Long time readers of my blog, would know my love for travel and treks. Last week we had a long weekend and I completed my dream trip. (If you have been following me on Twitter, then you would have know about, since I was tweeting about it pretty frequently)
Me and Aswin have been planning for this for quite some time and the following are the places we visited.
Day 0 (Aug 30 2011)
The initial plan was to start from Bangalore at around 5, so that we can reach Hassan in a decent time. We got delayed by rain and were able to start only at 7:30 PM and by the time we crossed Bangalore it was already 9.
We had a quick dinner and started towards Hassan at around 9:45 PM and reached Hassan past midnight. After a few minutes of search, we found a decent hotel and went to sleep at around 1 AM.
View Day 0 – Bangalore, Hassan in a larger map
Day 1 (Aug 31 2011)
Thanks to Aswin’s alarm, we got up early in the morning and started at around 7 AM and reached Belur around 8 AM. We had a quick breakfast at Belur and started towards Chikmagalur. The road was awesome and we stopped in a couple of places for photo-shoots.
I couldn’t resist it when I saw this Banyan tree 🙂
From Chikmagalur, we went to Kemmannugundi through Mullayanagiri.
Mullayanagiri is the highest peak in Karnataka. By the time we reached the top, it was drizzling and the place was completely covered with mist. I was just wearing a sleeveless t-shirt while the others were all shivering 🙂 You could see the frost which deposited on me in these photos.
The road was good until Mullayanagiri, but it was the last 20Km to Kemmannugundi. We reached Kemmannugundi at around 3 and had omelettes as late lunch in a road side shop.
We wanted to visit Hebbe falls on the same day, but the locals told us the road is not good and it is better to go there the next day early in the morning. We then visited Kalhatti water falls and went to Bellavara and stayed in a home stay.
View Day 1 – Hassan – Belur – Chikmagalur – Mullayanagiri – Kemmannugundi in a larger map
Day 2 (Sep 1 2011)
We got up early again, (thanks to Aswin’s alarm) and hired a jeep to go to Hebbe falls. The jeep took us on a sloppy road for around 11 Km and stopped. We had to trek the last few Km of leech infested forest, cross 3 streams to go the Hebbe falls.
It was one of the most amazing falls and as we went close to it all of us started to shout in joy. We were in the middle of a deep forest inches away from an amazing water fall with no other human nearby for alteast another 10 km, with only leeches as company 😉 The locals told us to use neem oil and gun powder which was very effective against them, but we still had to donate a few ml of our blood to them 🙂
Update: Checkout Aswin’s blog post about our Hebbe falls trip as well.
After spending a couple of hours in the falls we came back to our home stay and stated towards Udupi. We wanted to reach Udupi before it gets dark but it started to rain heavily and we had to stay at Kalasa.
View Day 2 – Kemmannugundi – Hebbe Waterfalls – Kalasa in a larger map
Day 3 (Sep 2 2011)
We started early in the morning (again you know how 😉 ) and drove through the Kudremukh forest area. This drive was one of the awesome drives of my life. We were driving through rain and the road was covered with mist with just a few meters of visibility surrounded by huge treas. On the way I also spotted a tiger club right in the road.
From Kudremukh we reached Udupi via Karkala and Manipal. After having lunch we started to Maravanthe Beach. At Maravanthe beach the tide was heavy and we spent a couple of hours playing in the beach like kids 🙂 Check out some of the photos which were taken while we were playing in the beach.
From Maravanthe Beach we went to Batkal. By the time we reached Batkal, it was around 6:30 PM and we had a dilemma. Jog falls was another 90 Km away and it had already started to get dark and it was raining heavily. When we asked a couple of locals, they said that the road to Jog falls in a ghat road surrounded by deep jungle. After some minutes of discussion we finally decided to do it 🙂 The look on the local people’s face said how crazy we are getting into 😉
It took as close to 3 hours and 15 minutes to cover the 90 Km of bad ghat road in pitch dark with pouring rain. We reached Kargal at around 9:45 PM and took a room and rested.
View Day 3 – Kalasa – Kudremukh – Karkala – Manipal – Udipi – Maravanthe Beach – Jog falls in a larger map
Day 4 (Sep 3 2011)
The next day we woke up late, and lazily roamed around Kargal and went to Jog falls after having breakfast.
The board on the way to Jog falls claimed it to be “World famous” and when we reached the falls, we felt that it indeed was “World famous”. It was massive and had around 4-5 mini-falls. We had to climb down 1500 steps to get to the place where the water was falling and it was worth it. Once again, the kid inside us came out and we were playing the water.
After that we also went to another viewpoint, on top of the falls from where we could clearly see the edge of the water falls. After Hebbe falls, Jog falls was one of the highlight of the entire trip 🙂
After spending almost the entire day in Jog falls, we went to Sagar and had dinner at a friend’s place.
View Day 4 – Jog falls – Sagar in a larger map
Day 5 (Sep 4 2011)
We again woke up lazily on Sunday and from Sagar, went to Shimoga, met another friend and then came to Arasikere. At Arasikere we had lunch and then started racing towards Bangalore. We reached Tumkur at around 5:30 PM and reached Bangalore at around 8 PM.
View Day 5 – Sagar – Shimoga – Tumkur – Bangalore – Home in a larger map
I was soo dirty and tired when I reached home, but was really happy that I did this amazing trip when I was young and had the energy to do it. Thanks Aswin, Rat and Subbu 🙂
Some facts
- Total distance travelled – 1200 Km
- Duration – 4 nights and 5 days (Didn’t book any hotel before hand 🙂 )
- Total expense – Around Rs. 5,000 per person (Plus Rs 20,000 ring that I lost 🙁 )