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...

Getting pampered at Sharavathi backwaters..

For quite some time, I had been thinking of going to Honnemaradu which is famous for its backwaters. Well, nothing could stop me from going there but the only problem is that the place is generally booked for the next few months! I seriously have no idea what am I going to do next weekend. How the hell am I supposed to foresee my plans for atleast a couple of months?! Also, the place has restrictions on the number of people to be involved (12 is the minimum number I guess).

So when Subbu informed me about Sampath who offers something very similar in the Sharavathi backwaters itself, I had no hesitation in agreeing. And the booking was done only 4 days in advance. Also, from what I know, Honnemaradu people charge 2000 for 2 days. Sampath charges 1200 only.

Catching a bus from Majestic on 14th evening, we reached Sagar early next morning. Freshening up at the Sagar bus stop (the graffiti in the toilets is really interesting!), we caught a private bus to Gubbagodu, which is 18 kms from Sagar. The backwaters is just a few minutes walk from this place.

Lets go on a visual tour of the backwaters and the activities involved...

Getting used to the coracles. Coracles are used to move from one island to another..

The island where we camped. The island in the background is the 'shit island'. Yes, you need to take a coracle and row (or swim) to that island. If you cant contain yourself for that long, God help you!.

The backwaters..

Pirates on board the raft!

Abandon ship!

Getting used to the kayak. Do you see him tensed? :)

The team: (L to R) Subbu, Mahesha, Veeru, Jitha, Shalini, Flavia, yours truly and Sirish.

One memorable thing about this place was the food offered to us. Instead of the stale food which we regularly have during our treks, we were pampered with delicious fresh food. The akki rotis especially were yummmyyy...

Once we were back to the mainland, we decided to trek(?) up Deveragudda to get a good view of the backwaters and the islands where we had camped.

Catching a bus, we were back in Sagar at 1900 hours. Since we had about 3 hours to kill, we decided to pamper ourselves more with some sea-food and a couple of pegs to help us sleep better in the bus! It definitely helped, as the bus-seats were infested with bed-bugs which I realized the next day wonly :-).

Contact number of Sampath: 9845397386.

More photos are here, here and here!

Thus continues the quest...

Dabbe falls and kanoor fort

With me getting 4 days off for Diwali, plans were being made for a drive to Goa in my uncle's new Ford Ikon. But a few days before the long weekend, the hopes were dashed as my uncle had to attend some function he couldn't miss. So then, trek it was. Looking for a trek I hadn't done before, I realized I hadn't done a trek in the Sharavathi valley. How silly of me! With others not being able to come for all the 4 days, it was decided to be a two day trek, just like any normal weekend trek. Jitha got some information about Dabbe falls and another nearby place called Kanoor fort. A few messages here and there, and we were seven of us. An ideal number for a qualis to be booked!

The team: My brother Deepak, Jitha, Naveen, Kid, Harsha, Manu and yours truly!

With rain lashing Bangalore on Friday evening, the departure was delayed as the qualis couldn't come on time. Finally at 2330 hours, the qualis made its appearance at the usual pick-up point, Ittiam office. It was a smooth drive till Shimoga the next morning, with me sleeping like a log (vertical though) throughout! Finally I woke up somewhere after Shimoga and happened to see the driver's rear-view mirror, on which I could see the driver - and he had eyes almost closed! Yep, he was drowsing! Tired driving is as bad as drunken driving and immediately I went behind the steering wheels as the driver caught up with some sleep for a coupla hours. After breakfast and getting some food packed for the trek in Sagar, we headed towards Jog falls, our first destination. Although Jog was not in its full glory, whatever water was there was enough to awe us. The water falls from about 970 feet and is the highest waterfalls in India. (Aah, I desperately want to go to Angel falls, which is thrice this height!

Jog falls.

From the top of 'Raja'

Anyways, moving on, we took the road which goes to the left of the falls, towards Bhatkal till we reached Hosagadde. From Hosagadde, there is a jeep track to the right. Any villager around this place should be able to guide you to "Dabbe Mane", the last house before the falls. But we had asked the Dabbe mane guy (Manjaiah Jain) to come to Hosagadde and take us to his place. Dabbe Mane is a little more than an hour's walk from Hosagadde. We had lunch there itself (you need to call and book in advance for that). Our original plan was to go to Dabbe falls, trek from there to kaNoor village the same day, go to kaNoor fort the next day and end the trek at Gerusoppa. But since we reached Dabbe mane quite late in the afternoon, we decided to spend maximum time at the falls and then take the qualis to kaNoor village, thereby saving around three hours (time for trekking from Dabbe falls to kaNoor village). The descent from Dabbe mane to Dabbe falls is very steep, and thus very interesting! Within 20 minutes, we were at the bottom of the falls and oh man, isn't the falls beautiful! Jitha started wondering what is all the fuss about Abbe falls, when you have a falls like Dabbe falls!

Dabbe falls

Wallowing in the falls water for about an hour, it was time for us to head back. Taking the qualis towards kaNoor village, we stayed at a village called Biligaru, as weren't sure of accomodation at kaNoor village. To go to kaNoor village, take a right turn here.

We were told that we need a guide to go to kaNoor fort from kaNoor village (around 8 kms). For reasons unknown/irrelevant, we decided to make do without a guide and it was a wise thing to do, as finding the way to the fort is not all that difficult (we did lose our way once and lost about an hour). Keep walking on the jeep track from kaNoor village. There are a few diversions but the main track leads to the fort. A couple of hours into the trek, you get a house in the middle of nowhere. Walk for another 20 minutes, and you get a guDi (a small shrine). Immediately to the right is the track which goes to Gerusoppa. Going straight, some 50 metres ahead, is a small trail which goes right and up, and a wider jeep track which goes to the left. The small trail to the right is to be taken. If you reach a lake, you are on the wrong track. Come back and look for a small trail near the guDi. The fort is only a few metres from the jeep track and is covered by dense, and I mean dense jungle. The fort is dilapidated and looks interesting, with the forest completely taking over the fort. Supposedly there is a temple about 1 km inside the fort. But we weren't aware of this and unfortunately missed it.

Kanoor fort, dilapidated.

Coming back to the guDi, we took the path leading to Gerusoppa and within another couple of hours we reached Gerusoppa

Bridge on the river Kwai!

Just before Gerusoppa, we had to cross the river Sharavathi. The boat ride to the opposite bank of the river brought back memories of my ride in the North East :). As soon as we hit the other bank, Harsha, Deepu and me had an urge to get into the water and we decided to swim to the other shore and back... just like that.

Sharavathi river, which we crossed, and swam & crossed again :)

The qualis guy was waiting for us at the Gerusoppa side of the river. Although he did give us a few anxious moments with his drowsy driving, we reached back to Bangalore safely the next morning at 7..

Some info:
Route to Dabbe falls:
Bangalore - Tumkur - Arsikere - Bhadravati - Shimoga - Sagar - Jog - Hosagadde
(right turn) - Dabbe mane.

Route to kaNoor fort (from Jog):
Jog - Hosagadde - Biligaru(right turn) - kaNoor - kaNoor fort.

Route back:
Gerusoppa - Jog - Bangalore.


The contact numbers of the Dabbe mane guy Manjaiah Jain are:
Mobile: 9480579094
Residence: 08186-210670

A few photos are here and here!

Thus continues the quest...