SBenegaL

Tag: #trip

  • Chunchi Falls

    It had been over a month and half since I had been to Kudremukh along with a few of my relatives, this time I was looking for something closer, something that could be done within a day.

    I had been to Mekedatu and Sangama while at school, and while searching for some places to visit around Bangalore, in addition to these I found this place – Chunchi Falls.
    Chunchi Falls is lacated around 75 km from Bangalore. This falls is formed by the river Arkavathy which has its origin at Nandi Hills. With the rapid urbanization of Bangalore, the catchment area of the river is seriously affected.
    This river joins the River Kaveri at Sangama and later flow through rapid stone gorge called Mekedatu. We shall discuss this in some other blog on travel and trek. Today’s blog is about our journey to Chunchi Falls and the experience there in. 
    It had been long since I had spent time with my family and so decided to get going on a trip with family. The location choice was mine – Chunchi Falls. I had heard about the falls a few times when I was planning some treks, trips over the last few years but had never made the move to reach the place. 
    From the blogs I had read, I had gotten to know that the falls would be around 75 Km from Bangalore and one had to cross Kanakapura Town and move in the direction of Sangama. 
    We set out on 24th December around 11 AM from our home towards the falls. It was car drive and together with me on the trip were my parent, my spouce Sahana and my cute niece – Pratiksha. We drove pretty steadily through the traffic in bangalore before we hit Kanakapura road. 
    It was probably the first time my parents had driven out in our car on the Kanakapura road. We moved past the Metro, before the traffic began to subside. The rest of te drive was pretty peaceful. You move in front of the Art of Living campus, then beside the campus of APS College of Engineering etc before we reach Harohalli. 
    Another 20 minutes drive from Harohalli we reach Kanakapura. Just as we enter the town of Kanakapura, we cross a bridge across the River Arkavathy. All along the journey this far, we find hills which appear to recemble various creatures – depending on your imagination!

    We reached Kanakapura a few minutes after 12:00 noon. We moves through the town’ main road and then came to the road taking us to Sangama. We move for quite some time on this road till, we find an arch (not in the general sense of the word – but more to indicate an entrance). This is where we need to take a left turn and drive down the narrow road till we reach the parking lot. (The roads are bit narrow and its good to keep an eye for the vehicles coming from the other side).

    The falls is supposedly best between early winter and early summer. One has to keep in mind that the falls is no perennial, and it is the rain-fed river which forms Chunchi falls. We reached the parking lot, just on the banks of River Arkavathy, when we found a localite run towards us with a receipt book – the parking fees for a car is Rs 30/-
    Just as we move towards the river, we first encounter a channel with water. This channel takes water from the small dam upstream to the power-station a short distance ahead. 
    We crossed the channel and began defending towards the river – The river flows along rocky bed of Arkavathy. At various points you would find small deviations from the trek route that take you down to the river. Any point would take you to the big heart shaped pool that the river creates before it decided to take a leap downstream. 
    One can reach to the top of the point where the falls finally makes it leap! The only precaution one would need to take is the smooth surface of the rocks. While the smooth surface is just one of the issues to take note of, the other challenge is that of  broken bottle pieces which the weekend parties of the bangalore crowd leave behind. 
    I still wonder, why we literate people do not understand that they have to be socially more responsible. The various waste that we produced as part of our joy is also our responsibility to dispose them without creating trouble for the others who too visit the place for enjoyment. 
    I some how wasn’t very happy with having visited the top of the falls, I could still see faint strains of another falls close by and being the fall lover I am, I would love to get a view of the other one too. I spotted a view point on the opposite side of the falls. I quickly realized that would give me a view of both these falls.
    We got back onto the return ascent to the channel and then took the jeep track to the view point. Its around a kilometer from the channel, and is relatively undisturbed. 
    The view of the 2nd falls from the view point was something that gave me a good satisfaction. The falls had 2 cascades and had a lot more water flowing when compared to the mail stream flowing.
    We reached the view point, munched the junk food we carried and had some snaps clicked before we decided to return back.  The view point however is not well maintained and if I could say is almost neglected. 
    This place too like many of the other places in Karnataka, has enormous potential but doesn’t get the required attention and dedication towards ensuring that the potential is expiated and also gets little maintenance.
    With these thoughts in the mind we began the return journey, when I woke up to the reality at hand. We had skipped lunch, so we had to get back to a good hotel to have some food that was to get us going back home. 
    We reached Kanakapura, had our lunch at a Udupi hotel that was at the entrance of Kanakapura just after having crossed over the bridge across the River Arakavathy when coming from Bangalore. My parents purchased some vegetables on the way back and we resumed the drive back home.
    The journey was pretty simple till we reached Metro, the rest was a drive through the city traffic and we finally reached home at 7:00 PM. 
    After many days it was a time well spent with family, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I would repeat this and get it to be a routine.

  • Skandagiri


    Skandhagiri Trek
    Treks are generally thought to be planned events, but I don’t agree with the view. Treks are greater fun when you learn to accept the uncertainty that comes along with the new location. It is this uncertainty and the associated feeling that keeps me looking for more in every trek.
    I had just returned from a long travel to Maharashtra, and was planning to rest when Rajat called me asking if I was game to a trek to Skandagiri. I had heard a lot about this from visitors to the place and the pictures that people had clicked. I was game but wanted some more people to join so that we had a larger company.
    Rajat got along with him Vishwanath; I could get in Naveen, Umesh and Uncle Manjunath. It was a nice team of 6 people. Changing our initial plant to go by bikes we switched to car for ease of travel. With the team in place, we decided to leave Bangalore at 1:30 am.
    I woke up at 1:00 am with Uncle along, and picked up Vishwa, Rajath and Naveen from Domlur. We got Umesh on board from Vidyranayapura. We fueled ourselves and finally left Bangalore at 2:45 am.
    The night drive along the Bellary highway was a great experience, we reached past the Airport deviation, went further. Our idea was to reach Chickballapur as early as possible and begin trek. On the way, we saw a car with a drunken driver, whom we couldn’t predict what the next move of his was.
    We reached Chickballapur and 3:30 am. We were scouting for direction late night, thanks God! We found a rickshaw driver and asked for direction. Vishwa tried getting some inputs from the commuters in Telugu.
    One you are in Chickballapur main road, go ahead till the Police Station, just before that there is turn take it. From there you have to continue till you find a Banyan tree (or rather move over 5 humps). Take a left there and you will find yourself navigating through the narrow lanes of some village.
    At the dead end you could expect a Constable and the Inspector waiting in the jeep. You would need to pay an entry fee and get the approval. Missing or skipping this means you would find some more constables further through the way.
    The next phase was through beside the lake (which is on the left) then through a village. The village road has a dead end, and just prior to that you would need to take a left turn. Keep driving and on the right hand side, you see torch light flashing.
    Pretty soon you would find being interrupted by self proclaimed guides. The rates of their guidance depend on your vulnerability. They try dissuading you from venturing out on your won saying you would get lost. If you have trekked earlier, finding the path isn’t really difficulty. The guide charges vary from Rs 200/- to Rs 3000/-. Ensure you bargain well – else you would be taken for ride. The only challenge in the complete process is the starting point of the trek. If you are able to spot the starting point, getting to the peak is very easy.
    Moving ahead without the guide, we had taken a chance here. We were new to the place, there was darkness all around. We weren’t familiar with the terrain to. Just beside the foot of the mountain, there is a small plantation of acacia trees, beside that there is a small stream – watch out for any water in this.
    One you cross the stream, you are at the foot of the mountain. There is only one way which is pretty clear, and if you have crossed over earlier than the actual one – you might need to do some scouting just the way we did. Be ready for it – this is where the fun is; the usual route is not a great fun.
    Ensure at each step you are looking out for the right route! Tough we began on the right route, we missed a small section of easy route and returned to the harder and then came back to the easier one at the fork. So, keep your senses open and watch out, even if you don’t, you will only be delayed to the summit, not denied of it.
    The total time to the peak is around 1hr 15 min to 1 hr 30 minutes. Our detour cost us another 15 minutes. We started off following a small group of torches; we thought they knew the way, and it was only after some time that we realized that they too were looking out for the right way. After grappling in the dark for around 10 min, we spotted the right route. We continue along this route, and were able to spot the exact path. At one of the points we took a left turn instead of a right. This is where many people who were climbing too had mistaken and we were no exception.
    This detour takes us to a steep rock phase where our confidence on our footing is tested. Most of the team members easily came up, but Vishwa, who hadn’t been on too many treks earlier, had some issues. He was looking his confidence, but made it up at this point after a struggle of 10 minutes.
    The next phase we joined the other route, which joins here. At this point, the route is
    a bit slippery given the early morning mist. There are some step marks on the stone surface and we could use this to climb.
    As we began climbing the trek, at the base we couldn’t see the peak, but as we continued the ascent the surface slowly unraveled itself and this was another challenge that our team had. Vishwa wasn’t expecting such a long trek to the peak given that this was his second trek.
    We realized that in order to make it to the peak as a group, we needed to move ahead quickly. I decided to accompany Vishwa and boost his confidence. This seemed to have worked the trick and we picked up the pace. In less than 20 minutes we navigated some dangerous curves and reached the top. We reached the peak at 5:50 am.
    Now was the time for the anxious wait – the wait to spot the Sun and the clouds if any that is so talked about of this place? We waited for nearly an hour and at around 6:45 Am we spotted the sun. All the while we had twilight, and the anticipation kept everything away from the mind. For many in the group, this was an early raise and probably the very few occasions when we had seen the sun come out from the horizon.
    At a distance, one can spot two hills and I guess these would be Mulabagilu (not sure) which is where the first sun-rise is seen in the State of Karnataka. I think I would get down there sometime and have a look at the sun rise. Once the sun shown itself, it begun raising rapidly and just 5 minutes since the sun-rise the whole of the surrounding was brightly lit.
    We spent the next hour clicking pictures and snaps of the surrounding. There are a couple of mantapas at the peak. One of these is the temple and the other probably was the guest house of the guard who would look out for enemy entering the vicinity. There is a fort which borders a very steep edge of the hill.
    People have littered the peak and hence we find dogs and monkey a plenty there. There are a lot of stores that give u a tea and some quick breakfast like sandwiches, omelets’, bread jam etc. We had carried our own food – thanks to Vishwa for the wonderful palav he had prepared and got along.

    We rested for a while and began our descent back to the base at 8 am. We had sufficient light and so the torches were all in the bag now. We moved slowly now that the whole day was there to make it to the base. With rests in between, we were having our tummy filled too.
    We finally reached the base of the hill, a few meters away from where we began. We looked back and recollected what we had done over the past 4 to 5 hours. The memory of the night would stay in our mind for ever. The excitement and fun clouded with the experience is here to stay with us.

    This was one awesome trip, as I drove back to Bangalore; we visited our role model – Sir M V’s home town – Mokshagundam. There are three monuments that are put up at this place. The house of his birth has been renovated. There is also the house that he used while he was the Diwan – part of this has been converted as a museum and the remaining houses the SBM – which he was instrumental in forming. His samadhi is just beside these houses and has a beautiful lawn surrounding it.
    We paid our tributes to the great engineer who inspires us and would inspire more engineers for the years to come. We prayed for his blessings and returned to Bangalore.

    We reached home by noon and had the remaining of the day to rest!

  • Shivagange

    Parinathi Group goes on its treks for brain storming and group building every quarter. This trek is the fall out of this resolution of the group.

    Shivagange – a place known as a pilgrimage center by many is also an interesting trekking spot. Unlike the other treks where one has to put a lot of strain on the complete body, this trek is more of a step climbing pursuit.

    Situated around 60 – 65 km from Bangalore, we chose this place for our brainstorming as most of the group members couldn’t spare two days for the trek. Our initial count for the trek was expected to be having around 10 members but turned out that only 4 could make it.

    We moved out of Bangalore around 8:30 am (a delay of around 30 minutes) from Domlur where all of us had decided to meet up. The journey thorough the city was pretty not eventful. We reached Yeshwantpur and refueled ourself before continuing the journey. Once we reached the elevated road there was no stopping us, the group was in the discussion while I was busy driving the car.

    It was a pleasant drive over the elevated track, and we were near the tollgate withing 5 minutes. The road was pretty clear and the speed limit prescribed was 80 kmph so that made it all the more easy. We bought the toll pass for the day (priced at Rs 25/-) and moved a head on the NH. The road was very good and we reached Nelamangala where we took the deviation towards the Bangalore-Mangalore Highway.

    We reached gudemarana halli, from where we took a right to Shivagange. Shivagange is around 15 km from this point. The road is not the best nor is it the worst. It is pretty good ride down to the town.


    We begin spotting the mountain from a distance, in some angles it resembles the holy Ox (Nandi) of Lord Shiva. We reach the entrance of the temple where we parked our car and had a small energizing tiffin before we began the trek.

    We began the climb the first temple that you get on the left is the “Harake Ganapathi” You then climb up to the split. Take the right if you want to visit the temple and the left if you want to begin the trek immediately.


    As you move towards the temple, you get a small passage, this passage take you to the Veerabhadra swami and the Patala gange. Besides the passage is a small temple entrance – that of Swarna gowri (aka Honnadevi).

    Back on the track you get to the temple route, you enter into the temple which of lord Gangadhareshwara. In front of him stands the bronze idol of the founder of Bangalore – Kempe Gowda. There is supposed to be a tunnel that connects the temple with Bangalore, but people are forbidden from attempting to get through these.

    All these temples are inside caves and give a very special feeling since we are away from the disturbance of the outer world. The feeling is so peaceful and gives happiness.

    The shiva temple is also very special since we see an irreversible reaction (that of converting ghee into butter) take place right in front of your eyes. The priest applies Ghee that the devotees get on the shiva linga and it turns in some time to butter, which is then served as prasadam.

    The temple is pretty old and I guess it dates back to the time of the Cholas, some of the Nandi carvings look to resemble them. The gopura etc resemble the Vijayanagara times.

    Once you have visited the temple, you can begin the trek from the path adjacent to the temple. On the sides you see an old fort wall and numerous pillars all telling the story of apathy of he present and the glory of the past. One would easily get moved seeing these scenes. Something needs to be done quickly with these so that we preserve these for the future. With all these thoughts running in the mind, our next target was the famous Olakallu teertha.

    Moving out of the fort premise, we being the ascent towards the peak. There is a door (dwara) to begin the journey. All along the path we find vendors offering one thing or the other to ear/drink. The consumers eat these and drop all waste around the path. This has lead to a big monkey menace; and the reactions of the people who climb have only made these monkeys more aggressive. There are warnings stating that monkeys could be aggressive, but this should definitely be controlled if we don’t mindlessly litter the environment.



    There are steps all along the trek so there is no way any one could miss the route. There are many students and groups that were on their yearly trips and we found at least ten different such sets
    . The students were bubbling with a lot of enthusiasm as the begun, but later on, as the ascent got steep there was absolutely little of their voice that was heard. Many returned from Olakal teertha.

    There is a common belief that only the fortunate ones get water when (s)he attempts to catch water from the underground spring. Many test their fortune and get back!

    We continues our journey further on the path and reached the place where larger than life size idols of Lord Shiv and Parvathi have been constructed. The path further from here have been infested by Monkeys.


    The climb through the next phase is pretty steep. At some points you note the old step marks or the railing that have been replaced. Take sheer care of your luggage, the aggressive monkeys take away your belongings even if you have them along in your hand.

    The climb through this exciting phase you reach the Nandi which is carved out of the rock there. And once down the Nandi, you get to climb to see two temples at the peak of the hillock.

    There is one store at the peak which again showcases the power of monopoly there. There are two pillars there which seem to be dating back more than a millenia (that is my guess, given the architecture and carvings there)

    The view of the surrounding is really mesmerizer. I couldn’t spot the Savandurga around from here thanks to the clouds and the sun which blocked my view.

    We went to a bit off the general public and had our food there, surprisingly, we had no monkeys to bother us here. This is what got me to the realization that the monkeys thrive on the filth we throw away on the path to the peak. I guess if we have the discipline to handle these carefully they wouldnt bother us much.

    We had rested at the peak for around 45 minutes before getting on to the return path. The journey to the base was rather non-eventful and we returned at our own pace.
    The sun which was scorching in the afternoon had become more familiar as the day progressed and now looked very friendly.

    The total journey from the base to the peak and then back to the base was around 3.5 hrs. We had gone barefoot to the peak and it felt really different all along the trek. We probably hadn’t got the blood circulation so effective for days.

    This was a rater memorable trek for the reason that was done on bare foot, but what saddened the whole thing was the filth people put all along the way. I guess it is time we grew more responsible to the environment.

    We drove back to Bangalore and reached Mantri Mall by 4:30 and had fun watching Upendra’s moview – Super.

    It was complete fun filled day that was worth remembering.

  • Tadiyandmol trek (Dec 9th and 10th, 2006)


    I have been trekking from a long time, but this trek has been first in a number of ways. Following are a few:

    • This is the first time I am blogging my experience.
    • Going on an organised trek and not as a solo trekker
    • My cooking food on the trek
    • An innovative plate used for having our tiffin (a huge banana leaf)

    I had heard a lot about the Tadiyandamol trek from my other trek friends, and was in a way craving to go. My last trek before the Tadiayandamol, was to Mulliangiri – back in September.

    This was the first organised trek that I had been to, Arun the person who runs RHM (Rambling Holiday Makers) was my “orkut” friend. This trek had been organised by RHM. We where 10 members for his trek – Arun, Subbu, Saravan, Venu, Srikanth, Shushruth, Praveen, Vinay, Satwik, and myself (Sachi) . We all had to met up on the 8th at the KSRTC, bus stand at 9:45.
    We all where from diffrent places from bangalore. All except Arun were Software Professional. Arun is a Jounalist, and an avid trekker.

    Trek Plan was as follows:
    travel from Bangalore to Virajpet, in KSRTC bus.
    Day 1:
    travel in a local bus from Virajpet to Kakabe (actually we have to get down around 1 km before the actual town of Kakabe)
    trek to base camp some 6km – on the way visit to a old palace.
    then trek to Madanadabbi near Tadiyandamol.
    trek back to base camp
    trek from base camp to Tadiyandamol trek.
    night trek back from Tadiyandamol peak to base camp
    Day 2.
    trek from Base camp to Kakabe
    travel to Chelvara Falls
    travel back to Virajpet
    travel back to Bangalore

    We all reached KSRTC bus stand at around 10 pm, completed our first round of introduction. We went to platform number 6. From here we got into the bus that was scheduled to leave at 10:30 pm. We all set out breaking the ice (most of us did not know about each other earlier.) and by the time the bus set out delayed by 15 min we where in our own deep discussion about our intrests and all those stuff, slowly we all slept.

    The bus reached Virajpet quite early (at 4:30a.m.) We all got our self settled in the KSRTC bus stand at Virajpet. Some of us dozed off for another session of sleep, before sunrise and we start off with the trek, others just held on to crack PJ’s make and then making calls back home. We also finished out daily chores before 6:30 am.

    We started off to have our morning tiffin, we went to a hotel some distance away; had our tiffin and browzed through a magazine that had some pics of the falls, and the trek that we where going to enjoy in the next 2 days. We had some Uppit (its a local version of pudding is it??)
    and Idli (the boiled rice cake), the taste was very nice one.

    Geared up we left the hotel to the juntion from where we get private bus that would take us to Kakabe. The journey is around 45 min to 1 hour, after which we reached a small bus stand. We have a distance diplay board that gives the distances from this bus stop to the near by major towns.

    With a fromal introduction before the start of the trek, and a set of “code of conduct” to be followed in the wild being given we began our trek. We were also given a packet of dates that would serve the purpose of “emergency food” in case we ran out of food and needed an instant release of energy. (Some people had completed this as any other food once they got it – and some also had a nice competition in nibling these away.)

    We started of on our actual trek from the bus-stop, out first stop was to be at a palace, some 3km from the start of our trek. We walked along slowly, and steadily watching the nature, its beauty that doesn’t seem to be present in busy cities. Just this clean and fresh air is enough to make us healthy. We had some photo sessions, some attempts to get the Spider web by me, with the new camera that I had purchased some days back turned out to be flop (I was just trying out the variour options so that I get to know my camera better. ) Vinay on the other hand never gave up, and photographed a spider in his Camera – good pic Vinay.

    This 3km trek was majorly though the road that passed through the coffee plantations that are so very abundant in this Coffee land of “Coorg” (also known as Kodagu). We reached the Palace, which had a school nearby. We found some school children waiting for their teacher there having fun. We entered into the palace, that was under maintenance at that time. We took some pics there and then moved on. I could hear a stream flow near the school, I dont think it was making some huge falls, but ya the sound quite audible from a distance.

    We started off further ahead after the palace, and trekked for about 3km more, before we reachd the forestguard’s house. There are 2 small streams that cross the road after the falls. After the second stream, a little uphill climb along the Jeep track will take us to a Y cross (One to the left, one going staight ahead, and the other the one we came). This junction is a nice sceninc spot. To go to the Tadiyandamol peak we have to take the left road, this is the same route that also takes us to the Forest guard’s home. The forest guard’s home was a small little cottage, which was built in the middle of some mixed varites of trees, I cant say it was just wild growth, around the house but it was nice vegetation near the house ( wish I could stay in such a house 🙂 ). We all rested for some 45 min at that place.

    We set out from the forestguard’s house to the Falls called Madanadabbi, this is around 20 min trek from the house. We went to the top of the falls, and tried descending as far as we could. We all stoped at the point where we could not descend further the falls. The falls, was a beautiful one. The point we stopped was the edge of the falls from where the falls made a fall of around 200ft (that is my wild guess). The surroungings were very scenic, we rested there for around 20 min, took photographic memories and then where back on the track to reach the forest guard’s house. After around 30 min we where at the house, waiting for our food to be ready, once ready we all where immediately at it :-). After food we took as small nap for aroung 15 min before we decided to keep all our belongings, in the spot where we would spend the night (Arun already had the informed, the forest guard & his family that we would be coming to stay at the small rooms that where there a little distance away from the forest guard’s house). We dumped our luggage here and then did some repacking of the materials that we would need for the trek to the Tadiyandamol peak (this was a 4km trek if I guess it right.) We filled in abundant water, as we knew that we would
    not get water as we neared the peak.

    We all set out slowly an steadily to the peak. The trek was initially via a jeep route, which later converged into a small foot trail. This then continued through some wild growth for a small distance, after which it opened up into a clear plateau. All along the side we (Vinay and me) would have some awesome scenary and where busy taking the pics.

    Ya, one funny part I would like to tell you. Before we started off on the trek we had decided that we would do a late evening-early night trek back to our base camp. We just wanted to ensure that we would not encounter elephant herd while we where returning, so we asked the lady in the forest guard’s home, if she had any information about the elepahant activity reported. There came a funny reply (excuse me if u loose some fun in the translation, but it was just unressistably funny :)) ) – “There are no elephants now, but there is a tiger, don’t worry it will run off if it sees you” [The fun!! do we city hunks look so dreaded??, well not actually, the tiger is a lone hunter and a shy animal. It generally plans its attack (the point is that if it attacked it would attack on the last being as far as possible.) ]. Srikanth was the last person while we where getting down from the trek and we would call his name to ensure that we was not carried away by the tiger :). Subbu was feeling bad that he could not look into the eyes of any tiger all through the trek. The moment the lady made the statement, Vinay was out with his typical “aBbba” and a peculiar face – oh what a moment!!.Thanks Tiger for all the fun.

    Till the open patch my intrest was mostly captivated by the serene and beautiful mountains to the right (on the way up), then slowly the scenic mountainic beauty, shifted to the left. We could hear a stream flow towards our left. There was a large boulder besides which some trekkers do pitch for the night. Its a nice place to camp as it has a natural water source near by.
    Just then we realised that we had a buffalo (domesticated one) staring at us (who are these, crazy ppl tresspassing my territory!!!! – that was the expression). We continued ahead cousiously, ensuring that we did not provoke it to attack us. It realized that we meant no harm to it and went ahead to join its heard.
    We continued out trek ahead, Venu and Satwik where begining to get tiered so we just slowed down our pace (myself and Vinay were at the end as we where trying to get some good photos at each location that we spotted.). At that moment, I dont exactly know why but I recalled some dialogues form a “Yakshagana”(the local folk dance drama of Karnataka) and started giving some entertainment to the group that was climbing. We were left behind by Srikanth, Subbu, Saravan, Praveen, Sushruth who did not wait to take many snaps as they wanted to reach the peak as early as possible, others were with us till then. Subbu, was fatigued by the steep climb that he had to do, so he dropped out from the first team and was waiting to join us, to continue.
    Once subbu joined us there was no dearth of PJ’s we would climb a few steps, wait crack some PJ, and then continue with enthu further. We slowly made it to the top. Srikanth and others were wating for us at the peak.

    Praveen who had joined as first time trekker, was not feeling too comfortable(I guess he had overworked himself during the climb.). He later told us that he used all his dates to reach there – he would move some 34 steps (he counted them literally), then eat a date, then continued. He says he doesn’t know how he made it back to the base. We could read he was completely exhausted.

    At the peak, the sun was not yet low, he was giving off a lot of heat – but the altitude seemed to have been cooling the heat. We found a few stones at the peak, which we used as shade, and had a quick nap. Arun was busy replying queries about the height of various mountains. He had the height displayed in his watch!!!.

    We all had a nice little nap, before we got up, and started munching the food that we had carried along to the peak. We made sure we did not leave back any plastic as would spoil the delicate balance that existed in the place. Just as we had completed our stock of food that we had carried along to the peak, We found another group of 3 trekkers who had come to camp at the peak. They where searching for a good place to pitch their tents, they asked us pointing to an open space that had been used by earlier team. We said we would return and not stay at the peak. We continued our wait for the sunset….

    Slowly, the sun started to descend, towards its home for the night. The temperature began to drop. At a distance we could spot some mist formation — thought for a moment, that we would not be able to see the sunset due to the mist. We just began taking pics of the distant mountains, which where looking much more beautiful now. As the sun move down, the yellow sun began changing into an orange ball, we tried a few “gimiks” with the Camera, – as though we would catch the him, eat the him… ha ha. (We are no Hanumans here)

    We took some very beautiful snaps of the sunset, then having made a camera copy of this beautiful sunset, we decided we would have to get as close as possible to the open plateau region before it would get completely dark. We decided Arun would lead the trek, and Srikanth would be the last person. I was just in front of Srikanth. We had decided that the any person must be able to see the Arun, or atleast his immediate front companion just in case the visibility became very bad due to the mist — we did not find any situatation like that.

    We got down the peak as quickly as possible, but not too fast. We were careful not ot injure ourselves on the way back. We had torches to be used on the way back. As we came down to the flat land (reminds me of the book “The world is Flat”), it was completely dark. At a distance we could some lights, may be some city in the distance. Srikanth and I made some wild guess about the city , then just ditched it. Immediately my attention shifted to the sky that had innumerable stars, being in a city like Bangalore the lights in the city would not let us see such a sky 🙁 . This will remain in the memories of all 10 of us for quiet sometime.

    We continued our trek down to the base camp, we did get confused for sometime, but some good memory helped us stay on the track. We finally reached the base camp. We already had the food ready with us . So having the night dinner was not a major issue.

    Arun wanted to make a camp fire, and enjoy ourself for some time. Praveen who was completely exhausted, and had his legs paining immediately got into his sleeping bag and dozed off. After Arun, Subbu made a gallant effort to light up the fire – gosh was not lighting up. I tried my hand along with Saravan’s assistance but could not make much good. The fire did burn for sometime but was not as we expected. We finally decided that we leave it aside and finish our dinner. We had our dinner, then a small round of Pj’s then went to sleep.

    Or base camp was a nice one. We had a sound sleep. Arun wanted some assistance to get the “2 min maggi noodles” to be cooked, I voulanteered. The two of us had real good time, cooking the noodles. It was the first time i had cooked using firewood — I will not forget the experience.. (the 2 min noodles had to have hot water which took more than 1 h
    our to boil, thanks to our in experience with fire wood cooking) Having the noodles ready, we wanted to get our tiffin as quickly as possible. Subbu’s presence of mind struck with an excellent idea of using the large plantain leaf that was readily available in the compound. The experience of sharing this large plantain leaf was a great and a memorable one, for all of us.

    Once done with the tiffin we all got ready to have our adventures for the day.

    Arun asked us we where ready for an exploration, for a lot of us it was the first time. Arun wanted to reach a falls called “Baliyedra” trekking from the base camp and then from there to the “Chelvara falls”. Arun would have taken us to the falls if he could have some assistance from the forest guard’s home, unfortunately for us the forestguard and his family had to go out to some other place.

    Arun took us for a trek into the wild, we where very excited. Arun was in the lead, and Srikanth as usual was to be the last person. We walked through the wild forest, till we reached the open side of the mountain. We could see the Tadiyandamol peak from there. Once in the open, we checked to see if any leeches had climbed on. For many of us it was the first time the leeches had bitten us. (Leeches, reminds me that Srikanth was plannig to tame a few. He loved the leeches, and the leeches loved him as well.)

    Then we took a right and started moving, there was no trail as such, just that we tried finding out or own way. As we moved ahead we realised that, we had made a mistake by taking the right at that junction. The right turn took us to the open place near the Tadiyandamol peak.

    We all quickly decided that we would choose to goback to Kakabe and from there tavel by local bus to “Cheyannane” (I may have got the spelling wrong, but its something similar…). At one point we did contemplate about going to Kannor in Kerala, then travel from there to Virajpet, it was ruled out as the village that we had to pass through would be completely blocked by the local function (I think it was Huttari).

    On the way back, I challenged Arun to test if he could hold a “dry grape” in his mouth, for the trek to Kakabe. It was a nice challenge- he could do it. Arun, Shushruth and myself reached Kakkabe first — actually we wanted to see if could reach before a stipulated time that we had set. It finally turned out that we could do it with much ease. We reched the small bus stand and waited for the others to turn up. We rested in the shade of the bus stand. In about half an hour we had all the people come. We had some small, food packets that we had packed, we had them.
    In a short while after our mini lunch, we found a bus that would take us to “Cheyyanane”. Praveen was completely exhausted, and opted to stay back. Arun did some emergency damage control and insted of trekking to the “Chelvara falls” we decided to go by the jeep.

    The jeep journey was exciting, infact Venu was always wanting to stand on the foot stand of the jeep. I calls it “Safari style Jeep Drive” haha this one was no safari drive, though the road was dusty, it was though coffee plantations.

    The driver dropped us to a place from where we could reach the falls. This beautiful falls is inside an estate. The main porition of the falls is around 20-25 feet in height. It forms a nice reservoir, that is very inviting to swim. Note, that the depth of this small reservoir that is formed is not uniform, and not advisible if you are not a good swimmer.
    I took photos of the falls in every possible angle (thatz the way it is called when you take a large number of photos!!! – water falls are my crush). We spent about 1 and half hour at the falls before we set back in the Jeep.

    We reached Cheyyanane, had our lunch in a small hotel there. We then went to the bus stand after our lunch. Sat there and waited for the bus that would take us to Virajpet. In the mean time we all exchanged our experiences about the trek. It was nice noting each others experiences in the trek.

    We waited a long time, finally we climbed the bus. It took around 45 min to reach Virajpet. We spent some time at the KSRTC bus stand, then had a good dinner at a hotel. We reached back to the bus stand and finally waited. Once the bus came in we all climbed. I sat beside Venu. I think I might have given him an over doze of some adventure that I had earlier (I had lost my route on a trek to Bandaje abbi, and had literally survived the night to reach out safely).
    Ok thatz all about this trek, will hit back with some old treks details the next time.

  • Kadambi, Sutanabbe(Hanumanagundi), Shringeri, Sirimane and Chatnamane falls

    Kadambi, Sutanabbe(Hanumanagundi), Shringeri, Sirimane and Chatnamane falls

    After Virasat-2004 we were all in a mood to enjoy and so planned a trip to Sirimane and Shringeri. The places for this trek were common spots for the class trips and so the population of our members was minimal. We were around 30 members.

    As usual we chose to start out around 6 am and left NITK in a luxury bus (2+1 seater). Our first destination after the breakfast was Hanumanagundi. We had our breakfast at a hotel in Padubidre were we spent around 45-50 minutes and then headed towards Hanumanagundi. We received the information that the falls would open at 9 am at the forest check post.

    The Kudremukh range has a splendid view of the South Canara district while we were climbing the winding roads, till we reached S.K. Border where we have a sight seeing spot. We could not get down here as parking vehicles there was prohibited(you can always do if you have a 2 wheeler). We then took the path which leads us towards Kudremukh to go to Hanumanagundi. When we reached there we were early, so decided to go a little further (approx 7 km) from here where we had a road side falls namely Kadambi. Here no one got down to enjoy at the falls, all of us stood on the bridge picking up photos to keep this road side falls in memory for longer time. The bus in the mean time went a little further and came back having changed its direction. Kadambi falls is used by people for trick photography and few of us gave a try at it. Meanwhile, one of our members had got along with him a special invitee who was too hungry (leech). This leech is a parasite which sucks in blood and then slowly falls off, but its saliva prevents blood clot immediately and the person looses a lot more blood. Then after spending a total of 35 minutes here we got into the bus and went towards Hanumanagundi. The entry fee here is Rs 30/- per head. A few of us did not get down here as they had already seen the falls. The others got down here. The people who got down enjoyed themselves for about 45 minutes without realizing the leeches trying to feed on them and finally when they came up to the bus they had got along with them a lot of leeches. The people who remained back took a stroll of about 2 km down the road and reached a place with very good scenic beauty. They did not have a camera with them and hence could not get any snaps. The bus took off from Hanumanagundi at around 11 am and on the way back we tried taking the scenic snaps from within the bus. We reached Shringeri around 12:15 pm. We spent some time around Shringeri before we had our lunch at the temple. We were joined here by our guide who would lead a few of our interested members to a new falls (Chatnamane) for the NITK trek freaks. After having our lunch at the temple, we left Shringeri towards Kigga (around 10 km from here) from there we would trek 4.5 km to reach Sirimane falls. We reached Kigga around 2 pm and started our trek. When we reached Sirimane it was around 3:15 pm and a lot of batches came even later. Almost all of them got into the water to refresh themselves after this long and tiring trek. Few of us even tried climbing the steep walls of the falls to reach towards the top of this falls. Another family had also come in to enjoy the falls. We played along with the tiny kids who had come with them. Few of us had nasty falls trying various pranks and stunts. We had nice photography club member using a camera with improperly loaded photography film. This proved most of our stunts a waste of time. We took snaps before trekking back to the old temple at Kigga (of Ramayana fame). Some of us took a break with cool drinks, tender coconuts before getting all the members to climb the bus.

    Two of our members who had seen Sirimane earlier and interested in finding the new falls went along with the guide towards the Chatnamane falls (around 4 km from Sirimane). The remaining people enjoyed themselves at the Sirimane falls taking snaps, playing in water, fighting with leeches. The two members and their guide spent another 1 hour searching for the falls which they finally reached by great difficulty (thanks to the marshyness of the forest and almost a galaxy of leeches). They reached this new falls around 4:15 pm. This new falls is used by locals for their drinking water supply. The falls is about 1.5 times the height of Sirimane and is narrower than Sirimane by say 50%. They took snaps and started there trek backwards. We reached Kigga at about 5:45 pm with day light fading and a majority of the trip people being bitten by atleast 2-3 leeches. We then set on our journey backwards. Two of our members got down as one of them had to go to Bangalore and the other accompanied him to the bus stand. The remaining of us came back to Padubidre where we had our usual Sonu Dhaba dinner.

  • Dondole and Alekan falls

    Dondole and Alekan falls

    This was the second time in our experience of three and a half years with Spicmacay and its trips that 7 girls had come for the trip. The second years after a successful Aradhana-05 where very enthusiastic to go for a trip.

    Trips are not just a means for enjoyment, they mean much more. Trips work essentially as a team building factor. It helps us understand each other in much informal way and removes out any misunderstandings. It helps the new members to understand the way the senior members coordinate (with each member taking up a special responsibility and performing it so as to make any event a success) among themselves be it interacting with people or searching for something new or even guiding people. Our main aim in organizing this trip was a better 2nd year and 3rd year interaction.

    The Aradhana josh of the second years made around 30-35 people raise their hands when initially the idea of the trip was proposed. This made us organize a second trip in the same academic year. When most of the ground work was done for the trip we found a much lower crowd, probably because of improper communication of the information among the second years. But we later had around 13 boys of second years coming up for the trip. Totally for the trip we were 37 people. Our initial plan was Kemmanagundi but due to administrative problems of the GB warden we had to change our destination to Dondole falls, Charmudighats and Alekan falls.

    We set out from our college at 5:45 am (amazingly with a delay of just 10 minutes). We had a long bus(54 seater, the one out of fashion) with a higly experienced aged driver not willing to go at a speed greater than 40kmph. We had planned our breakfast at Belthangady (at 7:30 am), but thanks to our driver we reached there at 8:15 am where we had breakfast at Hotel Samatha. In the meantime during our journey we were desperately trying to get the cassette player to work fine which finally came true in the hands of a psycho (electrical engineer). Then he was put into complete incharge of that 1942 modelled cassette player. After about one hour we set out towards Dondole falls, along the Ujire-Shimoga highway. At a place called Kakkinje we took a deviation and went in for about 12 km. The remaining approximately 8 km had to be trekked (could have also used a jeep which didn’t strike us initially). We set out on the trek which would last for about 2 hours before finally reaching the stream which made the falls. As soon as people found the water and a little falls sort of thing they started getting into the water and enjoying, till one of our senior member ran all the way and found the actual Dondole falls. Then the other members were lead till this falls via trechorously slippery rocks and sharp boulders. Some of our members were reluctant to go to the main falls considering the danger involved in moving over the rocks (thanks to some handsome suggestions by another member). But most of our members not just reached the falls but also went to its top. Few of our members had nasty falls along the way thanks to the high erosion by the fast currents of the stream during the rainy season. The falls is a splendid one if it was seen during early winter. One sad fact about the falls is that more than 80 percent of the water is deviated by the estate owners against the government rules to utilize it for their individual needs. We picked up snaps of the falls and its surroundings. It was around 12:30pm when we decided to walk back to our initial enjoyment spot where we planned to have our light snacks carried along. We rested after snacks for a while before a quick group photography session. Then decided to walk back and reached the bus it was around 3 pm after a long trek with the midday sun staring from above. When the last group reached the bus it was around 3:30pm. We set out from there without any further delay towards Charmadi. Charmadi range is one of the most scenic in the whole of the Western Ghats. We picked up snaps from the bus of these scenic spots all along the way. Our destination was basically the Alekhan falls. This is a road side falls. It was 4:45 pm when we reached the falls. The driver was very upset for having brought him this long. He was also not willing to let the members get down to the base of the falls, sighting the delay to get down the ghats as a reason. This brought in a difference of opinion between among the senior members and finally a few members (highly interested) got down to view the falls from its base. Finally when we set out from Alekhan it was 5:30 pm. We reached Charmadi at 6:15 pm when we took a small break for tea. We finally set out to Mulki at 6:45 pm. When we reached Bittu it was 8:30 pm.

    All along the way (though with initial delay) we enjoyed the trip, some of us cracking PJs, doing stunts, playing antakshari, overacting.

    The main motive of the trip namely, interaction between the meager count of the 3rd year members and the highly enthusiastic 2nd year members so as to let them function in a better manner during the next academic year was successful to about 80 percent (in a final year members perspective). We final years had a lot of interaction informally with the participating members.

  • Trip to Karkala, Sita falls, Vonakeabbi falls and Agumbe

    Trip to Karkala, Sita falls, Vonakeabbi falls and Agumbe

    This was a unique trip with the 3rd years pleading the second years to come to the trip with a lot of members giving a lot of insensible reasons. We had booked a mini bus for the trip as the numbers were less. We were around 24 members without even a single girl.

    The planned takeoff of the trip was at 5:45, in which case we would have got a good sunrise at Karkala. Unfortunately, the day being Shivarathri we had to wait for two members (almost infinitely) for about 1 hour and finally began the journey without them at 6:45 am. We then set out towards Karkala on the way we saw the sunrising near the bridge at Mulky. We reached Karkala around 7:50. We visited the Gommateshwara Statue there, picked some snaps had a nice view of the Western
    Ghats     and surrounding villages. We then had our breakfast at Sagar Hotel.

    We left Karkala around 9:00 towards our next destination viz Sita falls(Koodluthirtha). We had to take a deviation from the Hebri Someshwara road and from here go around 8kms to the last house before the falls. A large bus would have made us walk around 12kms up and down but the minibus left us having to walk only 2kms up and down. Just before getting into the forest to walk through Sita falls we see a splendid falls far away in the forest(ie not our destination). We walked through the forest and reached Sita falls in 20 minutes. The water there was shivering cold and all the members had a dip in the water and played in it. People enjoyed for around 45 minutes in the water and then started walking back reluctantly. It was around 12:00pm when we reached the bus.

    We then went to a small hotel were we had booked our lunch before itself(a day earlier). It was around 1:15pm when we reached the hotel. We had our lunch there and few of us went around Hebri drinking cool drinks, eating sweet pan etc. Then we started moving to Someshwara for our next destination from where we had to trek to Vonakeabbi falls (relatively new falls to NITK considering we were the second team to visit this, this is a very popular destination for trips now). The falls is around 3kms into the forest from Someshwara. We asked for a guide from a shop near the temple who would lead us to the falls. We started our trip from here at 3pm with strict guidelines to everyone who was coming along who walked back from where ever he was at 4pm (so that we do not miss the sunset scenery from Agumbe). The trek to the falls was a real tiring one with people having to climb steep hills of around 60 degree(approx) from the ground level. While climbing we met a few trek enthusiasts who had taken a full day for the trek. We continued our trek and a few of us lost our way in between while few others decided against climbing (seeing the steepness) and the remaining reaching the stream. We get a very beautiful first glance of this falls which is along the Udupi Chickmagalur border from here. Then we started climbing, walking through the rocks along the stream to reach the base of this divine falls(gives you the divine happiness). Again we reached here in various groups depending on speed. It was around 4:15pm by then. We started walking back after taking a few snaps towards our bus. We reached our bus around 5:10pm.

    We had a small tea break before resuming our trip to Agumbe sunset point. On reaching Agumbe sunset point we were greeted by clouds covering the sun, monkeys and few other tourists. It was 6:00pm by then. The journey atop the Agumbe ghats is itself an experience. We get around 14 hairpin curves along while climbing. We get a breath taking view of Vonakeabbi falls(the one just visited) from 2 points along the road. On the other side all along the road we get a splendid view of the plains of Udupi district covered with a majority of forests and paddy fields. The clouds covering the Sun seem to have decided not to let us have a view of the sun setting. So we waited for around 15 minutes and then started moving down in the bus. Just as we had negotiated the second hair pin curve from the top, the sun came out of the clouds. All of us started shouting and asking the bus driver to stop the bus, who agreed reluctantly. He stopped a little further after the third hair pin curve. We got down took snaps had a view of the sun setting down and then got back into the bus to resume our journey back to the college. We had our dinner at Sonu dhaba and returned to college at 9.30pm.

    The amazing part of this trip was time maintenance.

    The enjoyment was as usual with Antakshari, Cassette Player, dances.

  • Kumaraparvatha

    KumaraParvatha affectionately and passionately called by trekkers as KP, is one of the most common trekking spots. This is one of the tallest peaks in Karnataka and towers at around 4000 ft above sea level. This peak is on the border of two very beautiful districts of Karnataka namely – South Canara and Coorg. So this peak can be scaled from either side… the Kukke side or the Coorg – Somavarpet side. We chose the Somavarpet side to climb and the Kukke side to getdown.

    We were a group of 5 trekkers – Naveen, Purusha, Siddu, Muddu and myself; we managed to make it a one day trek.

    We set out from college on to do this trek on Friday night from Mangalore. We caught a bus that would take us to Somavarpet.. We reached Somavarpet quite early 6:45am.. ditch the details here. We had a local bus that takes ut to a village that is around 45 min from Somavarpet, it was scheduled to leave at 7:15am we just did some quick breakfast and then a purchase of fruits before we boarded the bus.

    After we complete a 45 min journey, we reach a small village from where we have to start our trek. I don’t recall the name of the Village now!! Well some distance form here we had met a stream this is the “KumaraDhara”. This stream has its origin in the Kumara Parvatha. During our trek a bridge was under construction…, we had to take a make shift bridge to cross over. Then there is a wide mud road which takes you over to another village. It is from this village that we get to see the KumaraParvatha for the first time.

    Joys walk through the paddy fields and we were near a temple. We just took a break here and then continued on our trek. It was very sunny and a walk in the dusty mud road was killing our interest… after a small distance covered in this way we get to see a forest check post. This is the where we enter into the actual trek. We have to pay some nominal amount as entry fee for the trek route. The route after this is through dense forest and is a real fun to trek. There are tall shady trees all along. No noise, all that you hear is just the chirping of birds and sometime the wind. I am sure in rainy season there would be a lot of leeches here.
    Some trek through the forest and a few steep climbs we will come to a good sight seeing spot were we can hang on for some time and have nice pictures taken, we did exactly that. Continue on further from here and another climb we will come to a nice spot, a good resting place. You will find some cement seats and some sort of shelter here. You can take a small nap in case you want to here. Continue on the same trail, you will reach a small falls (I was completely dried when we went, so we could not appreciate it much) . A little further and then you can see a deviation. One way is pointed toward the Heggademane while the other is toward Pushpagiri (KP) peak. We did not want to waste any time any were and wished we reached the peak as early as possible, so we chose the route towards the peak. A small distance from this diversion we get to see a steep climb, its rock surface and I am sure it’s hard to climb if you don’t have good grip, not undoable though. Just wait for a small time and look around, you have a very nice view for yourself. The peak is not all that far from here and so you can spend as much time as you want to take the snaps. Once this session is over you can continue with the trek, just a small trek through the short shrubs again and you will be at the peak, some sign boards to indicate the direction, one indicating towars Kukke and the other towars Somavarpet.
    We reached the peak ar around 12 noon!!! oh what a time to reach the peak, no shade over there, jus a few temples, some stone heap, and a flag. When we reached the peak, we met a family that had trekked from the Kukke side, and were planning to get down from the Somavarpet side. They had a small kid think it was around 1yr old, carring it on the back was its mother, her husband was there along, there was another person .. he seemed to be their giude and was carrying all the luggage of tents and stuff for trekking. It was an ispiration for us to see this family; they had even brought their little kid for this trek!!! After some enquiries and hai/bye stuff we parted ways.
    We spent some time picking snaps and looking at the view around. We were also searching for a suitable spot for our lunch that we had carried. We spent around half an hour at the peak and the continued to descend on from the Kukke side. We received the information from the family that there was a small stream of water a lil further on the other side.. it was not too good to drink but could be used for other purpose in case you needed it. We were searching for this spot and found it in no time. We just sat there in the shade for some time, had our food and took a nap for 30 min. It was a nice sleep that we had, not much of a problem at all. We set out from the spot at around 2:15 pm.We continued on our trek, now slowly the sun was moving west and was really nice to see the distant villages and the route that we would follow to go to kukke.

    We moved on slowly though the huge stretch of the mountains, looking back sometimes at the Peak, some times at the path we followed to reach the peak. I looked at the vast stretch of the mountain… and just got lost in some philosophical thought. After a small trek this way, we reach a nice water source, generally called “Mantapa” by a lot of people. There is a small pond near by that stores water. It’s a nice place to rest. You will get very nice photographs from this place.
    We continued our trek and the
    n reached the forest check post on the other side; some distance away you have the famous “Battara Mane”… a nice resting place for the trekkers. We had some tea here and then continued our trek to Kukke. It was a nice time to do the descend trek. We just wanted to reach Kukke before it was late and hence did a hurried trek. It was though winding path and dense forest, high huminidity would sack all the energy that we have. We continued on with the trek and finally reached Kukke at 5:30pm.
    We then caught a bus to GunDia then to Mangalore and finally reached college in the last bus to Surathkal. It was a memorable trek for us. Wish I make a more planned and leisurely trek to this place some time again to spend the night at the peak.
    For Photographer it’s a very nice place to pick a lot of snaps. I bet the towering KP has a lot in store for the SunRise and sun-set. It’s definitely worth spending one cold night at the peak.