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Live interaction with BASC Team & Members - 2nd May 2020

Saturday, November 23, 2013

BASC members from BDR donated 14 units of blood at Indira Gandhi Hospital For Child Health benefiting the kids at the Thalassemia Day Care centre.

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Our blood donor Heroes,
1. Chandru
2. KumaraSwamy
3. Yadynandana
4. Shashidhar
5. Raghunandan
6. Anvesh Reddy
7. Rajendra Solanki
8. Aravind Ramasubramanian
9. Siddhartha Joshi
10. Sanjay Kumar
11. Sathish K S
12. Shankar Teli
13. Shankar Gowda
14. Sriharsha Aithal

Apart from this, Tulasi and Varuna also came in but were unable to donate due to medical reasons.

Our hearty congratulations to the above donors.

Join BASC Blood Donors Repository @ CLICK HERE and become a blood donor Hero.

BDI co-ordinator: Anvesh
Compiled by: Mudassar

Monday, November 18, 2013

Treks are addictive. They make you give up your inhibitions and your fears, shuts up your doubts and confusions and pushes you towards the road less travelled. And you come back feeling better than ever, feeling the joy of experiencing the unseen, of exploring the unknown, of realizing that you have it in you to do the un-doable!!

IMG_9621 Treks are also the best place to meet awesome people, people you wish to hang out with even after the trip is over, people you want to be friends with for a long time to come. Most people you meet on treks are down to earth and humble and if you like that kind, you should definitely try and trek!

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By the time I finished Kodachadri, I realized how much more there is to do when it comes to building my endurance, to become stronger mentally and physically. So far, none of my treks demanded so much out of me as much as Kodachadri did. But, I loved it. I loved every bit of pain in my body, loved every step taken towards a new experience.

Nagara Fort, the first pit stop at the break of dawn was a treat to the eyes. A quick route to the top gives you a panoramic view of the landscape which looks picture perfect from every angle. Cultivated land, a house in between, a river flowing in the background with multiple bridges, trees all around and the fort itself adding to its beauty. Nagara Fort is a must see place on the way to Kodachadri.

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View from Nagara Fort

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View from Nagara Fort

IMG_9530 Nittur fed us with some delicious South Indian breakfast and soon, we were ready to start hiking. From the Main Road, we entered this small opening and hence started the 2 day long, almost 30 km hike, trek, exploration. After walking through a jeep trail for an hour or so, we entered through the fields and forests to reach Hidlumane Falls. The water here was freezing and everyone played in the falls. No leech bites so far :)

From here we started the almost 4 to 5 hours of steep uphill climb to reach Kodachadri peak with not many breaks. This was my first 2 day 1 night trek - Which meant heavy backpack with sleeping bag, poncho, extra water bottles, food, clothes etc. The bag was heavy, the mountain steep and end was nowhere in sight. So we kept hiking, chit chatting when we could gasp a breath, pushing ourselves to greater heights.. literally!

 

Very close to the peak, there were vendors selling cucumber, watermelon, churmuri, groundnuts. We gobbled them all :). As we reached the Kodachadri peak, we saw co-trekkers, sitting at cliffs and waiting for the much spoken about sunset. The sun threw different colours on the mountains giving us the much-needed relief after a hard day’s trek! The moon on the other side looked gorgeous on an almost full moon night giving us enough light to walk up to our camping spot.

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Sunset from Kodachari

On reaching a small plateau, we started the big task of setting up a community tent. I call it that coz 12-13 people slept inside this one tent. Organizers had carried ropes and tarpaulins and with the help of the entire group, a tent was built. And before I knew, majority of them were inside and ready to sleep. And it was only 8 PM. Rest of us, sitting outside definitely did not want to sleep this early and hence started playing Mafia, a game well explained by Girish and played even better by the rest of us. The game requires you to be sly, strategic and manipulative and we tried our best to be all of that. Most of us failed and some did phenomenally well!

The night was bad for me. It was very windy, tent loud because of the wind and very little place to sleep. I am not sure how long I slept for but I definitely woke up 5 to 6 times with an imagination of some animal or worse, some stranger at our camp site.

Morning started at 5:30 with Patrick's voice waking all of us up. We quickly packed our sleeping bags, rolled up the tarpaulins and ropes and walked towards another mountain for the sunrise. The view was beautiful and I will let these pictures do the talking.

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Sunrise

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The colors it adds to our lives

We soon started our descend and headed towards Batrumane where a few of us stopped for tea. You would expect longer breaks on a trek this long, but no they were really short ones. The descend took us about 2 hours. We stopped at Santosh Hotel where we had our breakfast and packed Lemon Rice for lunch.

From here started the exploration of Arshingundi Falls. Patrick, our organizer has a GPS device which guided us till a certain point I’m guessing but after that a lot was dependent on their sense of direction. So initially we ended up at a stream leading to a certain falls. There was absolutely no trail through the forests and we had to slide, slip, run, jump, grab trees and roots to move forward. All this while trying not to get bitten by leeches. After some more climb and descend we reached an unknown falls but a beautiful one.

Guys played in the falls and I sat with my feet in the water getting a natural foot massage. Lunch followed and without too much rest, we started the ascend. There were 2 options. One was to head towards Kollur and the other to go back to where we started from. I’m again guessing we couldn’t figure out the route to Kollur and hence walked back the same way we came.

While descending, I kept hoping we won’t have to climb back the same way as the route is very steep but god definitely was not listening. Everytime I looked up, I couldn’t see the sky, which meant we were still in dense forests. I am not sure how long we climbed for or the distance we covered, but it sure felt never-ending. And not taking enough breaks did not help either.

IMG_6368I wonder what I would have done if not for the trees. They supported us in every way possible. I held on to them to pull myself up, hugged them to make sure I did not fall, leaned on them when I could not carry my weight anymore, grabbed their roots when I couldn’t find anything else to hold onto. It’s ironic, even a tree which probably is very young and looks strength-less could help us in so many ways. New found respect for Nature God.

IMG_9641We finally made it to the top from where it was another 4-5km walk but on flat surface. After walking till the main road, we spotted our matador, where we dumped our bags, and headed straight to the stream to freshen up. It felt good to be clean again :)

You would expect a bunch of totally drained human beings at the end of such an ordeal but this group was crazy. We danced in a moving matador for over an hour and played antakshari for 2 hours after that. But a sumptuous dinner at Shimoga is all it took to shut us up and open our eyes only to see Bangalore flyovers and morning traffic.

One of the toughest treks I have done so far but a must do.

Leaders at Bangalore Ascenders are a bunch of passionate organizers and will leave no stone unturned when it comes to giving you the experience of exploration.

Things I loved:

  • The gang of guys I hung out with. Tulu (My mother tongue) jokes were hilarious and definitely reduced the extertion.
  • The sunrise was beautiful
  • Landscape unmatched. I have dreamed of being amidst such mountains for really long
  • Mafia game was super fun. Thanks Girish
  • I have more or less overcome my fear of leeches

Written by : Vachana Shetty

Post – 2

START

The Trek journey started 2hrs late but gave us lot of time to prepare ourselves. We left 2 hrs beyond the scheduled time by around 11pm and everyone were feeling sleepy but our organizer Patrick insisted on the Introduction part. So after the introduction part all of us stretched and tried to catch sleep when our fellow participant put on some Grinding Disco music throughout the night that too loudly. I wonder why none of us had the courage to request him to stop playing the music, maybe we all felt he would feel bad for his Disco night Party!!

1451526_10201703902892286_678886376_nNAGARA FORT

Next morning we all woke up for Sunrise and cursed for the all loud night music. Well by 7.30am we were at Nagara Fort, all of us got down and were mesmerized by its beauty. We raced each other to the top of the fort and posed for group snaps. The view of the surroundings from the top was breathtaking. So we continued to Nittur.

By 9.30 am we were at Nittur village hotel having tasty Uppittu Keasaribath, Idly Sambhar and packed food for lunch. Then we headed off to our starting point of the trek.

HIDLUMANE WATER FALLS

IMG_6383Here we Go… we walked 3 kms towards Hidlumane house and had Butter milk and started our climb towards Hidlumane Falls. Hidlumane Falls is like Ahhhhh Superrr Falls. I just didn’t wait for anyone and jumped to the falls. All of the 21 member gang took a shower in the falls. Then in 20 minutes we started our climb again.

KODACHADRI PEAK

From the falls, the climb was totally ascending and slightly difficult but we had a path to follow, so all we had to do is bend your body front, look down and start climbing. We climbed and climbed and climbed to reach the top of the hill and were greeted by another hill and by another hill. By now the beauty of the Western Ghats hill ranges were available for us to savour and we started feeling hungry. We were praying in our minds for the much needed stopover rest and lunch. We took a break of 30 minutes and again followed the further climb until we reached the Jeep track and from here walked 3kms until we reached Moola Mookambika temple and at Seetharam Jogi’s house we had a snack break. We further started our climb for the final stretch towards Kodachadri peak and after a grueling 45 mins we reached the top. By then Patrick had disappeared. We searched to find Patrick and few others at the other end of a smaller peak watching Sunset. I got tempted and went up there. Later we stretched and explored around the Shankaracharya temple and after a few ‘holding the Sun in your hand’ photos it became dusky and the chillness in the wind crept in.

SETTING UP BASECAMP and THE CHILLING WINDS

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So Kamalesh and Girish Motwani took in charge of setting the base camp and after Kamalesh’s huge efforts with help of others the Camping site was setup. By now we finished dinner of MTR ready to eat food packets. The Bisibelebath packets were tasty while the Rice bath tasted yuck. By now it was 8pm and many of us crawled into the Tent with our Sleeping Bags while the rest of them were playing a game called Mafia and Girish was explaining rules for more than an hour. But it was too windy and the sides of the tent banner had come off and it became too noisy. It was like a thunderous feeling entire night with the tent cover moving up and down and making a loud crackling noisy for the entire night. Trust me none of us got sleep and whoever slept outside were freezing that night. I remember Patrick asking for time in the middle of the night and I told him its still 5 minutes to twelve o’clock and he realized he still had to kill 5 long hrs of Chilling winds to wakeup!!

SUNRISE

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Patrick woke us up and all of us packed the tent covers and headed to see the Sunrise. Oh it was lovely with mist and fog covering the surrounding mountains. After sometime we started our descent down the Kodachadri ranges. We reached Santosh Hotel for breakfast and then packed the day’s lunch from there.

IMG_9564ARISHINAGUNDI FALLS

Well who knew this would be the most difficult part of our trek. With BASC GPS support and Patrick’s ability to find way we started off quietly deep into the forest. We were very well greeted by hundreds of leeches everywhere and whoever had brought Leech proof socks started wearing it for protection. As if this wasn’t enough we were greeted by steep descending and steep ascending hill forests in the midst of leeches. All of us were slipping and falling down steep slopes and leeches sucking the blood out of all of us. Finally after 2 hrs we reached the flowing river and had to do few more circus before reaching the nice water fall, well we couldn’t actually cover Arishinagundi Falls but found solace in an unknown waterfall. After having fun at the waterfall and finishing lunch we started back our same hike which was even more tougher than ever. After a long trek deep in the woods, we reached back to the mud road and after a rest we started back our walk on the road for nearly 3kms to reach the Kollur-Shivamogga Highway. It was already 5pm by then and Patrick had made up his mind to take a final dip in the river flowing nearby. Many of us got tempted to have one more dip in the cold water and we did just that.

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TRAVEL BACK

After Sun down we started our journey in the minibus and our dear friend Umesh started playing some HipHop and Tapanguchi numbers for half an hour. All of us danced to it and made Patrick show us some of his moves. ‘Why this Kolaveri’ and ‘Akka nim maneyali nayigu dance barutha’ songs were played in full blast. Later all of us joined in to sing Antakshari till we reached Shivamogga and had veg and nonveg dinner at the nearby hotel. After dinner all of us boarded the bus, settled accounts and slept tightly in the bus till we reached Bangalore around 5am and thanked everyone for a lovely time and a lovely trek.

Written by: Sreenidhi

Post - 2

Namaskara.. :)

Kodachadri, a long awaiting place to trek that was in my to-visit list right from my engineering days. Finally, its checked out. Thanks to BASC and Patrick/Deepak for organizing this trek.

1453329_10201703898532177_191439639_nAs a whole, it was a superb trek to the peak and the waterfalls. And I am sure the exploratory trek was little bit tiring for everyone but it was worth it at the end.  Credits to the whole gang for being a sport and supporting each other. I always enjoy the sunrise during the treks and Kodachadri was much better. It was mesmerizing! Too many hilarious jokes all through the trip was the fun part.

Loved the journey back to Bangalore, as it was so relaxing to loosen up inspite of the 2-day trek and to hit the dance floor. Great hidden talents from the team were displayed that night. Not to miss the Mangalorean style Fish fry and chicken sukka @Shimoga on the last day with Kudla group..!

Thank you all for a good time. Would like to meet you all in the treks to come. Keep in touch guys. Cheers..!!

Written by: Pawan Nayak

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Image Gallery: Deepak Saran, Vachana, Ajay, Johnson Pinto

Composed by: Swetha Padakandla

Event organized by: Patrick Samuel

Event Date: 16th and 17th November, 2013

The Crew: Patrick, Anil kumar G, Rekha G, Deepak Saran, Ashwath Govind, Ajay Somanal, Pawan Nayak, Anvesh, Vikas Shekar, Shashidhar, Aashish Urs, Amrutha Narayana, Shivagiri K, Vachana, Jeevan, Tulasi, Sreenidhi, Kamlesh, Girish Motwani, Johnson Pinto, Umesh

Pinch me… what happened … Its so heavenly beautiful … hmmm 
This is just a quick description of the awesome scenic place we had been. Also crowned as the highest peak in Karnataka. So, let me take you through this beautiful journey. 

All Trekking enthusiasts gathered at Shanthala Silk by 10:30pm. To our surprise, there were already more than 40 guys waiting. So on announcement of Mulayangiri, we 5-6 gathered in a circle while rest were on other trek. Slowly, people started showing & circle kept getting bigger. Chit chat on previous treks & their experiences were the theme & soon, we were no more strangers & we didn’t need any formal introduction as well.  

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After 11pm, our TT arrived. We loaded the stuffs (tents, bags) in trunk & boarded the TT. We had to sign the disclaimer (indemnity form) that we are responsible for our own cause &, surely, everyone signed as we know - “We decide our own Destiny”. We were good on the track till then but after midnight, TT radiator observed a burst. It gave us a needed break for Rest Room at the toll post. An interesting thing was, we were privileged to use restroom facilities as among first users at the toll which was inaugurated previous day only.

IMG_9444We reached Chikmagalur by early morning around 6am. Stopped at a facility to freshen up. Had breakfast at Mayura Hotel & packed food from other place. Everyone were wide awake by now, sun was shining, sky was clear blue, and there was chillness in morning that made it ideal for trekking. We went ahead few more miles to reach our base location where we had to start the ascend.

IMG_9641 After the brief photo-shoot, we started up hill towards Mullayanagiri. Say it a warm up or test of endurance, first ascend itself was very steep & challenging for some of us. But, as we progressed, scenery & the breeze made the climb little easy. Blue Sky & Cloud shades was making the place more picturesque.  We didn’t miss the opportunity to capture the scene around with our cameras. From the top, we could see distant view of other hills, grass land around, view of the valley & the curved roads as if imitating a snake crawl. As we reached the top, we hunted for the caves as we had heard from previous trekkers about it. Some of us went exploring caves but it seemed never ending. So, after half a km we came back. During this adventure, we crawled, hopped, dared to Bats & more importantly saw the rare & beautiful rock patterns inside the cave. By the time we returned, we had missed the photo shoot but weren’t so disappointed as we still had plenty of it on the way. We climbed further & reached the top – the highest peak in Karnataka. WE TAMED THE MOUNTAINS!! It’s an overstatement but many had set their milestone in trekking that day & were feeling proud about it.

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After chilling out for some time, we started towards BabaBudangiri. Since the other group were also there the same day, we had to maintain the pace to reach the peak first. So, we took the trail by the ridge, climbing one peak after another. To our right, we could see valley/deep slope while on the left there were tall rocks. Distant mountain ranges & the breeze kept us going without much tiredness. But, we had a long way to go. After rocky terrain, we reached the grasslands & we stopped for lunch. LUNCH FIRST!! We feasted on all kinds of food - packed food from morning, home made food, snacks, bread jam & much more.

Soon after having lunch, we started towards our destination. Someone suggested an idea of carrying firewood … hmm.. So guys picked dry timber on the way & carried. Some used those big sticks as hiking poles. Crossed the second/third peak & so on. At one point we abandoned those efforts of carrying wood. There were ups & downs but mostly not too steep & was plateaued. We kept an eye on BSNL tower from long distance & now, with every step, it was growing taller. Last lap, we did the final ascend & reached the tower. We started cheering up the guys who reached after us. We were on time. But, that wasn’t our destination so we kept trekking to BabaBudangiri vista point. Weather was already hinting us about its intention & soon after we reached there, it started raining. Best time to have Tea & Pakoda. So we did.

105_5024 Fun part was, we cramped ourselves in a jeep (19+) & were going down to reach to our TT. Guys were hanging left, right & back side, & it resembled the TV Ad “FEVICOL -  Jod aisa, Tode na Toote”. Soon, rain receded & we decided to camp by lake side. Mist covering up, mercury levels dropping while the rain played its game. We first gathered wood for campfire & started setting up tents. We ran into the tarpaulin sheets to take shelter while it rained and switched to the task of setting up the tent when it stopped.

Tents were up; tent allocation was done & then we lit the campfire with some effort by our FIRE experts. Later we had “Team got Talent” round with everyone’s introduction. Songs, Stories, Hobbies & more!! By the time, intro round was finished, everyone were so hungry. We took out all the food we had, feasted again & kept some for morning. Then, we took consensus for Plan A, B, C. All went to bed in their tents. Creative edge was then when we lit our torches pointing at tent roofs from inside & captured those illuminated tents. Day one was over on rocking node!! It was a Good night!! 

IMG_4943Next morning was packed with mist. There was hardly 10-15 ft visibility. We managed to freshen up, packed bags & got loaded into the TT. Before leaving, we packed tents & tried clicking the droplets on eye lash & hair spikes. We started from there & reached our breakfast point. Someone devised plan D by now due to poor weather & cyclone warning. On the way down, we visited coffee estate & now plan E was to visit Belur temple – made it a heritage tour.

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Temple visit was worth, as the place was so rich in art, sculptures, history & divinity. To make it even better, our guide had so many punch lines to add MASALA flavors & some essence.  Description of LOVE from his thesis was LOVE – Look, Observe, Verify, Enjoy or on other hand, its Loss of Valuable emotion/economy etc. Post that, we tasted Belur Coconut, Chiwada/Chat and Masala Tomato while some of us began their journey on music instrument with some lessons taken from a local Guru. Next stop happened to be at Kamath for evening refreshment & we started towards Bangalore. Engulfed in Anthaakshari, the entire bus sang old taranas, new songs, classical melodies, peppy numbers, rock & even spiritual songs too. Never realized, we reached Bangalore & we bid farewell to all the new friends at Majestic & carried all those cherishable memories with us!!

Thanks all to make this such a memorable trek. Hope to cross path again!! Enjoy!!

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Pritish Nandanwar
Date:  November 16th and 17th, 2013

Composed by: Sana

Event organized by: Vinay

Image Gallery: Pritish, Ankita Hegde, Varun, Sandeep, Naveen Kumar SM, Shruthi venugopal, Arun kumar Karanth, Vinay

The Crew: Vinay,Vijay Raghava, Varun, Nithin G, Pritish Nandanwar, Swati Nandanwar, Sandeep, Naveen Kumar, Ankitha Hegde, Shubhashree, Shruthi Venugopal, Roopashri, Jahnavi, Arun Kumar, Pradeep H.K, Satyanki basu, Rashmi Ashok, Shiva Kumar, Nagaraja

This trek came in as a gift from the heaven above, after months of trying and failing to register for a trek with BASC. All this adds to the memories I have carried back with me after this trek. :) Almost a week's long wait for the trek was itself a challenging part of the trek I would say  :P  My buddies Jahnavi ,Roopa and Jahnavi’s colleague Rashmi agreed for the trek and seeing all our names in the confirmed list was such a happy moment. Though Jahnavi and I have been friends for more than five years, this was our first trip together and also this trek has been my first two day trek which I swore to myself that I would do this year, so this trek has been all the more special. Thanks Vinay :)  And thanks to the rest of the team for making the treknic so amazing :)

IMG_4938Packing and unpacking on Friday night, we didn’t know how time flew, but we still managed to reach on time at majestic in front of Shantala house . It was almost an hour's long wait for the bus to arrive. Ram joining us for the trip was a pleasant surprise, another familiar BASC member apart from Vinay. There were other BASC teams waiting for the buses. We were the last one to leave. I remember the scene how when all of us boarded the bus for the first time, how everyone just kept to themselves, excitement in the air, but still so composed. It was such a contrast to how we all at the end of this journey had parted. Trying to catch up on sleep which never really happened during the bus journey and somewhere midway our bus had come to a halt because the radiator had overheated. The time spent near the toll gate waiting for the bus to get fixed was a mini introduction round among the team members. Ah! :)  the joy of being around like minded people, all for the love of trekking! :) 

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Around 6 am in the morning we reached Chikmagalur. Got refreshed up, had hot and tasty breakfast, further down the road packed lunch for the noon & were all ready for the trek. Reached the starting point, Sarpadhaari. Vinay addressed the whole  team about the trek. All of us took preventive measures against  leech attacks, luckily we encountered none. The day was warm and sunny, perfect for a trek. There was another team from BMC trekking the same route. As the hike up the mountain started, the initial moments went in just trying to capture every bit of the view surrounding us and realizing the fact that it was a pretty steep climb. With all the deep breathe exercises being practiced while climbing up, that even a yoga master cannot teach you, to keep up with the team. With frequent breaks we managed to climb this steep mountain. Every time we thought we had reached the peak, the nature would elude us by showing another mesmerizing part of the mountain yet to be conquered. And finally enjoying every moment, we reached the Mullayanagiri peak.

Spent some time up there, half explored a cave, offered our prayers in the temple on top of the mountain. We heard the organizer say, ”This is not even 20% of the trek, come on lets go”. we headed to the next phase of our trek. Further the path was IMG_4951slightly downhill and later flat land. I lost track of time and my mind was completely focused on the trek route. And at times when we look back at the path we trekked through, it would take us by surprise, wondering if we really walked all the way :) As we descended down the mountain, we reached the road and from there like wild animals we crossed the road only to disappear in to the wilderness again. This time we were hiking on the ridge of the mountains, to reach the greener pastures were we had stopped for lunch. Rested and energized for the second part of the trek. The goal was to reach the BSNL tower on Bababudangiri. We don’t know how many mountains we crossed, look back and there is no sight of the place where we had started our journey. And finally we made it to the tower. The happiness on everyone’s face after a successful trek was evident. From there ,there was another 20 mins walk to the entrance of manikyadhara falls, where we could find shops for refreshments.  While the bus driver was doubtful whether his bus would make it to the top, we decided to hire a jeep and head towards where he had halted to camp. To our surprise, our bus driver had taken a chance to ride to the top of the mountain. The initial plan was to camp at Galikere, but we soon dropped it as nature had her own plans for the evening. 

IMG_9691Excited that we would be camping near a pond, out came the tents and the firewood collected for the evening bonfire and an intro round. While putting up the tents, it would drizzle in every few mins and like an army drill we would all take shelter under the tarpaulin sheet also trying to keep the firewood dry. Every event of the evening was done with so much enthusiasm by every member of the team, it wouldn’t have occurred to the passer by that we had trekked 12kms through the mountains.  Also a big thanks to Ram, the ladies man, who so courteously offered to take the backpacks on our behalf while trekking all the way, and not to forget our Organizer Vinay too. 

IMG_9479Bonfire moments was filled with leg pulling sessions, acting and singing. Then finally the mat was laid for a community dinner. With the ladies taking their seats in distributing food for the hungry souls. Time was now nearing midnight, all of us given our respective tents, settled in for the night with still giggles here and there, we managed to survive a chilling night. Some slept well and some waited for the break of dawn. Morning mist so beautiful, we had no words to explain. Three cheers to the boys as they did all the hard work of removing the tents. We headed to the shops below to have some breakfast and from there we headed back to Chikmagalur town to have brunch. 

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Due to the cyclone effect the trek to Kemmanagundi was canceled and visit to the Belur temple and halebidu was proposed as an alternative. At the temple we hired a guide to throw light on the history of the magnificent temple and the kings and artisans who help build this wonder out of stone. A dream project I would say. Time seemed to have slowed down, enjoying a slow paced evening with more snacks and with our very own BASC musicians . We headed from this place. We missed out on Halebidu as we ran out of time according to our bus driver. We stopped by at Kamat restaurant for evening snack . While heading back to Bangalore, the time was spent playing anthakshari of hindi and kannada songs, a unique experience:) None of us really wanted to head back home, everyone enjoyed every bit of it. Finally on request and being the birthday boy, Pritesh did the lungi dance for us using his scarf, and how he did it I leave it to your imagination. 
We met, we conquered, we laughed, and now it was time for us to part. Another memory added to the trek dairies, and not mentioning on how it really ended, for the journey still continues, until we meet again. I wish you all many more happy treks with fond memories.

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Shruthi Venugopal
Date:  November 16th and 17th, 2013

Composed by: Sana

Link for all the write-ups : http://bangalore-ascenders.2324501.n4.nabble.com/Trek-to-Mullayanagiri-Dattapeeta-Kemmangundi-Nov-16th-amp-17th-2013-td135.html

Event organized by: Vinay

Image Gallery: Pritish, Ankita Hegde, Varun, Sandeep, Naveen Kumar SM, Shruthi venugopal, Arun kumar Karanth, Vinay

The Crew: Vinay,Vijay Raghava, Varun, Nithin G, Pritish Nandanwar, Swati Nandanwar, Sandeep, Naveen Kumar, Ankitha Hegde, Shubhashree, Shruthi Venugopal, Roopashri, Jahnavi, Arun Kumar, Pradeep H.K, Satyanki basu, Rashmi Ashok, Shiva Kumar, Nagaraja

Another weekend spent with awesomeness. We went on a full moon beach trek from Kumta to Gokarna Beach. It was a unique experience for almost everyone in the group. This time again I chose to join BASC.

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The journey started from the Shanthala Silk House(as always :)). We left around 9:30pm. We introduced ourselves to the rest of the group and soon got into the discussion on whether to play Conjuring movie during our journey or not. After an hour Sudhir developed a  pain in his chest and was taken back to Bangalore. Govind took care of reaching him back to Bangalore while we carried on with our Journey. We reached Kumta around 10 in the morning. We had breakfast on the way and got our lunch packed.

9We started walking beside the beach enjoying the view. The terrain was a mix of beach walk and hills. We were all hungry so as soon as we found a hill with shade, we stopped there to have fried rice packed on the way. One strange thing I noticed about myself in these treks with BASC is I don’t like rice much but during the treks I am so tired and hungry that I happily survive on dishes made of rice for straight two days without any complaints :P.

The best thing was that the trek trail had the best 4mix of beaches and hills, as soon as we felt tired trekking on the hills, there were beaches to relax. After walking till around 4-5pm, we found a long stretch of beach which looked ideal to camp. With sun setting on the west, it was time for the photographers to flaunt their skills. We all enjoyed the sunset on the sea shore and captured beautiful snaps.

8As we were to spend the night in open, we collected some woods and papers to  setup camp fire for the night. We also cooked Bisi Bele Bhat (mostly cooked by niranjan :P). After which we played some games during the camp fire. The best was the acting during Dumb Charades on Baiju Bawra :D :D.

Dead tired with the day long effort we dozed off on the shores. It was the first time we slept so close to the beach during a full moon.

The next day we got ready to complete the final part of our trek. Hot and yummy 5Maggie was served for breakfast. We started trekking on the hills which didn't have proper trail and was a challenge. We had bruises because of thorns on the way, but we had the satisfaction of reaching the top. After reaching the other end, we were exhausted but we wanted to go to OM beach & opted to take a ride on a ferry, which was like cherry on an ice cream.

2We passed by several other beaches as we sailed towards OM beach. After reaching  here, the only thing that was in my mind was to get into the beach, and that’s exactly what we all did. Enjoyed playing in the water, we played volleyball, tried hands on swimming after long time.

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Over the last two days I learnt few new kannada words, made new friends, spent night on the beach during full moon tides, etc. All in all, it was an awesome experience. 

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Written by: Vivek
Date: Nov 16th & 17th

Composed by: Sana

Event organized by: Niranjan

Image Gallery: Achintya Kundu, Karthik HK, Rajendra, Shanthi Prasad, Sunil Parida, Sandeep

Video Links: Kumta to gokarna, Timelapse at Arabian Sea, Campfire @ Seashore, Boat Ride at OM beach, Kumta Beach, Vanamali beach, Mangodlu beach, Holanagadde beach, Sangam beach, Barka beach, Tadadi Port, Paradise Beach, Halfmoon Beach, Om Beach, One Night Beach Stay, Gokarna City Festival

The Crew: Niranjan, Shwetha, Pallavi, Rakesh, Neha, Ravindra joisa, Achintya Kundu, Kashyap, Vivek velankar, Santhosh, Karthik HK, Suresh Gowda, Aparna C, Sunil Parida, Sandeep Kulkarni, Ravindra Tiwari, Karthik Rao, Anup Hejmady, Rajendra, Shanti Prasad

The trek to Mullayanagiri, Dattapeeta and Kemmangundi was conducted by BASC on 16th and 17th November 2013. The gathering point was Shantala silk house, near Majestic, on 15th November. After reaching there, I saw that apart from our team, one more team had gathered there and were going to Kodachadri. Met some of the team members while we waited for the bus. The other team left around 10:15 pm while we were supposed to leave at 10:30 pm. However, our bus arrived late and we started at 11:30 pm. Later, there was a problem with the radiator in the bus and we had to halt for close to 45 minutes for the radiator to cool down. Meanwhile, I had a feeling that the trip would turn out to be fun as such unplanned things would add new twists to the story.

11We continued the journey after the radiator cooled down and reached Chikkamagalur on Saturday at around 6:30 am. We took a while to get done with the morning rituals, breakfast and food packing. Then we continued our journey to find a place called Sarpadhaari, the start point of our trek to Mullayangiri, and reached the spot by 9:30 am. It was 10 am by the time we started the trek. We had asked the bus driver to park down at Bababudangiri . It was bright and mildly sunny at the start of the trek. The weather eased up as we started climbing. We reached Mulayangiri summit after a 2 hour trek. After enjoying the view from the summit, we started trek towards Bababudangiri. The view along the trek was good.

20131116_061041By evening, we reached close to Manikyadhara. The trekking trails had disappeared by then and we weren't sure how to go ahead. We found a patch which had abundant trees and a stream flowing through it. We passed through that patch, which was considerably cooler than surroundings as the trees provided shade. It was a nice experience. I thought that if I was to go by that experience then the next day trek, which was supposed to go through Shola forests, would be thrilling. There are shops near Manikyadhara. We had some snacks and tried contacting the bus driver. The mobile network there wasn't reliable.

M (44 of 97)When we were able to contact the bus driver and asked him to come to Manikyadhara, he said he wouldn't be able to come as the bus was underpowered. It started raining suddenly. So, our plans to walk down to Bababudangiri had to be dropped. We hired a Mahindra Jeep to go to Bababudangiri and 18+driver had crammed into the jeep!!! Halfway through, we found that our bus driver was coming towards us. So, we got down from the jeep. It was somewhere between Manikhyadhara and Bababudangiri. There was a pond near by.

IMG_9554We decided to camp there for the night(guys, was that place Gaalikere??). It was very foggy and the recent rain resulted in the sudden fall in mercury levels. Also the wind speeds had picked up. We split the team to gather firewood and put up the tents. While erecting the tents, there was a brief spell of rain. We took cover under a tarpaulin canvas. The firewood was also covered under the canvas. After the rain receded, we went to continue with the tent work. Rain played hide and seek with us for a few more times while the tent work was underway. It was a fun experience. After the tents were done, we had a campfire. Now, Vinay, the organizer, had planned this through. We had a introduction of the team members at the campfire. Campfires are always fun. After this, we had dinner and slipped into our tents for rest.

M (13 of 44)Sunday, we woke up to a heavy mist cover; it was still windy and chilly. I took a stroll around to find Sun, had a rejuvenating walk and walked back to the campsite. We packed the tents and luggage and headed to the bus. Meanwhile, some of the folks figured out that the water in the pond was warm and spent some time in it. By the time we wanted to start the return leg of the trip, the visibility hadn't improved and the thought was that the conditions wouldn't improve because of an ongoing cyclone. So, it was decided to skip visiting Kemmanagundi and go to Belur and Halebeedu. I recollect that the temples are famous for their architectural beauty.

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Things didn't look up till noon when we reached Belur Chennakeshava temple. I did not want to enter the temple as I hadn't bathed that day. I took a walk around in the small temple town and found a place to take bath and duly took bath. Then I entered the temple, but could not find the team. I had darshan of the lord and went out searching for them. Meanwhile, I overheard one of the temple guides explaining that the heavy stone pillar that I was looking at could be rotated around it own axis. This aroused my interest and started to listen to him. I would suggest you to go around the temple first and then come back and hire a guide. When you listen to the guide's version, you would realize that there is so much more in the structure that you could not figure out by yourself. I was filled with joy and pride after the experience.

Got back into the bus and after a snack break reached Bangalore by Sunday night. I got down at Navrang while the team headed towards Majestic. My first trekking with BASC has turned out to be a memorable event; Thanks to Vinay and rest of the folks for making it happen. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hope all the members who participated also had a good time. Please invite me to your future activities if you can put up with me :)

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Written by: Vijay
Date:  November 16th and 17th, 2013

Composed by: Sana

Event organized by: Vinay

Image Gallery: Pritish, Ankita Hegde, Varun, Sandeep, Naveen Kumar SM, Shruthi venugopal, Arun kumar Karanth, Vinay

The Crew: Vinay,Vijay Raghava, Varun, Nithin G, Pritish Nandanwar, Swati Nandanwar, Sandeep, Naveen Kumar, Ankitha Hegde, Shubhashree, Shruthi Venugopal, Roopashri, Jahnavi, Arun Kumar, Pradeep H.K, Satyanki basu, Rashmi Ashok, Shiva Kumar, Nagaraja