Western Ghats Trek: Trek to Bagamandala Forest

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.