tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197680982024-02-19T17:25:06.517-08:00POORNA PRAJNATravel and Adventure my Passionpoorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-90640648940536492572016-11-05T12:28:00.001-07:002017-04-26T03:17:27.719-07:00Pin Parvati Pass Trek<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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On that particular day almost an year back when I fell down on the football field with a cuff muscle tear and followed it up with collapsing multiple times on the squash court, a thought was coming to mind that probably it is the end of my sports activity and will have to rest my boots. Even after resting for months there was no improvement and couple of doctors even suggested of a ligament tear and needs to be operated. However when my friend Diwakar suggested the Himalayan trek - Pin Parvati Pass it was an offer I couldn't resist, it was an opportunity to revisit the Himalayas after a gap of almost 10 Years. But I had my own doubts about my fitness and to follow it up, just 20 days before the trek I fell down again from the stairs and had a swollen ankle for at least a week. So over all until I started for the trek I had one or the other kind of injury and both my mind and body was not ready for such a tough trek, but I wanted to push and stretch myself and wanted to believe in myself to prove myself that I could recover and come back fresh. And that is exactly what happened, after one of the toughest treks I have ever done I have come back fitter and stronger both mentally and physically. All of sudden I feel all my injuries are gone and I am back again capable to play around.<br />
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Jul - 22 Day 1:</div>
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My only preparation for the trek was walking back from office to home for almost 10 days before the trek, that was approximately around 100 Kms. I just had the confidence that I could walk long distances now mentally I was prepared to take on the challenges of inclination and high altitude.</div>
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We were a group of 8 people from Bangalore mostly who had known each other for some time and we all met at Bangalore airport around 7am. We had a direct flight to Chandigarh. We landed in Chandigarh at around 12, we managed to get a tempo traveller which could accommodate all our luggage comfortably. We stopped at a Dhaba on the outskirts of Chandigarh and had the luxury of experiencing the royal Punjabi food. However the drive to Kullu was one hell of an experience to remember. We had a crazy driver who had no respect for the person driving from ahead was all I can say. We reached Kullu around midnight and no one had any energy left after the long day which started around 4am. We just booked rooms and retired for the rest of the day.</div>
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Jul 23 -- Day 2:</div>
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Neeraj our trek guide and coordinator had informed to meet and pick us up around 8am. We all had a good breakfast and were ready by 8am. Neeraj came along with 2 vehicles as we had to travel from Kullu to a place few Kms ahead of Manikaran. For the first time we met 4 people from Bengal who happened to be our trek mates and ended up as friends for ever.<br />
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We reached Manikaran after probably an hours drive, this is a holy place for the sikh community and has a shrine on the sides of a flashy river. They have those natural hot water springs inside the shrine which is mixed with cold water and they have a huge natural spa for all the devotees. After spending some time looking around we again started back to the last motorable place near a dam from where the trek begins.</div>
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After preparing our bag packs to begin the trek, we started at around 11am. First day of the trek was very easy, probably the idea was to acclimatise. We just trekked for around 2 kms and we reached the camping site of Pulga village. The day was too short probably we could have spent some more time exploring Manikaran or Kasol or Malana (famous for the worlds best Hashish) and their custom of untouchability considering them to be the direct descendants of Alexander and a superior race. If you google out we can get quite a few interesting places around here with lots of western travellers hanging out mostly for the easy availability of worlds best cream.<br />
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Pulga was not bad either, tried to move around the apple orchids and met quite a few locals. Finally got to attend a music show at night arranged in one of the guest houses in the forest and I was quite impressed.</div>
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Jul 24 -- Day 3:</div>
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You can actually say the trek begins from here. Our target was to reach Kheer Ganga which was around 7 Kms. This is quite a decent trek, you get a wonderful waterfall on the way as well. A lot of people trek till Kheer Ganga and there are quite a few camps at the place. Kheer Ganga is a beautiful place with huge mountains in front of the camping site, you can relax in the beautiful hot water springs near the temple. One thing which was still troubling me was, we were in the Himalayas.. day 3 and yet we were still seeing a lot of humans all around... I was expecting that isolation, well the great thing was this was last place from were we could communicate with our family, from here all along the trek all your phones lie dead with no network until you reach the end. Also the number of people who continue is very few, only who are on the pin parvati trek continue from here and that number is very very low. So you can say you will hardly get to see any humans from here until the end other than any other teams doing the trek.<br />
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We spent significant time relaxing the hot water springs of Kheer Ganga, our body was rejuvenated from all the body pain we had from constant travelling. They have kind of natural spa mixing the hot water with the cold and the open mountain view in the front makes it very refreshing even for the mind.</div>
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Jul 25 -- Day 4:</div>
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Both our body and mind were completely rejuvenated from the holy dip at Kheer Ganga and the entire team was in good spirits and ready for the challenge. But the trek from here starts opening up both distance wise, adventure wise and also you start gaining significant altitude almost like a 1000ft every day.<br />
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The target for the day was to camp at Thunda Bhuj which was around 9 Kms from Kheer Ganga. Until the last 2-3 Kms most of the trail was pretty much flat with abundant growth of Hashish/Cannabis all around the trail, but was not sure if it had grown naturally in the habitat or was cultivated. Our porters said most of them were cultivated but there are no one to take care of such cultivation in mountains. You don't get to see any humans other than few travellers (if you are lucky) after Kheer Ganga.<br />
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KheerGanga is the last place you are will be in contact with the civilisation, after Kheer Ganga you are completely isolated and disconnected from rest of the world until you finish the trek. The last stretch of the day gets tough with some steep climb. Also just around 2 Kms before the camp site, there is small house which sell some of the best and fresh Kova (dairy product).<br />
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We reached Thunda Bhuj around 11 and camped next to the huge rock. There is a small hut few meters away from the rock where a baba lives, he said he has been living there for the last 20 years. Few us spoke to him for few minutes and he also offered us with Ganja.<br />
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Even though river and streams flow all around you, this day we couldn't find any source of fresh water. The water from streams and river were filled with fine grains of sand. We were forced to use the same water after boiling and filtering for cooking and drinking. But still we could feel the presence of fine grains of sand even in our food. Few of them opted for the bottled water available with the Baba for a price, however most of us decided to experience the wilderness.<br />
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Jul 26 -- Day 5:</div>
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The target for the day was Pandu Bhuj which was around 11 Kms. To me this was one of the toughest day of the entire trek. Not because of the distance but some of the places are really scary and life threatening.<br />
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After first few Kms of the day, we get to see a broken bridge. I heard this bridge had broken very recently and has not been fixed and hence we had to take a more adventurous route of rock climbing vertically with a flashy river flowing below. It was very risky to climb those slippery rocks with small stream of water flowing over the rocks.<br />
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Once this vertical climb over the rock was covered, for most part of the day we kind of walked along smaller ups and downs of different mountains. I guess it was from this day, the team which walked together till here started to split based on one's fitness. Few of the guys who were fit were like 45 min ahead and few were around 45 min behind me. Most part of the trek from here I kind of walked alone since I was kind of in the middle, it was an awesome experience just to walk alone surrounded by huge mountains all around you.<br />
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Towards the end of the day, it was something that would remain as one of the toughest challenge of the entire trek. First we walked through the slippery soil of a land slide and followed it up with the crossing over the flashy river sliding on top of a rock. It was one experience of its kind, very scary. A few minutes later we have the Pandu Bhuj, the story goes that the pandavas dropped this huge rock onto the river to cross the flashy river. This huge rock kind of acts like a bridge but walking on this is very risky, slippery and scary. You slip and I doubt anybody would be able to find the body, the river below the huge rock flows ferociously.<br />
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I managed to climb the rock without much hiccups, but from the top of the rock when I saw the river I lost the confidence to go further and felt dizzy, I just sat down on top of the rock for a couple of minutes to breath slowly and get back some lost confidence, by that time I could see a couple of porters to help me with my bag. I managed to get down without much fuss, but soon after crossing over the river there is very steep cliff to climb before we reach the camping site. The day was very tiring and every body was kind of exhausted. Just like me most of them equally scared to cross the flashy river on top of the rock.<br />
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Jul 27 -- Day 6:</div>
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Just when I thought Day 5 was toughest, well the trek was just opening up and it was getting tougher and tougher by day. Day 6 the target was to reach Mantali lake, we were given packed food in the morning which was an indication of a long walk. Mantali Lake was around 14 Kms from Pandu Bhuj.<br />
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We started early, but this day the weather was not very supportive. It kept raining all the day. Even though we had rain gears, it gets pretty irritating to trek in rain especially in the Himalayas. Rocks become very slippery, it becomes really cold and the landscapes kind of get covered with fog to rob you off the opportunity to view the wilderness.<br />
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We passed through Thakur Kaun and Odi Tach, now if you are a photo enthusiasts make sure you don't miss an opportunity to camp here on a day with some good weather. I can say we missed the opportunity to spend some quality time taking some wonder pictures here because of the bad weather with persistent rains. Odi Tach I felt resembled a bit to valley of flowers.<br />
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Other than the huge distance of 14 Kms, most part of the day until the last couple of Kms was more like a normal walk on the mountains. Other than couple of places we didn't have much to climb. However towards end of the day the trail becomes really narrow and we will be walking on the edge of the flashy river, you slip and you would be gone. The best thing to do in such a situation I felt was to just focus on the trail and not to watch the river, so scary it was.<br />
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Just before the Mantali Lake, the river Parvathi flows like gushing out of a dam gate, very ferocious and scary. We would be walking next to it to reach the camp site.<br />
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Jul 28 -- Day 7:</div>
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We were already ahead by a day, we could have gone ahead but quite a few of them were tired and our trek guide decided to camp and rest for a day in Mantali lake. Mantali lake is not actually a lake, the flow of the river parvati melting down from the glaciers above are actually blocked by natural mountain dam. As a result of which the river spreads out to give the feel of a lake. However towards one end of the blockade it open ups like a dam gate and the water gushes out very ferociously. It was exactly the place we had come by the previous day. Behind the natural dam the river spreads like backwaters and hence the name Mantali Lake.<br />
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Since Day 7 was bright and sunny, we dried all our wet clothes, shoes from the previous rain day. Most of the day we spent roaming around the lake crossing small stream, playing Frisbee, taking some pictures around the area. We recharged ourselves for the tough days ahead.<br />
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Jul 29 -- Day 8:<br />
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Today the target was to reach the Parvati Upper base camp which was about 9Kms trek. But difficulty wise I would rate this day as the toughest day of the entire trek, for 2 reasons, one, we climb almost vertically gaining around 3000ft on a single day and 2nd, lack of oxygen at the higher altitude challenges your fitness. I was kind of forced to take a break almost every alternate step, such was the difficulty level. Also since you climb almost vertically I kind of felt dizzy couple of times when I looked back. We almost took close to 9+ hrs to reach the base camp, such was the difficulty.<br />
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The upper parvati base camp is at around 16500ft above sea level, once we reached the base camp we could feel the difficulty in breathing also it was pretty cold to venture out of tent. I was literally drained walking on the huge rocks on this particular day. And probably I was slowly getting uncomfortable with the altitude, I was not very hungry that day and couldn't eat much just forced myself with some food to keep going. Most of us were inside our tent for rest of the day, it was very cloudy and misty as well. We couldn't see anything outside the tent.<br />
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Our team leader had told we had to start very early in the morning around 5am to reach the Pin-Parvati Pass, but that night I was not sure what happened but I couldn't sleep properly, I was waking up after every hour. Probably since we closed and packed the tent completely to avoid the cold, it created a blockade for proper ventilation and that could be the cause for my discomfort.<br />
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Jul 30 -- Day 9:<br />
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As planned we got up at 4 am, got ready with the packed breakfast. This was the big day where in we climb the final ascent of Pin-Parvathi, switching over from Parvathi valley to Pin Valley. The initial destination was to climb the peak and get down at Pin Valley and camp at Pin base camp, but in order to reduce the total distance on the final day we decided to camp around 7 Kms from the pin base camp.<br />
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We started trekking towards the peak on the glaciers and ice, it was very slippery and we were walking with our regular shoes without spikes. Adding to that walking on ice and jumping over crevasse was very risky, you slip into one of those and there is no coming back. The summit was around 2 hours away from the Parvathi upper base camp, but with altitude and ice we were really struggling to walk. We took almost 2+ hrs to cover a distance of around 2kms from the camping site.<br />
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At around 7am we all managed to reach the summit which was around 17500ft above sea level. We all rested for few minutes and started taking some pics on the summit, it was a great feeling. A feeling of accomplishment, a sense of happiness that the tough part is over and we would getting in touch with the family soon, it was a lot of confidence booster for our capability to do something like that.<br />
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Soon our trek guide informed us to start walking down towards the pin base camp, it was very important to get down at the earliest since we need to cross a crazy river the level of which raises as the day progress, the crossing point is the place where the ice melts and starts flowing as Pin river. When we crossed the river the water was already near to our hips and it was freezing cold water, a few steps into the water and we felt like we were completely numb, it was really tough to cross the river, so i can assume how difficult it would be once the water level raises.<br />
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Once we crossed the river we had our breakfast and started walking along the river side on the Pin Valley. Unlike the green Parvathi Valley, Pin Valley is a complete dessert. We were walking along side the flashy Pin river and some places we were walking on the land slides which was very risky. You lose focus and you would end up in ice cold Pin river. Since Pin valley is a desert, we started to feel the heat of the sun and dryness in the air.<br />
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On this day we covered a total distance of around 16Kms non stop walking. By the end of day we had a feel of great accomplishment, great satisfaction of crossing the summit and every body was very eager to talk to their families which was just a day away. But everybody was completely exhausted after a long day of walking.<br />
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Jul 31 -- Day 10:<br />
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This was the final day of our trek, the target was to reach the Mudh village and from there take a cab to Kaza (Spiti Valley). It had almost been a week since we saw humans other than our own trek mates, every body wanted to finish the trek and started early. But the last day had its own surprise, we had to cross the Pagal nala, it was called pagal nala because the water level can change any moment. Other than early few kms most part of the day's trek was completely flat. But walking on the flat desert with hot sun was getting harder, especially with limited water source.<br />
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We walked a total of 22Kms on the final day, it was more like the walk was never ending. Finally we get to see the Village Mud from the distance of probably around 7-8kms. This was the most tricky part, once we saw the village we felt like we have almost reached but after the first view walking for another 7-8kms was the most difficult part, was almost kind of impossible.<br />
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Finally around 12 almost all of us made to the village Mud, it was the end of our great journey and end of our "Pin Parvathi Trek". We had cabs booked to take from Mud to Khaza which was around 2 hours drive. We had our final group pic at Mud and boarded our Cabs. It was great to see humans after almost 7 days.<br />
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We reached Khaza around 4pm and all of us very hungry after the long day, we unloaded our luggage in the rooms and headed for the Tibetan restaurant, I had the best ever momos here. I tried momos many times after wards but yet to find something even closer to what I had in Khaza. Khaza looks to be a very silent town, but what was most surprising for me was the presence of only one SBI ATM which was also out of order in such a tourist place. If you are visiting Khaza carry enough money not much of ATMs or Cards will help.<br />
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We all called up our families and spoke in length about our trek, we took hot shower to releive ourselves of the body pain from the tough trek. Finally we rested early since we had to start early next day to reach Manali.<br />
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Aug 1 -- Day 11:<br />
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We started at around 6am and started in 2 Cabs with our bengali friends in one and our team in other. The plan was to visit Chandratal and head towards Manali at the earliest. I felt the valley or the Journey from Khaza to Manali is very hard, rough with beautiful landscape. I felt its perfect for the bike riders. Now that Manali to Leh is kind of travelled by almost every body, this journey from Manali to Khaza is lot more wilder and adventurous for bikers. The landscape as well is better I guess.<br />
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It was not a good day, since the 2nd cab in which our Bengali friends were travelling experienced a break down and we had to spend time to make some workaround to push as much as possible. We reached Chandratal around afternoon and spent some time around the pristine lake. I could see enough camps near the Chandratal and looks like its a pretty popular tourist spot, away from the busy streets of Manali.<br />
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An hour or two before the Routang Pass, the 2nd cab in which our Bengali friends were travelling finally gave up and they had to hop on to a truck for a lift to Manali. We had really tough time driving on the Routang Pass with very low visibility and making it worse the Cab we were travelling had very bad head lights with no fog lights. Diwi had to run in front of the Car, so that the driver could visualise the road. You can just imagine how difficult the journey was, the total distance travelled by Car for the day was around 195Kms and we took around 18 hours to complete the same. Every body was completely exhausted by the time we reached Manali at around 12 at midnight. We just logged into a hotel and slept.<br />
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Aug 2 -- Day 12 :<br />
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This was our buffer day, since we had booked our flight back to Bangalore from Chandigarh on Aug 3, we decided to spend the day in Manali instead of going to Chandigarh. Most part of the day we spent sleeping and ended it with some shopping for our families back home from the Manali Mall road.<br />
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We booked a Cab to reach Chandigarh early next day.<br />
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Aug 3 -- Day 13:<br />
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We started around 4am and reached just in time before our flight. Finally we boarded the flight around afternoon and reached Bangalore by evening.<br />
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Over all it was an awesome experience, testing our fitness both mentally and physically to the core. I believe since you are cut off from your loved ones for a longer duration you need to be mentally strong in such treks. I believe that matters more than physical strength, but physical fitness is very important as well. Lot of learning from the Trek, experienced the long isolation from human civilisation for the first time. Now the plan to do one trek every year in the Himalayas.<br />
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Sustaining the 10 day long trek with a backpack can tire even the strongest trekker, crossing of Pin and Parvathi river has to be attempted with utmost care, ropes might be of help. Also crossing Parvathi glacier which has lots of hidden crevasse is of high risk. There is lot of boulder climbing so walk safe, one wrong foot and you are in trouble.<br />
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To end it, we covered a total of around 100+ kms in 10 days.<br />
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A video on the trek:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6IhF-BVhH-c" width="640"></iframe><br />
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The GPS tag from our trek:<br />
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-18009067300396122882016-03-24T04:17:00.000-07:002016-03-24T04:17:29.529-07:00Muthodi Forest and Mulliyangiri <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We were discussing on where to go for a trek, but the hot summer made us think twice about the location. Should we get burnt in the hot mountains was the question? Finally we decided that we will head to Harsha's uncle's coffee estate attached to Muthodi Forest range spend some time around and then try trekking the Mulliyangiri Peak. The highest peak of Karnataka at around 6398ft. Even though I had been trekking for some time, I had never trekked Mulliyangiri because since there is a road connectivity to the peak, I believed the place would be badly littered. I was not wrong. Usually I avoid going to such places, but this time we thought since its just 2-3kms trek we can finish it off at least from the list of places to be visited.</div>
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Initially around 8 people wanted to join us but at the end only 3 of decided to explore. Good that we continued with the trend of once planned never back off irrespective of the numbers. Since we were only 3, we decided to drive in Diwi's car. We started around 5am from Bangalore and reached Chickmagalur around 9am. We straight away went to Forest office located very near to the bus stand, as it is mandatory to take permission from the RFO before trekking here. To our bad luck it was a holiday and we could only find some employees doing some pending work on a holiday, on our request to them they gave us the contact number of the RFO. I called up the RFO and told we had come from Bangalore and we wanted permission to trek, to which the RFO told he would come to office in 30min and asked us to wait.</div>
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After almost an hour of waiting finally the RFO came to office even on a holiday, it was a pleasant surprise at the first place. I had to mention it was pleasant meeting RFO Abdul Azeez not because we got permission to trek, but his pep talk on what to do and what not in the forest. He mentioned that usually they don't give permission in summer because many times people smoke or light fire to the dry grass which burns off the entire mountain ranges. We were lucky to get permission, probably he felt we were sensible enough. </div>
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After getting permission we headed straight to Harsha's uncles place and had a nice brunch. We parked our car and took their jeep to head towards the estate. We reached the Muthodi forest check post around 3pm and waited around 1 hour to go for a safari. At around 4 we went for a safari, since it was summer I was expecting some good sighting near the water holes, but my bad luck with the predators continues. Nothing interesting other than few sambars and peacock. It was nice to see a 300 year old Teak tree in the middle of the forest.</div>
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After the safari we headed towards the coffee estate which around 7-8kms from the forest check post and is attached to the forest. We reached around 6.30pm but due to some repair issues there was no power for the entire night. We met couple of other friends who owned the estate and together we all prepared the dinner and had a wonderful dinner. We retired to bed early as we had plans of trekking early next day.</div>
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We started from the estate around 6am promising to visit again in the monsoons and explore more. The drive from the estate to the starting point of the trek "Sarpa haadi" was spectacular. Beautiful forest, coffee estates, mountain ranges and the early golden light. It was a beautiful drive. We reached the start point around 9am after showing the permission letter to the forest officer a couple of miles before the starting point. Even he was surprised to see the letter and mentioned the same thing that mostly no one gets permission in this season.But slowly I started gaining confidence and I was walking consistently with smaller steps without trying much.</div>
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To be frank I thought this trek to be simplest one because distance wise it was just around 2-3kms, but probably due to summer heat and the steepness it did take a troll. Probably lack of activity for quite some time has reduced our fitness. Finally we reached the peak after around 90min of trek. There is a small temple on the peak and lots of visitors come to the temple by road. As expected the entire area was completely littered with plastics. The place is beautiful but I guess needs lot of cleaning. This has been the biggest problem in India, there are many wonderful places but the day you provide connectivity to such places by road to promote tourism it gets spoilt big time.</div>
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We were already late since we wanted to reach Bangalore by evening, hence we didn't trek back rather we took a lift to the starting point. We heard there are couple of beautiful waterfalls inside the private coffee estates but we decided to explore it next time around since we were getting late. We reached Chickmagalur and got freshened up and started heading back to Bangalore. Over all a wonderful weekend with a nice trek, safari, drive on the mountains and some quality time with the nature. </div>
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This trek would be wonderful if attempted after monsoons. This trek can be extended from Mullaiyan giri to Bababudan giri, we could see the trail probably some other time.</div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-9053511065616254532016-02-07T12:49:00.000-08:002016-02-07T19:40:38.755-08:00Akshayanagar Lake<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I moved to Akshaya nagar around 2 years back in Dec 2013. There was a lake in Akshaya nagar, but there was no water in it, so when I first saw the lake, it was kind of a dead lake with lots of weeds and construction derbies all around the lake. Right from day one I was very much fascinated with the lake, I kept thinking something needs to be done and I can't let it die like other lakes in Bangalore. One day I dropped a mail to Bangalore lake development authority saying that there is a beautiful lake in the area and I would like to work on that, but would like to have some inputs from them. This was the turning point the reply I got was that there was already a team in Akshayanagar who are working on restoring of the lake. I tired to meet these people who turned out to be residents of Akshayanagar and from whom I got to meet few very very passionate people who were very concerned at the rapid growth of the area without a good plan. Its through them that I got to know about the history of the lake that in 2009 one side of the lake bund was strengthened, most of the sewage was blocked, fenced and entire lake was cleaned up at huge cost running in lakhs. But over a period of few years it was again same story. So when I first saw the lake it was empty, weeds all around, construction derbies every where. </div>
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A week before 2014 Gandhi Jayanti, quite a few residents decided to clean a patch of the lake. So myself along with my cousin Anirudh and Archana we decided to adopt a small island and clean it up. We decided to plant few plants and maintain the same. But around same time the prime minister Narendra Modi called for Swach Bharath campaign and on the Gandhi Jayanti of 2014 around 100 people turned up for cleaning up of the lake. It was a one day affair they worked for 3-4 hours on that particular day, cleaned up as much as possible and left. But I was very much encouraged by the turn out on that particular day which got almost half of the lake cleaned up. But with in a short time it was again back to the same sorry state. Also the number of apartments in the area was increasing at a very rapid pace with all construction derbies landing either inside or in and around the lake.</div>
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We were cleaning on weekends and when we go back after a week it would look same like the week before.Slowly we also started loosing hope and our activism was dying a natural death with lack of interest and participation. Around the same time I also got very busy with many other personal work and lost focus for quite a few months. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPt-hPsBvPIGtZ4TEPUx8lUhptL7Cx6qBI3dn5xKHZmcUPFBQWdQ1KYxyc2iqwh7LfzWICBoylOj5FuX4zKa7sS7klCsf56PurVx7l7L9OYUJWpBaAUN6NMr7q7GbT0Nlxi1ZQbg/s1600/12494827_543508799141778_2537328067301786844_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPt-hPsBvPIGtZ4TEPUx8lUhptL7Cx6qBI3dn5xKHZmcUPFBQWdQ1KYxyc2iqwh7LfzWICBoylOj5FuX4zKa7sS7klCsf56PurVx7l7L9OYUJWpBaAUN6NMr7q7GbT0Nlxi1ZQbg/s320/12494827_543508799141778_2537328067301786844_n.jpg" width="180" /></a><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77VUOqaDljNMgCVvv8fCllM16p0nLkqCmWac8UPlsSHVSemt60JIfZOdNlew8WpcOXWsZrEMYGU4VyPMuCFUyVaZM-903J2wwqWoCai4BfuxDQTilDE19Vf_VUMi9Ef2bWpFH9g/s320/15511_473725616120097_264943979369170342_n.jpg" width="180" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ynavTRg_U63O1lUfl20-516UCigVFkCQzy1rtZvlYvP8NGovK5Ngbd419m0Lt9Wes9NIvjMwVxP1BXtX1odw_Vsl1TkEr7f69WBZb-xEpMvGnF8R-pLuf_o1r-O5EyH96k9ARg/s1600/12049307_521765431316115_6366450746469282971_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ynavTRg_U63O1lUfl20-516UCigVFkCQzy1rtZvlYvP8NGovK5Ngbd419m0Lt9Wes9NIvjMwVxP1BXtX1odw_Vsl1TkEr7f69WBZb-xEpMvGnF8R-pLuf_o1r-O5EyH96k9ARg/s320/12049307_521765431316115_6366450746469282971_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihSmDOxU4JLCuxq7L8kSJfDond6Kq5D5GhwVvyQ3ewBlaTOimMf_0gOl4Hkwp7dBPrsISIVspHr9gc49lpNFY7x5qs-0o5gyEbdUloaRjBt3LJ2C6XmVtiP_bDba8CnPZVZaC1ZA/s1600/12105960_521043504721641_2262193143112050815_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihSmDOxU4JLCuxq7L8kSJfDond6Kq5D5GhwVvyQ3ewBlaTOimMf_0gOl4Hkwp7dBPrsISIVspHr9gc49lpNFY7x5qs-0o5gyEbdUloaRjBt3LJ2C6XmVtiP_bDba8CnPZVZaC1ZA/s320/12105960_521043504721641_2262193143112050815_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCp-rPmIvf954YFdxOmIQi_HDaljqW-_lUdAh01tZ5MYkt_AulvfJq-KetECmAxzbcwpEcwvSNWZA1PWSWgukAvF6w98JJIts0yoEdbv0kYor4EhGxbjQa6o4ajvzknNI-VeI73g/s1600/10409255_524256137733711_1696441553003544710_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCp-rPmIvf954YFdxOmIQi_HDaljqW-_lUdAh01tZ5MYkt_AulvfJq-KetECmAxzbcwpEcwvSNWZA1PWSWgukAvF6w98JJIts0yoEdbv0kYor4EhGxbjQa6o4ajvzknNI-VeI73g/s320/10409255_524256137733711_1696441553003544710_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Its surprising how nature connects the dots, it was sometime in 2015 july/aug, I was watching the lake and was thinking something needs to be done, can't let go such a vast piece of land. Finally I decided from next week I will again work on the island which we had cleared almost a year back and start a small garden. To my surprise when I got up that weekend I saw 3 more people in the lake it was our Ramesh Sir, Pavan Sanganal and Prashanth. I went to the lake and said it so nice to see them as I was thinking on working on our island as well. My self and Anirudh decided to work on the island and the other 3 people decided to work on a patch of land next to ours.</div>
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src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWcw3_AVChXkFS01zByI9fW2inVWYR_tFlrlq279v24oFXV5MpkFCdgh6Kwwozx9vE7GyzDhkc0rvp9ByQJP3la4PACdpdPtPfEO7w6aGRrhIn3rfsISOL11PcKWWeNpfWgoD_ow/s320/12004096_510711152421543_2924626915013398981_n.jpg" width="320" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1ryuUCLEHePk8gg38cP2wRMuRbqhzqXCYRU9fc5fcWpBKggKGF8l4KaVNAPGtfursd51X258nXIBhudjaKnRVRoR6rCFPS4e-z_0nAk0Dnq56GxmZDVb9D4rgHFyDCwEcSVBKw/s1600/11990416_508943869264938_8656587445370373927_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1ryuUCLEHePk8gg38cP2wRMuRbqhzqXCYRU9fc5fcWpBKggKGF8l4KaVNAPGtfursd51X258nXIBhudjaKnRVRoR6rCFPS4e-z_0nAk0Dnq56GxmZDVb9D4rgHFyDCwEcSVBKw/s320/11990416_508943869264938_8656587445370373927_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a 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I believe that day was a very good day, from that day on every thing we touched just turned gold. After few weeks of cleaning we were no were and finally we decided to buy a weed cutting machine to speed up the things. Until now which was like weekend workout on fields to stay in good health all of a sudden turned out to be passion once the weed cutting machine came up. When we started seeing the changes, ideas started flowing on how and what all things could be done.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjunMEyNzCvF-dVtcgAkrjHkhBOHIYNgrxya67ui_tm70mqHXBM3FNyNKQ215P71cOmY10W4GImPRw6N58e2HJ5ZvX5-00eFEJBx8oaXU0nvHXhj3zWMAFm1GjnICRB-wgOJ5G0sA/s1600/12592467_550906158402042_3403266567592927958_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjunMEyNzCvF-dVtcgAkrjHkhBOHIYNgrxya67ui_tm70mqHXBM3FNyNKQ215P71cOmY10W4GImPRw6N58e2HJ5ZvX5-00eFEJBx8oaXU0nvHXhj3zWMAFm1GjnICRB-wgOJ5G0sA/s320/12592467_550906158402042_3403266567592927958_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylCAvI6sUmiR5OwCW-5YaAaVZ5JcpSvACRI5_-AVaDkQN0dQGPGhrKVntMFlgjqkPBWradmqK94JhGPCPyomYjoN6khyog_KB1qyR7RlT76OvI5XokJw27brrzO9UHNBPoBI6bg/s1600/12552925_547419268750731_5118153310948938522_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylCAvI6sUmiR5OwCW-5YaAaVZ5JcpSvACRI5_-AVaDkQN0dQGPGhrKVntMFlgjqkPBWradmqK94JhGPCPyomYjoN6khyog_KB1qyR7RlT76OvI5XokJw27brrzO9UHNBPoBI6bg/s320/12552925_547419268750731_5118153310948938522_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The sound of the weed cutting machine on a early weekend morning at 6:30 am started acting as an alarm, many people who were walking on roads were curious to know what was happening inside the lake. Quite a few thought probably BBMP/Government is doing something. Quite a few asked which department we work for and quite a few asked how much was BBMP/Government was paying us. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCOLSe8Vlb2zfmmNX21R_bxC95WfzWR9XZjl0OnqRNLHP3vb3-o79Wk8hiH91S8rdpHcYN98odJKQDxtl50B9ZG0R7M7D0uX9CqoY5nWS34_uSDirClVS0HNuK3utQAJrfCTK0A/s1600/11062552_508944012598257_4463349627755445856_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCOLSe8Vlb2zfmmNX21R_bxC95WfzWR9XZjl0OnqRNLHP3vb3-o79Wk8hiH91S8rdpHcYN98odJKQDxtl50B9ZG0R7M7D0uX9CqoY5nWS34_uSDirClVS0HNuK3utQAJrfCTK0A/s320/11062552_508944012598257_4463349627755445856_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0i4ay3ARXVISR7xT2dBSHCaJjjVllDVgpjaeiuvHwbWWEc8sZqbzx8MDEjvc_vzbZFqO7jZbOKzjlin1zU5qYFyPaM-6g_4bevz4h2GsvlRemVi_aXgH1rYtFoYan-HxiSzcstw/s1600/12004890_510711119088213_6803014641234159306_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0i4ay3ARXVISR7xT2dBSHCaJjjVllDVgpjaeiuvHwbWWEc8sZqbzx8MDEjvc_vzbZFqO7jZbOKzjlin1zU5qYFyPaM-6g_4bevz4h2GsvlRemVi_aXgH1rYtFoYan-HxiSzcstw/s320/12004890_510711119088213_6803014641234159306_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Slowly many people residing in and around the lake felt good about the activity and lots of progress being done over a period of a month or two. Many people started joining us and started participating every weekend. In four months time we cleaned up the entire lake of around 700+ meters by clearing of all debris, blocking of sewage entry to the lake, cutting of all the weeds. The labour of every volunteer was completely free, only thing which was needed was petrol and maintenance of the machine and few more tools for cleaning. We pooled around 100 Rs/month from every interested individual. Over a period of 4 months we spent around 5800 Rs to clean up the entire lake bund, not many could actually believe that we only spent such a small amount.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUhVcqv3dBg8ldJaYYHZrt-D3MVe_codHH8qTuGsy-0i71Tlg3lZQISJ4T1Ep5QquLN4mXvD8pquDcnzShi-gSOdTQ1pA6TM7cbuQInQxIzESiDzPN7MBSFIcaKUjcTF2GF_X5g/s1600/11986977_505834226242569_7439660814750970216_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUhVcqv3dBg8ldJaYYHZrt-D3MVe_codHH8qTuGsy-0i71Tlg3lZQISJ4T1Ep5QquLN4mXvD8pquDcnzShi-gSOdTQ1pA6TM7cbuQInQxIzESiDzPN7MBSFIcaKUjcTF2GF_X5g/s320/11986977_505834226242569_7439660814750970216_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEAW-TLU99kT25e3wG324J-CaDGggJaNVOzq9hRySNdb9EvWeKEibzJlFRTeqd5Zrj0oicVILHF1qTjFqQal9KicbKAeNHF7obNCEZ1CKIgTNEZvW5jr4cOg_x4azlb0BpMtqGQ/s1600/1509031_524256867733638_2042893794028645375_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEAW-TLU99kT25e3wG324J-CaDGggJaNVOzq9hRySNdb9EvWeKEibzJlFRTeqd5Zrj0oicVILHF1qTjFqQal9KicbKAeNHF7obNCEZ1CKIgTNEZvW5jr4cOg_x4azlb0BpMtqGQ/s320/1509031_524256867733638_2042893794028645375_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCSABx89tFbLGVGzKvs6p8bvITPZFRAVj98-XZtPefwoHwG5FtitJ_7Auyk8bJjU_f6Ss61eoO45tV1kS8Skq_oBdrvPmjjQGcj5C6kJw0t8jzWlEPl0BXmMLqhajYQEMigXSAKg/s1600/12631335_553847611441230_8721847426682238519_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCSABx89tFbLGVGzKvs6p8bvITPZFRAVj98-XZtPefwoHwG5FtitJ_7Auyk8bJjU_f6Ss61eoO45tV1kS8Skq_oBdrvPmjjQGcj5C6kJw0t8jzWlEPl0BXmMLqhajYQEMigXSAKg/s320/12631335_553847611441230_8721847426682238519_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rgWO2VVE8Fn9OQUdAHHn78d3Hnl-mAzciNQ3fvzVxG-uyKQ1pmyfYNotYcfWL7Dr0vnmPsgqW0dlVooFfodbEDt-X5xhmkumGOinFuFp4KExqVdMFdysPsecBVJ6MFSayCptUA/s1600/12009562_508497895976202_3121621842460236982_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rgWO2VVE8Fn9OQUdAHHn78d3Hnl-mAzciNQ3fvzVxG-uyKQ1pmyfYNotYcfWL7Dr0vnmPsgqW0dlVooFfodbEDt-X5xhmkumGOinFuFp4KExqVdMFdysPsecBVJ6MFSayCptUA/s320/12009562_508497895976202_3121621842460236982_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCh_t4R0iWT5OgFoMqwYMbRIZ9jrLqOPJb7LAFhRJ-3pImF7-q3R43Zea5h5PmKIG6InGTvTrIZSVsVZH6a1QWqOmp2woYDY5-c5UGcfStDhGHfnCWt_XGRHLGUzvUApHyS-8sfw/s1600/12440439_543512432474748_2291521101103834472_o.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCh_t4R0iWT5OgFoMqwYMbRIZ9jrLqOPJb7LAFhRJ-3pImF7-q3R43Zea5h5PmKIG6InGTvTrIZSVsVZH6a1QWqOmp2woYDY5-c5UGcfStDhGHfnCWt_XGRHLGUzvUApHyS-8sfw/s320/12440439_543512432474748_2291521101103834472_o.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLfaZVmMX0m6KFUUiGnsMc0HzshYyh25wGq_PEDAxf342YqkeyElybrf-Fxw0BNwD9l75pQFR9k81BnBbhlPf24myDhGMXF5uKuLMb3rj8a7uH_rWCLYiJTOmcrMQg2s2vqTSkiA/s1600/1656212_537649566394368_6814320794328633074_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLfaZVmMX0m6KFUUiGnsMc0HzshYyh25wGq_PEDAxf342YqkeyElybrf-Fxw0BNwD9l75pQFR9k81BnBbhlPf24myDhGMXF5uKuLMb3rj8a7uH_rWCLYiJTOmcrMQg2s2vqTSkiA/s320/1656212_537649566394368_6814320794328633074_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yet we had problems with 2 things, no one was willing to enter the lake and either during the day time when we were in office or during night, people use to come and dump derbies or garbage in the vicinity there by spoiling all the hard work done. Finally the moment came when the association was celebrating its 10th anniversary and had invited both MLA and corporater of the area. Our team decided with Ramesh sir, and in a short notice on the day of the function I prepared a 10 slide ppt about how the lake was and what we have done in 4 months time. Ramesh sir decided to present it. This was the stage we were looking for, we presented the happenings to all the residents of Akshayanagar with photographic evidence on how we changed it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3PiVKF8QL3bxU1K5cL9ce3nPiy85HsCGVuz1oKddFd5In40iHo_xYJXrEVCYPc0EhcJfYVw-IEncuAOhay7LH2pYLt_b6r8YyKq2GSwRq29OhbWimMFDHYEKq7XCGjrpIw8rMug/s1600/11959996_508497125976279_3029567801123602937_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3PiVKF8QL3bxU1K5cL9ce3nPiy85HsCGVuz1oKddFd5In40iHo_xYJXrEVCYPc0EhcJfYVw-IEncuAOhay7LH2pYLt_b6r8YyKq2GSwRq29OhbWimMFDHYEKq7XCGjrpIw8rMug/s320/11959996_508497125976279_3029567801123602937_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqi_jduBKdojE-g6ySn81f9IcUp37yfUGS9uLc9giwE8bS5Qd8LSFeKG-zvTsuut8XuyDbzUH6zUEeBBQqwAolyG4U1QriC9M6XKaeB74jtV2-ZBCZvDAr3TYms26SRNI1K4H_A/s1600/12552758_550906198402038_5793412321581228956_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqi_jduBKdojE-g6ySn81f9IcUp37yfUGS9uLc9giwE8bS5Qd8LSFeKG-zvTsuut8XuyDbzUH6zUEeBBQqwAolyG4U1QriC9M6XKaeB74jtV2-ZBCZvDAr3TYms26SRNI1K4H_A/s320/12552758_550906198402038_5793412321581228956_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Many were curious how such a small team can do this, quite a few were surprised when they heard about the money that was spent. We started getting more and more visitors both to the lake as well as more and more people started connecting and showing interest on the FB page. Slowly many people who were old and couldn't help us with work at least wanted to help us with funds. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVhyphenhyphen5Ue_5ujseCru8OhEk01Hk-9cah-INQLQW5Pd3nfqbhAHZw72z8XyzC8nrXq1Rfu7wY69moybK-1OXJeaAE2t2GZLQIFP84EjCcgrFksCuetJdTDYZ1onActWIuaI-coq3WA/s1600/12552635_550906291735362_8793776212271152623_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVhyphenhyphen5Ue_5ujseCru8OhEk01Hk-9cah-INQLQW5Pd3nfqbhAHZw72z8XyzC8nrXq1Rfu7wY69moybK-1OXJeaAE2t2GZLQIFP84EjCcgrFksCuetJdTDYZ1onActWIuaI-coq3WA/s320/12552635_550906291735362_8793776212271152623_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rgWO2VVE8Fn9OQUdAHHn78d3Hnl-mAzciNQ3fvzVxG-uyKQ1pmyfYNotYcfWL7Dr0vnmPsgqW0dlVooFfodbEDt-X5xhmkumGOinFuFp4KExqVdMFdysPsecBVJ6MFSayCptUA/s1600/12009562_508497895976202_3121621842460236982_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rgWO2VVE8Fn9OQUdAHHn78d3Hnl-mAzciNQ3fvzVxG-uyKQ1pmyfYNotYcfWL7Dr0vnmPsgqW0dlVooFfodbEDt-X5xhmkumGOinFuFp4KExqVdMFdysPsecBVJ6MFSayCptUA/s320/12009562_508497895976202_3121621842460236982_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As volunteer list grew, we had 100 eyes monitoring the lake from getting littered, funds started flowing for different ideas that were being proposed like having benches, boards and many more. Things started moving in a professional manner. What started as a hobby for few, started turning as passion for many and list was just growing. Today when I went to lake in the evening I could see around 150+ people walking, many might not even know who did this but we as a team are very proud that we managed something which was not easy at all. This project has given a lot of confidence among the residents of the area to take up lot of other progressive developmental activities quite a few of which are already happening. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4XlxLjbr3S_6JMhgfTagpx4Dc_3eJ3en2aq-oAuzeUYMZHH6xRUFlUjI4_u5VXLCqKQWF81Du0J0JXuXjjNwTxhS2Dl-p4MG19yh5fmYMt9vrywddw4rCfVx2vCohLYGqq3UKQ/s1600/IMG_3719.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4XlxLjbr3S_6JMhgfTagpx4Dc_3eJ3en2aq-oAuzeUYMZHH6xRUFlUjI4_u5VXLCqKQWF81Du0J0JXuXjjNwTxhS2Dl-p4MG19yh5fmYMt9vrywddw4rCfVx2vCohLYGqq3UKQ/s320/IMG_3719.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcda0jSk8ziP9QSQdXeiaPaW-WeXZi1pVLoOHO90lYzsfijOvmCUdd4NiJNPNf9Cy7r7rb6zcgx2CVHsw5d57mlhf2FnLeGkeLQoofxawJceEakJh-2HrMNbv8DTSMBuRcXtC3Aw/s1600/IMG_3715.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcda0jSk8ziP9QSQdXeiaPaW-WeXZi1pVLoOHO90lYzsfijOvmCUdd4NiJNPNf9Cy7r7rb6zcgx2CVHsw5d57mlhf2FnLeGkeLQoofxawJceEakJh-2HrMNbv8DTSMBuRcXtC3Aw/s320/IMG_3715.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-j3AVO9La0gQ2dJHa6JzYuuqJhkR46SHmAs4FwPKnCnbSWaa_vkrXhYFXFGiHKrcKxkOLYL0czNJRDypYIZ8jWA18INacyX7yMSYVI0QHzOMc8Sxn6ClrWEht_3_3AnjKXFDSA/s1600/12670422_554263181399673_2579346321436653567_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-j3AVO9La0gQ2dJHa6JzYuuqJhkR46SHmAs4FwPKnCnbSWaa_vkrXhYFXFGiHKrcKxkOLYL0czNJRDypYIZ8jWA18INacyX7yMSYVI0QHzOMc8Sxn6ClrWEht_3_3AnjKXFDSA/s320/12670422_554263181399673_2579346321436653567_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OTI0ImnWjb5g1QNt7B1dExnYVUf7RMV2LLI40qCgq_OWlcQZTgtQpQni6_065TIlL3TRhAeFbCdBgekxea7uSQdmllou88HlliWVG0VTbbUbKAb_NYAtrdDqrb8JfrmoOCyswA/s1600/11986977_505834226242569_7439660814750970216_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OTI0ImnWjb5g1QNt7B1dExnYVUf7RMV2LLI40qCgq_OWlcQZTgtQpQni6_065TIlL3TRhAeFbCdBgekxea7uSQdmllou88HlliWVG0VTbbUbKAb_NYAtrdDqrb8JfrmoOCyswA/s320/11986977_505834226242569_7439660814750970216_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I always believed both good and bad work are infectious, you do something bad others will follow and you do something good others will follow as well. Now after 6 months I don't see any body throwing anything in and around our lake. That should explain on what we have done. Many a times we get to hear Government has not done this or that, but I always say if I am living in an area why should I depend on others, If we start doing things ourselves I am sure government will not have any other option but to join us for a good cause. This is how we got a small bridge done inside the lake from our MLA :-). </div>
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When I look back I can proudly say it would never have had happened without the support of all the lovely people I have met in the process. As a team we are phenomenal and we can be proud of what we have done.</div>
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We have created a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Akshayanagara/ which has all the details about our activity with photos.</div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-33363647493090292972016-01-17T08:39:00.000-08:002016-01-17T08:39:02.799-08:00Solo Bike Trip<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ever since I bought my Royal Enfield 500CC bike, I wanted to try out a solo ride. I didn't really plan for the trip nor I prepared for the trip. The idea was to just ride for 6 days and experience some exotic places. Early morning I just took my backpack and started heading towards Megharavalli. My friend Kishan's parents stay there and I called up Kishan saying I would come to his house by evening. First few Kms of riding was a bit difficult, it was a long weekend and getting out of Bangalore was an horrible experience, long ques on all toll booths and heavy traffic on high ways. Cars speeding at high speeds were giving a bit of scare to begin with, but once I exited from NH4 and started towards Shimoga, I felt like I was driving alone on empty roads.I have driven in this road multiple times but riding a bike I felt like I was getting to see new things all along. I got to explore some huge lakes, was wondering how our ancestors valued so much for water and built such amazing things on the other hand with so much of technology we could create wonders but we are only using it for more and more destruction. </div>
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Once I reached Tiptur, I called up my uncle Madhav in Shimoga to say I would join them for lunch and I just have an hour. It was nice to meet the entire family and have a good lunch. As always aunty was all curious about my trip and was asking how come no one stops me from doing such things.The ride from Shimoga towards Thirthahalli was amazing, especially after raising the dam height one can see river Tunga on one side of the road and thick forest on the other side. This was one of the best rides of the trip. I could feel the fresh air, curvy roads were adding to the fun of riding. I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Most of the time the weather was cool making it even more pleasant.</div>
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Reached Megharavalli around 4 and from here Kishan picked me up to his house on the banks of the back water around 5-6kms from the main road.Since Kishan is my neighbour in Bangalore I know almost every body in person in their house. It was the time of harvest and every member in the family were very busy, inspite of this I don't have words to explain the hospitality. Even though I had plans to start again next day, I decided to spend some time with the family and extended the stay by a day.</div>
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Day 2 early morning myself and Kishan we headed towards the backwater, beautiful place felt like i can spend the entire day sitting in front of the river. I just sat on a rock and closed my eyes to enjoy the calmness and feel the cool breeze, after few minuets I could hear hissing sound from below and I felt a bit uncomfortable and the hissing sound got stronger. I got up from the rock and moved a couple of meters aside and sat again. After around 15min when I opened my eyes I could see a snake which had come out of the rock I was sitting earlier and was standing tall and watching me. We observed each other for few minutes then slowly I tried to reach to my camera to take a snap but bad luck, I guess it felt uncomfortable and went back inside. It was an amazing experience, the view still comes to my mind.</div>
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After an heavy breakfast we headed towards Kavale durga fort which is around 15kms from Kishan's house. Its a nice fort but since its pretty much in the interiors of the forest not much is known about it other than the locals and the archaeological department.I wanted to go back to the river again in the evening to watch the sunset but we were late and missed on that part. Next day morning again I went to the back waters to spend some more time also with a hope to see the snake again but no luck.</div>
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After one more wonderful breakfast I took leave from an amazing family and wanted to explore the route from Thirtahalli to Dharwad. This stretch is kind of driving from the southern part of western ghats in Karnataka to northen part of western ghats in Karnataka, so you can imagine beautiful lonely roads, full of forests all along, very little or no traffic, beautiful roads. On day one from Bangalore I had around 400+kms ride and on the third day I made around 350+ kms. I finally reached Dharwad around 3.30 pm and booked a room in a budget hotel. I was bit tiered and also I had skipped my lunch. So now I decided to park my bike and take a walk. That day in Dharwad probably I walked around 10+kms trying out Dharwad peda, kunda and other delicacies, finally I found a Khanavali and ended up having a wonderful dinner.</div>
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Next day I started very early from Dharwad and decided to head towards Badami. The land scape changed drastically from thick forests to open fields and straight roads. Driving on straight roads for hours together is kind of boring but the birds in the fields and the open agricultural lands and multiple man made lakes in every village kept me interested all along. I reached Badami around 9am, booked a budget hotel again and dropped my luggage and started again towards Aihole and Pattadkallu.</div>
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Couple of mistakes I was not aware of the distance of these 2 places from Badami, I thought it to be around 40 kms to and fro but it turned out to be 80+ kms and no petrol bunks in between other than Badami. In between I got lost for couple of Kms. Also hoping these places to be near by, I didn't wear jacket, helmet there by breaking the basic rule I had set for my self and I paid for it with excess dust all over the body and heavy sun burns. I felt bad at the destruction of these beautiful monuments. Also I could see extreme poverty, framers over here are not as healthy as the ones on the western ghats. Agriculture is mainly dependent on rains. I could see most of the villages have a tank bund which is the main source of water. By end of day I was really tiered of the excess heat and dust of the area. I went to a Khanavali and awesome Jowar roti food for just 40 Rs. Its my belief that when we travel we need to try out the local food that is what the best food you get the area. While I was enjoying my food a farmer and a lady came down for dinner as well but they were short of 20 Rs they wanted to go out without having food, I felt bad that the people who grow and feed us go hungry in this country, was wondering how the value of money in paper form can be more than the food itself. I asked the hotel owner to feed them and I will pay for them. But they had lots of self respect I guess they paid what ever they had and I only had to pay 20 Rs. Felt good when the lady thanked just by looking at me without saying a word.</div>
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I only had 2 more days left and around 550 Kms to travel. I had a thumb rule during the travel that I would start early and drive till 4 pm in the evening and would camp where ever I am. Would enjoy everything on the way, if I find anything interesting then change of plans. Found bike riding would give lot of space compared to car to explore around, like one of the funny thing was from Gadag I was driving towards Haveri and on the way one of the farmer suggested a short cut to reduce 30+kms and god it was scary, my only worry was what if my bike got punctured? I was totally unprepared, some might call it madness especially with a 13 Kg backpack on my back I had no backup plans if my bike broke down. But my belief was when it happens let me see how it turns out to be, it would have been an experience to remember. But luckily till the end 1515 Kms total distance travelled in 6 days the bike was in perfect shape.</div>
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I believe every body should travel alone once in a while to get some space and spend time with one self. It was an awesome experience in Bangalore all I feel like doing in day is going to office work and coming back, but each day here I felt like I had unlimited time was driving around 300+Kms, walking around 10kms, stopping around and experiencing interesting places and having awesome food at very economical price. You get to learn so much about people, their lifestyle and would start valuing what we have more and more.</div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-50853292745430330662016-01-15T16:53:00.000-08:002016-01-15T16:53:34.320-08:00H*God Falls<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Rakesh Holla had been the source of information for many of my trips to hidden treasures in Karnataka, but this was all the special one because we had never met before and it was an opportunity to meet in person. I spoke to couple of my friends and we decided to join Rakesh and his team at Honnavar during the peak season of monsoon for exploring close to 4 waterfalls.<br />
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Right from where we freshen up, food, stay, guide, local travel everything was taken care by Rakesh, probably this was one of the treks where in everything was planned to the minutest of the details and with great care. This would go down as a trek where in we were fed with abundant food all along, i don't remember any of my treks where in I had so much food especially of such great taste. I don't remember eating so much jack fruit in 2 days time, every house we visited we were given jack fruit.</div>
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We dropped our backpacks in a house owned by one of the relatives of our guide and started the journey towards H*god falls after having a heavy breakfast.<br />
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The walk from the house was around 1hr not very difficult, but it was raining continuously and it was very slippery. Had to cross couple of man made bridges across the streams which are the sole source of connectivity for people leaving in this part of the world during monsoons. Monsoons of westren ghats has always been very special, the thick ever green forests come to full life during monsoon. People who have experienced these virgin forests know what the feel is like.<br />
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The falls is around 8 stages is what I heard, right from the beginning we could see the huge falls from a distance. During the monsoon it is very difficult to reach to all the stages of the falls. We managed to visit I guess around 5 stages. It was very slippery and risky though one mistake can be very costly one.And we did manage to create a dangerous situation, every body got into water and were enjoying and 4 of us were trying to climb to next stages which were very tricky and risky in the process a big rock got dislocated and the loose soil and moved towards the people sitting down. Because of the sound of water fall no one could hear us shouting and they never realized what happened until the rock stopped. It brushed one of my friend on his back, but was a miracle that nothing happened to any body. We managed to see the beautiful fall up to around 5 stages, the last 3 stages were inaccessible</div>
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After an heavy lunch provided by Yashashree, we decided to explore a new falls. Since it was the peak on monsoon, the trails were all covered and we were walking with great difficulty. We had seen the water fall from a distance and were heading in the direction. We would hear the water gushing with high speeds as we approached nearer to the falls, but the forest was so thick that we couldn't get a view of the waterfall even after spending quite a significant time. Finally we had to make a choice to explore it next time because the light started fading in the evening and we had to come out of the forest area before night hits. It was a tough decision being so close yet couldn't get to see the falls. There is always a next time.<br />
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I am writing this blog after almost 6 months, I don't remember much now. Also some of the pics might be from some of my friends I would like to give credit to these people Hemanth, Rakesh, Arun, Prashanth . The best I could remember was walking almost close to 30+ kms through numerous streams, thick forests, slippery rocks, small snakes and leaches to explore around 3 falls, getting close to 4th one which we couldn't really see from a close distance through. It was a great trip meeting new people, talking to new people and experiencing the hospitality of the unknown people.<br />
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-27974297828497647792014-04-20T03:01:00.000-07:002014-04-20T03:01:06.670-07:00Burde Joga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We had been planning for almost a month and some how every weekend it just kept getting postponed. Finally I decided that it has to be this week, which might be our last trek for this summer before monsoon starts and most of these places becomes inaccessible. Our initial plan was to trek to Chakra falls in one of the most isolated forests of western ghats, not many have gone in here and also a very dangerous trek. But since we didn't have numbers, couldn't get the contact details of guide and other logistical issues at the final stage we had to drop this idea and post pone the trek to December. But we didn't want to drop the idea of going for a trek. Finally Friday afternoon I spoke with Rakesh and got the details for Burde Joga and we booked a one way trip to Siddapura. </div>
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The adventure started right from getting to Bangalore bus stand at the nth moment with a bit of distance covered by car, a bit of walk and changed 2 buses at 10.30 pm in the night. Finally got to board the KSRTC Volvo which was an horrible experience. The bus was in real bad shape, not sure if it even had shock observers and the driver was driving like a mad man. The worst experience was its an AC bus and I can't open the window and this driver says its cold and turns off the AC inside the bus. And we guys are sitting in the back and suffocating without air, on top of it these guys are so rude and arrogant as if they are doing me some favor turning on the AC.</div>
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We reached Siddapura around 6 in the morning only to know that the first bus available towards Kumta is at around 9 am. We got freshened up and had our breakfast at Siddapura. Funny part was Diwi getting caught exploring women's toilet to attend natures call :-). We managed to reach the starting point of the trek which is around 21kms from Siddapura on the way to Kumta. Exactly around 1km from Kyadagi, you need to get down on the bridge. You will get to see a board giving directions to the Burde waterfalls. You walk on the road in the direction of the sign board till you get one more bridge, from here you need to take a right again and walk on the mud road. Almost the entire journey can be covered by a car with decent ground clearance or easily by bike. The last stretch of around 1km decent has to be covered by walk. For initial few meters they have laid steps and after that its a steep climb down. Well I am not very happy to give these details out but then this falls has been already known to many and the information is also available on other blogs.</div>
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We managed to reach the waterfalls around 12 after around 5+ kms hike. There are 4 stages to this waterfalls with 4 and 5th being very dangerous to even watch the waterfall. We managed to get down till 4 but we ran out time and energy to explore the 5th stage, it also looked very dangerous. I have heard couple of people have lost their lives trying to explore 4th and 5th stage. Just like every body we also enjoyed the most in the 2nd stage of the water falls. We spent almost 2-3 hours in the 2nd stage after which myself, prabhanjan and loki we went to explore the 4th stage, well to be frank it was quite risky, rock climbing without ropes is always very dangerous as there would be no second chance if you slip. All was good and we successfully managed to even see the 4th stage. I was just going through the google maps and looks like ahead of Burde joga we have HonneKomb which seems to be very huge, this could also be the 5th stage of the waterfalls but I am not sure. By the way I don't know why it got the name Burde joga :-) some even call it Ilimane Falls.</div>
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We got the info from the villagers that the last bus to Siddapura is around 6.30 and so we decided to head back to Bangalore the same night. We started our trek back to the starting point. Even though we did manage to reach the destination well in advance we did manage to miss the bus. Everything happens for good and we got an opportunity to enjoy a good open air drive in a goods auto to Siddapura.</div>
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We didn't have a reservation back to Bangalore and we didn't have much options with the buses from Siddapura and here comes the same old Volvo on which we traveled the previous night with an option of 4 seats in the end for us :-) and without AC it was hell of a journey back to Bangalore.</div>
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Like always I want you guys to understand please don't litter the forest area with left outs of food and beverages. Please don't have liquor near any water falls and for god sake please don't break your liquor bottles in these places it hurts others with the glass pieces. Please have some common sense. </div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-30209469477969951292014-01-09T02:50:00.002-08:002014-01-09T02:50:50.769-08:00Belligundi Waterfalls<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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 :-(.</div>
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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.</div>
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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 :-).</div>
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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.</div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-34583798693086539852013-08-10T05:15:00.002-07:002013-08-10T05:15:42.511-07:00Chunchi Falls with no water<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I expected to have a similar experience I had the last time I visited this falls, but never knew there was a new DAM built to stop the water before the water falls. It was a trip planned in the night by myself and pradeep and started driving early morning at 4. Pradeep picked me up at 4am and we were on Kanakpura Road very early, By 6 we reached Kanakapura and had our breakfast. The falls is around 20 kms from Kanakapura. We reached the water falls and I was surprised to see there was no water even after so much of rains. I am adding a couple of pictures I had taken around 4 years back when there was no dam in place. Felt Gangan chukki and Bharachukki had been a better option, but then those places are badly overcrowded and badly littered. That's the reason I avoid such places. </div>
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We went down the falls and spent some time sitting in front of the tiny waterfalls there. It was a pleasant morning. This is my usual trend to visit places around Bangalore, start very early and back home by afternoon. After taking some pics and lying down on the huge rocks we decided to explore the river a bit more. Last time around, the river was so furious that I could not explore anything around the area. We started walking along the river bed to see a watch tower. The view from the watch tower is spectacular, it gives a good view of the entire valley.</div>
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While we were taking pics from the watch tower we saw a small local boy taking a couple of others to another falls which we had seen from far and we had decided to explore later. Once they were back we went towards the falls and was pretty happy at least there was some water in this. At Least it was better than the first where in there was no water at all. </div>
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To be frank the first impression that came to my mind watching this bad scene around was that it looked like an organised crime. First build a dam to dry up the river along the entire stretch and then mine the rocks and sand on the river bed. Which we did see around happening actually. Not to mention there is a private water plant which supplies drinking water bottles to Bangalore next to the Dam. Most of these things I mentioned looked to be under one person who is a big political figure. Now we know how it works build a Dam in taxpayers money divert the stored water to water plant and then sell it to the same people with a price attached. At least for me looking at the dry river bed during peak monsoon was just unacceptable.</div>
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Even though didn't enjoy the waterfalls much as it's one of those very rare occasion where in I didn't go below the falls and also the dry river bed, enjoyed the early morning drive after a long time. We were a bit lucky that the Dam gates didn't open. Later in the village nearby we were told by the locals that authorities had given warning to the villagers not to venture near the falls as they would be opening the gates anytime. Was just thinking about a youtube video which I had seen last year how quick one would get washed away once the Dam gates are open. Just a lucky day :-). Its not that I took risk which was stupid but would have been washed unexpectedly. </div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-71596099086996085132013-07-13T02:37:00.002-07:002013-07-13T04:40:40.496-07:00Doddinamane -- Mani Dam Backwaters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It was a plan which I kept postponing for one or the other reason for a long time, it was to visit my colleague Kishan's house. Since the day he had shown it to me on google maps, I had a picture in mind about the surroundings and the best part was I visited the place in the peak of monsoon when it kept raining and raining. I feel very few places are so isolated and peaceful to live , especially for those living in bangalore. And hospitality was the best of all, I am sure I have gained at least 2kgs. Kishan's mom and his family were just amazing, they just kept feeding us all the time with all those wonderful delicacy.</div>
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We reached early in the morning and got down at Megharavalli, Kishan had booked an auto to take us to their house. You need to do that in advance to get to this place as there is no other mode of transport. Around 15-20 years back when Mani dam was built most of the villages in the area were submerged in water and now there are only a few houses remaining in the area. It's the same place on which the award winning kannada movie "Dweepa" was made. That makes the area even more special. Its just wonderful to see the simplicity and hospitality of people living in smaller areas. There is so much to learn about life from them especially for the people living in cities where in at times I feel people have forgotten values, they have forgotten the basic reason why they are even earning. It's a mad rush and everyone is running a race without knowing the destination or the endpoint.</div>
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My friends house is surrounded by water on the 3 sides and forest on the other side, after a heavy breakfast we decided to explore the place and went towards the back waters. What a place ... simply beautiful... very calm, one thing that came to my mind was to visit again in winter.. I want to pitch a tent in front of the river and camp here watching the clear sky all night. I will be driving to this place again in winter for sure... I have a few pics in mind of the landscape and I will have to go there again for the same. Cloudy weather and rain didn't help in getting some shots of the landscape this time around.</div>
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After an heavy lunch I was telling Kishan's brother I want to see a "green vine", I was just telling him every dam person who visits forests once in their life time have got to see this guy how come I have not.. to which Kishore was mentioning they see it in their garden all the time in front of the house. We even searched for some time and then we decided to explore the landscape along the river on a different side. Wow what a luck... Kishan saw a green vine crossing the road and this guy gave some of the best shots for my camera :-). He made the trip all the more special because he just made my wish come true.</div>
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The other side had some beautiful landscape with green grasslands and cool breeze, it was a pleasant evening walk which makes you forget everything and forces you enjoy the moment. I got to see water springs, water just comes out of the ground and starts flowing towards the river, this thing is pretty common during the monsoons. With the help of Kishore got to know about some of the insects and birds, he caught and showed us the insect which makes lots of noise in the forest :-) i was always curious which was this insect, which made so much noise in the forest and got to see it for the first time as well.</div>
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Next day we went to Agumbe and it was pretty common of me these days to visit viewpoint, jogi gundi and Kasturi akka (from Dodda mane) whenever I am in this area. Wanted to explore a new falls but we were late for the night bus and the falls required a 3km trek in the forest.</div>
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At the end it was a wonderful trip, I feel very relaxed and rejuvenated. I forgot to mention about my new friend Suki :-) what a girl... so cute and sharp.. too good for her age.</div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-57385529936363021072013-02-16T08:54:00.002-08:002013-02-16T08:54:29.416-08:00Onake Abbi, Meenabbi and KoodluTheertha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-14963468404456387402012-11-27T21:40:00.003-08:002012-11-28T05:54:57.661-08:00Maarloorgundi and Goodlugundi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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First of all my sincere thanks to Rakesh Holla for believing in us and sharing the details of the location. As promised to him i will not be disclosing the location details of this place unlike my previous treks. The basic idea is not to make information easily available for people who would go and spoil the beauty. Only those who are really committed to keeping it clean and are mature enough to maintain the sanity of the place would have the access to the same. One clue for all the adventure enthusiastic people around is, this falls is in Sharavati Valley.<br />
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As Rakesh had mentioned in his blog it was a day not to forget. I have trekked a lot of mountain peaks but probably for the first time i got so much time to spend at the destination. Since we had started early from Bangalore on Friday night we reached the starting point for the hike very early. We got to spend the entire day in front of the falls.<br />
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Once we reached the Goodlu gundi falls every one got into their swimming costumes and got into water. The best part, it was not deep giving an opportunity for all the non swimmers to get into water as well go and sit below the water falls. However just like every other water falls one has to be very careful of those slippery rocks which can hurt you ankle badly. I did injure myself slipping and hurting my right ankle once but luckily it didn't result in anything major.<br />
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After swimming and sitting below the waterfalls for almost 2-3 hours, every one were very hungry and we opened our lunch and had a heavy lunch. Once done with lunch we decide to explore Maarloorgundi water falls just below. The small hike to Maarloorgundi is pretty steep and one more dangerous point was a couple of us crossed the water body on top of the water falls which was very risky. If you slip you will land at the bottom of Maarloorgundi water falls :-).<br />
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After around 10min hike one can reach the bottom of Maarloorgundi which is a very beautiful water falls. One thing that came to my mind was to visit the place in monsoon to get few pics of the water falls in the best of times. I know i might not be able to get into water but then the water falls would be in the best of its form.<br />
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Every one were very tired after playing in the water for almost the entire day and we decided to rest on the Rocks in front of Maarloorgundi water falls. After a small nap we decided to pack and then find a suitable camping site for the night stay. The location of the water falls is around 30min walk from a small grass land peak. So we decided to camp on the grass lands. Our earlier plan was to camp in front of the water falls which we had to give up eventually. If you decide to camp its always safe to camp in a place which is close to water yet outside the thick forest vegetation. Try to find a place with grasslands, you can always find grasslands trying to move towards the peak. Never camp in the peak of the mountain as the winds might be very strong.<br />
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We pitched our tents and then we decided to walk and spend our time at the sunset point viewing Belligundi water falls. We got a good view of the Belligundi water falls and our guide Halappa told us that we can also go to the bottom of Belligundi which is a beautiful water falls and one of the tallest in the region. Probably this would be our next trip as well. Belligundi will be a 9km hike one side.<br />
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After watching the sun go down in the Arabian sea we headed back to our tents. Few of them prepared the dinner but a couple of us had some fruits/snacks and slept off. The weather was very good for camping it neither rained nor was very cold and it was perfect. However we could see lightning in the adjacent mountain where we had seen Belligundi water falls, later we realized that it was the dynamite blast which was happening. I am surprised, mining in western ghats is illegal and i am pretty sure this must one of those famous illegal mines still operating without any fear.<br />
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We got up at around 6 in the morning and a new lesson on cat hole was learnt from Diwakar for attending nature call and keeping the place clean. The concept of digging a small pit and covering it up once done would keep the place clean and also human excreta is not left to open air.<br />
Since we had GPS, going back was never difficult even in the absence of our guide Halappa, whom eventually we met half way down. Halappa had decided to go back and stay in a house at the bottom of the hill the previous evening.<br />
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Over all it was a small trip with not much of difficultly but we enjoyed a lot at the destination. The waterfalls was very clean and felt good that very few waterfalls are maintained in this state as of date. Most of the water falls have been badly littered with plastics, beer bottles. As a rule of our team we make sure we carry back every thing we had taken and nothing is left back at the destination. Any one who comes across this blog please make it a point you don't drop your traces in the place you visit, keeping it virgin for the next visitor as well :-).<br />
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After coming back from the trek and reading Rakesh's blog again i realized we missed few things at this place one was going on the opposite side of the water body to get a full view of both Maarloor gundi and Goodlu gundi water falls together and also we could still have gone further down from Maarloor gundi to get a view of one more bigger water falls. No problem probably some other time :-).<br />
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Any one who finds out this place please make sure you keep it the way it was and don't disturb the same. I would feel guilty if the place is destroyed because of my blog.<br />
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For more pics visit<br />
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104354993819772501480/Maarloorgundi_Goodlugundi">https://picasaweb.google.com/104354993819772501480/Maarloorgundi_Goodlugundi</a></div>
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-40317478149903646232012-09-03T06:14:00.000-07:002012-09-03T06:14:28.040-07:00Baale Kallu and Kode Kallu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It had been quite some time since I trekked. After the death of a student (from an other group) during my last trek it had become difficult to venture into forests and hence i had been idle for some time now. It's always risky to venture into forests during the monsoons. The trek becomes at least twice more difficult due to the rains. Poor visibility is also a risk factor in case of encounters with wild animals like elephants. Leeches all around is a real pain to bear with. Since it was monsoon i didn't want to take risk with a big group and only wanted a small group who had previous experience, however at the end we had 3 new members in the group, even though they still lacked fitness they were good enough to complete the trek.<br />
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We started from Bangalore by taking a late night volvo bus to Dharmasthala. We reached Dharmasthala at around 5:30am in the morning. From there we took a local bus to Ujire. From Ujire we took another bus to Charmadi. The name of the stop is "Charmadi Hotel". Owner of the hotel is a very nice person named Hasanabba. We freshened up at this place and at around 8 our guide Isubu came to the hotel and from here we took a bus again to almost peak of the charmadi ghat which i guess is around 20kms. Just after the temple on top there is a jeep track which is the starting point of the trek.<br />
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We got down from the bus and started walking on the jeep track. The weather was pretty pleasant with lots of greenery all around. We had taken the risk of trekking in monsoon, its very rare that it doesn't rain during monsoon in the hills. We were just lucky that it didn't rain until we finished the day's trek. But still there was too much of mist on top which prevented me from enjoying the landscape completely. The clouds played hide and seek giving little opportunity for me to capture some pictures.<br />
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After almost 30-40min off on the jeep track we can see a house from where you need to take a left and start going towards the Baale kallu peak. It is called Baale(Banana) Kallu because once there used to lots of Kaadu Baale(Forest Banana ) available at this place. En route to this peak we can also get to view Jenukallu Gudda but due to excessive mist we were not lucky enough to see anything. In fact our guide Isubu asked us to wait until the mist clears as its risky to walk in the elephant path. Both of us could be surprised with sudden encounters which might be even more risky with baby elephants around.<br />
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This was not a very difficult trek and we were on the peak by around 11:30 -12. Since we had lots of time and Kode kallu is just around 30-40min from this peak we decided to spend some quality time enjoying the landscape and also to walk around other smaller peaks near by. We moved from one peak to another enjoying the lush green grasslands and thick green forests below and also we could see a couple of water falls at a very far distance. After spending some time taking some pictures we could see dark clouds gathering pace and heading in our direction. We decided to move towards Kode kallu.<br />
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It started to drizzle slowly as we walked towards Kodekallu, visibility dropped drastically and we just had to follow the person ahead of us. After around 30-40min of walk we reached Kodekallu. This is one of most beautiful spots i have seen. Kode (Umbrella) kallu (rock) is a huge rock on the peak which is like an umbrella. One can go under it and spend some quality time enjoying the beauty. It has got enough place for atleast 8-10 people or 2 tents for camping. We had our lunch below this rock and slowly the peace of rain started to increase. The charmadi ghat road is around 30min walk from here but due to rains it was a bit slippery. Was surprised to know that it is one of the route often taken by the elephants, just wondered how could elephants walk so easily on these slippery trials. We were almost near the road and it started to rain very heavily.<br />
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We had asked for a jeep to come at around 4:30pm and he picked us dropped back to hotel charmadi. We had some biscuits and coffee/tea while talking to Hasanabba about his experiences. He told us he will talk to locals to give some space for our over night stay at the village temple. We got to stay in the Panchalingeshwara temple which had a huge hall beside the temple. People of the temple not just gave us some space to stay but also provided us with utensils and firewood. We brought some "magic noodles"- local version of maggi noodles and prepared our soup cum noodles for dinner. After a heavy dinner I don't know what happened only thing i knew was that it was raining very very heavily.<br />
I got up around 6:30 am and after freshening up, it was still raining very heavily. I went to the temple and saw a group of young men from RSS having their meet. After their prayers they have some games which was very interesting. A couple of us decided to join them and had fun playing games with them. I didn't feel anything bad about the organisation or their ideology but only felt that our so called secular media is not to be trusted completely. After playing with them they asked us what are our plans for breakfast and with heavy rains and not knowing the places around they brought us food/coffee free off cost.<br />
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We had plans of covering a couple of water falls on Sunday but due to very heavy rains and also the jeep driver asking 800rs for 20kms ride we decided to cancel our outing to the water falls. It was also very risky to go to the water falls with such heavy rains. Our guide Isubu also insisted that it would not be safe to go towards the waterfalls. So we decided to stay back in the temple. Myself, Diwi and Harsha enjoyed wrestling (Kusti) in the rains after which we decided to venture out in rain to explore some local hotel. We didn't find the hotel but we found a small shop which we almost ransacked eating everything that was available. While coming back from there we got some cucumber and went to a local house asking for some salt and chili. It was fun - heavy rains, and spicy chili.<br />
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At around 4, the rains eased out and we decided to make the most of it by heading towards Dharmasthala. At Dharmasthala we visited the car museum, and wonderful art museum which had a huge collection of old items. It was like free just 5rs and 3rs as the entry fee. One of the hotel in Dharmastala was owned by Diwakar's friend and we went there after visiting the Bahubali statue. They were so kind that they didn't even take money for our food, in fact i felt bad that they were so generous. We couldn't go to the temple as I didn't have a full length pant and half pants are not allowed. All of us were very tired and we went to the new Dharmasthala bus stand for our volvo bus to Bangalore. The next thing i heard was Majestic, Majestic, Majestic.....<br />
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Route:<br />
Bangalore- Dharmasthala<br />
From Dharmasthala - take a local bus directly to Charmadi. The frequency is a bit less to Charmadi, so take a bus to Ujire. From Ujire you can take a bus to Charmadi. Get down at hotel Charmadi and meet the guide Isubu.<br />
Contacts:<br />
Isubu: 08256 316117, 275378, 9741392369<br />
Hasanabba: 275164, 9972499947, 9481266656<br />
Note:<br />
1) Very limited options for food, carry your own food for 2 days.<br />
2) Don't litter this place, please don't throw plastics or any food items on the trial.<br />
3) Take the help of the local guide and carry proper gear while you trek, it has a lot of wild animals be very careful.<br />
It is a moderate trek, yet a very beautiful one.<br />
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poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-9072686769249042662012-06-12T07:24:00.001-07:002012-06-12T07:24:09.194-07:00Scotland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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4 days, more than 1500 miles drive, blue sea, huge lakes and mountains, rafting in ice cold water and cliff jumping - these are the highlights of my Scotland trip. We started early in the morning that is around 7am. It was a long drive to reach Scotland almost 10hours and more than 500miles to drive. After a long drive with multiple breaks we reached Forres, Scotland at around 8pm in the night. After dinner we went to bed since we were tired after the long drive.<br />
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We reached the place at around 10am in the morning for rafting in river Findhorn. Even though I have done white water rafting in Ganga with rough rapids and Dandeli earlier this was a different experience with ice cold water. The good thing was Ace adventure the organisation which offered rafting for us provided us with wet suits which kept us warm in the cold waters. Cliff jumping from almost 22feet height into the ice cold water and also toppling of the raft throwing out everyone into the water was an amazing experience. We finished rafting at around 4 and then spent rest of the time driving around the place which had beautiful landscape to experience. We had dinner at a Bangladeshi restaurant and went back to local village Bar which was having a Scottish music festival with different instruments being played by locals from the small village.<br />
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We started early the next day and headed towards Isle of Skye. This was one of the best day of the trip as we drove along Lock Ness Lake and many other beautiful places across Scotland. Lock Ness lake is one of the biggest lakes and a huge tourist destination in Scotland, however i felt the best of Scotland is in the northern part of Scotland. We also covered 2 castles and a fort enroute to Isle of Skye - Fort of George, Urquhart Castle, Eilean Donan Castle. Fort of George was good however the 2 castles were only good for viewing from outside as I had already gone inside Windsor Castle in England, other castles wouldn't have interested me much.<br />
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We checked into the room at Kyle of Lochalsh and after freshening up we started driving further north. This drive reminded me of my trip to Ladakh in India. The landscape was pretty much similar but then the entire drive one side we had mountains and lakes and on the other side blue sea. This is one of the best landscape I have ever visited. Felt like I should have spent lot of time around this place as it had so much to explore. We covered Old Man's Storr rock formation and Kilt rock waterfalls. It was a beautiful waterfalls falling from the height directly to the Sea however it was very difficult to photo shoot this waterfalls.<br />
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From here we drove along the mountains of Quiraing, this was the spectacular drive with very narrow roads and beautiful landscape. From Quiraing we headed towards Uig bay. On the way the best thing which attracted my attention was a couple camping on top the peak in Quiraing mountains. Had only seen such things in movies.<br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Scotland has been one of the best places I have ever visited. I should give a visit again to this place with the idea to trek some mountains, hope I can do that.</span>
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</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-69961273292033861162012-06-10T09:58:00.003-07:002012-06-10T09:58:58.840-07:00Beachy Head - 7 Sisters - United Kingdom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Probably we picked a bad day to visit this beautiful place called Beachy Head - 7 Sisters which is around an hour and half away from Chertsy where I stayed. We checked in BBC weather report which showed bright sunny day but had warned of Gale storms in the south coast. This is what we ignored and experienced a very rough weather. After breakfast we started around 12 in the noon and got stuck with a major slow moving traffic and we took around 1.30hrs to just cover 10miles. Totally we took around 3-4hours to reach the destination.</div>
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We reached our destination around 3 or probably 4pm. By this time the weather had already started getting worse, believe it or not we even struggled to open the car door so strong was the wind. We went near the cliff edge but it was pretty scary especially with the warnings all around saying the cliff may give up to erosion. At times I felt like the wind may throw me away and I had to sit down on the ground.</div>
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I had seen the picture of this light house on the internet which is where I actually wanted to go. However every one were very hungry and then we decided to go to the nearest town and have some food. Probably this was the mistake we made as we were just minutes away from the place I actually wanted to go. By the time we returned to this location after having food the light had gone bad and also it was very cloudy with weather only getting worse.</div>
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After having some food we returned back to find the location of the light house. Finally I was able to find the light house just below the cliff I was standing but then I realized how dangerously close I was on the cliff to its edge and later also realized that was the exact spot where in many people had committed suicide. Girls didn't get out of the car as it was really rough. Myself and Vinka went ahead a long way after around 30min girls got scared and they came out in search of us. Much to their horror they couldn't find us anywhere, they even shouted our names but no use. We were not even picking up our phones. Finally we gave them a call and told them we are safe. </div>
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While returning back I realized that my 70-300mm lens which I had kept in the pocket of my jacket was missing. Cloudy and rough weather time was around 8 with dim light, I was really lucky to go back and find my lens hiding in the grasslands.</div>
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Finally after spending some time taking photos of the beautiful location we headed back to Chertsy.</div>
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</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-18835609201125333662012-06-09T16:37:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:37:10.464-07:00Wales - United Kingdom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We landed on Thursday afternoon in London and went home with Swathi who picked us from airport. We had planned a trip to Wales on early Friday morning. The driving burden had to be taken by only Vinayaka and Swathi for the entire trip as i was not allowed to drive the rented car with my Indian license. We started from Chertsy around 9:30 and started driving towards Wales which is around 4hours away. Our destination was Bala in Wales where we had booked a B&B (Bed and Breakfast).<br />
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At around 2 in the afternoon we saw a sign board Pistyll Rhaeadr Waterfalls. We took a turn from our actual route and after around 15miles drive we reached a beautiful water falls. The water was pretty cold and the weather was perfect and pleasant. After playing in water for some time we decided to hike to the top of the falls. It was a small hike of around 30min to reach the peak. The best possible view would have been to cross the waterfalls on the top and view from the other side. After some hesitation all of us crossed the water flow to reach the other side from where the view of the entire falls and the valley was spectacular.<br />
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We reached Bala B&B at around 7 overlooking the big Bala lake in front of our room. The place we stayed was a spectacular eg of British style architecture of a house. We went around the small town Bala for an evening dinner after which we heard the road ahead was completely blocked due to a major accident. Myself and Vinka went on foot to see what has happened but the police didn't allow to go any further and we had to head back to our room.<br />
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Next day we had plans to go to Snowdonia national park. After breakfast we started driving towards Snowdonia, there were 3 things which attracted my attention one was the cyclists enjoying the valley cycling in groups, 2nd was hikers and 3rd was rock climbers climbing huge cliffs. Off the 3 I missed the rock climbing the most as I have never tried it. Huge mountain cliffs and I could see many people hanging at different places. It was a spectacular view to see the spirit and adventurist nature of these people. Probably that was the reason why the British managed to explore so many places across the world.<br />
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At Snowdonia national park we took the mountain train, since we had around 2hours time to board the next train we hiked to a waterfalls around 30min from the station. After spending some good time around the waterfalls we took the train to the peak. Since we had rough weather the train couldn't take us to the peak and we had to return back just before reaching the peak. But the view of the entire valley was spectacular. I missed the opportunity to trek these places due to limited time I had. But enjoyed looking at many other trekkers who were enjoying. One thing I observed was the treks in India are more interesting due to the wilderness it offers. Most of the treks over here are well marked and people can only land in trouble due to their stupidity, however back in India each trek is totally wild and rough. Risk and challenge is offered on every step we walk and the worse is limited help which can be provided if one lands in trouble, we are left on our own.<br />
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Back from the train we headed towards the Llechwedd Slate Caverns mine. I had never gone inside a mine before. After watching the movie Sanctum I had a wish to go to a mine to get a feel. It was an amazing never before experienced feeling. It was very cold down under and pitch dark if lights are turned off. The best was to watch a small beautiful lake deep inside the mine. I wonder how difficult it is to work in mine with such harsh weather conditions and roughness. I missed doing photography as they used to turnoff the lights the moment they finished explaining each place inside the mine. But it was an amazing experience which I never had earlier.<br />
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From Slate mines we drove to Llandudno Beach the drive along the sea side on the mountain was spectacular. The light was perfect for some good photo shoots. After enjoying our time with a walk along the mountain and the beach we headed towards and Indian rather Bangladeshi restaurant after which we drove back to Bala.<br />
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We had some plans to explore some places around Bala but then we were tired and then we decided to rest along the Bala Lake where in lots of people had camped. However after lying lazily for some time we decided to try canoeing for the first time. I did Canoeing for the first time and it was a great experience reason being we had to do it ourselves with no helping hand. The tough part was to control the direction of the boat. But after almost one hour we were pretty good as we managed to control the direction as well we as we got a feel of how to do it. After this we headed back to London.</div>
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</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-71452215736488136212012-06-01T07:14:00.001-07:002012-06-01T07:50:21.702-07:00Siddeshwara Betta, Kuppalli and Jogi Gundi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The occasion was my colleague Kishan's wedding, made this as an opportunity to spend some time around one of the most beautiful forests in the world. Myself, Zaheer and Puneet boarded the sleeper coach bus from Indiranagar and picked up Rohit at Rajajinagar on our way to Thirtahalli. After a good night's sleep in the bus we landed in Thirtahalli around 5am in the morning. We called up Kishan's brother who came to receive us in the bus stop and arranged an auto and took us to the Guest House. Zaheer went to bed to get some extra sleep, however myself, puneet and rohit after freshening ourselves went to explore a small peak in front of the guest house called Siddeshwara Betta.</div>
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It was an early morning walk on the rocky peak, a small peak which took around 30-40min to reach and was very pleasant to walk in the morning very different from the walks in Bangalore. On top of the peak, one can get a complete view of the valley along the Tunga River in the Thirtahalli town. We sat there admiring the beauty of the place but felt bad to see lot of smaller rocky mountains in and around being exploited in the name of mining/development. I am sure this is illegal mining, the most surprising factor was that a few years back, i had read that all kind of mining was stopped in the ecologically sensitive western ghats area but was surprised to see it still happening probably at a slower and smaller scale.</div>
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The descent from the peak was very easy and just took around 15-20min to come down after which all of us were very hungry and went into a small local restaurant to try out some local cuisine. It was amazing food mangalooru buns/ neeru dose with some spicy kai chatni. We went back to the guest house after the food and freshened up for the wedding.</div>
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Kishan's cousin picked us up for the wedding venue around 9:30am. After having a second round of breakfast at the wedding place we took a walk along the river Tunga and got to spot a couple of Keel back snakes. No wonder you get to see so many stone idols of snake gods all along Westren ghats. At times i feel our ancestors were way smarter than us, they marked these places as sacred and all the natural habitats of snakes were marked with these stone idols of snakes probably as a warning as well as a note not to harm them by linking it with god as the fear of god keeps humans away. But its funny to see the modern man who kills snakes and then cleans up these natural habitat for snakes and builds a huge temple for these snakes.<br />
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After wishing Kishan and then having a heavy lunch took a cab to explore some near by places. The first one to visit was "Chibbalagude" which has a Siddhivinayaka Temple on the banks of Tunga river with huge fishes. One can feed these fishes with some nominal fees of Rs10 per plate of rice, however fishing is banned in this place. This place looks very similar to the one you get to see in Sringeri.</div>
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From here we went to Kuppalli to visit the house of the great Kannada Poet Kuvempu. Was in instant love with the house, it was the dream house i had imagined as how my house would be. After spending some time looking around the house and all the collections which is now kind of a museum dedicated to the poet we headed towards Agumbe. Probably this was one of the worst period to visit Agumbe. I had never heard of water sources depleting in these parts, it receives one of the highest rainfalls in the world but looks like now things are changing. We went to Jogi gundi and I was surprised there was no water in the water falls. Then we went to the over crowded sunset spot at Agumbe. Even though this is a beautiful place it has been badly littered and i would avoid it for my own reasons. </div>
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We headed back to Thirtahalli and took a bus back to Bangalore at around 10pm. It was a quick 1day trip and was fun with friends and also a welcome break.</div>
</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-31812738833467673372012-04-01T06:29:00.001-07:002012-04-01T06:35:20.282-07:00Trekking Memories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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These videos are dedicated to all my wonderful friends who have been part of my life. Time and again I spend time looking into these videos which I had prepared around 2years back. Its nice that we are still in touch and we are still going to lots of treks. Some of my friends have become my extended family, I can't imagine my world without you guys thanks for all you have given me in life. I have learnt a lot of things from many of you guys. Hope we live rest of our life with the same spirit of joy and happiness. Hope we enjoy lot more trip and treks in future as well.</div>
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<br /></div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-453068861305851582012-02-08T08:43:00.000-08:002012-02-08T08:43:21.538-08:00Venkatagiri and Arebetta<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After postponing for almost a month I decided to go ahead with the trek with a small group. It was just 3 of us (Poorna, Diwi and Prabanjan) and it turned out to be one of the best trek in terms of mystic silence inside the forest, distance covered and toughness and best of all highly economical - it costed us just around Rs. 1100/head. One day before the scheduled day of start we booked the last seats available, preparing ourselves for the bumpy ride for both to and fro journey by KSRTC. The bus was supposed to arrive at platform 11 but then the bus kept waiting for us at platform 14, the conductor told that he made repeated announcements for us which we never heard! Luckily we managed to catch the bus on time. Fun started right from the bus itself with a person sitting behind completely drunk playing music on loud speaker on his phone.<br />
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We got down at Gundya at 5 in the morning and started walking towards the IB which is around half km from Gundya checkpost (immediately next to the bridge across Kempu hole on the Kukke Subramanya road). After talking to Jagadish the care taker we freshened up at IB. By 7 we were ready for the trek and had a heavy break fast prepared by Jagadish. By 8 our guide Jayanna had come and we started with the trek to Venkatagiri. Initially the plan was to trek to Venkatagiri and then camp at Arebetta railway station, following day trek to Arebetta and then back to IB.<br />
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A small team has a lot of advantages - its quite and quick. We were walking very fast through the forest which didn't have any trail after a certain point. Jayanna our guide was quite surprised by our speed with all the luggage we carried. A couple of times he kept insisting we can leave our bags here and collect it while heading back, but what is the fun of trekking without the heavy bags. The best part of the trek was that it gave a panoramic view of the entire valley, vehicles moving on the Shiradi ghat, trains moving on the scenic Sakleshpur - Mangalore railway track, Kempu hole river flowing along the entire forest range and other peaks like Mugilagiri, MethiKallu, Aramane gudde.<br />
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We reached the peak of Venkatagiri by around 10.30am with lots of time in hand for the day. We didn't even feel like we trekked. There was no strain, no sweating or tiredness. We sat on the peak watching the entire valley for few minutes and after that we made changes to our plan. Arebetta was right in front of us. We planned to head towards Arebetta and camp in Arebetta railway station and then cover Kannikayana gundi water falls the next day. </div>
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The trek from Venkatagiri to Arebetta was a bit difficult. Sun had come out completely and it was burning hot. We were running out of our water resources. With no trail and high dry elephant grass cutting my hands/legs acting like blades it was very difficult to walk on the tough terrain. We didn't want to hurry up going to Arebetta and started spending time around the forest taking breaks in order to avoid getting exposed to Sun in the peak. We reached Arebetta peak by around 1:30 - 2. After spending some time on the peak we decided to take an exciting, new and a never tested route to Gang6 shed directly below the Arebetta peak. Looking at our fitness our guide Jayanna agreed to take that risk and we started the direct descend below the Arebetta through the thick forest.<br />
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This descend was very slippery and with huge rocks and caves the habitat looked perfect for Tiger/Leopard/Bear. The descend was very steep probably around 70degree inclination to walk. Diwi's floaters couldn't handle the pressure any more and gave up. We tied shoe lace to his floaters so that he could walk. Also my shoe sole gave up and every sharp rock would enter my shoe and hurt my foot. Diwi was struggling to walk with his renovated floaters, adding to this, he got cramps in his legs.<br />
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During this tough walk through the thick forest we had to change our route a couple of times as we just landed in a dead end beyond which there was huge drop. We reached a water source, a thin stream of water around 4 in the evening. After filling our water bottles we could hear a train passing near by. By now we were clear we are very near to the railway track and within 5-10min we reached the railway track and Gang6 shed. This was one of the best descend I have tried for a long long time. After taking some rest we decided to spend the night in the open shed next to the line men's shed. We initially thought line men would provide us some food but then at around 8 we realized that they didn't have any plans of cooking for us. Diwi and Prabanjan wanted to walk towards Gundya on the railway track but then I was reluctant to walk in the night and strongly opposed it and finally we decided to stay hungry and sleep. In a way it was a good decision, probably if we had reached IB during the night we might not have slept the whole night due to high police activity due to death of a student from BMS.</div>
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All of us were tired and slept off very soon, Prabanjan forgot to get his sleeping bag and probably was feeling a bit cold. Early morning around 4 probably I heard warning calls from Sambar deer very close to the shed, after reading a book on man eating leopards very recently I was a bit scared. Next day morning we started very early around 6:30 on the railway track which we had left half finished 2 months back. I was also happy that we completed the unfinished railway track trek during this trek. By 8 we were in IB. But then I was really sad to hear the news of a missing boy in Ombattu gudda range. We were advised not to go towards Kannikayanagundi Waterfalls due to tension from police and forest officials. We decided to spend time around Kempuhole river taking bath and roaming around. By afternoon I saw a jeep with around 8 trekkers being arrested by the forest officers. It was that time we decided to leave IB and head towards Kukke.<br />
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Venkatagiri and Arebetta is an average trek during winter/summer with limited or no water supplies, but very difficult and dangerous trek during rains. There are no trails and it is easy to get lost in the wild. One tip from me is have a sense of railway track below the hill, if you can manage to hit railway track then you are safe. Don't enter without a local guide or GPS. Be careful about the wild animals. If you are not a serious trekker don't try it. We missed satellite signal deep inside the forest so the trek trail is not complete.<br />
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Route: Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Gundya - Take a left from Gundya and cross the bridge across Kempu hole to enter Forest IB towards your right.<br />
Contact Person: Devappa - M.no. 9449902125. Guide: Jayanna . Don't forget to take permission from forest department.</div>
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<h2>
<a href="http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1443367">Venkatagiriandarebetta</a></h2>
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</script></div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-53405487832715193892012-02-06T04:00:00.000-08:002012-02-06T04:00:40.978-08:00Trekking - Passion, Risk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I felt really bad hearing to the news of Naveen from BMS college who along with his friends 10 boys and 4 girls ventured into Ombattu Gudda. I just saw in TV that they have fished out Naveen's body from the water. I am not sure if these students really knew where they were going or what they were up to when they where heading towards Ombattu Gudda. I had been to this place in 2009 and I was in instant love with this place but then I had realized that any one who would venture in here without a local guide or GPS or a good understanding of forest and maps would land in trouble. It was a unique kind of forest, felt like it was full of secrets, it was lot more different and mysterious from most of my other treks. Let me tell you Trekking is a passion and it has lots of risks some of them are life threatening. I have met different kinds of people during my treks who venture into forest and think it to be a picnic some of the bad things I have observed during my trips</div>
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1) Having Liquor and worse getting into water after that</div>
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2) Smoking in dry forest</div>
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3) Camp firing and partying with loud music</div>
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4) Cutting small trees/plants on mountain tops for camp fire</div>
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5) Listening to music while trekking ignoring the forest activity or warning calls</div>
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6) Swimming in unknown waters</div>
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7) Not planning for the night</div>
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8) Getting into forest without torch</div>
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9) Limited or no water/food supplies</div>
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10) Not being serious </div>
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11) Not moving in groups</div>
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12) Not carrying first aid kit</div>
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13) No GPS or not taking the help of locals</div>
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Please take a note, please don't enter forests for partying. Forests are not the place for such activity. I was in Kukke Subramanya yesterday and saw some of these students waiting for their friend, I can only wish for his sole to rest in peace. If you don't realize the threats of nature in here you will land in nature's lap pretty soon. I was seeing police struggling to even get into the place where this mishap happened forget about helping. Locals do a great job during such operations and hats off to them for knowing their backyard so well.</div>
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Trekking has lots of risk involved, Trek with passion and not for fun. Trek safe, take care.</div>
</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-66596228231572152212012-01-26T04:44:00.000-08:002012-01-26T04:44:46.400-08:00Multnomah Falls - Portland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I don't know how I missed publishing some of these pictures I took probably an year back during my trip to US during the Fall. Two things I regret before I publish my pics are these pics can never make justification for the beauty of the place as I was not even aware of how to use my SLR properly and the second it kept raining most of the time and with low lighting pics were not the kind I wanted.</div>
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It was around half an hour drive from my hotel, I remember it was a lousy day started raining right from the morning but it was even more depressing to sit in room watching TV. Also it gets really cold during these seasons and with having just one jacket during the trip it would be worse to get it wet in rain and suffer at least 2-3 days going out or to office.</div>
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I picked up Deepak and Karthik headed towards Multnomah falls after our breakfast the drive along the river was amazing but unlike India I really missed stopping my car at all the places I wanted to. Some of these roads on the mountains were kind of 2 lanes and we are not suppose to stop cars at non designated areas. But the forest area during the fall was filled with vibrant <span style="text-align: left;">colors and the cool form of purest oxygen entering your lungs can only experienced rather than expressed over a blog.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">There was a hiking trail till the top of the water fall, it was still continuing into the forest but as it started drizzling we didn't take the risk of getting ourselves drenched in the cold weather. But it was surprising to see, from above it is just a small stream inside a forest but when it falls down it does look spectacular. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">If ever I get opportunity to travel again during Fall I promise to get some better pictures to give you a feel of the beauty surrounding this place.</span></div>
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</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-77691450966414571222012-01-02T06:25:00.001-08:002012-01-08T01:49:05.177-08:00Bandipur - Madumalai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Like every year I had shutdown break from office during the last week of December. I thought of taking a break and spend some time relaxing at home rather than travelling, which is hardly the case with me when I am holidaying. Also after a couple of trips during the last week of December I don't feel good travelling,with tourists flooding to almost all places and spoiling the beauty by not being sensible enough, and also it's very expensive. I did however spend some time exploring some places around Mysore.</div>
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I wanted to do some birding and also some photography early morning at Himavad Gopalswamy betta and started around 5am from Mysore not knowing that now the entry at the check post is restricted between 8:30am to 4:30pm only. What a waste, I felt the beauty of this place can only be enjoyed either early in the morning or in the evening. Only reason for this restriction I could think off was the temple attracts lots of people and this temple being inside the protected area there is a high possibility of human - animal face off. Also since this comes under elephant corridor with large herds of elephants being observed consistently.</div>
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Being so early to the spot I didn't wanted to waste my time till 8:30 and started driving towards Bandipur national park giving Himavad Gopalswamy betta a miss. I was there at Bandipur national park at around 7:45. Cost per head is Rs300 for a safari. You can also contact the forest office in Mysore if you want to stay here.</div>
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After being to so many safaris across different places, going for a safari in this government vehicle which is in fact a bus is not worth especially if you are interested in photography. Reason I can think of is you will not find a passionate crowd who respect and understand where they are and what is expected out of them. I think it was inefficiency also from the forest department team not to educate the crowd of what is expected once inside the forest before the safari starts. Rather than a safari trying to hear the warning calls or calls of birds this was just a bumpy ride for an hour with idiotic people passing stupid comments sitting next to you. I felt even though jungle lodges are very expensive at least the safari's are worth.</div>
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After wasting my money on the safari, I started driving towards Ooty. I felt after Bandipur area, which extends to Madumalai forest from where Tamilnadu starts they have created nice buffer zones so that you might be lucky to watch wildlife while driving on road. Even though I enjoyed the drive till Ooty a lot, I would say Ooty was very disappointing. Probably one of the worst tourist place I have visited for a long long time. Was totally over crowded, very badly maintained with plastics and garbage every where. The thought just came to my mind that such a beautiful place how it would have been maintained if it was outside India. However there might be some resorts or home stays which might be exception, but then downtown a definite no.</div>
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I took a different route which is a bit far but then lot more scenic while returning back. Got to drive around lots of tea estates and also lots of Nilgiri plantations. It was perfect drive which I enjoyed the most. Spent lots of time driving around Madumalai and also Bandipur. Of all odds was hoping for a luck, so that I get to see a tiger cross the road, but even after spending the entire evening my luck ran out. The evening lighting was perfect for photo shooting as well. However like always was very disappointing with the way people behave inside a national park. Things I observed and which was very irritating was </div>
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a) Driving at high speeds inside the national park</div>
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b) Honking badly even when they see some animals around and scare them out.</div>
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c) Getting down from vehicle to photograph wild animals like elephants</div>
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d) Using flash in their camera while photographing wild animals</div>
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e) Throwing garbage/plastics out of their vehicles inside the protected area</div>
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f) Feeding wild animals like langoors/monkeys</div>
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g) Getting down from vehicle and having a family picnic by having food and throwing out the waste inside the forest.</div>
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I find lots of boards from forest department warning about these above mentioned points probably we need lot more stricter enforcement. </div>
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Contact Details: If you are interested in staying in Bandipur at Government guest house contact</div>
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The Chief Conservator of Forests</div>
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Project Tiger</div>
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Aranya Bhavan, Ahokapuram</div>
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Mysore - 570008</div>
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ph: 0821 - 2480902</div>
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Room rent is around 1000 to 1500Rs for Indian nationals. They also have Dormitory for 10 and 20 beds with Rs750 and Rs1500 respectively.</div>
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</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-27458362331911805472011-12-21T14:02:00.001-08:002012-01-02T07:40:24.337-08:00Highway - Chocolate scam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Have you ever received 1Re change from any of the toll booth in NH4 highway? Have you observed that most of the toll fee along the entire NH4 highway is like Rs19, Rs39, Rs44 etc. Have you observed that you always get a cadbury eclairs chocolate instead of 1Re change. Well how does it matter after all its just 1Re. Now if I travel from Bangalore to Goa with around 6-7 toll booths along the entire stretch it's just around 6-7Rs extra one way. What's the big deal? </div>
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At the first place paying for toll doesn't make sense after paying all the taxes, roads are the basic necessity the government has to provide. Well at least we have few good roads after paying these toll, so I shouldn't be expecting too much. But then the concern I have here is, how are these rates fixed and who does it? How are these numbers 19, 39, 44 etc derived, it's always 1Re less. With around 4-8 collection center in each booth and with around 60,000 - 1 lakh vehicles moving along the NH4 on an average, each booth would be earning around 60 to 1 lakh rupees extra. Now how much would Cadbury charge me for each eclairs if I promise to sell around 60,000 to 1 lakh chocolates from each booth ? I guess it should not be more than 30-40 paise per <span style="text-align: left;">chocolate. That is around 60-70 thousand rupees a day for each toll booth.</span></div>
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If this thing is knowingly or unknowingly happening across the entire country across all highways then this should be the next big potential highway chocolate scam!</div>
</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-11958954313136296322011-12-19T23:50:00.000-08:002011-12-20T01:08:53.748-08:00PDS - Public Distribution System<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When the food security bill was passed by the union cabinet ministry, I wanted to get back home and read more about the PDS (Public Distribution System)scam in Karnataka. At times I feel the common man of this country is like helpless or is made a fool by a bunch of rulers. I can only guess and get scared where this food security bill will head with no proper storage facility for the food grains procured by the government. More food will be procured by the government to feed the poor, there by creating a shortage and price rise for the rest. With no proper storage or distribution mechanism there is a high possibility that these food grains will be sold in black creating loss to the exchequer. How it can be done, I understood by reading the investigation report of Dr.R.Balasubramaniam, who investigated the PDS scam.</div>
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The current reality is that 57% of the PDS food grain doesn't reach the intended poor people. The planning commission has identified that for every Rs4 spent on PDS only Re1 reaches the poor which meant 75% of the money spent on PDS doesn't reach the needy. It's a well camouflaged setup in the system to loot money from this country. Telling this I am not against PDS but until there is a proper mechanism to deliver, this will be a big scam.</div>
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In Karnataka the government has distributed 1.6crore ration cards while the total number of families in the state itself is 1.2crore, which means there are nearly 40lakh ghost and ineligible cards. As per the study there are around 44lakh BPL (Below Poverty Line) families in Karnataka, but the government's claim that there are 96 lakh BPL families. This means 52 lakh families who actually belonged to the APL (Above Poverty Line) are included in the BPL list and are given subsidies which they are not entitled for. Also around 5.8lakh BPL families are excluded from this list. At the wholesaler shops it is observed that weighing scales are faulty, low quality products, adulteration, no bills issued and charging higher prices for commodities.</div>
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Allocation of supplies made by the government towards in-active cards leads to over allotment loss which is estimated around 38% i.e is around Rs54 crore every month. The loss incurred due to the leakage of grains that happens at all levels of supply chain which includes wholesale transportation, at the wholesaler level, during the rural transportation is estimated to be around 39% i.e around Rs56.6 crore every month. Households not eligible to rations, but drawing rations cause active suspect losses to treasury which is estimated around 17% i.e Rs24.5Crore every month. By charging higher price to the consumers, thus stealing the benefit intended by the government 4% loss is estimated i.e Rs 5.82crore in a month.</div>
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Overall as per an estimation Rs 144.8crore is lost every month from this one state Karnataka. Now can we imagine what will happen and how much money will be looted from the country without a proper mechanism or system in place?</div>
</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-51214020766032787922011-12-10T20:07:00.000-08:002011-12-10T23:06:18.178-08:00Dandeli - Old Magazine Hut<div style="text-align: justify;">Around 5 years back had visited Dandeli on bike, on my way to Goa for new year. This place has changed a lot over 5 years. I see lots of resorts which have come up, lot many vehicles on the road. Yet some of the places deep inside if you are willing to explore is amazing be it the roads or the greenery. Probably this is the best place in Karnataka for Birding, how ever it was disappointing for wildlife siting. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hOO-CKYhgkY8lKiv0-88ntMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FJahjHaHt3A/Tt1qR49LbJI/AAAAAAAAQBk/Tb0clHQCRhM/s640/IMG_4372.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QCI9y3OH2S0XnPXFlnjU29MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1fU6cS2L_q8/Tt1qXq4t71I/AAAAAAAAQB0/yAcXf-LBkuw/s640/IMG_4821.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I asked Diwi to stay with us over the night so that we can start very early in the morning. We started around 4.30 and by around 7 we where in Chitradurga. I have been to most of the hotels in Chitradurga as most of them are from my relatives, especially the older ones. But Diwi asked to try "Lakshmi Tiffin Room" for the "Kali Dosa". This was one of the best "Kali Dosa" I had ever tried. I made best use of it by having as much as I could. It was not right but then, I had to leave Durga without visiting my relatives as we were suppose to be in Dandeli by 12.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8CSfhk9v7UYTwC3vuSMuMNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4_GzsAbsU-k/Tt1rIwE8wiI/AAAAAAAAQD8/J1UqKhejJRQ/s640/IMG_4522.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1SQHzHkrvAhGfuKgnEYrINMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9X8j019Vq-0/Tt1rCiykbqI/AAAAAAAAQDs/Kfo-hBKXriQ/s640/IMG_4510.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/udVxvW_KYn-1atZ5JjOApNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sm0fAdDc0SE/Tt1q02k6boI/AAAAAAAAQDI/mEnuVybuMcI/s640/IMG_4384.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">NH4 is probably one of the best roads in the country over a long stretch. I was consistently driving at 120-140 kmph. Reached Hubli by around 9:30 -10, however from Hubli towards Dharwad the speed dropped and then from Dharwad to Dandeli, the roads are not good. We reached Dandeli around 12.30 and we had the biggest shock, I wanted to stay in "Old Magazine Hut" @ Ganeshgudi but I didn't know the name of the place and asked for help from Jungle lodge team while booking who mistook and had booked us in "Kali Adventure Camp - Dandeli". This was not the place I wanted to stay, it was very disappointing but then after speaking to the Jungle lodges team, they were quick to put us in 2 log huts in Ganeshgudi.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZtMYredTSsXrbCgue8uPYtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pTRqDzQoPnc/Tt1q3k20Y3I/AAAAAAAAQDQ/NRs-jzefBzg/s640/IMG_4411.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/L4d5l0rq8hjVsxGGDrbf4NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJqYaqIEFsbYor7uJ4G2cogAk1x-9bdbsqDvfaRM5AoG1p9_gsEEsAZCusjUQgrZcM4Wzwp4GQ-89zmrYGd0tOhIG_2Owej5qOZPQf3J7iBynDbAabSRfmKRqrBHdWe_YxqTfUA/s640/IMG_4705.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nXKHx-b-obykW9DTAjJmk9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UeTJ-BfpaDI/TuQY8nuwWlI/AAAAAAAAQKw/J_jZ9iBojQ8/s640/IMG_6969.JPG" height="427" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We had a quick lunch at Dandeli and headed for rafting, I have done rafting thrice in Rishikesh in different weather conditions and once just after rains in red muddy water which was the most dangerous. When compared to that there was nothing in this but then, rafting again after long time was fun also it was great fun for all the beginners. Kali also has got the best rapids in Karnataka but then the water current is so much dependent of the water that is been released from the Dam.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Old Magazine hut in Ganeshgudi is almost in the middle of the forest and there has been many instances of wild life sighting at the camp site. I would still rate K.Gudi as the best of all. While driving to Ganeshgudi at night from Dandeli, I switched off the lights of my Car for a couple of seconds to get a feel of Darkness ahead and it was great fun. After having dinner in front of the camp fire we moved to our rooms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n28sYsI6HPZ8Q40mQlWHaNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-joy0I6pc6Jc/TuQY82GqeyI/AAAAAAAAQK0/B8c4_0OJyBQ/s640/IMG_6972.JPG" height="427" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Wk294EQSkcSDFHySUfjr09MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDopJ_-Tteth4e1yVytA0cZVKeO7aFzQdxxDZzJlMZ5m2NIU1Q3R4mFxmrURnkKEE8bi03STmgm-28eSTvUf5NbKGU9xq1ipYtH9ck2aaGk2KzasqYPv9nzCaLqGMdqt7JTyQRg/s640/IMG_4712.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DkCyUuzOAFEifSn-gA_QU9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7I2fRp6pRg4/Tt1rkN9lZOI/AAAAAAAAQFQ/mekCdqQMzvk/s640/IMG_4777.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We got up at 6 and went for birding and sighted lots of interesting birds .We sighted Malabar Trogon female/male, Red whisked bulbul, Asian paradise fly catcher (white), Golden fronted leaf bird, Sun bird, Emerald Dove, Red cheeked barbet, Blue capped rock thrush, Ruby throat bulbul, Yellow browed bulbul, White rumped Shama, Malabar grey hornbill, Malabar gaint squirrel and also Flying squirrel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After breakfast we started driving towards Syntheri Rocks, the roads are the best with thick forest and very few vehicles. The roads are in good condition making it even more pleasant drive. We reached Syntheri rocks around 11 and spent some time enjoying the beauty of the water falls in front of the huge granite rock. I had got down into water at many places but here they have put up boards not to get into water and also there are guards who stop you from even going near the water, did not make much sense.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/WVUozLhRaUL9u4FsvczAdtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-JtVcqgbjUkI/Tt1rX6nH0rI/AAAAAAAAQEs/OMVqbTbAAZc/s640/IMG_4668.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LLVOm2ewAhjns3UpHGGrodMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Fq8zgPrAXG4/Tt1qcBlieXI/AAAAAAAAQCE/0ESS926dc-4/s640/IMG_4162.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After coming back to Ganeshgudi, having lunch we went for the coracle ride. I didn't enjoy this, felt this was more for older people. Coming back from coracle ride we went for the peak behind the Ganeshgudi camping for sunset view. Its around 20min hike behind the camping site from where we get the entire view of the forest and also the back waters of Kali river. It was relaxing to feel the cool breeze but then at the last moment sun hid behind the clouds and we missed the beautiful sunset view.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We planned to go for safari next day, but then later felt it was a waste of time. Dandeli is not the place for Safari. You can best enjoy Dandeli for birding and then relaxing. I enjoyed the most photo shooting the "Hump nosed pit Viper" in front of our rooms. Viper was in an aggressive mood trying to strike again and again but gave some of the best shots for my camera. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">On our journey back we stopped at "Dandeli Appa - temple", here we could watch around 30-40 crocodiles of Kali river which had come out to warm themselves. We heard that if we had come at around 9 we could have got a spectacular view of around 70 crocodiles in the river. I was a bit scared looking at these crocodiles for the sheer number as I was swimming in this river just a day before, but there has been no instances of any one being attacked by crocodile in Dandeli.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The return journey was very tiring as the traffic along the entire stretch was very heavy and finally we reached home around 12 in the midnight.</div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19768098.post-34286619482784724012011-11-27T00:49:00.000-08:002011-12-10T07:05:47.233-08:00Sakleshpur Railway Track Trek<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Green route trek -- akka Sakleshpur raliway track trek, once the abandoned track, paradise for beginners had been on my mind for a long time. Very recently probably an year back this track was reopened for passenger train after which lots of people have found it hard to complete this trek due to restrictions from railway officials. If they find you especially the chief engineer who comes on rounds, that's the end of your trek.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PzmjdBwsLxd8BMuPXdPD_9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-uO3gUBsmCRA/TtHVkwvk25I/AAAAAAAAP5w/etlCm77-bJc/s640/IMG_3851.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104354993819772501480/Sakleshpur_greenroute_railwaytrack_trek?feat=embedwebsite#5679555610471187954"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-t3oiLq51Kxg/TtHVvHQ2RfI/AAAAAAAAP6I/HODIiE5oLWE/s640/IMG_3863.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NvZvZ9_hPvUdXKZKKt1k8NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-16Uge9Ilpy4/TtHWIrosvCI/AAAAAAAAP7E/sA1leOJUnS8/s640/IMG_3929.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify; ">We started very late around 11.30 -12 in the mid night and yet reached Sakleshpur at around 4am in the morning. After some coffee and refreshing in a local hotel we started our trek from Donigal railway station. We spoke to the local station master at Donigal and asked for permission but he had to say, permission as such is not given but many do the trek, until they are caught by the chief engineer. We started at around 6 and stopped at around 9:30 for breakfast.</div><div style="text-align: justify; ">There was this water stream, with a beautiful waterfalls. I got into my swimming costume and was in water within no time. Water was very cold and refreshing. After spending some time in water, finished with our breakfast and started continuing in the track.
<br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZKm4pf_aetQcFf4C6Cd7btMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-BN4Ho80BU88/TtHWQmX6xjI/AAAAAAAAP7Y/J2dBxC1T1ik/s640/IMG_3944.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a>
<br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/XIqn8il1PxU6WYsuk_13mdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIEeImXl-6-c5P_q6L_y2SQP4EuVVngCwiCkQGfOlJ85lT5BKaB-Tpf8Qh3zle7ammlpxn_FQwiVOzxA8kG7tsOVtbtF8o8jL0bvXhlvWDpMRXTinvLr_vWa8uF4JSZpSyQTiWA/s640/IMG_3983.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table>
<br /><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104354993819772501480/Sakleshpur_greenroute_railwaytrack_trek?feat=embedwebsite#5679556707510085986"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uO3o41s2QKw/TtHWu-DTaWI/AAAAAAAAP8g/7IfcNAww7Qc/s640/IMG_4011.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table>
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<br /><span class="Apple-style-span">A couple of bridges and here we are about to get into the first tunnel and I hear the sound of train from behind. I started shouting train train for all those who were already inside the tunnel. There was an outlet in the middle of the tunnel and most of them managed to sneak out through it. However Vikram who was already out of the tunnel from other end, hearing the sound of the train got confused and started running in to the tunnel. I don't know what Vicky was thinking :-). But Vicky kept shouting for all the people inside the tunnel to keep left where there was some space to stand and Raghu who even wears cooling glass inside the dark tunnel got confused and jumped to the right only to land in a pit. Luckily nothing happened and all were safe also the goods train was very slow to react</span>
<br />
<br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/TTbotHrEUANOzjkq9HjIPNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEive5tI5TITJKbbfq4aYt4zZOGl3aDuFeROsadUVFoJSpZhDfz4Jf85Z2SKBTXl8aNRjDOA_B3Z0lsC1f76RhXmhNao-sEEtUyIX-FmGohgpswB0fXe8j_igRU1x8ExD-59sLPHsg/s640/IMG_4063.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a>
<br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zb2GSdl5_3ourgb6aJPKgNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--rs_PzJB9z4/TtHXMfNrU4I/AAAAAAAAP9s/wV1rV8_ZXV0/s640/IMG_4104.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a>
<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">></span><table style="font-size: 11px; width: auto; "><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/u0yPLzHuupRjeNKkO9cbk9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc0tj2ITbUPmdepRqlM8eUCwmgxemqv64IYo73K6XBxfVocw-xLTry6oxlwAFLyrMJP7staqk0a7nC0gaFPL6ERxwbVE8HPtJ0O-n3jp2eUNlQFJ0sRA-xczt4-hFJiGwsJHOJtw/s640/IMG_4010.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span">A couple of more bridges and tunnels and here we come across a railway guard who told us that we were lucky that the engineer is not here and we have managed to come till here. Ahead of us we had a couple of big tunnels and beautiful bridges and here comes the Bihari engineer (Not to forget about the railway job scam when Lalu was the Railways minister, today we find many places even in Karnataka with officers from Bihar) with his broken English stopped us and asked us to return. We were annoyed that he kept us calling terrorists and Dacoits but then to an extent I was also happy that he did not budge even for money. He was right on his part doing his duty, trespassing railway property is crime.
<br />Section 147 in the Railways Act, 1989
<br />147. Trespass and refusal to desist from trespass
<br />1) If any person enters upon or into any part of a railway without lawful authority, or having lawfully entered upon or into such part misuses such property or refuses to leave, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both:
<br />Provided that in the absence of special and adequate reasons to the contrary to be mentioned in the judgement of the court, such punishment shall not be less than a fine of five hundred rupees
<br />2) Any person referred to in sub-section (1) may be removed from the railway by any railway servant or by any other person whom such railway servant may call to his aid.
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<br />We waited for almost 40min with some hope to continue but then there was nothing that could have been done as the officer had warned us that we would be arrested in next station if we had proceeded further. We missed a couple of beautiful bridges and tunnels ahead and not to mention the camping at night. But then we turned back and while some of them got a lift to Sakleshpur, we started exploring the falls. Finally we found the best view of the falls and we enjoyed for almost 2 hours in the falls and then finally getting into the water. It was amazing fun after long time I had some quality time in a water falls. It was also very relaxing for our feet. Walking for almost 6 hours on the railway track on the stones can hurt your feet badly. In fact I had pain in my feet for almost 2 days. Also it was my first trek after I had twisted my ankle and I was not comfortable, it still hurts probably I need to see a doctor.
<br />This is a nice trek to be tried during winter only, you can only complete it if your lucky not to be found by the officer. It is not a difficult trek but then some of the places you got beautiful landscape. Don't forget to wear some good shoes as stones on the tracks are gonna hurt your feet. Not much of guidance is required for this, you just need to start from Donigal station which is around 5kms from Sakleshpur and then walk on the track till Yedukameri. Probably next time we will start from Yedukameri and complete the remaining stretch of the trek.</span>
<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mU6zjgqu_OK8tMyv37avOdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HOXVZyJkO6E/TtHWnFj8hoI/AAAAAAAAP8M/Ji3kvEcskNo/s640/IMG_3986.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div></div>poorna prajnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05844037120180495498noreply@blogger.com4