Dhamakedar Dandeli

Thanks for reading blogs regularly, got feedback from many that the frequency of blogs is reduced, yes I agree, due to the COVID situation the number of trips has gone down drastically hence the frequency schedule got hampered. Let us pray that no new variant bites our country and we remain safe so as we can go back to routine. Having said that precaution is must don’t forget mask, sanitizer, and distancing. 

As I promised in the last blog that something big I will deliver, so keeping my words and presenting today the Dhamakedar trip report from Dandeli

This is my 2^nd trip to Dandeli (Old Magazine House) so you can understand the kind of love I have for this place. To see the action and fun let me take you to the place virtually, I am sure you feel every bit of it. 

The introduction

Do you know what the first step for cooking anything is? It is a recipe and similarly, for any good trip, you need to have good planning. 

We had initiated well in advance, we closed the location somewhere in August which helped us to get cheaper flight deals, and the rest of all other booking was taken care of by Saurabh’s team (Book my Safari) for finalizing the location the experience and detailing of the first blog was very helpful. 

Dandeli itself is a beautiful place and Old Magazine House (OMH) is like heaven within Dandeli. The reason for attractions are many – 

a. Surrounded by lush green trees

b. It is home to hundreds of species which include leopard and some really rare species 

c. The morning starts with the lovely sound of birds 

d. The night ends with the magical behavior of flying squirrel 

e. Multiple opportunities like Timber Depot, Coracle ride, nature walk, etc. 

f. Awesome food especially Medu Wada

This is why I fall in love with this place, I strongly suggest everyone get the experience of this place at least once. I am sure after an introduction you are eager to reach the place so let’s move to the journey section.

The Journey begins

In excitement, I forgot to tell you about my co-travelers, this time my office colleagues Amish, Ashwini, Preeti, and Sarang joined me for this trip. After COVID, this was for the first time we planned a long trip and hence we were highly excited.

The luck started from the point of departure itself, our departure flight got pre-pond, and the return flight got postponed which gave time to find out a better place for lunch and got more time at OMH. This was an indication of the best trip coming our way, with this, the journey started with a fun time airport lounge and then yummy lunch at Tumkur Tatte Idli. For travelers, I suggest taking a small break at this place either for breakfast or for lunch because for a successful beginning of the trip food plays a crucial role, you should not miss this, small but very good a taste with highly reasonable cost.

After enjoying yummy lunch and a small piece of shopping for Peru and dry snacks we reached OMH where Mr. Nadafji and the team helped us with smooth check-in.

Yeh toh trailer tha Picture Abhi Baki hai mere dost, let me start the core story in the next section.

The Old (Magazine House) is Gold

The place is nothing less than the gold, what a lovely place, normally we have a tendency to say if this is owned and managed by Government it will not be great but let me tell you that with OMH believe me it is not true. The place is managed so well that you do not feel that you are missing anything like big resorts. The forest is beautiful and added with clean accommodation with all required facilities, more addition is amazing food especially breakfast like Medu Wada and Dosa, and finally added with humble and helpful staff, you hardly get all together at one place.

I know I did not mention sightings because it is the Gold of the trip and needs to be addressed separately and yes every best sighting requires patience J, so now let me take you to the hide where you can meet such jewels 

Spotting of Spot-bellied

As I said the due to a change in flight, we got an opportunity to reach OMH early, which gave us scope to evaluate the evening session. This extra time turned into super luck when we were welcomed by an extremely rare sighting of Spot Bellied Eagle Owl

While we were settling down with the place and doing birding at hiding, we got information from Vinayakji (naturalist) that this superstar is waiting to meet us. It was like this lovely creature was just sent to welcome us because the sighting of this owl is not easy and you need to be extra lucky. Though the light was not favorable somehow we manage to capture it for our memory.

It seems spot bellied liked our group a lot because it arrived again on next day evening and stayed for more than 30 minutes. During this time he was active and turning head, looking around and trying to find his food, this sighting is one of the best moments amongst all my trips to date because as I said it is extremely rare to get so much time with this bird and over and above it is my favorite bird.

The Topper Trogon

Another star of the trip is Trogon, this bird is amongst the specialty of OMH but it requires effort to find. In a dense forest, you need a sharp eye to find it, which was done by Pundalikji (Naturalist) on next morning when we went on a nature walk. Trogon was part of our checklist and hence hunger to capture was high. Pundalikji was well aware of our expectations and hence he was putting extra effort to find it, somehow the experience of veteran helped us to fulfill our wish, we found this bird twice in our trip making all of us very happy

Host Hornbill

Next in line is the host of Dandeli, Hornbill nai Dekha toh kuchh nai Dekha, Dandeli is home to this lovely bird and hence requires special mention, during the last visit we saw the aerial display, and this time Malabar grey hornbill displayed its art of eating. 

We were lucky to see a pattern of eating, near the gate area suddenly we saw Malabar grey with a caterpillar in its big bill, Hornbill was rubbing it on the tree multiple times to ensure that it can remove bristles before eating, this continued for around 15 minutes which was again a difficult moment to capture. Our luck was blessing us with unique sightings at every step, which was an unbelievable moment for all of us. 

The Jackeline

I know the spell is not correct but taking the liberty to connect the story, here I am not talking about actors but referring to the Jackals. During the Timber Depot visit, the unexpected surprising glimpse came from Jackals. We saw 3 of them looking for food, they were eyeing deer over there, they walk across near us. Even guide Vinayak and Guru acknowledge that this is a lucky sighting because the movement of Jackals is not regular at Timber. 

The Checklist

I would love to mention each and every species we saw but that will be endless hence providing you the checklist of what all we saw at OMH and Timber Depot

The lucky list apart from the above species includes –

Common cuckoo, Tickell's blue flycatcher, White-bellied blue flycatcher, Puff throated babbler, Fulvetta, White-rumped shama, Malabar pied hornbill, Jungle owlet, Rose-ringed parakeet, Plum-headed Parakeet, Vernal hanging Parrot, Bronze Drongo, Racket-tailed drongo, White-cheeked barbet, Indian giant squirrel, Velvet-fronted nuthatch, Blue-bearded bee-eater, Common emerald dove, Flying lizard, Oriental magpie-robin, Flame throated Bulbul, Yellow Browed Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Indian paradise flycatcher, Oriental White Eye, Black-naped monarch Orange Headed thrush, Blue-capped rock thrush, Shrike, woodpecker and many more

We saw nearly 50 species in two days which is a good amount of count, don't forget to visit Dil see DSLR see many of them 

Now while coming to the end of the blog let me update you on additional activities that we enjoyed at OMH. Nadafji offered us a small nature walk near the property under the guidance of Vinayakji, the Kali river view from the place was just awesome and added with the sighting of viper snake, it was in an angry mood because I did not visit the walking trail. In addition, Nadafji also offered us a complimentary visit to Coracle ride, both these offerings made our trip a complete success. 

Before ending the blog let me tell you that this was half of the trip, the climax is yet to come hence keep following the blog closely to know more about part 2

Lastly, just one piece of advice, whenever you visit such a place do shop from small local shops it will help them plus you will get unique flavor as well, during this trip we tried hands-on shopping of Kunda, Dharwad Peda and Belgavi Saree

 I hope you liked this blog, keep blessing me and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, do let me know your feedback on btwildart@gmail.om

Vote of Thanks

Mumbai Travellers and Team – Many thanks Saurabh, Jogi, and Pathamesh for managing the tour so smoothly, you guys are rocking, keep it up.

Co-Travelers  - Amish, Ashwini, Preeti, and Sarang, thanks for yet another blockbuster trip, you guys are awesome.

Naturalists – VinayakJi, PundlikJi, and GurudattJi, many thanks for helping us with such unique sightings and making our trip memorable.

OMH manager – NadafJi you deserve a special mention as you helped us with many more things than we had thought.    

OMH Staff – Every staff including Chef and other supporting staff

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR