Sharavathi Valley post monsoon trek : Meghane and Belligundi Falls

Sharavathi valley is one of my favorite spot in western ghats. It not only offers you a splendid vista of mountains but also hides numerous unknown water falls in it. This trek is one such exploratory trek to find majestic water falls deep inside the woods. Since our previous monsoon venture in the sharavathi vicinity, we badly wanted to visit the sharavathi again. We had seen sheer beauty of sharavathi valley in peak monsoon season. Hence this time decided to linger around sharavathi in post monsoon season. We had heard about basavanabaayi , gudanagundi and belligundi falls from our guide Mahesh Raj when we were here last time. So, decided to venture into these places with our newly formed private group TRAILBLAZERS .

As per our discussion with guide Mahesh, our journey started from a place called Kargal, near Jog falls. We were 24 members in total and many of them joined from Hyderabad and Chennai as well. Break fast was ready by the time we reach Kargal chowdeshwari temple at 10 am. We quickly freshened up and had breakfast, Packed our lunch too. Our trek starting point was 30 km from Kargal and vehicle was arranged by our guide. We alighted at the trek start point by 12 pm. Guide distributed all grocery items and we had to carry those till the campsite.

Falls on the way

Our group 

Initial Path

Steep ascent

Our campsite for the first day was Meghane. Meghane is a beautiful hillock from where you can witness the panoramic view of sharavathi valley. This place is called as ooty of sharavathi. If you want to visit ooty of sharavathi ,you have to trek 8 km from Shivamogga - Bhatkal road. As we started our trek very late , it was difficult to reach Meghane before dusk. Path was very steep and slippery as well. It was 6 pm when we came out of dense forest and entered grassland. It would take another hour to reach Meghane. it was getting dark by that time. So our guide suggested to camp at the same place instead of getting lost in the dark.

Relaxing time after reaching grassland

Campsite

Only issue was, there was no water source around. It was almost 2 hrs since we had water and still one night to be spent without water. If no water, obviously no food. It was one of the hardest part of the trek. Surviving without water and food for almost 18 hrs is not a joke. We did set up campsite by 7 pm and had some of the vegetables and biscuits for the night.

Next day we woke up early morning by 6 pm and proceeded towards Meghane. It took one hour to reach the Meghane view point. We got rid of our thirst by having the water from nearby stream. Guide and cook were busy preparing sumptuous heavy breakfast, to cover the last night chaos that every one experienced. We decided to have bath in the nearby stream. Water was pretty cold. It took only seconds to get into water  , but took an hour to get back from the stream. What a natural relief it was..!! 

Towards Meghane

Authentic Malnad Home

Beautiful view from Meghane

Had our breakfast upma and kesari bath by 9 am and started our journey towards Basavanabayi falls at 9:30 am. The route was very scenic and one can witness the beauty of sharavathi valley from distance. We had to cross couple of streams, paddy fields on the way. Unfortunately we were running couple of hours late on second day as well. It was already 3 pm when we reached basavanabaayi view point. Had our packed lunch there and decided to skip basavanabaayi as it would be impossible to reach belligundi base point before dark. Last bus was at 5 pm from Basavanabayi cross (Shivamogga-Bhatkal road). So we were forced to skip Basavanabayi and proceeded towards Bhatkal main road.

Marching towards Basavanabayi

Meghane peak from distance

Time to unveil our banner 

Lush green paddy fields

In front of Basavanabayi peak

Relaxing on the way 

Finally bus arrived at exact 5 pm and reached Bhatkal within half an hr. Our guide arranged private vehicle to take us to the base point(chaktikal village) of belligundi falls. It was dark when we reached base point of belligundi. Sumptuous rice sambar and payasa was served by the cook. All went to sleep early as we covered 30+ km in 2 days and still 10+ km need to be covered next day.

Belligundi campsite

Belligundi Falls as seen from our campsite

Next day woke up by 7 am and hot tea was served. Finished our morning duties and had pulav for the breakfast. We started our river bed trek towards belligundi waterfalls at 8 am. Belligunndi falls is also known as Chaktikal and Kudumari falls. The initial path was pretty straight and it was kind of jeep track. After some 1 km of walk, our journey  pelted into dense forest. Soon we hit the river bed and from here on path was entirely filled with boulders and water flowing beside the path. We could not resist ourselves from getting into the water at regular intervals. It boosted our energy and also it made the journey very lively.

Morning guest . PC : Rakesh Sayam

Back yard of our campsite

Initial path towards Belligundi Falls

Taking dip in between 

First glimpse of Belligundi Falls

Last stretch was quite steep and at some points you need to climb the huge boulders. Boulders were very slippery towards the base of the falls. You need to be very careful while crossing the boulders. A small mistake would lead you the serious injury. We crossed all the boulders very carefully and finally it was time to jump into the water and cheer for the nature. Falls looked majestic from the base and the base is absolutely flat , it wasn't deep. It was something new that we had never experienced before. Usually base of the falls will be deep due to the heavy water flow. The joy that we had below the cold, pure gushing water was out of the world experience.

Closer look of the falls

Adorable beauty

Thoroughly enjoyed for almost 2 hrs there and started back to base camp. As I mentioned earlier, initial path was very slippery and we moved cautiously. Once you are away from damp place, it's just a crack walk back to the camp. 4 pm it was, when we returned to camp. All were hungry and food was ready by then. Had rice sambar and bajji. We had booked our buses back to Bangalore from Bhatkal. Our guide arranged a private vehicle which would drop us in Bhatkal. It was 8 pm when we reached Bhatkal and our bus was scheduled to arrive at 9 pm. Finally bus arrived at exact 9 pm and we reached Bangalore next day morning 6 am.

Overall our second Sharavathi valley venture turned out be an excellent adventure. Till now Sharavathi valley did not disappoint us .