TrEk FoR LiFe

2011-05-20- Bheemeswari Night out

2011-06-05T04:40:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
Offlate it's kind off hard to get like minded people who wish to spend a wild night out in a freaky forest (Common - think straight!). Four guys made it to Bheemeswari - Ravi(new entrant with pumping adrenalin), Sandeep, Srikanth and Zorro-Rojo(my new nick - Red Fox). The poor time keepers this time were Sandeep and Srikanth who showed up 2 hours late they show up 1530 hours.

From Zorro-Rojo, Ravikanth, Sandeep, Srikanth

Muthathi:
We reached Muthathi pretty comfortably - 17:30 hours with a lot of day light to spare. Soon we hit problems with Srikanth on a flat rear tyre. With two spare bikes it wasn't a problem to manage the temporal loss, however with no repair shop nearby we parked the bikes in a makeshift tent at Muthathi to proceed further.

Bheemeswari
3 kms further away from Bheemeswari is a secret place where we frequented. Now the place has given way to a new forest guest house. We were left with no choice but look out for a new safe haven. It was 1930 hours with not many options we took shelter in the open beside the Cauvery's.

From Camp Site

Campsite
Got the camp fire and bajjis started rolling in, along with the bajjis were a few locusts, and interesting fire-flies fried as well. It was time to rest in peace (i mean we were done for the day). To keep the foxes at bay i had just the right music rocking through the night - Lady Gaga, Katty Perry,Cascada and so-on.. Basically we stayed up whole night each for a different reason -
Sandeep, Srikanth and Ravi just couldn't handle Lady Gaga; like the foxes, myself kept the fire rolling through the night.

From 2011-05-21 - Fire after the Rains

2011-05-21 - New Day
We danced 0530 hours not 'cause of Gaga, it had started to rain down heavily, we just weren't prepared for it. Packed our bags and kept them below a maiden tree and started a photo session. We got lukcy, the foxes and the deers showed up in large numbers. The rain didn't last more than 30 minutes to our relief. The camp fire wasn't disturbed we heated MTR pre-cooked food - had breakfast and soon left. On way back we had Srikanth's tyre fixed and zoomed back home safely. In the end it was a rocking trip.

From Foxes Hole

Finale:
1. Fun for Free
2. FYI, Fuel & Bajji's didn't come free spent about INR 300 here.
3. Deers & Foxes don't like Gaga
4. My next adventure - Mogala Betta PART - III [I am somehow obsessed with this place]

Devara Gudda + Mogala Betta ~ Virgin Route

2011-03-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
Our earlier attempt to capture Mogala Betta via Virgin Route turned out pretty disastrous. We ended up meters short of Mogala betta summit. The team this time was Gururaj & Rohit. We were well prepared to beat all odds, new trek gear, sufficient water and escape routes.

Mogala Betta Rojo on Mogalabetta Ridge

Day 1 - 2011-03-26
We got off at Gundya check post at 0500 hours. Freshened up sipped Tea followed by tender coconut waited for 1st ray of light to start our arduous journey. We locked compasses to head North-East. To start with the weather conditions were pleasant, but with no breeze, extremely dry conditions and spiny shrubs it was pretty tough clearing through the jungle. We forgot our sickle and used bare hands to maneuver thorny shrubs bruising our hands. We reached open grasslands by 0830 hours. From here begins the hardest part. Our rate of assent dropped considerably; we ended up taking longer breaks in open grasslands with sun shining right into our faces all the way up.

Mogala Betta Mogala Betta peak in the distant far

Summit:
We summit Mogala Betta by 1130 hours. We got into the adjacent forest took rest and a long lunch break till 1300 hours. We next headed towards Devara Gudda further north. We reached the base of Devara Gudda by 1330 hours, there were 2 peaks almost of same height and I could not figure out Devara gudda off them :). So we decided to head back and hurried our way back another new route. By now we had run out of water, with no known source of water nearby we had to get moving faster.

Mogala Betta View Down Mogala Betta Peak

We picked up a new valley for our descent; by the time we entered the thick tree cover it was already 1900 hours. We used mobile torch light and an led torch to cut through thorny shrubs and thick forest cover. Just 100 meters down we found water!! We kept going till we realised it was raining. The terrain around was steep descending valley; with absolutely no other possibility we stayed up all night in the stream completely drenched, shivering... After drinking too much hard water we had to skip dinner. Gururaj ended up even puking each time he drank the water from the stream.

Devara Betta Devara Betta Ridge

Day 2 - 2011-03-27
The night was very unpleasant, we thought we will not make it through the night; we had imagined we would meet our end with one of flash floods, lightening strikes or snake bites. It was the first time during any trek I was so cold and blank; I did not know what to do... In the morning we were disoriented due to de-hydration, lack of food and sleeplessness all acting at the same time :). We just kept following the stream which led us back to civilization. We took bath in the nearby stream and head back to Bangalore in a Rajahamsa (something unusual - we generally take the Red-bus :)).

Devara Betta Devara Betta as seen from Mogala Betta Peak

Finale
1. Carry sufficient portable water, drinking water from streams can make you puke in summers.
2. Use a sickle to cut through thorny shrubs and obstacles.
3. Use leather gloves to prevent thorns pricking.
4. Avoid trekking during summers.
5. Take care of your camera and other belongings, I lost my camera hood; if you find it please return it :)
6. Photos are off Day1 only, I was too dis-oriented to click pictures of Day 2 :P
7. Parasitic Tics are active around March, Guru had few on him, the bites heal very slow.
8. Our legs took a beating getting down steep ridges, we have blisters all over :)
9. Due to inflation the total expense of the trek was INR 500 per head.

Terrain Map Red - The Assent, Blue - The Descent

Pucón - Volcan Villarica - Trek

2011-01-29T07:51:00.001-08:00

Introduction:
Volcan Villarica is one of the most active volcanoes in the region of South America. Pucón is one of the beautiful cities in the south of Chile - Region IX or Araucanía. 5 of us decided and in just 2 weeks bus tickets and accommodation was booked. The troupe consisted of Carla,Militza,Vinayak,Louis & Rohit.

Day 1 [2011-01-22]:
1. Lago Azul:
Lago Azul has numerous small waterfalls with a difference. The water here is distinctly deep blue in colour.

Pucón Lago Azul

The place is clean and camping is permitted. We spent about 2 hours and left to Caburgua

2. Lago Caburgua:
This is one of the most popular lakes in Pucón only to Villarica Lake. The specialty out here is that the lake bed has sand. The sand is black at one stretch and white at the other stretch. Surrounded by huge mountains and thick forest tree cover.

3. Playa Blanca @ Lago Caburga [White Beach]:
While on our Boat ride we past by Playa Blanca.

Pucón Playa Blanca

The place was overcrowded with Tourists sun bathing.

4. Playa Negra @ Lago Caburga [Black Beach]:
We spent a while here walked along the sandy beach stretch had lunch and left to the Hot water spring.

Pucón Lago Caburga - Volcan Villarica in the backdrop and Playa Negra

5. Terma Quimey-Co:
Quimey-Co is a private hot water spring with water maintained at 3 different temperatures. The coolest of the lot is outdoor with open roof.

Pucón Quimey-Co - Wrist Band

The other is outdoor with a sun-roof and the final one is indoor with the warmest waters.
We spent considerable time in each of the pools playing and relaxing.

Pucón Hostel - Victor

Our day ended with preparation for the Volcan trek and a dinner party at a local restaurant includes Kuntsman Beer, Pisco Sour & Melon juice.

Pucón Salud Volcan!

Day 2 [2011-01-23]: Volcan Villarica Trek:
We were given strict instructions not to eat anything heavy the previous night and the day of the trek just 2 Bannanas. We were given heavy back packs with snow gear and each carried atleast 2 litres of water accompanied with light lunch.

Pucón Slopes of Volcan Villarica

The weather report was clear skies but strong winds. The ski station had shutdown lift service and that meant we had to trek an additional 1 hour. From here on the hike gets tougher and we start to use the Ice-Pick.

Pucón Tour Operator Uniform

We were given brief lessons on how to use them and we took off after a brief snack break. Carla found it very hard and gave up.

Pucón Various other Groups racing Ahead

From here on it meant no rocks to rest on and snow everywhere. The climb gets steeper and the ice had turned slippery. I kept falling the ice pick saved me from dying atleast a 6 times! Vinayak too felt it very strenuous and took a break. It was just Militza, Louis and Me.
Trekking on snow is atleast 3 times harder than trekking on normal rocky terrain. To add to it, we were carrying too much water and other accessories required for the descent.

Pucón Solitary Soul

The wind got stronger as we got higher and higher, I was just too dehydrated. I even began to eat the snow as i was too lazy to get the bottle out to sip. The Guide instructed me not to as it contained toxins from the volcano. Initially I began taking a lot of pictures, towards the end i had to pack it back in due to the terrain.

Pucón Fuming Volcan Crater - Rohit, Militza

The sun is pretty intense, burns any exposed part of the body. A lot of sun screen and full arm jacket/shirt recommended. We reached the summit at a snails pace. The sight on the top is just too good. I was all too excited to peep into the crater of the volcano. The place stinks of Sulphur, one cannot go too close as the terrain is dangerous, one could easily slip inside the crater :D.
I clicked a lot of pics and took 2 rock samples for my memories. Not sure how I will smuggle that back home to India :D.
The best part is the descent. We slide down the volcano on our asses. I could not take any pictures as it was too dangerous to get the camera out. We wore special gear to prevent our asses from frying along with special lower knee sheath to prevent snow wetting our pants down.

Pucón Volcan Vegetation!

We reached Pucón at 1700, just had time for our last Lunch-Dinner and ran to catch our buses to reach Santiago early next morning. We reported to work and did work the following Monday with our aching asses, knees, and backs :D

All in all it was a very special trek and experience. By Chilen Standards, we had covered a great deal of places in a very short period of time.

Pucón Lago Caburga - Louis,Carla,Militza,Vinayak

Finale:
1. Volcan trek cost ranges from 30,000 CLP to 45000 CLP. One has to bargain and strike a deal. We were initially asked to pay up 40000 CLP, after bargaining it was settled for 30000 CLP.
2. There are 2 timings for the trek, 0430 hours and 0730 hours; we weren't lucky for the 0430 hours trek.
3. Trekking on Snow is atleast 3 times harder than trekking on a rocky terrain.
4. You get dehydrated on snow very quickly, you need to keep drinking water.
5. The snow is slippery and hard to grip on, you must learn to use to ice-pick.
6. Sun screen is very much necessary, another pal did not use it, his face is burnt and skin's pealing.
7. Book bus tickets and accomodation atleast a month or couple of months earlier to get a good deal.

Pyramid Valley

2010-06-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Pyramid Valley Front View of the Pyramid

This unheard place is just 35 kms from Bangalore. It is near Harohalli about 15 kms before Kanakapura via NH 209. It is believed to be the largest Meditation Pyramid in the world.

Preetham and myself decided to visit the place. Since we did not know the exact location, we overshot our destination and missed a very prominent land mark where we were to take a left deviation. We initially hit Harohalli city limits and had to back track.

Pyramid Valley Budha statue

The campus is pretty big which is yet to be completed, including the Pyramid. There is a big Amphitheatre, Canteen Facility, Library and the Pyramid Itself. Kids are strictly not permitted inside the Pyramid and visitors are expected to turn off cell phones inside the pyramid.

Pyramid Valley Pyramid Meditation hall entrance

Inside the Pyramid:
There is a huge meditation hall, it's got a King's chamber where it's believed to have the maximum concentration of cosmic energy however one's expected to spend at-least 30 minutes on entering the King's chamber meditating.

Pyramid Valley Pyramid Meditation hall entrance

People recommend Full moon day to experience highest doses of cosmic energy. The atmosphere inside is stuffy and I felt the heat as I kept getting closer to the King's chamber; however there's sufficient lighting. With construction activity still in progress, the environment is noisy and it's hard to meditate; when I was around, a worker was drilling holes with a high speed electrical drill gun inside the Pyramid's stairway :) I could not figure out the idea behind this.

Pyramid Valley The Pyramid Back view

Lunch is served to everyone, including visitors between 1300-1400 hours everyday. From the workers inside the facility, I understand weekend spiritual classes are conducted.

Finale:
1 - Nice place to spend a few hours seeing the architectural marvel.
2 - The best part - There's no one marketing around for taking up courses or into making donations.

Somanahalli Lake near Somanahalli

Muthodi Wildlife Reserve

2010-06-20T05:49:00.001-07:00

2010-06-2010 - 13-06-2010 - Kemangundi,Baababudangiri,Muthodi WLR & Mulliyanagiri

Introduction:

We decided to hit the Western Ghats again. This itenary was finalised Thursday night. Harish did wonders and managed to arrange a Qualis Friday morning such that we start off Friday Evening - amazing guy. The troupe consided of Harish(KK), Jatin, Murali, Gururaj, Debjyothi,Vinesh & Rohit.

Muthodi Wildlife Safari Left to Right inorder: Jatin,Rohit,Debjyothi,Vignesh,Murali,Harish,Gururaj

The meeting point was Majestic Railway station at 2300 hours. Everyone made it on time.

Day 1 - 2010-06-12 - Z-point,Habbi Falls,Jagur View point,Gaali Kere,Manikya Dhara

Kemangundi Z-point

We reached Z-point at 0500 hours, we were the only souls out there. The view was berathtaking. There were clouds clearing up in the direction of the strong chilly winds, the surrounding landscapes had green cover with thick fog everywhere. The ones with cameras were busy clicking and rest were modelling.

Kemangundi Z-point Jatin left behind

We were done by 0800 hours, we had breakfast at Kemangundi and left to Habbi Falls. The only mode of transport is an off-road vehicle with 4x drive.

Kemangundi Flower @ Guest House

Its just about 10 kms and the joy ride will cost you INR 850.. He finally agreed upon INR 700; the ride was bumpy all the while with greenary everywhere.

Kemangundi Habbi Water Falls [Hebbe Falls]

After lunch at Kemangundi we left to Baababuddangiri. The drive to Baababudangiri is awesome through Muthodi Wildlife Reserve.

Muthodi Wildlife Reserve Jaguar View Point [Silver Oak Trees]

The terrain is mountainous with shola vegetation at higher altitudes and thick tree cover lower down.

Muthodi Wildlife Reserve Near Jaguar View Point

We halted by Jaguar view point took a few snaps and left soon after it started to rain. Next we hit this Manikya dhara, the place is a total mess with clothing thrown everywhere and extremely unhygenic.

Baababuddangiri View point at Manikyadhara

However the view from here is breathtaking. We next made it to Gaalikere temple (Anyaneya Temple).

Baababuddangiri Gaalikere

The place was clean but covered with thick clouds with poor visibility. We had to do a bit of jugglary to get our Qualis in making a U-Turn.

Baababudangiri Drive back to Chickmagalur

We then hit Chickmagalur for night stay. We checked into a couple of double bed rooms and had a great dinner.

Day 2 - 2010-06-13 - Sathodi Wildlife Reserve,Mulliyanagiri.

Sathodi Wildlife Safari Indian Gaur

We started our day at 0600 hours with Sathodi wildlife reserve jungle safari. We could spot just the herbivours - Gaurs, deers, peacocks, Kingfishers and a 400 year old teak tree. There is a drive through the wildlife reserve to Mulliyanagiri which we took.

Muthodi Wildlife Safari 400 year old Teak Tree

This route is very scenic and we stopped by a lot of places taking snaps. With every ascent the weather got harsher on the peak it was a storm. Very strong winds, thick fog and intermittent rainfall prevented us from playing around with our cameras.

Mulliyanagiri Mulliyanagiri temple in backdrop

We hurried up to the temple got wet and retured back to Chickmagalur. On reaching Chickmagalur we had a royal meal checked out of the lodge and headed back to Bangalore by 1500 hours. We reached homes by 2200 hours Sunday evening.

Finale -
-Total Expense per head worked out - INR 1550
-With heavy rains forcast not many tourists around

Appeal -
I see a lot of trashing at Habbi Falls/Inside the Wildlife Reserve - plastic Bottles, Glass bottles (broken)..etc, be responsible tourists and dispose them appropriately.

Kemangundi 2Near Jaguar View Point

Mogala Betta [Virgin Trek]

2010-05-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

Introduction:

From Mogala Betta [Virgin Trek Route]

Two Day Trek [2010-05-08 - 2010-05-09]

It had been quite sometime before a Virgin Trek was planned out. I decided it must happen over this weekend. About 10-15 showed interest and 6 showed up off which just 4 completed it. Among the people who made it - Purushottam, Gururaj,Srikanth and Rohit.

From My new avatar - Naxal

We reached Gundia 0700 hours, freshened up had Tea and started the trek. The forest isn't thick we could lock our compasses North-East and kept going. The humidity was pretty high and water consumption was high too. By the time we made it to open grasslands it was Noon. By now Sandeep and Ravi dropped out. Srikanth could not take it and ended up taking a very long nap.

From In the Jungle

Soon it was 1500 hours and started to pour down heavily. By now we were dangerously low on water; we ended up drinking rain water droplets, and it was pretty evident no water ahead as well. The rains gave no respite, the humidity was still very high we kept going.

From Bisle Ghat in the background

Only purushottam made it to the sumit. We were short by 300 meters! => I still have unfinished business will come back for it soon!!! However I did not want to re-trace the serpentine route we took to get here, we took another path which seemed more easier to reach the nearest water source. To do that we had to cut through a dense jungle starting 1900 hours with a pair of torches.

From View down Mogala Betta

The dense jungle had wild thorny shrubs and gigantic trees. We also found a dried up stream which we followed till 2100 hours and decided to spend the night beside it.

From Prominent Peaks from Left to Right -> Amedikallu,Yettina Bhuja,OG in front of it,Dipadkal Gudda, Jenkallu gudda(Mist covered)

Due to damp forest floor no dry wood was available for camp fire. We had some Diesel which we sprinkled around and slept. At 2300 hours it suddenly started to rain down heavy. The rains wouldn't stop, it poured down heavy till about 0300 hours. The umbrella we carried helped us protect our bags and our heads from drowning :)

From Mogala Betta after rains

After about 0100 hours I was out of my sense and had gone to deep deep sleep, I don't recollect how the umbrella got off my head. We woke up at 0600 hours and waited for sunlight to penetrate the thick forest. We started our trek at 0700 hours. We reached Gundia by 1030 hours.

Gururaj, Purushottam and Srikanth decided to visit Kukke temple I decided to head back to Bangalore. Reached back home at 1800 hours.

Finale:
1. Water ~> Most important on any trek
2. Make sure you have determined and brave people while attempting something like this.
3. Compass helped us a lot, I am now confident of compass reading
4. I will re-visit this place sometime soon......

From We Made it out alive! - Gururaj,Purushottam,Srikanth & Rohit.

More Pix here:

2010-05-08 - 2010-05-09 - Mogala Betta [Virgin Trek]

Channa Giri [Biking + Trek]

2010-05-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

Introduction:

From Chikballapur Lighting...

[1 Day Biking + Trekking]
After seeing a few great pix off Pranjal, I decided to bike and trek this place. Vishnu and his friends showed interest and joined in. I do not recollect the group size :) we were about 13.

From Partial Group: Rohit,Jatin,Arpita,Manisha,Tarun,Rahul,Ritu,idplz,Aadarsh,Vishnu; the rest were sleeping:)

We biked on International Airport till we hit Nandi hills crossing. After much confusion and inquiry we made it to the place. We started our Trek at 0030 hours. We reached the peak by 0330 hours.

From Skandagiri? Not sure which place it is..

We were all set and we started preparing hot hot Bajji's. The guys were the cooks and the girls were just complaining. The bajji episode ended at 0500 hours. It was time for sunrise. We got onto the other side [East] took a few snaps till sunrise.

From Sunrise Channagiri

We soon started our downward journey and made it back to civilisation by 1100 hours.

Finale:
1. Preparing Bajji's all night was a great experience.
2. Biking Friday night's a good idea not much traffic.

Waynaad ~ Mysore [Trip]

2010-05-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

Introduction:

From Mysore Palace at 0300 hours :)

2010-02-26 - 2010-03-01 [3 Day TT Trip]

1st March holi - And a long weekend. We decided we go out on a trip to Waynaad covering Masinagudi and Gopalswamy Betta. Initially 8+ showed interest finally 7 showed up. Fuel prices were hiked at the stoke of Midnight. To our fate, our driver was unaware of this. Starting right from 0030 hours we were on the look out for Diesel on the outskirts of Maddur. We were kept waiting till the new price was formally announced and the equipments re-calibrated We spent about 2 hours doing nothing. Girish and his accomplice deserted the group on reaching Mysore.

The road to Waynaad via Bandipur National Park is closed between 2100 hours & 0600 hours for animal safety. We ended up waiting b/w 0400 to 0600 hours. We freshened up at "Way to Life" in Kalepta. We visited Pookat lake -> Meenumuthy falls -> Kuruva Island in order and finally halted for the night back in Gundlepet.

From Chembra Peaks as seen near Meenumutty Falls..

Pookat Lake is just another lake, the only entertainment here is boating, it's more of a hype. Meenumutty Falls is in a Reserve Forest. One has to trek 2 kms starting from a Private Tea estate and then through a forest. The fall is pretty good but the visit comes at a premium. There is a INR 300 for entry for a group of <=10.

From Meenumutty Falls

Kuruva Island is again a hype, reminds me of Cauvery Nisarga Dhama in Coorg, with the exception that there's no rope bridge here instead we have a bamboo raft to cross over. However this place closes down by 1630 hours for fear of Wild Elephants; we reached here at 1700 hours and weren't allowed to cross over to the adjacent island.

From Rohit @ Kuruva Island

Day 2 - Mysore ~ Madhumalay

Next morning we headed off to Gopalswamy betta, by the time we reached the top it was 1000 hours and we weren't lucky and din't spot wildlife. We trekked into the forests of Bandipur upto 1500 hours after a brief visit to Himavad Gopalswamy Betta.

From Drive Down Gopalswamy Betta

We next got to Madhumalay Wildlife reserve. We went on a safari tour. The safari put me to sleep, it was even hard to spot even deers and elephants. The best part is this entire stretch had no crows.

Our next destination was Nanjangud temple. Since it was Sunday a big crowd had gathered and we eneded up waiting an hour. It was too late and we missed Palace lighting.

We next head off the Pizza Corner for dinner. Dinner went on for 2 hours after a long wait. We next need pan, our driver misunderstood it as pawn and took us to Cauvery Emporium. We finally got the pan we were after near St. Philominas Church. By the time we made it home it was 2 am.

Finale:
1. Total Expense per person worked out to INR 2050.
2. No crows in and around Gopalswamy Hills

Valikunja - Kudremukh Range

2010-02-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

Introduction:

From Valikuja Peak in Backdrop;Gururaj,Raghavendra,Purushottam and Rohit in-order

The trek was a mistake with absolutely no real intent. It was decided Friday 1700 hours that we'd trek; Valikunja & Sitabhumi peaks were in our long pending list, we zeroed-in on Valikunja. Participants were just 4 in all - Gururaj, Purushottam, Raghavendra & Rohit(ME). We reached majestic Bus stand at 2300 hours, with no direct busses to Karkala we took a bus to Dharmasthala.

From Happy Valentine's Eve

Day 1[13th Feb. 2010]
On reaching Dharmasthala we were fortunate to find a bus to Karkala waiting. From Karkala we took a bus to Ajakar and a connecting bus to Under. Under's the place from where the trek begins.

From Final Destination

By the time we started the trek, it was close to noon at 1100 hours. We took no guide as usual and decided to make our own roads; we took a winding route though many estates and finally got right on-track what appeared to be a prominent trail taking is the direction of Valikunja. As we got into into tree cover, the climb got steeper; we ended up taking longer breaks with very little ascent.

From Toad in action at a local stream

By 1715 hours we hit the last known water source, we knew we were close to the peak we camped for the night along the trail, with no suitable flat camping site.
We could smell fresh elephant dung and foot print beside the water source and decided to have 2 camp fires to keep off wild visitors. 2 slept and 2 stayed up - 5 hrs straight feeding the fires.

Pre-Dinner was something unusual, thanks to Purushottam and his special Recipe -> Bun Masala. Ingredients were Finely cut tomatoes + Sev + Mixture + Chilly Powder + Salt stuffed into half sliced bun.

Day2 [14th Feb. 2010]

From Happy Valentines' Day

It was Valentine's day but not for serious trekkers like us, we started the day early and crossed over to the Adjacent peak to Valikunja. We realised this only on reaching the Shola Grasslands. We tried to look for any possible routes to get us Valikunja. We realised we had missed the possible route up long back. We had little choice and cut straight through the jungle again making our own roads.

From View of Valikunja from the Adjacent Peak

Just a few meters from the last known water source; we were in open grasslands and had the peak in sight. The climb up wasn't easy either, now with the sun aiming right at you + no breeze + no tree cover we had little respite, we kept going faster, at one point we dumped our luggage.

From Valikunja Peak - Blown-up Transmission Tower

The peak had what looked like a blown-up Transmission Tower with Solar panel mounted over it. Found a couple of foot prints carved out, not sure the history behind it.
We soon started the downward journey, we maintained a pretty good pace. On getting back to civilisation we freshened up in a steam and got ready to board the bus back to Karkala at 1430hours.

After a sumptuous meal we got to Dharmasthala visited the temple and boarded a night bus back to Bangalore at 2130. We made it back to our homes by 0630 hours Monday morning.

From The Descent

Finale:
1. The forest is infested with tics during Jan~Feb, avoid this season.
2. Tics cause more damage than leeches; Their bites turn sore, very itchy and need medical attention.
3. The total expenses worked out to be around INR 700.
4. With no breeze you must avoid this season.

Yettina Bhuja to Ombattu Gudde ~ Virgin route

2010-02-03T01:44:00.001-08:00

Route – Bhirapura -> Yettina Bhuja -> Lakshmi Estate [halt] -> OG -> Devara Holla [halt] -> Gundia Check Post.

From Yettina Bhuja - View near Bhirapura Temple

Introduction:

From Bhirapura – Raghavendra,Rohit,Srikanth,Jaya,Murali,Girish,Gururaj,Purushottam

The troupe consisted of a long list, a record number of 8 joined in, the initial count was about 12 unfortunately 4 did not show up. Tickets were however booked for 8 in advance. The trek troupe consisted of Gururaj, Purushottam, Raghavendra, Jaya, Girish, Srikanth, Murali and Rohit.

Day 1 :
We had booked an overnight bus from Bangalore to Mudigiere the nearest town to Bhirapura. We reached Bhirapura at 0430 hours.

From Bhirapura - Temple

Freshened up and had breakfast at the bus stand and boarded an auto to drop us off at Bhirapura Temple. The initial climb had a prominent trail, the trail soon died down but our destination was well within sight and we managed to summit by 1000 hours as per my planning.

From Yettina Bhuja - Along the Ridge

Here we had Breakfast round - II; Here I took out our navigation equipment and for the last time decided the path we would trace to get to OG[Ombattu Gudde] ridge, our equipment was one of the most primitive ones, a compass & maps from Map Survey of India. It was decided we head South-West to get to OG.

From Yettina Bhuja - Along the Ridge

The only catch was to find an animal trail, human path or an entry point through the thick bushes. I had to lead the way with a sickle clearing the thick spiny forest cover.

From Jenkallu + Dipadkallu + Peak 1259 - As viewed from Yettina Bhuja

We were quite fortunate to find a wide path that would help us summit the first huddle. On reaching there, we could see our jeep trail in the distant far in the South West direction. This was the fist sign of our success. We continued to stay high and walk along the ridge that would connect us to the OG-Jeep track.

From Ridge to OG - I see a Jeep track

From OG - Jeep Track Finally!

We reached close to OG by 1600 hours, we were dangerously low on water, we had to get to the nearby Lakshmi Estate and decide our next move.

From Yetina Bhuja ~ OG – Cliff en Route

On reaching there it was decided most people wanted to sleep in and around the estate. We had a campfire, prepared Noodles, Sweet Potato – Roast, Alu – Roast along with MTR ready to eat and some home made chapattis. Murli and Myself stayed up late, the rest slept by 2100 hours. We were up till 0000 hours and we slept in the open beside the camp fire. By 0300 hours strong winds in our direction woke us up and drove us inside the estate.

From OG Track - scorching sun

From Dipadkallu - Jenkallu - Peak 1259

Day 2

From OG Peak - Dry Shola Grass

Next morning we had breakfast and headed off to OG at a snails pace. We stared at 0800 hours hit the peak at around 1000 hours, we identified all prominent peaks nearby,

From Jenkallu Gudda View

we had earlier scaled Dipadkal gudda, Jenkallu Gudda, Peak 1252, Amedikallu and Yettina Bhuja as well. While on the OG peak we missed the actual trail that would safely lead us back to Gundia.

From OG – We Descended here

Looking back at the map we re-aligned and decided to take a steep decent down to the Devara Hola and look for the route back. But the decent proved quite costly. We stated at aroud 1030 hours, by the time we hit the stream below it was 1200 hours. As per the 48P9N/W it was just a displacement of 1 km!
By now the group split into 2, Gururaj, Purushottam and Raghavendra decided to leave the rest behind and tightened pace. The group moved slowly I had to find alternate routes and get the group kicking up pace. I got hysterical at times and yelled at the slow ones. We [group with 5] took a few breaks, including a lunch break and continued the descent along the river banks and at times through the forest.

Reunion:
Meanwhile the other 3 had no navigation equipment and had to wait for us with no option to back out. The 3 alos did not have any food left to camp for the night. The 3 had identified a suitable campsite right beside a bamboo groove and had started a fire. The 3 had collected enough fire wood for the night. By the time we regrouped it was 1730 hours. Later we realized the 3 had reached just 30 minutes earlier having kept a brisk pace with minimum breaks and having missed lunch break. For the record we had trekked just 4 kms from the OG peak which had taken 1000 - 1700 = 7 hours!!

From Devara Hola - View from our Campsite

Srikanth had got enough food for all we prepared Ragi Malt off ‘Uri Ittu’ and chapattis for dinner. We slept early and decided to start the day on fist ray of light.

Day 3
We started 0700 hours next day. Just after walking a 100 meters we ended up hitting thick Bamboo shoots; we crossed over to the other side and soon had to cross back over as we hit a dead end.

Ray of hope:

From Addahole - While Crossing the Stream

We got lucky as we found a trail that was pretty wide beside the Devara Holla. We moved along the path at a brisk pace and saw writings in Fresh chalk with arrows, after a while we saw ‘Gundia’ followed by an arrow pointing in the direction we were heading. Within an hour we hit Addahola. After a short photo session we continued our sprint to Gundia. All the while we were hoping for Mobile network connectivity to inform our dear ones on our whereabouts, but in vain. We hit NH 48 at 1330 hours. Here we found a small coin booth soon after crossing the overbridge, made calls back home. The group again split here, 3 guys decided to head back to Bangalore the rest continued to visit Kukke Subramanya temple and then back to Bangalore.

From Bisle Ghat - Amma Temple

At Kukke we visited both temples and then to a local – Amma’s Temple en route to Bisle view point. We had to drop Bisle view point 28kms from Kukke due to bad road condition and huge demands by local Jeep men. We boarded an overnight bus from Kukke ~ Bangalore at 0930 hours and touched down at Majestic at 0800 hours, the return journey was smooth until we hit a road block on Tumkur Road, the bus driver was smart enough to wait an hour and cut into Maagadi Road to drop us off at Majestic Bus stand.

From Yettina Bhuja ~ OG - The path we took

Finale:
1.OG rocks as always, a memorable hark back after a 3 month break due to a broken left arm and low back injury.
2.Over all Trek expense INR 731 per head includes bus + misc. expenses incurred during and after the trek.
3.I had parasitic ticks around my ankle, have now turned itchy.
4.All Eight have bruised hands and legs after grabbing thorny shrubs along the trek.

Maharashtra Year End Tour/Trek

2010-01-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

Introduction:

To begin with we were six, namely Hamsa, Jayashree, Gururaj, Purushottam, Raghavendra and I (Rohit). We hit Khollapur via Rani Chennamma Express, which landed us there late in the afternoon.

From Rohit, Hamsa, Jayashree, Raghavendra, Gururaj, Purushottam

Places visited:
Day 1 ~ 2 - 2009-12-25 ~ 2009-12-26 - Bangalore -> Khollapur [Lakshmi Temple] -> Khed
Day 3 - 2009-12-27 - Khed -> Mahad -> [Raigad Fort] -> Mahad -> Poladpur[halt]
Day 4 - 2009-12-28 - Poladpur -> Mahabaleshwar -> Panchagani -> Poladpur[halt]
Day 5 - 2009-12-29 - Poladpur -> Neveli -> Ganapathipule[Beach + Temple][halt]
Day 6 - 2009-12-30 - Ganapathipule -> [Jaigad Fort] -> Ratnagiri[Pawas] [halt]
Day 7 - 2009-12-31 - Ratnagiri[Pawas] -> [Bhagavati Mandir] -> [Aquarium] -> [Ratnagiri Gateway Beach] -> [18 Hand Ganesh] -> [Lokamanya Tilak Residence] -> [Thiba Palace] -> [Batia Beach] -> Ratnagiri [halt]
Day 8 - 2010-01-01 - Ratnagiri -> Taral -> [Vijaydurg Fort] -> Devagad -> [Light house] -> [Devagad Fort] -> [Devagad Beach + Crematorium] -> Nandgauv -> Kanakavali -> Sawanthwadi[halt]
Day 9 - 2010-01-02 - Sawanthwadi -> Amboli -> [Hiranyakeshi Temple] -> [Swayambu Siddivinayaka Temple] -> [Amboli View Point - kawalesad] -> [Nangartas Water fall] -> [Amboli View Point Mahadeva] -> [Amboli Water Falls] -> Belgaum
2010-01-02 ~ 2010-01-03 - Belgaum -> Bangalore.

View Larger Map

Finale:

Total Expenses - INR 4,300 Inclusive of Travel, Food & Accommodation per head.

Day 9

2010-01-12T05:12:00.000-08:00

2010-01-02 – Sawanthwadi, Amboli, Hiranyakeshi Temple, Swayambu Siddivinayaka Temple],Amboli View Point – kawalesad, Nangartas Water fall, Amboli View Point Mahadeva, Amboli Water Falls, Belgaum

From 2010-01-02 - Amboli Falls - Purushottam,Hamsa,Jayashree,Gururaj,Rohit,Raghavendra

From 2010-01-02 - Amboli - Raghavendra,Purushottam,Hamsa,Jayashree,Gururaj,Rohit

We could not make it to Amboli the previous day, we had to settle for Sawanthwadi, Amboli is about 31 kms from Sawanthawdi.

From 2010-01-02 - Amboli - Rohit,Raghavendra,Purushottam,Gururaj

On reaching Amobli, we tried contacting our old driver. But in vain, the locals said he had moved out. We then managed to contact Ravi.

From 2010-01-02 - Hiranyakeshi Temple

We had met him and his family during ous last visit to this place. What’s interesting is Ravi’s Beautiful sister. However she did not appear all that beautiful this time.

From 2010-01-02 - Swayambu Siddivinakaya Temple

We had the costliest breakfast at Kamath, the only pure veg restaurant in Amboli. Single idly + Vada costs INR 30. We started our touring at 930 hours. We first visited Hiranyakeshi Temple, nothing much had changed, except that the water level had reseeded and the place had clear waters this time.

From 2010-01-02 - Swayambu Siddivinakaya Temple

Earlier we hadn’t been to Swayambu Siddivinakaya Temple. The flowing waters here had tiny fishes which gave us tax free pedicure.

From 2010-01-02 - Amboli

We spent considerable amount of time with the fishes and left to Kawalesad view point. We took a long walk and explored the places we missed on our previous visit.

From 2010-01-02 - Amboli Kawalesad View Point

The greenery was lesser compared to our previous visit during September, however it’s still beautiful, any day better than Mahabeleshwar.

From 2010-01-02 - Catterpillar

Namgartas Water fall was amazing, by then it was lunch time.

From 2010-01-02 - Near Kawalesad Viewpoint

We had made preparations to cook in the open. Our cooking attracted a few Gaurs.

From 2010-01-02 - Near Kawalesad Viewpoint

I managed to capture them on my 50mm Macro lens. We next hit the Mahadeva view point, it was pretty good, on our previous visit this place was fogged out.

From 2010-01-02 - Near Kawalesad Viewpoint

Amboli Road side water fall was almost dry; we did not spend much time here. We had to catch the 1700 hours bus to Belgaum.

From 2010-01-02 - Near Kawalesad Viewpoint

We had sufficient time to have dinner and boarded a Rajahamsa to Bangalore.

From 2010-01-02 - Near Kawalesad Viewpoint

From 2010-01-02 - Nangartas Water fall

From 2010-01-02 - Cooking Amboli

From 2010-01-02 - Unexpected Visitors

From 2010-01-02 - Bisleri

From 2010-01-02 - View Point Mahadeva

From 2010-01-02 - Near Mahadeva Viewpoint

From 2010-01-02 - Mahadeva Viewpoint

From 2010-01-02 - Amboli Water Falls

Day 8

2010-01-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

2010-01-01 – Taral,Vijaydurg Fort,Devagad, Light house,Devagad Fort,Devagad Beach + Crematorium, Nandgauv ,Kanakavali,Sawanthwadi:

From 2010-01-01 - VijayDurg Fort - Rohit,Jayashree,Hamsa,Gururaj,Ragahvendra,Purushottam

We again had trouble reaching Vijaydurg, we ended up changing a lot of busses. Vijaydurg fort like most other forts was sea facing.

From 2010-01-01 - VijayDurg Fort

The waters were clear and blue. The fort's pretty big, we took a little walk and soon left.

From 2010-01-01 - VijayDurg Fort

There is a Light Flashing Unit, not sure if it was still operational, we guys climbed over to the top and monkeyed around for a while. There was some kind of special pooja being offered at a local temple there.

From 2010-01-01 - VijayDurg Fort

Gururaj and Hamsa managed to get Lemon rice and tea. The preparation had onions and I had to settle just for Tea.

On reaching Devagad we hired a couple of autos to take us around sight seeing. With no good restaurant nearby we ended up eating bakery items. The bakery owner happened to be from Karnataka. We were quite surpised to meet a lot of Kannadagias.

We first visited Devaghag Fort and Light house which are in the same premise. We also visited the Lighthouse and understood quite a lot. The officer in-charge there was from Karwar who was earlier posted at Karwar – Devabagh Island. He told us about the colour codes followed by each light house and their significance. He also told us about the number of revolutions of each light house is maintained a constant. And that this was an international standard followed. The range of Devagad Lighthouse is 50kms.

From 2010-01-01 - VijayDurg Fort

We next went to Devagad Beach, the beach was clean and hardly had people around; On seeing the cleanliness the guys had plans to scrap Amboli and camp here for the night. After I took a walk around I figured out it was a Crematorium, due to differences we scrapped the plan and headed off to Amboli.

From 2010-01-01 - VijayDurg Fort - Raghavendra

Day 7

2010-01-12T04:41:00.000-08:00

2009-12-31 – Pawas,Bhagavati Mandir,Aquarium,Ratnagiri Gateway Beach,18 Hand Ganesh,Lokamanya Tilak Residence,Thiba Palace,Batia Beach, Ratnagiri [halt]

Day 7 was a busy day. We started our day at 4 am! We had plans on attending the Maha Mangalarthi at Pavas.

From 2009-12-31 - Ratnagiri - Bhagavati Mandir Fort

Only Raghavendra made it in time. We next headed off to Ratnagiri.

From 2009-12-31 - Ratnagiri - Bhagavati Mandir

We went around in a couple of autos, sight seeing. Since it was 31st we were planning on celebrations. Our initial plan was to camp on Bhatia beach, due to differences in the group we dropped the idea.

From 2009-12-31 - Flower in Bhagavati Mandir Premise

Bhagavati Mandir was the first destination, the view over the sea from here's too good. Adjacent to Bhagavati Mandir is a rocky cliff, due to time constraints we didn't scale it.

From 2009-12-31 - Adjacent Cliff to Bhagavati Mandir

Raghavendra was always fascinated with fishes, we visited a local Aquarium, next Ratnagiri Gateway Beach - it's a nice place to walk during dusk.

From 2009-12-31 - Ratnagiri - Lokamanya Tilak

The beach has a cemented platform to walk. We next visited the 18 hand Ganesh temple, however it was closed for lunch break, we could peep in through the window and a partial glimpse of it. Our next destination was Lokamanya Tilak’s Residence, nothing interesting just a place with historical importance.

From 2009-12-31 - Ratnagiri - Thiba Palace, Notice a small tilt in axis, it was because this shot was taken off a moving auto :)

We next had the best lunch at Mithali. The hotel staff were Kannadigas and we were well served. Everyone thought we were a bunch of crazy idiots having come all the way from Bangalore visiting Ratnagiri. Soon after lunch we headed to Bhatia beach. The beach was littered on the initial stretch as we walked further it got cleaner. We had plans to camp here for the New Year’s eve but dropped the idea on fear of police and drunken public. We later settled in a lodge facing the Bus Stand.

From 2009-12-31 - Flowering plant at Batia Beach

Next morning we were to board a bus at 530 hours to our next destination..

From 2009-12-31 - Rocks surrounding the Batia Beach

From 2009-12-31 - Awesome view of Batia Beach

Day 6

2010-01-12T04:27:00.000-08:00

2009-12-30 - Jaigad Fort ~ Pavas (Ratnagiri):

From 2009-12-30 - JaiGad Fort - Purushottam,Raghavendra,Jayashree,Hamsa,Gururaj,Rohit.

Next morning we again took a walk along the beach and left to Jaigad Fort. Due to improper planning we ended up whole day at this fort.

From 2009-12-30 - Blind Cat @ JaiGad

To get there was a pain even. We had to get there via 3 intermediate destinations; we even had to travel in an overcrowded Tata Sumo.

From 2009-12-30 - Dragger

By the time we made it it was noon. Due to too much travel we moved at a snails pace. We had plans of a boat ride to the adjacent beach.

From 2009-12-30 - The group

We had to cut down as we had run out of time.

By now we were bugged up seeing forts, we had seen enough, on the way we ran into Customs Inspector’s office.

From 2009-12-30 - JaiGad Fort Walls

We dropped oir luggage and went around sight seeing. The fort was built along the rocky beaches facing the sea and had a great panoramic view of the adjacent sandy beaches lined with ‘Gaali mara’ tree.

From 2009-12-30 - View from JaiGad Fort

Next we headed to Ratnagiri. We did more of travel than sightseeing for the day. In the bus one of the locals convinced us to halt at Pawas.

From 2009-12-30 - Adjacent Beach

Little did we know it was free accommodation; footwear’s not allowed beyond the verandah. The room was clean however we found a king size lizard, the girls were over reacting on seeing him. I managed to get him hiding behind a photo frame and got them back into the room.

From 2009-12-30 - Dragger in Foreground;Virgin Beaches in the Background

Day 5

2010-01-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

2009-12-29 – Ganapathipule:

We started quite early and headed off to Neveli (Ratnagiri District). Our plan was to hit Gangapathipule. We were informed that there were no direct busses. On hitting Neveli we waited for an hour; not a single bus showed up. Raghavendra losing patience tried his luck with Lorries. It was indeed a good idea, but it was a loaded lorry with construction grade jelly. The girls took the Drivers Cabin, the guys had to beat the dust and harsh sun in the open back. The drive lasted an hour and half.

From 2009-12-29 - Ganapathipule Beach

Ganapathipule was not crowded unlike the other places we had visited so far. The beaches were clean. When we took a dive the weather was cloudy and chilly. The beach has a long sand line and you got to walk a long way to get water at your chest level. Soon we freshened up and got to Ganapathipule temple. The temple here has no kind of intricate carvings and appears too simple.

From 2009-12-29 - Lorry ride to Ganapathipule; Raghavendra Posing

After dinner we took a walk along the beach. I wanted to experience the Royal Beach entry via MTDC beach resort stairway. We sneaked into MTDC and took the stairway as planned, we did not run into surprises.

From 2009-12-29 - Ganapathipule Beach side view

Day 4

2010-01-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

2009-12-28 - Mahabeleshwar + Panchagani

It was quite disappointing on reaching Mahabeleshwar, the place was owercrowded with hawkers & tourists. There were traffic jams too.

From 2009-12-28 - Poladhpur

We visited the famous Mahabeleshwar Temple,

From 2009-12-28 - Poladhpur

and a couple of View points before heading off to Panchagani. In Panchagani we were keen on Table top View point and nothing else.

From 2009-12-28 - On the way to Mahabeleshwar

We took a long circular walk in the hot hot sun. The place was indeed good with a couple of water spots and panoramic views.

From 2009-12-28 - Fresh Strawberries

On our way back we our driver was kind enough to take us to a Strawberry farm where the girls had the opportunity to hand plucked half a kilo Strawberries.

From 2009-12-28 - Straberry Flower

However the girls were stupid enough to pluck unripe and disfigured Strawberries, when given the luxury to selectively hand pick the Strawberries.

We spent the Second night at Poladhpur. We took a late night walk along the Poladhpur ~ Mahabeleshwar Highway in cool and pleasant weather. We also stayed up playing Addictive Poker

From 2009-12-28 - Mahabeleshwar - View Point

From 2009-12-28 - Panchagani- Purushottam Posing

From 2009-12-28 - Panchagani Table Top View Point

Day 3

2010-01-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

2009-12-27 - Khed -> Mahad -> [Raigad Fort] -> Mahad -> Poladpur[halt]

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Rohit,Gururaj,Raghavendra,Purushottam,Hamsa

Raigad or Rajgad ?:
It was a moment of confusion on reaching Khed, after speaking to various conductors, inquiry sections in the bust stand and the general public not many knew about Raigad nor Rajgad, each gave different answers, we soon realised Rajgad and Raigad were indeed two different Places both in Maharashtra.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - View from the shortcut

Our intention was to Reach Rajgad near Pune, we finally ended up in Raigad.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Just before the Re-union

But Raigad wasn’t disappointing either, just that our initial planning and places to visit had to be reshuffled.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Purushottam

On reaching Raigad we had plans to take the rope way, on seeing the waiting list we decided to trek it up; our turn was scheduled at 1800 hours.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Scenic View

Early during the ascent Guru went out peeing, and a shortcut was discovered.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - View Point

The group forgot to communicate Guru about the alternate route we intend to take, the group split into 3 and we ended up in a 2 hour delay before re-grouping.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Reunion

We started at 0930 hours and touched down by 1500 hours. We head back to Mahad checked out of the hotel and ended up in Poladhpur.

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Along the Path

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Road Down Below

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Purple Beauty

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad Fort

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - That's Me

From 2009-12-27 - Raigad - Arcade

Day 1 ~ 2

2010-01-12T03:41:00.000-08:00

2009-12-25 ~ 2009-12-26 - Bangalore -> Khollapur [Lakshmi Temple] -> Khed

Introduction:

To begin with we were six, namely Hamsa, Jayashree, Gururaj, Purushottam, Raghavendra and I (Rohit). We hit Khollapur via Rani Chennamma Express, which landed us there late in the afternoon.

From 2009-12-26 - Khollapur Lakshmi Temple

From 2009-12-26 - Khollapur Lakshmi Temple Long wait

We went in search of the temple’s Dharamshala, which was full. We dumped our luggage in a small lodge nearby, freshen up and soon left to the Khollapur Lakshmi Temple. Soon after the darshan we tried Maharashtra special ‘Misal’; initially the group seemed to enjoy this delicacy but very soon we started to hate it. It tastes like Malasa puri without Puris in it + Mixture + Oil, along with it was served Paavs.

From 2009-12-26 - Kumkum being sold at Khollapur

As it drew closed to Dusk the roads got too busy and you could see people all around. The roads too were filled with people, it wasn’t tough for us to get lost however due to our distinct attire [Heavy Flashy Backpacks] we managed to stick together. We had plans to visit another view point closeby with too little time we dropped the idea and headed straight to the Bust stand. After a lot of discussion we decided to get to Khed and then to Rajgad.

Charmadi ~ Alekhan,Anandaka falls Jenkallu,KodaiKallu,Baalekallu betta

2009-10-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Introduction:

From Kodai Kallu Gudda - Rohit,Satya,Jayashree,Purushottam,Gururaj

With just a 4 day gap from a trip to Kanyakumari it was too early to think of another outing. I need to get out on a trek as I had missed the quota for the month. After a bit of research we decided on Baalekallu gudda in Charmadi Ranges. Five planned and all five showed up something strange, generally there are dropouts.. The same troupe showed up the ones at Kanyakumari. We board the red bus to Dharmasthala.

The initial plan
Dharmasthala ~> Ujjire ~> Charmadi ~> Balekallu Gudda (halt and return next day)

From Anekan falls - Off Charmadi Ghats

Day 1 [10th Oct. 2009]:
Reached Dharmasthala at around 700 hours, most people in bus seem to have put up "omelettes"(puke) in and around the bus. The roads screwed up big time, high time the roads are re-laid. Soon after breakfast we left to Ujjire from where we got into a bus to take us to "Anekan falls" (road side falls).

From Jeep track to Bidrutale Village

I had been there before, i felt the water was more this time; thanks to the rains. Good that we did not get into the water, we soon hitch-hiked to Bidrutale cross by a KSRTC bus.

From ID Please... what the hell is this?

The Trek finally begins:
We began our trek finally, it was quite late 1100 hours. On our way up we met up a localite who told us to take a deviation sharp left [ಕಾಲ್ ದಾರಿ] on seeing the first fork. We kept going on and on along the mountain ridges.

From Kodai kallu Gudda to the Right

We soon passed Jenkallu gudda (which we did not realise :)) and continued our journey till we saw Baale kallu gudda, which we thought was just another peak initially. We had lunch and decided to scale it.

From Baalekallu Gudda Conquered

This was the best part of the whole trek. The Western slopes of this peak are lush green and seem virgin.... We knew we were on the highest peak in the vicinity we had conquered Baale kallu gudda.

From Western Face of Baale kallu Gudda

We next checked out Kodai Kallu gudda, which was inviting. We later decided to camp close to water source below baalekallu gudda. We had plans for camp fire, with no dry wood around we just hit our sleeping bags

From Northern Ridges of Baalekallu Gudda

Day 2 [11th Oct 2009]:
We woke up intime to see sunrise behind us. It was an awesome sight, we freshened up and left to Kodai kallu gudda again as Jayashree had missed it the previous evening.

From View down Kodaikallu gudda

We decided to make our own path down to the road below. It took us about a couple of hours and we made it down in 1 piece each!

From Amedikallu Peak (Centre Right)

We did run into what looked like a rat snake during our descent.

From View while getting off Kodai kallu gudda

I had my camera tightly packed in and was too lazy to get down to photograph him.

From ID Please... Minchkallu gudda ?

Getting to Anandaka Falls:
Well our next destination was "Anandaka Falls" in "Didupe". We hitch hiked a vegetable tempo who dropped us at didupe village crossing.

From Trek to Anandaka Falls along Khudremuk Wild Life Reserve

Here we hired an Auto to take us near to Anandaka Falls. He dropped us at a jeep trail and left. From here on every person we ran into said its just a km away. we actually trekked for more than an Hour at a brisk pace! We finally saw the water off the falls and realised we were pretty close..

From Trek to Anandaka Falls through Private Estates

We dropped our luggage at the Brahmin's house and promptly followed their advice ! which was quite silly. We trekked straight up the flowing stream without realising we could have made our own path adjacent to the flowing water... Satya was a victim of 4 accidents, lucky to have survived having drowned a couple of times after sliding down slippery rocks. We soon realised there was a path along the falls and took that. On reaching the falls all our efforts had paid off! It's just too too good !!! one must not miss this awesome water fall it resembles koodalteertha water falls, but this fall has more water. Five minutes a 50 mts away from the fall and we were dripping wet top to bottom! It was like a few hundred jacuzzi pumps directed at you, mind blowing! This was our final destination, we soon moved out of from there to the place where the auto dropped us, freshened up in the flowing water and dialed a jeep. This man looted us INR 400 to drop us off at Ujjire, from where we again hit Dharmasthala and a night bus back to Bangalore... Again the bus smelt of Omelettes :), but we had no choice........

From Three Shot Panorama of Baalekallu Gudda

Finale:
#1 A guide is not required.
#2 Charmadi is Hot & Humid most of the year round, do not fear the leaches
#3 You find plenty of water, a 500ml reserve is sufficient to keep you going provided you refill at every water hole
#4 An umbrella helps, sunscreen must :), a hat too
#5 Very scenic, do carry your cam.

Destination South [Rameshwaram~Kanyakumari~Kovalam]

2009-10-07T08:06:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
The group consisted of Satya(Tobe professor from IISc.),Purushottam(from Healthscribe), Jaya(Opps Mgr. from Intel), Gururaj (from Healthscribe) & myself. We were to board the bus 19:00 hours at Wilson Garden bus stop (KPN Travels to Ramanathapuram). We all made it in time except Satya, who was late by atleast 30 minutes, the bus left the bus stand and he had to catch up with our bus and board it :D, he got into an auto and chased us.. He ended up spending INR 150 for riding just 2 kms !!

Below is the Complete itinerary:

View Larger Map

Day 1 [2nd Oct 2009] - Rameshwaram
Our first destination was Pamban Bridge, supposed to be the longest suspension railway bridge in India. By the time we got off it was 1300 hours, without any place to freshen up we stayed dirty; ended up treating ourselves with Ice Creams for breakfast/lunch. Soon we checked into a local lodge at Rameshwaram Island freshened up and contacted a local Maruti van to take us around for INR 500. We covered Abdul Kallam's residence, Dhansukoti, Rama Teertha, Seetha Teertha, Lakshmana Teertha, Pancha Mukhi Anjaneya temples. Dhanskoti is the best and must not be missed!! We even got a chance to touch and feel the floating rocks in one of the Sri Ram temples. We visited Rameshwaram main temple very late and missed tasting water off the 22 sacred wells!! FYI timings for tasting the holy water -> 0430~1200 hours. After dinner at local restaurant we headed for the last bus at 22:15 hours towards Madhuri.

Day 2 [3rd Oct 2009] - Kanyakumari
From Madhuri we hit Nagercoil and then to Suchindram Temple complex. Here we had our archane done and offered bettle leaves to lord Hanuman (the sculpture here is a lot different and looks majestic). Next we checked into Vivekananda Kendra which is a few Kms away. We had breakfast at the Kendra and head of to sight seeing, we covered the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Tamil poet's statue(which I do not find impressive at all, its made of large rock chunks cemented with seams clearly visible). Later we visited the holy Kanyakumari Temple and checked out the diamond nose ring. The last part for the day was sunset for which we had to walk 4 kms. The sunset was a surprise with clear skies... the deep orange colouring's unforgettable. We postpone the sunrise to next day and ended the day playing Poker till 0100 hours.
I did win 1 of the 2 games played!

Day 3 [4th Oct 2009] - Kanyakumari Sunrise ~ Kovalam
Next morning we woke up at 0600 hours but not in time for sunrise; by the time we made it to sunrise point it was 0630 hours. The place is clean and well maintained. We soon checked out and headed to Triveni Sangam, which we failed to notice a day earlier, wasn't impressive though. Getting to Kovalam was a pain we had to change 2 busses and 2 autos.. In the end wasn't very impressive, however we played around in the salty water which was the last part of our 3 day trip.

Finale
#1 Kanyakumari is losing its charm due to over commercialisation, hawkers and careless tourists; you see litter, bottles, hawkers everywhere.
#2 Rameshwaram is truly amazing I wish I had a couple more days to spend, its truly a different experience
#3 Travel b/w Trivandram~Bangalore by Volvo twin axel was most expensive INR 925!
#4 We missed Adams bridge in Rameshwaram which is further away from Dhanushkoti

Amedikallu – All New Trek Route

2009-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
Amedikallu is believed to be one of the tougher treks in the Western Ghats. Satyaveer Singh tobe Professor from IISc Bangalore did extensive research and worked out what looked like a perfect cake walk to Amedikallu and adjacent Ridge. The trek was being planned for quite sometime but happened only on 12th June 2009.
The group consisted of 4 including myself off which 2 were amateurs Raghuveer(small Startup), Anand(Cisco), Satya(IISc) and Rohit(TCS).

Amedikallu Amedikallu in the backdrop

Day 1 - Amedikallu Ridge
We reached Kokkada (en route to Dharmasthala), from here hired a jeep to Sheshila (INR 250). From the driver we understood it has been 2 days since we had rains. We began trekking at 0900 hours at a slow pace; we had trouble finding trails leading us to the peak all through.

Amedikallu Large Wood Spider found during the ascent

The monsoon had covered all trails we had to trust our instincts and keep going; leaches too had grown bigger and the blood sucking monsters did what they do best.

Amedikallu Nice looking Parasite on a broken tree trunk

While on the Amedikallu ridge at 16:00 hours dark clouds came crashing and with no place to take shelter we just stood still among the dark monsoon clouds;

Amedikallu First glimpse of Shola grass

with strong winds and limited visibility we just stood still for 2 hours. When the rains subsided we kept looking around hoping to find a suitable campsite as reaching the peak was ruled out.

Amedikallu First signs of Monsoon clouds

We found a boulder which was positioned such that it would cut off strong winds under which we camped for the night.

Amedikallu Time to pack my camera safe inside

Day 2 - New Trail
Next morning we got the most beautiful sight ever imaginable.

Amedikallu First light

The air was pure, clear skies, fluorescent green cover all over with thick fog cover over low lying areas it was just awesome & unforgettable….

Amedikallu A close-up of early morning mist

Without wasting much time we started our ascent to reach the peak. On the way we found a few rare Rock Orchids.

Amedikallu Rock Orchid

The 360degree view peak was truly mind boggling.. We could spot -> KP, Khudremukh Range, Yettina Bhuja Ridge and few other Ranges..

Amedikallu View from Peak over the entire Amedikallu Range

Intermittently the clouds cleared to give even better views and patterns. Yettina Bhuja looked like Saturn with the clouds around it like a ring. We spent close to an hour on the peak. We trekked along the ridge hoping to find a shorter trek route on a different exit.

Amedikallu Yettina Bhuja to the Left & entire Amedikallu Ridge

Here we found 3 fully grown huge Sambars, by then I had packed my camera and was in no position to shoot ‘em. We next entered a thick forested region heading North East only to realise after 30 minutes it was impenetrable and we had to revisit our exit route.

Plan Change
What we decided next was either too stupid or simply the best trek route way back to civilization. This was something we had done no homework at all, we had no navigation equipment like a simple compass.

Amedikallu Our Destination as seen from Amedikallu Peak

We just knew one thing – A river flows heading to the West along the southern side of Amedikallu Valley [river flows in the valley b/w Amedikallu & Yettina Bhuja]. Our gut feel was if we hit this river and stick to the right bank of the river and head towards West we would hit civilization. From the peak we worked out the possible path we take along the ridge.

Amedikallu The steep Ridge that we took to hurry down...

Remember we had no trails to follow nor navigation equipment to ensure we don’t veer off course.

The Steep Descent
To begin with it was shola grass initially with blades of grass cutting through our arms. The combination of sweat (salt) + Sun over bruised arms was quite something to remember. Our calculations went wrong when we hit a cliff and we were forced to revisit our plan. Satya and myself were forced to take lead and shift to an adjacent ridge a few meters away which was at an 80Degree inclination we certainly cheated death here a couple of times. But it was worth what we did, we discovered a new unexplored stream here, the water here tasted distinctly different, it was literally sweet and unforgettable.

Amedikallu Signs of Grasslands almost coming to an end..

We then found an alternate route that would help us go further without having to put the other 2 at risk. However these extras costed us more time than anticipated. Finally the grassland was over by then it was 18:00 hours. Without wasting much time we dragged ourselves through thick forests, Satya, myself cleared the way taking turns as Raghu & Anand had enough and just wanted to end this soon.

Amedikallu Stream in the thick forests; we camped nearby..

Anand ended up puking a couple times and Raghu already had a spinning head. Within no time it started to pour down heavy around 19:15 hours. In this thick forest cover we found a couple of snakes who posed for a while in front of my camera. With bad visibility, rains and leeches forced us to camp in the forest again. With food supplies running short and poor time to distance coverage ratio we had to sleep empty stomach, however we did get a couple of sips of lemon juice prepared with Glucon D + 2 lemons [400ml / 4 = about 100 ml per person; no sugar so I used Glucon D]. The campsite was of a different kind – A tree had fallen and cleared a small patch on the forest floor; we had no campfire, we were close to a stream with a lot of bamboo [elephant’s fav. food] and trees that appeared like leopards favourite hunting ground, so I guess we had chosen the right place. We heard and saw some curious creatures creeping in the dark, no guess what it was. Satya and I stayed up whole night ringing a vessel and screaming all night to shoo off nocturnal creatures.

Day 3 - Tough Decisions
Next morning we were just too tired to do anything. We again worked out a new strategy. We had run out of food we had to eat just enough to keep us going, we had a spoon of protein supplement [Whey Protein] + a couple of oat meal + 2 kharoojs + a little bit of MTR ready to eat stuff . If we followed the river it would take us to our destination in a winding manner which would be longer, the plan was to cut across by climbing up another mountain range and slide downhill other side to hit the valley down below. The climb down was too steep almost a cliff, I had to take lead and keep the team going.. Finally we hit the valley and the first glimpse of blue skies above and the adjacent Yettina Bhuja mountain ridge slopes. This was a great relief; it was just 09:00 hours.

Amedikallu We made to the Valley finally!

From here on we stuck to the right bank of the river and kept heading in the westward direction. The stream got bigger and wider here we saw a Manikchand packet indicating we were close to civilization. Soon we hit a pathway which took us back to Sheshila village. On the way we met a localite who took us to his home and served us Chai + Mangoes + Bathing facilities seeing our state.

Sheshila That's Satish's house a localite where we freshened up

Finale:
This was the best trek ever; I got a chance to use my new monopod to take most of the shots off my camera.
#1 We Discovered a new stream which had a distinctly different taste.
#2 All the while we had a GPS which gave us incorrect Altitude readings which was not of much help.
#3 Since the trek extended into day 3 and no network, people back home ended up panicking
#4 Monsoon treks have always been different and adventurous; if you make it out alive you carry some awesome memories with you.

Mountain Motor-biking - Destination Madikeri

2009-05-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Tadindamool Sunrise as seen from the Slopes of Tadindamool Peak

The idea was to bike to Madikeri covering Dubare Elephant Camp, Tibetan settlement, Abbey Falls, Tadindamool and Bhagamandala. Initial head count indicated a record 20+ bikers, but finally just 8 showed up on 6 bikes as always. Yamaha FZ, Pulsar, Splendour, Gladiator, Unicorn & Victor.

All 8 Taken at Kushalnagar - Day 1

After a bit of confusion we started off quite late 0630 hours, the meeting point was Banashankri Temple. We stopped by for breakfast at Indraprastha Channapatna. By now the group had already broken down into 3 sub-groups. Vinay, Dinesh and Myself were way behind everyone else. 3 of Vinay's friends lead the way followed by Gururaj & Purushottam. On Mysore road we saw about 4 car accidents with atleast 3 cars involved in bumper to bumper crashes.

Dubare Elephant Camp:

Dubare Elephant Torture Camp

Our first destination was not so interesting. The place is over hyped with actually nothing much to see. There are a few elephants on the other bank, each time people wish to pose with them the mahout would poke the animal to obey. It was indeed a sorry sight. By the time we all moved out it was 1430 hours, we had to wait another 30 mins after a heavy down pour. We checked into a room at Kushalnagar after a lot of drama.

Dubare Elephant Camp Constipated 'Mamu'

Day 2 [2-May-2009]:
Tibetan Settlement:

Bylekuppe Prayers outside the Golden Temple

It was a long day, we started early morning back towards Tibetan Settlement visited the Golden Temple & 2 monasteries - Namdroling Monastery & Sera Mey Monastry (Little known but a good one).

Bylekuppe Sera Mey Monastry

Cauvery Nisarga Dhama
This is again an over hyped highly commercialised with absolutely nothing much to see or do... It's more or less a bamboo groove filled with naughty couples.
Abbey Falls:
The ghat section that leads to Abbey falls was a good one. The water level had receded, we took some snaps and hurried our way to Tadindamool Peak.
Tadindamool:
We started pretty late from Madikeri at around 17:30 hours, It was getting dark but the weather was pleasant and a very amazing biking stretch. While riding on the motorable stretch both Purushottam & Dinesh had a non-fatal fall. They decided not to bike over the rocky terrain and stopped soon afterwards. Gururaj and Myself went ahead kept going till we hit a cliff, at this point our bikes too got jammed.

Tadindamool Peak Unlucky 'Mamu' munching on a full seeded Mango without the pulp

We had scaled 60% of Tadindamool. We just parked our bikes near by the others joined us too and we camped near a water hole 200 mts from our bikes. Next morning we made it to the peak.

Tadindamool View from Campsite

Day 3 [3rd May 2009]:
Dinesh's bike got punchered descending Tadindamool. We had to bike 13 kms to have it fixed. Next was Gururaj's Bike in Madikeri. We had to cut down on Bhagamandala, by the time we started from Madikeri it was 1630hours. At Bylekuppe Gururaj decided he would halt at Mysore and drive back next morn. Dinesh and Vinay and his other friends were already way ahead of us. I decided to ride back faster and managed to get home by 20:30 hours.. I wasn't sure how I managed to overtake Dinesh and Vinay's friends. The ride back was amazing, it had rained too and the weather was pleasant.

Finale:
#1 Mountain Biking was fun!
#2 My bike gave a mileage of 30km per litre
#3 Very few repair hops are open Sunday
#4 It's a good idea to carry a spare tube, hand pump & tool kit on a biking trip.
#5 Hunsur Road stretch b/w Mysore & Bylekuppe is awesome.

Kaginari Ruins

2009-04-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Introduction
What seemed to be a complete disaster turned out to be an okish trek… Everyone who was asked to join in seemed to say yes, with no one saying a no we thought we were expecting about 20+ head count. Finally it turned out that 11 trekkers finally showed up at Majestic Platform #5 our usual meeting point. The troupe consisted of Nagappa, Vinay, Venkat, Rithika, Satyaveer, Ritesh & 4 off his friends and myself.

Day 1 [25th]
On reaching Sakleshpur at 430hours we slept a while, had breakfast at 630hours freshened up and left to Aane Mahal [ಆನೆ ಮಹಲ್] where our guide would pick us up and drive us to Kaginari village.

Bisle Ghat Green Vine Snake ~>Thanks to Aditya for identifying the snake

The plan was to trek upto Thimaddka [ತಿಮದ್ಕ], by the time we started it was about 1100 hours it took us a while to complete the 10km trek. On the way we got to see no wildlife, however we did find fresh Bear shit, dry Tiger shit a few wild poisonous/non-poisonous mushrooms and a bamboo viper…From the peak we could spot Kumaraparvatha, Amedikallu, Jenkallu Gudda, Nayee gudda and Aramane Gudda.

Bisle Ghat Near the Peak

We camped on Thimadaka peak which is roughly at 4000 Ft above sea level, we had a big camp fire too.. Dinner was MTR stuff and steamed rice..

Bisle Ghat Sunset point - Thimadaka

Bisle Ghat Amazing Camp Fire that burned all night

Day 2 [26th]

Bisle Ghat Automatic Revolver...

Our guide had parked his vehicle at Kaginari, hence we were forced to retrace the same old path. The other route was to get off at Shiragabilu Railway station and then hit Gundia Check post where we catch a bus to Bangalore.

Kaginari Village Cattle Grazing

On our way back we checked out the fort ruins and took bath in the flowing stream near Kaginari Village before heading back.

Munjarabad Fort Lilly in prison

On our way back we visited Munjarabad Fort

Munjarabad Fort Leaning against the Fort Wall

. We hit the 1800 hour sakleshpur ~ Bangalore Local bus (not the Express bus), that dropped us at Majestic at 0030 hours.

Munjarabad Fort Potrait

Finale:
#1 It’s an easy trek, good one for first timers
#2 According to our guide it has abundant wildlife population
#3 The place is scenic, good to visit after rains
#4 A guide’s not required, the path is clear and free from confusion.
#5 half a litre water reserve will do provided you refill at every water hole.
#6 Don’t take the local bus, always take the Express.

Bisle Ghat View down Thimadka, KP is the farthest and Faintest

More Pix @ http://flickr.com/roti

Aramane Gudda - Best place to be!

2009-03-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Introduction

ME Single Barrel loaded Riffle

3 trekkers lost their way while exploring Aramane gudda and their skeletons were recovered in 2007 [Link].
2 Navy helicopters have crashed in the vicinity of Aramane gudda in the recent past.
A few days ago[b/w 17th~19th March 2009] a man was hacked to death by a rouge tusker in Kempuhole river[Kempuhole Reserver Forest], soon after 2 cattle were eaten by a tiger...[Moorkannu Gudda] We knew we were going to the right place. I managed to convince 8 trekkers to join me but just 2 showed up at Majestic Bus stand.

Day 1 [Saturday 28th March]
We reached Sakleshpur at 0400 hours & killed time upto 0700 hours before having breakfast. Our guide was to pick us up at ಆನೆ ಮಹಲ್[Aane Mahal] but was late by just 4 hours! We started our trek from Kadumane estate at 1130 hours. The trek is quite difficult and pretty long [10 kms]. The terrain is mix of grasslands and extremely densely forested areas with no visible trail at all....

Snake Near Aramane Gudda

The first place of interest was the place where the bodies of the 3 trekkers were recovered. The surroundings had grass cover with trees in small numbers. We saw the trees from which they were recovered and the gorge from where the remains were picked.

Trail The 3 Trekkers were found here....

In the same vicinity it appeared as though some ritual had been performed, studying the remains the guide suspected a human sacrifice had been made! he immediately informed the forest guards on his findings. The Third place of interest was a Navy Helicopter crash site (2 in numbers), the interesting part here is, its an open grassland with no tree cover, the GPS devices don't show reading. The device failed to link up with any satellite!

By then we had reached ಅರಮನೆ ಗದ್ದೆ[Aramane Gadde]. We see what appears to be remains of a paddy field, the terrain is flat and surrounded by forest trees on 2 sides and mountainous terrain on the remaining sides.

Campsite A naturally formed Cave where we spent our night cooking and sleeping

The fifth place of interest and the last for the day was our camp site, which was a naturally formed cave.
On our way we got to see a snake,elephant shit, tiger shit :) and 3 pairs of Great Indian Hornbills....

Sunset Near Campsite

Day 2 [Sunday 29th March]
Even before brushing teeth we decided to explore the region, ನಾಯಿ ಗುಡ್ಡ [Nayee Gudda] appeared to be the tallest we scaled it first, we then decided to scale all peaks in the vicinity and did so in 5 hours.

ನಾಯಿ ಗುಡ್ಡ Early Morning Mist over adjacent mountain Ranges

The view from these peaks is breathtaking.
After lunch we took a small nap and started the descent back to civilization.

Red Stone Semi Precious Red Stone found in the open

The descent was steep with a sandy terrain. On our way down we stumbled over some semi-precious red stones which are abundantly found in the Western Ghats. On our way down in the forest we lost our way and were forced to follow a dried up stream that would lead us to Kempuhole and then we find our way back to the NH48. The last 3 kms in the forest was a risky affair with sunset not too far. We walked straight down a dried up water fall for about an hour and half and finally hit the Highway. It took us 30 mins of waiting time to hitchhike a lorry that dropped us off at Sakleshpur which took another 2 hours. We boarded a 2300hours bus heading to Bangalore which just took just 4 hours to reach Bangalore!

Panorama Near Nayee Gudda

Finale
#1.This is one of my best trekking experiences so far!
#2.The terrain is too difficult to trek and dangerous.
#3.The map from Map Survey of India is wrong! So do not try your luck with those! Remember the 3 trekkers were all the while referring to those maps of 1970's
#4.This area is known for contraband, murders, human sacrifice & hunting
#5.We trekked about 20 kms in 2 days
#6.I was too tired to click photos and hardly took any good ones:)

Early morning walk Amazing ridge

Moorkannu Gudda

2009-03-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
The trek was a sudden plan out of the blue. The head count was to be around 10+ when we meet up at Majestic Bus stand it was just 6, with destination Moorkannu gudda.

Inorder: Vishnu,Meeliya,Ganesh,Abijith,Varun,Pradeep(Guide),Rohit.

Day 1[Saturday]:

Bou Bou ನಾಯಿ ದೃಷ್ತಿ [Dog's Influence]

We reached Sakleshpur at 4:30 hours. Abijth had arranged for a guide who would guide us to Moorkannu gudda. The plan was to go to Maranhalli pick the guide (Bill-Pradeep alias Billu) and then to kadumane estate from where the trek begins…

Kadumane Estate Tea Estate - High Dynamic Range Imaging

The trek began through Kadumane Tea estates private roads. The terrain was more or less flat.. On reaching close to Moorkannu gudda we decided to break for lunch. We cooked alu special, knorr soup, MTR ready to eat over the open flame. All took bath in the adjacent steam excepting me:D. We hit the peak after a while but we had to miss the sunset due to strong chilly winds and thick fog cover.

Our guide discouraged us from camping near the stream where we earlier cooked, we were forced to camp at Verrapan’s(a localite with that name!) solitary home in the forest.

The night was peaceful except that domestic animals in Verappan’s home freaked me out.
First it was Veerapan’s doggy who came sniffing leftovers while everyone was asleep, he came right behind me and dragged away the plastic which woke me screaming for help
Then it was the turn of their pet kitten who came and slept with me from nowhere, this time I again woke up screaming and woke everyone around me within no time the culprit hid away. By now day light was out but we were still asleep, the one final thing that got us out were small chicks who came pecking at me!!

Kadumane Estate Moorkannu gudda Peak in the Background

Day 2[Sunday]:
All got ready to leave and we spoke to a Nature lover (Vikram) who stayed next door, he stayed single at 45+ with a Nikkon D 80, laptop, GPS and an off-road jeep with fundoo modifications.

Our next stop was kadumane estate Tea Factory. It was nothing very interesting a Tamil speaking guy was our guide who nodded for everything and anything asked. I was highly optimistic on a free complimentary Kadumane Chai which did not happen! We then set out to the last itenary for the day an unknown waterfall off Sakleshpur Ghat in-between Gundia check post and Maranhalli. The falls was in a secluded place covered with forest on all sides. Water falls off at 4 places, re-unites and cascades to fall a one large fall. We were the only visitors to that place. To get there we had to cut through thick forest covered with a lot of fine dust.

We got dropped off at Sakleshpur from there we took another bus to Hassan from where we hit Bangalore to reach by 23:30 hours.

Nature Beside an unknown Water fall...

Finale
The expenses worked out to about INR 700. [Journey proved expensive]
It was more like a trip not strenuous and no after effects felt
If we had been there after rains we would have got to see a lot of greenery

Waterfall Three Shot Panorama

Yettina Bhuja, Sheshila Gudda, Ox Hump

2009-02-05T02:39:00.000-08:00

Introduction:
As usual after very little planning it was decided four of us trek Yettina Bhuja.

Yettina Bhuja Yettina Bhuja and the Pefect Blue Sky

Our initial plan was, "Destination Get-lost finding new routes to Ombattu Gudde". Yettina Bhuja is the heart of Western Ghats. The closest Village is Bhairapur. The team consisted of Anand (new recruit), Purushottam (Iron Man), Gururaj (RJ) and me.

Troupe Purushottam,Gururaj,Anand,Rohit

We Boarded our usual RED Bus to Dharmasthala and bought tickets to place called "Kokkada" 16km before Dharmasthala. Not much is known about this place but you get jeeps and bus service to "Sheshila" (about 13 kms) from where our trek begins. The locals & jeep driver insisted on taking a guide, but I strongly don't suggest a guide. The route is clear and straight forward. The jeep journey was quite expensive and we ended up paying up INR 450.

Sheshila Trek Begins on crossing this stream

By the time we were done with our breakfast and started the trek it was about 10:00 hours. The initial part of the trek was in thick forest with a lot of tree cover. We did not have shortage of water, as we pass by a lot of streams. We ended up taking long breaks of 20 mins ~ 40 mins and made it to the top by 16:00 hours!

Yettina Bhuja Early Morning Mist over Dipadkallu gudd, Janekallu Gudda & Peak 1252

The final 10% was extremely tiring, it was uphill and we were trekking in the open.
since it was already 16:00 hours we were searching for water and place to camp. We had trekked about 10 kms. We heard water flowing nearby and filled up all our empty bottles and settled down in the adjacent forest pathway leading to Bairapur.

Yettina Bhuja Amedikallu and Yettina Bhuja in order

We had plenty of fire wood, but still we went around looking for more. We took turns and kept the fire fuming all night. dinner was hot hot MTR ready to eat stuff, Fruits, Soup and Gururaj's secret recipe of "Tandoori Aloos".

Shadow Shadow of Yettina Bhuja over adjacent Forest

Breakfast was kesaribath and upama which we cooked. We then hit the peak and headed down towards Bairapura.

Peaked Ha ha haaa..

We reached Bairapura at 12:00 hours. We had trekked about 5kms and waited for an hour for the jeep to pick us up and drop us at Mudigere [Jayanna's contact: 9448872054 -> you need to contact him for the Jeep]. We had lunch at Mudigere and left to Sakleshpur and from there back to Bangalore.

Panorama Three Shot Panorama.....

Finale:
#1 Guide not needed.
#2 Amediakallu is close by, looks pretty inviting should be treking that soon.
#3 On getting the first glimpse of Yettina bhuja be prepared to save water, the next known souce of water is only near to the peak.
#4 Trekking from Bairapur side is a lot easier and shorter.
#5 This place is kept clean, no plastics, tins, bottles etc.. if you're trekking here, keep it clean!

Rocks & Ruins - North Karnataka Heritage Trip

2009-01-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Introduction:
Duration - 2008-12-24 ~ 2008-12-30
I was on a 6 day outing touring North Karnataka by Bus and local transport.
To being with we were 10 and to end with we were just two !
This was something unusual to me without any kind of planning.
The group consisted of 6 gals and 4 guys off which I knew just two of them Nagesh and Vin.

Hampi Hemakoota Temples after sunset

Day 1 [25th December 2008]
Chitradurga:
Lodging:
We boarded an overnight bus from Majestic Bangalore to Chitradurga at 23:00 hours without reservation. Reached the place at 3:30 hours, weird place where lodges are locked from inside. Every man in this town lies.. We believed every word and scanned all the lodges we were asked to go. Finally we realised the hard way only 2 lodges are open at this odd time and checked into Surya lodge opposite KSRTC Bus stand.

Chitradurga Fort Raj,Joe,Kavitha,Anitha,Manisha,Prashant,Vinutha,Nagappa,Suvarna

Fort & Mutt:
Nagesh and me had good breakfast, joined in the other bigger group and got into the fort by 9:30 hours. We were out by noon and in time for lunch. Our next destination was Chandravalli, it is well maintained place with a nice pond and some man made caves. Pretty stuffy inside but pretty interesting.. Our final destination was Ankali Mutt. I did not find it very interesting but it was not bad either... We spent the night at Chitradurga and planned to start next morning early to Hospet~Hampi.

Day 2 [26th December 2008]
Hampi:
To get to Hampi we need to take a bus from Chitradurga to Hospet and from Hospet to Hampi. With the Busstand facing our(nagappa and myself) guest house we missed the 1st bus at 5:45 and had to get to the next bus 6:15. However the others made it in time for the 5:45 bus but somehow landed at Hospet much later than we did :D. We waited for them and joined them to reach Hampi.

Hampi Saisevekalu Ganapathi Temple

On reaching Hampi we again got lost and ended up getting separated. Nagappa and myself hired a by-cycle and covered these in-order Monolitic Basava, Mutunga Hills (we did not scale it), Sasvekalu Ganapathi, Kadalekalu Ganapathi, Krishna Temple, Krishna Bazzar, Lakshmi Narashima,

Hampi Lakshmi Narashima

Badavilinga, Uddana Virabhadra Temple, Underground Shiva Temple, Mohammadan Watch Tower,

Hampi Lotus Mahal

Lotus Mahal, Elephant Stable

Hampi Elephant Stable

, few Ruined temples in the vicinity, Hazarama Temple, Underground shrine Chamber, King Audience Hall, Public Bath and Mahanavami Dibba. By the time we hit Queens Bath, it got way too dark and the gates were locked out. we cycled back to Hampi to reach by 19:00 hours.

Hampi Stone Chariot

Hanuman Temple Its believed Lord Hanuman was born here!

Hampi View from Chintamani Temples

The food at Hampi is bad, it's neither Indian nor Continental .. I had a tough time fishing out onions.. Nagappa and myself spent the night at Gayatripeetha, the rest had a booking at a local house. The place is fine except for the toilets. Nagappa has the habbit of snoring at night. I had a great time waking nagappa off his deep sleep every time he snored on all Three nights. I usually don't fall asleep while out.

Day 3 [27th December 2008]
Next day we visited Virupaksha Temple and again rented out a By-cycle. We visited the famous Vittala Temple and the Stone Chariot. The by-cycle proved too expensive when it came to river crossing. We had to get to the other bank of Tungabhadra River, we paid a hefty INR 150. Our fist stop was at a mess. Soon we left to Hanuman's Birth place, Pampasarovar, Durga Temple and Chintamani Temples. We then crossed back over to the other side of the river to head back to Hampi. On the way back we passed by Gangatti Jaina Temple and cycled through Bhima's Gateway.

We decided to split with Vin's group and head off to Badami the rest head to Gulburga & Bidar.

Day 4 [Aihole]
We started off from Hampi towards Aihole. We were lazy to wake up early we had late breakfast and head off to Hospet (it was about 11 am by the time we made it).
We boarded a bus that dropped us as Ilkal. From Ilkal its about 8 kms to Aihole. We took a shared auto to Aihole. I seemed to like only the Durga temple

Aihole Durga Temple

which is again in Ruins and has undergone massive re-construction and restoration work. Within the premises is also a well maintained museum. Our next stop as Banashakri (4 kms before Badami)

Day 5 [Banashankri & Badami temples]
We booked into the temple accommodation which was not worth INR 200 without hot water and no cot :(, we had to sleep over bedspread. The local snacks here is interesting - roasted Tender-channa over a mixture of sand ad salt; one has to peal off the outer tender shell and eat the channa inside.

Banashankri Reflections of Banashankri Temple off the Kalyani

Banashankri is not much heard of, we saw how vibuthi (sacred ash) is made.
We had pooja done at the temple, I seemed to like this temple.

Banashakri Sacred Ash being dried (Vibhooti)

We then hit Badami Museum in a shared auto. The Museum was worth a visit, clean and well maintained.

Badami vicinity of Shiva Temple

We also visited Shiva temples in the vicinity and the famous Boothnath Temple. On the adjacent bank of the Boothnath Temple are the famous Badami caves.

Badami Boothnath Temple

We were done seeing all the places by 13:00 hours. We went to the local postoffice and got the famous Nataraja stamping done. After a brief shopping we left headed back to Bangalore by a night bus.

Finale:
#1 You will need 2 to 3 days to cover the whole of Hampi.
#2 Cycling around Hampi was a great experience
#3 Use packaged drinking water else you will end up cutting down on your trip.
#4 Our total expense including food accommodation and travel all inclusive worked out to INR 2200 per person.

Peak 1252, Jenkal Betta & Dipadakallu Betta

2008-11-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

Introduction:
To begin with there were 8 members willing to make this trek but finally there were only 3 of the lot willing, after much persuasion Gururaj convinced a 4th member Karthik for this trek.
The idea was to trek from Bettada Bhaireshwara -> Peak 1252-> Jenkal Betta -> Dipadakallu Betta -> OG -> Gundia check post.

7th November:
We board a bus to Hassan -> Sakleshpur.

From Sakleshpur at 6:30 am

8th November:
The jeep is waiting for us at Sakleshpur that takes us initially to Bettada Bhaireshwara Temple.

From Bettada Baireshwara temple

The priest at the temple scared us away and sent us to trek from Hodachalli, he was somehow not happy about your plans. By the time we started trekking it was Noon... There was absolutely no cloud cover and 95 % of the time we were exposed to direct sun. Our first stop was at Peak 1252 as planned and then to Jenkal Betta.

From Hodachalli - Trek began here

Jenkal Betta:
Is the tallest among all the peaks in the vicinity. The view up from here is majestic and is almost at 75Degree inclination. By the time we scaled down Jenkal betta it was 17:00 hours. We decided to take shelter for the night in the thick forest cover in the adjacent valley.

From Janukallu Gudda from Peak 1252

From Twilight Killer.....

Night out:
The entry into the virgin forests with a sickle in hand was quite adventurous. The spot we chose was perfect, it had thick tree cover to protect us from strong chill breeze, stream near by to help us cook and plenty of fire wood to keep the camp fire rocking. Well the camp fire had more smoke in it than fire or warmth, the reason being the fire wood was moist and dew had set in..

From RED Hot Coke

However we kept the fire starting as early as 18:00 hours upto 8:00 next morn., special thanks to Purushottam who took special interest staying up almost all night. Well karthik was busy smoking his lungs out.

From MTR Breakfast

8th November - Dipadkallu Betta:
Next morning we started at 9:00 hours out of the forest and head straight to Dipadkallu Betta we were ontop by 10:30 hours.

From Dipadkallu.....

The view from top was quite good, but with limited visibility. However seeing the thick undergrowth in the forests leading us to OG we decided not to head that way due to lack of mind and resources and preparedness.. We decided to get to Maragunda via Bettada Baireshwara temple. The trek down Dipadkallu Betta was pretty challenging having to get past tall grass negotiating drops all along the rock face. Towards the end we had to cut through thick virgin forests we managed get past this which took about an hour to clear and make our way through it safe.

From Purushottam, Gururaj, Karthik & Rohit in Order

The Trek Ends:
The way back to Maragonda was pretty simple and did not take much time. We had to wait a long time for the KSRTC Bus to come by and pick us up and drop us to Sakleshpur. We boarded a bus to Bangalore at 18:30 to reach Bangalore at 1:00 hours.

From Dipadkal as seen from Jenkallu Gudda

Finale:
1.The weather conditions are extreme, hot during day and cold at nights
2.95% of the trek is in lack of tree cover/any-kind of shade
3.Water is available in plenty almost everywhere, carrying half to one litre is sufficient.
4.Carry fruits and vegetables those that can be eaten raw.
5.Jeep is an expensive affair, all places have bus connectivity from Sakleshpur.

Preparing to get lost

2008-10-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Preparing to get lost Here

If all goes well we start our trek from "Bettada Bhaireshwara Devasthana" then down to Jenkal Betta and then to Dipadakallu Gudda and then to Ombattu Gudde and back to Gundia Check post.

Three Days will determine our fate ...
We make it alive there is no story like it!
Three guys could be history - Vinay alias Kulla, Preetham both from Hewlett Packard & finally myself ex HP. We are attempting this 'cause we got balls of steel ......

Why so?
Never attempted before, limited water sources, naxal infested, thick virgin forests

The tentative date in order: 7th 8th & 9th of November 2008

Khudremukh Trek

2008-10-06T00:02:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
This trek & tour was an accident...
The original destination was one of
#1 Silent Valley [4 day trek] or
#2 Ombattu gudde from Deepadakallu gudde or
#3 Biking in Khudremukh forest ranges
When Preetham The man who lives horrific Dreams ditched us last minute I had no options but to start marketting & plan a trek cum tour.
There were just too many people who joined in and out on various days so I wont name them all.. Here are the ones i remember - ..............someone fill this up

Khudremukh Getting there [1st October 2008]
To begin with, the bad girls occupied the most comfortable front seats [3 Nos. Mamtha(M), Rashmi(M) & Soumya(S) (not sure of her real name, she had many nicks);M=>Married!].

View from Kalasha just before Sun Rise

Sun Rise view from Kalasha again ...

Gangatikal Peak [2nd October 2008]We were late and left with no other choice and had to trek gagatikal peak [4km from Bhagavathi Guest house]. The trek starts from the state highway connecting khudremukh - karkala route.

Gangatikal Trek Mid way

One needs to take permission from Karkala Forest Range officer before attempting this trek (It was a costly affair, better be students you get 50% off, carry college id cards etc to claim this benefit).

Ladies First

The trek was over in no time at all, it ended with light showers. The best part of this trek was - from the peak we got to see great panoromic view of the entire Khudremukh Forest Range. We missed Nagappa all along this trek. This is not very popular among trekkers but i must say its better than Khudremukh Peak....

Panorama from Gangatial Peak - 4 photos conjoined

Hanumangundi & Lakya Dam
Since it was a small trek we had time to cover 2 more places Hanumangundi and Lakya dam. We had a lot of tax-free entertainment at Hanumangundi falls. We just went on a brief walk over Lakya dam and head back to the dorm.
We spent the night at Bhadra Dormitory with Onion Free Lunch and played poker - Mamtha seemed to be an addict now and we hit the bed when she Won!

Kurinjal Peak [3rd October 2008]
Day 2 Nagappa, Gururaj and Harish (guru's cousin) joined in.

Vivek Mari River Crossing

Well as always Nagappa had an intersting overnight journey.

Back View of Nagappa.....

This time Nagappa sat with an aunty and ajji, the aunty & ajji found Nagappa pretty interesting offered him Chocolates and put him to sleep... :). Nagappa also bought an intersting monkey cap which looked more like an undy. My breakfast was affected due to too much laughing.. however the trek began at 9:30 am from the Bhagavati Guest house Gate.
The trek was a good one, we had to first cross a stream. The terrain was beautiful but leach infested.. Dettol seemed to work wonders, we soaked our socks and shoes with dettol and kept going. Just below the peak was an abandonded guest house in ruins, further up we hit the peak where the terrain suddenly changed from elephant grass to short shrubs with strange insects. It was a 7Km * 2 trek overall. At one point nearing the peak we had to take the route cutting across and leading us Uphill..this was the only point of confusion, the rest seemed pretty staright forward. On our way back we took a slightly differnt route and accidently hit a bridge that lead us to the main road and we had to walk slightly more to get back to the guest house but saved effort removing shoes.
ಮಾಂಸ ಪರ್ವಥ Harish, Kulla [Vinay] & Venkat[from CISCO] decided to head back to Bangalore, I guess they had enough... We did not get accomodation in Bhagavti guest house and we left early to Karkala. We halted at a lodge beside the bus stop, it was my day at poker.

Karkala - Udupi - Malpe - St. Mary's Island - Kaapu [4th October 2008]:
We visited the nearby Karkala Gomateshwara, spent a couple of hours before leaving to Upupi Krishna Temple and checked out "Outlook Dosa" -> Well the dosa is just a media hype as the hotel server himself admits, it tastes no extra-ordinary but one good thing is that all food items served don't have onion n Garlic in them... Meanwhile Ashwin [Prosperous Architect] & Sameer [Pakka Hindu] escaped...

Three Blind Sailors..

Not much has changed in and around Malpe and St. Mary's Island except that the tickets cost more 70 Bucks per head.

Ravi Posing

The island has not changed much except that beer cans and plastics have increased. Kaapu beach had a good crowd and tax free entertainment. The lighhouse and view atop was too good.. We left after sunset and halted at Udupi.

Stay at Udupi:
The lodge was too good and we got every bit of 1.5K we paid for it. The room was called "Honeymoon Special with AC". It had 2 big rooms, 2 double cots with attached bath, a royal swing, 2 plush sofa sets, a fridge and a Bathtub! However the swinging event stopped soon after Harish and me in a joint operation brought it down:D, everyone waited eagerly to swim around in the bath tub. I was lucky to go 2 rounds! The AC was over used and started getting on Jatin's sleep, he sleep walked and put it off.. the room got stuffy, vivek woke up and turn on fan.. Someone else woke up and swithed the AC on again... I wasn't aware of these happenings I slept away from both the Fan & AC blast. However Nagappa slept peacefully inbetween both Jatin and Vivek sharing the same bed and had no complaints...

Koodalteertha - Augumbe - Sringeri [5th October 2008]:
One needs to take a right-diversion while going towards Augumbe from Hebri to Koodalteertha water falls. Its a 13km drive and a 5 km * 2 trek in thick forests infested with leeches. The trek's a good one. We started early to reach early hence we were to first set of people to make it.

Awesome Water Fall - 2 photos joined

One doesn't need to take permission to trek around in this Someshwara wildlife reserve. The waterfall is amazing with a very different terrain around it. The water falls staright down without being cut down by any projecting rocks all along. The impact is pretty hard with literally no boulders around, you find only fine powdered rocks all around the fall. However the lazy ladies decided to terminate the trek pre-maturely for reasons unknown, I suspect lack of will and moral support from guys as well, but they missed the very best part of the trek! While crossing a stream Nagappa got excited and lost once of his slippers,
before he got to it, the currents washed it away, he was lucky I was around, I managed to throw a few rocks and twigs and slow it down and Nagappa managed to get a hold back of his slippers.

Ravi Strips..

Augumbe was cloudy and we could not see the sun set, however a pretty gal in pink and black kept us waiting and we soon left to Sringeri.
Sringeri was crowded on account of Navarathi celebrations. After a brief visit we had dinner and head straight to Bangalore via Balehonur ->Chickmagalur.
The drive was bumpy with everyone having puking sensation.
We reached home by 5:00 hours. The total expenses worked out to be around 2k.

Finale:
#1 No Nagappa No entertainment, Know Nagappa know entertainment...
#2 After effects -> Nagappa on his way to office on the 6th morning dozed off in a Volvo bus facing him was a pretty lady, the driver accidently braked suddenly... Guess what happened next [:D], well it didn't end here, same day while heading back home, he again dozed off and got off 3 stops later :D...

Narashima Parvatha

2008-05-27T02:56:00.000-07:00

Introduciton:

Due to intense naxal activities in and around Narashima Parvatha, it is quite difficult to get people to accompany you for the trek. Well I managed to brain wash 3 people into this trek. The others dropped out after hearing stories about Naxals attacking a local Doctor / money lender. The group consisted of just Meeliya, Ganesh, Amar & Roti(me).

As usual we had not booked any tickets and had the freedom to reach majestic at our convenience. We made it to 21:15 hours Red bus to Sringeri. Reached Sringeri by 5.
After a brief visit to the temple complex (Amar took exceptionally a long time to complete eleven rounds in the temple complex) soon after we headed straight to Kigga [12 km from Sringeri].

Guide menace
On reaching Kigga, we found no guides who were willing to take us up. We had to wait till 11:00 to get hold of ಎಣ್ಣೆ ರಾಮಾ [Boozer Rama]. The best drink out here to beat the heat is a local lassi sold in Lolly kind plastic packing. We gulped down 4 each to beat the heat.

The Trek Begins:
The trek initially begins through small huts on level ground and soon turns into a 60Degree inclination. The climb to the top took us 2 hours. There have been other blogs where they mention it as 4-5 hours, but it does not take that much.

The view from the top is majestic as any other peak. You can spot Khudremuk peak from here. There is not much to see or do on the peak.
There is no portable water anywhere. There is a dirty twin pond on the peak which people use to bathe and drink from [:D].

On the peak you will find a solitary Forest guard house which is bound to collapse anymoment. There is also a small nandi further up. One can enter Augumbe Ghats, Bharkana Falls and then to Bharkana View Point. We could not do it as we were illegally trekking in the forests. I also understand that this trek has been closed due to frequent naxal - police encounters.

Trek Ends:After lunch we soon started get down the same way back down. It took us about an hour to reach the temple. We next went to Sirimane water falls which is 6 km from Kigga, it is a commercialised place but well maintained.
The bus back to Sringeri was at 18:45 hours. After reaching Sringeri we booked tickets for 20:45 hours, we werent lucky to get Rajahamsa tickets we had to settle down with Red bus. Meeliya, Ganesh & Amar tried some kind of `Sinus Killer` at a local shop in Sringeri, impressed by it they decided to buy it. Well everyone bought one or the other weird stuff from here.

The ride back home was bumpy and left us with no sleep. The leech bites started to get itchy too. We reached bangalore at 05:15 hours.

Panoramic view from Narashimaparvatha over Sringeri:

Expense Sheet:
Bangalore - Sringeri - 200 [Red Bus]
Food - 49
Sringeri - Kigga - 6 [Local transport]
Guide fees - 30 per head [120]
Kigga - Sirimane falls- 40 per head [160]
Sringeri - Bangalore - 200 [Red Bus]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Total - 525
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nijagal Betta

2008-04-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Grasshopper on Nijagal Betta

Chameleon Smiling
Introduction:
After a lot of hasty decision it was decided we head off to Nijagal Betta after hari-sadu shared a blog about nijagal betta, even though it lagged detailed directional information we decided to find out on the way. Just 5 showed up on Saturday morning. Preetham(the man who lives horrific dreams :P), Vinay(‘Kulla’ – the short one), Ravi (‘mari’- small boy), Jatin(my nephew) & Rohit(myself).

Hard Dive!
Breakfast:
We had a quick breakfast at a local restaurant on Tumkur road within city limits, we left the place soon after having parceled 3 idlis each for lunch. Our next stop was Dobespet for directions at the local post office.

Shivagange view
Nijagal Betta:
Nijagal Betta is not popular; it’s got a Dargha on top with a temple in ruins at the base and a twin-kalyani. Nice place for photographing birds, monkeys, insects and reptiles. The climb to the top was not tiring at all. The peak had flat land and seems like a natural stone maze. We saw 3 stone enclosures what looked like a pre-historic temple shelter & temple ruins. On the way up we stopped by the Dharga, the place did not look inviting and we left soon. On the way back we also got into a cave. Its cold and dark inside with limited access. We also found a lot of beehives clinging dangerously to the rock surfaces over the cave entrance.

Stone Enclosure on the Peak
The view of the NH7 from the peak is excellent; a railway track runs parallel to the road. We saw a couple of passenger trains and goods trains pass by. After a bit of photography we left the place by 17:00 hours.

Reliance Petrol Pump & Resturant
We stopped by A1 Plaza Resturant (Affiliated to Reliance) adjacent to Nijagal Betta.

How to get there?
The place is 65 km from Bangalore city. To get there, take the NICE Road [Nandi Infrastructure Corridor] Once on Tumkur Road soon after Dobespet look for Reliance Petrol pump on the Right hand side of the Road. The hillock on the Left side facing it is Nijagal Betta. To get to the peak we took our bikes under the railway pass and parked bikes adjacent to the path leading to the peak.

Tripple Engine powered Goods Train [@300mm Zoom]
MORE PHOTOS: http://picasaweb.google.com/rohitc/NijagalBetta

Rs.100/- Wired Remote for Canon 350/400D

2008-03-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Canon camera 350D the one I own does not come with a 2 sec timer as its competitors. The other problem is taking photos in the bulb mode without introducing shakes. Hence it made sense to wire out a simple wired remote with parts locally available. The only problem I faced while buying out raw materials was the 2.5mm Stereo Male Jack. It’s pretty unpopular and difficult to find. With a lot of searching in and around Bangalore I found only a 2.5mm to 3.5mm male to female converter.

The assembly was pretty easy it took about 3 hours including digging out my old Soldering Iron, wires and a suitable plastic casing to mount the assembly.

Raw Materials:
1. 2.5mm stereo male jack or 2.5mm male to 3.5 mm female converter.
2. 1+ mts of 3 channel insulated copper wire or old stereo headphone
3. 1 double-pole-single-throw switch [DP switch] – Panel mount type
4. 2 Click-Effect Push Switches – Panel mount type
5. A plastic or metal casing

Wiring Diagram:

End Result:

Costing:
1. 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo male to female jack converter - Rs.40
2. Double pole single throw switch - Rs.20
3. 2 click effect push switches 20 * 2 - Rs.40
Total : Rs.100

*Grass - North Karnataka & Goa in Tempo Traveller

2007-12-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

Introduction:
Twin Tunnel

North Karnataka was in my mind for a very long time. Harish did the marketing and got the head count to 12. On the 21st of December we managed to head out of Bangalore by 21:00 hours for the Christmas weekend. One of the items banned in this trip was ‘grass’, which was quite promptly followed by all. The team consisted of:
Harish alias Hari Sadu, the organizer and chief accountant; Guru, gym body curly hair and a proud Nokia Express Music mobile owner;
Roti and Magod Falls in the Backdrop
Vivek, this man can eat absolutely anything and is most of the time munching something; Jatin, loves to photograph anything that moves; Nagesh, this man’s the only one who can do a bit of lateral thinking, most entertaining of the lot; Devadatt, very happy thing, this thing needs to get hooked up to something real fast, Homo’s seem to get attracted to it; Sreeni / Srinivas the most quietest of the lot, I hardly heard them ever speak or say a thing all along the journey, yea but I guess they have a lot of complaints now; Preetham, the man who lives his horrific dreams, you need to consult him to know misfortune coming your way. Praveen, this guy reminds me of ‘Rocky’; Arun, the guys secretly call him ‘Rowdy’, I don’t know why, this guy’s quite interested in talking about `grass`, drinks and is a good sport; Roti finally the only good guy of the lot.
Day 1:
Magod was the 1st destination, which should have been quite easily accessible via Yellapur, which gave us the 1st twist. After breakfast at 10:30 near Yellapur we head off to Magod.

Magod Falls Full PreviewIt’s awesome just that one can’t get to the water. Well nothing interesting happened till we figured out our ‘Snake man’ had a ravenous thirst for water. This man had emptied Half of our packaged drinking-water reserves!
Our next destination for the day was Kavala caves after much confusion; a guide accompanied us too. The hike was a 2 hour uphill-cement stairway without railings. A pretty good hike up landed us in an amazing cave. The naturally formed linga is 2 meters in diameter & is 1.5 meters in height.
Cavala Caves Natural Limestone Cave Formation
There are sharp pointed limestone formations on top as well. Torch is a must, watch your head as you move about, each of the 12 got hit at least once.
Moon Peeping, shot during the hike back from Kavala Caves
Day 2:
Previous night we had each signed up for Rafting in `Kaali nadi` @ 900 per person for the 1st batch & we had to miss breakfast. Rafting was instructed by a British national -> John who claimed to have settled in India after marrying an Indian Journalist/Teacher/Naturalist -> multitalented lady. He had another female accomplice from New Zeland[HOT Chick] Devadatta was quite excited riding with her getting to the rafting site, he even managed to get her personal cell number, now claims to have lost it(forget it I know he hasn’t lost it, it’s just possessiveness!). Well one thing to appreciate about John is that he had picked up Kannada and was quite fluent with that! Back to rafting, instructions were given and we were we started off, the event was over in about 45 minutes; during the course of the event we were allowed to float in water. This is supposed to be a Level - #3.
We next head off to Syntheri Rocks.
Syntheri Rocks withouth the Falls
By the time we hit this place It was 17:00 hours, we got to spend 2 hours here. The rock formation is quite different here and has a stream that flows nearby, the valley is pretty good and clean, most visitors here are Marathi speaking. The best part is this is in a Thick forest with thick tree cover and we could spot wild life crossing the roads. These roads are deserted at night. The worst part in our entire journey is both Lunch and Dinner were never addressed with importance. We ate in all kinds of places and luckily didn’t fall sick. During Day 2 dinner there was a very interesting lateral thinking by `Snake man`; it was about a `Toy Train` plying between Castle Rock and Doodhsagar Railway station. He seemed more interested in the Size of the train rather than -> fare, stops, journey time etc…
Night of misery
Thanks to me for the night’s stay @ Castle Rock Railway station; the idea was to save about 2 hours of journey time the following day by not staying at Ambaiwaad. I managed to convince the guys about castle rock railway station, the guys after much growling and no much option agreed. The ticket counter personal at Londa railway station suggested us to halt in Castle rock Railway waiting room. On reach the station we figured out the waiting room meant 1 open room without beds and 4 rocking chairs that don’t rock; including a Round table. The arm rest broken, chilly weather conditions made sleeping a life time experience. On seeing the conditions inside half the guys decided to lock themselves up in the TT (Good idea). The rest decided to try out the waiting room. I obviously had no choice but to rock the night out. By the time I picked up my shawl and other necessities the rocking chairs were all occupied, left with no choice I hit the Round table. I had a broken sleep, but never complained. `Snake man` had the sleep of his life…. He had chosen to keep the Door wide open and the chilly winds straight at him. He slept on the floor over a sleeping bag (not inside!) I believe he even sleep walked at various intervals to the nearby fire to warm him up. It was decided that we cross over to Goa to hit Doodsagar, by a goods train.
I Love this Job!
The Train was to depart at 7:00 hours, but some engine problems and wait for another train delayed it by an hour. The goods train experience was quite different. The train transported Hematite Ore from Goa to Karnataka and the entire train was quite polluted with fine powder which got on us everywhere.
I still Can't find the last boggie
The scenery is excellent and I recommend every one must do this once. We could reach the falls quite comfortably as per directions given by the engine driver. It’s not actually a trek it’s just a 1 km downhill descent.
Three of my GFs
This place has a hippie crowd, gals in bikini’s wow quite awesome.
Naughty Red Santa
Dev n other bad guys couldn’t resist capturing their every move. Dev I suggest you buy yourself a bigger cam!
Train and Falls in back drop
There were a few desi chicks not to mention. However the journey back wasn’t quite pleasant it was a 14km jeep track trek with the last 6 kms on rail track leading us to Polem Railway station. From Polem we hit Molem Bus stop (last town on Goa Side) and we crossed over to `Anmod` where our TT was waiting. We spent the night in an Udupi lodge in Karwar. The sweet memories of Toy Train and lateral thinking gave us a hard stomach ache but we finally managed to sleep real well.
Day 4:
Our initial plan was to boat to Kumargad island; which did not happen we ended up at Devbagh beach. Before that we visited some ancient fort that had been captured by shivaji during his reign.
NH17 Off Karwar Fort
The place is well maintained and one gets a good view of NH17 Bridge and all islands around Karwar. Devabagh beach is good.
Clint Eastwood in Devabagh Beach Resort
We made best of the resources out there and at free of expense. We played Kabbadi in the `Gali mara` tree shades, Hari Sadu pounced on Vivek when he got excited. Me Roti attacked Vivek in the melee Vivek’s buniyan tore into two, it seemed as though he was raped* real baad. On low tide we could walk upto a nearby island where we made Praveen lie down and carved out a caricature of a sexy woman.
Ready to Eat Fresh Fish
Every guy took turns and finally the thing even got Pregnant. Well we had too much fun and 6 guys decided to stay back the rest a small shower and back before sun-set. However we were too late for the sun set. After the shower we were late and decided to get off the bridge and take snaps of the crimson sky. Meanwhile disaster struck soon when the TT was reversing in the beach area; 2 wheels sunk in sand. Run out of options they had to seek help from local fishermen, who made quick bucks ->500! The journey back turned out to be a 14+ hour drive we reached Bangalore at 14:00 hours.
Finale:
#1 No toy trains ply between Castle Rock and Doodhsagar
#2 Lunches and Dinners are both important plan accordingly.
#3 managing a big group and addressing every man’s concern is not possible.
#4 When you don’t get sleep play POKER 
#5 ‘Snake man’ is offended; no offence meant
#6 TT is not very comfortable its cramped; the legs hurt the most esp. if you have long legs
#7 Rafting is very expensive, 1/3rd the expense of our whole trip!
#8 The Night spent at Castle Rock was my best experience in the whole trip.

Bandaje

2007-04-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Introduction:

Four members showed up at Majestic KSRTC Platform 2, it was decided we trek from Bandaje and complete the trek by getting off at Shankashale. The team consisted of Ganesh, Ashutosh, Venkat and Roti the greatest. We boarded a bus to Dharmasthala at around 23:30 hours and got the last seat as usual. The ride was not really all that bumpy, it was pretty pleasant.

Day 1:
We reached Dharmasthala at around 6 and left from there at around 7:30 to Ujire[8km from Dharmasthala] from here we hired a jeep to take us to Bandaje via Mundaje[The foothills from where the trek begins]. The shared jeep ride was amazing with 19 people on board at one point it time, the driver drove safely with just one half of his ass on the seat. We started trekking at 8:30.
We hit the stream at 10:30 took a bath and after breakfast we resumed the trek up. The climb gets steeper as you go higher up. After a while you reach open space and this is the toughest part of the trek. You get a sneak peek of the falls from the edge of the steep ascent.

Once you make it to the top you get to hear the falls, taking a steep ascent down you get to the cliff of the water fall. This reminds me of Onake Abbi falls in Augumbe(not very popular, did not find any write-up on the net as well); however Bandaje is not all that majestic, but it’s still a tougher hike up when compared to Onake Abbi falls. There was a light downpour, after the sun came out again we saw a herd of 8 Bison on the adjacent mountain. Venkat and myself had a sleeping bag, we slept without much complaints. Ganesh and Ashutosh had problems with the cool night breeze. I had missed dinner due to some stomach upset.

Day 2:
I woke up at 4:00 and had the campfire burning till 7:00. With a lot of mist and cloud cover it was not very tough to make the steep ascent.

We planned to get off Shankashale after trekking past

Ballala-rayana-durga. The ascent was pretty strenuous; we took a lot of breaks to get on top. We were trekking past all the high mountains. The view was majestic and pretty hot as well as there was no tree cover all through. We were lucky again to spot a heard of wild bison. The final part of the trek has a lot of tree cover and is a steep downhill ascent in most cases. Its rocky and you need to watch your step.
The locals here helped us with water. To get the auto to pick us up we had to call from sultanpet(4 km from Shankashale). Everyone had lunch at a local Non-Vegetarian restaurant. However I preferred to drink something to cool down my stomach and restore my body fluids.

I had puked at least 3 times during the ascent to sultanpet. After lunch we took a small nap upto 14:00 hours. The bus to Kottigehara was scheduled to arrive at 14:45 hoursand was pretty much on time we had a tough time standing for 45 minutes. At 15:30 we reached Kottigehara. The bus to Hassan arrived at 16:00 hours. We reached Hassan at 18:45 hours. After a mini meal we left hassan at 19:30 hours to reach Bangalore at 00.15 hours. By then I had missed my last bus. Whereas the others managed to get some bus to take them home.

Total Expense Sheet:
#1 Packaged Food – 87
#2 Bus Ticket to Majestic – 09
#3 Tickets to Dharmasthala – 154
#4 Dharmasthala to Ujire – 10
#5 Shared travel by jeep to bandaje – 20
#6 Sultanpet to Shankashale – 25
#7 Shankashale to Kottigehara – 10
#8 Kottigehara to Hassan – 45
#9 Hassan to Bangalore – 90
#10 Bangalore city to my home – 110 !
#11 Misc. expenses(food) – 110
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Grand total: 670

Grand Finale:
#1 Bandaje trek is amazing, its challenging to ascend from Bandaje side and get off at Shankashale side
#2 Carry some chocolates & Glucose, its pretty energising
#3 Make sure you reach Bangalore by 00:00 hours else you will end up paying heavily on autos
#4 Carry some basic medicines

Ombattu Gudde – One neat trek!

2006-12-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

Introduction:
The troupe consisted of Reem, Santana, Venkat & Rohit. Well Reem initially wanted to make the Kodai-Munnar trek, but I managed to convince her for this trek. Well Reem had flown all the way from Dubai. Shantanu accompanied Reem. Venkat was one of my old trek mates. The long Christmas weekend was chosen as we had 1 day to spare incase we got lost, as old pals in their previous attempt had taken 3 days after having lost their way. Besides there is a history of 3 trekkers who got lost in the same Shiradi Ghats a few months ago.

After meeting up at Majestic bus stand we realize that all busses are full with no room to accommodate 4 people in any bus heading past Gundia junction on NH 48 [The trek begins 2km from here]. We ended up taking private transport which cost us 250! (That was quite expensive ..:); KSRTC would cost 150).

Trek begins:
We touched down on Gundia 6am. We started off with the trek after a brief break soon after entering the village limits of the Shiradi Ghats beside the river. By 10 am we made it to the first river crossing. We stopped by for breakfast and a long break taking a lot of snaps and resumed trek till we hit a fork. The one that goes left takes us to the Ombattu Gudde, the other takes us to the river. We continued our trek, the trail often vanishes and re-surfaces suddenly.

Trails of confusion:
The confusion starts soon after hitting the last source of water. Here there are neither visible trails nor any clue. You will need to open your compass box and start heading in North or 30Degrees north East. Initially you could climb up the water stream vertically up till you realise you are find various forks of dried up streams. Take the one that takes you north till the trail vanishes. At this point you need to cut through shrubs and thorns to get on top of Obattu Gudde ridge. As you get closer to the top the climb gets steeper and you need to grip on to whatever you find. We occasionally slipped and found things to grab onto. We made it to the ridge at 17:00 hours. We had no choice but to halt for the night and start collecting wood for forest fire and flattening ground for pitching the tent.

Sounds of horror:
Shantu who enjoyed the maximum sleep made sure we kept guarding the tent by occasional grunts and snores. It got on Reem’s nerves at times… Venkat our sleep talker had a lot of office thoughts was working hard on some “Department ID”. It was actually an interactive discussion we participated in his discussions. The guy even mistook Reem to be his darling… :p his words were however coded in Tamil, none of us knew it and he was lucky to get away with it.

Reem had to keep someone awake on guard, well Rohit had to stay awake, and Reem had interesting stories that got over by 1am. I got sleep for 2 hours and got back into guarding. Shantu preferred to sleep with the snakes got to the darkest of places to guard or what I don’t know :) I had to keep calling on him, till Reem woke up and got him back to visibility. The camp fire was amazing which lasted all night with no problem at all.. Thanks to Reem who started the fire in first place!

Next day:
With not much water to spare we had breakfast without brushing teeth and washing faces. On reaching one of the higher peaks on Obattu Gudde we got to see the first trail of human life around. We saw some cattle and a Shepard. By now all water reserves were over in spite of stocking sufficient water. We kept going till we go on top of the highest peaks of Obattu Gudde. By now the cattle looked like food calling..:) I had plans to suck milk straight out of the cows. Reem just had to smile over the petty joke. Reem who got the least water to drink did a good job in carrying on without cribbing or sulking!!! Trust me Reem rocks!

H2O:
Reem and I who got out of the forest first got to the jeep track. We see a jeep pass by stopped them for water. We got real lucky the guys promised more water and drive back to Hosadurga, well I guess the guy was the estate owner one Mr.Bhat. By then Venkat and Shantu got out of the forest and joined in and all made it out safe.

Expenses Chart:
1. Home – Bus Stand - Rs.8 (BMTC – 21:45 hours)
2. Bangalore – Gundia - Rs.250 (Private tx – 00:00)
3. Hoskere – Mudigere - Rs.14 (KSRTC – 14:30 hours)
4. Light snacks - Rs.10
5. Mudigere – Hassan - Rs.35 (KSRTC – 16:15 hours)
6. Light snacks - Rs.35
7. Hassan – Bangalore - Rs.93 (KSRTC – 18:00 hours)
8. Bangalore – Home - Rs.100(Auto Exp.23:00 hours)
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Total Expenses: Rs.545
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Finale:
1. Carry Empty water Bottles 2-3 litres per person and fill them all at the last known water source
2. Tents and sleeping bags are unnecessary burden; I feel you can still make it without those.
3. Compass is required to ensure you are on track.
4. The last bit of the forest is too thick and you could get lost, make sure you are traveling in the direction of jeep trail.

Slithered till death

2006-11-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

Savandurga a small rock climber’s paradise 65 kms from Bangalore city was the chosen destination on Kannada Rajyotsava - 1st of November 2006. The idea was 6 of us summit Savandurga, a couple of buggers had ditched us.

The ride there was pretty cool without many complaints; expect 25kms from Ramnagar was a bumpy ride. There were scenic beauty on either side of the road on most occasions and the weather was cloudy and pleasant. There is a very popular Narashima Swami Temple which attracts the non-adventure seeking crowd. After a brief Darshan we started off with our ascent.

Rahul in high spirits lead us on a shortcut over a ghostly trail up a narrow steep upward crevice all along a slippery upward grave. Karthik and I had to back track to a humane trail.

Once we were on top we had nothing much to see or do, we took some snaps and decided to head down as saw rain catch up on us. We had to split into two groups and reunited later after the rains stopped.

The rains had turned the rocks into a slippery grave with frequent slips unavoidable. Sandeep had the worst experiences in our company. Having slipped early in the ascent he was the most cautious. On reaching the ghostly trail where we earlier attempted our ascent we saw a organic structure lying lifeless in a stream of water, torn clothing, a broken skull, froth oozing out of its motionless mouth, wildly twisted legs hanging over a rock and 7 of his men 50 meters away franticly trying to figure out what to do.. 4 men still trying to make a safe shoring down the slippery rocks all along the same stream.

The tragedy stuck hard on us we had a very bad feeling about the place and left soon without wasting much time. We took Maagdi road after a local directed us. The road sucks; Mysore road rules it’s better to take that any day.

Finale:
1. Do not be over adventurous
2. Savandurga is good 1 day outing ideal during winter
3. Rain + You Rock climb => you grow famous next day [obituary column]

Trek for life

2006-10-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

i Love Trekking