Trek to Bandaje Arbi Falls & Ballalarayana Durga (Fort)

Western Ghats has a unique identifications and hidden treasury in it, which a common man can’t reach.  Bandaje Arbi Falls is one of those places where water  flows through all seasons of the year.  Bandaje Arbi Falls located in Charmudi ghat in Dakshina Kannada district is around 12km away from Ujire (close to Dharmasthala) and trek starts from the village Mundajje.  One should have strong determination and energy to reach this falls and enjoy the glory of Mother Nature.

On the day I joined Bangalore Ascenders (BASC), I had a list of must visit places in and around Karnataka.  Bandaje Arbi Falls & Ballalarayana Durga was also one in the list.  When I saw the event registration mail by Niranjan (Event Organizer), i called  my friends Sudhakar & Chandrakanth (CK) and asked them to register soon.  Due to time constrain CK could not join us.  We were not sure of getting short listed to this event as the team size was only 12 members.  Luckily we both were able to make our self in the shortlisted participants and got ready  to go to Bandaje.

As BASC common point of boarding is Shanthala Silk House, I was much ahead of the stipulated time 9.30pm. 

BASC Assemble Point - Shanthala Silk House

Already couple of friends (co-trekkers) were present there (soon everyone joined).  I got a warm welcome by Ram, Umesh and later  by Niranjan.  We left Bangalore around 10.30pm in Tempo Traveler (TT).

We had a brief introduction about our self followed by our previous trekking experience on the way in TT.  The team members were Ram, Umesh, Venu, Govind, Sreeharsha, Sudhakar, Harsh, Diptankar, Ashutosh, Satish, Niranjan & I.  Govind & Sreeharsha had already done few events with me at Dabbe Falls & Kanoor Kote; I got nine new friends again.  Introduction part went on till 12 midnight and everyone slid in to deep sleep.  The seats were not so comfortable and I was struggling to sleep…..

Day – 1: 16^th March, 2013

We reached Ujire (via Dharmasthala) around 4.30 am.  We finished our morning itinerary and had delicious breakfast - Upma & Idly.  Packed Chitranna for lunch. 

Niranjan explained itinerary for next two days. Bandaje which is around 16km from the start point. Day 1 we need to cover Bandaje and  night camping near water falls, 2^nd day head towards Ballalarayana Durga, exit at Sunkasale, visit Horanadu and return back to Bangalore. 

The plan was , divide the Group into two and first group enters the forest, wait somewhere around 2km from the start point for the second group to join. 

Umesh is a local guy who knows Tulu (local language) , first group headed towards Narayan Gowda’s house.  We had walked almost 2km in jeep track crossing two houses.  He managed the people talking in Tulu and entered into the forest.  We had to cross the last house ‘Babu Nayak’ and take right path to proceed towards the Bandaje Arbi falls.  The real trek started and we understood that the whole route is steep ascending for almost 15km.  The forest was completely thick and green.  As per the plan, we trekked around 2km and waited for other group to join. 

Being thick forest and no trail; it was very difficult to find out the route and reach the destination on-time.

The path was not so easy, everyone was sweating badly due to high humidity and steep ascend. After several breaks and two hours continuous trek, we reached the water stream around 10.30 am. 

We took a dip in water and got relaxed for some time.  Water was very cold!!!  The steep ascend continued, taking few breaks we reached the grassland.  70 % of Bandaje is covered by thick forest and the rest is open grass land. We decided to have lunch around 12:45 PM at the entrance of the grass land followed by a photography session. 

We could view the beautiful falls from grass land and feel to reach falls within short time. But we couldn’t !!.We reached Waterfalls around 3:30PM

We spent some time near falls and then decided to camp near the stream.  The plan for the evening was, first to prepare Maggie, relax for 1 hour, soup around 7pm, dinner at 9pm, camp fire, & then entertainment till 10pm.

Umesh, Sudhakar, Ram were busy collecting the wood for camp fire.  Few of us took bath in the stream again. Oh my god, water was very cold. After the break, the Maggie preparation started.  Umesh was always ahead in all activities, he was able lit the fire.  Then came the real part of adventure !!! The rain started rudeness with sound of thunder and lightning.  Goodness we had 3 tarpaulins, using 2 we covered our luggage and rest we used it for our shelter.  Rain poured  for almost one hour and it shattered all our plan. There was nothing to shelter except open sky. 

The  ground was wet and we had tough time .  We all had yummy Maggie and planned the next strategy. We decided to have puliyogare for dinner.  We had tasty hot dinner around 8.30pm and decided to sleep.

We had to take care of the camp fire to protect from wild animals. Umesh took the initiatives.  I could not sleep well in the night.  It was my first experience to sleep in such a place which I could not think at all.  Thanks to the rain which  made our trek more adventurous.

Day-2: 17^th March, 2013

I would like to appreciate capabilities of Ram during the trek.  He was one who does not have regular food, less sleep and always ahead in the group.  By curiosity asked the secret, understood he is a Yoga patu and does 2 hours every day.  I woke up around 4.15am, by the time Ram also got up.  We had tough time letting the fire ,Umesh again helped us.  Everyone got up by 6 am and finished our morning nature call and headed towards our second destination to conquer the Ballalarayna Durga.  The distance of the fort was almost 6-7km from falls and minimum 2 hours journey.

As per plan, we had to reach the fort before the humidity increases.  Our journey started around 7 am and the route began as planned before. 

Nothing was changed in the ascend, except few steps flat surface.  We were able to enjoy the beautiful view of the entire valley.  In between we had photography sessions, breaks and chitchat talk.  After few kilometer treks, we were able to view the fort but we need to walk almost more than one hour.  The last part of the stretch was very difficult and real test for our strength.

We were able to conquer the fort by around 10a.m.

Except the shattered walls nothing much at Ballalarayana Durga, however you can enjoy the Mother Nature and the beautiful valley.  We met the king of the fort (forgot his name) who runs the cattle-shed in the fort.  He has around 50 cattle and he welcomes all visitors of the fort.  We decided to prepare once again for breakfast.  King offered his kitchen for preparation and provided the water with some bucks.  Everyone was hungry and then had delicious Maggie.  We had good time at fort and relaxed for 1hour before proceeding our descend.  Understood from the King that the Sunkasale (our end point of the trek) is around 6 km and one hour journey.  We decided to take one more hour break and did accordingly.

We left the fort around 11.30 am and all were happy in the spirit of spending almost two hours at the fort. 

The pace was fast and we entered forest before reaching the jeep track.  Everyone back to their initial enthusiasm and taking very less break reached the Sunkasale at 2 pm.  Meantime Niranjan called the driver and asked him to come to Sunkasale. Within one hour TT reached and we boarded vehicle to reach Horanadu.

From Sunkasale, Horanadu is around 30 km.  Reached Horanadu by 3.30 pm and decided to take a dip in Bhadra river.  Everyone had holy bath in the river and Niranjan asked us to finish the feedback part after taking the bath.  We finished vote of thanks and feedback and then headed to Horanadu town.  Took Darshana of Horanadu Annapoorneshwari and had Prasad (dinner) and left at 10.30pm to Bangalore.  Though we trekked 25-27km in two days, there still remains my desire and passion to do more.  I was thinking what will be the next event in BASC for me through out my return journey ….

Thanks to each one of my friends (co-trekkers) who were very co-operative, friendly and also who had taken photographs as and when requested to you all. Special thanks to Niranjan for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this wonderful trek.  No words to BASC, motivating and giving opportunity to enjoy the real beauty of Mother Nature.

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Sagar V 
Event organized by: Niranjan

Composed by: Honnegowda and Vinay

Date: 16th & 17th March, 2013

Image Gallery : Ashothosh

The Crew: Venugopal, Sreeharsha, Vidhya Sagar, Sudhakar,Umesh ,Govind Gorur,Harsh,Sathish anand, Ashothosh ,Deeptangan,Ram ,Niranjan

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Trek to Bandaje Arbbi falls:7_28-29-April-2012

After giving a thought and some research we (Vinay and Raveedra) selected this trek so as to avoid the hot summer sun. As 75% of the trek is covered under the shade of thick western ghats forest.

Here's a brief write-up about Bandaje trek,
Bandaje Falls has a very nice view, and it is believed to be 700 Mtres above the sea level (though no one has officially measured it). it flows as a single stream, and falls from approximately 400+ metres in between the valleys of Western Ghat. This flows further and joins the river Netravathi.

Here is a brief write up from santhosh.

Bandaje Arbi trek-April 2012

I came to know about BASC through Jinu John when we met at Chembra peak in Wayanad back in January 2012. Since then I’ve been planning to trek with BASC. Somehow I couldn’t register on time for the previous treks.

I saw “Bandaje Arbi trekking registration open” in my Facebook newsfeed on a weekend and I immediately filled in the details, transferred the money and applied for registration. My name was shortlisted along with 12 other experienced trekkers.

Trekking Day

The plan was to meet near Shantala Silks, Majestic on Friday night at 10pm, start the TT journey to Ujire and then to Bandaje village from where the trek starts. I reached the pickup point around 9.30, met few other BASC members who are joining me in this trek. We had a small introduction followed by a short conversation about each other’s trekking experiences.

Now we have Vinay and Ravindra as the organizers of the trek, Priyanka, Ganesh, Prashanth, Madhu, Tejaswi, Anurag, Gurva Reddy, Mehul, Harish, Rajesh and me as the team members.

We started the journey around 10.30 pm. The journey was quite comfortable except a small traffic jam in Shiradi Ghats. We reached Ujire town at around 5.00 am. Got freshened up in the public toilets there, had idly, vada & bun for breakfast from a nearby hotel and left to Bandaje village around 7.30 am. Ujire to Bandaje is hardly 12 kms towards Charmadi Ghats section. We had to reach a village called Mundaje and then take a deviation towards Bandaje village. We proceeded towards Mr. Narayana Gowda’s house, a local guide for treks around Charmadi Ghats. He was not available at his residence; we spoke to their family members: they agreed to send a guide with us half way. Since Ravi and Vinay had trekked the place before, they were confident of doing without a guide.

The trek starts from Narayana Gowda’s and from here we have to pass through 3 more houses, the last one being Babu Nayak’s house from there the actual trekking trail begins. Anurag volunteered to lead the group and Ravi to come at the end. We crossed the 3^rd house and few meters ahead we could see a trail going upwards towards left and another going straight down towards another house. We took the trail towards left and started moving upwards since most of the blog on Bandaje say the trek is only about ascending right from the beginning. I had an apprehension that this could be the wrong route, the trail straight down could be the right one and I did express it to Tejaswi. He countered my argument saying the trail straight down leads to an estate.

We started moving upwards by making way and took any passage which looked like a trail. We climbed for more than an hour crossing two dry streams and slippery tracks. We realized we are in the wrong direction when we were almost at the top of the hill. So we lost the track in the very first instance and we were trying to figure out how we go ahead. The techies in the group started suggesting the use of phone GPS, GPRS functions to find out where we are and where we should be heading to. We had a brainstorming session to figure out the way towards falls at the middle of that thick jungle. Ideas kept on pouring in. Some suggested the use of technology, while others suggested to call someone for help or to go back to the place where we started. Nothing materialized. Finally Vinay picked up his phone and called up Mudassar and explained him the situation. He suggested us to go back and reach Babu Nayak’s house

We started climbing down the hill. Descending was very steep and the absence of a proper trail added to our misery. Many of us fell twice or thrice, the costliest one being Mehul’s in which he had an airline fracture in his hand. After many slips and falls, we managed to reach a house where we got directions towards Babu Nayak’s house. We were welcomed at Babu Nayak’s house by a host of 20- 30 young and old people. We spoke to Babu Nayak and found out that the actual trek starts from his house; from here we have a clear path till the grasslands. He said the hill we mistook and climbed is called Shantibetta (lol..we never had shanti there:-P).Apparently many people have done the same mistake and came back to his house in search of the actual trail.

Since we all had a tough task of ascending and descending through a non-existing trail, we decided to refresh ourselves at Nayak’s house before we start the real trek to Bandaje Arbi falls. Nayak’s family offered us black tea which had never tasted better for us. Within few minutes of gulping tea, we were set to conquer Bandaje hills. Mehul backed out due to the injury on his hand, decided to stay back at Nayak’s place.

The trek started around 11.15 am under the thick cover of shola forests. It had rained heavily for the last three days in that region and the trail was infested with lot of leeches. The trail was ascending right from the beginning; there were hundreds of leeches waiting to suck our blood. We could also spot dry elephant dung throughout the trail. Most of us were tired after climbing Shantibetta and this ever ascending trail curtailed our pace.

We reached the stream in an hour and half and took a long break for some food and snacks. We removed our shoes and socks to see number of leeches plunging to our legs .We crossed the stream and continued ascending towards grasslands. Majority of Bandaje trek is under thick shola forests. At a point of time we got bored of it and were craving to see a change in vegetation. The path ahead was tough and ascending through the thick forest cover. After 2 hours of continuous climbing, we could see a ray of light through the passage. YES…we are nearing grasslands. We were so glad to reach grasslands and expressed our happiness by shouting and clicking pictures. A little ahead from the grasslands, we could get a sneak picture of Bandaje Arbi falls like a needle. The view from the grasslands was amazing. We could see the mighty adjacent peaks and also a good view of Kudremukh National Park.

Priyanka, Ganesh, Anurag, Gurva and I reached the grasslands pretty early and were waiting for others to come. In the meanwhile I took a small nap in the grasslands. I woke up after 30 mins to a misty surrounding wherein the visibility is hardly 10 – 20 meters. The time was 3.30 pm and we are already behind the scheduled time. From grasslands, it’s another neat one hour uphill to reach the falls. Anurag and I took the lead and found out the way towards falls with much difficulty. We managed to reach the camping point near falls around 4.30pm. We both went to the falls and spent some time near the tip of the falls. The view from here was breathtaking and said ourselves it’s worth the climb. We couldn’t spent much time there since we had a fear of others losing way. We moved towards the camping point, others have already reached there. We started collecting dry wood for campfire. It was drizzling all over and there was a strong possibility of a heavy rain. Some of us started making the campfire while others started erecting tents with 2 tarpaulin sheets.

Campfire and tents were almost ready and it’s time to start cooking for 13 people. Since we had less water, Prashanth and I went to the falls to fetch water. He wanted to see the falls; we decided to go towards the tip of the waterfalls. Thanks to his suggestion, we had an awesome sunset view from there; we spent some good time talking about Western Ghats and its priceless beauty. It started getting dark and we decided to go back to the camping spot since people were waiting for us to get water. The dinner was lavish considering the place we were in. We prepared soup as starter followed by Maggie Noodles, MTR Bisibele bath and Tomato rice. Everyone had enough food and its time now to hit the bed. We cleaned up the place and erected the tent properly to fit in 13 people. The surface was full of stones which prevented us from a comfortable sleep. Nevertheless we all had a sound sleep only because of the tiresome day.

 

The plan was to wake up at 6.00am and to leave by 7.30 am which dint happen. We got up around 6.30am, few went to the waterfalls, and other few attended nature’s call. The morning view was different and good; the adjacent peaks were looking great in the sunlight’s reflection. We prepared some Maggie Noodles and soup and had it for breakfast. We packed up and were ready to go around 9.30am. We clicked some self timer group snaps to mark our presence at the hills and started towards Bandaje village. The descending was easy unlike the uphill trek. We crossed the grasslands and entered the shola forests less than an hour and from there to stream in another half an hour. We took a small break at the stream; Priyanka, Ganesh and I started towards Babu Nayak’s house.

The scariest moment of the trek came up in few minutes. Priyanka was leading in front, followed by me and Ganesh at the back. While descending through the jungle, I could see a cobra very next to right leg with its hood on. I could clearly see the lines behind its hood. I couldn’t move forward or backward since Priyanka and Ganesh were at both sides. I jumped towards my left to a relatively steep valley. I broke my bag’s waist belt and a small injury in my legs. Thank god we had a narrow escape.

We reached Babu Nayak’s house in another few minutes. On the way, we met Mehul checking out the trail and clicking pictures. We requested Nayak’s family to prepare some food for us. We helped them in cutting vegetables to make sambar. Within half an hour, we have sambar, red rice, pickle and a jack fruit piece for lunch. They served us without any hesitation and we were happy to have a good lunch after the trek. (“Annadhaadha Sukhibhava” – Let the god bestow happiness to the one who served us food!!!)

Nayak’s family refused to take money for serving us Black tea yesterday and for today’s lunch. Raju forcefully gave 300 bucks to the children at the house and also some biscuits and chocolates. We left Nayak’s house around 2 and moved towards Narayana Gowda’s house where our TT is parked.

The plan was to go to Aramane falls and Anadka falls and dinner at Dharmastala Temple. We went to Anadka falls: the other falls heard to be dry from the localites. We had to trek around 4 kms to reach the falls. Not many were interested in trekking in the hot sun to see the waterfalls. Few of us went to see the falls, while others stayed back near the stream. Anurag and I took bath in the stream, came back and joined others in their conversation. The topic started with ‘Which is the best city Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore or Kolkata?” and went on to politics & corruption. There was no sign of those guys gone to the waterfalls. We decided to go to the main road to have tea. We went to a small shop in the main road and found two local drinks Zaffa and Super Joy - Made in Ujire. We had some snacks along with hot tea. The discussion on various topics continued along side.

We left to Dharmastala around 5.30pm. We had a good dharshan and dinner at the temple and left to Bangalore at 10.30pm.

The organizers have to be appreciated since it’s the first time Vinay and Ravi are organizing a trek from BASC. They took care of all the necessary things right from Transport to food and tents. We all made good friends in two days time. In Toto, a memorable trek with a good bunch of people.

In Toto, a memorable trek with a good bunch of people. Kudos to BASC. Looking forward for the next trek.

 

Thanks to one and all.

YOURS TRULY

SANTHOSH KRISHNAN

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Write up from M.R.S Tejaswi

 

Hey guys,

hope all of you are well... i am not a writer but i will do my best for this write up... well here goes nothing...

Well this was my second trek from BASC and compared to last one it was more lively. our gang of 13 people started with not much sleep from Bangalore on friday night ( thanks to our transportation ), reached Ujire without much difficulty. after our morning routine headed to Bandaje village. and after getting direction from the locals many times finally reached Narayana gowda's home. which is the starting point of our trek.we did some 6 odd kms(3 kms of ascent and descent) of pre-trek to Shanti betta before trekking the actual mountain ( credits goes to Anurag here). when we finally able to find Babu Nayak's home almost all of us were tired and hungry,but we managed to carry on with the trek.

(unfortunately Mehul could not accompany us further from this point onwards).

so our actual trek started at 11.30 if i remember correctly from Babu Nayak's home and after like 100th pit stops from our last coaches ( madhu and raju ) we finally emerged to the grass lands above at 4 pm.

after taking a break for 30 min there( though Anurag, Gurva, Ganesh and Priyanka were way ahead of us ) we started off to summit. a glorious view awaited us further. behold Bandaje Arbi falling from a distance of 700 mts above the sea level into a vast ocean of trees surrounded by peaks and mountains.

one could not keep the track of time watching this sight.we finally reached the peak around 5.30 pm and made our camp there.after some quick photo sessions its time to have dinner. vinay and ravi did a great job in bringing the a portable stove.vinay made a batch of maggi which we gulped like a hungry animals.all were so tired that almost every one fell to sleep instantly on that rugged terrain

(although we could hear some noise made by "wild animals" through out the night :P :D).

in morning had a wonderful soup and a very special maggi called "soupy vegetables atta noddles" ( i think we should get a patent for that name :P).after taking snaps from every angle/direction possible its time to get down. packed all our things and started heading downwards. we reached Babu Nayak's house by 1 pm and even after refusing they cooked a meal for us. we had a nice meal in there home and after thanking them we head back to our transportation.

it was decided to go to Andaka falls and drop the Shiva rajkumar falls as there was no water.after reaching the destination with some help from the locals we learned that we needed to trek for 6km. hearing this except for 4 of us ( me, vinay, raju and harish) every one else denied to come. so the 4 brave souls( :P ) set out to find this isolated and less known falls. after going through many estate and many small streams we finally reached the falls. the falls is like a beacon in the middle of nowhere. surrounded by huge trees,this falls creates a feeling of some out of the world experience.as it was summer there was little water so that we could go directly below the falls. i was feeling like i was having a water massage therapy :P. we had our bath there and started heading back to our TT.on our way back i remembered that i had left my glasses near the water itself.i decided to go back and get my glasses back. that was one of the most scariest thing i have ever done in my life. a complete silence except for the running water in the middle of the forest all alone, a gust of wind and boom - the silence was broken by rattling of leaves.my heart was in my throat that time. !@#$ that was scary...but i finally managed to find my glasses and ran all the way back to place where these guys were standing :D.

we managed to get hold of a jeep who agreed to ferry 4 of us back to our TT.after that we headed to Dharmasthala temple and had our dinner there. (some in the temple itself and some outside).finally its was time to get back to the same old boring life in Bangalore. reached Bangalore by 5 on monday morning. bid everyone farewell and a promise to stay in touch we took our separate ways not knowing whether our paths will cross again but hoping it just might...

Finally thanks to Vinay and Ravi for organizing this trek. last time i could not finish this trek because of elephants and was very eager to do it. and they did a very good arrangement in every possible way. thank you guys :) as of me... well i did pretty ok... managed to complete the trek with a zero strike rate of leech bites ( one and only in the gang B) )

awaiting for future treks from BASC :)

Cheers,

Tejaswi

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Visit our Group @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Santhosh and TejaswiEvent organized by: Vinay and Raveendra
Image Galleries: Vinay, Rajesh, Tejaswi, Madhu

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Bandajje Arbi, Balarayana Durga Trek, Part 2: When Animals Attack.

(PART 1 is here)

Sleep was hard to come by during the night as the wind continued to howl. A large part of the night was spent just awaiting the dawn. I was the first one up in the camp. I hastily got ready and decided to head off for a morning stroll along the stream.

Morning view from the campsite

By now the sun had risen but still wasn’t visible due to the hills in the east. The banks of such streams are rather fertile. These are the only spots that tree growth can be observed at such altitudes in the ghats. I proceeded to sit by the stream take a  few shots of the stream and frogs I observed hopping nearby.

A frog by the Bandajje stream

On heading back to the campsite I had some cup noodles and packed up. It was now time to proceed to our next destination, Ballarayana Durga fort. There is no genuine path to the fort. Most of route involved navigating our way through the tall montane grass over a series of undulating hills. After completing a series of these we could finally catch a glimpse of the ruined fort through our binoculars. A rather straight forward path along the ridge of a few hills became apparent and the excitement was evident among the group.

Far away, on the path leading to the fort, we suddenly glimpsed movement. There were excited cries among the group of the possibility that we may have spotted an elephant. On closer inspection the animal appeared bovine. We quickly assumed it to be a bison (gaur), a terrific find none-the-less. I was still rather sceptical though and decided to put my 300mm of zoom to use and take a snap. On observing the image on the LCD we realised it was just a buffalo and chuckled at our naivety.

At this point Phrabhakar began moving a little ahead of the group and assumed the lead. I was at the back and had lost sight of him till I saw our brave pioneer rapidly scampering backward while simultaneously taking photographs. A moment later we saw the cause for his panic, he was being chased by a rather angry buffalo.

Thats the one!

The group tried moving forward as one unit and tossing stones at the bovine, but sadly to no avail. It seemed to enrage the buffalo bull further and made us scamper up a nearby hill. Any further and we’d be forced off the cliff.

If you know me or have read my blog before I’m sure you saw that coming. This is the third trek I’m getting into bovine trouble. Anyways…….

The group being chased up the hill. Photo Courtesy: Siddharth

We thought of approaching the fort from an alternate route through the valley. This plan was soon scrapped on sighting more buffaloes grazing on the opposite hill.

Some of the guys were panic stricken by the number of buffaloes around us while others saw the funny side of it. Battle lines had been drawn, strategies meticulously planned and troops summoned….this was war!!

We observed that it was just a single individual and not an entire herd that was making life difficult for us. Eventually we decided to bide our time till the buffalo moved away from the path and then make a run for it. And run for it we did! Being towards the tail of the group I was forced to push myself hard. I sprinted and refused to look back till I was a thousand meters from the war zone.

From here on the path to the fort was a rather smooth one. We did see a few more buffaloes in the distance causing a little bit of panic in our ranks. But none of these seemed to take any interest in us. We quickly ascended to the fort with our cameras vigorously clicking away. We had won this battle and it was now time to celebrate with refreshments. 

A panoramic view from the fort.

Not much is known about Ballarayana Durga. After a good bit of googling I’ve still been unsuccessful in finding information on the fort and would love it if you could provide me with some.  One thing is certain though, the views from here are breathtaking. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

A view from the fort. HDR

As per the plan, we were to start our descent from here on. Our first attempt to do so saw us reach a dead end. In the distance we could see the rain clouds brewing and pouring on distant valleys. As be backtracked we happened to startle a rather large dark rat snake who decided to quickly slither away from us. On walking a bit further we could see something that resembled a jeep track in the distance, down in the valley. There appeared no visible way to get to the track though. Johan decided to lead the way. We followed him, along cattle tracks, through prickly grass down into a valley. Along the way, we managed to startle some more wildlife, a hare on this occasion. After an hour or so we hit a trail that we assumed would take us to the jeep track.

The open grasslands were now only a distant memory as be began traversing through dense forest again.  We all moved fast as we were hungry and were looking  for a place to have lunch away from the festering leeches. We soon hit the jeep track that further led to a house that I assume belonged to a local priest. With civilization just a stone’s throw away, we decided to break for lunch at the house.

A close-up of one of the many streams flowing through the forest.

It was at this point it dawned upon me that till that point we hadn’t seen a single other person apart from our group mates for the duration of two whole days.

Form here it was a rather straight path through fields then villages. Before we knew it we managed to get a jeep to drop us to Sunkasale village. Our first order of business here was a nice cup of tea, my first in two days. Next, we boarded a bus to the temple town of Hornadu, where we were catch a bus to Bangalore later that night.

On getting to Hornadu we freshened up and decided to seek blessings at TheAnnapoorneshwari  temple. This temple makes up almost half of the town, which just about tells you it’s prominence among the people.  The temple also offers an evening meal to its devotees. Kind of like a South Indian version of the Punjabi Langar.

With our bodies fresh and our stomach satiated we boarded our bus back to Bangalore.

Route:
To:  Bangalore>Dharmasthala>Ujire>Mundajje
Fro: Sultanpet>Sunkasale>Hornadu> Bangalore
GPS track compiled by Naveen.


Event Name: Trek to Bandaje Arbbi falls and Ballalarayana Durga fort: BABD/6_26-27-Nov-2011
Original Writeup by: Aniruddha
Event organized by: Girish
Image Galleries: Raghavendra, Siddharth, Aniruddha, Brijesh, Girish, Johan, Naveen, Prabhakar

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Bandaje Arbi, Ballarayana Durga Trek, Part 1: The Hills Beckon Again.

I sat there, all alone near the peak of a nameless hill. The sun began to recede slowly, the light began to dim. The beauty of the dusk had once again set upon the Ghats. In the distance, I glanced upon the Arabian sea.  I enjoyed every moment up there, the rustle of the shola grass, the screaming wind, the sudden bouts of mist and thought to myself, ‘this is life’.

Sunset.

I sat there, alone, thinking how fortunate I was to experience such a feeling again. It was just three months ago that I had a crazy bicycle crash on tour. I couldn’t walk for a month after and the effects lingered on till about a few days before the trek.

The trek I am talking about was one to Bandajje Arbi falls and Ballarayana Durga fort. It was organized by the Bangalore Ascenders group.  This route is located in the Charmadi Ghats area in the Dakshina Kanada district of Karnataka.

I set out from home on the night on Friday night, the 25^th of November. Needless to say I had butterflies in my stomach. Majestic bus stand, Bangalore, platform 14 was the spot designated to meet the rest of the travelling party. The group consisted of 12 guys, all rather experienced at such outings.  After a hasty round of introductions we were all seated in the bus. We arrived at our destination, a town called Dharmasthala, before the break of dawn. We had to wait for sunrise before we could get ourselves some breakfast and a ride to the base village of our trek, Mundajje. A little after daybreak we hired 2 gypsies and were off.

After navigating some non-existent roads for an hour we finally reached Mundajje. And so here began our trek. We quickly moved through the local fields and into the forest. The lack of moisture in the forest bed made sure the leech menace was minimal. The terrain was undulating till the first stream crossing.

The stream crossing was slightly tricky. The lucky ones only got their feet wet unlike others who happened to drop their belongings.  After this point the route got steeper, the sun rose higher and the humidity began to sink in.  Progress was slow and frequent breaks became necessary. Every gust of wind was greeted with smiles from the travellers and a cacophony of noises from the drying forest.

Johan standing under a particularly large fig tree.

After about 4 hours in the forest we finally hit the high altitude grasslands. These grasses called shola grasses are endemic to the south of the Western Ghats. Reaching the grasslands always brings renewed energy to a group on any trek. The wind blows freely here, the weather is cool and one can view the most beautiful vistas in all directions. After the monotony of the forest the grasslands are often a sight for sore eyes.

Bandajje Arbi Waterfall in the distance.

We were informed by our leader, Girish, that the Bandajje Arbi waterfalls were barely a few kilometres away. Soon the falls became visible in the distance and got the shutterbugs amongst us excited.  Our proposed campsite was in the direction of the falls so we continued to head in that direction. Halfway to the falls we decided to stop for lunch. Signs of the presence of wild animals in the area were evident. The ground was littered with elephant and bison dung.

We moved forward and reached the stream that would flow to culminate at the falls. Girish and a few others left to identify a campsite. I just decided to loiter around by the stream and click a few photographs. After an hour or so and a lot of gaffes the camp, …umm more like two flimsy sheets of tarpaulin were set up. It was now time for the restless among us to explore the area.

Bandajje stream flowing by our campsite.

Johan and Dan decided to ascend to the peak of this hill which looked to be the tallest in the vicinity. I decided to join them, hoping I’d get a few good clicks up top. What I got though was way more than any of us bargained for. The other side of this hill was more of a steep rock face. It provided us a panoramic view of the entire area. In the distance I glanced upon Ballarayana Durga fort, our destination for the next day.  The wind here was crazy and refused to let us stand still for more than a few seconds. After a few superman poses we decided to head down. At this point it was about 5pm. I decided to let the two of them carry on and wait half-way up this hill for the sunset in the west. Though the grand sunset I envisioned never occurred the time spent alone on that hillside was simply magical.

  View from the hilltop.

As darkness began to set in I started moving towards base-camp.  As the entire team began to gather we had only one thing on our mind, dinner.  A three course meal in the middle of nowhere is a godsend. We started with soup; some awful MTR precooked rice and rotis and topped it off with canned Gulab Jamun.

The night was rather rough with constant gusts of wind sending shivers through our bodies. The fact that our tarpaulin structure collapsed in the middle of the night did not help our cause of getting some sleep.

PART 2
Event Name: Trek to Bandaje Arbbi falls and Ballalarayana Durga fort: BABD/6_26-27-Nov-2011
Original Writeup by: Aniruddha
Event organized by: Girish
Image Galleries: Raghavendra, Siddharth, Aniruddha, Brijesh, Girish, Johan, Naveen, Prabhakar

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Bandaje Arbbi Falls/3

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Bandaje Arbbi Falls / 2

This attempt started off with a frustration out of the fact that we have not trekked for entire seven months after our OG/1 in February. I could not analyze why these long delays only happen just after February every year, close to the appraisal time; may be many of us think IT companies evaluate us on the efforts put up only in these months. We did not plan anything as the memories of Bandaje Arbbi /1 were fresh in our minds. We called Narayana Gouda of Bandaje village to check the ground realities and a huge disappointment was in store in for us. He said that the Bandaje stream was over flowing due to recent rains and advised us to postpone our plans at least for three weeks. Our hands were full with workload and could not plan on something else with in the intended dates; we just wanted to elope out of Bangalore. So we thought of giving it a try even though it did not seem feasible, is this heights of frustration.
The team consisted of Vinayaka, Ambareesh, Sashi, Jayaloknath and myself. For Jayaloknath and me this was our second attempt. But I could sense that the excitement was not that high in the team including myself as many people backed out at the last moment and it was raining when we started our journey. We reached Bandaje village only to see that the place wore a monsoon look. We reached Narayana Gouda’s place at around 9.30am, he advised us to return back as it was not possible to cross the stream and also it was raining heavily after evening for a couple of days. We convinced him that we will see for a safe passage to cross the stream and if could not find we will return and started off from Babu Naik’s house.

We steadily started the ascent, the terrain was slippery but fortunately there were not much leeches compared to our previous trek. We were not mentally prepared for this trek and this proved by the early fatigue signs. We had frequent stops to replenish our energies and after a descent one and half hour trek we reached the smaller stream from here it would take half hour to the Bandaje stream. Small stream was flowing in full force and this seemed the end of our frustrated trek. We collectively decided to return back as there was no point to go up to the Bandaje stream and then return from there. In an hour we descended back to the village and this officially ended our smallest trek ever.

As soon has we left towards Idya the trek start point which now would be our trek exit point it started raining heavily. We managed to reach Idya and caught a local bus to Ujire .Now we were even more frustrated that we were returning back. The conductor of the bus informed about another waterfall close by; but don’t know why we did not listened to him consciously. After reaching Ujire caught another bus to Dharmastala and few minutes later we were lazily roaming the streets of the temple town. We cancelled our return tickets of Sunday night and booked tickets to Bangalore for the same day (Saturday),this is the advantage of e-booking.The cold weather tempted us to have a cup of pepper butter corn. We booked a temple room for 50/- and had a good cold water bath. Visited a nearby hotel and had a couple of onion dosas and coffee. I returned to the room to take a nap and others visited the temple and came late after finishing their dinner served at the temple as prasadam. We left the room and walked the whole way to new bus stand to board the waiting rajahamsa bus to Bangalore. Reached Bangalore and were at our home sweet homes a day earlier to every one’s surprise.

A big disappointment was in store for me as I checked a couple of news paper cuttings of different adventure places I have collected for years and by chance got to see a beautiful water fall named Anadka, this was the same water fall the bus conductor had mentioned to us. Anadka is a 365 day water fall and falls from the ridge of 120 feet high. After Idya (the start point of Bandaje Arbbi falls) one need to continue further for 12kms to reach Didipe from here a km away is Anadka village and from there a small trek leads you to this falls. One can board a local bus from Ujire to Didipe or hire an auto from Idya. There are other trekking trials from Ballalarayana Durga Fort to Anadka falls refer map 48 O/8 trekking this route will be an adventure in itself. Also only few of them have planned and manage to reach the base of the Bandaje Arbbi falls which will be another adventurous option. Also there is one more unexplored falls to the East of the Fort mentioned in map, may be the right route of the Y fork near the fort mentioned in Bandaje Arbi /1 will take you there.Know more about Anadka falls @ Treks and travels: Charmadi: Day two – Anadka and Ermayee falls

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Written by:Mudassar

Organized by:Mudassar

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Mudassar

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Bandaje Arbbi Falls/2

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Bandaje Arbbi Falls/1

Ironically I’m writing this write-up almost after 3 years and three visits to this falls.
Bandaje Arbbi falls, I first heard about this place from Harsha my colleague when I was in think 3. After the huge gap of six months in June, after Kodchadri trek we 9 ascenders from Bangalore thought of ascending Bandaje Arbbi Falls and conquering Ballalarayana Durga Fort. As usual lot of Google-ing, planning and mail exchanges were done. I some times wonder how olden day youngsters would have trekked these kind of places in past without the help of tools like Google Search, Google Maps, Google Earth, Wikimapia or without GPS devices which we are so dependent off. We all boarded 10.20 pm Dharmastala bounded rajahamsa bus from platform 23 of KSRTC bus stand. This started our journey towards Bandaje Arbbi. Team included Jaylokanath, Sandesh, Chetan, Naveen, Rahul, Nixon, Bhagwat, Deepak and I.
After reaching Dharmastala at 6.45 am first thing was to book tickets for the return journey, we were happy to see reservation counters open at this odd hour and with in no time we got tickets for Sunday nights travel from Dharmastala. Yes from Dharmastala I don’t remember why we booked from there because trek exit point would be sunkasale and the nearest town from there is kalasa or Horanadu. We must have booked from Hornaadu. Horanadu to Dharmastala is approximately 80 odd kms by road and there is no point in coming back here just to board a bus. May be we foresaw what’s going to happen next. Any ways next we caught bus to Ujre which is 8kms away and costs 7/head; there are lots of buses minus passengers to Ujre. Just beside Ujre bus stop there is a decent pay and use restroom were we finished our morning ablutions. Had sumptuous breakfast at Guruprasad hotel and later hired a jeep from stand which is opposite to the hotel. Rates are pretty straight 150/- per jeep up to Idya. Can cajole the driver and get yourself dropped till Bandaje village for the same price.
Idya is the start point for this trek, also there is one more not so popular start point called Mundaje. Reaching the base of the hill from Mundaje will take almost a day so there is no point in starting from this place. Had a quick photo session at Idya signboard and the arch which is a sort of tradition of our group. Bandaje village is 3 kms from here, we reached Narayan Gowda’s house with in 30 minutes, along the way we had the first distant glimpse of the falls. We met him and enquired about further directions, terrain and the water level in the stream which we were supposed to cross. One can call him and enquire this in advance or before planning for this trek, he can also arrange for a guide but were is the adventure in following a guide. I won’t write down his number here please mail me for the same. From here one is required to follow a small trial and go up to the last house of the village and there lives Babu Naik. This trial is blocked by a small stream one need to follow the left of the stream and later continue with the trail.
We met Babu Naik and enquired about the further directions. The trial to Bandaje Arbbi starts from Babu Naiks house, there are two trials here and u need to pick the right one which is quite clear and starts ascending, the same trial will take you out of the forest and ends at the grasslands after approximately 4 hours of trekking. Now we started a slow and steep ascent, as it was monsoon leeches accompanied us for most of the time; we took frequent breaks and energy bars were consumed. This stretch was pretty tough even for the seasoned trekkers like us, now it occurred to me why Harsha and his team retreated back from here when they attempted few years ago. We finally made it to the stream after two hours and an encounter with a Viper probably Malabar pit viper. We spent a cool 1 hour bathing in the chilled waters of Bandaje stream.
Consumed MTR packets for lunch and started for the second stretch of the jungle trek by now it started raining but we were prepared for this and kept moving. Now leeches started attacking us in full force but we could do nothing, the entire anti leech stuff applied was washed away and we were at the mercy of the leeches. After 1 hour of steep ascent we had a break but leeches would not take any break and kept brutally attacking us from all sides. It was still raining and we started off again in the forest cover, the trail was clear except at few places were there was some under growth due to recent rains. Leeches were all over the body and we could not stop to remove them because by the time we would remove them many more were climbing us, now we were on the look out for a safer place. Finally we got a big boulder at right side of the trial all climbed it and got rid of all the leeches. We started off again and 15 to 20 minutes later we were out of the forests.
Rain had subsided by now and we had glorious views of the grasslands and the below valleys we had photo secessions and captured all the beauty in our lenses. Mobile networks were also available and we called our dear ones to share the pleasant moments of our lives. There are no trials here in the grasslands so here be at the extreme left and start ascending the peak you need to reach the upstream of the falls. After few yards of ascending we saw the mesmerizing Bandaje Arbbi falls flowing down with deafening sound but we can’t approach the falls from this side. After few clicks we continued the ascend keeping ourselves at the left side of the grassland and with out entering the forest. After some time we saw a walled structure at the end of the grassland just before the forest and yes that was the camping spot for the day. This small walled structure is a dilapidated building and has a flat camping space we put up our make shift tent and relaxed for a while.
Sky was very cloudy and we could not see the sunset, very soon darkness engulfed and we hoped it would not rain or else we would have big trouble. Fortunately clouds cleared and we could see the fully bloomed moon. We had dinner and slept peacefully all the night as it did not rained.
A pleasant dawn greeted us, encircled by mist and the grassland wrapped itself with the dew drops and the thin rays of sunlight descending from the horizon; is this what we call HEAVEN.
A small trail opposite the walled structure leads precautiously to the upstream of the falls through the forest. Here we finished our morning ablutions and finished our breakfast. Now we had two tasks to complete one to reach the falls and the other one to conquer the fort and get down at the exit point on the other side. The only information we had was after crossing the upstream there are two trails left one goes to the falls and the right one goes to the fort. Now the question was were to cross the stream so that we could find the start point of these trials we searched nearby the camping spot but could not find any, also cross checked the map no 48 O/8 and the write-ups which we referred and carried none mentioned exact locations. Adding to these two first timers Chetan and Sandesh were reluctant to give a try and wanted to return back, some how we managed to convenience them and started to search the trial that crosses the stream. After few minutes of frantic search we got it. From the walled structure (camping spot) one needs to go right in the East direction (away from the falls) descending a bit and after few yards cross a small compound like wall and now start ascending along the wall towards the forest in the North direction here one can see a stone pyramid structure which is a district boundary marked by the forest department. To the left of the stone pyramid there is a trial that goes into the forest and crosses the upstream.
After crossing the stream (the last water spot) the path leads to a flat space which can be used as a camping spot but it’s not that safe because wild bison’s usually roam the opposite hill and the probability of their visit to the stream from that side can’t be ruled out. Here u can see two small trials left one goes into the forest and then to the falls and the right one opens in the valley of grassland. As we had lost considerable amount of time so we thought of skipping the falls a tough decision and headed towards the fort. After 15 minutes we crossed a small stream which joins the upstream of the falls (if water is available here that would be a bonus).after the stream there is one more small compound like wall that runs perpendicularly till the ridge of the hill. Continue ascending in the valley till it ends and now take left (parallel to the wall) and climb the steep ascent to reach the ridge once you are there you will be able to see the trial and this trial will take u to the fort which is also seen from here. I managed to reach here before others and could see the fort but by the time others reached fort hid under the thick fog.
Something else was in store for us; the peaks were surrounded by mist and the whole landscape was out of the world. The second day stretch is most beautiful and the most picturesque than any other place I have trekked in Karnataka so far. We continued the trial and after some time it started drizzling and now the place had become more mystic reducing the visibility only to few feet’s. It was past noon and still we could not reach or see the fort, after an hour we reached a Y fork and the confusions started here we did not know which trial to follow and the fort was invisible. Few were skeptical that I have seen any fort and the first timers were compelling to return back. Bhawat and Rahul went separately along both the trials for few meters and could not see anything and returned back. After few arguments and discussions that we were not sure about the route and did not have time to experiment in this thick fog and more ever we had booked our tickets from Dharmastala, we headed back with a heavy heart.
Now first timers were leading and I was at last very much upset that we could not do it in first attempt, thoughts were running in my mind when and how to plan for the second attempt. Now we were racing against time we needed to descend fast, very soon we reached the upstream filled our water bottles and started steep descend of grasslands. We reached the end of the grassland and now needed to enter the forests and here entering the exact point was important to pick the trial. We had not marked any signs as we did not know that we would return, but Nixon’s watchful eye picked the chocolate wrapper that some one threw the previous day. We picked trial and started the fast descend in the process Chetan had a bad ankle cramp; I and Jayloknath had to support him all along the remaining stretch our pace became very slow. Others had already reached Bandaje stream and after 45 minutes we too joined them, had our lunch and started by 4.30 pm. We were last to reach Babu Naik’s house at 6 pm we told him about the Y fork and the point of return, he said fort was 5 minutes straight climb from there. There were plenty of leeches as we could not stop more often and remove them so we removed them all here and reached the sole shop in Bandaje village near the school and had tea and biscuits. Considering Chetan’s cramp we decided to call a jeep to the village itself even no one was willing to trek up to Idya after 2 whole days of trekking. The owner of the shop arranged for the jeep which was to arrive at 7 pm. We wanted to get rid of the rotten and bloody clothes and had some time left for the jeep to arrive. It was dark and we had a nice bath using the bore well and changed into respectable clothes. Jeep arrived we struck a deal and got dropped at Dharmastala. We had a hearty dinner which ended with an ice-cream. Few visited Lord Manjunatha Swamy shrine and we all caught another Jeep as we needed to go to new bus stand to board the bus to Bangalore. Bus was on time and we entered the fairy wonderland as soon as the bus left Dharmastala.

Notes:
• Map required is 48 O/8, can buy this at Survey of India, Kormangala, Bangalore.
• The stretch from the upstream to the falls and from the Y fork to the fort and from the fort to the other side is mentioned in Bandaje Arbbi/3
• Bandaje Arbbi/2 describes the nearby places and other exploration options.
• Steep ascent at the very beginning would be very difficult for the first timers.
•Route: Bangalore> Dharmastala>Ujire>Somantadka>Bandaje village>Bandaje stream> Bandaje Falls> Ballalarayana Durga Fort>Durgadahalli>Sultanpete>Sunkasale>Kalasa> Horanadu>Bangalore.
•Two full days trek and permissions are not required.

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Written By: Mudassar
Organized By: Mudassar
Image Gallery:
Mudassar/Jayloknath ,Rahul

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