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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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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