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.

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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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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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