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Adventure travel in India

January 24, 2014

Travelling beyond boring family holidays, the Indian musafir is finally discovering some adrenalin pumping options. The travel landscape of India has amassed a wide variety of ‘thrills inducing’ destinations and travel ideas in the last decade. And here are some that haven’t yet been fully discovered.

Riding the Waves off Pondicherry

Block your calendar for some soul warming sun and adventure on the surfboard. The city, otherwise tinged with a sleepy vibe, was awakened when the Kallialay Surf School (KASS) opened. The village of Tandriyankuppam, adjacent to the East Coast Road is where two French brothers' passion took shape in the form of a full-fledged surf school. If not for regular classes, drop in for the Summer Swell Challenge where surfers from across the world come for a two-day surfing festival in August.

Microlight flying in Coorg

Explore the ludicrously green coffeescapes of Coorg from a completely different angle –3500 feet above the ground. Test the winds while safely tucked into a Microlight plane with the roaring engine as a constant background score. With a communication headset, windcheater and a decent measure of fortitude in place, you are ready to take off from a short grassy runway and gain up to 700 feet in just a minute before rising all the way to 3500 feet. Needless to say, there is no better vantage point to enjoy the verdant landscape of Coorg.

Scuba Diving in Netrani

Discover a whole new world under the sea, off the Karnataka Coast near Pigeon Island in Netrani. 10 nautical miles off the temple town of Murudeshwar is where you can hone your diving skills and witness inexplicable colours, shapes and textures sprawling on the ocean floor. Teeming with marine life, this is fast emerging as a hotspot for diving. Make sure that you sign up with a reliable outfit for proper training before you take off to gape with at exotic world beneath the sea.

Paragliding in Vagamon

Apart from usual suspects like cruises in the backwaters, elephant rides, and Ayurveda, God’s Own Country has yet another surprise for musafirs - paragliding in Vagamon. With its low grassy hills overlooking a valley and a 3500 ft drop to dive into, Vagamon is a perfect site for paragliders. In 2006, the first flying festival organised here was followed by numerous events in the years after, bringing in hundreds of flying experts to the region. Go on, take off!

Bouldering in Badami

The boulder-strewn topography of Hampi is more than just a place to soak in some history. It’s also the perfect setting to bring crash mats and gear to balance on the crags of massive brown rocks strewn all around. The undisputed bouldering capital of India, head to Hampi to explore new ‘problems’ and manoeuvre through a large rockscape.