Muthodi Wildlife Reserve

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

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

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.