120 Kms from Bangalore, away from the milling crowd is Bheemeshwari Fishing Camp.Its an ideal place for anybody who would like to travel less and still experience a slice of nature that is completely unique and enjoyable.So when the five of us decided to get to this place couple of weekends backs, the one thing that we all had in mind was Water rafting.Jungle Lodges & Resorts (JLR) offers one day and two day programmes for enthusiasts interested in exploring this place. Having booked a Qualis for the 5 of us, we started at 7:30 in the morning with all the excitement.The last 45 minutes of the drive was an eye treat which involved threading through the woody landscape with lush green plantations and with river Cauvery coursing along the path.We reached the camp at 10:00 am after a short lovely drive.
Our Water Rafting activity was postponed to 11:30 from 9:30 due to lack of instructors and this gave us some time to explore the camp. The camp had three types of accomodations: Cottages, Log huts and Tent Houses.The well furnished cottages were double bedded with attached bathrooms. The Log Huts were most ethnic and blended beautifully with the jungle background. The Tent Houses though small, offered the best close-to-nature experience.In front of every tent and cottage was a small hammock for two. These hammocks can be quite tricky especially if a person is trying them out for the first time. The act of balancing oneself in a hammock is an art in itself. Apart from these small hammocks, there were 2 Huge hammocks, which would accomodate more than 20 people. 15 feet from the ground and supported by around 6 trees, these hammocks serve as an ideal berth for sky watching.
After spending 90 minutes exploring the camp,we started off on our water rafting journey.since none of us had ventured rafting before, we were complete strangers to the act of being thrown offguard in water and coping with the currents. Geared with our colourful life jackets,helmets and oars, we marched towards our raft. The two instructors of our raft, gave us instructions on rowing backward and forward along with the seating arrangements. Well one thing we were made to realise was not to leave the oars when you fall offguard in the water as the oars are expensive and yes,more than your life :p So jump with the oar. If the instructors manage to pull you off the water, great; if not return the oar to them before drowning!With forward and backward strokes of the oars,the 2 plus rapids , was definitely a great begininning for us newbies. The 7 kms stretch of rafting was good fun and guess what, all of us were made to jump forcefully in the water and hang on in for 15 minutes before the instructors lifted us back on to the raft.From praying for our lives before being seated on the raft to looking for more powerful rapids after our rafting, it definitely was a great experience.
After the one and half hour rafting journey, we split for lunch. Lunch at JLR consisted of decent veg and non-veg dishes. After having our stomach full, we spend couple of hours lazing around in the hammocks before going for the coracle ride. We took a 1 km ride on a jeep to the coracle ride destination. Meandering through the greenery amidsts the forest of karnataka, the 3 km Coracle ride on Cauvery was complete pleasure.Getting back to the camp had two options:some of us trekked the way back to our camp with the help of a guide while the rest took the jeep back. Once we were back to the camp, snacks and tea were served and we winded our trip by 6:00 PM with some souvenirs from the camp which included a JLR cap and T-shirt.
To know more about Bheemeshwari and JLR's accomodation, rates and activities, you can get on to : http://www.junglelodges.com/resort_overview.asp?resort=Bheemeshwari
