{"id":1036,"date":"2017-10-25T19:36:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.wordpress.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2017-10-25T19:36:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:06:01","slug":"weekend-with-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/?p=1036","title":{"rendered":"Weekend With Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1036\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"1036\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon small\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p>By now anyone reading my blog would have guessed that I am becoming a regular customer at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.exoticamp.com\/\">Exoticamp.<\/a>\u00a0So when the host mentioned that their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.exoticamp.com\/event\/nature-camp-camping-kayaking-birdwatching-cycling-campfire\/\">Sri City camp<\/a> is ready with all the facilities I badly wanted to pay a visit. After finishing a really comical movie my friend and I started for the camp which is roughly a 100km drive. And man! The bike ride was fun except for the hot hot sun. It was almost 4:30 pm when we reached the camp site. And we both were immediately ushered to the lake area for some fun activity &#8211; Kayaking.<\/p>\n<p>Now&#8230; I have only seen kayaking and stuff on TV or on the internet. Never once have I touched a paddle or done something like this. But the briefing given was clear and there were enough people assuring us that they will be right by our side in case we do fall in water. You know that is exactly what you need when you do not know an ounce of swimming and you are being pushed into the water on a plastic boat. Kayaking towards the sunset is something you guys should do at least once in your lives. Trying to direct your kayak towards the edge of the lake and getting tired was one thing. But the sunset and colours reflecting on the water surface gives you enough energy to start paddling again.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1037\" src=\"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_6202.jpg?w=700\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As it started getting darker we went back to our camp site. While some of the guys started playing cricket the others just sat by the lawn and were chatting away. All this time they were preparing the barbecue. Yummy grilled chicken, paneer, mushroom and pineapple were being served and the camp fire started. Now the actual fun began. Getting to know the other campers! In between the ice breaking session and the tasty food that was provided we actually lost track of time. The host then offered to take us for a night stroll. Now this is not your usual kind of walk you get to do around your apartment complex. We are talking about pitch black almost forest areas filled with a lot of thorn shrubs and a lot more nocturnal reptiles.<br \/>\nThat guy was recalling his own travel adventures as a bunch of walked through the dark path. I am not sure if this is mentioned as one of the activities in the itinerary. But I loved it. It was our lucky night. There was a temple festival happening in the nearby village. We could hear their music and sounds in our camp sites. The curiosity got the better of us and a few of us went towards those sounds. That festival was unlike anything I have seen in my life. Seriously it made me wonder what all fun I have been missing out on with this city life.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Exoticamp, not only did I get to spend time with nature but also I got to witness a bit of rural experience as well which I would never ever get in Chennai. Its fun when you camp with friends. It is even more fun when you make friends at such camps and spend the entire night. I literally went to sleep at 4 am. It was almost like the camps that I missed out as a school kid(was never allowed to attend scouts and guides camp)<br \/>\nI am getting to experience such moments with these guys. Morning rolled in and now they asked us to gear up again with the life jackets. Turns out there was a creek that ran from the lake and due to the rains it had good water flow. You do not need swimming classes. The life jackets were pretty helpful and so were the guide rope that they had tied up for us. I am not sure how long we were playing in the water, but we stayed there until all our fingers had gone wrinkly.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1042\" src=\"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_20171021_151657-effects1.jpg?w=700\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"436\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And finally after some mouth watering lunch we sort of whaled around due to the heavy food intake. Also most of us didn&#8217;t want to leave the camp.<br \/>\nMy biggest highlight in this camp was the fun puppy Zoey. To see her play and swim in the water was just a joyous thing for all of us.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1039\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1039\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1039 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/dsc05683.jpg?w=700\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"465\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1039\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thats Zoey trying to get to the shore after having a hearty swim&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A camp with good facilities that is totally kid friendly and pet friendly is sort of one of its kind according to me. There were 4-5 kids under the age 5 and they also had a lot of fun as far as I could see. 10\/10 would definitely recommend this camp to all of my friends. Especially the ones with a little one at home.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1040\" src=\"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/dsc05711.jpg?w=700\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"465\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1036\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"1036\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon small\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p>By now anyone reading my blog would have guessed that I am becoming a regular customer at Exoticamp.\u00a0So when the host mentioned that their Sri City camp is ready with all the facilities I badly wanted to pay a visit. After finishing a really comical movie my friend and I started for the camp which&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[168,236,340,351,535,598,665,870,905,996],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inner-musings","tag-camping","tag-creek","tag-exoticamp","tag-falls","tag-kayaking","tag-mango-grove","tag-nature","tag-sricity","tag-tada","tag-water-sports"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":41,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}