Brahmagiri Trek – An eccentric trudge with newbies.

Stunning doesn’t begin to describe the vast sub-continent, home to the one of the world’s largest rain-forest, the impressive Western Ghats (Called as Sahyadris in some parts), with ever green, semi ever green forests and some truly breathtaking landscapes. If you are a truly nature lover, I would say there is no place better than Western Ghats for the adventures of a lifetime. Always known for the greenery and the landscapes, Western Ghats is a land where one can find popular waterfalls as well as mountainous treks.

Towards endless beauty!!

Being born and brought up in drought prone area Anantapur of Rayalaseema, rain was always been heaven for me and became part of my life. I never forgot those moments when dense dark clouds forming and casing the entire blue sky followed by heavy downpour. Now a days if I hear the sound of rain and when I see clouds coming towards me I run not to escape from rain, but for rain not to escape from me. I believe over the years I have developed this mindset. I am not sure whether I could explain better but I am sure my passion connected to Mother Nature. Though it may sound poetic but that is factual. Sadly it doesn’t rain much at my hometown and it is opposite over Western Ghats. Monsoon is the season I love in Western Ghats and I always try to make as many trips as possible to this rain-forest during wet season. I can’t forgot those instants relishing rain walking in the lap of Western Ghats.

Green Beds till the far you can see.

Many times I have been to Madikeri, I even travel around the Coorg. But heard about Brahmagiri peak when Ajay did trail here last year in winter. Brahmagiri looked pretty exciting and was longing to go to this place ever since, so decided to trek the mount Brahmagiri as I confirmed that it’s rainy weather on the forecast with my colleagues Ajay, Nagesh, Pramod, Hemanth, Thilak, Guru, Yuvraj, Prakash, Manish and last but not least my cousin Deekshith . Fortunately it was raining with on and off showers throughout the trail.

Dark clouds all over.

The Brahmagiri Wildlife Nature preserve is located in Kodagu region of Karnataka state in the Western Ghats. Brahmagiri national park originates its name from the highest point, the Brahmagiri top, which is at 1607m. The region predominantly of dense forests, high grasslands, colorful birds and a more chances to see wildlife makes this a wonderful trek inside the Brahmagiri National Park. Ajay suggested that we go for a trek, a monsoon trek to Brahmagiri organized by a freelancer Raj Well-known travel guide who works closely with KMA and YHAI. So we confirmed our interest with Raj and we went to get a sore foot while being drenched in the cold winds and drizzle of the south west monsoons.

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Our guide Raj managed to get permission to camp in the Narimale forest inspection bungalow (IB) from the forest department, Srimangala range. Late in the evening we started off from our office Koramangala, in a tempo traveler hired by the Raj.

First pic I have captured! Tree House 💖 

We reached Nagarahole National Park entrance by 4’o clock from where actually the forest expanse start off. Nagarahole one of the most popular wildlife destinations of India, Named after the lively River Nagarahole in Karnataka, Nagarahole National Park is an enchanting getaway for the nature worshippers. Popularly known as Rajiv Gandhi National Park, this reserve forest is located in two famous districts of Karnataka, namely, Kodagu and Mysore. A significant part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, this national park constitutes one of the largest protected areas in South India along with Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur, and Mudumalai National Parks (2183sq km altogether).

Indian Gaur (Bison) herd en route !!

There is a gate and policemen who won't allow you till it is 6 am in the morning and after 6 pm in the evening no vehicle will be allowed inside the core area. Everyone had a nice nap about two hours, few vehicles including ours paused near the gate till the clock indicated 6 am. It was turning out to be a lovely sunrise. Everything looked peaceful in dim light early in the morning. Soon after, the gate was open and we were instructed not to stop anywhere till we reach the main gate towards Kutta and forest guest houses.

Lonely Girl 💕💕😅

I and Pramod were setting up our DSLR and other were prepared to take snaps with their handset. A group of gaurs just sideways of the road surprised us. It was a stealing moment, the way the gaurs were posing, that sight was attractive.  On the way we could spot many deer of all sorts like Chital, Spotted deer etc. Adding to our excitement there was an elephant which we could see close to road. It was really a fantastic drive just the way we imagined it to be.

Deekshith's Special!!👌

Took not more than an hour and we were at Iruppu falls, the route to the peak is through this famous waterfalls in south Kodagu. The place was perfect for us as it is surrounded with greenery in all sides. On freshening up Raj managed to arrange delicious breakfast for all of made by the local family, Pulav and Raitha. The group had more fresher’s than regulars so guide give us tips to do’s and what not to do before the start of the trek in the core region of Brahmagiri reserve as we are entering to the big mammals land and leeches paradise. He has given guidelines for next day’s schedule too and we were ready for the exciting task ahead.

Just before starting !

Along with us two local boys Vinod, Manju and forest guard joined to assist us in the trail. Our entry into the forest began just 500 meters from Iruppu falls parking area. We were cautioned that the 24 km to and from trek is almost major elephant region, we were lucky to spot one ferocious tusker (Will discuss in detail about this later in the story).

@Iruppu Falls

Foot bridge en route to falls !!

We were greeted by the chirping of birds, leeches and there was also the sound of flowing Lakshmana theertha stream. We rested for brief periods and continued our journey by removing the leeches and reached a bridge constructed over Lakshmana Theertha River, spent some time here in stream waters. After traversing for nearly one and half hours we were out of the cozy canopy of the shola forest and into the open grassland. 

Cute pie near the stream taking rest on the rock 😎😎
@Malabar Pit Viper

Phallus Indusiatus(A mushroom variety) found in the Brahmagiri!

Everyone wearing thin, barely covering ankle running socks, not exactly a great decision when we are in leeches’ paradise. In a group of 11 people, as soon as boys started seeing and feeling the leeches Pramod, Yuvi and Hemanth were stained with blood and they had more than one slimy little bloodsuckers attached to them. That was the moment all the beginners Manish, Guru, Thilak and specifically Nagesh afraid off this little buggers.

Near Lakshmana Teertha Stream.

A few facts you might not know about leeches:

• They attach themselves to you in two places, so each leech actually creates two "bites".
• They're difficult to remove by hand, and
• When you try and remove them by hand, you might pull it in half where the other half stays attached to your body.

'Blood'y three Idiots😈

Somehow they succeeded to clean from leeches but ankles continued to bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed. I didn’t care of about those, by now we could see a clear view of Brahmagiri range and could also cite the mist covered adjoining peaks during the trail. Though the trek was quite strenuous for most of the people in group, the 360 degree scenic beauty enveloping us was the best gift for all the hard work. 

Down the hills.

Enjoying the moment!!

If the greenery far away peaks gave us an opportunity to feel nature in her pristine form the golden grass covered nearby peaks was a feast to the eyes. No camera can capture the exquisite beauty of nature in all her glory. It has to be captured only in the lens of our eyes though we did try to catch them in our cameras. We took short break and moved on to reach Narimale IB at around 11. 30 am, having trekked for two and half hours.

@Team

In a row !!👏

Narimale guest house was 6 kms from Iruppu falls entrance, the small semi-haunted theme bungalow has 4 solar lamps and a turbine is running by using a stream water which never dries out. There are some vessels and few chairs and whole guest house covered with asbestos sheets on top. It doesn’t have water supply, one has to go near by stream and carry the water every time needed.

Wooden bridge near GH.

Entrance to the guest house.

Here we decided to freshen up and began to have our lunch. It was packed chapatti and delicious chutney powder with curd and vegetable salad. Almost every one feeling charged up after delicious lunch and decent rest for some time. By 2’o clock we were ready to start our journey towards the Brahmagiri peak, Raj given us some important guidelines not to make noise till reach the peak as this area is Tiger corridor, Bison resort, Elephants habitat, many other wild animals host and treasure trove of evergreen species of trees and grass lands.

Lunch time !!

We have start as early as in order to reach the peak, since rain has lessened a bit. We were leaving back all our backpacks at the IB since we had planned to come back to the guest house. I was imagining that 6 km trail path from GH to peak to be absolutely grass lands, hence I wrongly anticipated won’t be bothered with leeches. The plains had become more or less wetlands with monsoon rains. With heavy rains yellowish grasslands had a makeover to lively green in matter of days, which gave us spectacular views. 

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During the walk few of us caught sight of 2 sambar deer grazing at a distance. From the time when the start at guest house we were able to see huge masses of Elephant, their huge steps in the marsh soil. 

Pug marks 😸😸

Guide Yathiraj showed us some pug marks of big cats, thought of tiger must have crossed this path a while back. We have taken hardly 1 + hour to complete the 5.5 km over grassland and left over 500 mts took another half an hour to climb. The path to the peak as steep as 70 to 75 degrees and you could see two muddy paths leading to the top with grass and some tress around.

Mount Brahmagiri 💓💓

It was vertical, slippery with small steppingstones. After inclining 20 mins of fought session we reached the peak of Brahmagiri. But our happiness didn’t last for long, reason being the thick climate surrounding the mountain with heavy wind and mist. This resulted us lack of the 360 degree scenic view of the Brahmagiri ranges. However that did not stop new bees from having the excitement of completing the trek, Thanks to the incessant rains, heavy breeze and relentless mist covered. The climb down from the peak was bit challenging, with almost sliding and tumbling down at least once, Pramod had uncertainly :D.

Random click by Manish !!

We had an overwhelming experience while returning back to the GH, somewhere in the middle Yathiraj found that a ferocious male Elephant racing us. At far distance we were able to see Elephant coming to attack towards us. All of us got frightened and started running to guest house. Yathiraj shared his experience why male tuskers are unsafe in this wildlife sanctuary.

Sambar deers at some distance.

Females tend to live in family groups, which can consist of one female with her calves or several related females with offspring. The groups are led by an individual known as the matriarch, often the oldest cow. Elephants have a fission–fusion society in which multiple family groups come together to socialize. Males leave their family groups when they reach puberty, and may live alone or with other males. Adult bulls mostly interact with family groups when looking for a mate and enter a state of increased testosterone and aggression known as musth, which helps them gain dominance and reproductive success. Males are usually solitary, but occasionally form groups of two or more individuals(This is why lonely tuskers try to attack people and behave crazily with frustration they had on their family).

Selfie time.

Soon after on our way back we saw again 2 Sambar deer grazing at a distance. Hence I didn’t take any precautions and this was probably the biggest blunder of the day. In the end I had a blood bath with getting 20-30 odd bites. Even in the grasslands the leeches were blooming because of the total nonexistence of sunlight.  We have to be very cautious about Bloodsuckers, they are all over the place! They penetrated our shoes, sucked our blood. Do not forget to carry salt, calcium carbonate, knife or anything to remove them when they get stuck.

Inside.

Out Side.

Back Side!!

Finally we reached the guest house with emotions, we sat there, talked a little. But slowly the magic of the jungle at the night time began to have its hold on us. The fear was gone. We experienced something that we, little people from the city, never knew existed. The jungle is never silent. It has its own voices, its own music that you can only hear when you truly try. 

Fauna of  Western Ghats.

We found a thick branched log of a tree lying in front of the guest house. We went to it and started breaking it and put fire camp Manju helped us to arrange it, waiting for the sun to set we realized that this was going to be a wonderful experience.

Tea time @camp fire.

🙏

Good dinner was prepared by the Manju and Vinod, we all had nicely. All went to sleep in no time as we trekked almost 20 kms throughout and not had proper sleep last night during our journey. It was very clod and luckily there was no mosquitoes.

The next morning we got up and completed morning chores. Then raj said he is taking us to Nature walk around, earlier we decide to go Pakshipatalam a natural caves in the morning. Then I got to know that Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary not given permission due to some dispute and therefore permission for Karnataka side to Munikal Caves (in Kerala) is never entertained. We came back from morning walk and had delicious breakfast prepared cooked on the firewood and started descending down to the base point near Iruppu falls. I found a green wine snake on our way back, Ajay and Deekshith had some fun playing with it. It took around two hours to reach the falls and took bath under the falls.

Bidding bye to Semi-haunted guest house.

Crazy kids at the moment 😅😅

I have heard this was the costliest trek in South India, one has to pay Narimale guest house rent whopping 5k for one night stay. But I understood the logic, more the cost, less would be the trekkers inflow and only serious explorers will be interested. Also we were the only team attempting to scale the peak on this weekend and since the monsoons hit. I believe we are the first team to successfully conquer Brahmagiri peak in Monsoon 2017, sounds heroic.

With the boys Vinod, Manju and Forest guard.

Overall the visit to this place is worth and if you are planning to go there, you will get to see all the animals! What else you want? Brahmagiri is the perfect choice for a place that lets you experience the phenomenal freshness of the Sahyadris.

Amedikallu Trek, an Unsuccessful Attempt

Sometime abortive voyages also remembered long time; the effort we put to get achieve whereas it turned opposite, which makes you more exasperate; later the failure make you to think of more and more the attempted moments; inspire you again to agree challenges to venture again. Yes this fruitless – unsuccessful journey to Amedikallu trek which is near Dharmastala in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, between 27 – 29th January 2017.

Dharmastala temple Complex!!

Amedikallu is considered to be one of the toughest in Karnataka which is the height around 1200 to 1300mt above the sea level & it is one of the biggest & significant peaks in Charmadi range and is a two day trek if one wants to make it to the top comfortably. For trekkers, who love adventure and challenges, this is their ultimate paradise because there is no short cut and easy route to reach this peak. 

The Majestic Amedikallu.

Difficulty Level: Moderate to very difficult depending on:
1. whether it’s sunny or not which makes it quite exasperating since there is no source of water until reach the peak (Dry Season).
2. Whether there is long grass or not which makes the path difficult to find and hidden rocks will hurt if stepped wrongly.
3. Whether it’s raining or not which makes the entire trail slippery and risky and infested with leeches.

Getting ready for the trail👈😇

The initiative begun by Vasu, we ticked off one more place to escape busy town and enjoy the vigilant beauty of Western Ghats. We total were eight people (Shiva,Shivu,Vasu,Bhargava S,Bhargava P,Srinivasa Murthy N S,Madhu and I) in the group and embarked our journey in two cars (Bhargava P and Bhargava S’s) from Kumaraswamy Layout late night in two four wheelers. The curly roads, the gentle elevation and the sweet serenity of the hills makes it an amazing road to drive in south India and will fetch a permanent place in your heart for an eternity.

Bhargava and Srini sir!

Hello Brothers💕

Though the trail have yet not renowned like other treks and remains deserted on most of the days but it makes for an ideal trail from Bangalore to escape from the daily grind.We reached Dharmastala morning by 6AM took holy bath in Nethravathi River and followed traditional ritual of visiting the temple. Started towards Kokkada, a small town 16km before Dharmastala on Bangalore – Dharmastala road. We had to travel further 20 km to reach Shishila. The base point to Amedikallu trek is from a village near Shishila called ‘Kombaru’. There is another peak one could attempt from Shishila is ‘Ethina Bhuja’. The name derives from its appearance which looks like an OX shoulder.

Ethina Bhuja Lurking..

Reached Shishila by 10’o clock and stopped near lone house, a local person guided us to the Amedikallu and camping during night at top of the peak. Our plan was to camp at the night. A stranger passing by said that without permission you couldn’t go to the peak and asked us to talk to one of the forest officials (His name was Ananda that’s what he told) to take approval. He said trek is allowed only during the day time along with guide. However we are not convinced and planned to move on to stay back over night at the summit, later realized that we have to obey the laws and decided to trek by 11:30am, Not an ideal time to start the trek in these hot and humid conditions. 

A stop and quick nourishment before getting the grassland...

We were not aware of camping at peak not allowed during the months February, March and April the reason being possibility of fire catching the reserved forests from the camp fire and other activities of the camp. With this confusion and update we had loss of time and this is where we slip-up our momentum.

Posing to Amedikallu😎👊

We started ascending in slow phase, It was almost 1'o clock and very hot by then. The path was very dry, with the floor covered with dry leaves and trees / vegetation on both sides. In spite of the shade cover, all started sweating plentifully and a break was required quickly - by a less than an hour's time. Soon after this break, we came out of the thick forest and were now at the slopes of one of the midway hills, going around it. 

Skyline of Charmadi Range hills.❤

The valley was visible to our right side along with layers of hills, one could see the majestic Ettina Bhuja. By about 2pm, we came out of the forest around the hill, into an open grassland. There we had our first nearby view of Amedikallu. Amedikallu name derived from 'Ame' (meaning tortoise in Kannada) and 'Dikallu' (a trivet stove in Tulu). The left portion of the peak is three rocks making a 'Dikallu' and the middle of the peak is a massive uniform rock approximating the top of a tortoise. 

Golden capped peak tops under the deep blue sky....Just mesmerizing!

We progressed on the savannah for some more time before making in to another small stretch of shola jungle. There we had break in proceedings and decided to open the lunch packs. We quickly finished our lunch and it was homemade chapathi and delicious chutney packed from the Vasu’s home. Almost every one feeling charged up after delicious lunch and decent rest for some time. Later all started ascending towards the peak, since the distance between the clearing and the peak was not much as per the measuring scale of a trekker and looked clear enough from far. The rocks embedded beneath the clusters of grass and some being wobbly made it difficult for us to get a proper foothold as the ascent became steeper.

 

The place where we halted.

Srinivasa Murthy sir said that he was feeling a little dehydrated and  after walking in the open under the hot sun and the halt became a little longer than what we wanted. Till here we reached almost 60- 70 % of the trail. We were facing a different challenge and that was the dry heat. When the weather is brutally (I guess it was around 35c to 36c with lot of Humidity) hot and your body sweats profusely, water by itself is not enough. The rate at which we were losing water via sweat seemed to be more than the intake rate. Later some time others also started feeling uncomfortable and step back moving towards the top. However Vasu, Bhargava S and myself decided not to give up and started ascending from the break point. I really don’t know what happened to me I came back after climbing some distance, However Bhargava completed 75% of the trail and Vasu tried his best to reach summit. 

Posing in front of the mountain.

He almost ascended most point of the Dikallu in our absence, he might have felt unaccompanied and came back as soon as he reached the summit. Meanwhile I with others spent time here (At 60 % of ascending at the trail) admiring the views around us and clicking pictures. We noticed that there was a nice rock shelter, this rock shelter would be idle for camping in the night or for lunch breaks (good shelter during midday’s) and apparently a lot of people had camped there as we could see signs of campsite fires there.

Vasu and Bhargava S desceding down from the top.

Taking rest at rock shelter.

There were in fact too many breaks and it was getting difficult for us to get warmed up every time after a break. The lack of water in the entire trail made the trek a bit more difficult. We started the descent from middle of the peak. The descent was mostly steep with dry leaves on the forest floor making the descent a bit more challenging.  

From the Green to the Golden beauty.

We lost altitude quickly and hit a road track at 6 pm, took us less than 3 hours to reach the starting point of the trek. From there we reached Shishila and quickly all of us took a dip in the Kapila River. And it was really refreshing. We had a great time there. Most of us was into the water for long time like as long as we can.

Lonely guy Bhargava P✌👆

Somehow we managed to arrange a campsite near the temple at Shishila in the dark night with our torch and sleeping bags. Then I started preparing upma for our dinner with others help, the hot upma seemed like heaven!! Almost a whole day of climb and descent, after conquering nearly 18 KM of a tough stretch across the Western Ghats, this dinner along with other folks was so yummy and so pleasing.No matter how you are carry lots of water, very light luggage, preferably individual tents and not heavy ones, someone experienced with you, a small first aid kit, fully charged mobile phones (some areas you get signal) and a refreshed & well hydrated body! 

Kapila River.

Folks posing on Hanging bridge at Shishila.

Super maasss !!

We got up early in the morning and went back near starting point of trek where there is a small rivulet flowing. Vasu and Shiva prepared tasty Maggi Noodles for breakfast at banks of small stream. After having breakfast we visited Shishila temple which is famous for the Matsya Theertha (Kapila River that flows near the temple). The Mahashir fish is found in huge numbers in the Kapila River.

Laughing times at cooking😆😆

@Shishila

The fishes in this river are believed to be sacred and Prasadam is offered to these fishes after puja every day. It is also believed that worshipping at Shishileshwara temple, fishes and feeding the fishes in Kapila River, one can get rid of all types of skin disease. On our way back to Bangalore we had been to Southadka Ganesha temple and Kukke Subramanya temple.

On our way to Kukke !!

Kumara Dhara River,Kumara Parvatha at right behind.

It would take several weekends to cover some of the prominent places in the Charmadi area and there will be some more trips to this beautiful place.Certainly the Amedikallu trek was unsuccessful, nevertheless the inspiring trek, habitation, fun, and we absolutely once again organize the Amedikallu trek and venture without fail.

I captured this on my way to Kukke and this guy was struggling to cross the road When the weather is brutally hot.

Information about Amedikallu

• Gopu Gokhale (local contact in Shisila who will arrange for guide, food) – 08251269246,9483211246
• Purushottam Rao (Hotel Owner near Shishila temple will arrange for guide, food for both Ethina Bhuja and Amedikallu) – 8762921154, 8762920606
• Distance Covered – 24 kms Approx
• Water Source - After November one need to carry lots of water as there are no major water sources all along the trail (I suggest at least 5 lts per head).
• Essential Time needed – 2 Days(If u are a regular trekker could complete the trail by end of the day starting the trek very early in the morning)
• Camping Options - Either at Rock Shelter or the peak if you have tents.