Saturday, February 16, 2013

Onake Abbi, Meenabbi and KoodluTheertha

After our last trek to Maarloorgundi and Goodlugundi, we wanted to avoid trekking during the new year time as most of the places would be over-crowded and expensive. Hence a trek was planned in January.  Once Smitha delivered a baby girl, father Diwi was even more anxious to celebrate it with a trek :-). The weather in Bangalore looked very hot and hence most of us were a bit confused in picking up a place to trek. We didn't want to trek a peak in hot summer and get roasted. We were searching for places and finally called up Rakesh Holla our new partner in crime for the prized destination, got the contact details of guide and the details about the location and a quick plan for the trek was made. 
Lot of confusion prevailed until the last moment on who will join and who will not, finally a team of 8 members decided to head towards Agumbe. We all met at Harsha's place and boarded the Tempo Traveller. Picked up Prabanjan on the way. Our first pit stop was on the out skirts of Bangalore to fill up the fuel tank. We found a McD and didn't forget to fill up with some junk food before the trek. 
It was around midnight before we left Bangalore. Our driver was deadly, he managed to reach Shimoga in 3 hours and after some tea we continued towards Agumbe. It was scary many times trying to look at the road, we reached Agumbe at 5.30 in the morning. Can you believe Bangalore to Agumbe in 5.30min during night? We had informed Kasturi Akka from Dodda mane about our arrival and they had the breakfast prepared for us at 6 in the morning itself. We refreshed ourselves and had the wonderful breakfast for the morning. We also got the food packed for afternoon. We met 2 other teams heading towards Narasimha parvatha.
At around 8 we reached Someshwara and met the guide. We started heading towards our first destination Onake Abbi. There is a decent trail till the end of the water falls and is not very difficult. The entire trek is around 3-4Kms with average difficulty.  Most of the people go to this falls on the top right from Agumbe. Probably very few go to the bottom, the reason for this guess is because the place was very clean with no trace of human interference in the region. No bottles, no plastics, just huge rocks, water and greenery.
We took exactly an hour to reach the beautiful water falls, I tried to explore in and around to get some good and complete picture of the beautiful water falls. Diwi and Avinash were already in water and it was very tempting for me to get into water. After my regular activity of taking some pics of the beautiful location, I finally decided to get into water. Every time I get into water my biggest fear is without knowing swimming how am i going to survive :-). Half the way to the base of the water falls the water was not deep at all. However the last 50 meters or so was probably a bit deep, at least that is what I heard from Diwi. I decided to swim 50 meters as I couldn't miss the opportunity to stand below the water falls. Finally i made it to the bottom of the water falls and it was out of the world experience. Its always amazing to go for a trek and spend most of the time enjoying in water.
On our way to Onake abbi, we had also seen one more water falls at a distance in the forest. Rakesh had also told us if possible try to visit and explore Meenabbi below Onake abbi. It was around 12 and we started moving back from Onake abbi half way down we decided to explore Meenabbi. Our guide told they had not been there before and they are not completely sure of the path. However we just decided to walk along the stream and find Meenabbi. This is the second time i have experienced that walking along side a stream in forest is the most difficult part of any trek, reason being you need to consistently climb up and get down those huge slippery rocks which is very tiring, especially with a back pack. After around an hour or so wandering in the forest heading in the direction of the sound of water we finally managed to reach Meenabbi also called as Hori gundi. It was a small but beautiful waterfall, just like a wonderful shower. The best part of the waterfall was the flowers which had grown on the rocks and facing the water. I was actually surprised how could flowers stand in way of gushing water from such heights.
We reached back to the place from where we had started at around 3. Most of us where very tired and dehydrated, also most of us were very hungry. I had light head ache probably due to hunger. We opened up our packed food from Kasturi akka and what an amazing feeling it is to have food in your mouth when you are hungry. We had our food in the Someshwara temple premises and cleaned up the area and left to Agumbe for our stay for the night at Doddamane.
We had all the time in the evening to roam around Agumbe, its the same place where the famous serial "Malgudi Days" was shot. Also it is the place which receives 2nd highest rain in the world. Also these are the forests which are very famous for "King Cobras", even though these forests are very very popular for reptiles we were unlucky not to get a glimpse of any. However we did manage to see a dead snake the next day. We did go to an old temple in the town as we wanted to spend some time before the dinner.
People who have visited Doddamane, know the taste of food served by Kasturi Akka. I had one of the best dinners of my life - delicious country side food prepared and served under the open sky. I always believe that the taste of food is directly proportional to the mood and goodness of the heart of the cook. And Kasturi akka you are an amazing lady with a very big heart. I also happened to read in one of the comments about the place "Sakshat Annapoorneshwari", if anyone has any doubt go and taste the food. We stayed overnight in Doddamane. People of Doddamane never ask for money for their service, you can only pay whatever you feel like paying, which they will oblige.
We got up early in the morning and we decided to explore Koodlu Theerta, we had heard that this is a tourist place and is badly littered. That is the reason we decided to head very early and leave the place before most of the crowd starts visiting. Not to be surprised any place closer to road and easily accessibly is not spared it India. With no one from government or locals to monitor this place, it was very badly littered with plastics and beer bottles all around. We didn't consider it safe to get into water with so many glass bottles. The place though was very beautiful, the only thing which was lacking was the sanity of the place. After taking some pics we started heading back and on our way we saw huge crowd heading towards the water falls with lots of stuffs to be dumped at the place. Felt good that we were not late.
We started back from Agumbe around 11 towards Bangalore. On our way back I was very proud of our team who helped a family which met with an accident on the road and had some head injuries as well. We gave them first aid, we arranged ambulance calling up 108, managed the traffic on the road. We did everything they needed at that moment. Even the police who came in on time appreciated our services. Finally all where safe and reached back home around 10 in the night.
After looking at the state of KoodluTheertha, some how I don't feel like sharing the location details on my blog, from now on I will not disclose the water falls details, but will continue to give the GPS maps for other treks. However for like minded people, you can drop me a mail and then I can share the details. For a quick note this place is around Agumbe.