Arishinagundi waterfalls - first attempt

     Well, I'm back from yet another trek in the western ghats. This time it is inside Mookambika wildlife sanctuary, yes Arishinagundi waterfalls. But, why is this first attempt ?  Read on.

     We have a WhatsApp & Facebook group called Crazy-Hikers, and discuss about our future treks, and trek plans. From last October, the group was almost inactive and none of my plans to motivate the group members worked out. I and Prabin decided to abandon this group and go for a trek with Bangalore Ascenders or BMC. As a final attempt, I initiated a one day trek to Arishinagundi falls. I & Prabin had decided to go even if we get one more member or none. To our surprise, we got 14 more interested in this trek! From my past experience, I know the pain points in booking Bus tickets for a large group. Lots of cancellations and re-bookings. Ah! I hate that. So, I searched for a non-ac sleeper bus to Kollur and back & finalized a VRL bus. I'm repenting that choice of mine even now (Why ? will tell you shortly). Sorry friends, I did a mistake. I then communicated that bus timings in the group and asked those who are interested to book tickets for themselves. That was a great move indeed :). The bus was scheduled to leave from Yeshwanthpur at 21:40. For the first time in my travel history, I could exactly plan and make it to Yeshwanthpur before the departure time. Thanks to BMRCL, Metro train :). All sixteen of us were on board before 21:45 hrs. After a quick exchange of information, I slept while others continued to chat. Around 4'O clock, the driver started shouting - "those who want to get down for Mangalore can get down". I was thinking, perhaps Shimoga has come, so the driver is asking to get down and catch Mangalore bus. I started looking outside the window anticipating any familiar building or road in Shimoga. It took a while to realize that we are not in Shimoga but actually in Mangalore itself. Oh My goodness !! I pinched myself to confirm that I'm awake and checked google maps on my phone. By then, Udupi had arrived. Manipal, Brahmavara, Kundapura all coastal towns passed. It was like a "Karavali Darshan" tour. Never, I imagined one can go to Kollur taking this extra long route. I should have paid attention when the journey time was given as 10 hrs.

     We reached Kollur by morning 7:30. We checked in to a low cost hotel just in-front of the temple, and after all the "morning raaga" and bath, visited the Sri Mookambika temple. Temple was little crowded due to weekend, and there were lot of tourists from Kerala. The Keralites believe in the goddess very much and they visit the temple very often. You can see the influence of Kerala architecture in the temple complex. One of the locals expressed his concern over few Malayalis holding key posts in the temple administration, and becoming temple priests. Anyways these discussions are out of scope for this blog. After temple visit, we came back to room and decided to retain one room and dump all our extra luggage. We had breakfast at "Mahalakshmi Restaurant" and then visited the forest office to pay the entry fee. At first, the forest officer (Vivek) declined my request for entry to falls. But, I had already spoken to the RFO, Mr Siddeshwar and sought his permission, so he took 100 Rs per head entry fee and gave receipt. He reiterated again that the trail is very slippery, and fallen trees have blocked the road and we have to make our own path. It was around 10:30am, and he said that he cannot arrange a guide now, and we have to find way on our own. He suggested to take auto to the forest gate which is around 2 kms and described that for 4 kms inside the forest there is a jeep track, and then a steep descent of 1 km to get to the falls. Usually, I save the co-ordinates of the destination and keep google map ready, but since this was supposed to be a guided trek, I did not bother much. We took four autos to drop us to the forest gate. After initial photo session, we started walking inside the forest. It was a very cloudy day, and the accuweather & google weather had suggested rains with thunder-storms. So, I was fully prepared to take on any kind of shower. Rain pant, jacket, Gum-boots besides Umbrella, I was all set to walk in rain, in fact to walk only in the rain. Initial few minutes of the trek was easy, as it was nearly flat, but after crossing the first stream, it was only ascending and ascending. We walked for almost an hour, but no signs of waterfall. Due to the water-proof jacket & pant, I was sweating heavily from inside causing dehydration. I felt like walking in rain would have been better, than protecting myself. On an average we walk approximately 2km/hour, and we had come less than half way. We walked for few more minutes, again ascending and saw a falls on a distant hill. God ! It would be easily 9 to 10 kms if that is our destination, I uttered to myself. There was no sign of the board at which we had to descend to the falls. I and Prakash discussed to give up this trek, and try next time with a guide. But as usual, Ravi and Laxmi were not ready to give up, and pushed entire team to walk further. Exactly after two hours of walking, which means we had covered 4 kms, we saw the board showing directions to falls. I was very happy to see the board in the first place, and started descending using the narrow trail. After some 15-20 minutes, we reached a very small water falls, and a trail was visible after crossing this. I & Ravi, went little ahead and hit another falls. After crossing this, Ravi went ahead to find that trail is going up again. I don't know, if we had continued, we could have hit our destination or not. It was already 13:30 Hrs, my exhaustion and the thought that we have to be out of forest before 5'O clock did not allow me to explore further. At least, I was not ready to go forward and so said no when Ravi asked if we need to continue. Others also did not show interest in continuing, but were happy playing in the small water fall. We started back journey by 2'O clock, and it was a continuous descent, and by 4'O clock we all were out of the forest. 

     You call it Luck or Bad-Luck, it did not rain once :). My belief that, "Expected things don't happen when you are prepared for the worst" was proved right once again. Except the morning breakfast, we did not eat anything, except few chocolates & fried items. After coming back to the hotel, we hired rooms for few more hours, to freshen up. Our bus was at 7:30pm, so finished early dinner at Hotel Akshaya, and boarded the bus. So, this is my first attempt story to Arishinagundi falls. If I maintain good health, and my crazy-hikers active then surely will go back to this falls post monsoon.

     I had packed my Camera, ND filters in a nice plastic wrap, and I bring them back unopened. For the first time, I have come back taking no photos. Very bad! So, will update this blog with mobile clicks from others, so stay tuned.. :)

     Good night !!

     Crazy-Hikers:- Ravi, Sangeeta, Karthik, Roopa, Indrani, Laxminarayana, Prabin, Prabhat, Debashish, Kotresh, Rakesh, Kishore, Akash, Kavitha, Prakash and Sharma.

Ettina Bhuja - Again

Each and every trek that we do, involves lot of offline/online discussions and registrations and cancellations. So, I will not get into those writings :). Four of us decided to trek to Ettina Bhuja from the Shishila side this time. 

On Friday (14th Oct 2016) evening while returning home, I called Veeresh to book onward tickets to Dharmasthala for that night (KSRTC, Non-AC Sleeper bus leaves Majestic at 22:51). After going home, I booked return tickets from Chickmagalur to Bangalore (Airavata, starts at 23:59). I and Prakash went to Majestic to catch the bus, while Veeresh & Roopa joined at Yeshwanthpur. After few minutes of discussion, we informed the bus conductor to drop us at Kokkada cross. 

[INFO] - Kokkada cross comes 15 kms before Dharmasthalaa. You get rickshaws & jeeps here to drop to Holegandi. You can hire a room at Kokkada, get refreshed & have breakfast before going to Holegandi which is the trek base OR you can take drop to Shishila first. There is a "Sri Shaila Veg hotel", next to the Shishileshwara temple which has room facility as well. The river Kapila flows beside the temple, and is very scenic. You can find contact numbers at the end of this blog. Please talk to them before making a surprise visit.

Temple at Shishila 

Bridge to cross river 

Kapila River 

We reached Kokkada cross by around 05:15, and our Jeep driver Mohan was already waiting there. He helped to get a room in the nearby lodge. It costed around 700/- Rs just for an hour. We couldn't bargain much due to increasing abdominal pressure :). After all the rituals, Mohan dropped us to the Sri Shaila hotel at Shishila. We had fantastic Idli-chutney & Buns-sambar here and lunch packed for the afternoon. He then dropped us to the Holegandi. Balakrishna, brother of Chennappa was our guide and he was waiting at the stop. After paying to the Mohan, we started our trek around 8:15am. 

Unique thing about this trek is 90% of the trail is ascending and inside forest. The forest below this tall mountain is so dense that it is not possible to take a short route. Balakrishna was leading from the front, and I was just following him. At the very beginning, the trail forks into two and we took the left one. The other trail, perhaps goes down to the stream. 

First view of EB peak

We got a good glimpse of the peak initially. Without a guide, it is a bit difficult because the trail goes away from the peak and goes through the forest most of the time. We had to cross the river after some 30 minutes (?) of walk. It was only knee deep, and was very refreshing. After an hour or so, we reached a small waterfall. Another group was already taking bath at the falls. This falls is known by the name "Matthi Kolu". The guide cautioned that it takes another 3.5 hours to go to the peak, and we would miss the bus if we get down to the falls. But, we were not ready to miss the falls, and hence got down. Who could resist bathing in such a wonderful falls ? but I did.

Water falls on the way

Veeru & PK, I sacrificed bathing to take your photos :). After the photo session we started ascending journey. Walk through the forest was very cool compared to walk on the ridges at few points. We never expected the trail to go up always. After last year's Kodachadri trek, we did not do any major trek. So we were struggling to pull our body upwards. Roopa, after the marriage had put on more weight and was trailing behind all. As told by the guide, we took neary 3 hours to reach the camping site at the base of Ettina bhuja. One more group was already there, and they were pitching their tents in the hot sun. Balakrishna and other guide (Anand), took all our bottles to the stream and fetched water. 

[INFO]: After the waterfalls, there are no water sources till you reach the camp site. So carry sufficient water and dring judiciously. 

Final stretch to the peak

We finished our packed lunch, and immediately after that started climbing to the peak. I had come to this peak from Byrapura couple of months back and I knew it wont take much time to climb the peak and get down to Byrapura. We had our bus at 17:30 to Mudigere, so we had ample time. We took lot of photos on the way up, and it was very hot and dry up there. We expected some cool breeze to relieve our stress, but that did not happen. I could clearly make out the changes in weather. Three months before, it was clouds all over, and I could barely see the valley beneath. But now, the Sun has dominated the entire region and it was very hot on top of the mountain. Locals told that they are having very less rains from last two years, and usually there will be rains in October also. After photo session is over, we came down to the camp site, packed things and bid adieu to other trekkers and mighty EB. Guide, took another route this time and we reached Byrapura directly without going to the Byraveshwara temple. We had remaining snacks, followed by Tea at a local's house. Bus came at 17:45 and we reached Mudigere by 18:30. We reached Chickmagalur by 19:45 by another bus. Our return bus was at 23:59, and we had lot of time to do nothing. We had dinner at Vishnu delicacy on the I.G Road, and came back to bus stand and waited another 3 hours. We reached Bangalore by morning 04:30 and I reached home by 05:30.

Useful phone numbers:

Hotel & Rooms at Kokkada 

Hotel & Room at Shishila 

1. Mohan (Jeep driver): 9483241082 
2. Balakrishna (Guide): 8762058142 
3. Chennappa (Guide): 9480239185 

Best time to visit:

It is good to trek post monsoon during October or November as you will see green all around and leeches will be less. Summer might be okay since most of the trek is inside forest and leeches will be very less. Monsoon season is better to avoid but there are guys who dare to go in heavy rains :), so your wish.

Forest permission & wildlife:

For any trek inside reserved forest, its a must to take forest department permission. But the local guides charge you and take without legal permission. As long as nothing bad happens, no one cares. If some unfortunate incidents happen then be ready to face the consequences. You may take permission from the Belthangady wildlife division. 

There will be Elephant movement across the forest, and consider yourself lucky if you spot the beast first or unlucky if he catches you. Keep your calm while walking through the forest and listen to alarms of the nature. Other than Elephants, I did not hear about any other mammal from the guide. One of the trekker claimed that he saw two Black Eagles hovering above, but I did not spot any. Guide told me that he spotted a big python last week, but I don't know the veracity. We had spotted lot of Malabar pit vipers during our Ombattu gudda trek, but this time did not spot even one. There were many different varieties of butterflies, but I could recognize none of them.

Sincere request:

If you happen to trek anywhere in the forest, please don't leave anything on the trail except your foot prints. We could spot lot of Beer bottles, Chewing gum packets, plastic covers, torn chappal etc. all along the way. 

I wish everyone a very happy & safe trekking. Good night !