Kaginari Ruins

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!

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

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

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

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

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.