mullayangiri- bababudan giri trek

Will be very brief here. Dont want to bother you guys with the finer aspects of this trek. As the topic suggest this was our trek to mullayangiri peak, from mullayangiri to bababudangiri hills. This was one of The treks and i'm actually proud to say that we covered about 30km in a single day(commendable indeed).

This was supposed to be our first trek of this semester. We wanted this badly after toiling hard for college fests, both cultural and technical, enduring the midsem exams and a gate exam. For some arbit reasons this time we chose mullayangiri(some arbit blog tat i read). Mullayangiri is situated in chikamagalur district of karnataka, and this peak is very near to bababudangiri hills(very rightly called ayodhya of south). Climb any local bus to b.b hills and get down at this stop called sarpabhagilu(snake door) and it all begins from here.

The first half an hour from sarpabhagilu is really screwing and toiling and we geniuses had forgotten to refill our water bottles and both of us had a really hard time during the initial strecth. The path was very treacherous with a whooping slope of 70deg or greater. We carefully conserved water and reached the peak of mullayangiri(which happens house a temple) and we were glad to find the place inhabited. We refilled our water bottles and to be frank it was only then we appreciated the scenic prosperity of the place.

This shot was taken from top of mullayangiri. It quite clearly explains the beauty amidst which we were engulfed.














The trek to the top wasn't just a slopy terrain, it did have some surprises to offer, we found a couple of caves. One of them being very deep and we without a torch didn't dare to crawl further in. The other one was a proper resting place which i blv is used by travellers and trekkers.




This was the deeper cave i spoke about. its quite cozy in there.













It was here that we met a company of trekkers from bangalore. They later turned out to be a very hospitable company. We along with the new group we had met, then started trekking from mullayangiri to b.b hills. The group invited us for a lunch with them and we gladly accepted it. We then continue on this journey and this part of the journey was very pleasant with a cloud cover, water supplies, snacks etc etc. And it was never hard from here.








This is my trademark photo in all my treks. Find a suitable creey cliff and pose over it. This shot was taken whicle trekking from mullayangiri to bababudangiri.



We later split up with the group and continued our trek to b.b.hills.Bababudangiri is very much human infested area. Lots of people come and go. So in a desperate attempt to move away from human influence we head towards this water falls near by called "manikya dhara". We later find out that there wasnt much water to see and enjoy.









Enthralling sight from the bababudangiri hills. It sure was a confluence of God and nature.














Thats me enroute manikyadhara.










And so that was it, from b.b hills we came back to chikmagalur and from there the next day we headed towards belur and halebeedu temples of hassan. We saw and experienced a lot in this outing. From the pure motherly embrace of the nature in mullayangiri, to confluence of god and nature in bababudangri, to another confluence of god and history in belur and halebeedu, we for sure experienced a lot and were a happier lot when we came back cursing mangalore.

sitting in the clouds-thadiandamol

As always it was only 2 of us on apr 6, 2007, me(kk) and choukar. We had to escape, we had to ecape the scorching stupid coastal mangalore summer. Another boring weekend in tat stupid place and u would see me in a mental asylum. And so everything was planned to go YAANA, but we had to maintain this true travellers spirit of defying all sorts of travelling rules whenever u get a chance and this time we decided to change our destination itself, we headed for coorg instead. We got down in coorg bus station at around 2pm.

Coorg was described by some arbit british officer as "scotland of asia" and he was right in doin so. This place is a heaven for mortals. Imagine this scenario, where in you are walkin or travelling through beautiful coffee estates and all of a sudden you get this scent of vanilla coupled with birds chirping, it all seems to be magical(u feel just the way the fellowship felt when they were passing through the woods of lothlorien, ofcourse lady galadrial is the one missing). Rather than visiting places of normal tourist interest like talakaveri, rajas seat etc etc(they can be seen wen u r old), we moved to this place called kakkabe and from there we trekked until we reached HONEY valley. We came across this very dumb spanish couple named steve and synthia.

We were recieved well by our hosts in honey valley who entertained us with a fresh cup of coffee brewed from their own estate and were sorry that all their accomodation were filled up thanks to rich tourist, both indian and lots of foreigners and sad that we could give them no business. We then went to virajpet and spend the night there instead, to return next day and capture peak thadiandamol.

We woke up early(those early hours where my mom or anyone knowing me is scared enough to wake me up at home or hostel) and head towards kakkabe. We reach the basepoint and trekked to honey valley again and later moved towards the peak itself. The morning was brilliant, fog and mist surrounding you and rays of sunshine managing to tunnel through the mist and vast variety of birds which always kept a birdwatcher's binoculors at his eyes. As always in our treks we loose our path again and did an extra hours hardwork until we found out the right path, ofcourse with the help of locals. Then initially we trekked through lush green tropical evergreen forests(something coorg has more than scotland) for a certain distance and then came to open as we reached higher and higher. We reached the peak by 11.30. No, it wasn't a very difficult trek if u looked for one, infact it is my easiest trek till date, but wat we saw at the top, i've seen no where in all the places i have been.It was pretty sunny wen we reached at the peak, so i get this urge from nowhere to sleep under the tree shade and i slept until choukar wakes me up at 12.00.

I wake up to find myself in one of the most beautiful sights i've ever had(i haven't been to himalayas till now, my gamut is western ghats, so ppl dont be shocked wen i claim this to be the most beautiful sight of mine). We were literally sitting in clouds. Mist all around you, arbit dew droplets settling on your skin every now and then, and birds again(in fact the tree under which we laid down was a home to many birds). Clouds were cascading towards us every now and then and it was brilliant. i mentioned earlier, i would like to mention it again. It was a heaven indeed. I am a megalo-narcissist and i love my life and consider life to be beautiful, but in moments like such i can only ask the almighty to make my life more beautiful. And just before we could collect everything wat the nature threw at us, we were magnanimously rewarded for we were destined to recieve the first monsoon rain of coorg(one of the first in S.India for sure). The rain was brief, but was sweet. We then reluctantly decide to climb down at 2.30 pm. We lost our track again trying to descend in a different route, and we come back to the original route and start our descend. It was uneventful and easier. And so we reach honey valley and before i could look back at the peak thadiandamol and exclaim that the conquest of thadiandamol was successful, we heard a voice shouting at us and it was not a friendly voice.

As we reached honey valley, there stood waiting for us the owners son in a bad mood. He then started shouting at us wen my partner asked if we could refill our water bottles(explains his nature). He claimed that we were tresspassing(he wasn't aware that it was his workers who had helped us with the routes when we were lost), he claimed that only his clients had access to all the nature around that place, he claimed the ownership of the mountains surrounding the estate, the surplus waterfalls all around tat place, pathetic bastard also claims the owner ship of all the birds in and around their estate. If it wasnt for their hospitality they had shown previous evening, i would end up bashing that idiot. And once the son left, his fathers comes and starts it all over again and we left swearing to god never to come to honey valley again. After all who are these asses to think they own this nature, it's a gods gift given for all true nature lovers. Such things like honey valley just spoil the fun. It was clear what these money mongers had done, they had closed down all the old trekking routes and made knew ones passing through their estates(it's like buiding a house in bombay-pune highway and collect cess from all commuters or to be more appropriate build a temple in a house and expect ppl to pay them money everytime they visit their gods). To all of those reading this blog, pls do not encourage such agents of satan who spoils your unification with the god. I think i've said enough about honey valley.

So we trek back from honey valley to kakkabe and go back to coorg and then to our dear old disease pot mangalore with soaringly high temperatures. We reached our hostel in surathkal by midnight in drenched clothes, lots of memories, mild fever, honey, and a bad temper(u knw y)