The Idyllic Holiday Trip...

I had an unmatched combination of holiday at a hill-station and also had an opportunity for exploring the wildlife, a few days back with my friends. This month 4^th morning at 9 we reached Mysore & we took morning shelter at my friend Ravi sir house; we started our journey a little late in a hired taxi.

Our journey initially was not much attractive but later we felt pretty good as per our plan late noon we reached MM hills &occupied  the already reserved rooms unloaded our luggage had food & we turned to see Hogenkal waterfalls. By 4.30 evening we reached Hogenkal & hired 2 boats to take us to the waterfalls. After a 30 minute journey in the boat reached another side of the river & had stunning view of the huge milky waterfalls Because of heavy volume in falls & lack of time we couldn’t reach the bottom of the waterfalls.

After having a scenic sunset we returned back to MM Hills & Night temple was very rush but easily we had grace of Goddess Mahadeswara with a help of some influence.

 

Next day we reached BR hills at 11 compare to MM hills this temple was little neat & scenic. Here Lord Ranganatha is situated on the highest peak (1700meters) of the hill range, on the 'white cliff' which gives the hill its name. The local form of the deity is called Biligiriranga and is depicted in a unique standing position. The Annual Car festival of the deity held during “Vaishakha “in the month of April, is famous in the region and attracts thousands of pilgrims from far and wide.

 

The local tribes present a large pair of slipper measuring 1 foot and 9 inches, made up of skin, to the Ranganathaswamy once in two years. The temple premise is also famous for its great valley view.

 

Next we reached K G Gudi, we decided to have Wild Safari. We booked one forest Jeep & by 4.30 we entered forest. Our expectation as not much initial While the numbers of species were small, we get incredibly (and safely) close to the animals.

The Jeep tour of the park was cutesy, but we were fortunate to get within an arms length of bison and other mammals. The portions of the park had live animal exhibits that were surprisingly intimate with the animals and yet humane. We enjoyed the park! It was clean and well kept.

 

The staffs were happy and friendly. We enjoyed looking at the animals in their native habitat it’s an hour tour through the free-roaming area of the park on board a motorized Jeep driven by one of the park guides who points out the different animals as we pass. See buffalo, deer, goats and geese up close and personal. For intrepid explorers, there are many trails from this place.

Finally we returned back from a wonderful unhurried scenic trip through some of the most spectacular places in Western Ghat.

Kodachadri Trip

Kodachagri is a wilderness of remote towering mountains, massive grasslands, sweeping valleys and a seemingly endless variety of flora and fauna. This year 27^th November I had chosen to hike Kodachdri one more time because of its evergreen beauty & was the second time I got a responsibility to lead a big team to the peak. Though I was not in the mood to visit this place again as my friend requested I joined the team of Govindas collage (Surthkal) to visit for the 6^th time to this place on Saturday early morning.

The first 1hour walk was very pleasant & next 5kms took almost 2 hours to reach IB for the whole team. However, hikes up into the forests are usually very rugged. After unloading our luggages in IB we rushed up to hike the last stretch. Last 30 minutes walk was wonderful one side steep evergreen valley & another side thick shrubbery leafy forest.

In the end, we managed to reach ShankarPeeta the top of the Kodachadri in time, with enough time to spare to catch glimpses of the beautiful sunset .Some of our teammates very much interested for more adventure as their request we turned to Chitramoola a natural open cave temple After 30 minutes walk all reached Chitramoola at the sun had already set, it was race against time. 

On our way back it was very dark but a tough attempt we returned back to IB. We spent the night in the foot hills trying to setup a small campfire. Later on had a nice dinner and went to bed praying to be able to get up in time for the sun rise.  Next morning luckily weather was clear so we had a beautiful Sunrise glistening at a distance on another side of the top of Kodachadri. On return we had bath at Agastyateerth which is situated inside lush dense forests.

This one was a simple hike up to an isolated meadow above all the trees, in the Western Ghats range. Hiking in the mountain presents challenges to even the hardiest backpackers, but those who persevere will be rewarded with a vast, pristine wilderness and incredible solitude.

‘Hidden Beauty of the North’

One of the most resplendent waterfalls was what we got to see this weekend a great trip worth all the effort and very rejuvenating in the end, though the night journey was little uncomfortable early in the morning I joined Rajesh Sir and his team, 

after a quick breakfast we started in two cars, on the way a flat tyre stopped us but that did not deter us from continuing we parked both the cars before entering a village and decided to complete our task and later see to the flat tyre.

4kms of walk was not much but intense heat was little tiring, finally we reached the last house of that village ,we had tea and requested one of the person to guide us to the waterfall though they were busy Mr Vinayaka hegde obliged and led our team towards the fall.

All along our journey we had many small waterfalls and at one place in middle of our journey we got one beautiful cascade one place we had excite when we climbing down with a help of tangled lianas. Some of our teammate’s freshened up in one small beautiful falls on our journey we consider this step as 4^th step.

 

From here our Guide took us further upstream to a Main cascade of the same stream. After a non-stop hour walk we came to the top of the falls. The view of the mountain ranges was simply breathtaking it Disclose a stunning vista of craggy mountains and deep valleys. Watching the bottom of the waterfalls on the edge of the top was really breathtaking.

We decided to have a look from the bottom and even our guide also same mood to climb down so took a very risky dissection without any proper tools. We entered nearby shrub meander down a greasy cliff edge near the left side of the falls. This attempt was very risky but we did with a great spirit.

 

A 0.5 km climb down slippery very precipitous inside the forest brought us to a place just below the first big drop of the pretty falls. Wow!!! what a gorgeous sight it was I love the rich greens in the background, and that fall on the middle was exquisite. The rainbow lasting a few seconds created a pretty ambiance.

 

On return few of us (Rajesh& Vivek Sir) did pretty more adventure with a help of shrubs we reached second stage. Specialty of this step is here there is sufficient space to stand flipside of the cascade. Here we enjoyed the great beauty of the valley beside the Crystal shining drops of the waterfalls Clearings strewn with views from the edge of the cliff was no words to say. Surely this place is a worthwhile to walk for another visit. On our return we freshen with a cool bath at 4^rd step.

Pristine Waterfall- Marakalagudda.

This year, the rains have played good so the waterfalls are full in spate and it is green and lush Post monsoons sees them at their optimal best. For nature lovers always enjoy peace and quiet sans hordes of other people. Desperate for an escape to nature, we headed out to one of our favorite forested area in Western Ghat. We preferred to walk instead of biking on easy mud road. As the weather was dry but pleasantly overcast initial walk was not much attractive but for Kamat Sir's caper. We entered a small hamlet after about 3kms walk &had great hopes to get a good guide, after much enquiry one villager joined us till one junction of the track after a surprising 30 minutes walk we collected some useful information from him & headed towards thick forest.

Walking between the tangled lianas overgrown forest trail was fantastic experience. The entire hill looked dense because of the lush, evergreen canopy. After a few hours walk we reached the 5^th step where water cascades almost 350ft down step by step. Getting a glimpse of countryside from top of the 5^th step was really good.

First we crossed the wide upper stream on the top & later with much gymnastics reached the final 6^th step which was covered by very thick forest. We spent lot of time & had our fill though simple food it was no less than a feast later we started to climb down to reach 4^th & 3^rdstep.

On our return few of us decided to go to bottom of the cascade because of this mad attempt we found 3 more beautiful steps. After a lot of effort we were able to find a gap between thick forests an 80 degree step down back right to the top of the main cascade. From here the walk was off track into the wild jungle right down and precipice!!! With no hold any where we held on to plants &roots.

We were treated all along the way to this very beautiful cascade. This is one the most amazing places I have ever ventured into. The beauty of the pristine mountain waterfalls need to be seen to be believed this vanishing world is beautiful beyond our dreams and contains in itself rewards never found in man-made objects. Finally on our way back we could amble along for miles on end without much fatigue.