Belligundi Waterfalls

On our previous trek to Marloorgundi and Goodlugundi we had got to see the huge waterfalls called "Belligundi" on the adjacent mountain. The guide had confirmed that it is a 8.5kms trek in deep forest one side. We had decided to explore this falls and hence came up with the plan to head to Belligundi. Its a good trek with decent difficulty level if you are carrying tents and other heavy equipment. It would be really very difficult to try this out in the monsoons(not advisable) as for the entire stretch of 8+kms it's thick forest infected with leeches. Also during monsoon it might not be possible to go towards the falls as you will have walk on the river bed for the last 1km if you want to go anywhere near to the falls. 

We started pretty late from Bangalore and by the time we reached the starting point of the trek it was 11am in the morning. After having a quick chat with the guide we started with the trek pretty fast. The trek starts from the house of the guide itself. 1/2km from the guide's house and you enter the thick forests of western ghats. The forests in this area is pretty dense you hardly get to see the sky until the last 1km of the trek. The forests are so thick that without guide or GPS and with minimal human intervention in the area you might be lost for ever! We couldn't even hear the sound of such a big water falls until the last one Km, that way it was a bit different from many other treks. Mostly we try to hit the peak to get a good view of the landscape and try to identify where we are, but this trek was a bit different. The feel was like we are wandering in a thick forest where in every side looked like it was trail making it very easy to get lost.

We were walking at a decent pace and covered around 6kms of the trek in around 2-3 hrs after that one of our team member was stuck with severe cramps on his legs which dropped the pace. After around 4hrs finally we managed to come out of the forest and hit the river bed and from here you get to see the magnificent falls for the first time at a distance of around 1km. The last 1km of the trek is on the river bed walking/jumping on the huge rocks. That is the reason it is not advisable to trek in monsoon as you might not be able to go towards the falls in monsoon.

The falls looks really big and probably for the first time I experienced something like this, standing below such a huge waterfalls was an experience worth after a good 8.5kms hard trek. Just like many other water falls getting below the water falls is really tricky and slippery. We spent some good time sitting below the water falls and enjoying the wilderness of our life. My only regret from the trek was i couldn't make good photos of the falls. Many a times either I was very tiered for taking a picture or there was no proper lighting or such a big falls never came in a single frame or water droplets covered my lens :-(.

There is  a huge rock 1km away from the waterfalls and this was our base camp, this was the place were we spent our night as well. It was an experience to sleep in front of such a huge waterfalls, had never done that before and it was awesome experience. Got up a bit early in the morning and went towards the falls again to get a good view of the waterfalls on a peaceful morning. We also got to see a couple of caves near the river bed but then didn't wanted to take the risk of exploring the same.

At around 8am we started heading back to the starting point and with all the luggage, it was really a steep climb for almost 2-3kms. Many of us struggled and we managed to come back in around 4hrs without any major hiccups and our guide was pretty impressed with our fitness :-).

Over all a very good trek, got to test ourselves after a decently long break. Like my new resolution i wouldn't give either the GPS trails or the details of the location for the same old reason that I don't want these places to be known to many and get spoiled. At least I will try to maintain this philosophy not to disclose the location for waterfalls. I have seen many waterfalls which has been badly littered. I would think of giving information about the location only to selected few who are trust worthy and are sensible enough.