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.

A Tale of WG Nomads : Bandaje Falls & Ballala Rayana Durga Fort-1

It was Christmas vacations and our souls persisted to explore something, a grandeur trek amidst western Ghats. It was my dream to visit Bandaje Arbi Falls during my college days. Now it was the time to execute the plan. After discussing about the places and plan, we chose the entry point as Bandaje village and exit point would be BallalaRaya Durga Kote(Fort). Got all the necessary info from the Google and 8  enthusiastic blazing young guns were ready to scale the heights and put themselves in the adventurous driving seat. 

Boarded rajahamsa bus from Bangalore which would drop us till Dharmasthala. From there we went to Ujire to hire the jeep to Bandaje village. It was 7am in the morning when we reached the Bandaje Narayana Gowda's house. Kishore Gowda is Narayan' s son and he can arrange you trekking permissions and guide. Just you need to ring him before leaving your place. On arrival of Kishore Gowda, he told that forest officials would turnout by 10am and its waste of time to wait for them. So we paid the trekking fee to him and started our endeavor. What I felt at later part is , it's absolutely safe even if u do not pay forest officials. In fact Kishore told the same and considering our safety we paid the fee. Well..!! its your choice to pay or not. But if forest officials spot you, then you should pay the fee. 

Narayana Gowda's House - Badaje Village  

Our Troop : All geared up .. 

  Guide arrived little late, by that time we geared ourselves with all necessary stuffs. Initial path looks flat and you have to cross one small stream and couple of houses. once you enter the forest, then it's absolutely arduous task. The whole stretch till the falls consists of high inclinations , sometimes 70° . But you will be under the shades of the trees. After you enter the grassland then make sure to hydrate yourself. It's fully exposed to sun and he has no mercy upon poor trekkers :p . You can spot the falls as son as you enter the grassland. But you need to hold your horses, coz it needs some more energy to reach.

After some 3 km of trekking inside the thick forest from Narayan's  house we got one stream and decided to take a dip and finish our lunch on the boulders nearby. As usual water was very cold and clear. Enjoyed in the water nearly 1hr and it was time for our lunch. Unpacked the food which we got it from the home. Same time our guide bid adieu and showed us the path to follow. We got all the necessary route info from him, coz next day we planned to exit via BallalaRaya Durga Fort. It was 12:30 when we resumed our venture. Make sure to fill up all your water bottles. You won't get any water till you reach grassland. 

Initial Path 

Challenging task starts from here :

With lots of huffs and puffs we entered the grasslands by 2pm. We were welcomed by lush green grasses and pleasant cool  breeze. Within no time sun started to irk us with his weapon :p . Soon we got the view of the falls and it was a wonderful moment of the trek. All of them got pumped up by seeing the falls. Took some snaps and proceeded towards the falls. It looks near from the grassland but you need to trek some good 1.5 - 2 hr to reach the falls.

Breathtaking view of Bandaje Falls :

After you scale the first mountain on the grassland you will get one small stream. We halted here to wait for our fellow trekkers and took sufficient rest before the final stretch.  Finally we reached the falls by 5pm and started looking for the camp site. You need to cross the stream and reach the other part of the stream. Walk towards the falls, your will get the campsite just before the falls, 50m away from the falls.

Camp site :

 Yummy Soup :)

Quickly we did set up the tents and put the fire to cook. It was dark and soo cold that we dropped our plan to have bathe again. Also we decided to catch the glimpse of the falls next day. Some of the guys strived really hard to get the woods for camp fire. Later we got plenty of them far from the campsite. First we had yummy corn soup and kept rice for our dinner. Spent the evening with chit chat , cracking jokes , making next days strategies etc...  Some of them got settled in the tent by 9pm , rest by 10.