Trekking to charmadi in monsoon

It was a rainy day when I got the call. Kabir had called me to inform about a trek to charmadi ghats and Ballala rayana durga .’ Mostly it won't be possible as the heavy rains may disrupt traffic and all no?’ I asked .  Kabir reasoned that we would take a Toyota qualis and that we had never gone trekking in rainy weather and it would be a great adventure . That much coaxing was enough for me . I joined the group.

 We left at 6 30 am on Saturday morning . Our team had 10 members which was quite big . . Most of them were my class mates in high school or pre unis . I hadn't seen them for years . So it was like a small reunion . We had breakfast in Ujire. And we bought snuff powder and tobacco leaves in a shop. From our previous experiences, we had learnt not to go trekking without some stuff to get rid of leeches. We also bought some snacks .

 It had started to drizzle lightly by then. We had expected heavy rains but this weather was ok .  As we slowly progressed through the hair pin curves , we saw many beautiful waterfalls just beside the road . We stopped in many places to take photos. Then we also saw the beautiful alekan falls , which is also on the way. The weather was getting chilled . There was  thick mist  everywhere.

                                                                     (alekan falls)

We reached kottigehara by 11 a.m. Its a small town situated above charmadi ghats . From this place we didn't know the way up properly. So we asked bystanders for directions . We had to reach sankasale and climb from there. All the people were astonished to see us going there in this time. We were curious about this , but soon we found out why.

As we reached near B.r.durga , road became narrow and after 10km there was only mud road. We went 5 kms more in that road and parked our vehicle. There was still 5 more kms to walk. Suddenly the sky turned dark grey. And within few minutes it started to rain heavily. We got a bit discouraged but we expected this so we put on our jackets and started our trek.

It was not too long before someone shouted ‘leech’!!  suddenly everyone started looking at their legs..!! some of the team members were getting this ‘leech therapy’ for the first time so they were cursing these slimy, bloodthirsty creatures. I remembered my first encounter  with the leeches. I too was terrified by them at that time but now after many trekkings I had few tactics which would give me some advantage. The idea is to stay ahead and not to stop anywhere. But after some time my shoes were also covered with crawling sticky leeches. So I stopped at the middle of a small stream , removed the leeches one by one patiently with the help of tobacco leaves. If you hold the leaf over the leech, it will stiffen and get dislodged. Mud road came to an end when we reached Hori Khan estate.

From this place we’re supposed to see beautiful view of Ballala rayana durga, but nothing was there to be seen. Everything was covered  by mist. We found a place relatively free of leeches and discussed about our next step. We had come this far and nobody wanted to go back simply so we decided to move ahead.

What we entered next was pure hell…

Full of leeches and other creepy crawling creatures,  Thorny bushes everywhere also big logs obstructing the path. In fact there was no path as such. There was very little light creeping inside the thick canopy. It was a humid and wet climate with constant rain. Obviously within few minutes we were lost inside the deep forest. We didn’t know how to go forward now.

Then we saw two dogs following us, probably they were from that estate so we let them move forward, showing  us the way . They  did move smartly for some time but afterwards they  went on two different directions confusing us. All of us were quite tired by now .. then, we saw the remains of the fort wall..

There were some pavement or something above our route. So me and Kabir took a detour  to examine it. As we went near it I heard the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard! Some wild animal was very near to us and had warned us not to come near. Mostly it was a wild boar or a bison I don’t know for sure. The moment we heard it, we panicked and ran for our life!! After 5 minutes we met the other members and told them to change the route. Now we moved along a stream , slowly climbing upwards over slippery rocks and we reached the top of the hill. We could see the vast view only for few seconds before the mist covered all of us again. We couldn’t find the main entrance in that fog…hell ! we could hardly see each others faces!! We tried to move over the old wall in hopes of finding the entrance but sadly it too ended shortly. We saw there was no sense in moving ahead, we decided to go back..

We were almost there…had reached the top but couldn’t get that sense of fulfillment. We will climb it again , some other time, to conquer it again..

We came down very slowly and by the time we had reached our vehicle, it was 3 p.m.  We were exhausted and hungry .  We had steaming hot neer dosas and mirchi bhaji in kottige hara. Then we started our journey back home. Thus it was  the end to our adventure.

 team: Bharat,Kabir,Sharath,Karthik,Pradeep,Vineeth,     Nishanth,Ramachandra, Gautham (L-R)

me and my cousin

Trekking to Didupe

Friends, I m a big adventure lover restrained by chains of medical course and curriculum ;)

so whenever I get some free time , I usually rush towards some mountain or forest...

I've got some  like minded  friends who also want to do the same.. so here is the tale of our adventures at Western ghats..

I was returning to my home at Puttur on a saturday evening..8 th feb to be precise..was too tired of the "normal" happenings in my routine life..reached home at 7 pm.. did all the things a bored guy would do..and then came the call..Yashaswi(yash) called me...he's one of my best friends and he was at town..he asked me whether I was able to come for a trekking to Didupe the next day.He told me two more of my friends would be coming there and that he was trying to contact and invite more ppl for this program.Suddenly I was so active!! Imagining the beautifull falls at Didupe my adrenaline levels surged  (I had gone there before)..I readily agreed.Then he told me that this time we would be climbing on top of it to the peak..I thought it was so cool..we decided to meet at 6 a.m. in the morning..Now came the difficult part! I had to convince my parents to allow me to go there! So i put on my best face and asked mom fr permission ;)  She gave permission half willingly..actually she has got used to it nowadays..seeing me going to all dangerous places in ghats..So that was it

See i haven't explained you about the place..Didupe is a small village surrounded by the western ghats. Its about 20kms from Ujire,the nearest town.From didupe you can see the whole Kudremukh range of mountains.5 kms from this village,deep inside the forest,is the didupe falls or arbi falls..It falls in 6-7 steps from a tall mountain.First time i had seen only last step of the falls .But this time we  were planning to climb to the top,a place very few ppl have dared to go.

I spontaneously woke up at 5.15.. 15 mins before the alarm i had set..took few clothes ,made myself some coffee and rushed to yash's house.There he was waiting for me.I chatted with him for a while and then we went to the bus stop.We climbed a bus to Ujire at around 6.15. Since we stay in different places now, I had so many things to talk with him. So i was sure this journey wouldn't be boring. Few minutes after getting inside the bus we noticed one more person .It was Harish shastri sir, one who had taught us physics in our pre-univ classes. I immediately wished him and started a conversation which lasted almost till the end of our bus journey!! I have to mention here that H.S. sir was one of my favourite teachers during my p.u. days.

Then we got down at Ujire at 8 am and had our breakfast,took some parcel for eating later and then went to a place  by the name Somanthadka.There I met our other two trekking partners,Kabir and Goutham.Kabir is my friend since some 15 years or so! we grew up together ,went to same school but now studying different courses.Goutham is a local friend of ours ,who knew the forest very well.Greetings were exchanged and we started discussing our plans..Not much of it actually ;) see we had to kill time till the bus arrives na? then suddenly i saw a horse rider..Its a rare sight nowadays..we wondered where was he headed.i took his pic in my camera.Then our discussion turned towards camera and photography.withthin few minutes bus arrived. It was a old wreck of a bus actually,but atleast it was there to take us till the village and we were content with that.The route was very beautiful.tall mountains everywhere along with thick forests.At 10 we reached the village and started the trekking. our route was through green fields at the beginning then progressed towards hilly area.The scenery was awesome,I took breaks now and then to take photos.We never felt tired,for we were full of enthusiasm and the weather was cool.we chatted about all the things under the sun ,so it was very happy beginning.

we reached the base of the hill which we would be climbing.Near that there is  Goutham's uncle's house. We went there,talked with them and then just before continuing from there, we noticed a mango tree containing tender mangoes.We took few mangoes from the tree and then left the house.From here till the last step of the falls,it was a easy route which went through areca plantation and few rocky areas.We reached the falls within 15 mins and looked at it..it was a beautiful sight to see..I noticed a strange thing..there were no routes to climb around this falls,not even a trail!! i thought this was going to be one hell of an adventure this time.Goutham started us showing the way .It was so steep!throught covered by bushes and plants..but we had come this far and had no plans of turning back.So we continued cutting through the forest ,trying to climb up the steep portion.Every step was to be very careful .one wrong move would have resulted in a deadly fall.But we like such places,places were you can put urself into test.In this trekking I had to use my arms more than legs,I found out soon because arms have to support whole body while climbing steep rocks.It was a whole new experience..soon we were at 2nd step falls frm below.We rested a bit and then I looked around.What was around me was untouched virgin forest in all its fierce beauty.Trees forming canopy,lots of climbers on them,containing   millions of life forms ,untouched,uncontaminated..Its a experience to have,not the one to be told! 

We continued swiftly through a valley full of large rocks and then came across a part where we had to climb straight up the hill at almost 90 degree angle ,I still dont know how I did it! all I did was follow the steps of the guy in front of me! and we were at the next step now! This time I saw remains of snake skin,Yash knows lots about snakes .He told it was cobra skin.We tried searching for it but dint see it anywhere.I would have liked to see it there,in its own kingdom not  in zoo which is a prison.

Slowly fatigue was setting in but nobody was showing it.We continued towards the top.Finally we reached it at 2 p.m. the view from there was outstanding,I will never forget it for sure.

i wanted to go to the place where water directly falls below but that place was almost unreachable and time was running out..so we dint go there .we sat and ate whatever food we had brought.I had a sense of achievement,a satisfaction no words can describe.

Now the task was coming down.Right after few minutes we realised that it was not at all easy.Climbing down looking directly down scared the heck out of us! :) but we had to do it anyways.We skidded down in some slippery parts,all of us fell down at one place or the other.

But it was over within a hour.we were at the base.

Now was the time to enjoy.We had a nice bath at the falls at the base.Here you can stand directly under  the falls and the water falls directly from a height of 100 ft! It feels like getting whipped when water falls on yor back! we called it "the Didupe effect"! ;) .

We lost track of time.and it started getting dark. Time was 5 30 pm. we realised that we will miss the last bus back to ujire.but we had to get back home by night. Goutham arranged for a jeep.

We went in jeep till somanthadka.It was one of the worst journies ever! roads were ok but the driver was a moron! He bored us to death with his fictious stories throughout the journey..I gritted my teeth and sat silently.One more shock was waiting for us in the end.He charged an incredible amount as his fee! It was more than total cost of whole trekking! we cursed our luck and paid grudgingly.It was like a fine I thought,for not managing time properly.I vowed silently that next time this wont happen again.

 

Everybody was tired now.All my muscles had started aching.I noticed few scratches in my arms and legs.I never saw myself getting them,I thought.I told good bye to friends and started my journey back to home.