Doddinamane -- Mani Dam Backwaters

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Onake Abbi, Meenabbi and KoodluTheertha

After our last trek to Maarloorgundi and Goodlugundi, we wanted to avoid trekking during the new year time as most of the places would be over-crowded and expensive. Hence a trek was planned in January.  Once Smitha delivered a baby girl, father Diwi was even more anxious to celebrate it with a trek :-). The weather in Bangalore looked very hot and hence most of us were a bit confused in picking up a place to trek. We didn't want to trek a peak in hot summer and get roasted. We were searching for places and finally called up Rakesh Holla our new partner in crime for the prized destination, got the contact details of guide and the details about the location and a quick plan for the trek was made. 

Lot of confusion prevailed until the last moment on who will join and who will not, finally a team of 8 members decided to head towards Agumbe. We all met at Harsha's place and boarded the Tempo Traveller. Picked up Prabanjan on the way. Our first pit stop was on the out skirts of Bangalore to fill up the fuel tank. We found a McD and didn't forget to fill up with some junk food before the trek. 

It was around midnight before we left Bangalore. Our driver was deadly, he managed to reach Shimoga in 3 hours and after some tea we continued towards Agumbe. It was scary many times trying to look at the road, we reached Agumbe at 5.30 in the morning. Can you believe Bangalore to Agumbe in 5.30min during night? We had informed Kasturi Akka from Dodda mane about our arrival and they had the breakfast prepared for us at 6 in the morning itself. We refreshed ourselves and had the wonderful breakfast for the morning. We also got the food packed for afternoon. We met 2 other teams heading towards Narasimha parvatha.

At around 8 we reached Someshwara and met the guide. We started heading towards our first destination Onake Abbi. There is a decent trail till the end of the water falls and is not very difficult. The entire trek is around 3-4Kms with average difficulty.  Most of the people go to this falls on the top right from Agumbe. Probably very few go to the bottom, the reason for this guess is because the place was very clean with no trace of human interference in the region. No bottles, no plastics, just huge rocks, water and greenery.

We took exactly an hour to reach the beautiful water falls, I tried to explore in and around to get some good and complete picture of the beautiful water falls. Diwi and Avinash were already in water and it was very tempting for me to get into water. After my regular activity of taking some pics of the beautiful location, I finally decided to get into water. Every time I get into water my biggest fear is without knowing swimming how am i going to survive :-). Half the way to the base of the water falls the water was not deep at all. However the last 50 meters or so was probably a bit deep, at least that is what I heard from Diwi. I decided to swim 50 meters as I couldn't miss the opportunity to stand below the water falls. Finally i made it to the bottom of the water falls and it was out of the world experience. Its always amazing to go for a trek and spend most of the time enjoying in water.

On our way to Onake abbi, we had also seen one more water falls at a distance in the forest. Rakesh had also told us if possible try to visit and explore Meenabbi below Onake abbi. It was around 12 and we started moving back from Onake abbi half way down we decided to explore Meenabbi. Our guide told they had not been there before and they are not completely sure of the path. However we just decided to walk along the stream and find Meenabbi. This is the second time i have experienced that walking along side a stream in forest is the most difficult part of any trek, reason being you need to consistently climb up and get down those huge slippery rocks which is very tiring, especially with a back pack. After around an hour or so wandering in the forest heading in the direction of the sound of water we finally managed to reach Meenabbi also called as Hori gundi. It was a small but beautiful waterfall, just like a wonderful shower. The best part of the waterfall was the flowers which had grown on the rocks and facing the water. I was actually surprised how could flowers stand in way of gushing water from such heights.

We reached back to the place from where we had started at around 3. Most of us where very tired and dehydrated, also most of us were very hungry. I had light head ache probably due to hunger. We opened up our packed food from Kasturi akka and what an amazing feeling it is to have food in your mouth when you are hungry. We had our food in the Someshwara temple premises and cleaned up the area and left to Agumbe for our stay for the night at Doddamane.

We had all the time in the evening to roam around Agumbe, its the same place where the famous serial "Malgudi Days" was shot. Also it is the place which receives 2nd highest rain in the world. Also these are the forests which are very famous for "King Cobras", even though these forests are very very popular for reptiles we were unlucky not to get a glimpse of any. However we did manage to see a dead snake the next day. We did go to an old temple in the town as we wanted to spend some time before the dinner.

People who have visited Doddamane, know the taste of food served by Kasturi Akka. I had one of the best dinners of my life - delicious country side food prepared and served under the open sky. I always believe that the taste of food is directly proportional to the mood and goodness of the heart of the cook. And Kasturi akka you are an amazing lady with a very big heart. I also happened to read in one of the comments about the place "Sakshat Annapoorneshwari", if anyone has any doubt go and taste the food. We stayed overnight in Doddamane. People of Doddamane never ask for money for their service, you can only pay whatever you feel like paying, which they will oblige.

We got up early in the morning and we decided to explore Koodlu Theerta, we had heard that this is a tourist place and is badly littered. That is the reason we decided to head very early and leave the place before most of the crowd starts visiting. Not to be surprised any place closer to road and easily accessibly is not spared it India. With no one from government or locals to monitor this place, it was very badly littered with plastics and beer bottles all around. We didn't consider it safe to get into water with so many glass bottles. The place though was very beautiful, the only thing which was lacking was the sanity of the place. After taking some pics we started heading back and on our way we saw huge crowd heading towards the water falls with lots of stuffs to be dumped at the place. Felt good that we were not late.

We started back from Agumbe around 11 towards Bangalore. On our way back I was very proud of our team who helped a family which met with an accident on the road and had some head injuries as well. We gave them first aid, we arranged ambulance calling up 108, managed the traffic on the road. We did everything they needed at that moment. Even the police who came in on time appreciated our services. Finally all where safe and reached back home around 10 in the night.

After looking at the state of KoodluTheertha, some how I don't feel like sharing the location details on my blog, from now on I will not disclose the water falls details, but will continue to give the GPS maps for other treks. However for like minded people, you can drop me a mail and then I can share the details. For a quick note this place is around Agumbe.

Maarloorgundi and Goodlugundi

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.

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.

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.


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 :-).

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.


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.


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.

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.



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.
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.


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 :-).

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 :-).


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.

For more pics visit
https://picasaweb.google.com/104354993819772501480/Maarloorgundi_Goodlugundi