caravahan

Motivating a bunch of #teenagers to go for an early #morning #walk through the #forest is hard. Hard but rewarding.

#Kayaking in the #Kali river. The high point of any #Dandeli trip.

#Sunrise in #Gokarna

#दोस्ती #Gokarna #sea #rocks #sand #sunrise

I've often said that #travel doesn't have to be expensive. In Dandeli we stayed at a campsite called BeOnTheTrail that charged us ₹1000 per night for pitching three tents. This included the use of all facilities on their campsite including a bathroom with geyser, and a campfire each night. Boating was ₹100 per head, kayaking was perhaps ₹300. In Gokarna we are paying ₹500 for pitching a tent at a campsite by the beach. Food at both places was about ₹2000 per day for six people. Petrol has been expensive, costing us more per day than stay and food, but we could have used public buses instead of a car.

That said, I recognise that travel is a privilege. Not everyone has a job that they can work on remotely, or can get leaves from. Not everyone has a car to just up and go. We've paid dearly for the space to store all of our camping gear. I have Sharada to take care of my plants when I'm gone. The list goes on. Just because I'm not spending much on this trip doesn't mean that I don't have other hidden means that enable this trip.

So, umm, if my travel pics encourage you to take short breaks more often, that's very nice. If they make you feel that you don't have the means to enjoy life as much as others, then I'm truly sorry I've made you feel this way. I wish I could tag Instagram pics in a way that you could filter out the travel pics.

I went camping with some friends three years ago, to Kasauli. They reached out to say that that trip would always be a core memory for their kids. And that my kids would have so many more such memories. Which is very generous of them, but it is also true. If you do have the means, and you have kids, yet you just sit on your butt all weekend, or all you do is luxury travel that doesn't let your kids connect with nature and with rural India, then really, get off your butt and go somewhere.

Everybody looks cool on an Enfield

भाई लोग

Foggy morning at the campsite

The gadariyas are back in our fields. Turning parali into goat poop. This time they're visiting from Karnataka.

The Himalayan Ibex.

The Eurasian Magpie, or as I like to call it, shalgam (turnip).