Amedikallu – All New Trek Route

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

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

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