My Wanderings...
Fact file:
Destination: Horsely Hills, Andra Pradesh.
Mode of Transport: Car
Distance from Bangalore: ~180 k.m.
Road Condition: Good
Food: Kamat Upachar(excellent), Hotel Ganesh - Kolar (reasonable)
Duration: One day
Day and Date: Sunday, May 2002.
Group: Luckose, Manoj, Smita and Myself.Opinion: Not Recommended (Strongly).
The idea of a possible trip got precipitated only on Saturday afternoon. It all started by my lab mate Smita. She had a chance to go to Mudumalai with one of her friend during the weekend. She dropped that plan because she had to attend her group meeting on Saturday. But, it so happened that her boss did not turn up for the meeting. So, she wanted to go somewhere and then...yahoo...I was again on a trip mood.
As usual, it took a lot of time for finding out a suitable place. Till late night we (I and Luckose) were searching for a place. These days it has become very difficult to find out a suitable destination as we have covered most of the places, in and around Bangalore, which suit our interests. Finally, we ended up with Horsely Hills. Official sites were claiming this to be a beautiful hill station. The most interesting moment of this trip was our trial to make Manoj to come with us. He had the plans of going for a Karnatic music concert on Sunday. But, we were damn sure that he will be throwing all those plans in the dust bin once he hear that we are planning to go for a trip. We found our intuitions falling very much in line, when we met him at his house in the midnight. He was, as usual, "EverReady". Now, I think I can probably bet with anyone that I will be going for a trip with Manoj even on his marriage day!
We set off the journey quite early, around 5.30 a.m. Smita was new to the group, but it took only a while for her to be comfortable in the group. We were happy to see "Kamat Upachar", at the right time of the day, and had a nice break fast. All these days `Kamat' on highways has made us happy during our trips. There, all of us bought some caps made of an ayurvedic medicinal root "Ramacham", which renders a cooling effect on wearing. For the rest of the day we were "specimens" to many a people whom we met on the way, with such peculiar caps on our head.
This time, we could spot only a few birds on the way, say, a maximum of 15. Most of them were common ones which I have seen many a times, except Black Bellied Terns, which was found in abundance near a huge lake on the way. Apart from that we were traveling through dry lands, not much to see, except the cultivation esp. the floriculture. Kolar village side itself is not very impressive, with only dry lands spanning the entire range. I did not even try to take my camera out. But, as usual, we enjoyed our group and the ride.
One interesting this was that the Karnataka - Andra border did not look like a border. No checking... just one guard was there at the border. We did not find any forest and wild life as mentioned in the web pages. Just 6 k.m before the destination, one will be traveling through a `forest sort of a place' (very much like Nandi hills of Bangalore), some hair pin bends, a little cooler air, and with no other people around us. We started getting little enthu by seeing these changes which completely faded away once we reached our destination. That place is absolutely nonsense. It was crowded, and looked more like a picnic spot. The so called "exclusive hill station" of Andra Pradesh is a mockery. They have kept some birds and animals in cages, that also very badly managed. I felt like freeing the "Eagle Owl" I saw there. And, for the first time in my life, I saw "Blue Rock Pigeons" inside the cages! Pathetic situation. Once we reached there we were not even interested to see the famous eucalyptus tree "kalyani".
On the way back, we took a detour by not touching Kolar as such. The way came out to be a short-cut. Some `Rose' plantations were there on the way back. But, as such, this was one of our worst trips. Once again we realized that we should be selecting places not by seeing these official web pages but only from personal reports.
Fact file:
Destination: Mulaingiri, Chikmaglur Dist., Karnataka.
Mode of Transport: Public Transport
Distance from Bangalore: ~275 k.m.
Road Condition: Good, till Chikmaglur; Toward Mulaingiri-Reasonable
Food: Chikmaglur, Better to carry.
Duration: One day
Day and Date: Saturday, 25th May 2002.
Group: Manoj and Myself.Opinion: Recommended - An easy trek, Highly rewarding!
The trek was planned spanning the weekend. The idea was to reach Mualingiri base by bus, trek the peak, get down the other way to KKgundi, get the bus to Babubudangiri, pitch the tent at Galikere lake, trek to Kemmengundi the next day and return from Kemmengundi. But, since there was a possibility of heavy rain, the camping at Garikere was not suitable, and so, we canceled the subsequent plans then and there.
Mulaingiri, the highest peak in Karnataka holds its head at 6317 feet above the sea level. It seems the western ghats take the shape of a `Horse Shoe' in Karnataka. Mulaingiri lies in the southern arm of this `Horse Shoe'.
KSRTC's super deluxe bus, Rajahamsa, starting from Bangalore at 11:30 p.m., took us to Chikmaglur quite early the next day morning. From there, we could catch a bus at around 7:30 a.m to the base of Mulaingiri. It took hardly half an hour to reach the base. Just as we started heading toward Mulaingiri, we were able to experience the glimpses of the show waiting for us over there. Once the bus entered the mountain ranges, we had the sight of dense fog traversing down the hills...a wonderful sight....it looked as if some one is pouring milk down those hills. I wished if I could stop the bus then and there and have that sight in my camera. But, some experiences are bound to be just in your memmories... The bus was sailing through the coffee plantations and many a hair pin bends. Each hair pin bend that we passed decreased the temperature at least by a degree and the in-habitation of the valleys were turning to distant spots.
The bus conductor showed us the point from where we should start the journey to the top. A small arch welcomed us to the Shiva temple that is situating at the very top of the mountain. The trek, as such, was not tedious. Small steps were made through out the way, which not only made our walk easier, but also many times, helped us not to loose our way. We just followed those tiny steps. Though it was a steep climb, we never felt uneasy, mainly due to AC climate the hill was offering and also due to the numerous birds around us, singing for us, encouraging us. Even though we were little bit tensed of not knowing the exact trek route, and so, was not very much involved in bird watching, we could not miss that pair of scarlet minivets. It was difficult to say for certain which sex is beautiful, the male or the female. While the male was busy in showing what actually the colour `scarlet'can mean, the female was not much bothered to exhibit its golden yellow body... she was damn sure that no one can leave that place without having a `look' at her.
We passed those giant rocks behind us and then we found ourselves in the middle of those beautiful grass lands. Wind was blowing heavily and the mist from the mountain tops came down, touched our bodies and went down. I adore these landscapes...under the blanket of mist...The whole valley was visible at one moment, and the next moment, my visibility range was just 5-10 meters. We could see the temple top at one moment and the next moment we were inside the cloud.
It was hardly a 2 hours' trek to reach the temple. All through out our way, we were seeing the idols of `Nandi'. Just before the temple, some caves were there, and in one of them, there was a small idol of `Nandi', the smallest I have ever seen. The view from the top is marvelous. On reaching the top, we realized that actually there is a jeep track till the top of the hill! The priest of the temple stays there at the top with his family. He was kind enough to ask whether we had our breakfast and he welcomed us with a cup of coffee - what more one can expect after such a nice trek!
The priest showed us the trek route to the nearest village from where one can get the bus. He cautioned us that the route can be quite dangerous. But, in fact, we did not find it that difficult. It was more or less like a walk through the mountain ridges. We were walking mainly through the grass lands and the dense forests were seen deep down our way. The trek route was quite clear and, as the priest directed, we were just walking toward North-East all the way. We were able to see the road that we are heading to even from a very long distance. Almost 2 hours of peaceful walk through the grass lands took us to KKgundi at around 2:00 p.m, from where we could catch a bus to Bababudangiri.
Note: If one planning for a one day trip, it is better to take a bus from KKGundi to Chikmaglur.
The way to Bababudangiri was scenic with mountains all around. Bababudangiri as such was not at all impressive, and no buses were available to take us to Kemmengudi. Camping at Galikere lake seemed difficult as the possibility of a heavy downpour was very high. Staying at Bababudangiri was beyond our limits of endurance as the lodging facilities were highly primitive. So, we caught a bus to Kaimara and from there to a village, Lingadahalli, hoping that we might get a bus to Kemmengundi. Lingadahalli is 42 k.m away from Kaimara (Thanks to the villagers at Kaimara who told us Lingadahalli is very near by!) and it is a village in the valley of these mountain ranges. Being very late, we could not get a bus to Kemmengundi. So, we packed our bags for the return journey, via Birur. We had to wait till 1.00 a.m at Birur to get the train to Bangalore! A really painful return journey :-( But how can it take the charm of Mulaingiri from our minds?
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