The weekend of June 08, we set out on a climb to the rather differently famous baba-budangiri hills, where a clash of cultures have set stage for themselves. The baba budangiri hills boast the sacred incarnations of both(Durga & Shiva temple) the Muslim & Hindu cultures side by side. Ancient history states the first of coffee plantations originated in Chikmagalur, after Baba Budan brought in seeds from Yemen. Coffee was said to give a high once consumed.
Annual "Jatre or Urs" is held at Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudanswamy's Durga on the Baba budan hills, which we set out to explore in June, when rains had set in and the terrain had become rather interesting.
Brief Coverage : Bangalore - Belur - Chikmagalur - Mulyangiri - ManikyaDhara Waterfall - Baba budan hill - Abbey Falls - Bangalore.
Duration - 2 days.
Cost for 2 - Approx Rs. 5000/- Including fuel exp, Accomodation, food & beverage.
Situated 28Kms north of Chikmagalur Town, and at a height of 1892mts, we took up the challenge to hike up the entire Mulyangiri hill at this time of the year when its slippery, but breath-taking with temperature at its lowest, rains and scenic views, and literally no one around. It is the tallest peak between the Himalayas and Nilgiris standing tall at 6317ft.
Myself and Sushvin started from Bangalore on Saturday morning at 5am, and with a 250Km drive, reached chikmagalur by 9am. Checked in to a hotel for Rs. 300, dumped our bags and started our hike 28kms away to the foot hills of Mulyangiri hill at 10:30am. This location is well marked with signboards, which you shall find in the pictures. Where we erred is that a 6 km hike could be avoided by foot to reach the start point of the hike. It is called 'Sarpadari' also called the snake path, since the pathway sways around the hill. So, technically our trek started @ 12pm. For people who're planning their trek here, pls look at the picture where a arch is erected mentioning sarpadari. This is the actual pathway that will take you to the summit, and is roughly around 10km.
Light showers had set in by now, with the air smelling beautiful, with all the surroundings you see are coffee plantations just before the sarpadari. This pathway is a little tricky as it takes multiple strides as you climb, so you must stick to the one leading higher up. As you see in the pics, the entire climb itself is so exhilerating, with winds picking up speed as you climb and temperature dropping. We noticed a temperature of 8 deg, at one point, so you know how cold it can get. Hands start getting numb, and breathing becomes sligthly difficult. So got to maintain focus as you take the incline, by regularly re-fuelling your body.
You notice a huge carving of lord shiva on the rock as you look up in the picture. It is such a wonderful sight where we actually missed at one point due to the mist. So beautifully done with the entire rock around depiciting lord shiva's forehead, and a snake encircled. At this time, rains set in and fear set in to us thinking if we'll actually make it to the top and find some civilization in case we get lost. Trust me it is very disillusioning because you don't know if you're headed the right way. After about 2 hrs, we reach the place where the famous algae covered tree is located, underneath it is a small statue of Nandi, clearly shown in the picture. We took a short break here and searched from some network on our handphones. Made some quick calls informing our position back home and started off. After about an hour later, we reach the top of the hill where the Shiva temple is located. Now this is where you will feel the real worth of the trek. Winds are doing speeds of atleast 120Km/h, and the showers spraying against your face. You would notice how we're covered to withstand the force, and man, one would need to be there to really experience it.
Round about 3pm, we reach the summit, which is a good timing considering we were only 2 of us, and we didn't take longer breaks, and left ample time to come down the hill before it became dark. Just across the temple the priest's family is living in a fairly constructed home. We were seriously surprised to know how these guys were living in this cold and windy environment, and bringing in the supplies of sundries. Nice hot tea and they served us with some hot home cooked food. They had a cat as their companion, and they shared their experiences being there. We even saw that some renovation work was underway at the temple premises. Man every breath felt like we were in the himalayas, with mist on every breath. Cold and chilly we sat by the fireplace in the kitchen, warmed up a bit, thanked the couple and offered them some token of thanks. We set out right after, and the priest accompanied us towards the other path to the descent of the hill. Man this guy was really used to the cold and the altitude, he walked barefoot all around, and the steep falls didn't seem to bother him. Phew! We made it down the hill in the next 2 hrs, thereby spotting some intersting things on the way. You would observe a tree totally slouched to the right, which is actually the direction of the strong winds striking the hill every second. So now you would get a feeler of how strong the winds are out there. Beautiful trek down, where at a distance we could hear horns of on-coming vehicles towards abbey falls. Well these sounds were always very close by but we found it hard to track every time. After a while we finally hit the road and hitched a ride on a jeep down the hill. You can see a solid built goat in the vehicle as well. Thanked the person, took another look at the hill, feeling a sense of success and we started back to chikmagalur to rest. Ended the day with some good food and experiences of bliss from the awesome trek that morning. Sushvin especially was carried away by the sheer beauty of it all, and we sank into the experience as we hardly spoke.
The next morning we drove up the hill towards Manikyadhara Waterfall and Baba Budan hill. Now guys, a stern warning thought, nature lovers will utterly hate the sight at Manikyadhara. People there believe that by taking a shower under this waterfall and throwing their clothes over the hill will wash off their sins and body pains. We sure were very disturbed by this sight, and just came back from this place, without capturing any pictures. Its like, you've just experience nature at its best, and suddenly you see humans spoiling the entire beauty of it all.
So we started the further drive towards baba budangiri. Unfortunately there was a land slide and the mud above the shrine had caved in and no visitors were being allowed. So we had to turn back. We decided to head towards abbey falls which was about 40kms away. Beatutiful dirve and the weather was rather favourable. But just as we started the descent on the road to abbey, we saw how bad the roads had become due to the rain. We weren't even sure that we would come back without getting stuck in a landslide. So after some thinking we drove back to chikmagalur.
Caught up on some lunch, checked out of the hotel, and left chikmagalur that evening. A beautiful drive back and reach bangalore at 10pm. Overall a wonderful experience over the weekend, and would definitely recommend everybody to make atleast one visit on trek to this destination. A bunch of friends and you can have a fantastic time amidst nature. So preferably you could avoid the rains, and plan 'em in the later months.
Do get back to me for any further information and help of any sort. My blog is intended to help you guys out. So enjoy!!! - ~ sharathkraju@gmail.com
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