Biking All the Way to Dajipur Wildlife Sanctuary

It was going to be Dajipur after all. We’ve been debating for some time now about where to go. Amit wanted to visit Mahabaleshwar, yet again. But I wanted to try out something new. Finally I had it my way, as we settled on the Dajipur Wildlife Sanctuary near Kolhapur.

So a couple of days before Christmas we kicked off on our Royal Enfield Thunderbirds. The winter morning numbed us as we reached NH4. We’d be taking the Mumbai-Pune-Kolhapur-Dajipur route to reach this sanctuary. We stopped at Khandala for our breakfast. We met two other bullet riders, who were taking the southern route visiting Bangalore, Ooty, Pondy, and back. We felt humbled. After all, it was just going to be seven hours max to Dajipur.

We reached Kolhapur around 3:30 in the afternoon, and took a break. It was going to be a late lunch as we wanted to cover as much distance as we could before stopping again. Radhanagari was the last important town before the forest began. We refilled our tanks here and moved on. I was eager, because the last leg would surely be the most thrilling part of the journey. It soon turned dark. Our headlights showed us the way as we tried to stay away from the potholes. The moon glistened above us. Finally, around 7:30 in the evening we reached our resort. It took more time than expected.

The next day – Dajipur

We got up from bed early the next day. Our city lungs immediately felt the difference. The fresh countryside air was rejuvenating. We had a quick breakfast and headed for the bison sanctuary. We reached the manned entry point soon and paid up the entry fee. We certainly received some stares for trying to take on the sanctuary on our bikes. We moved on ignoring them.

The road wasn’t easy. Our 350cc engines were doing their best to keep us going on the earth track. It was a fine balance, trying to work with the clutch and accelerator. An old man stopped us soon enough, telling us that the main watch tower was 19 kilometers inside the forest. We had to traverse through more of such road to reach there. It seemed an impossible task. Of course, we had to return as well. We were also told that our noisy bikes would scare away most animals. So we had zero luck working for us. if we broke down somewhere, there was no way to return by 6 in the evening – that’s the time the main gate of the sanctuary closes. So we changed our plans and returned to our resort.

The next day, we did what most others do. We hired a taxi. We saw a lot of birds and the famed Dajipur Talao. But the highlight of the trip was the lone bison holding his position, all ready to charge at us. No harm was done of course as we quickly moved to a safe distance.