A day in the Western Ghats - Jenukallu Betta Trek, Sakaleshpura

After so long time I am writing a blog to unfold one of the recent encounters with the nature. It was one of the arduous and memorable treks I had in the recent times in Western Ghats, India. We chose one of the picturesque location for our long due adventure, Jenukallu gudda (Jenukallu betta, peak) it was. Jenukallu betta (gudda) is considered as one of the holy shrines in the Sakaleshpura region. Once in a year, locals visit the Jenukallu shrine to offer their prayers to the deity. Sakaleshpura has many such peaks with religious place atop and offer wide range of Western Ghats vista for adventure lovers. Our next task was to look for knowledgeable local who can guide us to the peak. I learnt from the internet that there are many resorts/home-stays nearby and they offer guide/shelter/food for the travelers. When I actually searched for those home-stays and resorts, I was taken aback a while after seeing the hefty prices for one night stay and everyone has stepped into business shoes. These days you got to shell out a lot to enjoy the nature and experience the adventure. Having no direct contact, we we're forced to contact one of the budget home-stay and agree on a reasonable deal. After speaking with the owner of the home-stay, I felt that this would be our best option available in the vicinity.

Coffee Heaven Home Stay -

Making all the arrangements in advance is always a good idea if you don't want to mess up your fixture. Now it's time for us to get back to the mother nature and forget the busy life in which we are all getting buried. Sakaleshpura is an easy drive from Bangalore, with couple of tea breaks. We started from Bangalore around 12-12:30 in the night and reached Sakaleshpura by 4:30. Jenukallu gudda trek starts from the Bhairaveshwara temple in Maragunda village. There are two Bhairaveshwara temple near Devarunda village. People often get confused between these two. One is in Mekanagadde and at the base of Ettinabhuja peak. We scaled Ettinabhuja peak long back (click here for Ettinabhuja travelogue), we started from Shishila and ended at Mekanagadde temple. Another Bhairaveshwara temple is in Maragunda and at the base of Jenukallu gudda. From Sakaleshpura to Maragunda it's roughly an hr drive towards Mudigere. We called the guy who made all the arrangements for us and informed that we were about to reach Maragunda. Though I was driving all night, freshness in the air cheered me up and pumped up for the upcoming adventure. Western ghats always treated us with the great memories and we were sure that even this time we would return with great bunch of memories. Somewhere around 5:30-6 am we reached the home-stay in Maragunda.

Morning at Maragunda -

Home-stay guy told that, guide would arrive at 8-8:30 am by the time we freshen up, have breakfast and get ready to roll. Some went to bed, some went for nature walk. Obviously, I chose the latter one. It was sunrise time and peaks were about to show up. I was mesmerized when I saw the mighty Jenukallu peak. Inner me was thinking about - can we make it...!!!??? lol, that's right- You heard me..!! No matter how many peaks you scale and have been through hardest times, first look will always scares you. If you bail out by just the looks of it, then you cannot conquer anything in your life. When you hit the path, your dedication, little adventure, love towards the nature, sheer happiness in the mountains - make you conquer the fear and the next moment you will be on the other side of the fear. 

Now that I had a great stunning look of Jenukallu peak, it was time to motivate the gang and get them going. When the hot tea and breakfast was ready, it was 8 am. Guide for the day showed up with his machete. Yes...!! that's the only hope for us, if we were rounded by the angry tuskers for intruding their home. We learnt from the guide that, there were recent sighting of tuskers around the village. Thank God! even though many locals refused to guide us to the peak, this guide (forgot the name, blame my memory...uhgh!!) agreed for taking us. he also brought a companion with him for the safety. Finally, time was up for us to enter the wilderness of Western ghats. We packed all our bags and lunch. Parked our vehicles near the gate of the Bhairaveshwara Temple. It was roughly 10 mins  drive from the home-stay. From Bhairaveshwara temple, Jenukallu peak is around 7 km and you have to ascend many steep peaks before reaching the Jenukallu top. During this journey, one can sight the major peaks in the Sakaleshpura surroundings. Ettinabhuja, Amedhikallu, Deepadakallu are the major ones which you can view from the peak. First 1 km or so was very pleasure and it was pretty much flat grassland. At the end of the flat path, you can sight the Ettinabhuja peak towards your right.

Standing tall, Jenukallu Betta -

EttinaBhuja Peak -

From this point, we were about to enter the thick forest area. Before starting the steep accent towards Jenukallu peak, we heard  the elephants trumpet. With that sublime trumpet, it gave us a signal to turn back. Our guide was very cautious and went little ahead of us to sight them and make a call whether to pursue the adventure or not..!!  Believe me..!! we were in no mood to turn back after seeing the green vistas of the Western ghats and enchanting beauty of the mountains. We prayed God for the departure of the tuskers. But they were in weekend mood and wanted to roam in the jungle like a king. Our guide asked us to turn back and he would definitely take us to the peak next time. We have come so far to just have a glimpse of the peak..!!..? Nah..!! We stuck to our plan and started thinking about alternatives.

Task ahead ..!!! How to cross the forest ??

Technology is killing us.. !! isn't it ?

We waited for almost half an hr and guide was reluctant to continue with us. After some time he got to know that we're not gonna turn back, he started talking about alternatives and the consequences if we encounter tuskers. Finally, he agreed to take us top, through the other side of the peak by making our own path to the peak. He warned us to walk briskly and pass the forest area without any noise. We agreed to his terms and started making our own way up to the mountains. Somehow we managed to cross the thick forest and reach the green meadows on the mountain. Still we had to cover 4 km to reach the peak and it was almost 60-70° steep ascend.

Out of the Forest !!

Guide with the machete :) 

Steep ahead - 

Much needed break !!

Never look back

Deepadakallu peak -

EttinaBhuja and Amedhikallu , in the backdrop

Cool breeze, pristine greenery, birds chirping, great views of the Western ghats made our journey pleasant and enjoyable. After continuous ascend of 3-3.5 km we reached the final stage of the peak by 1 pm. We ran out of water and nobody had a drop of water to quench the thirst. Scorching sun didn't show any mercy on us and we had to start final accent as soon as possible. We didn't waste our time and started the final ascend without any breaks. Final stage was very steep and we had to negotiate the boulders carefully on couple of occasions. The ascend was little slippery and full of loose gravels, making our journey more difficult. With non stop 20 mins of steep ascend,we were on top of Jenukallu gudda. What a wonderful view it was ..!! Loved it to the core. Suddenly weather started changing and within no time, the clouds started to cuddle us. That moment was like cherry on top of the cake. We were so delighted that we forgot all our tiredness and we just wanted to enjoy the moment of being so close to the nature.

Clear view of Deepadakallu peak -

Getting closer to the destination - 

Closer -

And closer - 

Almost there - 

Waiting for fellow trekkers -

The final stretch -

View from the top -

Deepadakallu, Amedhikallu and Ettinabhuja in one frame -

The path covered - 

We started our descend after spending good time on the peak. We descended the final stretch of Jenukallu peak and took 10-15 mins of quick nap. We didn't open our packed lunch as there was no water with us. We were so tired and hungry that, we couldn't walk briskly to reach home-stay on time. We somehow managed to descend 4 km to reach nearby village. Fortunately, we had to cross one of the streams around the village. We quenched our thirst there and unpacked the food. Enjoying the nature around you and having the food is a great feeling and not everyone can experience it. We were fortunate enough on many occasions to sit in the lap of mother nature and have the food right in front of beautiful mountains. It was all Jeep route from the village. We had to cover 3-4 km more to reach the home-stay where we made all the arrangements. It was 5:30 pm in the evening when we arrived at the home-stay. The home-stay guy greeted us with a great hot tea and offered hot water to fresh up. We bid adieu to our guide and paid his share. Soon after having snacks it was time to start our journey back. We halted that night at one of our friends guest house near Sakaleshpura. Prepared our dinner there. Night was too young and we had so much to talk about our Jenukallu experience. 

Next day morning we visited Mookanamane water falls, which is just an hr drive from the guest house at Shanivarasanthe. We thoroughly enjoyed at the waterfalls by getting into the water. We came back to guest house and went for a walk in the estate. With heavy heart, we bid adieu to the Western ghats and headed towards Bangalore by 5 pm. It was 11 pm in the night, when we reached home still thinking about the sweet memories that we gained in last couple of days.

Bhairava Durga Night Trek - Weekend get away

Who doesn't want to relish the Bangalore's night life. Err...!! Not that pub life or party mood on weekends but to get lost below the dark skies somewhere outside the Bangalore. The ecstasy of night trek cannot be described in words, rather experience it once in a life time. We have done many night treks around Bangalore and each one of them worth a visit and adventurous as well. This time we chose to conquer Bhairava Durga hill, Kudur taluk near Nelamangala. This hill is considered one among the nava Durgas (nine forts) aground Bangalore. Not many of them choose this hill, because of its precarious trail. Hiking during night is dangerous too, as the steep rocky terrain can cause serious injuries.

We the bunch of enthusiastic trek freaks decided to venture Bhairava Durga during weekend. Packed all necessary stuffs like food, water, torch, tents etc.. and headed towards Nelamangala. Kudur is 20km from Nelamangala first toll, which is the base of the hill. Once you reach Kudur, take left and look for govt boys hostel. There is an arch beside hostel. We entered the arch and parked our vehicle at the nearby home. We did face a strong oppose from the villagers initially, not to venture into the forest in the dark. Since we were pretty sure about our goal, did not listen to them and started walking towards the hill. They also warned about forest dogs and animals. But we did not give much importance to those words and kept walking towards the base. For safety purposes we took one of the villager number and told him that we would contact in case of any emergency. There was no clear path and we lost our way somewhere in between. Keeping our hopes alive we started searching for open space on the boulders to figure out the correct path to the peak. After the initial struggle we reached one point where it was difficult to ascend the boulders. The ascent was very steep and a small mistake would have led us to misery. We lingered around the place for quite few minutes and the villagers noticed our lights and thought that we were in trouble. They started calling us back and asked to proceed next morning. But we were reluctant about villagers words and did not want to loose our hopes of making it to the top.

It was almost an hr since we started our endeavor to the peak, but there were no chance of getting the right path to the top. Luckily couple of villagers approached us and asked us to take the other route in order to reach the peak. We were in a big relief after getting the direction. All pumped up again and regained the energy to conquer the hill. We repeatedly asked them to accompany us till we get the proper path, but our effort went in vain. Soon they left us and we proceeded towards the directions that they showed. Believe me or not, again we lost in the woods. It was such a perilous trail that anybody would easily get lost within short distance. We wandered the same place twice or thrice and still not clear about the path to take. Everybody lost their energy and confused about the path. Our hopes to reach the peak started dwindling. We all gathered at once place and kept all the luggages. Couple of us decided to go ahead and search the path. At the same time we got a call from one of the fellow villager and he agreed to take us to the top. We came back to the starting point of the trail to meet the villager. He took us in the same way which we had took first time. But this time we took slight turn to surpass the big boulder. At many places it was a risky affair to ascend the boulder. Somehow we managed to negotiate and reach the Bhairava Durga hill top.

At last...!!! It was 1 am when we conquered the hill and stood on the tip of the hill. It was a moment to cherish and applaud our adventurous effort to make it to the peak. Quickly we did setup our tents and prepared food for the night. It was 4 am in the morning when we slept in the tents. We did not feel much cold since we pitched the tents in between couple of big boulders. We woke up by 6:30 am in the morning to catch the glimpse of sunrise from the top. It was an adorable morning with fresh breeze. We were mesmerized by the beauty of sunrise and a Karnataka flag which was flying high on top. 

Morning Captures :

Camp site :

Bhairava Durga peak as seen from base : 

Captured the beauty of nature and it was time to bid adieu and move down. Within 45 min we reached the village. Had plenty of water from the nearby home where we had parked our vehicles. We paid 200 rs to the guide and he accepted that wholeheartedly. Had a tea near Kudur and bid adieu to our guide. It was just an hr journey back to home from Nelamangala. Overall it was not a just night trek, but a life lesson too. No matter what, don't loose hope and keep yourself determined towards the goal.