Last weekend, I was back in Sharavathy Valley in Shimoga, but this time for some water sports.

Here’s a photo essay of the trip:

When we were reaching our camp area, the entrance itself was impressive, and I was excited by such clear blue water.

We had Breakfast and “kashaya.”

A short swimming session as an icebreaker, getting used to lifejacket and basic lessons for those who don’t know to swim.

We spent most of the afternoon learning how to paddle a coracle (a fibre one for safety). It was difficult at first but this quickly became my favorite.

Scrumptious lunch by Dharma.

Resting after all that exercise.

We went to another island to get a good view of the sunset.

Explored the island a bit. It felt like we were one of the first humans to trample on some of the grass there. There were no humans on any of these islands.

Driving away bisons, apparently.

Coracling back to the camp.

Campfire at night

Sleeping in dome tents on an island next to the water with a zillion stars in the sky.

On the Second Day, we learned how to paddle the Kayak and Raft.

The kayak is easy to get started with, but once a little wind blows, it throws you off completely. It takes a while to learn how to counter this.

The raft was fun too, especially to fall off into the water whenever you felt like it.

We trekked to the top of the hill and then back to Sagar to catch the bus back to Bangalore.

I had a lot of fun thanks to the gang of people I met there:

That’s Venkat, Arun, Vinayak, Mihir, Abhishek, and Saurabh (from left to right). And, of course, I’m the one clicking the photo.

Special appreciation for Sampath and the whole organization for organizing this as well as doing it for the right reasons:

We anticipate your continued active support and blessings to improve the activities further. Our aim is to expand the direct rural employment further and there by contributing to rural household economy. Our One more greatest achievement is that, we were able to convert small time timber smugglers in to force which is fighting against the tree cutters in the Sharavathi Backwaters by providing the alternate livelihood for them. We promise to work for the over all rural development and nature conservation. Also to serve the true nature lovers with renewed vigor.

To know when is the next activity weekend, join the sharavathy-valley-trekking list. Highly recommended.

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Note: All the photos shown above are from:

• Me
• Vinayak Hegde
• Arun
• Abhishek Sahai