SBenegaL

Tag: #bikeride

  • The trek/bike-ride to Kundadri

    It had been a long wait for a trek/trip! I just couldn’t wait to take a break before my Fellowship Program scheduled to begin on the 16th June 2014. It was less that 5 days away and I thought it had to be now! 

    It did take some serious coaxing for me to get Pangala on board for this bike trip combined with the trek. He had taken a trek along with a few friends a week earlier to Kodachadri and he was evaluating this one! I am so happy he agreed for this one. 

    I reached Udupi in the morning around 5:30 AM and freshened up, I could see the rain clouds threatening to spoil the whole fun. The sketch for the trek wasn’t really firmed – we were evaluating Kundadri as one of the options. I had heard a bit about the place from one of my cousins – he told it was steep climb to the top and there was a well at there. I didnt collect much information beyond this – I had spotted the board by the side of the road during my earlier trip to Shringeri.

    Pangala and me decided to start off the trip on the Pulsar 125 cc bike that was available around 10:30 AM. We decided to take our own time to travel the whole distance – the clouds had just showered and the weather looked great for the drive.

    Pangala hadn’t taken the bike on a long drive for over two years and he wondered if there could be any issues that might come along. Letting the worry rest only in our minds, we decided to move on. The journey was something that allowed us to think and discuss a lot about many of things we saw in the distance – the lush green fields, the dense forests, occasional vehicle trying to overtake us, the stream flowing by the side of the road and much more…. It was peaceful enough for us to let our minds just absorb and let out our thoughts, impressions, experience and much more… In fact this is something that look forward in every trek – letting my mind experience the serenity!

    We took a couple of breaks on the route to Agumbe. We reached Agumbe around 12:00 noon and thought about the next plan as we sipped the tea in the cool breeze. If we moved towards Kundadri, we possibly would have to skip lunch given that we have no surity of hotels on the route. We instead decided to go to the Shringeri temple were we could have our lunch at the temple before we decided to cover Kundadri on the way back.

    An interesting experience; was the struggle that the bike had every time we tried pushing its limits – the climb atop the Agumbe did exhaust the bike and we possibly began relying on the capacity of the bike. May be its how we build our teams all through – we begin with the point of distrust and steadily build the confidence with performance! But, we possibly should learn to trust but expect that there exist a limit for the capacity and we prepare for this.

    We reached Shringeri at 1 PM and went right to have our lunch – It was a special lunch (I still recollect the first special dinner at NITK)! Yes – some terminologies picked up early in life doesn’t change right! The new “Gopura” of the temple had been inaugurated a day earlier and it seemed like an optune time for me for us to get the  “special” lunch!

    We spent another half an hour sitting in the corridor of the temple. The temple dedicated to the Goddess of knowledge – Sharadambe and has a long history. The part I rever about the temple is the constant chants that are so much a part of the ecosystem there. I just can’t describe the peace I feel when in the sanctum of the temple – it is something I would love to just stay with.

    We moved back towards Kundadri at 2:30 PM – We could spot the clouds from the west getting denser. These clouds had possibly crossed the tall mountains of the Agumbe range and now looked at getting the remainder of mountains behind the first line drenched. Kundari was in the second line of the hills, and we sensed that the trek to the top would definitely be a climb in the rain.
    Traveling 16 Km from Shringeri towards  Agumbe we find a board (around 10 Km before Agumbe) indicating that a right turn there would take us to Kundadri. We took the right turn and drove 7 Km along the road to find a right turn. Around 500 meter from this point, we take a left which takes us to the road that could lead us to the top of the hill.

    Having already strained our bike, we thought it would be apt to just give it the needed rest at the base of the road leading to the top and begin walking to the top. We still could see some sun when we began the trek upwards – but it wasn’t very long before all that would disappear and we would only have clouds!

    The route to the top was possibly 3 Km but our body which was so much out of exercise was indicating that it wasn’t yet ready to take the steep climb. We pushed ourselves steadily before we reached the top – there are many scenic spots we could take detour to and watch the villages and the streams at a distance all around the hill. The chilling wind, the clouds that touched us through, the occasional sun peeps, slight drizzle all made the trek along the road too look extremely exciting. 

    After a 45 minute climb along the road, we reached the top, were there is a parking space and steps that take us to the Jain temple at the top. The temple is an old one and definitely has some very interesting architecture (Though I dont know much about architecture – it wasnt one of the traiditional styles I had seen of the temples around the area). 

    At one point in time, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts were major Jain centers and these temple might have played a huge role in the cultural history of the community in the state. The temple has a large well just beside it (I guess this is what my cousin had refereed to earlier). 

    The Jain temple has 2 idols of possibly the 8th and the 17th Tirthankara outside and Parshwanath Tirthankara inside. The priest of the temple gave us a good brief of the various historic attacks and the excavations of the idols that were thrown into to the well just beside. He says there could be more such idols inside the well – but an excavation of that scale would take a long time. 

    The hill given its historical significance for the Jains is maintained by the Matha that it is associated to – and so there is a lot of agency issues when it comes to getting to maintaining the road in rainy season when trees fall on the track and the routine route to the top gets disturbed. 

    We thanked the priest for the detailed explanation and began our trek back to the bike. We were lucky that the drizzle had stopped and we didn’t have much issues till we reached a place called Shivapura – a few kilometers after Hebri.

    It as if the rain God had decided it was time to unleash his fury – I don’t remember a single minute when the rains stopped all along our drive from Shivapura to Udupi. We finally reached Udupi around 7 PM – drenched to the core, but still refreshed.

    The Kundadri trek would keep me charged for the next few months for sure…

  • Seetha Falls, Agumbe, Barakan View Point

    I am always on the look out for falls. The last time I visited Seetha falls, I had seen a narrow stream making a falls far off. I wished I could know more about it. I went back to hostel and did a small research to find out that the small falls was called Barkana fall.
    As usual we set out from college in 3 bikes; we set out early aroung 6:00 A.M. from the college and reached Karkala, then we took a route from Karkala that would take us to Hebri. We reached Hebri at around 7:30 am. We had out breakfast in a hotel near the bus stand and then packed some food to be taken up for the trek.
    We set out from Hebri toward Someshwara, on the way we get a place called SeethaNadi – (The place is named after the river (Nadi in kannada means River) – Seetha that flows past this place). We see an Arch on the right side, thatz the route that you have to take… It’s around 10kms from here and we reach a bridge, you can cross the bridge in a 2 wheeler but not a four wheeler. We crossed this one and then reached the falls.
    The falls was as usual at its best, dropping from a height of some 60 feet and making a very nice falls. It has a large lake in front of it, nice cold water in it, and a nice place to rest and have a chilling bath. You can swim here, but make sure you are good at swimming….
    I took a small break from the group and wandered into the wilderness nearby… to look if I can find the origin of the falls… I only found a level above the falls and then came back.
    We set out from the falls at around 12 noon, had our lunch at a bus stand that had a borewell nearby. After having our lunch we decide to go to the Agumbe and then to Barkana. We reached Agumbe and got the permission from the police station to enter into the forest – There is a naxal problem in these areas and its needed that we inform the police about any activity that we find in the forest.
    Having acquired the permission we set out on the bikes towards the Barkan, around 3 Km into the forest and we reach the Barkana View Point… I cherish the memories of this view point – the view of the lush greenary, the wild vegetation, the sea far way, the surrounding mountains, the barkana falls at a distance… All this makes it more special than the Agumbe View Point. I wish I make the Narsimha Parvatha Trek some time that will take me through the barkana falls… Am waiting… let me see if I can do it some time.
    We spent nearly an hour at the view point and then got back to Agumbe. We had our tiffin there and then went to the view point to wait for the sunset. We had a splendid sunset – one of the memorable ones in my life… We got down Agumbe and then back to College via Hebri, Karkala, Padubidre… We had our dinner at the very famous “Sonu Dhaba” and then got back to hostel.
    Personally I feel not all that exciting trip except for the time spent at – Barkana, Seetha Falls, and the Agumbe Sunset….

  • The Bandajje Abbi – a memorable experience

    The first time I saw this beautiful falls was from GadiKal fort. It looked beautiful and immediately generated an interest in me to go to the falls.
    This is beautiful falls, near BeltangaDi. The name “Bandajje Abbi” literally means Bandajje falls. This falls is some 4 km into the forest from the last house in Bandaje village. Its known for a lot of trekkers getting lost in the wilderness.
    I wanted to see the falls, so 4 of us – Gopi, Muddu, Naveen and I… set out on the 2 motor bikes from our college at an early hour – 6:00 am, of 26th Jan 2005, to be more precise. We made our journey from our college to Beltangadi via moodubidre, we had out morning Tiffin here. We then set to reach Bandajje once we finished our Tiffin. From Beltangadi we have to move to Ujire, from ther we have to go to a village called Mundaje, take a left turn here and then we go to Bandajje village.
    We reached Bandajje at around 9:30 am. We parked our bike at Mr Narayan Gouda’s home. He is a very nice person, gave us some necessary information to proceed. In case you can get a guide from his home there is nothing better than that. We could not get one so we proceeded to go to the falls on our own.
    Just some time after his home we get a deviation, most of the trekkers get lost in their route as they take a wrong deviation here, a assistance from the locals set us on the right path.
    We then thanked the person who came till the last house on the route and continued on in the direction shown. Its around 2 and half hours of trek to the falls, from this point. We started off on the trek expecting we would reach the falls in some 1 and half hours, we continued trekking though the forest we found a peaceful path, there was no disturbance, occasionally we could hear the sound of the waterfall… some birds singing all the way; thatz all we heard and nothing else.
    On the way to the falls we find a lot of small streams criss crossing our path. We don’t have to worry about these. Just continue walking further. We reached the main stream at 12 noon. We took some rest before we started some rock climbing along the stream to get as close to the falls as possible, we did this climbing for some 45 min then we reached a small distance away from the base of the falls. We could see the falls majestic an beautiful right in front of us. All except me had their bath in this stream that was flowing, form this falls on the opposite side we get a panoramic view of Beltangadi, GadaiKal fort and the surrounding areas. We savored this for a while, and then decided to take some rest before we would start trekking back.
    We started to trek back at 1:30 pm, after descending some distance we realized that, none of us recalled the route back to the village. What till then seemed to be an easy trek to do all of a sudden turned into a night mare. We spent some time searching to see if we could get some path in the forest, but when we turn back… it was like – “there is no path, how did we come here then? All the directions look the same”.
    After some time we decided that we can’t do it this way, let’s choose the opposite direction in which we came and expect we reach before dusk. We tried this, but then we only seemed to reach into the deeper part of the Jungle. I was now getting dark (thanks to the tall trees there is a lot of shade, but now the same trees where making our return almost impossible.)
    The other thing that was troubling us was our food reserves, expecting that we could make back by 2pm we had not got packed food along with us, we had 2 liters of water with us when we started back from the falls, but the humidity of the forest was just too high to contain the water within our body… So this was exhausted in no time.
    We realized in some time that it would be impossible to get out before dark, with all the resources we had – the mobile lights!!! (Ah what an alternative???). So we resigned to the fact that we had to spend our night in this dense forest. We came up with a contingency plan… we had to first find a place where we could rest for the night, then have a good sleep so that we could conserve our energy for the next day.
    After some small quest of half an hour, we reached a spot; which we thought was safe (don’t know if it was actually safe.); Gracious God! it was safe at least for that night. Now when I think back upon it.. I look at what all possibilities where there that night (snakes? poisonous scorpions, what about elephants? wild animals like tiger! leopards!!). Our survival that day was a pure chance – no doubts about that.
    It was a full moon that night; we all slept quite early that day 6:30 pm. I am sure we were so tiered that we had to rest; we went into deep slumber almost instantaneously. The location that was chose was a slope region, so we used to slide down and then rest on some plant’s root that was down there. I used to wake up when I hit the root then would realign my position, this continued on till morning 6:00 am.
    I was done with my sleep, and waiting for the other so wake up. I could hear a bird or some thing —> that blew a whistle very close to the way humans whistle. Slowly the sound got more distinct an clear; slowly all of us woke up; for some time all of us believed that, some one had come searching for us… thinking about this we started whistling back, to guide the sound in our direction, the sound came more close, got more clearer. Assuming it to be a human, we shouted out… Its then that we realized it was a bird (definitely non human!!!).
    We waited for some more time at the same place, just to ensure that we had sufficient light to move ahead. Around 7 am we had sufficient light to see around clearly. We not sat for some time and thought what was the option that we had to make it out of this forest maze!( ya a maze, thatz what it was almost – you know you have to get out, but don’t have the route, all sides you find only trees.).
    Naveen was an ace tree climber, we asked him to climb and look if he could spot any village in the distance… No result… So then we had to brainstorm again. We decide that we would go to the nearest peak and try searching for a village from there; once we spot it we would just go down in that direction… come what may!!! (ya, thatz important for us, we don’t want to confuse with the direction.)
    We trekked for some time towards the peak, and lo all of a sudden we hear a phone ring (ah!! at least now we have this hope!!! in case we get lost we can call for help from our friends back in college.). Well we wanted to put in our effort. Ones at the peak we spotted the Bandajje village – having seen it, we said to each other. We know we have the village in that direction, we just have to make sure we follow that direction so that we reach the village.
    We started walking down, some times running down in the slopes, some places we had minor ridges which we slid down, at other places we got down with some creepers that grew around, all the while ensuring that we maintained the direction of the village (we thought this was the only way of our immediate exit from the forest.)
    After 1 had half hour of such a trek down the ridges and slopes we spotted cow dung!! oh and many of them, we continued a little further and found a few foot-routes on the ground, still not worrying about the routes we just continued in the route that was in alignment with our direction.
    At 9:30 we reached a house beside the mud path – we asked them for water, they gave us water but ah!! What is this? We could not swallow even a single drop of water!! yes we had been without water for 7pm the earlier night, so our thoughts were all dry, making it difficult to gulp even water, still we were very thirsty. We just had some water, asked them for direction and then finally landed at Mr Gowda’s home at 10:30.
    We just had some rest and when we told them that we would leave now, they got us some idlis and tea. My thought was almost gone so could not eat many idli’s, but the tea – it was simply superb. I don’t know it was the
    way in which they prepared it or was it because we were damn hungry – It just tasted superb. I have never tasted a much better tea than that one till date.
    After this we, thanked them for all the food and place for parking and bid them adieu.
    We reached college at 1:00 pm. We had missed classes that day, but were happy we reached the hostel safe. After this we had a lot of queries from our friends, about our experience.
    Now when I look back on this incident, a mild shiver runs though my spine… I appreciate the guts we had, the cool head on the shoulders that we maintained, Its a lesson for life. I leant, “how ever sophisticated man might be, he is insignificant in front of nature”. – You just can’t deny this.

  • JamalaBad Fort

    Jamalabad fort also called GadiKal kote (more polular amongst the locals) is a old ruins of a fort located off Beltangadi. This fort is around 10 kms from Beltangadi town. The fort is atop a hill, and the trek is all about getting to the peak of the hill.

    We were four people for this trip/trek. It was the first time Anand Pai had decided to try himself for a trek. The other two people for the trek/trip were Naveen and Kotresh. Naveen was an experienced campaigner while Kotresh was a novice not his first trip/trek though.
    We started off as usual from our beloved college (Which is ideally located for a lot of treks) early after “jugad” of 2 bikes.. We left early from college at around 5:45 am with the intension of reaching BeltangaDi for our morning breakfast. Our usual route for treks near BeltangaDi was via HaleangaDi, and then the route to go to MooduBidre then to BeltangaDi. It is a route though some winding roads some nice scenery.. not much of traffic, mostly though villages. A pleasant ride through the road will take us to the main town. Some places the road gets bad due to heavy rains but still a nice journey.

    We reached BeltangaDi around 730 am then had our Tiffin in a hotel – I think the name is “Hotel Samatha” then spent around 1 hr there with some food packing, some fruit juice.. and then back we were on the bikes to continue our journey.

    The fort is around a drive of 20 min or even less, from the town of BeltangaDi. We reach the base of the hill where we have to pay a minimum amount of Rs 30/- to the forest dept who are maintaining the fort… maintain I don’t know what is there to maintain!!!!
    Well the trek is more of a climb on steps rather than any serious climb. The total number of steps is around 1000, but you won’t realize all the steps you just think its ruins or its just rock. Humm… leave that aside… all that matters is the climb.

    The climb starts off with some well maintained steps, and then we slowly start climbing steeper and steeper domains. We see a rock face after some time; we get a nice view of the Kudremukh mountain range from this open rock face. We took some rest here. Anand who was doing his first trek was almost worn out and was making it very slowly this early. Kotresh was also in a similar state. We had some lemons along with us, just gave one each to Anand and Kotresh (Lemons help us conserve our energy…. I don’t know what exactly it does). Kotresh having received the lemon and tasting it was on his feet and running to the top!!! You now know what energy it gives ha ha!!! He did not stop till he reached the peak. After some rest here we enter into a shrub laden region where we just climb following on some foot trails that were left by earlier trekkers. This trail follows though some fort walls, we have to look carefully to realize these things. Some places the rock walls are on the edge of this hill.. you can peep down and you see some place nearly 500ft deep.. If you have vertigo be careful this is just the starting point for you, there are many more to come down the lane. Just don’t worry about the taking pics for now… you will have many more nice spots to take on the peak. Continue on the trail it opens up into another set of steps.. which will take you to the peak. The height of these individual steps is much more than you can expect. On one side you have the rock surface of the fort while on the other you have nothing except a small cut out of the same rock surface… well you see on to you left in the climb and you will have your vertigo no doubt. It’s just that thrilling to go out there. Just imagine what if I slip!! Oh it’s going to be a fall of nearly 900ft to the base of the hill… That thought is surely going to come.

    The specialty of this hill is its isolated from other ranges stands tall and dominant even from a distance. It gives a good view of all the villages in the surrounding. This is the reason why Tippu would have like to build his fort on such a strategic location. On once side you see the Western Ghats, on another you see the vast plains of South Canara. It’s a very panoramic view.

    Continue on with this steps and you will get into the “fort palace” I think this what it is. At the peak you have a small shelter I think served as the palace for Tippu. You also find a have a small pond…guess for storing water from the rains for the palace in olden days.. You can’t get water from the pains no doubt about it. You have an antenna I don’t know which service provider it belongs to… nice thing to have at the top. We had been to this fort just a few days after the rainy season… so the grass had grown to be tall and it was really hard to find any path to look around the fort. We just had some open space and shorter grass at a place so it was mostly there that we spent our time.

    The place is really nice and am sure is a paradise for photographers in case you want some real nice views. Guess the sunset would just be too good. But you have to have nice lights to get down. Early morning gives another nice view with the Sun rise behind the Western Ghats… all this will only make any photographer happy. The Clouds generally kiss this hill and that would give some more nice scenes for them. The white clouds that try to scale the Kudhremukh peak also are a sight to watch. Just too many snaps to click with your camera….. I love it.

    We spent some time at the peak, we had taken nearly 1 and a half hour to climb it… it can be much faster if you have people who have the stamina to climb it in one go. Anand Pai considered this an achievement, this is the first time he had done something like that and still remembers it to this day. He was all high the whole day. We took another 45 min to get down and were at the base of the hill.

    We had completed a nice trek a memorable one for the photographer in me.. I will go back at least for the photos…. Don’t miss it if you are a photographer.
    With all these in memory we set back to college.. it was a fun day out for we four. We came back to our hostels and had a nice nap.. the day’s trek/trip was over and now it was in our memories that all this remains.. Cherish it when I think about it.. Just cherish it……