Rangaswamy Betta- Near Kanakapura


Bilikallu Rangaswamy Betta is a hill around 50 Kms from Bangalore close to Kanakapura. Ravi, Nandish, Srinivas and I had gone for a trek to this place on 12-Dec-09 Saturday. Ravi who had picked Nandish came to Banashankari at 7.30 AM and I was waiting for them near Banashankari temple. We then waited around 30 minutes for Ravi’s friend Srinivas to join us. We had breakfast on the way and reached KonnalDoddi at around 9.30 AM. We parked the car in front of a villager’s house and started our trek after asking for directions. We could see Rangaswamy Betta from there and we proceeded along the mud-rock road where you can also find small water streams on the way. We could see a wide variety of birds and it was not at all possible to capture them in our cameras. After walking for about 15 minutes, you will find a small temple towards left side and that is the place where we need to take right turn and walk along the path which takes you to the top of the hill. We were not aware of this and went straight and after walking for more than one hour; my friends were sure that we had lost the track. I was adamant to go further along the path we came and we had entered deep inside the forest where we could find lot of elephant activity. After walking for some time we found few woodcutters inside the forest and they told that we had come a long way on the wrong path. My friends teased me for taking the wrong path and we walked back to small temple; we were wandering on the wrong path for more than 3 hours and time was 1 PM when we reached the temple. Ravi and Nandish were too tired and they did not accompany Srinivas and Me for uphill climb to RangaswamyBetta. I had almost emptied my water bottle when I started for uphill steep climb and I was exhausted after walking for some time. I was dehydrated and Srinivas was way behind me; I was not sure how much more I had walk to reach the top. I proceeded further and I could see lot butterflies, birds, some other insects along the way. It took me around one hour to reach the top and I could see some temple activity going on for upcoming festival. At the top of the hill there is a small temple and a house where Pujari stays during special puja days. I explored the place and I could see very good landscape from the top of the hill. I was anxious as Srinivas took more time to reach the top of the hill and at times our mobiles were working and I could contact him to know his whereabouts. We visited the temple which is abode of Lord RangaSwamy and started our descent at around 3.30 PM. We reached motorable road in Konnaldoddi at around 4.30 PM and Ravi and Nandish were waiting for us with some snacks. We had late lunch in some dhabba on Kanakapura road and we reached Banashankari at 7 PM.

Directions to RangaswamyBetta:

• Take Kanakapura road from Bangalore - Take a left next to bus stand at Harohalli (Around 35 Kms from Bangalore) - Reach DoddaMaralawadi - Ask directions to KonnalDoddi. Ask for directions to RangaswamyBetta.
• There is also a jeep road to the top of RangaswamyBetta from Kanakapura

Brahmagiri Trek

We have been planning for a trek to Brahmagiri for quite some time and we booked six KSRTC Airavat bus tickets to Virajpet for a journey on 30th Oct Friday 2009. The most difficult part of a plan for any trek/trip is to fix a date, get confirmation and make everyone available. As usual there were two drop outs from our trek to Brahmagiri (Nandish &Mahesh). Shashidhar, Ravi, Harsha and I met at Majestic bus stand at around 10.45 PM on 30th Oct to catch 11.30 PM bus to Virajpet. We got down in Gonikoppal at 4 Am and took another bus from there to Srimangala which started at 4.30 AM. Srimangala is 24Kms from Gonikoppal and we had to get forest officer permission which is close to Srimangala bus stand. We got down at some guest house just after bus stand; we had to walk back to Srimangala bus stand and we were accompanied by other team who were also going for a trek to Brahmagiri. It was still dark and time was around 5.30 Am. We finished morning business and had breakfast at some hotel which is close to the bus stand. We waited for forest office to open and it opens around 8.30 Am. We had not booked the forest guest house for our stay as it was already booked by some other team; the forest officer clubbed our team with other team with a group of seven guys. The forest guest house at Narimale camp has two rooms and the guest house has to be booked in advance. Forest officer usually gives permission for two teams to stay there. We paid 1500 for trekking, guide, guest house charges and I think for four persons it was quite expensive. Then we took a bus which starts from Srimangala at 9.30 Am to Irupu which is at a distance of 8 kms from Srimangala.

We now a group of 11 including 7 from other team met our guide Pavan at Irupu and we slowly moved towards Irupu falls. We took some snaps of Irupu falls and waited for other team who took more than 30 minutes to reach Irupu falls. Other team perhaps was more interested in having photo session than us. We started our trek towards Narimale camp at around 11 Am which is 4kms from the falls. We walked through dense forest where the sunlight rarely passed through the vast tree cover. After walking 3 kms we reached a water spot and we stopped there for a while. Some leeches had sucked by blood; I removed them, filled the water bottle and started again. From here the landscape changes and we walked through thick grass lands surrounded by beautiful green hills. We reached Narimale camp inspection guest house at around 1.30 PM. Other team arrived at inspection bungalow at around 2 PM. We placed our bags inside the rooms and ate chapattis we had brought for lunch. Then everyone decided to visit Narimale peak which is around 1.5 kms from Inspection bungalow. At around 3 PM we started for Narimale peak and we could see lots of elephant dung along the way. Shashidhar and Ravi stopped after they saw uphill climb. I climbed the peak and one of other team members showed me elephants grazing in nearby hill. My camera has only 3x zoom and I regretted not having a good camera so that I could have taken better photos of elephants. The view from Narimale peak was amazing with cold winds hitting us and we could see smaller hills, Brahmagiri, a waterfall. We came back to Narimale IB and took much need rest.

Narimale IB has two rooms, a hall, a small kitchen were one can kind find utensils for cooking dinner. Water needs can be met by a stream which flows nearby. I got hold of a bucket and brought the water. My legs were itching and I opened by shoes to see a lot of leeches on my leg. I removed them and it created lot of blood stains. It was getting dark; Ravi got some dry wood and lighted fire. We had got ready to eat food for dinner, we put some of those inside boiling water and our dinner was ready. We ate ready to eat food, left over chapattis we had from lunch and some cucumber and carrots which Harsha had with him. We chatted for some time and since we were tired we went to sleep at around 8 PM. One has to carry blanket/sleeping bag for comfortable sleep. We had minimum sleeping materials and had hard time to get some decent sleep as it was very cold during the night.

I got up at 6 AM and I went outside to see thick fog cover with visibility of few meters. We went for morning business and I had the most horrible experience as lot of leeches had made inroad and sucked the blood out of my body. After that we had tough time to light fire and make water boiling for our breakfast. By 9 AM we finished breakfast and we were ready for a visit to Brahmagiri peak. Ravi and Shashidar did not join us for Brahmagiri visit as their legs could not support them for further uphill walk; only Harsha, Me, 5 guys from other team along with the guide started for Brahmagiri. Brahmagiri is around 5 Kms form IB and as we stared our trek we could see elephant activity during night closed to IB. We filled our water bottle at the last stream available on the way to the peak and I had best moment of the trek as we saw a group sambar deer from close range. As we walked our guide showed the border markings which clearly distinguishes Karnataka and Kerala border. We came to base of Brahmagiri at 11 Am and from there it was steep uphill climb to reach the top of the hill. I took around 30 mins minutes to climb, it was very windy at the top and view was breathtaking. Brahamagiri was the taller than any of nearby peaks and I was quite pleased to see such a place. Harsha took around 40 mins time to climb the peak; we took some snaps and started our descent. I had a bad moment when I lost the lens cap of Ravi’s camera on the way back. We reached Narimale IB at around 1 PM.

Ravi and Shashidhar had taken enough rest and were ready to leave Narimale IB. We thought of catching last bus which leaves Irupu at 3.30 PM. We started our descent at around 2 PM without guide and were puzzled at few places where there were multiple paths not knowing which path to go. Finally we reached Irupu falls at 3.15 PM and since we had to catch 3.30PM bus we did not get into the water; we left the place immediately. We reached bus stand at 3.25 PM and waited for the bus to arrive. We waited till 4.15 PM and the bus never came; later we came to know that since it was Sunday and holiday for schools; the bus usually takes off on Sunday. We came to back to Irupu, booked taxi to Srimangala for RS 200 and had late lunch. We reached Srimangala at 5.30 PM and from there we got into a bus to Gonikoppal. We reached Gonikoppal at 6.30 PM and got another bus to Virajpet, so that we can spend some time seeing the place. When we reached Virajpet it was 7.30 PM and the town was almost deserted; only few shops, hotels and wine shops were opened. We had dinner at one of the hotels, took a bus to Bangalore at 9 PM and reached Bangalore at 3.30 AM.

• Get permission for Forest range office say 10 days prior to the visit
• Do carry food items since you get only utensils in Narimale IB
• Carry enough sleeping material to protect from cold weather
• Trek difficult level: Moderate
• Cost per person for us came around Rs 1350

Yaana, Gokarna, Jog Falls

After much planning and forwarding of dates, we from PLM united team had gone for a trip to Yaana, Gokarna and Jog falls during Sep4-Sep6 2009 weekend. Group of 24 had gone for the trip and most of the logistics of the trip was taken care by Nandish and Manju. Bus picked me near my house at around 9.30 PM on 4th Sep Friday and I occupied the last seat. Manju and Santosh were the last to board the bus and we took NH4 Road which goes via Chitradurga, Davangere, Ranebennur, Haveri and then to Sirsi our first stop. Around 70% of the road we travelled was good and rest was bad. Initially we had some general discussion inside the bus and after a while we tried to sleep. Most of the time my sleep was disturbed by the voice of Nandish and I think others were also disturbed by noise made by small group lead by Nandish. I saw Santosh was the only person who had sound sleep while travelling to Sirsi. Early morning on the way to Sirsi we stopped at some place just before Sirsi and took some snaps. The weather was cool with slight drizzle and I felt like walking all along the road.

We reached Sirsi at around 8 AM on Saturday 5th Sep and occupied the hotel Madhuvana which we had booked for our early morning stay. The hotel rooms were quite good, clean and worth the money we paid. Due to smart negotiation from Manju we had booked the hotel for about Rs 265 per room. We had booked seven rooms for our stay and Manju, Santosh, Prashanth and I occupied one room. Some of our team members had kept their bags inside the luggage cabin in the rear end of bus and due to water leakage their bags and clothes had gone wet and some of them had horrible time making them dry. After getting fresh, we had breakfast and were ready to leave our room. Also we packed rice item Pulav and banana for lunch to have at Yaana.

Our first visit was at Sri Marikamba Temple in Sirsi. Sri Marikamba Temple houses a huge idol of Devi and after paying our obeisance to God, we started our journey towards Yaana. Our journey towards Yana was full of fun especially the dance by our team members. I had occupied the front seat near the driver and I enjoyed the dance of Murugan, Prashant, Manju, Neeraj and others as well. As we proceeded towards Yaana, the road became narrow and I enjoyed the greenery all round with slight rain making the environment amazing to see. The bus stopped around 2 Kms before Yaana, the time was around 1PM and we decided to walk rest of the distance. As I walked some distance, leeches had already made inroad into my shoe and I removed them with the help of my friend. After that everyone applied Odomas cream and lime which I think is ineffective in controlling leeches in getting you. Murugan and his family decided not to venture out of the bus mainly due to rain and they might have had bad time inside the bus waiting for us for about 4 Hours.

As we walked we saw small water fall made due to the rain, a river near the bridge and view of the forest of Sahyadri hills surrounding us was amazing. This was the first time I trekked in monsoon rain and it was comfortable walking and not that tiring. After walking for about 1 Km the road ends and we have to walk around 0.5 Kms along mud path to reach Yaana. Manju, Santosh and I were the first to see Mohini Shikara and we made some noise when we saw the magnificent rock formation. We took some snaps and as we proceeded further we saw another amazing bigger rock formation Bhairaveshwara Shikara. Karthik and I took some photos and everyone halted at tea stall which is present near the temple which is at the base of Bhairaveshwara shikara. We had good hot tea and other light snacks midst the rain which accompanied us all long the way. We also had photos session and visited the temple where the temple priest explained about the significance of Yaana. Some of us visited the small cave which surrounds the temple and Hemanth was waiting for me take a snap in the waterfall. After having good view of the rocks everyone proceeded towards our bus. Vivek, Ramesh, Ramesh’s friend and I took the stairs which goes towards Mohini Shikara. We climbed down the stairs and we were not exactly sure where the steps were taking us. I took a photo near the base of the rock and we did not go further down the steps and we climbed back and tried to join rest of our team. Vivek and I decided to run some distance to catch up with rest of the team. We ran some distance after that we were tired and walked till we came to the road. We again decided to run and I overtook some of our team members and stopped after I saw uphill climb. It was bit difficult to walk back and I was always looking for the sight of the bus. We reached the bus , had Pulav and Banana which we had got from Sirsi. As usual we were ready for photo session and some of our team members were very keen to get photographed with different styles (Especially Nandish Style). We boarded the bus and with lots of incredible dancing from the team, we reached Gokarna at around 7.30 PM.

We had booked Hotel Gokarna International for our stay. Only the name and exterior of the hotel was attractive. Inside the rooms we could see wet ceilings, beds and pillows were not clean and rooms were in pathetic state. Manju, Santhosh, Prashant and I walked some distance till we found Pai Restaurant to have dinner. The food was OK and perhaps lot better than the hotel where we stayed. We came back to our room and rested for the day. I got up in the morning and I had to have some argument with the hotel personnel to get Hot water for bath. Everyone of our team were ready by 9 AM and we visited the Mahabaleshwara temple in Gokarna to have blessings of the lord. We had breakfast and started for OM beach at around 10.30 AM . It started to drizzle a bit and we were afraid that rain will spoil our visit to the beach. Fortunately the rain stopped and as we approached Om beach, I saw beautiful landscape of the beaches and reached OM beach at around 11.00 AM. The beach was clean and Karthik was the first person to get into cold water and Manju, Santhosh, Prashanth, I followed him. We had good time inside the water and Murugan also joined us. Hopefully Murugan’s son who was always telling about the beach had good team time seeing the sea. All the team members had photo sessions and we came back to our bus and started for Jog falls at around 1 PM.

Just after Kumta, we stopped for Lunch at Kamat hotel and ordered Veg Biryani to be parceled. We then decided to have lunch in the hotel itself. We proceeded towards Jog falls and driver told that he would stop at some places where scenery of the nature is worth watching. The bus stopped at a place where we could see a water fall. I took some snaps and rest of the team also were part of photo session. After a while the bus stopped at one more beautiful landscape and perhaps our team members were disgusted that I stopped the bus again for one more view as the team were playing dumbcharades and were in the midst of intense competition. We did not get down at that place and we travelled towards Jog falls. We reached Jog falls at around 4.30 PM and everyone got down to see the majestic incredible highest water fall in India, the JOG falls. Jog falls was at its full flow due to incessant rain the region had received for the past few days. Jog falls was amazing and the landscape of the surrounding the Jog falls was worth watching. We had a long lengthy photo session and we also took some group photos. I wanted to visit the other side of the falls from where the water comes down and where there is a Bungalow. Due to paucity of time we could not the go there and perhaps some of us were too tired. We had tea/coffee in the hotel which is present in the premises of Jog. We then left Jog falls at around 6.00 PM. We stopped in Sagar to have dinner and most them had best dinner of the trip. By this time I was tired a lot and wanted to have good sleep. Got into bus and occupied seat next to Santosh and I did have some decent sleep. Early Monday morning on 7th Sep we reached Bangalore and I was in my house at 6.30 AM.

• I have skipped details about all the team members
• One should carry food/snacks to Yaana. I felt we should have explored the rocks of Yaana more by staying there for a day
• Cost per person for the trip came about Rs 1700
• Thanks to all team members who were part of this trip

One more exiting trip came to end for me and hopefully each one of 26 including the driver and his assistant had good memorable time during the trip.

-Mahesh

A Journey to Remember

Udupi, Malpe, Kaup, Marvanthe

We (Me, Shashi, Ravi) decided to go Muneer's wedding in Kundapura and also visit few places nearby. I asked Muneer about the places near Kundapura and we decided to land at Udupi first. Shashi booked the KSRTC bus tickets to Udupi and return tickets from Kundapura. I was the last to arrive at 10.35 PM on 29May09 at Majestic bus stand, bus was at 11 PM and Shashi & Ravi were waiting for me.

We saw beautiful backwaters from the bus in the morning after Mangalore on the way to Udupi. We reached Udupi on Saturday morning at 8AM and Muneer had arranged for our stay at BSNL inspection quarters at place called Kadiyali around 1.5 Kms from Udupi bus stand. We reached BSNL inspection quarters with help from Neelesh (Muneer’s friend) and after finishing our morning activities we decided to go to Malpe beach which is around 5 Kms from Udupi. We decided to go by Bus and what’s amazing about places near Udupi is the bus facilities available. Private bus facilities and frequency of buses are better than in Bangalore. We reached Malpe town and from there we reached Malpe beach in Auto at around 11 AM. Whenever we travelled by Auto, the charge was Rs 25. Malpe beach was clean with very few people around. We thought of going to St Mary’s Island but boating was stopped to the island. Boating is not available to St Mary’s Island during monsoon (Mid May to September), so better to visit during early winter season. Ravi was very eager to get into water and I & Shashi followed him. The sea was calm and we spent good time in the water at Malpe.

From Malpe we decided to goto Kaup Beach and we got a bus to Udupi. From Udupi we got another direct bus to Kaup beach, I don’t know the exact distance from Udupi to Kaup beach and it took almost one hour to reach Kaup beach. The bus took to most of the nearby places and finally reached Kaup beach at 2 PM. The greenery was worth a watch all along the way. There was board saying “Swimming is prohibited” and we came to know why when we saw the beach. The waves were quite dangerous and it was not possible to go 20 meters inside the water. We had lunch at some fast food hotel and the options and food available was bad. Better to have food at some other place than at Kaup beach. There is a light house at Kaup beach which was to open for visitors at 5.30 PM and we can reach top of light house for some good view, since we had other plans we did not stay till the Light house opened. We took some good snaps from rocks and rested for some time in the shade.

The weather was quite hot and we were always looking for shade to protect us from hot weather. We took auto from Kaup beach to reach Kaup town and from there a bus to Udupi. We reached Udupi at around 4.30 PM and decided to take some rest at guest house. We took a bus to Kadiyali and since the bus was also going to Manipal which is 5 Kms from Udupi, Shashi and I wanted to go to Manipal much to anguish of Ravi who was not at all interested to visit Manipal. Finally Ravi was convinced and we reached Manipal. There is nothing much to see in Manipal, One can find lot of colleges (From Engineering, Medical …). After buying a gift for Muneer and we came back to our guest house at 5.45 PM.

After staying in the guest for about an hour, we prepared to visit Krishna temple and Ravi got short cut route from BSNL security person to the temple. As we walked we saw posh houses along the way and finally reached temple after walking for about 20 minutes. As we entered temple premises we saw a pond, an elephant greeting devotes, chariots waiting for procession. We entered the temple and got confused not knowing the entrance of main Krishna temple. After searching for few minutes we entered the temple and got darshan of Lord Krishna. There was some argument between Ravi and Me about Kanakadasa as we had different stories of him. We waited till 8 PM for food counter to open inside the temple premises and we got inside a huge hall for food. Food was quite bad partially because of bad attitude of suppliers. It is better to eat outside than inside the temple. We came outside the temple and saw procession of chariots. After that we came back to our good BSNL guest house and rested for the day.

Early morning on 31May09 Sunday we got up and we were ready to leave the guest house by 7AM. We again visited Krishna temple and there was less crowd in the morning. We had breakfast at Mitra Samaj hotel and food was tasty and worth having something at the hotel. The hotel is near the Krishna temple, within the temple complex and the hotel is known for Masala dosa and we could not have it as it was not available for breakfast. We reached Udupi bus stand and got a bus to Kundapura at 8.30 AM. We reached Kundapura at around 9.15 AM enjoying the backwaters and greenery on the way. From Kundapura we had to reach Tarsi, the wedding place of Muneer. Ravi wants always to travel by Auto and Shashi and I wanted to go by bus. We took a bus and we initially thought Tarsi is nearby but it was around 10 Kms from Kundapura. We enquired about the place with the conductor and the bus stopped at Classic Auditorium just before Tarsi town. We reached the marriage hall at 10.15 AM and we were the first to reach there. Surendra had to come to the marriage with his family and Ravi somehow recognized him as he had not seen him since our college days. After Nikah of Muneer and we had good nonveg food. We kept our luggage inside Surendra’s car and at around 1.30 PM we visited Marvanthe which is just around 3 Kms from Tarsi.

The sea at Marvanthe was looking beautiful with no people around and the sound of roaring waves was hitting our ears. There was no shade to protect us from hot sun and we walked some distance to find some coconut trees and we decided to stay there. Occasional cool winds made us comfortable and around 3.30PM we walked along the road to reach Marvanthe temple where there is a river flowing next to it. We sat near the River and saw gorgeous island formed by the backwaters. There is boating facility available and the charge was Rs450 to go round the island. We decided it is not worth going and there was a boat to ferry passengers to cross the river. We thought of crossing the river but the person at the ticket counter refused to give us ticket saying that the boat is only for local people. I decided to taste the water in the river, hoping for some fresh water but it was salty. There is road which separates the river and sea at Marvanthe and the view is amazing. We visited the temple and again came back to sea side. We could not get into the water as sea was quite dangerous and we took some snaps close to some rocks which were battered by the waves. We rested near the rocks and waiting for sun set. The best time to visit Marvanthe is during evening and cool breeze from the sea made us feel like heaven. Ravi and Shashi started a long conversation about marriage and I was reluctantly listening to them.


After Sunset we came back to Tarsi to attend Muneer’s marriage reception and again we were the first person to arrive there. Ravi and I had long argument regarding mode of transport for trips. I preferred to travel by Bus and Shashi supported me, as we will know more about the culture of the new place. Ravi always prefers to travel by car as it is more comfortable. We had booked the return ticket from Kundapura, the bus was to start at 9 PM and we were having little time to attend the reception and have food. We wished Muneer and he made early arrangement of food for three of us. We again had some good food and thanks to Surendra who dropped us in his car near the KSRTC bus stand to reach on time to catch 9PM bus. We got inside the bus and Bus reached Bangalore at 8.30 AM on Monday. The beaches we visited, the backwaters we saw and the greenery all around will tempt us to visit these places again.