Dandeli India Holiday and Travel Guides.

Photos and Information about our trip into India's State of Karnataka looking for Wildlife in the 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 several days out there.
On offer were various "jungle" orientated trips including some hiking, trips into the deep 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.
Getting to Dandeli from 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 (it cost us around 5 UK Pounds each to get a roomy sleeper compartment). From here you have to take a taxi to the City of Dandeli and then continue out through jungle/countryside for another 18kms or so to reach the adventure park at Ambeli.

Our original return to Goa was planned to be by train as well but the time timetable got changed and so we had to get a taxi all the way - 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 company on the long return trip.
This was mainly because the roads in the jungle are dangerous 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. The driver said every time he had driven along this road he had seen at least one and sometimes more of the above animals somewhere along it.

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 station for about 1 UKstg and then 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 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 with costs - plus a few photos

White Water Rafting - 20 UKstg each. We were taken 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 going on our trip - each had a 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. Then we were off to 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.

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.

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 really interesting - we went to them by jeep 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 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 to where our jeep was parked however so we stopped off at a small jungle cafe on the way back 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 not planned/on our itinerary we diverted into the jungle and 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 a 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 croc or two. A little way along the river 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 on a mud bank we saw a 13 to 14 foot crocodile sprawled on a mud bank apparently asleep.It eventually opened it's eyes and then did a half yawn so we could clearly see it's massive mouth and impressive teeth. A few minutes later it 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 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. One of the things we really wanted to do whilst in India was go into a real jungle and also hopefully see 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 big 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 got surprisingly cool and needed warm clothing - something to remember to take if you go out there.

The Indian City of Dandeli. Dandeli is quite a busy place especially around it's main street with loads of people 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.

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