Camping with Bella #1 Bhandara Hill

Welcome, all good people out there!

Enjoying the view from the camping site.
This was shot by Nishu (friend) he accidentally mates me on the hill.

In this blog series, I will be taking you all on the amazing journey of camping alone into the wild, which I have experienced. When I was a child I used to see a famous television show on Discovery- Dual Survival. In which there were two professional nature survivors, one Cody who was Naturalist, a guy who never wore artificial footwears and he used to were a nose ring with long hair. Another guy Dave was a retired army officer. Dave always used to say that he spent 300 nights under the sky per year. That inspired me and that one sentence always stuck in my mind. I am a research fellow, I have done my first research project from IISC, Bangalore. Our field site was Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary, Pune. Which has clouded rainforest and also fragmented evergreen forest patches. I have spent 400 days of my life in that forest. During which, I bought my Tent from Decathlon. I have Arpenaz Quechua 2 person tent from Decathlon. (Which is not sufficient at all for two-person with luggage). Although I have very little experience of solo camping outside into the wild. 

In this particular blog, I will write about my first ever solo camping with Bella. Bella is a female pet dog that I adopted from the street. It is an Indian Pariah Breed, I got it in June 2020. After forming a strong bond with young Bella during the lockdown, I finally decided to go camping. I have taught Bella to sit on my Jupiter since she was a puppy. I have decided to go to a nearby place initially because if I get into some problem I should reach home immediately. So decided to go to Bhandara hill which is 8 km from my house. Bhandara is a small hill, which is also Pilgrim place as Sant Tukaram Maharaj used to go there for meditation. I have made a basic plan in my mind, where to pitch my tent, where to park my bike and all. 

IMG 1: Everything was ready before leaving.
50 lit Rug Sac, Quechua Tent, Tripod and Camera(Camera protected with a plastic bag for safety) 

Finally, the day has come, 26th Sept 2020 Saturday. Post monsoon greenery, with moisture in the air. It was unusually unplanned, decided to start immediately after dinner. Kept torches, mobile, and camera on charging which is very important. Had dinner also fed Bella a sufficient amount of food. List of thing which I am carrying

1.Rug Sac - Peak 50 lit. sac (Highly Recommended) - Removed the metal supporter just to reduce excess weight, 

2. Camera -700D Canon, DSLR camera along with Charged Battery and Memory Card, rain cover

3. Tripod- Sania 800 Tripod, For night photography you need a tripod and as it was September it is moist during the night so. (Used alot)

4. Tent- 2 person, Arpenaz Quechua Tent - Highly recommend for one person. 

5. Two water bottles

6. Cadbury dairy milk for me and Dog biscuits for Bella. 

7. Small Shrikhand Tiffin for Bella 

8. Sleeping Bag - along with Bella's Blanket

9. Raincoat 

10. Shorts- as I prefer to sleep in shorts at night. 

11. Bella - Indian Pariah Breed ( 5 Month old puppy) 

12. TVS Jupiter 

13. Torches (Head torch and normal hand torch) 

Earlier I thought of asking my brother to drop me up there and I will come back in the morning by walk. But later decided to take a bike and park there only. We started our journey at 10 PM after dinner. Everything was checked and the place was nearby so need not worry much. So, back in the mind, I was relaxed and just thinking about which spot I should choose to pitch my tent. As I started going up on the Bhandara Hill, I started looking for the best place to pitch the tent. As it is nearby hill many people will come in the morning for Jogging as its Sunday tomorrow. So accordingly I have to think about such place which should be little apart from the human interference. So I just went up on the last spot, to the west side of the hill, there is a trail towards caves so I decided to go there and then look for the perfect place to pitch the tent. I parked my bike safely not on the road bit aside from the road. Took everything checked all and kept my bike key safely and started going down. Many Indian Toads used to jump over trail because of torchlight Bella used to get scared of them. I unleashed Bella so that both I and she can walk comfortably. After 15 minutes of walk, apart from the road, I started looking for the perfect place for pitching a tent. While choosing a place to pitch the tent I look for place that should be plane surface, there should not be much grass, it should not be too much towards valley side. Finally searching for 15 min I decided to pitch the tent. 

Firstly walk across the place where I was going to pitch the tent. Then removed small stones from there. And put my hand torch on aside and head torch on head.. and started pitching tent. It was dark night with blazing air.

View from the camping site. The tent is perfectly camouflaged with the surrounding

Early morning click

Kept all the luggage inside the tent after pitching it. Survey surrounding area with a torch, just to make sure reptiles (snakes usually) should shoo away. 

Now its time to use my tripod after ages, so mount my camera on it and took some photographs of the tent with the surrounding. To illuminate my tent, a mobile with a torch on kept upside down inside the tent and covered it with a white handkerchief to avoid an excessive amount of light (Jugad Diffuser). Got some amazing logexposure image, down there the city lights were illuminating and far up here my tent was illuminating. It was like isolation (it was trending, that time).  I totally forgot to mention pandemic. It is good that this blog should go without mention of a pandemic.  After clicking around 15-20 clicks I thought of stopping, it was almost 1 AM. Decided to sleep now.                                                                                                                

Before putting a rain cover on the tent thought of clicking this shot.

Isolated: Away from the city 

    People always ask me don't you get afraid alone. I reply to them afraid? Afraid of what? Yes, do get afraid of people. Human is the only creature of which I get afraid of. Since now Bella is with me that fear has reduced now. Bella is alert enough and ready to bark at a stranger if she feels danger and people definitely scare of dogs which I have experienced in the morning. 

Enjoying the view early in the morning while the tent was drying. 

I woke up early as I usually do not sleep more whenever I am outside. Even Bella was not comfortable inside the tent. I came outside the tent and was enjoying the morning view. It was cold early in the morning and a bit windy as I was on the west side of the hill we were under the shadow for some time. Bella was also roaming around and sniffing this new world. After some time around 7 AM, two people came from the top of the hill and they came for a general morning walk but Bella alerted me as soon as she senses them. Even they first afraid of Bella and asked me whether she will bit or not. After I realizing they were good people, I ensure them about Bella's comfort. She sat just beside me and she was not happy yet with those persons. We talked for a while and they surprised to see me alone on top of this hill. Although the hill is quite a famous, and pilgrim spot nobody usually dares to stay all alone for the whole night. 

                                        

Morning view from the tent

    I woke up early as I usually do not sleep more whenever I am outside. Even Bella was not comfortable inside the tent. I came outside the tent and was enjoying the morning view. It was cold early in the morning and a bit windy as I was on the west side of the hill we were under the shadow for some time. Bella was also roaming around and sniffing this new world. After some time around 7 AM, two people came from the top of the hill and they came for a general morning walk but Bella alerted me as soon as she senses them. Even they first afraid of Bella and asked me whether she will bit or not. After I realizing they were good people, I ensure them about Bella's comfort. She sat just beside me and she was not happy yet with those persons. We talked for a while and they surprised to see me alone on top of this hill. Although the hill is quite a famous, and pilgrim spot nobody usually dares to stay all alone for the whole night. 

         

                                      

                                         Selfie with always alert Bella and tent

The tent was moist due to dew after some time sunlight started falling on us, so I have decided to sit for a while in sunlight and let my tent dry. It is not good to pack your tent when it is moist. As I was sitting in sunlight and enjoying the view I heard the call of Gray Francolin. As I never ever saw that bird I was excited to see one. The male was calling so loudly that the voice can be heard from far. I was able to get some record shots.

                              

                               After roaming around she again decided to sleep for while inside tent.

Around 8.30 AM some of my friends accidentally came to the spot so they were all asked about last night's experience after some time finally I dismantle my tent and went home. I was one of the best night of my life and must be best of Bella's also. Hopefully, we will go for more such adventurous camping tours soon. Till then Stay Safe and Healthy. 

Happiness is sleeping on the grass and staring at the sky




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