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

EveryTrail - Find trail maps for California and beyond

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.

Multnomah Falls - Portland

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.

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.

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 colors and the cool form of purest oxygen entering your lungs can only experienced rather than expressed over a blog.

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. 

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.

Bandipur - Madumalai

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 

a) Driving at high speeds inside the national park

b) Honking badly even when they see some animals around and scare them out.

c) Getting down from vehicle to photograph wild animals like elephants

d) Using flash in their camera while photographing wild animals

e) Throwing garbage/plastics out of their vehicles inside the protected area

f) Feeding wild animals like langoors/monkeys

g) Getting down from vehicle and having a family picnic by having food and throwing out the waste inside the forest.

I find lots of boards from forest department warning about these above mentioned points probably we need lot more stricter enforcement. 

Contact Details: If you are interested in staying in Bandipur at Government guest house contact

The Chief Conservator of Forests

Project Tiger

Aranya Bhavan, Ahokapuram

Mysore - 570008

ph: 0821 - 2480902

Room rent is around 1000 to 1500Rs for Indian nationals. They also have Dormitory for 10 and 20 beds with Rs750 and Rs1500 respectively.

Highway - Chocolate scam

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?  

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 chocolate. That is around 60-70 thousand rupees a day for each toll booth.

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!

PDS - Public Distribution System

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Dandeli - Old Magazine Hut

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.