Trek to Narasimha Parvatha, Manipur Kote Gudda (Babruvhana) and Magebayalu waterfall_29th & 30th Dec 2012

This was the 2nd time I was planning for amazing Narasimha Parvatha. Friends keep asking me “dont u get bored of going to the same place again and again?”. My this write up a response to that question. Thank you BASSC for giving me an opportunity to organize this trek.

The Team: Sharath, Sreekar, Sudhir, Venkatesh - the guide, Pradeep, Gautam, Debashish, Kotresh, Jinu, Vani, Girish Motwani, Girish NL, Prabhu and myself.

Day 0: 28th Dec 2012- We left Bangalore as usual by 10 PM. We are 13 ppl. It was going great till 12:30 AM. All of a sudden the vehicle got stopped and could not get stared. We were stranded till 3AM somewhere on the way to Shimoga. The new TT arrived with 12 seater and we started the journey with overcrowded. Thanks to Girish Motwani for excellent support for adjusting with little space down next to the driver seat.

Stranded inside the TT

Day 1: 29th Dec 2012: We were running quite behind the schedule. We were supposed to reach Agumbe by 7:30 – 8 AM. Due to vehicle we reached at 9:30AM. Quickly finished morning activities, having finished breakfast and packed lunch at Doddamane we left for Malandur, 6kms from Doddamane. Meanwhile our guide Venkatesh already arrived. And finally @ 11 AM we started the trek.

We headed towards Narasimha Parvatha via Barkana falls. Barkana falls is around 6-8 kms from Malandur.

En route Barkana falls 

resting en route barkana falls

We reached Barkana

At around 2PM we reached Barkana waterfalls. We spent time with few clicks, finishing lunch and filling ourselves with water as the next we were to climb steep terrain. 

And on the way to NP through steep thick forest

And @ around 4:45 PM we were at the top of NP

Sunset at NP

After witnessing the beautiful sunset we returned to the guest house, our night halt place. On the way we collected fire woods. And the water source was little away from the guest house. The source of water was a very small pool and a very thin line flowing water body from that pool. At least 9 to 10 of us was engaged in filling our water bottles led by Girish Motwani. And finally we prepared the dinner, Ghee rice.

Dinner preparation in progress

After having a stomach full of Ghee rice most of us went to dreamland and few went for roaming around. It was clouded sky. There was an thunderstorm alert in Agumbe in the weather forecast. But fortunately it didnt rain at all and was just a few drizzle. Finally all fall into deep sleep.

Day 2: 30th Dec -  We got up around 6 AM and went for witnessing the Sunrise. And the sky was full of cloud.

The morning moon.

patch of Sunrise

The guest house...

Due to cloudy sky we could not enjoy the Sunrise, but enjoyed the morning beauty of NP. It was mesmerizing. After finishing breakfast by 9:30 AM we started descending towards Kigga.

En route Kigga

On the way to Kigga all of us were excited about what next. Because Kigga was just a cakewalk from NP. Jinu and Girish NL made few calls and the plan was to go to Magebayalu village and explore. We already called the TT to reach Kigga. It was 18 Kms trek till Kigga. We reached Kigga around 10:45 AM, ate fruits and etc. Released Venkatesh and boarded towards Magebayalu village. We reached Magebayalu village by 11:30AM, filled our bottles at a nearby stream and started the trek with a local guy named Ganesh. The destination was Manipur Kote Gudda (Babruvhana).

Start point of trek to Manipur Kote Gudda (Babruvhana fort) 

It was a steep ascend to Manipur Kote Gudda (Babruvhana fort). Around 5-6 kms trek through steep terrains and shola forest.

En route Manipur Kote Gudda (Babruvhana fort) 

The fort

Entry to the fort is closed...

Resting at the fort, our guide

 We finished our lunch here and left at 2 PM.

Remainings of a Bison, Tiger kill

Way back to Magebayalu village

We reached back Magebayalu village by 4 PM and headed towards Magebayalu waterfalls which was our next destination. Magebayalu waterfalls was inside very thick and green forest coverage. The place was so green felt like we were in monsoon. We walked around 1kms through the thick forest to reach Magebayalu waterfalls. The route was quite narrow and we had cross many a trees fell down, may be due to heavy rainfalls during monsoon.

And finally we reached Magebayalu waterfall

We took our trek completion bath at the waterfall and enjoyed like being in the heaven. Reached back Magebayalu village by 5 PM, boarded the TT, reached Sringeri temple, finished dinner and left for Bangalore.

More photographs: https://picasaweb.google.com/117144221978749494916/TrekToNPAndManipuraKotteGudda

Trek to Bagamandala Forest_22nd & 23rd Dec 2012

This trek was motivated by Nitin's blog i.e. http://questsofavagabond.blogspot.in/2009/08/nadumale.html

I have been planing since July 2012. But due to forest office permission could not manage to trek. This opportunity arrived during the end of 2012.

Plan: Our plan was to start the trek from Talacauvery towards Nadumale, night halt at Nadumale, (13kms trek). Next day trek towards Kanoor side (11 to 12kms trek)  and exit. But the actual trek went through a different route after we begun the trek from Talacauvery.

Trek Distance: 30+kms for 2 days. It was exhausting, beautiful away from the civilization at least during the trek. 

The team:  Srivatsa, Devendra, Ramkumar, Anoop, Niranjan, Manoj, Sudhir, Girish, the Gujju, Deepak Jain, Deepak HK, Tulasi GV and myself.

22nd Dec: We reached Bagamandala by early morning 4:30-5 O clock. It was little chilly and quite dark. Somehow we found out the range office and parked our vehicle there. No one was ready to get out of the vehicle as it was quite cold. Soon we finished our breakfast at nearby hotel, packed our lunch and bought all the necessary raw materials for preparing dinner. Thanks a lot to Tulasi, Niru and Deepak HK for assisting me. A special thanks to Tulasi for giving us a perfect idea of the raw materials. It was 8:30 AM, me and Deepak HK went to forest office. I was in constant touch with the RFO Mr. Uthhappa. We paid the trekking fee and the guide fee and left the forest office. The TT got jam packed as the RFO sent two guides named Jayaprakash & Ayyapa. Soon we reached Talacauvery. In a jiffy, we prepared ourselves to begin the trek.

I was very happy that finally we got on to this trek. The RFO told us that this trek goes though jeep trail inside the thick forest. But alas, when we started the trek it was totally jeep track and no forest coverage at all. Everybody got completely crazy when the guide told us that, the entire route till Nadumale is just the same. Whats the fun walking on a jeep track under the scorching Sun. After a short discussion with the guides we decided to change our route. Now started moving towards Nishanibetta. And decided to night halt at forest staff quarter near Nishanibetta.

It was an 13-15 kms trek through steep ascent and descending through beautiful valleys of Bagamandala forest range. But we started getting forest coverage. By afternoon 2:30 or so we finished out lunch near a very thin stream. After finishing their lunch, Jayprakash and Ayappa went fetch water for us. Because, the there was hardly any potable water where we took lunch. And the more steep climb was about to start.

On the way to the peak

view from the peak

Everybody was totally exhausted by the time we reached the peak. It was really breath taking view from the peak. We spent time taking short nap, some of us with sound too. Also photo session went on for long time with Ramkumar giving different poses and asking people for different poses too. Soon we stared descending towards the staff quarters. 

the staff quarters, here we camped

We cooked dinner everybody getting totally involved into it. We had tomato rice.

The leading cook - Tulasi with assisting friends Girish the Gujju and Deepak

 After fulfilling the soul of stomach all fell asleep quickly...

The place we camped, was really awesome and adventurous too. The forest staff at the quarter told us that, few week back a dog was preyed by a tiger. And on the same night (when we were camping) an elephant ruined the banana cultivation close by. But fortunately our camping went on smoothly.  

23rd Dec: Bell rang at 5 AM, no one responded. Ramkumar got up and tried to  make everyone get up. But all got into deep sleep again, deciding to get by 7.

2nd day was not pre-planned at all. And it was based on guide's suggestion. We trekked for 9 kms to reach a small stream towards a place call Kurudi (which is 15 kms fro the forest staff quarter). We did not go to Kurudi. We trekked total 18kms through the thick forest. It was trail and then continuous descent. While returning it was quite challenging. Few of us approached a nearby peak. 

Here we had lunch

After a sumptuous lunch most of us took a short nap.

And then filled up fuel to challenge the continuous steep ascend for 1-2 hours...

And finally we reached back to the forest quarters by 4 PM.

By 5 PM we left the forest quarters and started walking on the jeep trail to reach the main road.

Finally we reached the village nearby an exited.

Few important details:

Please refrain from littering anywhere during the trek. These are the most virgin places of karnataka lets maintain the virginity. 

Contact details: Uthhappa, Bagamandala RFO,  - 09448108280 Ph. 08272228019

The best time to visit: post monsoon.

All the photographs: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/117144221978749494916/BagamandalaTrek#