Been quite some time since I had been on a good trip and I wanted to set things right. The last trip was to Sikkim in November with little else happening after that. Also, there happened to be a lot of things happening in campus around this time right from CV making to placements. Anyways, after quite a bit of research through the Internet and friends, we decided that BhitarKanika is the place to go this time. And what a great decision it turned out to be. Four people for the trip - Murari, Nikhil, Divya and yours truly. The only apprehension was that it would turn out to be like the Sunderbans trip, a lot of hype and not much else to show.
The fears of it turning out to be a damp squib were entirely unfounded. A must visit place, this place is just plain fabulous. Imagine kilometres of lush green scenery and waterways entwined throughout the region. Add to it rich flora and fauna and you have just about scratched the surface of what this place has to offer. Reaching here takes a bit of travelling though. We took a cab to Howrah, a train to Bhadrak, a bus to Chandbali and finally a boat to Dangmal. The group size was also just about perfect, neither too many nor too few. The stay was booked at a place called "The Crocodile". Anyone who goes there will agree that it could not have been more aptly named.
Starting from the time we hired a boat for the ride to Dangmal, we spotted crocodiles all along the way. They say that this is the largest collection of salt water crocodiles and you will not be disappointed. After Sunderbans, where I failed to spot even a single one, this place was heaven. Not just crocodiles, you could also see a lot of picture perfect Kingfishers sitting on branches as you passed them, deer coming to have a drink in the water, monkeys and storks and a whole collection of birds which I did not recognize but were great just the same. And at the place where we were put up for the night things got even better. The service was good, but nothing compared to the other perks on offer.
A whole group of water monitor lizards, deers, monkeys and birds come down just outside the dining hall, used as they are to having been fed by the people there. Harmless and quite a sight, they were all used to people and we spent a long time just staring at them and clicking photos with them. And they also had a couple of big Indian pythons and baby crocodiles in cages and one more big crocodile at the place. Apart from all these, there also happened to be a superb 2.3 km nature trail, which was reason enough for me to shun my usual laziness, get up at 6 a.m have a splendid cold water bath and then briskly cover the full trail. It happened to be dotted with a lot of wooden pathways, some rickety and some not so rickety. And since I had the best gravitational pull in the entire group, I was chosen to lead the way. Except for a minor hiccup, the trail proved to be incident free.
Immediately after breakfast we decided to hire a boat and check out the BhitarKanika National Sanctuary. The first stop took us into another forest and with the weather being extremely pleasant, we had no problems whatsoever in taking a nice hike through a few kilometres of awesome tree lined trails. Here we sighted a lot of birds. The flying formation at the lake was truly a sight to behold. Divya, Murari and me also used the opportunity to become trigger happy again and tried our best to capture things as they were. Next stop was the Baga Gahan. Here there wasn't much except for a tower which offered a superb 360 degree view of the entire sanctuary and the water creeks criss-crossing the place. Back we went for lunch to Dangmal and this time we were treated to deers on our path, including a small one measuring no more than 2 feet. Infact they seemed to be posing for photographs. And then it was back to the boat again and with things getting hotter, we decided a round of poker could do no harm. Murari finally started losing and seemed to have regained his touch, which he had lost briefly by winning huge amounts earlier. Along the way, saw kingfishers, parrots, storks and birds of many different hues apart from the mandatory crocs and monkeys. The icing on the cake was towards the end with a couple of dolphins being sighted.
The only thing we probably missed were the Olive Ridley Sea turtles because of the constraints of our schedule, but then that is something that can be rectified soon enough.
Finally we reached Chandbali back again around 5 pm just as the sun was setting, capping 2 great days in the sanctuary. From here it was back to the station, where we split with Nikhil and Divya going back to Calcutta and me and Murari heading to Puri for the next part of the trip. That will be another post altogether.
This place was advertised as one of Asia's most spectacular wildlife destinations. And I completely vouch for the same.
Useful Info :
Getting There :
1) Train from Howrah to Bhadrak (4 hours)
2) Bus/Cab from Bhadrak to Chandbali (2 hours)
3) Boat from Chandbali to Dangamal (2-2.5 hours)
Best covered in a 2 day trip with a boat that can be hired for 1500 - 2000 bucks a day. Economies of scale are better if you are a bigger group.
Stay at the Sand Pebbles hotel. Highly recommended from my side. Good, clean rooms available at extremely reasonable prices with great food and service too. Added benefits would be the 'visitors' during lunch and dinner hours.
