Saturday, December 12, 2020

Mullianagiri & Ukkada waterfall

 I was planning for a short trek to relax form long working hours at home. Started searching any unvisited waterfalls near Chickmagalur, Ukkada seemed to be attracting.


Thought of capturing morning photos from Mullianagari and started off from Mysore early morning. Without much traffic, reached Chickmagalur at 6:30am. Had coffe and packed Idlis-Kesari bath from Mayura hotel and started towards giri. Drive was cool, sky was clear and very good for photos. 


Soon reached top and started taking photos. Blue sky-green mountains were amazing.

View of Bababudangiri range was very nice.











Another view of mountain range












Had breakfast and started towards Ukkada. I had seen during my previous trips at Atthigundi, one road deviates to another mountain side and looked good.

This was the scenic route which leads to Muttodi side. This narrow road is good till Halasina khan estate. After that the descent was very rough road and took lot of time.


I reached Koloagave and enquired about this falls and luckily got help from a person Karthik.


We took road towards Ukkada village and reached the stream.

This waterfall is inside a private estate and there is no sign board. One has to get help from others or try routes walking inside estates.

Walking about 15min, we were at the waterfall.



Felt sad that people had thrown plastics, bottles.

Took pictures and returned back.











Drove back towards Muttodi and reached Mysore by night.












Sunday, January 19, 2020

Devkar falls / Vajra falls

Devkar falls was in my list since long time. Due to various reasons, I was not able to make it. Started my internet search about this for latest info/routes. Understood that there are 2 routes to reach, one is via Karwar-Kadra side to reach Devkar village and the second route was via village Eerapura.

Devkar falls is also called Vajra falls or Kanoor falls. Devkar villagers are rehabilitated else where and this make it quite difficult to visit Devkar village from Kadra side.

I took night bus Rajahamsa bus from Mysore to Sirsi. After morning fresh up, started bike drive towards Yellapura.

It was very cold and foggy too.

Had break fast at Shanbagh restaurant, packed food for the day and started towards village Eerapura. Reached around 10am and started to find any guide. Roamed near School, near by houses but all were busy with their work. Time was rolling and I started doubt if I can make it!!!

I went to one house (Bhattra mane) which turned into be motivating one. He was very happy to hear from me, about my interest and took me to another place near by to find any people. Senior villagers were advising that Bende ghatta route is very far and too time consuming. Bhattru had heard that some trekkers have made descent from Kanoor side. After about 30min of discussions and wait, I finally got a person who was from Devkar village but settled here. He has not seen the place but understood the directions given by others. Soon, we started towards Kanoor village.

Sign board on SH6 after Basal village
Took SH6, just after village Basal we see this sign board.

Quickly we reached the parking point, where our vehicle comfort ended and the real test begun.

We walked few minutes, reached the river and few meters away was the mighty fall of about 200m. View was amazing with lush green Kali river valleys. While I was busy taking snaps, guide was planning for the route.

Water rushing to fall

View of Upper section

We didnt waste much time on top and started our descent at 12:30pm.

There was walking trail for some distance and it disappeared. Dense forest was dry and sun was unable to touch the ground.

Entire descent was full of slippery path, we held small plants, rocks, trees for our support along our way.

After 1hour of walk, we were able to hear water sound. The final stretch was like slide.
View of vertical fall and downstream

At last, we reached river at 2:30pm and could see distant Devkar falls. We quenched our thirst and had lunch.

We went towards the fall to get good photos and enjoyed serene nature. Voice of birds, water was very relaxing.


Devkar falls / Vajra falls


Route map of our Trek
Close view of upper section
Our guide wanted to try other faster route.

We had descended along the way shown in Yellow arrow mark in the picture.

He planned towards West direction. At 3:30pm, we started ascent in the direction shown in Red arrow mark. We walked almost about 1hr and were hit by huge rocks. Guide tried a lot of alternates but could not go ahead.

As we were losing time, we descended back to river to take back the same route. I was tired due to this challenging terrain. Having small snacks break, we started our ascent at 5:30pm.
Snap of our  trek in darkness

Guide was alerting about darkness and we should touch the mountain top before dark. I was already exhausted but pressurised myself to make small moves to keep the ascent continuous. With great difficulty and lot of stops, I managed to reach top mountain. By this time, darkess had already captured and we could not find our path.

It was mere direction sense of our guide, we switched on our mobile lights and walked in darkness. We came to a small stream which had little water, quickly quenched our thirst. We guessed that this stream would join the main river and so we followed the stream. There were lot of obstacles to stream path, we went around trees to come back to stream. Finally at 7:15pm, stream crossed a small walking trail. We soon realised this was our path. Thanked god and took the trail to reach parking place.

We soon reached SH6 and by 8pm we were at the village. By this time, villagers were worried about us and seeing us, they felt relaxed. Thanked villagers, stayed at Bhattru mane and took rest. Devkar falls challenging terrain trek was fruitful and gave good memories.

Kali river valley

Bhattru mane was awesome, thanked him and started my journey back.

Took night journey and back to Mysore with lot of photos, and memories about Devkar.

Summary:
Devkar falls is really Trekkers paradise. Medium to Hard trek.

Heard from villagers that Devkar village is almost vacated. Not sure about the way from Karwar-Kadra side.

Trail from Eerapura - Bende ghatta is long route and may be possible with help of guide.

This route which I took, is impossible during rainy and post rainy season, possible during dry seasons. Has to be planned with guide as there are no marked routes.

Happy and safe trek.

Monday, October 7, 2019

Kodachadri trip


My friend had started Amruthavana resort near Nagara and had been inviting. We planned to visit and started off from Mysore. Weather was mix of rainy-sunny type and was perfect to travel.

Amruthavana Resort
Amruthavana resort is about 20kms from Nagara, near KattinahoLe village. It is a perfect gateway to Kodachadri or Hidlumane falls.

Checked in, had lunch and rested for a while. Soon we planned for evening trek to Hidlumane falls.

Hidlumane - Upper step

Hidlumane - Middle step

Had a wonderful trek with good greenery and water. Enjoyed capturing photos & videos till satisfaction.















Hidlumane - Lower step

Camp fire
Early morning view

Booked jeep for next day trip, enjoyed night camp fire, relished dinner and had a nice rest.

Early morning misty view was beautiful.

Kodachadri forest gate opens at 6:30am. Started off in jeep and soon we were in the bumpy jeep track to Kodachadri.


Jeep stopped at one photo point. I took a walking trail to near by mountain to get good view of scenery.

To my surprise, I spotted Indian Gaur gazing in the peak.

My Nikon P900 camera helped to get very close up shots of these gigantic animals.

Gaur gazing 



Moved on the jeep track and soon we reached the dead end / parking lot. From here one has to walk to see Shankara peeta or near by Ganesha temple.






Shankara peeta - seen left side
After walking about 1 hour, reached Shankara peeta. Clouds were playing and disappointing us by covering the entire region.

Tried to manage few snaps in the gap.


By 11:30am, we were back to Amruthavana. Had tasty lunch, bid adieu to my friend and manage safe drive back to Mysore.


Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Virapet trip

I had travelled to Virajpet many times, and this time decided to see few places not visited. Started off from Mysore in the morning, had breakfast at Gonikoppa and reached Virajpet by 9am. Enquired at many places about Sarathabbi but very few knew.

This falls is about 20+ kms from Virajpet towards Bittangala-B-Shettigeri. It is deep inside reserved forest and hence permission is essential. Talking about recent disaster and river flows with the driver, journey began. We reached Kootiyala camp, where we took necessary permissions from forest department.

We walked about 45min and we were at a view point. View was breathtaking, seeing BarapoLe river cutting across mountains with thick forest was a great sight. Sarath hoLe was on the other side cascading down the mountain to reach BarapoLe.
We understood this forest is densly populated with Elephants, we could see many traces on our way.
 Sarathabbi close up view
 BarapoLe river
We spent time taking pictures at different angles and started back.Thanked forest guards and left towards BarapoLe.
Abandoned bridge which was once connecting to Ponnampete side, now home for Elephants.

We reached Virajpet and continued our journey. Next plan was to visit Chelavara. Due to security reasons, people were not allowed to the water. Captured distant Chelavara falls and water had reduced.

Next day we visited Kabbi hill view point. Landscapes, mountain views were amazing.

 Kabbe hill
 Chomakund hill view
We saw Balliyatra falls on the way. We understood from a local that this could be reached but longer time. We soon changed our plan and headed off towards it. Initial walk was along estate side and after 30min we hit the forest. It was steep ascent with no clear path. Clear direction senses our guide was the only hope.
Only after 2hrs walk, we could see the distant Balliyatra falls. We quickly planned to visit lower step first. 
Lower step
Upper step

 Upper step
Rested for a while, took lot of photos and started back. Mountain was full of purple flower, it was a great sight. Descent was quite quicker than expected,  reached the main road. 

Trip to these 3 places were rewarding and hope to see more unknown places.