After a long wait finally I made my first Monsoon trek this year. This is my third visit to the same place but its quite interesting in this ever changing nature. This time We preferred bikes as our plan was on Sunday early morning. We 3 (I, Ashok & Chandru) started our journey with 2 bike.
Initial journey was quite pleasant with nice upwind Unfortunately when we hit the mountain road heavy rain started and not just a shower, it was like being at home, drizzle with some heavy stuff chucked in. It was pouring everywhere many small waterfalls were plunging either side of the ghat road. I found myself winding through the steep valleys and gorges, I had to focus on not to crash as the view was so breathtaking really I enjoyed the ride in my own imaginative world.
This time we changed our regular rout , Villagers suggest another rout that was little longer because of heavy rain old regular rout was bad and was flooded by nearby stream.. After a long ride we took a right turn into the boggy road. Lucky enough the main road was surfaced but the others where just mire and was fully unpaved, muddy, slippery, bumpy, some places were very deep and narrow. Some places were very difficult to drive in deep layer of soft mud after a lot of risk and hard attempts we reached our destiny point.
We left our bikes and headed into wast greenish afloat paddy fields surrounded by mountain .After crossing we entered into the rainforest. It only took 15 minutes of walking through pristine mountain forest we reached the stunning first stage of the waterfalls.
After admiring the falls we started to climb against the downhill waterfalls some places we climbed the sideways of the fall. The final trek route runs through thick forest and includes rock climbing. The trek from first fall to the 5th fall includes steeper trek that runs through forest, water and rocks.
The gushing main cascade tumbling down the massive rock face and greenery with dense vegetation on either side of the falls. After a good soaking rain waterfalls flowing at their peak, filling the air with mist as they tumbled out of the forest, splashed over boulders, and dropped down ledges before finally plunging into a pool.
We took our obligatory photos later we decided to venture even further so we crossed the stream and started to hike uphill. We could barely see the trail through the leaves and fallen branches. But we stuck to it, if only to see if the next intersection would give us a clue to where we were the trail wrapped around a marsh and disappeared into a patch of mud. But just beyond the thick shrub we spotted the upstream and after a great circus we had reached the deadend point on top of the waterfalls.
Here water was plunging onto the escarpment with white foam over dark rock into iridescent blue pool was totally quite beautiful.The top the trek up the hills into the forest and view from top of the falls gave us some really good views of the valley. The sight and sound of a waterfall soothes,relaxes,refreshs and recharges one's senses.
This magnificent waterfall is located in deep forest near Kodachadri hill a series of 5 falls, one above the other, in splendid surroundings makes it one of the best waterfalls in rainy season.
While returning throughout the area we ended up seeing more villages including their buffalo wallowing in the mud lot of activities. One of the nicest ways to enjoy the sights and smells of fresh forest Crispness of cold air is on a motorcycle, especially if the roads traveled have more twisties and less vehicles.
Photos By- Myself & Ashok S B
Every season has its own way of wooing nature and nature has its own way of reciprocating and monsoon is one where everything in nature is soaked clean fresh and gives a soothing feeling, seeing rain in a city or a village on a sea shore or forest is different at each of these places but on top of a mountain its ultimate heavenly feeling, it's only the mountains and rain and the person on top of it, a complete blend.
Though it's completely insane and not at all advisable to climb a mountain during rains it's a different kind of madness when we started towards Ambaragudda, all the mountains hills completely covered with a green blanket so very fresh and inviting which nature enthusiast would ignore or not be tempted to climb those hills.
YHA Mangalore finalized ambaragudda trek and we started, i had visited this place many other times but not in monsoon, we parked our van and leading the team started our climb in heavy rain, there was cool breeze very thick fog and raining continuously.
Few years back this place also faced the threat of depletion of forest and other natural resources owing to mining operations but now this place is safe & also Karnataka Bio-Divercify board recently announced as Heritage Site, in order to prevent the landscape from soil erosion, protects the Shola forest and the corridor for wild animals and watershed value of the region. Few places affected by mining still we can see few places affected by big mass of Manganese mining.
After a few minutes climb we reached the top but we could not get a clear view due to thick fog, normally we can see 2 sharps humps in the top of the ‘Ambaragudda’ so we stepped towards to the next hump in chilly breeze. We can’t spend much time on the top of the mountain because of heavy rain & strong winds. 
On return we saw some local estates slowly acquiring the land of Ambaragudda step by step. Whatever happens hope the beauty of the Ambaragudda would remain the same. Though completely soaked in the end it was worth all the strain and attack of the leeches a wonderful monsoon climb made us feel light and fresh.....
