karwar_nov_2005

Water water everywhere….


Yep, life on an island is best described this way. Ten months past the last team offiste to dandeli and we felt we needed to bond again (An offsite serves the purpose much better than Fevicol ;-). Hence the idea of the next big AE offsite was born. Ricky had it in his list of items to be discussed during every team meeting the past few months, and like always it was my pleasure to organize this trip. I have to accept that after the success of the dandeli trip I had my apprehensions since the expectations of the team were really high but then all I could do was cross my fingers. The details of the trip kept changing over the last two months and finally when it did happen, this is what it was

Where to : Destination Karwar. Originally we were headed for the Jungle lodges property at devbagh, karwar. Since there was a room availability / date clash we shifted focus to the Great outdoors setup at Kurumgad island.

When : After hazar changes it happened between Nov 25 – Nov 27 2005

How many : Planning started with 26 people and ended with 19 people on board

We set out on the 24th nite in the same bus as the dandeli trip (with the same set of problems ;-) Enroute we were entertained by the movie Chocolate (and all the jokes that were triggered by the movie). We took the route via Udupi so the stretch that we covered in the morning was very very picturesque, with the backwaters, the sea and the greenery. After one pit stop for b’fast at Murudeswar we reached karwar in the afternoon. We had to take the 20 minute ferry from the mainland to the island. On the way we were lucky to see a few dolphins prancing about the ocean. The island gets its name from its form (kurum means tortoise) and that’s what the island looks like from the mainland. It was a green mass with a rocky margin. On alighting at the islands jetty we had to trek up to the other side of the island where the tents and cottages were set up. Within a small area you have the tents, cottages and the restaurant. We settled ourselves into our cottages. All the rooms have a lovely view of the ocean. The island is about a kilometer in diameter, covered with trees for most part, has benches at vantage points with a view of the ocean, hammocks and the best part is the small sandy beach. This is in a small alcove on the land facing side of the island. Hence the waters are very calm and to me it is the biggest swimming pool I have ever been in. After a quick lunch and a round of freshening up we headed in the direction of the marker pointing BEACH. The path connecting the living area to the beach is a very interesting one. It is a tunnel through the trees and when you walk through it you are canopied by the branches on all sides.

To me the beach was the best part and I spent about 4 hours in the waters everyday that we were there. The first day the guys settled down to a cricket match on the beach while we freaked out in the water. Piya had come along on the condition that she would not enter the waters but after about an hour she couldn’t resist it. The activity for the day was water surfing. They had a board pulled by the speed boat. We were given instructions on how we had to shift from a lying to standing position once we were in deeper waters. I really enjoyed my turn. The first part was boring but after they stepped up the speed it was fun unlimited. That night we had a camp fire and a yummy barbeque. They played some good music and there was good amount of dancing, eating and chatting. Swarna turned dance teacher over there and she had a very good set of students. Hit the beds early coz tomorrow was to be a long and event-full day.

After a good nights sleep we were up at 7 the next morning. We took a walk around the island. We visited the Narasimaha temple on the island. It seems during the main festival tens of thousands of people flock to the island. Rappelling was next on the agenda. We were to rappel down a narrow ledge. Many had initially planned on doing it but after watching Raghu (the brave guy to go first) we had only 6 people doing it. Raghu missed his step and he happened to recover to an inverted position and it took him about 5min to get back to normal position. He truly was in a precarious position and had everyone worried for those few minutes. When it was my turn I have to say I did think of backing out. Though I have rappelled before, this location was very scary since the ledge was very narrow and when you looked down from the top you could see the waves lashing at the bottom. However I managed to take that first step but could not push myself back so really did not get to rappel and came down hanging from the rope.

After this brush with adventure we got back to base. Mua settled down for an ayurvedic massage which was truly relaxing. After that I hit the waters again. The plan was to lunch and then head out for Devbagh (the JLR property) for a few of the water sports. In between the others tried their hand at kayaking and rubber dinghy riding. Then we set out in the ferry to devbagh. Over there we first attempted a banana boat ride. It’s a fun ride where they topple the boat when you are into deeper waters. Next was speeding on a water scooter. Few lucky guys went on a speed boat ride to some islands farther away. I took a stroll and checked out the JLR property. The whole island is covered with casuarina trees. They have a long beach towards the ocean. This is again a nice place to visit. Since it was getting late we returned to our dear island. Again we had the barbeque, camp fire and a yummy spread for dinner (we missed the prawns since the prawn curry served during lunch is worthy of mention here). And then came the best part of the trip. There is a complimentary cruise as part of the package and we were supposed to do it the next morning. However they obliged our request to make it a night cruise. They took us around the island. Half way through we stopped the boat and the entire group remained silent for 5 full minutes. That surely was the “Moment of the trip”, sitting there rising and falling with the waves, with only the sound of the ocean in the background, was truly magical. Once we returned to the island we hit the dance floor. While we called it a day at around midnight the guys continued chit chatting late into the nite. Raghu was pondering the other day once we got back to bangaluru, as to how we had infinite energy while on the island but back here and we get tired so easily. I guess its all in the mind, & the mind hates routine. So people recharge by bringing change to your lifestyle every now & then (Deepti gyan ;-)

Come Sunday, our last day on the island, a few guys were up early and doing yoga on the beach. We woke up late, a lazy b’fast & then it was time for the beach. Many went in for the massage that day. At the beach myself, piya & swarna took a rubber dinghy and headed out to the ocean. After that I went kayaking with anil. This really is a strain on the hand muscles (though anil had to bear most of the strain). It took some time to get a hang of which oar to use to steer the boat left/right. We were at it for about half an hour and I used to panic every time we were headed towards the rocks. The guys there were very helpful and tried their best to teach us (the non-swimmers) how to swim. Though we did not want to, we had to leave the beach at about 1pm so that we could have our lunch and start our return journey.

All good things have to end, and so after 3 days of fun-unlimited (the truth is I am unable to capture the best thing about the trip in this write up – it was the unlimited supply of censored jokes that all the jokers who had come along had to crack ;-) we headed back to Bangalore.

Check out the pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/deeptipookat/Karwar_nov_05

Now for the ‘been there done that’ gyan that I have to share after every trip:

The cuisine over there is more konkan and in case you do not enjoy it be sure to tell the guys over there so that they tone down on the coconut use
Things that we missed out are parasailing, snorkeling (since it was cloudy)
A place that caters to both the adventurous and the romantic (time it with a full moon ;-)
check out the resort website at http://www.angelfire.com/trek/resort/