With absolutely no trekking experience i planned a trip to one of the most difficult trek trails BR hills - Jodigere Trek. Initially planned for 6 guys, we were reduced to 4. ( they did miss the trip of their life time as it would turn out to be ).
Introducing the Unlikely 4 in a gang - Myself Sunil ( code name : Mallya ) , Suneel ( code name: BS), Varun (code name: Pandit ), Kumar ( code name: many .. letz just call him kumar for now).
DAY 1 :
I started from my home Banerghhata road at 7, picked up bs @ 7:30 near banashankari and the vehicle broke down, minor glitch in the fan belt ..... this should have been a indication of what had to come. Anyways after 1 hour things are sorted out and we pickup kumar at dr.Rajukumar road around 9 am and finally pandit @ Jalahalli Cross around 9:30. We now proceed to Bylore, a small border town on karnataka - Tamil nadu border ( Approx 200 kms from bangalore ). We reached Maddur at around 11am and had the famous maddur vade at new Maddur Tiffanys( the best i ever had ). Around 11:30 we proceed towards kollegal via Malavalli. Reaching Malavalli we realize that Shivanasamudra is not too far and decide to enjoy and spend time there. We take a 4-5 km deviation and reach shivanasamudra , Click the usual snaps standing in front of the falls. didnt' look that gorgeous without heavy waterfall, nevertheless we can say we have visited shivanasamudra :P.
We call our Ranger ( Mr. Shridar ) who is incharge of the Bylore forest division. He happened to be in kollegal and asked us to meet him. We meet him around 1 pm in kollegal office and ask directions to head to baylore. we had to go towards MM hills and then take a deviation after maduvanahalli towards wild life conservation area and then join the so called " state highway #17A towards SATHY (Satyamangala). It was better we had no road there.. a pile of mud would have been sufficient :P . Anyways it took us around 1hr 45 mins to cover 47 kms to reach Bylore from kollegal. It was almost 4 PM and we met the forester Mr.Sudindra, who enquired about us and then gave the guest house key to the caretaker and asked us to freshen up. we were in no mood to freshen up !! we wanted to trek a small distance. He told it was dangerous during this time and started telling us the incidents that happened the previous day. A tusker had chased a man and he just escaped narrowly. He said if possible will arrange for night safari in their forest jeep. We were super excited for this opportunity ;) !
( our guest house and the view from it)
After freshning up ,we wanted to losen up and hence decided to just walk on the road, the forester arranged for a guard and then we setup on an evening walk along the state highway. Not a vehicle on sight, guess vehicles pass through this road very rarely. we encountered just 3 vehicles on our walk which lasted 2 hrs. Just around the mile stone that indicated SATHY -61 km we took a small deviation off the road and climbed the rocks to get a view of the mountain and take a snack break. just as we were munching on the good day biscuits , our guard suddenly spotted a couple of Sambhars grazing on top of the hill. Lucky to have my minolta binoculars we could see the sambhars clearly :). looked like they spotted us too and were staring at us. this went on for another 5 mins and then we left for our guest house. Just near the forest guest house we got lucky twice ! once for spotting a wild boar and next narrowly missing the charging boar :P. Now the wild animal attack stories started to haunt us in a small way. After some chatting and IPL score tracking finally dinner was ready at 8:30 pm. Rice ,Roti , sambhar ( not the animal ) , beans & carrot palya (dry subji ) all in the middle of nowhere !!! After a great meal we got ready for night safari, but unfortunately the driver was asleep coz he had boozed a lot :((( . Then we went on night safari along the road for about 5 kms till the tamil nadu border, although didn't spot anything exciting it was enjoyable to see such darkness all around on a starry sky :).
Day2 :
All of us woke up @ 5:45 and started to get ready !! we had planned to start the trek at 6:30. we then realized that were short of water and asked the care taker to get water, but he was busy with other things and that wasted a lot of our time. We then realized that there was a water tank near by and got water from there ourselves. The caretaker was absent minded and hadn't prepared the breakfast for us. luckily there was a small hotel nearby. I guess the only source of food for the villagers who don't cook :P, i asked him to pack us 30 of them and he did so in no time :). We were all set for a safari ride and a trek afterwards . It was 7:30 by now !! all of us were cribbing coz we wanted to go really early to spot animals ! taking a deviation from no where on the SH 17A, we entered the Bylore Game road .. god help me !! it was like a mud bike racing track. we were lucky not to have rain on this side of the jungle. It was a 7 km ride that i wouldn't forget and i wouldn't like to either. Man in no time were we in thick jungle, the path , the surrounding were amazing. everywhere signs of animal activity was visible !! Most visible of the lot were elephant tracks. we then spotted a herd of innocent looking wild boars. But believe me these can be as dangerous as wild elephants.
30 mins of exciting ride ended at the anti poaching camp inside the jungle. We decided to have break fast here. just next to the camp was a road like demarcation. Our guide told us this was the D-Line which is the demarcation line between states. we hadn't realized that this whole trip would be a border d-line trek :). Bisi Bisi breakfast (idli) in middle of jungle was amazing :) . We decided to save up idli's incase lunch couldn't be arranged at jodigere camp. but as hunger took over our brain.. we couldn't resisit and we were left with 4 idli's !! With our hunger satisfied we decided to start the trek. 10 mins into the trek we were shocked looking at the steepness of the path. God-O-God we were in for a shock !! pandit and kumar looked exhausted, so was i !! BS looked fine and our guide looked enthusiatic. Suddenly we realized this wasn't going to be an easy trek at all.
Guide mentioned to us that it would take us about an hour to jodigere. we were happy! As it would turn out even after an hour of trek it still was an hour away !!! We weren't slow but the gradient was on the higher side. This was the first time that some one was trekking from Bylore to Bedaguli !! generally people climb down this which makes it easier .. but we were swimming against the tide ;). Entering dense forest we were keen to spot animals. But luck wasn't on our side. Pandit was terrified to find that there are lot of leeches on this path and he already had a bunch of them on his shoe. By now kumar had found companion ! so called stick .. ( i would say it was a branch.. :P anywyz A stick in kumar's hand would have looked likea straw :P ..no offense kumar ) . After a while i got used to the trek and wasn't lagging behind any more. I started to lead the gang. But we halted every 10 mins to check on leeches. It was horrible to see so many leeches ..worst of all there were these tiny ones which were hard to get hold of. Luckily i had brought some turmeric powder which would get them off when applied.
( Left to right : Hot idli's ... other side of D-line - in Tamil nadu .. Kumar with his companion ...) Me on a rock- veerappan style.... nice view .... Veerappan ?? no - Varunapppan :P )
After the leechy trail .. we finally came out of the canopy into sunlight. Absence of moisture on the forest floor was a relief !! Phew .. no Leeeches !! about 11 AM ..after a good 2.5 hrs trek from the anti poaching camp we reached almost on top of the hill... we sat there and enjoyed the pristine beauty of the forest around. sounds were amazing ... langurs .. sambhars .. birds all made their presence felt.
It took us about 45 mins to reach the summit of the hill. the path was virtually invisible and we weren't walking anymore .. we were rock climbing. this way was filled with elephant dung. Wonder how they managed to get over here ... i think the logical conclusion we came was that the elephants were actually attending the nature's call from top of the hill and we got the remains :P .. heehehe ..!!
( pandit !! wow what expressions... hey telugu film directors.. if u happen to read the blog.. u must cast this guy !!!! .... next pic... all of us taking a nice nap on the summit !! )
The view behind us from the summit already left us short of our breath. we couldn't help but think did we actually climb this far !!!! .... as it was the view ahead of us was even spectacular. It was like an African grassland ... wonderful.. we couldn't believe our eyes... a herd of wild bisons in front of us.. a big herd of sambhars to our right !! we were really in the middle of the jungle !!! We were thristy and throats were dry ... dehydrated and sweating like pigs we were famished... and were desparate for water. The lake was our only hope !! .. but luckily we encountered a stream with ice cold water .. all of us freshened up ..but kumar couldn't help but quench his thirst.. we didn't want to take the risk of driniking this so called mineral water :P
( Kumar .. now this is a piece of stick for u :P .... kumar & pandit posing ... kumar & pandit freshing up ..... the kere or one of the lakes in jodigere. )
A 10 minute walk from the lakes took us to the jodigere camp.. which was the only concrete structure for miles around. Not even a single soul was visible here... lucky there was water supply there.... :) .. we drank about a litre of water each .. and yet our thirst looked unquenchable.
we had some snacks and 30 mins of much needed rest under the shade. then we were told by the guide that we may find some food in bedaguli which was quite near. ( which actually was 7 km far !!!!!! ) we agreed and followed him with the hope that we would have nice lunch or atleast some good snacks in bedaguli. Kumar was in for a shock .. his companion the stick was broken !!! he was so disheartened .. we had to pacify him :P.. Through evergreen paths like above..we continued our trek. At about 3:30 we reached the begaduli town... this was the same town our guide told we would reach at 2:30 .... this guy was too much.. !! may be for him 7 km was like 3 km.. not for us...!! .. anywayzz happy that there were some shops around ..but unlucky there were no hotels.. no fruits available.. absolutely nothing available.. we got 2 packets of chikki and good day biscuits and started muching on them. we gave a message on wireless to send across our vehicle to pick us up.
wait on guys.... the trip is not over yet !!! This is where our trip turned to an adventure.......!! Wireless message wasn't sent.. direct contact from our walky takie ( bylore trek) nor the bedaguli station ( Eagleton) couldn't be established. Then we had to deliver it to another station (Mavathoor :: Silver Hawk) and then send it across to bylore. Meanwhile the weather in the surrounding hills were changing.. lightning and thunder added to the beauty of the hills. For next 15 mins all we could here is... Eagleton to silver hawk .. eagleton to silver hawk.. Finally the message was sent across and our vehicle was on the way. we expected it to reach at around 5 - 5:30 max. The forest guards there suggested us to take the bus from that city to mavathoor. now there were two ways to get to bedaguli from bylore. via mavathoor a muddy road and the good road via punjur. We thought ..we could go to to mavathoor and meet the vehicle on the way, but it wasn't worth the risk. then we decided to just walk around and fool around with the gun !!
Time passed by and it was 4:40.. the bus time... we couldn't get to know which route our driver was comming from hence.. decided to wait further... The rain in the adjoining hills were catching up with us. The strange thing in this village was there was only a certain point where you could get the mobile signal !!!.. while we were trying to catch the mobile signal .. we saw the rain approaching.... we were literally chased by the rain to shelter..!! it was really funny :).. It was 5:30 now and we had seen 4 heavy showers already. Just around the same time we got a message on wireless that our vehicle had been held at punjur gate and wouldn't be let ahead. we started to panic a bit.. We called the RFO at Bylore and asked to talk to the RFO at punjur.. Things finally didn't work out because it was really dangerous to drive through jungle in the dark and especially after rain. Finally nothing could be done and we had to stay in a so called inspection bunglow.. which was nothing but an old creepy house. We didn't crib much coz..atleast we got a rooof to stay under..
We then asked the caretaker in the forest office to cook us something .. some rice and curry. He then requested the ration shop owner to open up and bought the ration. We then had to eat rice, sambhar and raagi mudde under trees without light. The setting was just amazing .. Starry sky, no lights, trees all around..to make things even scarier ... wild boars all around.. couple of the guards had to drive them away while we were eating. Pandit was catching the cold and i had to lend my jacket to him.. By then it was really chilly..... i guess around 15 degrees and we had no blankets either... somehow the caretaker arranged for couple of blankets. we had a chilly night ahead of us under scary roof of an old house in the middle of the jungle but all the trek had made us so tired that all of us had a tight night's sleep :)... next day the driver came at 6:30 in the morning and we were on the way to baylore and then back to bangalore....!
We had to pass through the jungle to get to punjur gate which was 25 km from bedaguli.. on the way we spotted a lot of animals.. but could only capture this deer which crossed the road and gave us a wonderful pose. We then had to pass through tamil nadu - hasanur junction and then take a diversion near anepalya to get back to bylore. all in all it was a wonderful adventure as i would put it !!! :) :) :)
