It was around mid March: I knew that I would be leaving IBM and also Venkatesh had solid plans for leaving to the US on his H1. Before we all go scattered I wanted to have an unforgettable trip and thats when I proposed for a trip during our lunch time. The response was amazing, everyone supported the idea and we all started planning for the place to go. As most of P2P members had not seen Kemmannu Gundi, we all decided to go there. Mine was 3rd trip to Kemmannu Gundi, but still I wanted to visit again, such a nice place it is. Phanisayee being most experienced in our team suggested that we can also visit Belur and Halebid on the way back Bangalore. That was again an excellent idea.
So we conducted a Wednesday meeting in which every one was given a responsibility. Bharani as usual took finance and started collecting Rs. 1000 from each. I took the responsibility of arranging a vehicle. We proffered Tempo Traveller as our strength was around 10. Phanisayee took responsibility of getting Water cans, Medicines etc, Bharani took initiative to book cottages in Kemmannu Gundi, which can be done in Lalbagh. Those cottages are manages by Horticulture Dept of Karnakata. Likewise it was team effort for preparation. We brought another friend, Sharma who was also an IBMer. So we made a team.
We all started on 27th of April, 2007 Friday night to Kemmannu Gundi, which is around 300 KM from Bangalore in Chikmagalur district. We reached there at around 6 AM in the morning, got the rooms and lied down for few hours. When we got up it was around 7:30 AM.
Had dosa as breakfast and started trekking towards Hebbe falls which is around 12 KM from Cottages. Vehicle can go for 5-6 KM and rest we need to walk. We got a guide, and followed him towards Big Hebbe. Hebbe falls has 2 legs.
The trek toute was quite interesting. I had trkked in the same route for two times, but never had seen the top of leg of the falls. This guide started in a different route. He initially took vehicle for some distance and from there we actually started to trek. Wah! Awesome experience
Ups and Down.. Superb route of Kemmannugundi
Dila Chata Hai ??
Mid route. Wanted to shot a group photo. Do you see our Route Guide too ?
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Our guide took us initially to the top leg, where we enjoyed a lot. This place is quite un-touched. Many people don't know this place and don't try to reach also. It was little challenging for us to reach there. Even I had not seen that place in my previous visits.
Beside you can see the top leg of falls as seen during the trek route.
The top leg of the falls is not very popular as one can not easily reach the water. You need to
climb up som of the tough rocks to reach it. Oh my God! its such an awesome place to reach the water and sit under the water which is falling from around 120 ft heigh without abstruction
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After enjoying there, we started towards bottom leg of the falls. Our real trekking started when our guide lost the route. It was on of the life threatening treks that I have gone through. We could hear the noise of the falls but could not really reach there. We had hopelessly lost the route in the dense jungle. Thank God there was not much animals there. At one place we had gone down the hill, and our guide wanted all of us to climb the whole up-hill almost vertically. That was when we all started to curse him like anything. All energy within us had drained out. We all sat at the top hill and rested for some time. But mother nature was not angry on us, there was no rains. If there was any small sprinkle also, we could have got injured like worst. It was very slippery. Both the mud and the dry leaves.
Naveen and myself during second leg trek..
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At last we reached bottom leg of Hebbe falls. It was already 12 noon by that time. With the remaining energy we all played in falls; stayed there for couple of hours and started back to the vehicle. We all were so tired, that we did not want to have any more trekking and we took 2 jeeps to reach the vehicle.
Topless Group Photo
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Our guide had asked vehicle driver go to a place where we would come from bottom leg. As our route was different while coming back. Our driver was little worried as we were very late to what was planned for. That evening we did not have anything to do other than sleeping. :-)
On the way back towards our vehicle.. We were all exhausted..
Next day (Sunday) morning, we started to 'Z' point but on the way people decided to have no more trekking and hence we turned our vehicle to another view point called Rajbhavan. We had a nice view from there, took some snaps and started to the room.
By 10:30 we checked out the rooms and started down the hill to Kalhatgiri which is again a falls, but not as big as Hebbe. It was very crowded and also place was not so good, so we decided to head back. From there we headed towards Hasan route to reach Belur.
On the way Belur, we found an Alemane, the place where jaggery is made from sugarcane. It was a wonderful experience to see how it is made. We got some fresh jaggery to eat as well. From there we started towards Belur.
Belur and Halebid are the most amazing places we enjoyed. We took guide at all the places. It started raining in Belur initially, but then it stopped until we finished seeying everything. Then again it started raining heavily. By around 5PM we started towards Bangalore and reached home by around 11 PM. I will upload the pictures of Belur and Halebid in a separate post..
