Camping by the River Dhaleshwari

 

The Call of the River

In a gloomy morning of dilemmatic and whimsical winter, we set out, on a sudden unplanned tour, to reach the serene tranquility of Dhaleshwari River at Dhaleshwari Camping & Kayaking, without any prior knowledge to the stunning surprise awaiting us.

 

River Dhaleshwari

Dhaleshwari is a distributary river flowing out of Jamuna to make a solo trip to cover a long journey along 160 kilometers on Tangail, Dhaka and Narayanganj districts until it merges with Shitalakshya and then the mighty Meghna.

Unlike the other rivers flowing inside the heart of Dhaka, Dhaleshwari still holds the natural look of a river with the natural flow, uncontaminated water and soothing view on its both banks, especially in the Keraniganj part, which is where the Dhaleshwari Camping & Kayaking is located at. 

 

The Camping Site

As I said earlier, it was entirely an unplanned Friday morning tour. Waking up a little earlier than the usual Fridays, I felt like making an escape plan from the motored life and a river outside the mechanized city was the very first imagery to have struck my mind. And I ran into the unplanned trip.

I have explored several tourist spots based on the river Buriganga in the heart of Dhaka, but was utterly disappointed with the odor and the water quality of the near dead river. In this regard, Dhaleshwari River was a little far from the heart of the city, and the little distance was enough to avoid the unavoidable pollution streaming out of an over-burdened city.

I had heard about the Dhaleshwari Camping & Kayaking site from several Facebook posts, especially from a group on a cleaning campaign to free the St. Martin’s Island off the curses of plastic wastages. And Jayed Khan Khaled bhai was the one who carried all those wastages all the way from Teknaf to his camping site on a hired truck to make an eco-friendly barge on the Dhaleshwari River.

 

 The Surprise

Even without the necessary pre-booking for the site under maintenance, Jayed Khan Khaled bhai cordially accepted us as friends, not as clients and arranged a late breakfast along with the mouth-watering lunch with the aroma of a blissful village home and a mind-blowing site-seeing.

We had already made our day, quenching the long-cherished thirst for spending an entire day by the spell of a river, far from the mayhem of maddening crowd. And it was all possible because of the unbelievable congeniality and hospitality of Jayed Hasan Khaled Bhai.

We had been enjoying the short trip way beyond the expectations. And then it became a very very special one with the sudden visit of Anisul Haque sir. It was one kind of a moment to feel really fortunate about. Felt so blessed to have the company of such a celebrated personality from this close!  

 

The Nature is kind,

Enough to get you find

The ultimate solace,

Floating within

And hidden behind

The water and the wind.

The Plan ‘B’

It was close enough to reach the spot in about 40 minutes from the Dhanmondi area of the city, but still far enough to dodge the deafening chaos into the calm and quiet serenity on the very lay of the Nature. But, the Dhaleshwari Camping & Kayaking is targeted for the people in love with the raw nature in an entirely village setting. If you happen to look for the luxury offered by the traditional resorts, this might fall into plan ‘B’ for you. But, if you want to dive deeper into the tranquility of the Nature, want to enjoy the soothing greenery of a village, the bliss of a serene river and the peace hidden deep down your heart, this is the perfect kind of place that you can choose for a camping site for a day long stay or for a night to explore the magic of melting Moon flooding the flow of Dhaleshwari.

The Journey

We took an uber ride to get to the spot and the car took about 35 minutes to drop us at Dhaleshwari Camping & Kayaking at the expense of 600 BDT.  CNGs are also available from Muhammadpur bus stand at Basila to get to Kalatia Bazar, Keraniganj and from there any auto-rickshaw can drive you to the camp site on the bank of the river in a few minutes.