Fort Pavagada

Fort pavagada is situated right inside -in the heart of the city.There is a small rock cut anjaneya swamy temple also called kote anjaneya swami at the bottom of the fort ,we prayed to lord anjaneya and started our trek by about 10:30 am

We started climbly slowly as the heat was simply too much -this place is mostly plains with a few mountains here and there.We were soon joined by a bunch of kids and we enjoyed a lot by talking to them and climbing up the fort.



This fort is well kept inspite of its non maintenance .We hardly found anybody in the fort on that day.A local guy called sadanand soon began showing us around the fort.

Once we reached the top of the fort,one can see a massive well which is supposed to be very deep.one can see the place of the simhasana with 2 elephants at the entrance in the open air.There are numerous watch towers at the top one can explore.We checked out the underground entrance which is supposed to run to a place somewhere in the city,one can explore this underground route if one comes prepared.

We then headed to a place which is supposed to be the coolest place on the fort,this place is apparently the place where the fort stored its milk products in two huge mud mounds.this place is surprisingly cooler even to this day.

By now we could see rains approaching and decided to check out the bheemna donne.We checked out this natural water storage place -the water here is supposed to be very sweet-also called bheemana donne.By now it started pouring heavily and we took shelter at one of the shelters at the corner of the fort .

My friend prashanth had got something to eat and we all shared the eatables. We then checked out the shelter areas for the soldiers.The kid was about to throw the wrapper of the chips ,when i told him not to do so and to dispose all rubbish at dustbins only,impressing upon them to conserve nature and how it could degrade nature.Meekly he told that nobody ever told this to me.I dont hold the kid responsible -but it is high time the schools inculcate such small things which can go a long way in preserving nature.
Being the month of ramzan some kids headed straight to the small mosque in the fort.The pouring rain brought the temperature down much to my delight.This is one of my best experiences of a fort till date.

By now the kids and the guy who showed us around wanted to take our leave and we thanked them for showing us around and giving us some very good company.The rain showed no signs of reducing.thankfully after about 15 minutes rain stopped and we decided to head to the topmost part of the fort.Just as we were moving ahead ,the natural swimming pool caught out attention-the really was impressed by the way they made best use of the natural areas around the fort.

We then headed to the topmost tier of the fort-the view from this place will just sweep you of your feet.We then started our descent from the fort.The sun came came out blazing and i had a tough time in the heat.We soon headed for bangalore in my maruti 800.

One can also visit the shani temple which again is very near to the fort.Also just on the outskirts of the city is kanive lakshmi narasimhaswamy devasthana ,although it was locked we prayed from outside and headed back to bangalore.

Pavagada is 180 kms from bangalore and i am glad i made it in 3 hours on the way back :)

ps: the approach to the fort in the beginning is slightly dirty ,so please watch out

Kalahatty jungle camp

Location : 20 kms from mudhumalai checkpost
The location is excellent,when we had been there,there was nobody else at the place.It is a huge place with excellent backdrops of the forest.The incharge Srinivas is very courteous.

A trek to the nearby phantom peak was excellent.Just relaxing in the lap of nature is one of the best things you can do here.

Food served is also excellent ,both vegetarian and non-vegetarian ,an ideal weekend ಗೆತವಿ

Channarayandurga

Not knowing what to expect ,i started out from Bangalore in my Airavata-maruti 800.

I headed straight to the brahmins cafe bar where i got some idlis parcelled for the day and headed towards tumkur and bump i was caught in one of the worst traffic jams-it was Aug 15 and i could school children in their parents vehicles in a hurry to get to the school

Soon i hit a place where i had to drive my 800 through an uneven mud surface which was kind of tricky since it would hit the oil sump,just took a chance i gave it a try and lo with a small hit i was through ,there was a short cut which was waiting for me which took me through small villages and leading right infront of the Nice Tumkur road exit.

So i was back on track and headed straight to devarayana durga,being the last shravana shanivara the place was abuzz with people,by the time i had the darshan and checked out the vistas from the top of the temple ,it was around 11 am and headed straight to the other temple at the foothills and there was a kilometer long queue seeing which i decided to give a break.On the way back took a quick break and munced some idlies near a a lake and headed towards channarayanadurga

In about an hour i was at the base of the fort.I asked a elderly man if somebody could show me around the fort and lo mohd hussain -my guide no 1 for the day arrived.We soon headed for the fort which is just behind the small village,in no time mohd hussain climbed up and went ahead by quite a distance.

I was taking a break every now and then -since it was quite sunny by now.i could see thick smoke coming out on the top tier of the fort ,was wondering who would be there .Anyways i entered the fort and soon i entered the first level which has a huge kalyani.I was greeted by my men friday chitappa and chitappa ,who decided to show me around the place for the day.


I was really impressed by the natural landscaping done on this front,there are umpteen water storage areas and the huge main kalyani has never gone dry till date.Other key areas of the fort include the grain storage areas which are like huge 100 x 100 feet chambers with a single window -shows that food storage was also well planned for.

The view from different levels of the fort is indeed a sight to remember.All in all a good exploration ,i thanked the father and son duo who knew much more than mohd hussain

ps: the traffic jam i got know in the next days papers was due to the protest of the death of the school girl who was crossing the highway by a lorry,my condolences to the young girl and i hope there are some underpasses built and people use them once they are built.

A tribute to a good friend

We first met Boraiah as a rookie straight out of the IFS exam on his first assignment.He was a mild mannered gentleman who was indeed very friendly.

It was a fun trek to Nagamalai on which he accompanied us as a guide and never during this trek did he cease an oppurtunity to interact with the locals to check on the movements of elephants and other wildlife in the area.Speaking chaste kannada we were certainly impressed by his knowledge of the local wildlife as well the different flora in the jungles.The trek went to smoothly at the end of which we found a good friend for life.

It is said that all good things start with a small dream and as a small boy in his school,he was enamoured by the forests.It was one such dream on a visit to BR hills as a school kid that he had dreamt of being a forest officer.Today we can proudly say that he has achieved some remarkable things which could not be achieved by previous officers

It was dream come true for him as was posted to BR hills on his first assignment.Since then he has solved numerous problems of wildlife and the local tribals .These are not just mere words ,they are true in every sense.The high point in his career has to be the fact that in his jusridiction last year not a single elephant death was reported whereas elephant deaths are mounting in the entire state.

We as a part of our trek team of Subbu,Raghu,Chandru,Hemanth,Pavan,Santosh and Arjun wish Boraiah a great and successful life ahead on the occasion of his marriage.May Boraiah achieve many more laurels in future as well.

Belligundi Falls

Well i wasnt so well and that was when i was still undecided whether to make it or not for the Belligundi trek

After a lot of thinking i finally decided to go ahead with the trek.

Location : Belligundi falls
Route : Deep inside the forest -Sharavathy valley
Rating : Tough




Team members : Shivakumar,Rajesh,Sachin,Prasanna,Jovin,Karyn,Parag,Arjun,Mohan and Shashidhara

We all reached Kargal by the sleeper bus at around 8 am.We were joined by Karyn.So in total we were 10 people ,had breakfast at the resturant and started our journey to Kaarni which is about 45 kms from Kargal.From here we enter the forest ,some real dense forest.

This area is somewhat peculiar ,has some strange razor sharp climbers that one has to be careful with ,else it will just make a cut on your skin ,i experienced it :( .

We then trek along the river bed for quite sometime ,we are enveloped on both sides by very dense forest.Each of us are in our own world ,by now our friend Rajesh shows that he is real guy who has a flair for water :).We stop over for little over an hour for lunch at one such beautiful place in the middle of nowhere .Some nice hot and inviting sambar rice.To our surprise our cooks have estimated the correct amount of food for the entire group ,since only very little was left over after all of us had sufficient helps.
Then we trek along the stream bed.Sometimes it becomes really tricky to cross over the stream bed since it tends to be slippery one has to be careful.Around 3:30 pm we reach the water fall,the entire team go down to enjoy except me,Mohan and sachin since we were all dead tired by now and we still had not reached our destination.

After the boys had a splash at the waterfalls we decided to head to padubeedu ,again this starts with a slight ascent,I was damn tired by now ,we reached the sunset point near padubeedu and relaxed with a cup of tea.i was damn tired and decided to sleep now .The entire team where enjoying a great round of antakshari .I woke up around 9pm and joined them.Soon it was time for dinner and we retired for the day.

The night was colder than i expected and managed to get sleep in batches .Narayana though he was kinder to us ,intially he told that he would wake us up at 5 am ,woke us up at 6am .We got up and finished our ablutions and we had breakfast -upittu ,we started at 7:30 am to our destination -Belligundi falls.




In an hour or so we reached the day 1 waterfalls ,from where we need to trek further into the jungle.We started our long and ardous trek.This trek was interspersed by walking on the boulders as well as walking in the jungle.Some of it was ascent and some of it was plain trek.And then we all reached the starting point of the descent.This is the most treacherous part of the trek.We need to trek about 1.5-2kms down hill with a rate of angle of almost 80 degrees.Most of the forest is covered with falling leaves below which might be one or two loose stones.so one had to be careful.

I still remember the faces of my fellow trekkers when we started the descent ,how would be trek back such a steep ascent on our way back.Behind me was sachin and both of us exchanged glances on more than a few occassions when we saw that huge stones rolled down the hill when narayana was climbing down ahead of us.

Finally at around 10 am we reached the bottom of the falls of Belligundi.Hold on,if you think the trek is over there is more ,lots more.We had to climb up hill through the rocks.Water flows down from the waterfalls.It is quite tricky to climb up this rocky streambed.I took my own time and one of the last to reach the falls.Since it is summer water was less ,but it was ideal to have a bath.I couldnt resist myself and soon i joined the gang below the falls.The experience of standing under the falls is just awesome ,really enjoyed it to the hilt.We were there near the falls for about half an hour before we decided to head back.We decided to have lunch at an upstream on the way .So we all headed to a small stream ahead.We soon had our lunch.I must mention the dog here which followed us right through our trek.We made sure that the dog had lunch as well,since it was going to be a tough uphill trek on the way back.

The uphill was really steep.Huffing and puffing ,i was one of the last person to climb up :).At about 3pm we had a break to rest for a while.Narayana was kind enough to take us in a shorter route on the way back.We reached our destination at about 4pm after taking sufficient breaks enroute to padubeedu.Finally on the back ,when we were just about 3kms away he dropped the bombshell when i asked him the distance,he revealed that todays trek was only 24kms :).But i enjoyed the trek to the hilt for the following reasons :

1)Dense forest cover(we hardly encountered any sunshine on the way)
2)Wonderful co-operative team
3)Excellent time management by our guide Narayana
4)Above all the awesome Belligundi falls made it all worthwhile :)

Maakuta -Pattimalai

Maakuta is a small place which is not known to many people and getting permission here is quite a task.Getting here in monsoon is just out of question due to the army of leeches found in these dense jungles

This trek was organized by Yhai.We were about 9 people in total,we set out in the rajahamsa bus to Virajpet our interim destination before heading towards maakuta.We reached Virajpet at 4:30 am .All of us were sleepy .Some of us freshened up by brushing our teeth and going to the loo.We had tea and coffee as well in the only shop that was opened right in front of the bus-stand.We were also joined by a trek gang who later left towards tadiyandamol.














We took permission from the range officer and had breakfast.We all then had to wait for sometime before a jeep was arranged to move towards Maakuta.It is about 30 kms from virajpet and soon we had a ride to the hell.The road here is pathetic and would shake up all the bones we had in our body.By the time we arrived at the destination we were all covered in dust totally.




We had a quick wash and soon set out for our destination on day 1 which was about 6 kms.It was about 10:30 am when we started the trek.We had a decent tree cover and but one could defintely feel the heat when we met sunshine in between.Soon we met some people who were repairing a small bridge ,who were greatful enough to offer us food .We thanked them and moved forward.We reached the APC at about 12 pm and soon started our cooking .The guides here were really helpful.After a quick lunch we headed towards the hanging bridge one side of which is in karnataka and the other side is situated in kerala.

It was quite humid when we started at around 1:30 after our lunch.Soon we reached the hanging bridge.Most of the people decided to take a plunge and relax in the Barampole river which flows below the hanging bridge.I was damn sleepy since i hadnt had a good sleep since we had reached Virajpet at 4:30 am in the morning.Soon we headed to the kerala side which is very little forest cover and most of it is cashew plantations.We helped ourselves to be some delicious ripe cashew fruits.We then headed to a village nearby where we had tea and coffee.After relaxing our muscles due to the steep climb we had just had ,we decided to head back this time crossing the barampole river at another location and once again head back to the forest

The forest here is quite dense and one cant even dream of coming in these jungles in the moonsoon season since the forest floor will be covered by leeches .We soon reached our APC -our base camp for the day

Some of them including me decided to head for a stream since i was just feeling very uneasy due to the humidity and the heat.Soon our team decided to head downstream and i found a cozy spot for myself a little upstream.I spent about one hour in the stream and boy was it relaxing.These are the moments i cherish where one can be with nature and listen to its silence ,it was a truly a heaven and i thank god that i have born in a heaven called "Karnataka"

We headed back to the APC a small distance away from the stream and soon we had coffee.Then cooking for dinner started and it was sambhar and rice.I must really thank my co-trekker Priyanka since she was the one who prepared the sambhar and it was just awesome :).Total distance trekked on day 1 is 13 kms



Remember there is no current in this APC,so after dinner we decided to sleep since we had got up early on that day.We decided to sleep outside ,but before we slept our guide prem added once more that elephants had been here at the APC,and even leapords ,tigers have been spotted near the APC.With the water hole pretty near the APC it was just at the back of my mind when i slept.


At around 3 am it became very cold and i decided to sleep inside the room in the APC,the guides let me in to sleep and soon i was snoring away peacefully.The next day we decided to head early since the peak was a long distance away .We started the trek at 8am and after a decent start of 2 kms ,was when the actual ascent starts.Soon we started the climb.I had made sure that i was fully loaded with water -2 lts since there is no water untill 3 kms downhill from the peak at that is atleast 4-5 hours away.This climb to the peak is one of the toughest i have ever had in my short trekking career.The ascent never stops ,we did take enough breaks and finally at 12:45 pm we hit the peak,there is nothing much on the peak except that there is a watch tower ,one can see the beautful ranges all around.And it was only much later that i came to know that the steep climb that we had climbed was 10kms!!!!!

I hadnt worn a cap and the sun was just blazing away ,i decided to protect my head with my towel,which i think was a good decision.While climbing downhill we saw many elephant excreta and soon we hit a water stream.The guides didnt allow us to stop here and have lunch since they were wary of the elephants around.So we headed a little further around 2kms .Then it was time to relax ,i washed by face and poured water to the boiling body of mine which needed some rest.I had mtr ready to eat and soon we headed to our destination which was a coffee estate nearby.We finally reached the coffee estate at around 3pm.Total distance trekked on day 2 -18kms

A couple who lived there who were generous enough to allow us to rest while our guides went to the nearby village to arrange for vehicles to reach virajpet.So i will remember this trek to be special since this trek has exceeded all my expectation in terms of personal satisfaction of climbing the peak successfully fully loaded with a bag of 4kg :)

The journey to Rameshwaram was something out of this world

On an invitation from my lecturer i decided to join him on this spiritual journey.I booked my tickets well in advance and was lucky to get the tickets since it was not a busy weekend.The journey started on a sad note when the KSRTC Volvo bus arrived an hour late,to be standing in the rain was a bit of a dampner indeed

I reached Madurai at around 8:15 am and headed to the Royal Court Hotel ,my lecturer joined me there ,he flew down to Madurai.We quickly took a bath,after a savouring some hot idlis at Murugan Idli shop we headed straight to Rameshwaram.

The weather was one of the best i have ever witnessed,it had rained all night and a cool breeze was the icing on the cake.We went via Paramakudi which is the native of the famous south indian actor Kamal Hassan.The driver breezed past the curvy roads in excess of 100 ms/hour which is why we reached quite fast.As we enter Rameshwaram we find the famous Pamban bridge and the view from here will blow one of its feet

We had lunch and then headed straight to the sea for a bath.One can see the main gopura from the sea.Inside the temple we again took bath in the 21 kundas which is suppose to purify one's sins.The remarkable thing about the whole thing was that each of the water where we took bath,we encountered a different feel,temperature,which is quite surprising.

Even more startling is the fact that all these water sources are natural and except for two kundas all the others are sweet water.

We then prayed to god and spent some time at the temple.We then headed to the Kodanda Rama temple.The unique thing about this place is that it is surrounded by water on all the 3 sides and it is about 3 kms into the sea.The view of this place is absolutely mind blowing.


We then visited the Rama pada temple where Rama is supposed to have kept his first foot in India .It was 5:45 pm by now,we decided to head back to Madurai.Our brilliant driver Mr Kalai literally flew back to Madurai in 2 hours and 10 mins flat.I arrived in time for my bus back to Bangalore :)

All in all this was a very refreshing and divine experience for me to visit a holy place and I thank GOD for making this trip of mine a success.