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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Bhargava and Srini sir! |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| 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.
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| Vasu and Bhargava S desceding down from the top. |
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| 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!
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| Kapila River. |
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| Folks posing on Hanging bridge at Shishila. |
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| 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.
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| Laughing times at cooking😆😆 |
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| @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.
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| On our way to Kukke !! |
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| 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.
