What does the word camping bring to your mind? A beautiful experience of staying in a childhood dream-like place? Feeling warm inside a cosy tent? Cool breeze taking away all your stress and worries? A massive adrenaline rush?
Well, yes it grabs all the wonderful things mentioned above and much more tailored experiences. But aren’t we missing the most exciting and happiness element to it? I’m talking about camping with ‘Friends’.
This blog post talks about the camping experience I had with my friends. It also highlights how taking short breaks are necessary for your inner happiness, and the tips you can consider when you make a girls-only camping plan.
Camping at Ramanagara, Karnataka, India
It was January 14th 2019. I had just returned from a Bahrain vacation and I was resuming my work in Bangalore. My birthday was coming up in a few days and like always all my plans had got cancelled.
While I was upset about the cancelled plans, suddenly a recent discussion which I had with my friend, Pratiksha (she is like my sister) came up to my mind. It was about the camping tour packages available in Thrillophilia (an adventure travel company in India and other Asian countries).
Wasting no time, I started deep-diving into their website and found out some really cool camping tour packages. Among the ones I saw, what caught my attention was about the camping tour package they have in Ramanagara in Karnataka, which was so close to Bangalore, where I live.
It was a perfect weekend gateway plan and it brought back some excitement in me indeed. The next thing I did was that I conversed about the plan with my friends, Pratiksha and Varsha (She is a twin friend of mine at work). Without having second thoughts, there were in for the plan.
Let’s go camping:
The plan was made for the weekend after my birthday and we were quite thrilled and prepared for it. The camp location was around 75 km away from our place and our journey started on a Saturday early morning by road. It was a foggy winter morning and I love Bangalore winters.
Vintage music, beautiful weather, and smooth drive (My friend, Pratiksha is an amazing driver) gave a fun-filled kick start to our girls-only camping.
Q Mango Resort at Ramanagara:
Within 2 hours of drive, we reached the camp location, Q Mango Resort in Ramanagara and it was an eye calming scenery there.
A guide from Thrillophilia was there to assist us with the entry and briefed us about the place and camping itinerary. After having a South Indian breakfast they provided, we took a location tour.
Lush green hills around, cosy tents amid nature, chirping birds, a beautiful lake, and relaxing music, made it worth a view.
Although the package included adventure activities like kayaking, trekking, zip-lining, rappelling, etc., we decided to just enjoy the place, spend quality time together, balance the stress level and relax to the fullest, as that was the only motive of our trip.
The lake with sky blue water -
The first spot that grabbed our attention was the lake at the grounds of the camp. It was the most attractive spot there, and it was calm, peaceful and surreal. They weren’t many people around when we went there and it gave us ample of time to admire the beauty of the lake, breathe in the positivity it offered us, and capture it well in our phones and minds.
Hammock and us -
The next spot that we enjoyed the most was an area where they had kept multiple hammocks in the middle of the greenery and we found our peace and therapeutic time there.
The cool breeze blowing around, hills spread out in the background, our joyful conversation and swinging in a hammock took away half of our day.
Leisurely evening -
A pleasant evening came our way after having a Karnataka style lunch, exploring the facilities provided by the resort, and relaxing at our tents.
We found a cosy place under a tree, where we played our favourite music and started enjoying some games. As the evening became brighter, we saw people heading towards the lake to witness the sunset and we became one among them. Gazing at that sunset was the best experience we had there.
Bonfire and fun -
After a high tea session, we got ready for a bonfire and fun night. The weather hit 17°C and it was perfect for camping night.
We moved to the bonfire area of the camp, cuddled up in our jackets and Thrillophilia, the camp organisers, had set it up in groups. There were bonfire, music, dance and some delicious food. We had fun and pretty entertaining time that night.
It’s time to leave -
Staying in a cosy tent was a beautiful experience and it was my first time. Though it got colder as the night falls, we enjoyed every bit of it.
We wanted to visit the lake again before we leave the resort and hence, we were up early the next morning. We internalised the view again and took a part of the positivity it offered us back to Bangalore. After spending some time with a little girl who enjoyed our company there, we said goodbye to the camp location.
How taking short breaks are necessary for your inner happiness?
I and my friends (Pratiksha and Varsha) worked for the same team in the company that time and our work always had exhaustive research and frequent deliverables. So taking a break was something that we crave for.
Our camping trip at Ramanagara was short and we haven’t tried any adventure activity there, which normally wasn’t the case with us. But this time, we wanted a break just to relax, bring down our stress levels, and just enjoy nature. The camping gave us exactly what we wanted - a therapeutic time.
Taking short breaks can be a quick detox for your mind. Whether it’s opting for a weekend gateway, visiting your family, attending a workshop, going for a spa treatment, or participating in voluntary activities, you will undoubtedly find your happiness.
Do anything different from your routine based work and something that can fill your heart with joy. It matters, and it helps you.
Tips you can consider when making a girls-only camping plan
If you have read through the above details of the camping we had, you would know that it was a relaxing and fun-filled trip. However, there were a few difficulties we faced, as it was a girls-only trip.
Basically, I don’t agree with what we normally hear that a particular country is unsafe for women to travel. But there are definitely bad people around us and they might look for an opportunity to trick the girls if they find it convenient.
Having said that, women cannot stop travelling due to the fear of facing bad people around. You just need to be alert, careful and matured enough to take care of yourself.
Tips all the girls can consider / what we followed for our girls camping:
- Research thoroughly about the travel company you are opting the camping tour package from. (We did it pretty well)
- Ensure that your commuting options are well planned and coordinated. (We went by our friend’s car)
- Royally ignore the people who are keen to become your friends at the camp location. (We had a witnessed a few)
- Say ‘No’ to the eatables and drinks that people offer. (There are a lot of generous people in this world when they see a girl alone)
- Talk to the camp organisers about your stay. They mostly give safe options for girls. (Thrillophilia was sweet enough to give us tents near families)
- Be alert about the people around and the environment. (If not everyone, at least one girl in the group should be)
- Listen to your gut feeling and behave accordingly. (99% of the time it doesn’t go wrong)
- Take care of your belongings and valuables (It’s just your responsibility)
- Mind your own business, have your own fun and ignore the rest. (We did exactly that)
- Carry a pepper spray. (Just to be on the safer side)
To sum it up..
It was a memorable camping experience for us at Ramanagara and we had a therapeutic time there. It is indeed a beautiful place in Karnataka to visit. P.S. Much of the Bollywood movie ‘Sholay’ was shot at Ramanagara.
To all the girls, who are planning to go for a similar trip, kindly do your research well and then get started. I hope you can also have a memorable camping experience like what we had at Ramanagara.
Kindly check out the video summary of the blog post below:
Do connect with me at 📧 perhapsawish@gmail.com, if you need any further information about camping at Ramanagara.
Do let me know your views about this blog post in the comments section. If you find this post helpful, share it with a friend or on your social media today!
Much love
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