Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Kodekallu and Baarekallu, Charmadi

Baremale Mountains in Charmadi range always eluded us due do one reason or the other,first we had to cancel due to threat of wild elephants rampant in this area,due to this people in estates do not give us permission to enter the forest which of course we have to passing through these estates,some of the estates and surroundings were badly damaged by these wild pachyderms.
We reached Somanakadu Valley late in the evening, after a lot of requests and convincing people at the estate gave us shelter for the night and our initial plan of baremale was cancelled again and we decided to go to Kodekallu and Barekallu peaks.After a small trek we reached Kodekallu mountain (in local language it means umbrella stone), it's a huge boulder where in there is a wide gap as the name suggests it is indeed like an umbrella protecting trekkers from sun and rain:)


Kodekallu and Yerikallu (Huli-Dana Betta)
 Baare Kallu
There was so much space many people can take shelter under it,at some places there was cold natural water trickling down the rock it was indeed refreshing, nature has it's own way of surprising things in store,at one side we could see the winding roads of Charmadi then on the other Balekallu,yet another Yerikallu and another side a big valley.
After sinking into this wonderful sight we started our climb to Barekallu,it was worth the climb we could see Kallugundi waterfalls at a distance and view was panoramic,though the peak looks very near from this place it took us almost another hour and half we reached the peak ,complete grass land and cool wind and Ramesh Kamath Sir's banter through out made the trek more pleasurable...

Monday, February 8, 2010

Arishinagundi waterfall, Kollur

Arisinagundi waterfall is one special place whenever I recall my first trek which i started with this place it brings a smile and I feel very good, later I have gone to this place many times and from different routes all the while and almost in all different seasons, out of those some very memorable are, the one in rainy season there was non stop rain in this dense forest i here give my details a wonderful adventure to always dwell upon.This beautiful waterfall is situated at the foot of the Kodachadri hills and is famous for its scenic beauty. My friend VenuVinod decided to start their yearly tour program from this place with selected colleagues. So i was the privileged one too and since it was my favorite place, I also agreed to join them on one fine Sunday morning we started our journey on our bikes.
When we reached -Kollur it was just drizzling ,when we started our trek it started to pour yes it was a rainy day and a monsoon trek but none of us had come fully prepared but left our souls to be tended by nature:)who can stop our madness well it was one of a thing and how many get to have such an adventure...it was courage mental strength and physical endureness against nature.... rain on one end was a pleasure to get drenched but the main difficulty was along with skies opening up mother earth also decided to sing and dance down the mountains in form of swollen streams making it really tough testing our strength to the maximum, but of course we did manage to cross most of the streams. After 4kms tough walk we took a deviation to the left here the forest became very narrow and dense, and we had constant company of leeches completely covering the ground below their attack was unbearable deadly parasites feasting on us. On our way there were many mini waterfalls this is one joy you get to see during monsoon, some places we had to cross these waterfalls with great adventure in 2 places some of our teammates couldn't move any further because of its size. We had to take hold of creepers and branches of trees at some point i did feel like Tarzan :) finally we reached the base.
This time Arasinagundi waterfall was very violent we were not able to stand near the waterfalls, every season it looks so different nature being soft, unruly, naughty, and violent I got to see all the forms. We spent some time & then started back. On our return we faced some critical problems. Some streams had swollen making it very difficult to cross which took more time to cross it. We applied some different tactics also. Finally we were able to come back safely with small injuries on some of our teammates.
In this trek we had our food packed but we just couldn't open it to eat finally we had to dispose it as it was soaked completely. This was the first trip I couldn't take a single photo since i couldn't open my bag due to heavy rain. After this trip some of teammates never dare to go trekking till now. But the adventure the crawling and climbing every thing sets ones adrenaline rush a complete adventure totally very satisfying.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

My Hampi visit


We a small group of 10 reached Bellary early morning. We freshened up &had our breakfast in a teammate’s house after that we left Bellary moved to Mantralaya and had grace of Guru Raghavendra Swamy. Last year we cancelled this trip because of heavy flood in this area; our driver told some interesting incidents about last flood which occurred in 2009.
We reached Hospet at around 10pm.This time whole trip was organized and taken care by Mrs. Renuka Ramesh Kamath. We had a very comfortable shelter & very good food because of her influence. Next day morning we reached Hampi, some of our teammates had already visited this place. So one by one we visited some important places, it is a very huge temple complex and very beautiful it would take at least a three whole days to see the place completely. 
The weather is very hot, dry & very dusty Hospet is a complete mining area iron ores around has made this place a complete dry place though it's very beautiful, Indian Government has spent a lot on this place & even archaeology & Karnataka tourism department proudly projects about heritage India and how all our precious temples have been restored their places and well protected & improved Hampi some places they have done a great job but still so many temples are falling apart ,roads to these places are in a very bad condition hardly any shelter from the scorching heat and availability of even water or food is a dream.
We visited Virupaksha temple, Vittal temple, Beautiful market streets, Lotus (Kamla) temple, Mahanavami Dibba, Beautiful puskarini’s & artistic steps tanks, Anjaneya temple, Ugra Narasimha, Stone chariot, Elephant stables, Hajara Ramaswami temple, Kings balance place,Mustard Ganesh, Sisters stones, Badavi Linga etc.
Due to lack of time and the heat we took some light snacks instead of lunch some of our teammates enjoyed in Tungabadhra River with coracle ferry ride. On the way back a beautiful Sunset on Tungabadhra dam a wonderful sight to behold completed our long trip.