Sharavathi valley Trek from Bangalore: Sharavathi and Gersoppa Forests

"Now if you do any more mischievous activities, I will drop you in jungle", that's what my Mom used to shout on me and my reply used to be, "What difference would it make? I will still be able to dance, shout and run back home for food". This cute memory burnt some desires within and I RSVP'ed yes to Shravan's meet on Meetup.com, "Exploring the Unexplored Sharavathi Forest" and persuaded my college junior/friend Nand to be part of it. For the second time I was about to join a group of strangers for travelling with the positive aftermaths of the first one. This time a bigger group of 12 other people, Shravan the organizer of the meetup, Vyshak his apartment friend, Sarath the Kulbhushan kharbanda look alike, Minu Sinha the Madam X, Om Prakash the sweeper, Chetan the silent leaper, Harish the Gandalf, Travis the Paan Singh Tomar, Jobin the Danny Denzogpa, Atul the Kurt Cobain, Sumitash the Raju Rastogi from 3 Idiots and Debaleena the whiny topper.
                      We left on a friday night to culminate our leisure time, and were all set for a lifetime experience. Met at Bangalore central station and were all set to start by 10 from there, but Chetan came late and hence we left late; with Chetan promising for Sunday night dinner (Only Veg). Minu, Om and Sarath joined us at the railway station and we left for Rajaji nagar where Harish joined us followed by Atul, Sumitash, Debaleena and Jobin near NH 4 flyover. With the Tempo traveller fully occupied, luggage piled up in the pathways, people crying on my pen drive's songs and the sexy Tumkur highway shining in the moon light; the journey had begun. We had an introduction round with everyone where people told their best treks till now and other whereabouts. This was followed by an hour long antakshari and some soothing singing by Shravan. People decided to sleep then but I was enjoying watching the peeping moon from the windows. Our 14th member Travis was coming from a KSRTC bus and was about to join us at Kargal.

Day 1:-

 I slept at some 4 in the morning and woke up in Kargal where we stopped to wait for Travis. Unfortunately, his bus got late, and our tire too got punctured. By 7 30 there were no signs of Travis' bus, so we decided to move ahead towards the forest base camp to freshen up. The foggy morning had made the scenery almost invisible at the base camp when we reached, but as the fog was swiping away a beautiful lake emerged out.

Lake near Sharavathi forest base camp

Lake near Sharavathi forest base camp

Lake near Sharavathi forest base camp

With everybody getting ready for the trek, dear Minu adjusting her contact lenses and maskaaraaaazzzzzz, etc, Travis arriving, Nand/Sumitash posing and me unfortunately pooping in a toilet where no water was coming ( guys don't panic now :p, I did managed with the left over (water) of someone with a 6th sense who did it before me), we all left to the tea spot.

          After the tea, we left for the trek start point which was another 10 km from the base camp; a  typical tribal house with a landline phone and a videocon DTH. There smelled our lovely breakfast, Idli, sambhar and some pakoda (don't know the regional name). The DTH kept tempting me to make efforts to realize the cricket score (Ind v/s Aus), but was not able to. So we were all set, with our guides to reach to the first waterfall (don't have an idea about it's name) as it was not our formal destination. The road started with an easy terrain, with some highs and lows. and then it lead to a trek along a cold stream which was all canopied by the lush greenery of the forest. The rocks were slippery and so were all of us, kept slipping and making sure to get up. Chetan, though had a great fall here and injured his hand which later turned out to be a ligament tear in his right wrist.

With some more steps along the cool water, a lot more sweat along the whole body and the chiming of the water along the rocks kept us moving towards a small waterfall for a nice experience.

Hosagithi falls

Had a nice shower in the waterfall, and enjoyed there for about an hour. Next was the turn of our tummies, and so we went back to the house for lunch, the way back was much smaller, and took minutes. The lunch served was sambhar rice along with papad (few of which were fried by me :D). People had a fully-full lunch and then that looks of drowsiness started wiping off everyone's faces. Now was the time when our Bengali mates ran here and there to call their parents about their status updates ( and for my parents I was snoring soundly in some corner of Banaglore :p).  The afternoon sun was on it's full kill and I haven't got the scores updates yet. With Harish taking efforts of driving everybody back to the trek mood, we were all on our way towards the Veegi falls. The trek to Veegi falls was through lush jungles, though a predefined pathway was always there. The humidity was at it's peak and we had all our water resources intact. The mud was slippery now and the 4 km (as told by the guides and highly doubted by all) trek was testing people. The last part of the trek was a steep slope down to the stream, and with it we reached the falls, in a continuous singing mood with frequent notes of tarzan and other jungle songs. The water was very cool, and the humid trek needed a break with the jazuzzi in the pool at the base of the falls. The pool was quite deep around 20-30 ft deep, but the experienced campaigners like Shravan, Travis, Debaleena and Minu did enjoy fully with the swim.

Veegi falls

Veegi falls

While swimming like a mermaid in the pool, Debaleena had a cramp, and for some time difficulty in walking too. Even i jumped (figuratively) into the pool for a small swim (too new a swimmer :p), and enjoyed the cool water, but while climbing up, the sweat took all water effects within seconds. Brave Debaleena had recovered and started running like Donald Duck (:p), Chetan was still struggling with his hands and shravan was struggling to maintain the schedule. Our next destination was the fort of Kannoor Kotte, and our guides also had to go back to the house to bring back our sleeping mats and grocery for dinner. It had started getting dark, and the sunset along the valley was just ecstatic. Apart from the breathtaking views and comparatively cool breeze, God's grace shined on us and we got airtel network too, India made a decent total that day and The God was still on ground; nothing could have gone wrong that day. To avoid trekking in the dark we decided to settle down in some near by place only and moved the fort trekking to tomorrow.

Drunk Moon; visible in the noon

Sun set to set

Sharavathi valley sunset

So another 2 km in the dark we traveled to find the home sweet home for the night stay. Typical village house with a lot of open space for us to chit-chat, a mercury halogen lit up on an electric pole, a section for the cattles, goats, lambs; a dog marking his territory here and there(who fell in love with Minu) and surrounded by the fields on either side. So after a long time people found a place to rest there asses, with the relief of knowing that they don't have to get up in another 2 minutes to trek. Have read, have heard, and have seen in movies about something called Ambrosia, but that day we did taste it too, something made out of milk with lot of spices added to it, and it rejuvenated the bodies for us to enjoy at the campfire. The campfire was lit below a tree where we played dumb charades, some intelligent inputs from Basu, some tough names from Jana and some Osome acting by everyone spread smiles all over, and within no time the dinner was also ready. It was a good spread with hot curd rice, Bisibelle bhath, Cabbage dry, and Chapathi. The dinner was simply delicious and the looks on everyone's face assured of that to the chefs too. The day was declared to be over and the expectations for the next one were already in some dreams. Everyone slept inside the house, but I and Nand thought we will sleep outside under the moon light. The orion was clearly visible and as I started staring on it, a lot more started too appear and soon the sky was all lit up with the shine and twinkle of those far across. Never realized when I fell asleep, but never had a continuous sleep that night, every time waking to see the stars moving.

Day 2:-
               The day began quite early at 5, as everybody wanted to make sure they get fresh with darkness still being around. People had started running towards the fields with a torch in one hand, a water bottle in the other, reluctance on their faces, and pressure in their stomachs. It was quite cold outside and sitting out there expecting things to come out from your naked asses was hard, even harder was to wash it with cold water. As everybody got ready, the breakfast was already spread, tea along with a very nice veg biryani. Posed along with our night stay home, and then we all were on our way for the day's adventure.

Sunrise in Sharavathi valley

It was a 7 km trek from there to the Kannoor Kotte fort, with a fairly easy terrain with not much ups and downs and mostly along the flat ground. There we came across a nice valley view and had started having fun along the trek, singing, teasing, eating, snatching, giggling and story sharing, were the only voices being heard along the jungle. We reached the fort, and there was not much to find there, some ruins and an old temple, which was a very nice piece of architecture very similar to the Hoysala architecture temples. 

Kannoor Kotte

Kannoor Kotte

Kannoor Kotte

We left from that place to go towards the backwater where we were supposed to have lunch, another 6 km trek. By this time Sarath had got pain in his knee and Harish in his ankles, but both of them showed so much strength to keep walking with minimal rests. At this point some of us got separated from others and at points had no idea where to go. So without putting much thoughts we kept on walking straight and luckily that was the way too. Here is where the stock of Om, Basu and jobin got utilized a lot, the parle-g, dairy milk shots and the peculiar pedigree kept consoling the rage of our stomachs. Then we reached to the stream where our lunch was already in the phase of cooking. The stream was very tempting and not many held on to their desires for long. Soon people were playing in the stream which demanded it to happen.

Soon after the lunch we were on our way to Jain basadi, and the dam where our TT would be waiting for us.  The afternoon sun had made it very humid and hot, people were sweating like anything. By this time it was very difficult for Sarath to walk so I was just walking ahead of him to make sure he places every step at a safe place and Basu was pushing him from behind besides carrying her 6 kg back pack( so nice of her). Swalpa swalpa we managed to reach another piece of stream where Shravan had arranged a bike to rescue Sarath out of the trek. So it was just 4 km to the Jain basadi now and in some time we were standing inside the campus of almost 500 years old Jain temple Chaturmukhi Basadi.

Chatumukhi Basadi

The temple was very similar to the vijaynagar empire ruins of Hampi, and the most ecstatic part was it's silence, which was not there for long as we arrived. After the photo session we like scavengers attacked the exquisite food served at the Jain temple. After 2 days I got something sweet to eat and like always had the tummy full with the boondi and kheer served there. The stomach was full but the desires were not. We started our way towards the dam in the TT this time. The river was outrageous there flowing like a mad bull and the sun was already below the horizon. With some last pics being clicked at the bridge the trip was about to get over. The best pic being this one, and on the special demand of minu. Well what minu desired was a simple pic of me holding Sarath's hands the way we held it for the whole trip but I thought of making it more dramatic by posing this way which was even made more merrier by the pose by Basu.

Pati (In the Middle), Patni (To his left) aur Woh ( to his right)

Slow and funny wins the cake, that's how the trek went for us and I really enjoyed the whole group with some long lasting memories marked in my heart. Well, as I say, you just can never be alone in this world, coz the world itself is a big companion, the silence of the nature and the calmness with which it welcomes everyone just makes it my best friend. So Shinchan ke kaarnaamo me ek aur karnaama jud gaya!!!