Kayaking @ Panshet near Pune (continued)

My first kayaking experience was more of - leaning, adventure and then enjoyment. But I was not satisfied and wanted to take one more chance at the kayak. I asked them to bring it back in water. I was trying to decide what next? Having learnt the art, how should I make the most of the next trip? I finally set a goal for myself for that 15 minute kayaking trip. We were on one side of the riverbed. I looked at the other side, spotted a tree and made it my target for the next few minutes. I decided to take a shot at the following: Drive the kayak at the best speed possible, take it to the other of the river, touch the soil on that side, and then come back on this shore. All this in 15 minutes. I had to be on my toes always in order to make sure that I kept the time.

My Timex digital watch came to the rescue. I set the timer on and started kayaking with all strength possible. I realized that it was easy to attain fairly high speeds. And now that I knew what my target was, it was much easier to maintain the direction.

But maintaining the direction was still a fairly non-trivial activity. I assumed that since I was applying equal force on the right and the left hand sides, the kayak will always go ahead in a straight line. But when I started staring at the tere, I noticed that all the time, I was either moving too much to the left or too much to the right. And then, I had to make appropriate adjustments to ensure that I was chasing the target tree. I realized at that point, how difficult it must be to paddle the kayak in the sea when there are no visible targets in any specific direction. You would require a magnetic compass and that would be your life line.

I first checked my wrist watch timer at around 2.5 minutes into the drive. I was stunned to see that I was almost half the way into the breadth of the river. I decided to keep going full steam and paddled hard for the next minute or so. Once I stopped momentarily after 3.5 minutes, and estimate that I was 2/3 of the way into the breadth. I was sure that I would be able to make it - touch the other side and come back. At this time, I just tried to soak in the moment a bit. I observed that the constant chatting of the people on the original side of the river had now stopped. I was surprised because there were many people on the shore. And so far, I could always here many of the talking simultaneously. Then I realized that I had come far enough from them to be able to hear their voices. That pleased me a bit :-) But then, I concentrated a bit and found out that I could now hear so many other natural voices. Birds were really singing wonderfully. I could hear some voices from the other side of the river bed. I was absolutely delighted.

I decided to stop at this place for the next few minutes or so. And dropped the plan of touching the other side of the river. Just wanted to relax more. I looked at the river and saw that it was really huge. I could see the river leading into the dam and its gates about 500 meters or a kilometer away from where I was. Which meant - that the only time we could go kayaking here was when the water was calm. I just though we were lucky enough that there were no rains or strong winds that day. And it also gave me an indication that I can come here in the future only when the weather is as calm as it was on today. Otherwise, kayaking would become very risky.

Most of the river had beautiful, blue water. But somehow there was a patch where the water was green, had some weeds and leaves and that looked odd. I tried to wonder about this patch. I would have understood if it was near the shore, but near the shore, the water was very clean. Once that bad patch ended, it was again clean and beautiful. I could now see some speed boats making rounds one after another at some distance from me.

Whenever a boat went from anywhere nearby, it would send a series of waves in the water. The waves would spread and hit my kayak. This was a scary moment. The people had told me that I would have to balance it when the waves are hitting. Once such speed boat sent very strong waves. My kayak started shaking up and down, and for the first time, I was nervous but still not scared, though. The only problem I saw with a kayak is that - it can flip and turn turtle easily - with a few strong ripples/waves. But once that happens, it would be difficult to turn it around while swimming. And then even more difficult to climb on it from within the water.

Once the waves started hitting, I decided to move. I thought - while moving, the kayak might be able to handle the waves better, and I was right. After around 8-9 minutes since I had begun, I started on my way back. This time, I really stepped up the force and attained tremendous speed. I was now able to observe how to voices of the people on the shore had started to reach me again. I was kind of sad that my kayaking trip was about to end. I again tried to soak in each and every part of my vision and the sounds. I looked at all the surrounding mountains again and allowed myself to be stunned by the awesome beauty of nature once more. Finally, I decided to park. My speed was so high, that I had to reverse peddle in order to slow down so that I could hit the shore. This time, I could park perfectly and single handed, without any help.

I knew that I had stumbled upon a new passion. I vowed to come back here once every month or two. I started to share my experiences with everyone on the shore and explained to them the mind blowing experience. My shoulders had started aching a bit and I was really hungry now. It had turned out to be a really nice exercise. I wished I could have a house near a river so that I could go kayaking every day :-)

If anyone of you know of other good places to go kayaking, then please let me know. And if you can swim, then try out kayaking. It will refresh you!

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

Kayak Boat experience at Panshet near Pune

This was a nice Sunday morning. We started from our house in Pune around 8 am in the morning. Reached Panshet at around 9.30 am. Panshet is around 45 Kms away from the heart of Pune. It is off the Sinhgad Road. Panshet is the name of a dam and supplies drinking water to the Pune city.

We were 5 persons + 3 kids. So the plan was to enjoy the natural surroundings, play with the kids, have a heavy breakfast and come back home after noon. As usual, as soon as we reached Panshet everyone was hungry.

A little bit about how to locate the best boating location in Panshet. There are quite a few locations here from where one can do boating. The best one is the biggest one. It has a covered parking lot, a small restaurant. When you reach Panshet, you will find many different boards pointing towards boating locations. At the main junction, there are 2 roads - and each one of them leads to a different boat club. The turn to the left takes us to this good place with parking etc.

Once there, we ordered tea and breakfast. The food at the place is not that great. So its better if you take some home made bread/butter or any other breakfast. Whatever food is available is very costly and probably extremely un-hygienic.

There are some small horse, camel, elephant shaped games for kids. All 3 of them loved those :-) But everyone was now looking forward to the real stuff: Boating.

We first tried the simplest option. A large ride for all 8 of us in a medium paced motor-boat. It was for around 15 minutes. Very nice, clam, relaxing and enjoyable. The kids loved it, too. We were able to dip our hands in the river bed and sprinkle some of that water in the boat. The water was blueish and clean at most of the places in the river bed.

Next, we tried a speed boat with all of us in there along with the kids. This was a wonderful experience for us, but a scary one for the kids. I personally didn't find it worth the cost (of 60 Rs per person). But it was good fun.

I next asked them what other options are available for boating. He said - speed boat for a couple. A scooter boat - which is a very high speed boat with their driver and a passenger. I had seen a friend riding this earlier, and he had lots of fun. The guys then mentioned about a boat known as Kayak. They said, it takes you alone in the river bed. And that's what spurred me on. On asking further details, they said that it does not run on any fuel. And needs a paddle which is used to move the boat in the water.

I knew instantly that I was excited. I asked them to put it in the water. Since there was no fuel involved, the cost for 15 minutes was very less - 30 Rs. This was even better. I sat in the kayak - this was not easy though. It had a very small weight. And there were holes in the kayak for the water to flow in/out. It was somehow able to maintain its buoyancy. Being a very good swimmer and having the life jacket on - gave me enough confidence. For people who don't know how to swim, it can be a dangerous option.

I started with the paddle. 4 years ago, at the same spot, I had tried a rowing boat with 3 other people on board. We had erred at that point - in the sense that we did not try to understand the technique. There were also synchronization problems. And hence, this time round, I knew what should not be done :-) First, I tried to control the kayak by randomly moving the paddle in the water once to my left and then right. I realized that if not controlled, I would keep round and round in circles. Hence I tried to focus on how to crack the technique. I realized the following two tacts:

1. I stuck my legs to the grooves. This gave me some more force to use on the paddle. I pushed my legs while paddling and it was very helpful.

2. I made sure that while paddling on the right hand side, the paddle touched the outer border of the boat on that side. And then the same on the left. This was crucial because now, there was no randomness and I knew I was onto something special.

Very soon, I was traveling at quite a good speed, and in almost a straight line. For the first time, I looked around me. I was amazed by the beauty of the nature. Away from the busy roads, traffic and noise, away from the tensions of day to day routines, here I was - surrounded by a beautiful blue river bed. In the middle of lush green mountains. Birds singing sweet sounds. Clean air, no pollution, pure bliss. To top all that, I was out there on my own, without any fuel and having learned and mastered something new and adventurous, it gave me a phenomenal kick. I promised myself that this was only the first of many many times that I would go kayaking.

I knew that the time was limited and hence tried to turn reverse. Just paddled on the left hand side. After rotating by 180 degrees, I started on my way back. In the middle, I just used to stop, drop the paddle and just relax. Enjoyed the moment, the surroundings, the quiet and the nature. Finally, there was another boat passing by and the driver shouted at me saying my time was already over. On coming back, I was surprised that I could even park the kayak without many hassles. I told everyone that this was one of my most enjoyable moments ever and I had already started thinking about when should I go kayaking next?

The next time was only 10 minutes away :-) And even more enjoyable. Details to follow in the next post.

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

Review of a resort Shantivan on Pune Panshet road

Posted here on mouthshut.com

Pros: Close to the nature, Near from the city, Economical, Open spaces
Cons: Lots of mosquitos, not enough fun options, not good for night stay

Shantivan is a nice place on the banks of the Mutha river. The location is at the most one hour drive away from the city. Once you are there you can choose to relax, trek, go boating, meditate, play with
your kids, organize camps/group activities. Shantivan is located on the Pune Panshet road. While traveling towards Sinhagad on the Pune-Sinhagad road, you will find a bifurcation just before the base of the Sinhagad fort.

The road on the right hand side goes to Panshet. On this road, travel for 4-5 Kms. and you will find Shantivan on the right hand side of the road. There is a lot of parking space available. An entry fee of Rs. 50/- per head and you are inside the place. Near the entrance, we found a lots of rabbits stuffed in two small cages. Walk further down the pathway and there are lots of knowledge rooms. One is the Jungle room where you can find photographs and descriptions of a number of wild animals and birds. Another is a Science room where you can see some photographs, static models and write-ups on science.

There is a photograph of a telescope, but I would have loved to see a real telescope there. There are a number of activity grounds/halls. These are used for group activities like Yoga/meditation camps, corporate trainings, etc. That seems to be USP of this place. Even while we were visiting, there was a group of around 200 college students who had been camping there through the day. Another attraction is the Lake View which is the road that leads to the Mutha river. Since it was late in the evening, we did not go there. However, I had heard that the boating facilities are nice. In and around the place, there are lots of plantations of different fruit/flower plants. The place is lush green and fairly well maintained.

The lawns were not mowed, though. There are a couple of grounds for small kids. They will love jumping, hanging on the bars and sliding down the various items there. We did not stay there during the night but that would not have been comfortable. The place had lots of mosquitoes and insects. Especially if you are with a family and kids, think twice before planning a night stay. There was a food counter but it served only Pav Bhaji. The entire place was quite clean though. This includes the rest rooms, etc. The room charges were very reasonable - around 400 per room. We could not see the rooms from inside since we were there only for a few hours. We could also see a number of tents which were available for camping in the night. One advantage is the beauty of the scenic location despite being close enough from the city. You can enjoy the hills, the trees, the river, the dam, the lake (Khadakwasala), etc.

Overall, I would rate the place very highly for going on a one day picnic. I will not advice the place for a night stay, though I have not stayed there. It is definitely not a place you would want to visit if you only have a few hours in hand (which is the mistake that I did). There are not many activities that you can do - as against the other cultural villages. Overall, a good place for either a complete rest or for a group picnic where you plan and execute your activities.

Price Range: Down to earth
Ideal for: Large groups

Cheers,
- Tosh