Bandaje to Ballarayanadurga

I had been to Bandaje before... twice. I had been to Ballarayanadurga... only once :-(. But I hadn't done Bandaje to Ballarayanadurga! So when Moch and his colleagues planned to do the trek, I, without a second thought, tagged along. But none of us in the group was sure of the path, so Subbu, who had done the trail a few months back, was to be pulled for the trek :-D. And pull we did. Apart from being the guide, Subbu was needed for the camera services! (He takes close to 600 snaps a day. The slide show can be made into a movie. What a man!). So we set off from Bangalore, 11 of us, in a TT.

How to get there? Bangalore - Hassan - Belur - Mudigere - Kottigehara - CharmaDi ghat - MunDaje - BanDaje.

MunDaje is just after CharmaDi ghats and about 5-10 kms before Ujire. Take a right turn at MunDaje and go on for about 8 kms and there is a sign board pointing to the right saying "BanDaje Arbi". Needless to say, take that road :D. Continue on that road till a place where the vehicles can be parked and start the trek. Be warned that the road from Mudigere to Kottigehara is horrible.

The team: Moch, Subbu, Jitha, PC, Mithun, Vinay, Vijeth, Deepak, Holla, Nagu and yours truly.

The initial path was a little confusing because of the many trails around, although it was my third time there. Figuring our way out somehow, we continued on the correct trail which is quite clear. After about an hour or two of trek, we reached a stream which is from the falls itself. The stream is quite wide, with nice big rocks to cool our heals, and we found the place suitable for our breakfast break :).

The breakfast point

From here, to get to the top of the falls, we had to cross the stream and continue on the other side. But we decided to go to the bottom of the falls, come back to the stream and then go to the top! Talk of exploration. So we continued on an obscure looking path on the left side of the stream, without crossing it. The two odd hours of walk is quite strenuous on a non-existent path and requires some basic sense of direction. The final part is quite rocky, uphill and is quite tiring. But reaching the bottom of the falls is quite worth it :-).

The base of the falls

Mission-1 accomplished. Now we had to get to the top of the falls, which was only a few hundred feet above us. But it was quite frustrating to know that to reach the top, we had to get back to the stream (about 1 to 1.5 hours), cross the stream and then trek up for close to another 2 hours! All this when we could see the top of the falls right above us!! How I wished I had wings. So then, back to the stream, crossed it and began the ascent, which is reasonably steep. Just before we hit the open grassland before the falls, an argument broke out. I said we had to go to our right as soon as we hit the grasslands. Subbu, who had also come there more than once, said we needed to go left! Confused, we headed straight, and we later realized straight indeed we had to go to reach the falls! How we both of us managed to reach the falls on our previous attempts escapes me :D. When we hit the grasslands, it was already 6:30 and getting darker by the minute. Not sure of the right direction to go, Mithun, Subbu and me decided to go ahead and find the right path. Climbing a small peak, we got this view of the falls from a distance.

The falls from a distance

Our water resources nearly empty and already late into the evening, we reached the falls in semi-darkness. PC and Mithun, God bless them, always come prepared for a trek, with sufficient food items, vessels to cook and sometimes a mini-stove too! After a heavy dinner and a good night's sleep in tents, we set off for Ballarayanadurga the next morning. Bandaje to Ballarayanadurga is a lazy two hour walk with good landscapes all around. Happened to spot a herd of bisons on an adjacent hill.

Bison herd on an adjacent hill

Mithun, way ahead of all of us all along, claims this very herd crossed his path only a few metres ahead of him! Well, he has a few photos here to validate his claim. Make sure you carry enough water while going from Bandaje to Ballarayanadurga.

The ballarayanadurga fort

From the top of Ballarayanadurga, it was a straight forward descent to some temple to where we had asked the TT to come at the specified time. After a customary "tandoori chicken" (you need to bring your two hands, fists clenched, closer to your face and crouch a little when saying this) dinner at some dhaba near Hassan, we headed back to Bangalore.

The route back: Sunkasale - Kottigehara - Moodigere - Belur - Hassan - Bangalore. If you are going from Bangalore to Sunkasale, take a right turn from Kottigehara (going towards Kalasa), after about 7 kms take a U-turn (easy to miss) and go on for another 8-9 kms. My set of photos of the trek are here.

Thus continues the quest...