Trek @ Kemmengundi

The energies have risen again, this time our destination of choice is Kemmengundi. Our plan is to Trek up the Mulayangiri peak. Four guys, Varun, Ankur, Mudit and myself(huez) on four bikes started from bangalore on friday evenning squeezing through the crowded city roads till yeshwantpur. Its 7PM now and no time to waste as our plan is to reach kemmengundi before midnight and trek the next day. Our onward route was Bangalore, Nelamangala, Tumkur, Gubbi, Nittur, Kibbanahalli, Tiptur, Arsikere, Kadur, Birur, Lingadahal, Kemmengundi. By 1AM we were climbing the mud road up the hill. It had been raining and the mud track was very slippery. I spotted a rabbit on the bushes as we rode, Welcome to kemmengundi! As we had already booked two rooms in the Horticultural guest house we went straight up there and sunk in our beds.

Its 7AM Saturday, time for the Trek. None in the gang understood or spoke kannada and had tough time is speaking to the guys there. We couldnt get clear information about trek in Mulayangiri or in Baba Budangiri. After taking advise from Yogesh over phone we decided to trek to the Hebbe falls 9KM from the guest house.

After a quick breakfast and packing our backpack and water we headed for Hebbe falls on foot. The local guild demanded 150 for taking us through a shortcut through the woods. Our budget was so tight for 150 bucks. But the guide was kind enough to reveal the secret trek route to us! Deciding to take the route ourselves after Varun showing confidence went through the woods crossing small streams of water. Right from the start of the trek there as a dog following us all the way till hebbe falls. This dog sometimes ran ahead of us to show the route when we got struck!

The route was soo good, we took lots of snaps as we climbed the hill. We lost the route now luckily there was a small community of people living there. With their direction our climb continued. The two litre water is over now, our biscut packets are over too. The dog ate lot of biscuts than we had them! Now we are on a peak and the route is not seen. Noone to ask too. Taking Mudit's sense of direction we climbed down a steep hill...oh man this trek is worth the pain! Loosing the route again we stopped near a stream. The thin stream gave some water for us to drink. The weather was so pleasant with a light drizzle. There seemed to be lot of small falls here and there and one sounds nearby. Through the hills we heard something, its message from God!! A gang of trekkers are coming down the hill through a mud road! They were led by a local guide. We followed them from then till the falls.

We came to know that this gang or 8 or so is from bangalore and are trekking freaks. They were thrilled that we had come on bikes from bangalore. Soon we are on a mud road only a jeep could go. We were fighting with leaches all the way. The worst thing about leaches is that we dont feel the pain when they bite suck our blood. We were shaken or surprised to see a coupe of them on our legs when we pulled up our pants! The wounds dont clot as the saliva of the leach make the blood in the area not to clot so that it can suck blood. The guilde advised to carry a pack of salt which will keep them off.

The whole way to the falls was full of dense trees and beautiful landscapes. Few hills were dense with trees while the rest were "clean shaven" style. Crossing a couple of streams again as we came nearer to the falls. The dog which came with us crossed even the streams. It waded through the streams, jumping from one rock to the other. We missed to take photos of the dog crossing the streams beautifuly. We saw few small houses, seing a tap we rushed to replace the lost body fluids. Atlast the falls is here! its a magnificient one. Very rocky to bath under the falls, we plunged ourselves in to the cold water. It was so refreshing after the hectic trek. The cool breeze and the spray of fine drops of water from the falls was making the whole experience wondefull. After the refresh we started to trek back. The trek upward is very tough especially when the backpack was with me!

Varun made friends with Sreekanth the guy from the other gang. He gave lot of info regarding trekking destinations in karnataka. Agreeing to keep in touch with each other the two gooups split. We trekked without stopt till our breaking point. At one point i couldnt even take one step further. Again a message from God! As we were on the mud track, Varun who was leading the gang had sighted a jeep and arranged our transport till the guest house. Ohh what a relief...sigh! Over all we had trekked 15 km for the day. Our light breakfast and skipping lunch and not carrying enough water with us made us to abort the trek and take the jeep.

Reaching our rooms Varun and Mudit sank into their beds and slept. Ankur and myself kept talking about how beautiful the trip was so far. We regained our energies, took our bikes and headed to Z point. Z Point is a view point couple of kilometers from the guest house. This is one of the most beautiful viewpoints I've ever seen. cursing ourselves for leaving the camera in the room we walked quite some distance till we could. The colouds came towards us. It looked like white ice cream flowing from the hills. We then roamed on our bikes on the hill just for biking sake and got drenched heavily by the rain. It rained cats and dogs. We went back to the guest house canteen and having a cup of hot coffee we had lot of fun talking. Went early to bed with plan to start early the next morning for sight seing.

We had quite lot of time this trip, went to the Z Point again , took few snaps and planned to go on bikes to hebbe falls. We took the jeep track this time with our bikes. The views around were soo good. Its really worth going again to this place. The track is really tough especially after the heavy rain the earlier night. At one point my rear tyre stuck in the mud and wont come out. The track was steep and noway to come out. Ankur lifted the rear of my bike enablimg me to ride out of the mud. We went around 5km and couldnt continue further due to mud. Finding a nice view point we laid down on the grass, enjoying the abundant beauty of nature. Checked out our rooms by noon leaving for Mulayangiri the tallest peak in karnataka standing 6000+ feet above sea level. The ghat road from lingadahali till chikmagalur is a real treat for a biker. Best quality road with lots of twists and turns tailor made for a biker. Climbing Mulayangiri peak was very intresting. As we rode up the hill the temperature dipped by a degree after every hairpin bend. The peak was amazing the gentle breeze was sweeping our minds away.

No one wanted to leave the place but we are now running out of time as the guys wanted to reach bangalore by 9PM. Our return route was Kemmengundi, lingadahali, chikamagalur, Hassan(nh48), Kunigal, Nelamangala (nh4), Bangalore. The road was very good. The views all around us were good especially the sun setting on our right side. I love to overtake lorrys. We rode like crazy this time also having few stops then and there for tea and snaks. Ankur and mudit were so exited with the trip as this was their first Bike trip. We reached our houses by 10:30 PM. This was one memorable trip for me and for the rest too.