Beachy Head - 7 Sisters - United Kingdom

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Finally after spending some time taking photos of the beautiful location we headed back to Chertsy.

Wales - United Kingdom

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Siddeshwara Betta, Kuppalli and Jogi Gundi

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Trekking Memories

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.

Venkatagiri and Arebetta

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Route: Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Gundya - Take a left from Gundya and cross the bridge across Kempu hole to enter Forest IB towards your right.
Contact Person: Devappa - M.no. 9449902125. Guide: Jayanna . Don't forget to take permission from forest department.

Venkatagiriandarebetta

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Trekking - Passion, Risk

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

1) Having Liquor and worse getting into water after that

2) Smoking in dry forest

3) Camp firing and partying with loud music

4) Cutting small trees/plants on mountain tops for camp fire

5) Listening to music while trekking ignoring the forest activity or warning calls

6) Swimming in unknown waters

7) Not planning for the night

8) Getting into forest without torch

9) Limited or no water/food supplies

10) Not being serious 

11) Not moving in groups

12) Not carrying first aid kit

13) No GPS or not taking the help of locals

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.

Trekking has lots of risk involved, Trek with passion and not for fun. Trek safe, take care.