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...

Kodachadri and Hidlumane falls.

Subbu, all of 27 years old, had one regret in his life - he hadn't been to Kodachadri, although it's just a stone's throw away from his place. He decides to address this shortcoming during the second weekend of September. In an unrelated incident, Jithu, about to be married, decides to live his life to the full (before getting married) and plans to go to Kodachadri. In another world, Sirish, the grand old man, decides to go to Kodachadri one last time. Elsewhere, me, after being out of any sorts of action for close to two months, desperately wanted to get off my ass and head somewhere. No matter what the destination was. The trek to Kodachadri through Hidlumane falls is the story of coming together of these four people... :D

New raincoat?!

There are many trails that lead to Kodachadri and we decided to try the scenic Hidlumane falls route. How to get there?

Bangalore - Tumkur - Arsikere - Shimoga - Hosanagara - Nagara - Nittur.
About 3 kms from Nittur towards Kollur, there is a small bridge and a bus waiting shed and the place is called 'marakutuka'. Get down there and start walking on the jeep track. Hidlumane falls is about 6-7 kms from the main road and there are many forks on the road. It is nearly impossible to find your way here without the villagers' help.

Sirish, suffering from incurable Gaja Dosha, was saying something about elephants. The word 'elephant' had barely reached our ears, we hear a thudding sound and see Sirish resting on his buttocks! His Gaja Dosha continues...

Sirish's Gaja Dosha continues..

It was here, when we were on our way to Hidlumane falls, we stumbled upon the great idea of starting a club for all the singles in Bangalore... The "Hopelessly Singles-Bangalore Chapter" (HSBC). To know more abt the club, click here.

Hidlumane falls is a series of cascading falls with about 6 or 7 falls one after another. The beauty of these falls is that each of these falls are hidden from one another and they get better and better as you go up the cascade, culminating in a magnificient fall which is as secluded a waterfall as you can imagine! As we had gone in the monsoons, going up the cascade was anything but easy. The path was treacherously slippery with leeches feasting on you at every step. As we reached the main falls, the excitement was palpable as we began indulging..

Reminds you of Shawshank Redemption?

After about half an hour, we took a vague-looking path to the right side of the falls which eventually led us to an open grassland from where we could see the jeep track that leads to the Inspection Bungalow atop Kodachadri.

Jump up in joy!

Walking amidst clouds with green colour all around us, we reached the IB at around 5 in the evening. Hidlumane falls is without doubt a much better route than the more famous and commercialized route from Nagodi. Accomodation at the chaotic IB is not so great but then, what the heck. Its better than sleeping in the open, that too in biting cold. Plus you get food! What else one needs??

Jithu and Subbu

Since the visibility on the peak wasnt too great, we decided to make do withouth watching the famous Kodachadri sunrise. Also since we were told that the path to Arsinagundi falls will be really tricky because of the rains, we headed straight back to Kollur the next morning and then to Kundapur in desperate search of some sea-food! We kept ourselves hungry for most part of the day anticipating some yummy sea-food in the coastal town. But...

Evening 4 to 6 is not a good time for hungry souls to be in Kundapur, that too on Sundays. To our utter disappointment, there were hardly any restaurants open! Finally we managed to find a place which serves regular non-veg food, which was about to pull the shutters down. Luckily we reached there just in time as we hogged on some good chicken biryanis.

The contact numbers of the IB chap Rajendra are:
9480205657 (mobile)
08185-290368 (residence).

Photos of the trek are here.

All in all, for me, it was a birthday weekend well spent. :)

Thus continues the quest...

Cheetal walk - Masinagudi

Cheetal walk - Mark Davidar's place. I had never heard of it until Pinky mentioned it one evening. Apparently her uncle, who is now settled in Australia used to go to this place some decades back(!) and had a lot to say about the place. And so, as Pinky was about to leave for the US (its been a month and she is still here :D), she says she has got one weekend free and really wants to go to the place. Some people who were interested backed out, some broke their legs and others had other plans. So we had to make frantic last minute calls, somehow try to get four people because the bloke (Davidar) says four people only. Nothing more. Nothing less. With some last minute calls, we manage get four people on board.The team: Pinky, Adithya the Jadoo, Arvind and yours truly.

How to get there?
The place is about 8 kms from Masinagudi. Continue from Masinagudi towards Ooty. After crossing a village called Mavinhalla, there is a road to the left (there is a sign board saying Wild-Haven). Continue on that road and u'll reach Mark Davidar's place. Book in advance. His no. is : 0423-2526256.

The place is good for armchair naturalists. The place is right in the midst of the corridor for wild-animals. Hence, wild animal spotting is a sure thing here, most prominent ones being elephants. He doesnt let u go out of the verandah, and rightly so, there are wild animals all around the place. You cannot go out even if you want to. We spotted a wild elephant (which kept visiting the place), wild boars, a huge sloth-bear, deers, sambars, snakes, bysons etc. The elephant came just outside the verandah. Davidar says he can "connect" to the elephants there and has named them after Brazilian footballers and the elephant who kept visiting us during the weekend was a bloke named "Roberto Carlos".

Roberto Carlos


What a figure! :D

While there, be prepared to listen to his rants also. The guy is perpetually drunk and keeps saying shitty things. Also, when we were there, he used to keep jackfruits for the elephant. Although he doesnt do it regularly, I dont know if its a good thing to feed wild animals.

The rate is about 1000 per head per day, but dont expect any luxury at the place. Be informed that you'll get a good enough discount if there is a chick in the group :-)

There is nothing much to do there for more than a day (unless you are a very keen naturalist) and we decided to head back the next morning. Since we had the whole of Sunday, we took a small detour to Gopalaswamy Betta, where the wind and the mist have always fascinated me.

Atop Gopalaswamy Betta

Stopping for lunch at the now customary Fish Land Mysore, we realized we had enough time to kill and went to Kokkarebellur. Unfortunately, it was off-season and we hardly got to see any birds (season is from January to June). And we headed back to Bangalore. End of the story.
A few photos are here.

Thus continues the quest...

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...