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...