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.

Patali Waterfalls -The Hidden Gem

Patali Waterfalls framed by the lush green diversity of the lush tropical rainforest, the trail passes in National Park through the diverse scenery and culminates at the top of an absolutely spectacular waterfall. Patali Falls is quite difficult and arduous to reach the trek involves thick jungle, stream fords and scaling nearly vertical rock faces. There is no trail and the journey despite the falls being located under a 2-3 kilometers from a road, will take most of half day.

I had been hearing from various sources that such a waterfall exists in National Park, of all the waterfalls in National Park that I've seen so far, this one is by far the most remote and hidden. One of my senior friend almost approached this place before and he is the only person had known the presence of this waterfalls. My friend Rajesh Naik and I decided to explore this unmarked region, and proposed the idea to the other four and they immediately agreed.

As though our plan we left our car at forest gate and took some useful information from the forest-officer, first 10 minutes walk is simple later we entered to the thick forest zone, a real rain forest immediately after the rainy season one that is virtually untouched. The trail vanishes exactly at this point!

We walked towards the forest through the barely visible trail suggested by the Forest-Officer and it starts descending steeply. Within 15 minutes, upper stream is visible to our sight a green reservoir surrounded by thick plant life all around.

We made the trail to ourselves in both directions; anyway the trail starts out being moderate and adventures until eventually when we reached stream bed, it became more tough and striking. We followed upper stream for another 30 minutes, within half hour, we reached the top of Paataali waterfalls.

The falls initially slide down from small jump before veiling down the largest drop to the below valley and cascading for the final step from 150 feet height. After the risky attempt I managed to reach base of the first stage and all my teammates joined me.

The view from the top of the waterfalls is absolutely beautiful. It is the perfect getaway and really is immersed in nature. The most unfortunate factor is that due to both the size and shape of the falls - as well as the thick forest in the area - the entire waterfall can not be seen from any one vista until we reach bottom.

 

We start to descend steeply into the gorge to reach the base of the waterfalls. Climbing down in perpendicular cliff with the help of root and branches those pinch your heart, as you can only try inserting that beauty in a photo, but it doesn’t reflect the complete fascination of the landscape. I managed to take couple of picks in a hanging position from right side of the cascade but I couldn’t able to reach bottom. My friend Sndesh, Sunil and I tried our best to approach the base but lack of time and some other factor we returned back, after spending an hour of time we headed back to home with some glories experience.

Really it does conjure up a picture of what stairway to heaven really would look like. Endless! But totally worth the trip! Don’t give up! A beautiful, scenic hike that's worth all the sweat! Yeah sure at one point or another you might just want to run off because of all the efforts but the view from up top of the waterfalls is absolutely perfect!

The Hill Temple of Karinjeshvara

Sri Karinjeshwara temple is situated at a place called Karinja of Kavalamudur village in Bantwal taluk. It is located at a distance of 35 km from Mangalore and 14 km from Bantwal. The Karinjeshwara temple stands high on the hill amidst beautiful surroundings.

About 800 years ago, two Brahmin youth Karinjattaya and Ichlattaya brothers arrived at Kumbla county from Uttara Kannada for publicising Sanatana belief. At that period Tulunadu was ruled by Taulava King. Bhoota worship was the ritual in practice at that time in this region. The place where Ichlattaya settled was called Ichlampady and the other by Karinjattaya was called Karinja. In the middle of Karinja and Ichlampady in a scenic beautiful area was built a Lord Shiva Temple. These Brahmin without any descendants had given away their agricultural property along with the Temple to the Bunts who were helping them. The temple is split into two parts, one dedicated to the Lord Shiva, at the peak of the hill, and another dedicated to His Wife, the Goddess Parvati, and their Son, Lord Ganesha, a little lower down on the way to the Shiva Temple. This is the 7th temple built by Kalkuda. He had vowed to build seven temples overnight.

One has to get down at Vagga, 10 Km away from Bantwal towards Dharmasthala. The stop is also identified as Karinja Cross, where a beautiful entrance welcomes you to one of the calm and nice places of the coastal district. The road leading you to Karinja through Kodyamale Forest also enough to keep you spellbound. It is best experienced when we walk from main entrance till the Temple.

When we reached the temple, first we sight a huge pond in “Gada” (Mace) shape – Gada Theertha (Huge pond) at the bottom of the Karinja hill is 237 meter long, 55meter wide and 7meter deep size looks like a mirror with crystal clear water. After taking a dip in pond or at least after sprinkling water over the head we have to start climbing the steps through Main entrance. From the main entrance from the road you have to start stepping on the huge stone to reach this temple. In the starting point of Parvathi temple, you can see the Vinayaka Gudi.

Ugrana Guhe (Cave )

The journey on steep steps on a huge stone with the help of iron rods feels great. Be careful about the Vana Senas (monkeys). They are always up to something. They grabbed the Bananas that were carrying in our plastic bags that we wanted to offer to Lord Shiva.

One of the temple’s specialties lies in the age old practice followed by the temple authorities of feeding monkeys led by the Alpha-Male called the Karinje-Dhadda on daily basis on Naivedya Kallu. Legend says that when Rama and Seetha come to this place with the Vanara Sena after defeating Ravan, To mark this remembrance Ram Left His Sena here at Karinja. Everyday ‘Naivedhyam’ cooked of three ‘Seru’ (700 gram) rice is fed to the monkeys immediately after ‘Mahapuja’ in the afternoon. One can see monkeys waiting near Shiva temple to relish on the hot rice at sharp 12 noon. Devotees offering bananas and coconuts to these monkeys are a common sight at Karinja temple.

There mentions in various episodes of Mahabharatha about the three temple ponds namely ‘Gadha Theertha’, ‘Angushta Theertha’ and ‘Janu Theertha’ found in the temple premises. ‘Gadha Theertha’ located in the foothills is in the shape of a Gadha (mace). It is said that ‘Gadha Theertha’ was formed when Bhima threw his mace on the floor and ‘Angushta Theertha’ was created by Bhima’s thumb. Another pond ‘Janu Theertha’, which is said to have originated when Bhima knelt down on the floor, serves the water requirements of the temple through out the year as this pond never dries up.

 There are numerous evidences in the premises of the temple narrating several stories to the visitors about the life of the temple as it is believed that the temple premises has been the testimony for all the four ‘Yugas’ mentioned in Hindu mythology.

When you climb about 142 steps above the Parvathi Temple you find a massive door frame made up of a stone called Ukkadada Bagilu. It has a 0.3 cm cut mark on it, which is said to be created by the hitting of an arrow, when Arjuna tried to kill a wicked pig.

When Arjuna reached Karinja to seek blessings from Lord Shiva wanted to test Arjuna and came in disguise of a tribal head. When Arjuna aimed at the wild boar, even disguised Shiva aimed at the same boar. Both shot the boar at the same time, so both had a fight on whom to claim the boar. After a long battle Arjuna was defeated and Shiva and Parvathi gave him darshana. Goddess Parvathi blessed Arjuna with special powerful arrows.

When you climb another 118 steps passing through Ukkadada (Ukkada means the limiter border of a town and a turn pike or a toll gate) Bagilu, you reach Sri Karinjeshwara Temple. The “Shilamaya” Temple in such a high place has been regarded as the “Bhookailasa”.

Shiva temple is situated on the top of a hill, 1500 ft high from sea level, looks like temple is standing on a huge stone. The temple architecture is built by stones. From Ukkadada bagilu” around 145 steps it’s the main entrance to Shiva temple. The Shiva Sannidhi covered with “Shilamaya Shiva” Garbhagudi (shiva statue) “Metina Gudi” and a “Naivedya Kallu” (granite stone), and offers an enchanting view of the surroundings.

It is revealed that the place was called as ‘Roudra Giri’ during ‘Krutha Yuga’, ‘Gajendra Giri’ in ‘Thretha Yuga’, ‘Bhima Shaila’ in ‘Dwapara Yuga’ and ‘Karinja’ in ‘Kali Yuga’. Deemed as the temple located at greatest height among all the other temples of Dakshina Kannada, the shrine is situated on a monolith spreading over 25 acres. The temple is surrounded by picturesque green Kodyamale Reserved Forest adding to the serenity of the place.

The soil of the spot where the lake now stands is pathologically said to have spread over a distance of Seven Miles, which is known as “Kodia Malai”, now inhabited by wild animals and reptiles. You will find that the climb of 555 steps is worth and once you reach the peak you will get a beautiful bird’s eye view of the surrounding areas. With all its historical significance and beauty of nature, Karinja is one of the best places for a pilgrim centers.

Festivals:The biggest and most important event at this temple is Shivarathri, a four-day festival. On the first night of Shivarathri, there are elaborate poojas and homas (different types of worship rituals) at each temple into the early hours of the morning. The next night, the idol of Shiva is carried down to the Parvathi temple and husband and wife are united for the night amid more worshipping and festivities.

The next day, the Rathotsava (Chariot Festival), the two idols are paraded around at the Parvathi temple and then at the ground level, where they are carried around in a chariot (a Ratha). Later that day, the two idols are carried back to the Parvathi temple, where Shiva bids goodbye to Parvathi and carries on alone to his temple. The following night, the last night of the festival, Shiva is once again taken to Parvathi; they are taken for a "stroll" at ground level before they are once again returned to their respective places.

 A lake in the temple premises- ‘Handi Kere’ too has a mythological story attached to it. Handi Kere is supposedly formed when great archer Arjuna arrowed down a pig. The arrow marks are still visible on the rocky hill.

Information by–Vivek Kumar K