14 August I'day Trek from MM Hills to Gopinatham

Little did i know that my new found friends at Total Environment shared the same adventure crazy part of ourselves, and it was about time for us to pack up and roll over a 2 day expedition. The friends i'm talking about are Srinivas, Prashanth, Naveen, and Girish. So we could call outselves the 'Paanch Pahad'.. or something.

Looking over the long Independence day weekend at our offices, we picked the dates 13th august '08 to 15th aug '08. Prashanth in the group is someone to particularly highlight, with his rather peculiar stint in the Wilderness, Animal census, explorations of the himalayas, trekking et al.. So he naturally became our mentor in chalking out routes for conquering. Naveen i can is the silent simon of the team, and Girish who just loves to turn blushy - 'Pinku'! I can say we started a journey along on this day, giving rise to more interesting updates, which will be coming your way very soon.

Day1: Our known cabbie dropped us off at the accomodation adjacent to MM hills temple on the 13th night. After a comfortable rest, headed off to gourge on some thatte idly at a nearby stall, and we set off on the route to nagamalai hill, which is roughly a 8km trek. Weather was favourable and we started savouring the picturesque landscape and the cool breeze on our faces. Just when we thought the mid day heat would get to us, we started the ascent onto nagamalai, with every step ahead, we were give the much needed blow of cool air, and drove the heat away. A lot of pictures is what followed all the way through, and at a certain point of ascent we could see the eternal spread of mountains all around us, which was indeed breathtaking. (You can refer all of them here: http://www1.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=260675507/a=138002282_138002282/t_=138002282)

There were other groups of people who had set out as well, and we exchanged our greetings as we passed them by. Dates, energy bars, water etc.. frequented en route. Oh and my new possession - A 'la fuma' pair of trekking shoes worked wonders, only to add to the sweet pain as we went along...

The flat landscape you see in the photos is a small village enroute before the ascent, and a definite place to enjoy some tea and cool well water, we even tried our hand in working two or three servings of well water! "Nagamalai is an ancient rock formation in the shape of a snake's hood covering the idol of Lord shiva". A temple is built atop this mountain and that is the what it's fondly known as.

Prashanth had contacted the temple priest earlier on, who runs a small guest room, adding to the comfort of trekkers/hikers and passers by. If we carry all the grocery, they also help cook us some delicious food, so it is really a boon to us people. The group picture shows the Priest and his family, to help you identify next time you are around.

Once you cross 2 mountains you reach the base of nagamalai, which roughly takes 4-5 hours at an easy pace. We reached the destination a little after 2 pm and the priest's family cooked us some food from the rice and dal we had carried along. Later that afternoon we trekked to the Nagamali temple hill which takes half hour from the base. A beautifully set surrounding as you see in the pictures, and the natural sculpting of snake hood is amazing. "A small pond around the priest's home had a curious onlooker, a water snake enjoying the sun's rays". Took some pictures, blessing and we headed out to retire for the day.

Day 2:

We had an early morning start, and we had the family prepare us some pulihogre and Chitranna from the food mix we had carried along. You can see the particular enjoyment of Prashanth relishing the morning breakfast! Stopeed for some tea and we headed out en route to gopinatham. This was a wonderful descent for 3 -4 hours and caught the initial glimpses of river cauvery. "Trivia: Gopinatham had been the playground of the forest bandit - Veerappan for many years". So it made our trek even more interesting and inspiring.

What diverse spread of natural creation.... the smell of forest, sound of birds, curious analogy of animal excreta by prashanth :) and hopes of encountering a wild animal! It was really engaging. We passed by a different kind of chameleon, the ones on discovery channel, which moved like a leaf brushed by the wind. In small but fancy strokes ahead. Pcitures followed. Some distance ahead we somehow smelt snakes close to us. Though we couldn't spot the snake, we climbed up some rocks to hear a 'viper' clearly warning us to not come closer. So we let them be, enjoyed the proximity of the wild and set out. Later that afternoon we reached the town of Gopinatham.

Some hot sambar rice at a town hotel and we hired a taxi out to Hogenikal falls. Though we didn't have time to enjoy the falls we stopped by for a dip in the cauvery river, cooled off and set out on the vehicle back to MM hills for our night bus out. It was 25Km ride back to MM hills.

We freshened up at the accomodation and waited for the bus back to Mysore-Bangalore. Those last 2 hours of waiting we spent settling all our accounts, recollecting the past 2 days, laughing n raving, and there came our bus back home.. Overnight to mysore reaching at 3 am, and then a bus back to bangalore. We reached around 6am that morning, and we went our ways to rejoice the rest of the weekend.

Overall a very relaxed setting, also suits people willing to try out camping/trekking for the first time. So MM Hills Gopinatham expedition officially became our first trek by the "Paanch Pahad team" Cheers to all you guys, it was a lot of fun, new experiences and adding such memories to our kitty.

For any further information on connectivity, contacts, do write to sharathkraju@gmail.com

Link to album again: http://www1.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=260675507/a=138002282_138002282/t_=138002282

Baba Budangiri - Mulyangiri Trek - June '08

URL:http://www1.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=242647804/a=138002282_138002282/t_=138002282

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

Rafting Expedition - Shivpuri, Uttarakhand

05 October 2007:

Myself and Trivikram got out this plan to kick off an adventure expedition. Water was definitely on our minds and first thing which hit us was some good rafting up and close to the himalayas.

Excerpts on how we planned it out, stay, costs, experience, and overall picture of how everything went through is what i've tried to layout in this series.

~Destination. Bangalore - New Delhi - Rishikesh - Shivpuri.

~Booking agent - Mercury Himalayan Explorations - http://www.himalayanadventure.com/index.htm

~Days - 3 nights 4 days

~Cost - Approx Rs. 16000/- Including flight to Delhi and local expenditure.

~What to expect - Breathtaking views, Roaring ganges, Grade 4 rafting, Amazing food!, Nature..

~Best time to visit - Between Jan & April.

~ A don't miss - Kayaking, Free float over the ganges for over 5 km, bonfire, luxurious tents!

After reaching this particular base camp did we realise how exclusive it is. To reach this base camp we need to take a raft for 20 mins! This means normal access to vehicles is impossible, all sundries reach only by raft, which is the best part, a lot of peace and quiet away from huge frolicking crowds. This place is excellent for both adventure lovers and city crammers alike. Right from the day we arrived, to the well set tents with a foot away from ganges waters, mountains all around, the unending gush of holy river, and some wild visitors late at night to catch a drink down the river bank(woke up at 6am to find deer footprints next to our tent). Oh and one highlight of this particular camp is, around 15yrs ago, the col. found a water source up on the mountain, which till date has been a source of fresh water for the entire camp.

I definitely give a thumbs up to this place, and has been a fantastic experience.
Do get in touch for any further information.