Kuringal GuDDa and Onake Abbe falls

Another jobless weekend and we had to go somewhere this time also. After considering Amedikallu and Mukurthi, we zeroed in on one of the Kudremukh National Park trails. I dont understand what is the problem with the Mukurthi forest officials. The first time I call them they readily agree to give permission (upon arrival). Still skeptic, I ask Subbu to call them up and confirm and he gets the same response. I call them again after a few hours and they flatly refuse to give permissions! Anyways, Kudremukh permissions were easily available and we decided to go to Kuringal Gudda (or Kurinjal Gudda).

Our initial plan was to trek from Mullur gate to Kuringal Gudda and camp at Bhagavathi Nature camp. Mullur gate and Kuringal Gudda come under Karkal RFO and Bhagavathi Nature camp comes under Kudremukh RFO. Bookings were done accordingly and we (6 of us) started from Bangalore in a qualis.

Jump up in joy!

The team: Moch, Mithun, Subbu, Mahesha, Indranil and yours truly!

After a peaceful overnight drive to Karkala, we got the required permission (in writing) from the RFO and reached the Mullur post, which is on the way to Kudremukh. But to our dismay, the officials in Mullur refused to take us from Mullur from Kuringal Gudda. The reason given was naxal problem but I suspect it was more out of laziness than anything else. Instead they offered to take us to Kuringal Gudda from some other route which was supposedly not half as tough. All our efforts of convincing them fell on deaf ears and we were compelled to take the other route. So then, we drove towards Kudremukh and about 11 kms before the town, we started the trek.

Kuringal GuDDa peak

The trek to the top should not take more than 2 hours. The only matter of concern for us was the huge mosquitoes that use to swarm us wherever we went. Have never come across such a breed of mosquitoes and their bites were quite painful. Other than that it was an enjoyable trek to the top. On our way back it started raining and oh boy, I really enjoyed the rains that day :-).

Upon reaching the Kudremukh forest office for permissions to Bhagavathi nature camp, we realized the accomodation is way beyond our budget! Two man tents for 400 bucks and two man guest houses for 600 bucks! (yes, we consider them ridiculously expensive). Since we were planning to go to Onake Abbe falls the next day, we decided to go to Karkala, where we got a three-star like accomodation for a total of 700 bucks (for the six of us). Great deal. The non-veggies had a customary Tandoori-chicken (you need to bring your two hands, fists clenched, closer to your face and crouch a little when saying this) for dinner.

The next day we set off towards Someshwara to go to Onake Abbe falls. Someshwara is on the foot of Agumbe Ghats and is about 60 kms from Karkala. We got hold of a guide (easily available) to take us to the falls since the route is a little confusing and the place is amidst thick forests. After about two hours of non-stop trek uphill, we reached the falls which had decent amount of water, thanks to rains for the past few days. The place is nice and I can only imagine its splendour in the monsoons! The fact that you need to swim to get to the falls makes it a very attractive place.

Water sports at Onake Abbe!

The high point of the day was when we ordered 20 plates of Neer Dosas and fish fries at Sridevi hotel for the five of us! (Mithun had decided to check out some other veggie hotel). Had a quick stop at the Agumbe view point just before sunset as we headed back to Bangalore, stopping for dinner and doodh-peDhas at Chickmagalur.

The trek is listed here. But the contact details are incorrect.

The contact details are as follows:
Kudremukh RFO: 9448789998 (M)
Karkala RFO: 08258 231183 (O)

The route taken:
Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Gundya - Belthangady - Karkala.

Return journey:
Agumbe - Chickmagalur - Belur - Hassan - Bangalore.

Photos are here, here and here!

Thus continues the quest...

Pondicherry

After a month-long taxing ride in the North-East, i wanted to go to some place to put my feet up and relax. And what better place to do that than Pondicherry? Never mind the heat though.

So when Moch called me for this trip, without a second thought (as always), I signed up. Leave on Friday evening and come back on Monday morning with the transportation taken care of. Sounds fairy-tale eh? The catch is in the number of people who had signed up. A full dozen and a three-quarter! Yeah, 21 people.

The team (start counting, you may need ur fingers as well as toes): Moch, Jitha, Subbu, Sirish, Anjali, Flavia, Pari, Babitha, Hasan, Harsha, Akhila, Aparna, Naveen, Praveen, Badri, Gautham, Murali, Ritvik, Sushmitha, Holla and yours truly!

Anyways... to keep ourselves entertained during the trip, me and J decided to go speaker-shopping and bought a set of portable speakers for 150 bucks. The speakers entertained/irritated all of us for a good part of the journey.

A few pre-trip calls that JJJ got were quite interesting and worth writing:

X: Hey JJJ, I have a pair of floaters, do I need to wear sneakers??
JJJ: First tell me what are floaters and what are sneakers!

Y: Hey JJJ, do I need to carry change of clothes??
JJJ: I don't care man!

As it always happens with such a large group, we left Bangalore pretty late (around 1 in the morning i guess), which left Aparna quite fuming i hear. After a tea break near Hosur which was almost as long as an elephant's gestation period, we set off to Pondicherry, via Tiruvannamalai (did I spell it right?). The driver of the other cab decided to keep his passengers awake by driving like a drunkard on steroids. The passengers apparently went "Ooooooo", "Aaaaaaaa" and "Ohhhhh" every now and then. The next morning when I got up at 7ish, we were still 60 kms from Pondi and we could see a small hillock in front of us with a fort on its top. So then, trekking instincts took over and we decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, we took a wrong route and had to abandon our climb mid-way.

Who slapped these people?

After a stop at a bakery for a doodh-peDha session (its paal-khova in Tamil Nadu), we finally reached Pondi at 1 in the afternoon. The chappars that we are, decided to go for budget accomodation, and headed towards Cuddalore where rooms were booked in Youth Hostel. Good accomodation at a mere 100 bucks for a night!

Youth Hostel Dormitory

After cooling our heels for some time, we decided to check out the silver beach very close by. The place is a little crowded (no no, not by the 21 of us) but we managed to find a good place for our frisbee game.

Frisbee Time!

For dinner, the non-veggies decided to get some sea-food and ended up at an uptown place (dont remember the name). The food was decent but the waiter made us wait for too long. Never mind. The Fish-65 was good.

The "no-nonsense" people. Me, Jitha, Subbu and Holla.

Next morning, most of us wanted to go to Mahabalipuram, but Moch, for reasons unknown, was adamant on not going. Pari almost fell at his feet but the bugger didnt budge. But Moch did manage to get everyone ready to go to Auroville. And what exactly did we do in Auroville? Play Frisbee!! Lazing around for most of the day, we went to another beach in the evening for another frisbee session, while some girls and Subbu decided to go shopping (poor Subbu). In the beach, Mochi managed to get his ankles damaged, Harsha managed to do a cool somersault at break-neck speed, Akhila managed to lose her goggles and her cool, me got an inch long cut on the sole of my right foot.

Though in no mood to get back to Bangalore, "Monday-morning" beckoned us. Also, we decided we got tanned enough and headed back, stopping for a quick dinner on the way. Reached Bangalore at 5:30 in the next morning.

A few pics are here, here and here!

Thus continues the quest...