, two foxes and few deer we did not spot anything else. The next day morning we were all excited to go to DWLS and boarded a rickety jeep provided by the resort. After taking our entry tickets which was quite a distance we moved into the forest - no signs of any animal at all. We encountered jungle fowls, couple of Crested Serpent Eagles, two Malabar Squirrels and in the far of distance couple of Hornbills. Apart from these animals the forest wore a very deserted look - quite disheartening.

Crocodile.

We had to leave and moved to Dharwad, where we had lunch in a small restaurant and then our driver told us that there was a crocodile farm. We were taken to a small banana plantation on the banks of River Kali and the owner then showed us lots of Crocodiles thriving on the pollutants from the East Coast Paper factory. After a short stint with the crocodiles, the family members tried their hand on ploughing the land using bullocks and it was quite a fun event. We moved on to Hubli.

There are lot of other activities and places of visit during the trip - like Syntheri Rocks, White Water Rafting, Rappelling etc which we did not do due to time constraints. Hoping to visit Dandeli again and explore it further.

(Contributed by EnigmaticIndia Team)