Hampi

This is my third visit to Hampi in the past one year. The place has some charm which makes me go there so often (or is it the Mango Tree?)

A UNESCO world heritage site, these ruins of the Vijayanagar empire are located about 15 kms from Hospet, and on the banks of the river Thungabhadra.

Buses are easily available to Hospet, or even Hampi, from Bangalore. There are train services from Bangalore to Hospet too.

Important places in Hampi:
Virupaksha temple
KaDalekaaLu Ganesha
SaasivekaaLu Ganesha
Lakshmi Narsimha temple
The Queen's bath
Mahanavami Dibba
Stepped tank (inside the Mahanavami Dibba)
The Lotus Mahal and the elephant's stable (inside the Zanana enclosure)
Hazarama temple complex
Prasanna Virupaksha temple
Courtesan street
Mathunga hills
Vitthala temple complex and the stone chariot inside it.
Last, but definitely not the least, the Mango Tree!

There are other important/nice places but I've only listed the ones I remember.

The team: Jitha, Kid, Naveen, Vyasa, Shailendra and yours truly.

Some photos:

The lotus mahal

The stepped tank

Inside the Hazararam temple

The famous stone chariot


The mango tree! What a place to relax..

More photos are here and here.

Thus continues the quest...

Nadumale

It had been almost two months since I went for a trek (kanoor fort). Damn that Subbu! I was itching to go somewhere for a nice monsoon trek when Tarsh comes up with a trek plan to Nadumale (finally he puts his NOLS training to some good use!!). Without a second thought I jumped in. The team: Subbu, Sirish (yes!), Flavia, Tarsh, Astha, Anand, Shalini, Siddharth, Suresh, Shashi and yours truly!

Before boarding the TT to Bhagamandala (the starting point), we had a hog-athon at Brigade Road, where we hogged on delicious chicken momos (2 plates each) and then bought 2 full baskets of KFC chicken!! (Oh my, the quantity is too mach!) Not content, we even stopped at a dhaba on Mysore road for another round of dinner! :O Bloody eating machines. Let's trek bitches!

Route: Bangalore - Mysore - Hunsur - Madikeri - Bhagamandala.

The starting point.

The trek started from a forest guest house near Bhagamandala and was of constant descent on a jeep track. Almost the entire stretch is a walk in thick forest cover. Only at a few places we were on open grasslands overlooking a valley. Since we had done the trek in monsoon, I can only describe the trek in 4 words: misty misty leechy leechy!

Misty misty!

The first day's halt was at Nadumale forest guest house, which is no longer inhabited. (Why would it be? To even talk to another person, you'll have to walk 12 kms). The guest house is located next to a stream and is a really nice camping spot, if you don't count the leeches! Since it was raining throughout, we didn't stop for lunch and came directly to the camping site at 5:00 pm. Taking a quick dip in the stream, (aah ice cold water, brrrrr!), we gorged on Maggi noodles. Everyone was too lazy for a full-fledged dinner (we were also quite full) and everyone hit the sack as early as 830 pm. Me and Subbu, though, had a discussion on world peace (no, seriously) till 11:00 pm :-).

Hog baby hog!

Our camping spot..

Next morning we started from the place at around 9:30 am. The route from Nadumale to the ending point, Peringom in Kerala, is on a flat jeep track and is about 12 kms. This was a pleasure walk. Once we reached the end point, where our TT was waiting for us, everyone got into another de-leeching mode, while me, Subbu, Sirish and Sid took it as another opportunity for wallowing in the stream close by.

The route back: Peringom - Karike - Bhagamandala - Madikeri (awesome dinner at Hotel East End) - Mysore - Bangalore.

Permission is needed to go to Nadumale. Call up Aranya Bhavan in Madikeri for permission and they'll arrange for a guide (required, the forest is a core elephant territory). Contact number: 08272-228019

Photos are here and here!

Thus continues the quest...

Deepadakallu and JenkalguDDa!

Three times before have we set out from Blore to reach this peak. Twice it was thwarted by an enigma of a peak called Ombattugudda. The third time we lost our way and found ourselves on top of a new peak called SubbichenDguDDa.

This time we got another opportunity, as we had completed Amedikallu on Saturday itself. This time, instead of starting from the Lakshmi-Saraswathi estate, we decided to try out some other route to get to the peak. Last week from the top of SubbichenDguDDa, we had seen a temple very closeby and also a neat-looking path to Deepadakallu from there. The temple, named by us as "Duplicate Bhairapura" back then, is in fact Bettada Bhairaveshwara temple.

How to get there? Bangalore - Sakleshpur(right turn towards Mudigere) - Hanbal - Maragunda - Bhairaveshwara temple.

Walk a little on the same road from the temple and you will reach a place where you will see two peaks in front of you. Dipadakallu on the right side (with a large stone on top, can't miss it) and on the left hand side, higher than any other peak in it's vicinity... the JenkalguDDa.

As Subbu says, if a peak is visible, half your conquest is done. Continuing on the same road, we got to a place where there were multiple paths. After a heated discussion, we decided to take an obscure looking path which looked like leading directly to the Dipadakallu, but passed through a forest. And oh boy, did we do a good thing or what!? When we got to the other side of the forest, we realized we saved more than an hour of walk by taking the obscure looking path. From thereon, it was hardly half an hour's walk to the peak of Dipadakallu. Unsurprisingly, all along the way, we could see EttinaBhuja (yes, another profile) and we reached the peak from the temple in about 1.5 hours.

The final climb to Dipadakallu..

The Dipadakallu peak..

As it has been with our recent treks in the region, we were welcomed to the peak by a cool breeze and misty weather. On top of Dipadakallu is a stone structure. If you haven't climbed up this one, you haven't peaked Dipadakallu :-). "Intelligent-looking" Mahesha, as usual, pointed at an arbit jeep track and called the nearest peak Ombattugudda. On one side we could see EttinaBhuja, another side SubbichenDguDDa and on another side, very close to us, was the JenkalguDDa, which looked high and majestic in front of us. Five of us from the group, Subbu, Mahesha, Jagga, Sand and yours truly, decided to check out JenkalguDDa while the others, decided to by-pass it and started heading towards the temple.

The climb to JenkalguDDa!

The climb to JenkalguDDa from Dipadakallu hardly takes 45 minutes but the last few minutes of the climb is very steep, to the point of slippery. As if to make up for the steep incline to get to the peak, the top is a flat land and has a small stone for a shrine. There is a belief among locals that if you drop a coin here, the coin appears on top of Mulliangiri and vice versa. From the top, we could see Dipadakallu, EttinaBhuja and Amedikallu, all in a single line!

The first few minutes of our stay at the top was very peaceful with only the gusts of wind on our faces to interrupt the sound of silence. But, slowly and gradually, almost stealthily, we were swarmed by honey bees! It was then that we realized why the peak is called so!! But before the bees gathered in large numbers or could attack us, we started our descent on the other face of the peak, which would lead us directly to the temple, instead of going back to Dipadakallu.

Before we could get to the temple, we had to cross a small strip of thick, and I mean thick forest. There was a round-about path which could take us to a jeep track on the other side of the forest, and since we were descending, we could see the jeep track. Adventurous as we are, it was unanimously decided that we take a short cut into the jungle and come out on the other side. Needless to say, we lost our way and took about an hour to wade through the thorny thickets of just about 100 meters. When we came out on the other side, we got a little disoriented, and ended up taking a route which was longer by about 3 kms! Finally, we got to the temple at 1730 hours where our TT was waiting for us to take us back to Bangalore...

Photos of the trek are here.

Thus continues the quest...

Amedikallu!

I have been wanting to go to Amedikallu for quite some time now. In fact, in the good old days when Moch was around, we had made several plans. But we never ended up going there, for whatever reasons. Buoyed by our last weekend's trek to Ettinabhuja and subbichendgudda, when the weather was good for treks, we decided to give Amedikal a shot on the weekend of 18-19th April.

The team: Subbu, Sirish (yes!), Flavia, Mahesha, Jagga, Sand, Adithya, Balaji and yours truly!

Amedikallu, as quite a few blogs have claimed, is considered one of the toughest climbs in Karnataka.. But is it? Read on!

There are two trekking routes to Amedikallu. The first one is from Neria estate which is relatively easier. But the estate owners supposedly donot let trekkers go through the estate these days. The second one is from Shishila which is tougher. We, needless to say, opted for the second route.

Bangalore - Hassan - Gundya - Kokkada - Shishila.

We considered going to Amedikallu without a guide, with just a GPS for assistance. But we realized that without a guide, it would be difficult for us to return on the same day, knowing our fearsome reputation of getting lost during treks! Not returning on the same day in no big deal, we were ready to spend the night on the peak, but the unavailability of water along the way bothered us. If you go along the path, there is no water source right from the beginning till the peak. But there is a water source near the base of the peak where only a guide can take you to. So we went to Gokhale's place looking for a guide. (At Shishila, anybody will guide you to his place). He immediately arranged for a guide called Chennappa, although it is advisable to call him in advance and book for a guide (contact number: 08251-269246). We soon reached Kandechhar, which is the starting point of the trek.

Amedikallu from a distance!

Take a left turn on a narrow trail from Kandechhar and you are on your way! Again, without someone telling you, it is impossible to figure this narrow trail. The walk to Amedikal peak is one of continuous ascent and the first break you get from this monotony is only after about 2 hours of climb in the forest. Once you complete this stretch, you get a magnificient view of Amedikallu in front of you, and what awaits you next! The left side of the peak has three rocks neatly arranged to look like a stove. The main peak, at the center, looks like the outer shell of a turtle (ame = turtle, dikkel = tulu word for stove). The climb from this point to the peak is steep. But to get to a water source, we took a left turn just before the ascent. Ten minutes into the jungle, we came across a stream where we refreshed and had our packed lunch.

The climb from this point is steep and is without any forest cover and with good pace, can be done in about 1.5 hours. There are plenty of rocks en route, sitting on which you can enjoy the views all around. All along this path, we got to see the other side of EttinaBhuja (we now have 360 degree profile shots of it). Also, thanks to the showers a few days back, the entire stretch was green. To get to the main peak, we had to cross a thick forest and come out on the other side. But there is a clear trail to follow. After checking out few view points on the right side of the peak, we reached the main peak at about 1630 hours. And I must say, it isn't as tough as it is made out to be. In fact, it is nothing compared to the ordeal we went through on our way to OmbattuguDDa. Amedikallu is amongst the highest peaks in it's surroundings and we could see EttinaBhuja, Minchukallu, ShinganiguDDa and other peaks. Conspicuous by it's absence was the OmbattuguDDa. The "intelligent-looking" Mahesha has this habit of spotting any arbit jeep track and calling the nearest peak OmbattuguDDa, randomly. Here too he didn't let go of an opportunity when he spotted a jeep track.

The team at the top...

After spending a good 45 minutes at the peak, we started the descent. By the time it was dark, we had reached the forest cover from where we had got the first glimpse of the peak during our ascent. The descent from this point to the road was done in darkness and was the most boring part of the trek. The descent took us so long that it seemed like a journey to the center of the earth. Finally when we reached the road, it was around 2030 hours, where our TT was waiting for us.

Some useful info:

Although considered a tough trek, the whole stretch (up and down) can be done in a single day. I would call it a moderately tough trek.

Contact number of Gokhale: 08251-269246.

Guide charge is around 200 per day. But since Amedikallu is considered a two day trek, you may have to pay 400 as guide charges.

Photos of the trek are here.

Thus continues the quest...

SubbichenDguDDa!

As in the previous post, I am writing this blog in the present tense. Don't ask me why.

We have finished EttinaBhuja yesterday and we intend to conquer Deepadakallu and JenkalGudda today. We have had two unsuccessful plans to conquer these twin peaks (here and here). Both of them were thwarted by an enigma of a peak called Ombattugudda.

After EttinaBhuja yesterday we came to Mudigere for overnight halt. Today we are fresh and ready to go. We have enough time on our hands to conquer both the peaks. Also, we are not tired (as what had happened after Ombattugudda-1).

We have our breakfast at Mudigere and leave for Lakshmi Saraswathi estate (Hoskere), which is the starting point of the trek. Everytime we have come to this estate, the workers here have recognised us. Hope they don't get irritated by our frequent visits to the place. We reach the estate at 1100 hours and find nobody at the estate. Everyone has gone off to work. We are already running late and we don't know where to start from within the estate! Me and Subbu scout around a little and find a carpenter who is overjoyed to see someone come and talk to him. He tells us that we need to take the left turn (going down) just before the estate workers' house where will cross a stream. So we head in that direction. We also have in mind the piece of advice Mithun has given us: "There is a highway to the peak!".

The jeep track which didn't let us take the right route.

Look. We do know that there can't be a 4 lane highway or even a jeep track till the peak. But somehow none of us are willing to take any deviation from the jeep track which is stretching in front of us in a very winding and inviting manner! After a certain point, we are constantly moving in the opposite direction of the peak and somehow none of us is stong-willed enough to move away from the jeep track. So we keep on going until everyone of us agrees what we know for quite some time now - yep, we are lost, we have headed in the wrong direction. Now now, what's a trek without a little "getting-lost" business? Meandering in the forest not knowing what to do, we come across a mango tree, the ground beneath which is strewn with ripe mangoes! So what if we are lost?! We indulge ourselves like kids and after about half an hour, standing right below the mango tree, Jitha comes up with this gem: "Where is the mango tree btws?!"

Mangoes!

Getting to a clear patch of land, we spot a peak to our right side, which looks steep and inviting. It's already 3 in the afternoon and it looks like we have a fat chance of getting to Dipadakallu. So what? We'll get to the top of this arbit peak, get a sense of direction and head back.. simple! Anyways, we haven't heard the mention of this peak anywhere and we decide to name it... SubbichenDguDDa!

On top of SubbichenDguDDa

We get to the peak of SubbichenDguDDa and we get a magnificient view of the surroundings. We spot Dipadakallu which is about 3 kms off from this place. We also realize where we went wrong in our mission to get to Dipadakallu. We also get to see EttinaBhuja and Amedikallu. Conspicuous by it's absence is the OmbattuGudda. We also, surprisingly, spot the temple of Bhairapura just below the peak! The temple, as we saw yesterday, is very close to EttinaBhuja, which, now, is in a completely different direction! In utter disbelief, we look at Ettinabhuja in one direction and Bhairapura-like temple in the other direction which are, atleast, 10 kms apart. Then we realize this is some other similar-looking temple and we name the place "duplicate Bhairapura" (thank God we are not chemists stumbling upon new compounds every now and then).

Getting down SubbichenDguDDa

We have missed Dipadakallu again. Damn it! How can one simple peak evade us on three successive attempts? Anyways, we get down the peak and get back to the estate well past sunset. We reach the estate and see a strange phenomenon: all the fireflies around us are flashing simultaneously in a burst! Have never seen this phenomenon and we are quite fascinated by it. This phenomenon is called "phase synchronization". Read more on it here.

The photos are here.

Thus continues the quest...

EttinaBhuja

Ettina Bhuja - the peak which resembles the shoulder of an ox is named aptly (ettinabhuja is Kannada for ox's shoulder).

Note: For reasons irrelevant, I am writing this blog in the present tense.

It has been almost two months since I have gone for a real trek and I float around the idea of going to Ettinabhuja and Dipadakallu for April 12/13 weekend. And the people who say yes are the usual suspects - Subbu, Jitha, Mahesha, Jagga, Sand and, of course, yours truly!

Initially I considered going to Ettinabhuja from the Bhairapura side. But talking to Shilpa she told me that the peak from Bhairapura side is just an hour's trek and the route from Shishila side is much more difficult... Well, the decision making cannot get any easier than this and Shishila side it is!

So we start on Friday night from Bangalore in a qualis, equipped with food supplies to feed hungry Ethiopians for a week! Jitha is upset*.

The route we take is Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Gundya - Kokkada - Shishila.

About 15 kms from Gundya, we take a right turn (towards Dharmasthala) to reach Kokkada. Apart from about 20 kms stretch near Gundya, the entire stretch is quite good. Even the stretch from Kokkada to Shishila, which many blogs have claimed to be horrible, has been repaired and is in excellent condition now. From Shishila bus stand, we take a left turn and go about 5 kms on a mud road to reach the starting point for the trek. Many blogs have also mentioned one Gokhale's place where you can hire guides, get food etc. But I wouldn't recommend it since the place is nowhere near the starting point. Also, the route is supposed to be "clear and straight forward" (fellow trekkers, please excuse! :D). Jitha is still upset*.

It is almost unanimously decided that we go without guides and... as fate would have it, within 5 minutes of the start of the trek we get lost!!! There is a stream which we cross at the very beginning of the trek. We cross the stream and soon we come across multiple intersecting paths. And, like we are in a parallel universe, we completely lose track of directions. What the!!?? Wasn't the route supposed to be "clear and straight forward"? But hey, a trek isn't half as interesting without some "getting-lost" business. (So, all you fellow trekkers, you owe me and Subbu big time). Catching hold of one such path which goes in the direction of the peak, we go on. It seems to be the right path as we go on for about an hour and a half until we hit a dead end in the forest cover. We soon realize that we are officially lost for the second time that day. After some scouting around, Subbu finds a place where he can spot the peak (and with that, he claims, he got us onto the right track.. yeah rrright). Although no paths are to be found around, we do some brute-force method (haven't we heard of that before?) to go in the direction of the peak and we soon find the path leading to the peak. Jitha is fuming*.

Being the peak of summer isn't helping us much. All of us are sweating bullets out there and the humidity is starting to get to a few of us. Jitha is like he has just had a bath with all his clothes on. The extreme heat and humidity is making every step difficult... until we get to this place where we have this majestic view of the peak in front of us!

Jitha is going mad now*.

Aaha, the very thought of being at the top of this peak is working like a charm on us and we forget all about the humidity and start walking with renewed vigour. To get to the peak, we have to go to the other side of the hill and make a gradual ascent. Effectively, we have to get to the back of the ox to reach it's shoulder which we do in good time. And as we are making the final dash to the peak, the weather changes... Gone is the intense humidity, gone is the scorching heat of the sun. Out of nowhere comes a sudden wave of clouds and mist and it is like monsoon, only without the rain! The weather is perfect by the time we reach the peak, at around 5 in the evening. The peak is amongst the highest in its surroundings and we can see Amedikallu, Dipadakallu and JenkalGudda in different directions. Conspicuous by it's absence is the OmbattuGudda. It is probably not seen because of the mist cover or simply isn't high enough to get noticed. Either ways, OmbattuGudda continues to be a mysterious peak (and hence irresistible :-)). Jitha is hopping mad now*.

Not wanting to get lost again in some forest cover, before sunset we head towards Bhairapura which is on the other side of the ox. The path is very straight forward (yes, I mean it!) and we reach the Bhairapura temple where we have asked our qualis to come. We have completed EttinaBhuja in one day. For tomorrow we have plans of going to Dipadakallu and JenkalGudda...

The photos are here.

*Jitha has forgotten to get his camera!

Thus continues the quest...

Kudremukh

What?: Kudremukh is a peak in the Western Ghats. The peak, when seen from one direction, resembles a horse's face. Hence the name.

Where?: Kudremukh peak is close to Kudremukh township. The route is Bangalore - Hassan - Belur - Mudigere - Kottigehara - Kalasa - Kudremukh. The approx. distance is 375 kms.

When?: 7th - 8th February 2009.

Who?: Subbu, Mahesha, Shenoy, Jagga, Sand, Tej, Tough Bala, Ramya, Shilpa and yours truly!

Why?: Is that a trick question?

The trek was originally intended to be an IISc affair. Some 8-10 people from IISc were planning it and me and Subbu were to just tag along. But how we tookover! Jitha broke his leg (again) and had to drop out. So did a few others from IISc. A few more additions/drop outs and we were 10 of us. Hiring a TT, we reached Kudremukh late on Saturday morning, with the driver taking umpteen breaks because of drowsiness. We managed to keep ourselves busy by playing DumbC. The highlight of the morning was the 100 'neer dosas' we had atKottigehara. It has become a custom sort of thing to have neer dosas at Kottigehara.

Day 1:
Reaching Kudremukh at 1100 hours, we obtained permission from the forest department to visit the peak. As camping inside the reserve forest is not allowed, permissions could be given only for one day. As we couldn't have reached the peak and come back on Saturday itself, we obtained permissions for Sunday. Realizing we didn't have much to do that day, we decided to go to Hanumangundi falls. The falls is about 20 kms from Kudremukh township on Moodbidre road. The entry fee is 20 Rupees and is well maintained but "touristy".

HanumangunDi falls

Getting right under the falls, we wallowed in the shallow water for quite some time. Having breakfast at the falls (Rotis and MTR curries), we got back to Kudremukh to start the trek.

Since we weren't reaching the peak on that day, we decided to go half way to the peak and camp at one Rajappa Gowda's place. We took the TT to the starting point of the trek which is about 15 kms from Kudremukh on Kalasa road. (About 3 kms after crossing a check post at Basrikatte, you can see a white coloured bridge on the right side. This is where the trek starts and the place is called Balegal.) Some fat-asses in the group got too lazy and insisted on taking a service jeep to Rajappa Gowda's place. Packing the jeep with the 10of us, we reached Gowda's place which is about 7-8 kms from Balegal. Since we had reached earlier than expected (thanks to the jeep), we decided to go for a walk to catch a good sunset. Although nowhere near any peak, we weren't disappointed.

Kudremukh from a distance...

After a good spicy dinner at Gowda's, we had camp fire going (this time everyone of us had a match box, unlike Ombattugudda :-). Sipping hot tea, we generally had a gala time, indulging in general trash talk :-)

Day 2:
Having had breakfast at Gowda's, we set off towards the peak. The path to the peak from RajeGowda's place is quite well defined and there are three houses you get on the way (landmarks). The first one is the well known 'Lobo House', the second one is pretty close to it (hardly 50 meters) and the third, last one, just before starting the climb. All the three are abandoned houses. (Note: You are not allowed to camp at any of these places)

The famous Lobo house...

Although the place was drier than it was the last time I had been there, it was a nice trek to the top. We also got to see some sambars from a pretty close range.

:-)

Ambling along, we reached the peak at 1400 hours. Such was our pace that another group, consisting of Mallu aunties and uncles wearing sareesand lungis, were faster than us! We were quite ashamed, honestly.

Now, the popular perception is that from the top of Kudremukh, the peak next to it looks like a horse's face. This is not true. To see the horse's face, go to the edge of the next peak (15 minutes walk) and look at Kudremukh from there. If you haven't seen this face of the peak, you haven't seen Kudremukh!

The Kudremukh face from the other side...

Abandoning plans of visiting the nearest waterfall (about 30 minutes from the peak) since we were running late, we had a quick lunch and started back and reached Gowda's place at 1900 hours. Asking the jeep guy to come back to Gowda's place, we reached Balegal, from where we got into our TT. The journey back was made all the more memorable by my stinking socks. The stink was seriously unbearable and I had to throw the socks out! (This supreme sacrifice I made needs to be paid back).

Photos of the trek are here, here, here and here!

Contact details:

Kudremukh RFO: 08263-255998 (the one provided in their website is invalid).

Raje Gowda: 08263-249333(R), 9481179008(M)

Trek charges:

Entry fee: Rs. 40 per head.

Trekking fee: Rs. 75 per head.

Guide fee: Rs. 150 per day, but if you know the route, you need not get aguide.

Thus continues the quest...

OmbattuGudda.. again!

This is my second trek to OmbattuGudda and the place doesn't fail to amaze me. I repeat from what I wrote in the post from my first trek: Newbie trekkers donot try this trek. Experienced trekkers donot go to this place without a map and a GPS and loads of water! And get ready to get lost! Brace yourself for one of the toughest treks in the south.

Going to this place once itself is madness enough. To go there the second time, you either must be supremely fit (OmbattuGudda doesn't bog you down) or you are plain insane. I belong to the second category.

Subbu had been wanting to go this place for more than a year now. Finally last weekend his prayers were answered when Mahesha and his friends decided to go to the place looking for a new route (if there is one!). We were 10 of us: Jitha, Mahesha, Subbu, Jagga, Madhu, Sandeep, Srini, Shyama, Veeru and yours truly!

Hiring a TT, we reached Gundya, the starting point for the trek. The jeep track starts from about a km from Gundya gate towards Mangalore. The first landmark, the kabbinale river junction is about 2 hours walk from the highway and is pretty straightforward. As last time, we had breakfast at this place, where we met two other groups of trekkers to OmbattuGudda. That was the last we saw of them! :-)

The kabbinale river junction

From this place, instead of going straight, we decided to check out a new route, to the left, which the Chennai trekkers had used to get to the peak successfully. Instead of going along the stream, we also decided to find a short cut to reach the destination faster, in which we failed miserably. Till around 5:30 in the evening, we hadn't gained any altitude, and distance wise, we hadn't even covered half the distance. Disappointing, when you know that the last time we had done the whole trek in one day. So if you are thinking that this time we took two days to complete and hence would have done it quite comfortably... read on!

So we decided to camp wherever we were, right next to a stream, in the middle of the thick forest. Luckily for us, within 100 meters, we found this deserted hut sort of a thing probably built by the forest guys.

The camping hut

Now a place like this, right next to a stream in the jungle, might sound all nice and a good "get-away from the hustle and bustle of the city" sort of thing. But these are exactly the kind of places animals would come to quench their thirst. The place is known to house elephants and bears, mind you. So, to keep the animals away, we needed a camp-fire and for that to happen easily, we needed a match-box. And none among the 10 of us had it! At the abandoned camp site, I found an empty match box. Damn. Haath mein aaya, muh na laga. It was a desperate attempt by the 10 of us to get a camp fire going. Some of us were desperately looking for loose match sticks that might have been accidentally spilt by the campers before. A few others tried their hand at lighting a fire using batteries by shorting them.

Using batteries to make fire

A few more tried friction to get the fire going, a la Bear Grylls.

Friction to get some fire

Madhu even tried to get fire by hitting two stones together! It was fun watching all these. After some time, we gave up. Still worried about the possibility of animals coming near the camping site, the 10 of us decided to keep watch in shifts. In case someone sees an animal, he was to wake others up and start making a hell lot of a noise and scare the animal away! To do that, we even had a steel plate and a wooden stick handy!!!

The night shift. Notice the steel plate in my hand!

Doing my duty from 8 to 11, I woke a few people up and went to sleep, trusting the others with my life. Next morning around 4:00 I happened to get up only to find that all the others are sleeping blissfully! What the heck, even I went back to sleep.

Day two: We had to find a way to the peak and get to the estate before late. We traveled up the stream for about an hour, had breakfast and filled up our water bottles, knowing that this will be the last time we get any sort of water source. Looking at the map and the GPS, we somehow found a path for some distance. And, as it always happens with OmbattuGudda, it disappeared after some time...

Being aware that the peak is to our east, we decided to head east by climbing a hill. But soon we realized we were going south. We got down and climbed another peak but this time we realized we were going west! How is this possible!? Upon investigation, we realized the compass in the GPS was not functioning properly! What next? Brute force eastwards to the peak. We were climbing a smaller peak on our way, when suddenly we heard something which sounded like fire. Getting curious, we marched forward and the sound grew louder and louder. Onwards we marched. We could now see smoke from some distance. More curious, onwards we marched till we saw a raging forest fire about 50 feet in front of us! Almost panicking, everyone began to sound off ideas. I suggested we get back to the last known trail, and try to go to OmbattuGudda afresh. But the trail was a long way back. Subbu suggested we go around the forest fire, without climbing down, to the other side of the small peak and move onwards! And what if the fire catches up with us by then? He had a simple theory, fire doesn't enter the forest region. So we stick to the forest region without exposing ourselves in the grasslands till we reach a safe distance!! And that is what we did, walking across the slope, inside the jungle, just below the forest fire, till we got to the other side of the peak.

By this time, it was already 2 in the afternoon and the tiredness was getting to us. Water was also at premium and we had to preserve it till we reach the estate which was another 6-7 hours trek. Also, since we had no path to follow, we had to wade through the thicket and thorny bushes till we hit the grassland.

The OmbattuGudda series

When we came out in the grasslands, we could see the nine peaks (OmbattuGudda) right in front of us and we made it to the peak at sunset time, just like my first trek to the place. Only that in this case, we had taken two full days to reach the peak!

Sunset at the peak

Having learnt from our mistake the last time, we didn't unnecessarily get into any jungle. And we could see the jeeptrack on the other side of a thick forest. Easily finding a narrow trail, we entered the forest, in complete darkness. Believe me, only the fact that we were 10 of us made me slightly less uncomfortable. And when we somewhere in the middle of the forest, "Jagga the bugger" realized he had left his monkey cap at the peak, turned around and ran away! There we were, the 9 of us, in the lurch, standing in the middle of the forest in complete darkness, having absolutely no idea whats 10 feet away from us, waiting for Jagga. Finally he turned up 10 minutes later and we soon reached the bloody jeep track which had irritated us the previous time with it's long and winding and ascending path. But this time, we knew what to expect and we were ready for it. Also, we had conserved enough water this time. It was 9:00 when we reached the estate (Lakshmi Saraswathi estate) and another half an hour when we got to our TT to get back to Bangalore...

As last time, we had plans of doing Dipadakallu, which had to be abandoned once we couldn't make it to the peak the first day itself.

The map of the place can be found here (thanks to Subbu). But I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Even if you are serious, think twice before heading off to the place. You might be tempted to hang your trekking shoes forever (like Sirish did!).

Photos can be found here and here!

Thus continues the quest...