Friday, March 13, 2009

Moorkannu Gudda

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

4 comments:

PATIL said...

Cool pics.. We too plan to trek in that area.. Can you share the guide's contact details please?

alwaysrohit said...

The guide's name is "Pradeep", I havent saved his #contact, he is a native of Maranhalli, he is popular as "Billa"/"Bill Pradeep" anyone in Maranhalli should be able to help.

PATIL said...

Thanks Rohit... I'll find him there!!

prodigy untamed said...

Hi, We plan to stay at Kadumane for a couple of days and trek from there. Could you please give me the details of whom to contact in order to book our stay at Kadumane. The contact of a local tamil speaking guide would be most helpful.