South India (Day 2: Dandeli -> Shimoga, Karnataka)

Ride Summary: Total Distance:256 km    Time: 4 hrs 20 min   (1:25 pm - 5:45 pm)

I am so used to wake up to the sound of the truck horns back in Pune that the sound of the horn bill was a nice wakeup alarm. I always wake up early on ride days and today was no different. Nitin and I decided to take a walk around the camp.That's when we saw this machaan and I decided to take the aerial view.

 I had seen this tokri (Thappa as they call it in the local language) and was quite looking forward to the ride. We found out that the boatman would arrive around 9:30 am. Hence had an hour or so before breakfast. That's when we decided to take the nature walk with the local guide at the camp, Datta.

The nature walk turned out to be pretty decent (we really didn't have many hopes). We ate the leaves of the "dalchini" tree. Then he crused a few leaves of the Basmati leaves plant. Identical fragrance to the Basmati rice and according to him, a lot of rice dealers use this to add basmati fragrance to ordinary rice. There were others like the lemon grass, sweet basil etc. As we walked around, we found this ant home done by the weaver ants. Apparently, the ants have a few "specialist engineers" among themselves that select the plants whose leaves they can fold to build such a home. Datta turned out to be a pretty good photographer when he asked me to pose in the backdrop of these beautiful sun rays,

We decided to go for the much awaited tokri ride (coracle ride) in the Kali River. I again went back to the go pro experimentation mode and decided to make some use of the selfie stick I was carrying. The pics came out better than expected. It was sad that we didn't get to see any crocodiles. Kali river apparently is abundant in crocodiles which is why you can't swim in this water. We took the short ride due to the shortage of time; else the boatman promised that he wouldn't return until we saw one -- only if we took the long ride! At the end of the ride, he gave it a little spin for the fun factor. Apart from the dizzy feeling,  it was awesome!
 It was close to 11 when we checked out. That's when we were told that there were quite limited lunch options along the way to Bhadra Wildlife, our next stop. Hence we decided to stay for lunch (since we had already paid for it as a part of the food and stay package). Made complete use of the free wifi provided. Aah! Those cheap thrills! In all seriousness, we wanted to make some accommodation bookings, given that it is a long weekend. We found out that along with jungle lodge, most places in Bhadra were booked. Not just that, most places in Coorg (our Sunday stop) were full, thanks to the long weekend. Hence we decided to stay in Shimoga, a few kms before Bhadra.

It was comparatively a short ride (approx. 260 kms). We pretty much made it non-stop in just over 4 hrs. Once again, the roads in Karnataka put Maharashtra to shame. Even the internal roads were fabulous. What an awesome ride once again through these mesmerizing forests. I could see many more coconut trees on this ride. I kept shooting small video clips on my go pro to compile a video at the end.

Shimoga is a complete contrast to day 1 in terms of the accommodation. But the Green View Boutique, where we are staying,  seems a pretty nice hotel. More importantly, it has a nice mattress for a back that was taken some toll over 700+ kms in 2 days ;-)