Night trek to Skandagiri

Its been more than a year, since I have described a trek on this blog. Incidentally, thats the same amount of time I have been in Bangalore and out of Pune. Not that there aren't any places here to trek, just that I couldn't muster the strength to get my growing (in width) body to get off its perch and head towards the hills. But then, a week in the past, I decided... Enough is enough. I have to get back to my old habits. With a firm resolve and lots of enthusiastic support from Anup, it was decided that we would be going for a trek to Skandagiri.

Transportation was not a problem at all. We anyway wanted to take out both the Alto and the Avenger out for a long drive. After a few calls to friends, we got two more people to join us - Ananth and Milan. Also, it got converted into a night trek, since that is what Skandagiri is famous for. My initial plan was to do a day trek to get to know the terrain better, before attempting a night trek. After all, it was our first one in the Bangalore region. But then, Ananth persuaded us to go at night by rustling up a plan of his own for the whole of saturday. Left with no choice, we decided to meet at our place at 6.30 pm on saturday evening and take the car.

Ananth came late and by the time we left, it was close to 7.30. We took the Outer Ring Road towards Hebbal. Our plan was to reach Chikaballapur at the earliest, have dinner there and carry on with our sojourn. The road to Skandagiri is very simple. Its a straight road from Hebbal till Chikaballapur on the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway. The road till Devanahalli is 6 laned, thanks to BIA. Afer that, it gets narrow and is less illuminated. There are atleast 3 railway crossings enroute and flyovers are being constructed at all of them. A significant stretch of the journey needs to be done on the wrong side owing to diversisons. 

We halted at the Shanti Sagar hotel, on the outskirts of Chikaballapur. A quick meal and we were ready to go on. On this same road, there is a small crossing in the marketplace, with a statue of Vishweshvaraiya on the left. Taking the left turn took us to a temple at a dead end. A right from there, and another left, then led us straight to Papagni Ashram. This is where the trek begins. There is ample parking available here. Also guides can be availed of. We had no plans to take one along with us, but still enquired the rate, out of curiosity. The quoted figure - Rs 500. It really isnt necessary to take a guide along. You can see top of the hill to your left all along and there is a very well defined trail. Just be smart, follow your heart and then no one can stop you from scaling the peak. But still, we did manage to get on the wrong track twice, which we didn't mind at all. We were there to have fun and not just finish the trek. Someone has rightly said "The journey is more important than the destination". We took our own sweet time for the climb. Star gazing, catching up about old times, sleeping, singing - we did it all. It being just two days after the new moon, we didn't have the comfort of having the moonlight guide us. It is said that on a full moon night, flashlights aren't necessary, but it is always prudent to carry one.

Near the top, the trail goes along dilapidated fort walls. We had the urge to climb right over them, but then found it wasnt really easy. Better to walk along the twisting and turning trail, till it reaches a stone structure, something like a gatekeeper's cabin. The old fort complex begins here, and some scattered ruins can be found along the path to the top. On the peak, we found lots of other groups already camping there. There is a small tent selling omlettes and tea. There was nothing to see in the darkness. So we decided to get some rest and look around in the morning. We settled down behind the temple, assuming that it would be a nice place to shelter from the wind. But, we were soon proved wrong. Within a few minutes, we realized that, summer nothwithstanding, we should have got some warm clothing. All we had was one bedsheet. We could hardly relax, let alone sleep, with the chilly wind blowing from all sides. Luckily, a guy came along and offered to get a campfire started for us. We bargained the price down to 50 bucks from 80. And that is what kept us going till about 5.30. It was getting time to welcome the sun. We wound up our stuff and moved towards the eastern part of the fort. There is a sunrise point, but it was very crowded already. We decided to move further ahead and catch the sunrise from a ridge just beyond. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any of the cloud covered views, for which Skandagiri is very famous. I tried my hand at some photography using my Canon. Wasnt expecting any great shots, but looks like some pics turned out pretty good.

For our descent, we thought of using another route. From the eastern ridge, we could see the parking lot right below us and we decided to plunge right down. It being broad daylight now, finding the way was very easy. There are some tricky patches though, on this path, where one has to be careful about one's footing. Withing an hour, we were back in our car and headed towards Bangalore.

Trek level - easy

Potable water - Not available

Food - Small hotel selling omlettes and tea

Parking - available at the base

Distance from Bangalore - 70 km

Gokarna Beach trip on 29-30 Nov 2008.

This trip was supposed to be undertaken without any planning as such. We just decided to go to a beach for a weekend. No accomodation bookings, no route plan, venue to be decided at the last minute, none of the usual taam-jhaam. But, as they say... old habits die hard. And we being we... having everything pefectly planned is just a part of life. So, after deliberating over Goa, Gokarna, Murdeshwar and Karwar, we finally settled on Gokarna. On Wednesday night, we opened up our (in fact, one of our) favourite website - www.ksrtc.in. Quickly looked up all buses from Bangalore to Gokarna. But could'nt find any. Then, realised that Kumta is a town closeby and there is a Rajahansa Executive going there at 11.15 pm. It was just perfect for us. We took two seats on the same and also booked two return tickets at 6.30 pm from Kumta to Bangalore, for two days later. Total to and fro cost for two persons - Rs 1700.

We took the bus on Friday night and managed to reach Kumta on Saturday morning, without much incident. The coastline along Kumta-Gokarna-Karwar is supposed to be a trekkers' paradise called the Golden Route. It was very difficult to restrain ourselves from starting off on the trek. But, since we had decided to just relax as much as possible and not exert ourselves, we managed to stick to our plan. Our next destination was Gokarna town. There are KSRTC buses from Kumta to Gokarna (a distance of 36 km by road, but hardly 20 km as the Nazgul flies...). A 45 minute journey worth Rs 19, will take you to Gokarna. Anup's pattern matching skills need a special mention here. He has been on a Kannada learning spree of late. He could identify a bus with its route board mentioning Gokarna. Of course, we did confirm this with the conductor, before boarding. The route from Kumta to Gokarna is mostly along NH17. Seeing the urgency with which the bus was being driven, we were sure to reach in 20-25 mins, had it not been for a punctured tyre at Madangiri village, around 10 km from Gokarna.  All the passengers got down, waited around for some time, then shuffled into another bus coming from Ankola, and then we finally reached Gokarna around 12 pm. 

We toyed around with the idea of going to Gokarna beach right away. But, then finally settled on moving on to Om beach, a distance of around 8-10 kms from Gokarna town. After haggling with an autodriver, we settled on a fare of Rs 100. He took us along a hilly road, going up and down for some distance, and finally dropped us at the entrance of Namaste Cafe. It is right on Om beach, and the road comes uptil here. We enquired for a room to stay, but were told "No vacancy", the charge being Rs 500 for a night. We were more surprised with the attitude of the guy at the reception desk. He seemed to be reluctant to provide accomodation to two non-foreigners. Finally, after enquiring at numerous places, we got a room at Ganesh Cafe for 200 bucks a night. Most of the places around here are in the range of 150-500. Lunch was not an elaborate affair. Some rice, rotis and seafood. A word of advice here - make sure to order the food well in advance. These places are not like our regular restaurants. Quick service is certainly not their USP.

After finishing lunch at around 4 pm, we thought of going to Half moon and Paradise beaches. Having heard a lot about the 'trekking route' between these beaches, and that being the only land route to reach them, we finally got into our ol' trek-mode. Off we went, searching for the path to half-moon beach. It is to the South of Om, and the route is all along the shore. It was quite an exhilarating experience - the hill on one side and the sea on the other. It was quite a view to take in - the lush greenery on the hill, the roar of the waves as they crashed into the rocks on the shore, the swaying palm trees, and the gentle sun-rays reflected off the water. The place is really enchanting. I just could not get myself to go on. Felt like settling down there for the rest of my life. The path to half-moon beach is not very difficult to follow. We did meet some people on their way to Om from there. Just do not go too inland. Stay along the coast and you shall reach half-moon in about 25 mins time. What we did see there, turned out to be a little disappointing. The beach is hardly around 200 metres long and we saw just two shacks providing basic accomodation and food. Since sunset was approaching, we decided to ditch paradise beach. A big reason that earned Om beach lots of points with me was its complete lack of cellphone coverage. I ended up giving it a thousand points (a system which is understood by only a privileged few). But, if you plan to call up your loved ones (unless you are already with them), then the road from Om to half moon is where cellphones will work. Post our hike, I right away jumped into the water with Anup justing plonking down on the beach and staying put for the next two hours. I did join him in some time and we surrendered ourselves to nature. What better way to spend an evening than - looking at a setting sun coloring up the sea in all hues of red and gold; the waves lapping at the beach, each one trying to better the earlier in reaching up to us; little children frolicking around in the water; people playing frisbee without any care in the world. We just sat there without any sense of time. It was undoubtedly the best part of the trip. 

Compared to lunch, dinner was rather lavish. We weren't surprised to see a section of Israeli dishes in the menu, cosidering most of the other guests were from Israel. We gorged upon Egg and Chips, Chicken Schnitzel , Lebane with chapatis and Veg Pakodas. Lebane is a tangy cheese made of yoghurt and it went really well with the Schnitzel instead of the chapatis. 

Early in the morning, we tried to scale the 'Mountain of Om', i.e. the rock in the middle of the Om. It can be a little treacherous and care should be taken about the incoming or outgoing tide.We were just deliberating about our further course of action, when a local boatman approached us and offered a boat-tour of Paradise and Half-moon beaches for Rs 200. After some bargaining he settled for 100. We again saw half-moon, but now from the sea. Paradise is more habitated then Half-moon and has some food places too. When we reached Paradise, the boat broke down. Actually the accelerator wire of the engine snapped. Thats when the 'jugaad' ingenuity of Indians came to the fore. The boatman took a long string, passed it through the handle and tied it to a hook in the engine. He started it and with this was controlling the speed of the boat. And I was handed over the task of navigating. After a show of rowing skills by Anup, we finally landed back on Om. By the time we got back to base camp, it was time for a dip in the sea. We ordered a breakfast of sandwiches, boiled eggs and toast and hit the water. The beach at Om is shallower than that at half-moon and Paradise and is a pleasure to swim in. 

Post breakfast, we checked-out and started off on our hike to Gokarna via Kudlee. The path to Kudlee starts from the northern end of Om, near Namaste cafe. It is a short 20 min walk. The road there reminded me of the trek to Rajgad from the Pali darwaja side. It is bordered on both sides with tall tress and the sea can be seen peeking in between them to the left. Kudlee beach is quite expansive and is more populated than Om. We did not wait here for long. Just walked along the beach to the other side and enquired about the road to Gokarna. Another 25 min walk brought us to the town of Gokarna. We visited the Mahabaleshwar temple, took a sneak peek at the beach and moved on towards the bus stand. There aren't many good eateries around here. We managed to get a decent meal at a small restaurant and got into a bus going to Kumta. 

Our bus to Bangalore was at 6.30 pm from Kumta, but we reached there at 3.30. Now we had another 3 hours to spare. So, we decided to take a look at Kumta beach too. An auto took us there in Rs 35. It turned out to be an almost deserted beach. Except for a few local boys playing cricket and the both of us roaming aimlessly on the beach, there was not a soul on it. Not even a shack or an eatery was to be found. We returned back to Kumta and boarded our bus. Within 11 hours, we were back in Bangalore, having made good use of the weekend. 

Photos :-  

Gokarna Beach trip

PS:- There are direct buses to Gokarna from Bangalore. On KSRTC's website it is listed as 'Gokarn'.

Rohida trek.

Decided to trek to Rohida this Sunday. After trying to enlist maximum people, it turned to be the usual two suspects again… yours truly and Anup.
Rohida, also called Vichitragad, is situated a few kms away from Bhor. We took a ST bus to Bhor from Swargate. The base village to start the trek is Bazaarwadi. It is situated off the Khanapur junction, on the Bhor-Wai road. The buses from Bhor to Bazaarwadi are at 8 am and 11 am. Another option is to take a jeep or van, from just outside Bhor bus stand. But, unless they are full of people, they do not start the journey. So, be prepared to wait for some time..
The jeep we took, stopped suddenly at a shop and started loading cement bags and tiles onto the back. The rear seats were almost full with construction materials. We thought that we would now go non stop. But, the driver kept on picking up passengers en route. At one point of time, I counted 19 people, including the driver, in the jeep, with 5 of them hanging on to dear life, by the side of the vehicle..
There is a small path which starts from near the school and leads up to the fort. You will find some bricks and stacked up boulders on the way up.
The fort has seven bastions covering the whole periphery. We could spot only Kenjalgad in the distance. There are other forts to be seen also, but were not visible owing to smog and cloud cover.
There are a few water tanks on the fort. The one at the entrance has potable water.
We took rest for some time, had our lunch and then came down to the base. Immediately we spotted a van to Bhor. But had to wait for it to fill up.
Were back in Pune by 5 pm.

Photos of the trek can be found here... http://picasaweb.google.com/soumyaksen/RohidaOn13thJan08

Vairatgad trek.

Now, this is how you end an exciting, eventful day on a high note.. To know how exactly this happened.. just read on..

The series of events started on Saturday, when yours truly and Anup decided to trek to Vairatgad on Sunday.. It was decided that I will be picking up Anup from his abode at 7 am. In the meanwhile, confirmation from Abhijeet Thatte was due. We would be going by ST bus , if he joined us.. else it will be the bike..
We are thankful to Abhi for gracing us with his absence, without which history would have taken a different course.

So, here it beings..

7.15 am. I reach Anups’ place and we head towards Narmadeshwar Amruttulya for breakfast.

8.00 am. We begin our journey towards Vairatgad. We had two options to follow.
1. Take the Pune-Satara highway till Wai. Then reach Vyajwadi, 7 km from Wai.
2. Take Pune-Satara road till Bhor phata. Reach Bhor from there. Then take the road going towards Wai, via Mandhardev ghat.

Being of an adventurous nature, we decided on the second option.
Mandhardev is 25 km from bhor while Wai is another 10 km away.
On our way, we passed by Rohida. The way to Mandhardev is one of the most amazing motorable ghats I have ever seen. The winding road and greenery all around mesmerized us to no end.

We have always held ST buses in high esteem, for their ability to reach even the remotest of all locations.. But our respect grew by quite a few notches, seeing an ST bus climbing this ghat..
Anyways, we reached the top of the ghat, where a road leads to the Mandhardev temple while another one descends towards Wai, which is the one we took.
10.00 am We reached Wai. From there, we took the road going towards Vyajwadi ( the base village ). We parked our bike in the village and asked for directions to the top of the fort.
A villager gave us very simple directions. He said “Draw the English numeral four along the fort top-the ridge-down towards here. Now follow this path in the reverse order and you shall reach the top in no time.”

We did exactly as told.. But as is our wont, we lost track after about 15 mins of climbing. We could see the top of the fort all along, and would have somehow found our way. As we were contemplating on our next move, we saw two village boys coming up towards us.
They said that they saw us going in the wrong direction and had come up from the village to guide us. We are really thankful to Manoj and Dheeraj for helping us out.
They not only led us to the top, but also gave us a guided tour of the entire fort.
There is a small Shiva temple and a room on the fort.


The best part is ChorKhind. It is a narrow cutting in a rock around 2 feet wide and with a slope of over 70 degrees. It led to a neighboring hill.
Had it not been for the two kids, we would most probably have missed this place.
2 pm. After having our lunch, we started descending. When we reached the base village, we distributed chocolates to a whole gang of children (friends of Manoj and Dhheraj).
3 pm. We started on our return journey. We now planned to visit the Mandhardevi temple at Wai. We were again witness to some awesome views of nature at its very best in the ghat. Enroute, we passed the base of Pandavgad.
4 pm. After paying obeisance at the temple, we started back on our return journey.
This time we decided to take the internal road from Bhor towards Nasrapur. On the way, we could see sheets of water pouring down from the gates of the Bhatghar dam.
On Anup’s insistence, we decided to take in this view from as close to the dam wall as possible. After talking to the authorities at the project and trying out several routes to reach the place ( all wrong!! ) , we finally made it to the base of the dam wall.
There’s an interesting incident to narrate out here.. On our way to the dam, we met two people coming back. One was an employee at the dam while the other was a local villager. The official enthusiastically showed us the path to reach the dam wall and did not try to obstruct us in any way. But, the villager started making all sorts of enquiries, our names, places of origins (yes!! I had to explain that I am a Bengali from WB but have been living in Pune all my life…), our intentions and what not… And his reasoning for all this.. “These are not good days.. terrorists can be found everywhere nowadays”..
Anyways, after seeing the dam from close quarters, we were finally on our way back to Pune.. But, fate had something else in store for us.. Just as we were nearing the Katraj ghat, we encountered a massive trench ( yes.. ‘a trench’.. that thing cannot be called a pothole.. ) on the highway. As soon as our bike passed over it, we realized there was something wrong. The rear wheel had a puncture. Luckily, there was a repairing guy just some meters away.. But, when he tried to remove the wheel, we realized that there was a bigger problem. The mono-suspension seemed to have been damaged. It had got locked up and the wheel was stuck against the bike frame. It was getting late now and we were getting panicky.. We just wanted to get the bike back in Pune so that we could get it repaired from a knowledgeable person.. We somehow managed to catch hold of a tempo-wala and persuaded him to transport the bike to Aundh ( albeit at a heavy price L ).
We were both preparing to loosen our pockets for getting the suspension replaced.. but, it turned out to be an anticlimactic situation.. The suspension was alright. Only that the axle had got caught on the rear foot rest.. We heaved a huge sigh of relief ( the biggest of my life, maybe.. ) , on seeing the wheel free.. and the suspension in perfect working condition..

For more photos...

Vairatgad-9thSept2007

Katraj Sinhagad Trek.

Now, this is one trek that I had been wanting to do since a long time.. Finally it happened on the night of 7th October 2006. Plans began two weeks ago. I, Gaurav and Anup were chatting one day in office, when all of a sudden we decided to do the Katraj-Sinhagad trek. The time was finalized for the night of 7th Oct, Saturday.
After sending out mails to all and sundry, the confirmed participants were I, Anup, Gaurav, Karthikk and Ananth. It was decided that all of us will meet at Swargate bus stop at 4 pm. Then we were to take a bus, six-seater or jeep up till the Katraj tunnel.
AT 3.30 pm sharp, I reached Anup's flat. He packed his bag and we left for Swargate. Reached there ten mins late. Ananth was just arriving then. He is an amazing dude I admire his stamina. He was returning from the Sanas sports ground after playing two matches each of table-tennis and badminton, as part of an inter-company tournament. Karthikk also came in a few mins later.
THEN. I got a call from Aparna.. Even she was joining us.. And Akanksha too They said that they would go to Gaurav's place and come from there It was going to be a looong night...

Our schedule went a bit haywire from this point onwards..

EVENT	SCHEDULED TIME	ACTUAL TIME
Depart from Swargate for Katraj tunnel	4.30 pm	On time, but to go to Gaurav's house

So, the 4 of us also leave for Gaurav's home. At around 5.30 pm, Aparna and Akanksha land up. We then took a six-seater towards the Katraj tunnel.

EVENT	SCHEDULED TIME	ACTUAL TIME
Start trek	5.30 pm	7 pm

So finally it's the seven of us on this Katraj-Sinhagad trek. Here onwards, we were completely at the mercy of nature and Gaurav. Nature, b'coz we were hoping that it would not rain and we would be able to spot the route easily, and Gaurav, b'coz he was the only one to have done this earlier, albeit during the daytime.
Anyways, with our hearts beating and our minds racing, we plunged into the wilderness Gaurav took the lead and was constantly making out a path for us to follow Within an hour or so, we reached the top of the first hill It was a pretty tiresome climb, through lots of shrubbery and thorny plants, making our way up over slippery grass Some even contemplated going back But the excitement was enough to hold us all back.. We took a break of a few mins and again started walking. Luckily we had found a proper track to follow.
Going along this, we reached a place where a flag had been hoisted.. We felt that we were on the right track.. But this was completely the wrong way.. We had to retrace our steps till we reached the correct path..
While trying to bypass a hill, we took a route which had wet mud on the path. That made life reasonably difficult for us. Gaurav was making a proper path for us to follow. He was using his favourite knife for this. And then disaster struck!!!! The knife slipped out of his hand and got lost in the dense undergrowth He was pretty much upset after this incident
At 11.30 we had our dinner. Everyone was really very thirsty. But, we realized that we had only 2.5 liters of water to last us throughout the night. TENSION!!! TENSION!!! TENSION!!! TENSION We had to make do with this much only now. The weather had got very misty by now. Also the moon was playing hide and seek with us. In spite of a heavy cloud cover, it wasn't raining a bit We were really lucky in the matter.
Nothing eventful happened for a long time after this. The beacon atop the Doordarshan tower, up on Sinhagad, was visible every now and then. It was the only guide we had, to reach the destination. Suddenly, we ran into a herd of bulls!!! They were sitting right in the middle of the road.. When we tried to bypass them, a bull with huge pointed horns got up and started walking towards us.. The darkness coupled with the sight of a bull approaching us, its bells tinkling, and not a single soul in sight, was enough to scare us to death. We came back and just waited there contemplating our next move. TENSION!!! TENSION!!! TENSION!!! TENSION . Suddenly, out of nowhere a group of six guys came there. We told them our predicament.. Without paying much heed, they just kept going.. This was our only chance.. We also started walking along with them.. Being in a big group made us confident enough to go through the herd.. We safely crossed this stretch. They were like a Godsend for us. The group hurriedly went ahead. They looked like very experienced trekkers, having done this route earlier.
Going ahead, we ran into two more herds. But we had gained some confidence from the first encounter.. and the hurdles were easily crossed..
By 5 am, we were still a fair distance away from Sinhagad. Some vehicles were visible coming down on the tar road, but we couldn't exactly make out how to reach the road, owing to the darkness. So we decided to settle down on top of a hillock and continue the trek in daylight. The sun would rise in another hour and all were rather tired. Gaurav was feeling dejected that in spite of having done the trek earlier; he wasn't able to show us the way ahead.
When day broke, we saw that there were still two more huge hills to cross. No one seemed to have the stamina to continue. Sinhagad, on the right, was looking like an impossible quest, while a small village, on the left, was just a stones throw away. It was our call now.. The allure of hot tea, breakfast and no more tiresome walk, drew us towards the village. We had some cakes with us, which we ate then and there. But all were apprehensive about our stock of drinking water. That's when I played my trump card. I had saved a bottle of water just for this scenario. Everyone's face was worth watching at that time
We reached the village and stopped at a house to ask for directions towards the bus-stop. The village was called Arvi. The villagers not only gave us the information, but also provided hot water to freshen up and also gave us piping hot tea. WOW!!! It was a splendid ambience.. All of us, tired from our night long hike, unhappy about not having completed the trek, and getting so much help from the villagers. We were being fussed upon a lot. AND, they didn't accept even a single rupee. So, we gave them some of our snack supplies and took leave.




While walking towards the bus-stop, we realized that it was a really beautiful village. Simple people leading a simple life. Most of us felt like settling down there for the rest of our lives.



We finally caught a bus to Swargate at 9.15 am.