White water rafting in Bheemeswari near Bangalore

Last week I went for white water rafting to a place near Bheemeswari, which is around 110 km from bangalore. The place is called Fishing camp and is on the banks of river Kaveri. Sivasamudram another famous tourist spot is about 50 kms from this place. We took a taxi from Bangalore and it takes a good 2 1/2 hours to reach the spot. The route is well marked with signboards and you will not miss the boards with the distance written for Fishing camp. We started around 8:15 from Marathahalli, the place where we stayed in bangalore, and it was around 12:15 when we reached the spot. This duration was after we picking a friend on the way and also a small search for the exact spot after reaching Bheemeswari. .

The Rafting @ Bheemeswari is conducted on two batch basis with one batch starting in the morning and the other in the afternoon. We had our rafting scheduled in the afternoon session that starts around 2:30 PM. Not knowing the exact time details, we had to spend some good two hours wandering around the place. But the place is very good and refreshing and kept us occupied during this wait. The package cost of Rs.900 and includes the lunch that we had around 2 PM after some wait. The lunch was quite good considering my other experiences in such tourist spots. It was South Indian buffet type meal with Rice, sambar, rasam, chappathi, sabji and dhal. Would advice people to opt this as there are no restaurants around.

The Rafting there consists of three rafts with each holding a maximum of 8 persons (This ofcourse can change if more rafts are added in the future). But, we were a group of six people and took a single raft. The person count does not include the guide who normally sits in the tip of the raft controlling the speed and direction of the raft. All the guides were well seasoned and were able to handle the sail with care and good humour. I especially liked the way they handled the tourists with every effort to make the trip a memorable one for them. The total rafting lasted for around 1 1/2 hours for a distance of around 10 KM. The rafting was not very tough and does not require one to take any professional training, or for that matter even knowledge in swimming. It could be done very easily as I saw one accompanying raft occupied with women and young college girls. It was great fun wearing those protective jackets and helmets for rafting and it also ensured the trip was very safe. Since the rafting was done in the month of November the waves were not very rough as it would have been in the case of August-September rainy season. To sum it all, it was a wonderful experience and worth the money. The most forgettable part of the trip was the jeep ride which took us back to the starting point after completion of rafting. We are made to get on a open jeep packed with people and it takes us back through the bumpy roads of Bheemeswari. It made sure that every join in the body pains at the end of the trip. We finally took a tea and signed off from Bheemeswari.

The total cost of the trip came around Rs.1300 that included the taxi cost and cost for rafting. We did a mistake of taking a sales agency "CareIndia" (http://www.careindia.in/) for booking the trip which cost us extra Rs. 250 out of the cost of Rs.900. The best thing to do is to contact the Rafting office directly and make the booking.

Overall it was a very pleasant and memorable trip with friends. I would especially recommend this to the IT folks who need a refreshing and different trip with friends. This will definitely be a very good break from compared to the time you spend in front of monitor and will also be a trip to remember.