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
