A Taxing Journey to CKR Waterfalls and The Isolated lands of Western-Ghats

Unexpectedly it rained for the entire night on October 1, and a little more on the next, and has been continued for three days. Udupi, Ghat regions received most of rainfall on October 2, a day when I went to one of the most treacherous pass in the Ghats to trek the most isolated waterfall I’ve been on this year. It is raining as I write, but October month was not supposed to be rained on this region, it was good Monsoon in our district then compare to some other places even though it rained late.

After an elongated drive we able to find one person who known well about this waterfall and also the entire region.  After 10 minutes walk we crossed one small brook, by now we have started to understand that this is not going to be an easy trek ahead. We found a great diversity in plant life along the way. We are certain that we didn't miss any alternative trail along the way but there is still no clear way ahead.

Halfway down the views were amazing. We then hiked through the rain forest for several hours, where it was raining. Somehow discovers that there is a sparsely vegetated walkway through the dense bush ahead, and claims that the trail is lying beneath it. We move into the vegetation, unsure of what we are placing our steps on. Within a few minutes, any possibility of a return becomes remote as the trail we just passed through becomes untraceable. The trees are blocking any view of the outside world.

At least it was when we could still see the sky. We are in a soaked and shadowy world. But we need to go ahead. We can't accept defeat so easily. An hour passes by we are still alive and have reached the edge of the rocky plateau. Guide said because of weather condition it can’t able to approach further downer levels, the rain and overflow in river the waterfalls becomes not accessible to reach. Our legs don't really want to walk further because of uncertainty, so we decided to try this waterfall in some occasion.

The River becomes visible to our right. Few hundred meters downer of us lays Roaring River with overflow and it's time to take some rest on plateau. We are somewhat hungry but decide to take lunch on the completion of day's trek. The watch shows its 2 pm. The trouble starts shortly once again heavy rain started we restart our journey and the track became worst and more slippery than before. Because of thick fog the jungle become denser as before and the trail is not clearly visible.

Wherever there are rainforests, there is the potential for leeches, during the trek, we found dreadfully leeches everywhere on our legs sucking blood, those Leeches got inside the boots and under socks; we doing a leech check often but still they are in huge numbers so we couldn’t flee from leech bite. I found Detol and Vix to rub around the tops of my socks kept them out of shoes. I believe they inject some sort of anticoagulant to make the blood keep flowing.

In the end, I had to take off at least 50 leeches from my body. They're clever! - They crawled under my sock and inner-wear so I wouldn't spot it until after it had a good feed the leeches would have loved it. We got all the leaches off then began to return home.

There are numerous trekking routes throughout the Reserve, some involving risky camping in the jungle so the Reserve is certainly for the adventurous. For most of the trails, it's sensible to get a guide - unlike climbing mountains, I can imagine it would be easy to get lost by yourself - also, there no signposts or details available. There is a Grass canopy hill is called Gopigudda at western-end of the Reserve. Here at sunrise and sunset, you might see millions of birds and also sight of Arabian Sea on a clean sunny day from the top of the hill. Most of these places seemed to me to be very isolated, innovative and attractive.

Saundatti - Sanctified Pearl of North....

 

The whole trip was planned in a short time by dividing all responsibilities among each team member and finally by everyone’s support it became a beautiful and memorable trip. Keeping in mind with our hectic schedule, we left Hubli. On the way we had breakfast hastily and after about 90 minutes of uneventful journey, we reached Saudatti one of the oldest town in Belgaum district.

 

There was a beautiful Fort welcomed us at the entrance of the village which is about 5 kms before reaching Yellamma temple. The road was being unsealed in sections. The History says Saundatti fort was actually built by Jayappa Desai of the Navalgund Sirasangi Samsthan in between 1743-51 with 8 bastions. Later the fort was designed by Hyder Ali of Mysore and the Desai had to transfer his allegiance over to him.

 

Saundatti fort is one of the biggest fort in north Karnataka. The outer walls and bastions of the fort are still intact after all these years and are a testimony of its strong construction. First we visited Kadasiddheshwara temple which situated at the middle of the fort, surrounded by four bastions. Around the Kadasiddheshwara temple in the inner Prakara there is a row of beautiful carvings of geometrical patterns with over two hundred designs, some painted.

 

The temple premises looks wonderful and the view of the village from the top is breathtaking and its worth the effort spent in climbing around 20 steps. We explored every bit of the temple and had the aarti done by the priest. There are lawns and gardens created at every corner of the fort. There is also a playground created for children. We explored every nook of the fort watching Saudatti city from top of the fort was eye-catching.

 

 

Later we visited Satyamma temple & Siddarakolla a dry waterfalls on the way to Yellamma temple.The century-old temple is situated atop Yellamagudda, amidst picturesque Ramalinga Hills about 5km from Savadatti. I always avoid crowded places, temples included, but I do not know what made me visit Yellamma temple. We got Devi's Darshana, and went around the temple and car-street.

 

Yellamma is a very popular and potent goddess in North Karnataka and south Maharashtra, and majority people visiting are devout followers. Trance women, men and even kids are a common sight. A large number of folks also appear to be festival time. There is also a dark side to it. A lot of young girls are married off to gods. Devdasi is the term used to describe them. It means female servant of God. Unfortunately, a lot of these girls end up doing prostitution.

 

Worse, on the festival day, young girls used to be dedicated as Devadasis, a practice which used to drive them into prostitution. With a ban on the practice imposed two decades ago, the dedication has now gone underground, away from the gaze of the law and disapproving non-governmental organizations.

 

In the recent past, activists tried to persuade the devotees not to follow these superstitious practices and check Devadasi system and even succeeded to a certain extent, in cajoling the women to wear the bangles, instead of breaking them. However, the practice was resumed with vigor.

 

The rituals, including the dedication of young girls are observed on the sly. We missed few places like Puradeswara and Ankeswara temples Naviluteertha dam, Parasghad fort because of several reason. After completing the Saudatti we forwarded to our next holy destiny point...

Monsoon Mania...

The gurgling streams innumerable waterfalls green green and only green in many shades it's like mother nature has had a fresh bath all the trees completely clean and green many small waterfalls which forms during monsoon and flows in full torrent these are few amazing things as to how nature transforms completely during monsoon,

and I always look forward for our treks in monsoon, this year too it started with a great beginning instead of waterfalls to start with it was completely different and we visited three beautiful dams on Sunday with our team guided by Rajesh Naik, after a lot of continuous planning changing finally we started our journey to Mani dam,

from morning it was just nonstop rain rain and more rain well monsoon is only about rain, as it is we were in great spirits and pouring rain was just and additional booster for our trek, Kamath sir(Ramesh Kamath) and his lively jokes made our journey even more pleasant,

roads were just in passable condition but the greenery around was a feast to the eyes after a few hours of journey and not a single soul to be seen around we were wondering if we were on the right track with wilderness all around it really didn't matter We reached the Dam with a comfortable journey & parked our Car near Dam & with raincoats protecting us we started to walk on one side of the dam.

First few minutes’ walk was very calm in rain but later suddenly the atmosphere was covered with a heavy blanket of mist & we just couldn’t see anything around but slowly it started clearing and there in front of us we had one of the most spectacular view possible there was only the cameras clicking and not a sound as the view was breath taking we just didn't want any sort of communication except to soak ourselves in nature it was like being one with nature......

After a few more hours of drive we reached Chakra dam. Chakra dam was built a long time ago as a power project but it is not running any more and you need a special permission to visit this damThis place is little far from Mani dam, but Kamath sir's driving was put to real test in the rain and he made a good job and we reached quiet fast this dam was very peaceful and serene power of nature making us calm is really true ......

Savehoklu streams into the Linganamakki reservoir & also one of the isolated & very most beautiful dam. We spent all our remaining target time in here, Taking lot of photos explored a few places in the surrounding ....

connecting with nature completely restoring back our snapped energy reservoir filling our lungs with fresh air and with renewed energy we returned to our places looking forward to many more energy recharging monsoon treks in the coming months....... Finally we did quite interesting unusual trip in this Monsoon. Really it’s worth & hope will do more trips in this season.