Writing a treklogue after two years of
gap and speaking about a trek done an year before can be time taking task. But
here I go, trying to recollect the memories of the most adventurous, scary
treks I’ve done till day.
It was November 2013, the grasslands was
still green after a good rainy season. Me and my cousins decided to do a
post-rainy season trek. After a lot of brainstorming and taking help of Google,
we short listed two treks, EttinaBhuja – Ombattu Gudda – Hosakere trek and
Amedikallu trek. Aim was to get rid of all fatigue, keep a check on our
physical strength after break of nearly 3 months. And my cousins were about to
trek Himalayas in November, so It was a get-in-line trek for them.
We were about to book tickets to Mudigere
and suddenly Harsha read about Narasimha Parvatha – Manipura kote
trek in one of the blogs, he was impressed. He told me lets do this one for
now.
I knew about this trek from long time
and was on my to-do list ever since. I told him, there are two approaches,
we’ll take the toughest and longest one, if yes we’ll do this. He instantly
agreed.
Without second thought, we called
Venkatest of Mallandur, a guide who helps people conquer NP. He readily agreed
and it was finalized to do the treks in the coming weekend.
Team: Me, Harsha, Jyothi, Varsha,
Jagadish.
Approaches:
Agumbe – Mallandur –
NP – Kigga – Sringeri.
2 Sringeri – Kigga – NP
– Kigga – Sringeri.
We reached Kammardi on Saturday
morning in Jagadish’s Amaze, Kammardi is where we hail from. Had an awesome
akki-rotti with lumps of Butter breakfast, thanks to Jagadish’s mother. Hired a
car to drop us to mallandur, 27km from Kammardi (take left a km before Agumbe
town), reached Mallandur by 8:30.
Drama Unfolds:
Filled our bottles at Venkatesh’s
house, had an formal introduction with the guide. Guide made us clear with
these things.
1)
Distance to NP is
17km from his house.
2)
We are not stopping
for first 6kms as the forests are inhabited by Naxalites and the battle between
naxalites and STF is an evergoing thing here. After 6kms, we’ll be out of
danger of sighting both of them.
3)
Even if we sight any
of them, it’ll be difficult to answer them, because they’ll shoot if they doubt
us.
4)
Stay together, Agumbe
forests are the thickest in Karnataka, once you are lost, you are lost forever.
5)
Danger of King
Cobras, most venomous snake found in India, grows up to 20ft long, found only
in western ghats of Agumbe region.
6)
No or very little
stops as we have to reach NP before sunset, its too dangerous to trek in night
there.
We listened to everything carefully,
agreed to whatever he said.
The path starts right in front his
house, initial altitude, 600mts MSL.Plan was to reach Barkana falls for
lunch and rest. Barkana was midway in to the trek with an altitude of 500MSL.
Initial climb for an hour took us to
700mts MSL and we started a gradual descent in the forest. Not even a single
ray of light was falling on earth, Grass, Plants grown up-to 10ft, if the
person behind us missed a turn, it was all over, we stayed together all the
time. We started pleading for a break after 2hours in to trek, guide was not
convinced. He kept saying, “not until 6kms” .
After he was sure we are out of danger
zone, he gave us a break for 15min. it was 650mts MSL. We had chocolate bars,
Apples, Soy Milk to re-energize ourselves and get ready for the tough climb
ahead.
Started walking towards Barkana
(500mts MSL) descent went on and on, I started fearing we are going to hit 0mts
MSL if we continue our descent and it will be too much to climb to 1200mts MSL
for NP.
We were 9kms from our base and we
crossed our 1st stream, yes it was Barkana stream, before making a
250mts mighty fall. If you are wondering, yes we were on top of the Barkana
falls, not in front of it. Took a round about to reach the tip of the falls.
Lunch break! It was 12:30 and we were
very hungry. Walking 9kms in 3 and half hours without breaks in not a small
task. Harsha went to the tip of the falls, he couldn’t take any pictures. It
was very tough negotiating all the rocks, trees, speeding stream, gravity ready
to act on to it to take a dip of 250mts.
We finished Packed Chapathi in no
time, filled our water bottles, took a rest for 30 odd minutes. We started our
walk towards NP at around 1:30.
 |
| A waterfall overlooking Barkana. |
 |
| efforts to rech Tip of Barkana. |
The climb started as soon as we left
Barkana. Forest was not thick as before but climb was consistent. We started
asking for breaks but guide was in state of no mercy. We kept on ascending for
next 2 hours with 2 small breaks to take our breath. It was almost 4 when we
hit grasslands at 900mts MSL and clouds all around. We still had 3 hours climb
on the grasslands/forests to reach NP. We took at 20min break to cherish some
musambi / oranges and gain the lost salt from our body.
By then Jyothi started cramping and
our pace reduced to very little. Once I lost hold of the tent I was holding and
it went down running through the slope of grasslands in a flash. Jagadish came
to rescue to run behind it and got hold of it. We had one steep climb left and
later it was a flat surface walk for a km to reach NP Peak. We took a break of
15 min to let Jyo gain her strength back, ate lots of chocolate bars, Fruits.
Resumed the climb to find out later
that, the steep hike is never ending. Even though we wanted to break, we didn’t.
sun was setting fast, we had to reach our Camping point, a small old house
build by forest department, had to collect firewood, water for cooking, setting
up tents before it was dark.
We pushed ourselves to our limits yet
the peak was nowhere to be found. By 5:30 we reached the base of peak and
decided to hike to peak next morning. A little descent took us to the old
house. View was panoramic!
Once we reached our camp site, we realized
why guide pushed us so hard and never let us take breaks. If we had taken the
climb lightly, we wouldn’t have reached NP before dark.
Harsha, Varsha, Jagadish went to
collect water from a nearby waterhole which has water throughout the year. We again
went to collect firewood for cooking.
Jyothi and varsha started preparing
dinner for the night, me and Jagadish put up our tents.
It was too cold and we were too tired
to do anything. Yet the spirits were up, Jyothi prepared an awesome “Pindimirium”,
her own special Sambar . I cooked rice, Varsha made the best Corn Cucumber
Salad.
Guide slept inside the house and we in
our tents. Night was eventless. Had a sound sleep to wake up at 6 next morning
for sunrise. But it was all mist and couldn’t see sun till 8.
 |
| NP Peak. |
Same procedures followed to collect
Water and firewood for breakfast. Avarekalu Uppittu was our breakfast. Finished
breakfast, packed our bags and went to climb the peak. Climb was tiring yet we
enjoyed the cool breeze on the peak.
Descent was fast and easy, a 6km walk
to reach Kigga, a small temple village 10kms from Sringeri.
We decided to go to famous Sirimane
falls, took an auto to drop us a to Sirimane, 4kms from Kigga.
Played in the falls for almost 2
hours, by then our car was waiting for us to take back to Kammardi. An eventful,
adventurous trek ended!!
