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