This is one question we have to constantly ask ourselves “ When was the last time you did something for the first time..?”
After my first trip with Backpackers and City Freaks (BCF ), I was waiting for my next trip to go but this time I thought of doing something more adventurous by pushing my limits. I found my answer through “Scuba Diving Event” at Netrani Island at Murudeshwar located in north Kannada district in Karnataka state by the same travel group “Backpackers and City Freaks ( BCF )” but this time with a different set of people. That's the beauty of this group, you get a chance to meet more people for every trip you travel with them. This means you are exposed to different thoughts and you get a chance to see the life from different perspectives
I went to railway station and boarded the train which is a regular thing and met all group members and introduced myself. The journey was like 17 hours. Generally the reservations will be in different compartments but the organizer makes us to sit at one place by requesting other passengers or TC (Ticket Collector ) so that everyone will get to know each other very well and can have more fun. It’s like sitting 16 people sitting at one place where actually it’s a place for 6 people but we never felt discomfort. We played UNO and many other games and became good friends within no time.
We reached Hubli by 7 am. From there it’s a journey of 6 hours to Murudeshwar by hired vehicle, the 6 hours journey was finished in no time with our songs,dance,jokes. Then we reached to our home stay which was just few steps away from the Beach, we freshened up and had our lunch and went to Murudeshwar Temple which I am eagerly waiting to go because it is the one of the world’s largest shiva statue with a height of 123 ft (37.5 mtrs ).
I was Awestruck by the huge statue which is resting on the shore of the sea. There was a Rajagopuram built in front of the temple which was 20 storey Gopura which was provided with Lift facility where you can see the breathtaking panoramic views of Shiva statue and beach
After darshan we roamed in the beach and had beach side food like fish and crabs. We took some pics and gathered for campfire just beside the beach and shared our weird stories and played some games in the beach and had delicious homemade chicken curry and in the night again played cards, UNO and slept. I was experiencing all together a different experience compared to my previous trip to Bhivpuri and waterfall rappelling.
I slept with a lot of curiosity thinking about the next day adventure which is going to be the best memorable events of my life.
We woke up early in the morning the next day and had nice filter chai and had roamed in the beach in the morning.
We had some leisure time before the Big adventure of the day so we tried some water sports games like banana ride ,jetski etc.
Time for the Big game:
Actually diving place Netrani island is two hour boat journey ( ~ 10 Nautical Miles ) in the sea from murudeshwar beach. So we loaded all the scuba equipments and gear in to the boat along with our scuba instructors. In the journey our instructors explained everything and cleared all our doubts and fears regarding scuba and we reached our diving place within an hour or so.I thought of doing it as early as possible rather than waiting, so that I can enjoy some time in the sea by snorkeling. I grabbed the chance to complete my dive first.
Exchanging Instructors :
Here I want to share one cute incident. There was a cute lady instructor along with other 2 male instructors. So there was a girl and me waiting for our turns. One of male instructor asked me to jump inside the sea and I thought he will be my instructor and the girl was called by female instructor. The girl and I looked at each other and we swapped our places with in a split second and I got a chance to be guided by female instructor and she got a chance to be guided by male instructor. Both were happy.(Mutual Understanding)…😊.
When I immediately jumped in to the sea first two minutes were like chaos, but she made me comfortable and explained clearly and slowly took me in to the under water. As I moved in to the water she left me and I started enjoying myself by roving like a fish. The serene calmness of sea, beautiful corals, spotting variety of fishes, everything is like a beautiful painting inside the sea. Instructor asked me that whether I want to go more deep?, and I said yes. So she took me deeper and I can feel the pressure of water inside my ears as I go deeper. Here I had given few poses.
Scuba Diving is like meditation under water .You won’t think about past, you won’t worry about future, all you do is just “Live in the Moment mindfully”. It made me believe that Living in the moment is the only thing which is real and rest all is imaginary. When you view from broader perspective it made me think we are all like a just speck of dust inside the infinite ocean.The feeling after the scuba diving made me think that I have achieved something important in my life. As I am unable to express all my feelings I just sat in front of the boat and enjoyed my return journey with lots of memories.
Thriller (Bus chase):
We came to Murudeshwar around 4pm and our bus was at 9 pm from Hubli. This is to reach hyderabad. We have to travel to Hubli from murudeshwar which is 4 to 5 hours journey. But there was a delay of around one hour for us in copying all the underwater photos of all team members in to pen drive as it is like 10 GB. So as it was getting late we handed over the pen drive to them to send it afterwards by speed post. RK instructed the bus driver to drive as fast as he can so that we can reach hubli on time, meanwhile we were enjoying with songs and dances. The bus driver from Hubli called RK as majority of seats were booked for us and they were vacant. RK convinced that we will make in time by saying we were just half an hour away but we were actually like around 2 hours away to reach to hubli. The bus driver was continuously calling our organizer as the other passengers were asking him when will the bus start. Finally the driver informed RK and said the bus is moving. But we were like half an hour away. So our organizer had made a plan instinctively and said to driver that we are just 5 minutes away so please take the dinner for us near the hotel as we didn’t had our dinner. So the driver took the food for entire team and waiting for us. This way the driver had to stop for us because he ordered food for 18 people and his money got locked. But you know what none of my friends on the trip are concerned about reaching on time as we were immersed in ourselves with songs, dance, shitty jokes. But finally we reached as every other passenger is waiting for us, so our organizer answered the driver and apologized to the driver and also to the entire other passengers who were already waiting for us.
We had our dinner on the go and had a sound sleep as everyone were fully exhausted.
So, always ask yourself “When was the last time you did something for the first time..?”