Sharavathi - a Mock tail of adventure & fun unlimited

Yo Friends,

I am back with a bang…this time not about some trek…!! but about the water sports that we N’joyed in Sharavathi Backwaters…!! What a trip it was….A memorable one, wanna know in what way??? Well, lot many reasons – got to meet new people, got to visit a new place, adventuring water sports, tasted new drink, got well verse about Tanning and sunburn…and last but not the least – learnt a good lesson of not going out anywhere in the hot summer again…..!!!! Nevertheless, was a awesome trip and a fantastic gang with full of idiotic and cranky guys & sweet gals.... !!

This trip was with some of the bestest folks I met during my Himalayan Trek and their friends and their friends…(hope u got it!) Our initial plan was to go to Sharavathi Backwaters during the Good Friday long weekend; but somehow due to the delay in deciding / coordinating with 19 of us, made us miss the long weekend slot and we had to settle down with the week before Good Friday, i.e., - 4th & 5th Friday.

Hats-off to all those organizers (well, we have many here and they are still deciding on who the real organizer was;)) for bringing such a huge crowd (19 of us) spread out in Bangalore & Hyderabad together, coordinating every bit and making this trip a successful one. Vamsi, Imbu, Sanju and Meera, Pat your back, guys…!! ;)

(Sharavathi backwater is about 60 KM in length and about 15 KM wide !!!!. It became backwater when dam was constructed at Linganamakki of sagara taluk in Shimoga district to the river Sharavathi.)

It was 4th April, the Friday – the day we had to leave….!! Our bus to Sagara was at 8.30pm. We somehow managed to reach on time (+/-10min Indian Standard Time J). The bus driver though was bit angry for making him wait for 10-15min, we were able to cool him down in no time….!! Thanks to the kannada speaking gal – guessing who it was? Ofcourse mee;) Our journey to Sagar began at 10.45pm from the Travel’s main office at Gandhinagar, Bangalore. Initial intros, some chatting, playing cards, etc, etc kept us busy for some time and by 12am all were flat on their beds fast asleep… :) Reached Sagar at 7am and we had Sampath (Sharavathi Nature Trials owner) to welcome us. We got freshen up in a public rest room at the bus stand and headed to have some tea. Well, though we asked for Tea, we were forced to N’joy Sagar’s kashaya… It definitely wasn’t bad coz everyone were having it for the first time… ;) We then headed to Gubbugod (18kms from Sagara) taking a local bus. We had to trek a km from the bus stand we got down, to reach the backwaters - our destination…!! Had very tasty idlies (rava and rice) – Sagar special and ofcourse Kashaya once again…!!!

It was time to get into the water – the most exciting part…!! Day 1 plan was to just learn to swim and float with the life jacket on. It was amazing to see the folks who dint even know swimming were able to go deeper all alone in just couple of hours by floating and swimming….. Well, I was the only one who was not comfy being alone… :( Everybody in the gang tried their best to get the fear out of me, but in vain… :( I should really thank the whole group for being so patient with me… :)

We then headed to other side of the island for lunch….Had yummy lunch and were again ready to hit the water….!! We then went for a boat ride around the backwaters and to the sunset view point…. Relaxed for an hour playing dumb charades and njoying the sunset view. Had campfire and tents ready by the time we got back…But then we had to wait for dinner, which was still being cooked. To pass the time, many suggested many games out of which we chose Purr’s Volleyball game (basically making 2 teams and passing the balls (calling out names spontaneously) to the opposite teams with one bounce within the team). I must tell you, the game is simply superb and truly was an icebreaker…..!!! We dint even realize how we passed 2 hours playing….….It was dinner time, we were so hungry that we hogged like crazy – chapatti, cabbage curry, bisibele bath, butter milk, payasam….uuupppphhhhh excellent dinner…!!!

All were so tired that we decided to hit the bed soon…by then our great Purr ne dialogue mara – “did we come to sleep here? Let’s get adventurous and explore the forest…!!” He did speak some sense for sure…few of us then decided to go for a night trek. It was such a disaster, i tell u…. We just couldn’t find the way, hence had to get back in 15min… :( It was time to hit the bad. END OF DAY 1….!!!

Day 2…!! As we got up, kashaya and tea was waiting to greet us for a wonderful morning. With the usual gapchaps, sipped our share of kashaya, lazed around a bit, got freshen up and then headed towards the kitchen to have hot hot breakfast – hmmm yummy akki rotti and ragi dosa with brinjal chutney, was sooo tasty….!! Day 2 activities including coracling, kayaking, flat water raft and a short trek post lunch. As usual, the second day too was just mind blowing, had so much fun… :) Not to forget mentioning the last part of the water sports – DIVING….wonder what was so much fun in getting into the raft and diving from there into the water that too 15-20 times….Our gang was just unstoppable!!!! Again I was the only scared one who dint try diving; just sat at one corner in the raft and enjoyed seeing the people diving and having fun… :) People even planned to topple the boat, atleast then I get out of the fear, but they were sweet enough not to do that… :) We all were forced to get out of the water as it was late for lunch. That was the end for the water sports… After lunch was time for a short nap. Though the plan post lunch was to go for a short trek, nobody was willing to even get up as all of us were fully exhausted and wanted to rest very badly. Same time, our organizer Sampath fortunately had a longer nap, which was good for us - nobody even wanted to wake him up as no one was interested to go for the trek.… :)

It was 4pm, had sharbath, tea and kashaya and got ready to head back as we had to catch 6.15pm bus to sagara from Gubbgod. while passing the time at the bus stop, our purr realized that he had Puri (rice wafers), that he had got all the way from Bangalore and opened it only then. How dumb can the guys be...hmmmm. There came the bus. We got a chance to get on top of the bus to take a look at the backwaters for the last time before we leave. The view was simply superb. Being on top of the bus was as if being top of the world. We were living every bit of the moment….!!!

Reached Sgara at 7pm and heard that there was a town fair that was going on. Since our bus back to Bangalore was at 10.30pm, we had ample time to go around the city so headed towards the fair. Since the walk to the fair was quite a long distance, I tried to keep the group engaged by sharing all the bestest jokes that I had, but no one seemed to laugh at even one….But the whole group (except imby) laughed at Purr’s so-called joke, “JAYASHREE…”. well, myself and imbs were the only two who atleast knew what is called a joke. But still wondering what was not funny in my jokes and was so funny in his joke….(looks like I was targeted intentionally and preplanned… :(:()

Hmmm, anyways, did all possible things – some wanted to taste hot hot jilebees / tender coconut / chilli bajjis, some bought ornaments, some went for giant wheel ride, some visited temple, etc. Had a quick dinner in the town and headed back to the bus stand to catch our bus to Bangalore.

Overall, the trip was rocking so was the super duper GANG....!!!!!!

Here are some of the pics.... http://picasaweb.google.com/mjai14/SharavathiBackwatersApril09?feat=directlink

Chao, Jay :)