Monsoon Trek to Tadiyandamol

Monsoon was at the peak, all rivers & lakes were flowing across the valley, the entire range was decorated by green carpet, many small waterfalls on it glory, mist, rain, wind, leaches made the trek more beautiful and challenging. Spontaneous variety of food-snacks throughout the journey!!! Yes it was Tadiandamol weekend trek with BangaloreAscenders on 27 – 28^th June 2015.

Tadiandamol is the second highest peak in Karnataka located near Kakkabbe, Virajapete Taluk, and Kodagu District.  It was a very special trek for me since my close friend Suresh organized the event.  The person who has motivated me and because of whom I am now mad about treks, thank you so much Suresh.  Secondly thanks to Shanthi Prasad, a wonderful person who made me join this trek.

I had been to the base point of the trek Nalakhand Palace thrice before this; however I was not able to venture it.  The main constrain was that I was with family on vacation.  This was one of to-do list of my treks since a long time.

26.06.2015

When I saw the preparatory mail by Suresh where he clearly assigned each and every individual to get certain things.  The list was endless and great effort by my friend but just got a shock, I asked myself “Are we going to trek? Or any party celebration”.

The grocery items listed below:

Name	Item Description
Karthik	Ghee 250gms  x 2 Pkts (Nandini only)
Shanthi Prasad	Tomato/ Vegetable Soup Packets for 25 persons & Tarpaulin
Vidyasagar	Knife 1
vivek bhat	2 Breakfast & 1 Dinner preparation items
Satish G	Potato 1kg
Kota M Anvinash	Capsicum – 2 Kg,
Basavaraj S	Tomato 4 Kgs, Serving Spoon
Ramesh Raithatha	Beans 1 ½ kgs
Arjun Muddaiah	Sugar 2 Kg
Ashwin V	04 persons Tent
Chandrakala BV	Tea Filter (New cloth or filter) & Knife 1
Sandeep Gowda	Cashew 500 gms, Almond 100gms, Dry Grapes 200gms
Naveen Gowda	Salt 500Gms & Crystal salt 500Gms
HEMANTH K	Big Serving spoon
Priyank Goel	Good Life Milk 4 Ltrs.
Pragati Agrawal	Cucumber 4nos.
Sowmya s n	Coriander leaves, Curry leaves each 1 bunch, Green Chili 400 Gms., Lemon 12 Nos, Ginger 300 gms
Anvesh Reddy	Tea Powder 500gms., Coffee Powder 100 Gms
Rekha G	Potato Chips 1 Kg & Khara Bhundi 500 Gms ( MTR or Mayas)
Girish NL	Mung Dal 1 Kg
Prabhakar Gowda	Onion 5 Kg, Carrot – 4 Kg,
Rathna V	Green Peas 01 Kg
Skanda	Sun flower Oil 1 Ltrs
Sunil Kumar OG	04 persons Tent
Suresh	Bread, Jam/ Tomato sauce

I called Suresh to get confirmation about the trek. Reached the pickup point Shanthala Silk well before the time.  After some time one by one joined us.  The mini bus was ready to take us, team size was 26 members.  Left Majestic around 11 pm. There were many known trek friends and few were new, the journey was smooth.

27.06.2015

When I opened my eyes we were already in Kodagu district. The hills were decorated by clouds, everywhere water was overwhelming all the way, and entire atmosphere was filled with peak monsoon. We reached the base point of Nalakhand palace around 7.30 am. I have to appreciate Suresh’s organizing skills, he booked a small home at starting point of trek. He called Thammayya to arrange a Jeep to carry our grocery items. You may imagine the volume of the items considering a big team of 26 members.

Soon we finished our morning itinerary near the stream.  Few of us headed by walking towards Thammayya’s house which is around 4 km away from the place.  The tar road will run you through the beautiful valley with many coffee estates.  On the way we came across many small falls which were on their glory. We reached the base camp home by around 9 am.  The small old house of Thammayya is a very peaceful place.  This is the last home on the way to Tadiandamol.  This is a best place if anyone is planning a day-out with family & kids. This is the first trek where I did not take even Biscuits with me.  I was hungry and wanted to have something, friends shared light snacks so I was able to manage till the breakfast.

The cooking team was excellent.  The team is headed by great guys Vivek Bhat and Prabhakar, who supported the entire team. The supporting team members were Sunilkumar, Anvesh, Madan, Pragathi, Rekha, Naveen, Chandrakala, Ashwin and the entire team.  They are professionals and planned the entire menu.  Filled our stomach with spontaneous Awalakki and coffee.

Everyone was now ready to venture the Tadiandamol, the highest peak around Kodagu.  We took the group pic and headed towards the summit.

The climate was perfect and rain was pouring with intervals.  Initial trail was through the normal ascend with view of beautiful valley.  Crossing small waterfalls we reached the grass land.

We found a big rock where we have to keep towards right.  The mist was high, so could not see anything beyond 10 meters.  The summit becomes more and more ascend from this point.  We took multiple breaks for photographs. After a steep ascend we entered into dense jungle.  The leaches were on their job, many of us had sweet bite of them.  Reached the Tadiandamol peak around 12.30 Noon.  Because of the huge mist, we missed to witness the beauty of the valley.  We enjoyed the moments of the rain, mist and wind.  Spent couple of minutes on the peak.  Now was the time to move back.

The descending part was not much difficult, taking multiple breaks reached the big rock.  Photography took more time with each one of the group.  Adieu to the Tadiandamol valley. We then headed towards Thammayya home for night camp. Reached home by 3 pm, where we had enough time.  The hot water was ready for bath. We all took bath and got refreshed. Soon the great team served hot tea and coffee followed by Sandwich.  Few of us engaged with playing cards, few chitchat with their experiences, few were indulged in preparation of dinner.  The entire atmosphere was looking like a wedding ceremony.  Each one of us were enjoying the moment.

I and Shanthi Prasad had a small walk around the valley.  We met one more team who were trekking with different trail.  Heard their adventurous encounters with unlimited leach bites.  The Thammayya home is well structured to enjoy the valley with family.  We decided to re-visit this place with beloved ones (family).

The dinner was ready with payasam. Salute the effort and interest of the core cooking team in serving all of us spontaneous food. We had to adjust a bit due to place constraint. The team was not in mood to spend any more time for any cultural activity.  The rain was pouring heavily; so we missed the fire camp.

28.06.2015

The morning was always early for me in any trek; got up at 4.30am and finished morning itinerary.  One by one everyone got ready.  Morning again tea-coffee with biscuits and bread.  Soon the team prepared Uppittu & Kesari Bath.  Finished our breakfast and had a photography session around the home. The home is situated in a beautiful place. It was then time to head towards the palace where our vehicle was waiting.

Enjoying the valley soon we all reached to Nalakhand palace. The caretaker of palace briefed about the place and its history. Very soon finished the palace visit and proceeded towards the next destination which was Cheluvara Falls. The Cheluvara falls is around 15km away from this place.  You have to take deviation near Cheyyandane village.  I am well versed with this place, last year I had been this place with family.  The Cheluvara falls on it peak flow, could not venture inside the water.  Spent couple of minutes watching the glorious falls.

The time was passing very fast,

our initial plan was to visit Cheluvara Falls and Mandalapatti.  Due to time constrain, we decided to skip Mandalpatti.  The time was 12 Noon and no one was interested to visit any other place.  Finished our lunch near Virajpete at a dhaba.

The return journey was busy with everyone watching movies.  Soon we hit the Mysuru city, as usual the Mysuru – Bengaluru worst traffic.  We had no option to tolerate the journey, reached Bengaluru majestic by 9.45 pm.  One by one we all bid adieu.  Over all it was a wonderful wedding ceremony / NCC Camp for me. I was missing my DSLR on this trek.

Thanks to:

Entire team who was very co-operative and enjoyed each moment.

The cooking team who were excellent and served delicious food through out the trek

Suresh & Shanthi for making me join this trek

Bangalore Ascenders for organizing a wonderful Monsoon Trek

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Vidya Sagar

Composed by: Ramakrishna Nagaraja

Date: 27 & 28th June 2015

Event Organized by: Suresh Babu

Image gallery: Sunil, Hemanth Kumar & Sowmya

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Motor bike trip to Ganalu Falls and Shivanasamudra – 7th June, 2015

It had been quite a while since I went on a road trip on my bike, hence when I saw mail from BASC with the title, I immediately felt the need to register for the trip. To make things better, I noticed that the organizer was Patrick Samuel, with whom I had been on a New Year day bike ride to Kanva reservoir. So immediately registered for the event and received the confirmation as well.

On Sunday, 7^th June, 2015 we all decided to meet at Jayadeva Flyover at 6.15 AM. Everyone were on time and we left Jayadeva by 6.30 AM as per schedule. We headed towards Kanakapura road and couple of folks joined us near Banashankari. Once we crossed the NICE road – Kanakapura road junction, we parked the vehicles on the side of a road and had the customary introduction.

Post the introductions we headed towards our first destination – Ganalu Falls. It was around 7.30 AM as we entered Kanakapura. We decided to have our breakfast at Vasu Hotel. However, since it being a Sunday, the place was extremely crowded. Hence we decided to visit another hotel for our breakfast. Hot idli-vada with spicy sambhar and some hot tea, all of us were set to resume our journey. Soon we were zooming past the pristine Kanakapura Road (NH – 209). We all decided that our next stop would be Sathanur. The road was in great condition most of the times, with some stretches being recently re-laid. This way, we could maintain good speeds and were as per our schedule. We all regrouped at Sathanur and then decided our next stop would be Halaguru, where we were supposed to take a turn from the NH. As per our plan, we reached Halaguru at around 9 AM. We then took the village road towards Ganalu. We did lose some time as we were stuck behind a tractor for a considerable amount of time in a narrow road. The sight of Yamaha Fazer, Bullet, R15 and Karizma ZMR dragged some eyeballs from the curious looking villagers.

At one junction we took the help of the villagers, as we were not very sure regarding the route that GPS and Google Maps were showing us. However the ever helpful villagers made sure that we were always on the right path. Few stretches of the village roads were also in great condition. However, post some distance, we had to take a muddy path to reach the waterfalls. This road was completely filled with gravel and gave us a good chance to test our bikes off-roading capabilities. Somehow we were able to reach the waterfalls by following the sound of water. We parked our bikes and headed down the trail to the water falls. It was a small path to the falls and we reached quite quickly. Though the water in the falls was not at high levels, it was good enough, considering it was summer. We had a quick photo session and drank some cool fresh water directly from the streams. We decided to head back and climbed our way up the rocks. The uphill climb was a bit taxing as by then it was around 11 AM and the sun had reached its maximum power.

We started our bikes and headed back. We had crossed a stream on our way in. We decided that a dip in the canal was a must and all of us stopped our bikes  and headed for the water. It was a great feeling to get inside the water.

Post the swimming session and few more pics on our bikes with the background as the canal, we headed back to NH 209 to continue our journey towards Shivanasamudra. We decided to have our lunch at Malavalli. Post the filling lunch we headed towards Gaganachukki view point and reached by 2PM. We also had plans to visit Bharachukki, however with the bridge being closed we decided against it. The view of Gaganachukki was simply breathtaking. The water levels were considerably high. We decided to head back to Bengaluru and had some refreshments at Gaganachukki view point.

Post that we hit NH 209 and were riding back towards Bengaluru at decent speeds. We had decided to meet at all important junctions to make sure that we don’t miss anyone. During one of our stops at Halaguru, we learnt that one of the bikes had a punctured rear tyre. So we waited for it to be repaired and headed back to Bengaluru. We were back at the NICE road junction by 5PM and bid our final goodbyes to each other.

Participants: Patrick (Karizma ZMR), Bhupati (Pulsar), Ramkumar and Dinesh (R15), Manoj (Bullet 500),Pravin and Avinash (Impulse), Pramod and Gan (Fazer)

Total Distance covered: RT Nagar to RT Nagar – 330 KM

Route: Bengaluru – Kanakapura – Sathanur – Halaguru – Ganalu – Halaguru – Malavalli – Gaganachukki – Malavalli – Sathanur – Kanakapura – Bengaluru.

Road Conditions: Good most of the times. (Single lane NH 209 and village roads)

Ride level: Easy-Moderate

Best time to visit Ganalu: Post monsoons, since the approach roads can get very tricky to drive during monsoon, and during summer the water levels can be very low.

Best time to visit Gaganachukki: June – January.

Written by:

Event Organised by: Patrick Samuel

Date: 7th June 2015

Composed by: Ramakrishna Nagaraja

Image Gallery: Manoj

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Trek to Narayanagiri

Our trek to Narayanagiri, Jalamangala near Ramanagaram, the town made famous by the Bollywood movie ‘Sholay’ was quite exciting not just because of the nostalgia associated with the place but for the place itself. We boarded the train to Ramanagara from Bangalore railway station at around 8 15 a.m and as always the train came quite late. It was almost packed but most of us managed to find a seat. After an hour or so we alighted at the Ramanagar station and headed out for breakfast at a nearby Adiga and took parcel for the lunch. From there we boarded the bus to Jalamangala, our trekking destination for the day.

After around 15 to 20 minutes in the bus we walked for another 400 metres to the base of the hill. We snapped a few pictures and started climbing at around 11: 10 am it was a moderately difficult trek.

   

It is definitely one of the most mesmerizing amazing climbs one can take and the view is just breathtaking and will present you with a whole new perspective. The hill itself is quite beautiful with many crevasses narrow pathways.   The hill doesn't have any traditional steps or railings so we had to climb it the old fashioned way, which made it all the more exciting and fun.

On our way we were accompanied by a family who shared our enthusiasm for trekking. We later found that our interest aligned not just for trekking but also books and literature. 

Exploring the hill and the crevasses we reached the top At around 1 p.m. We were still spellbound by the beauty and the scenery at the peak. It overlooked the entire town and was a sight to behold. After sometime we sat down for lunch, sharing stories of the town and the nearby locations.

We started the descend at around 2 p.m, and after a few hours we took the bus to Ramanagaram railway station and reached Bangalore at around 6 p.m. It was definitely a trek to remember.

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Saleem

Date: 18th Jan 2015

Composed by: Shruthi Venugopal

Event organized by: Shamanth P

Image Gallery: Nikhil, Kishore

Crew : Ranjith Damodaran, Kishore, Jyothi, Manideep, Sharat Honnatti, Aparna S Honnatti, Shamanth, Sagar Mehta, Shailesh Sohani, Nikhil, M A Arun, Saleem U, Vikram Thakur, pragati agrawal, Kumar, Medha 

  

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Bicycle ride to Devarayanadurga

Cycle is a funny machine,
the driver is it’s engine!

Life is like a 10 gear cycle,

Most of us have gears we never use!!

Yet another journey with BASC, yet another journey with Patrick, yet another milestone achieved!
This seems to have become a habit now!
It was during the Ganesh festival weekend that Patrick organized a seemingly incredible 160+ km Cycle ride to Devarayanadurga. I was like, why not, after all I always complain about not getting enough company to accompany me on my occasional weekend cycle rides in and around Bangalore!

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Night Trek to Kaurav Kunda

I am Vinayak Surve, a Veterinarian from Mumbai. My childhood and teenage life is spent in Sahyadri, Konkan region, Ratnagiri District of Maharashtra. Naturally, I have some experience of crossing hills, rivers, forest and different challenging trails.

Preparations:

Thought about going to Kaurava Kunda trek was exciting to me because it was my first trek with experienced trekking group where I was supposed to meet new friends with great interest in trekking. I received an email from Patrick (organizer) and rushed to buy trekking tools and gears like wind jacket, sleeping bag, torch, snacks, etc. Sharing this pre-trekking excitement was great fun with friends, family, colleagues and everyone whom I met during that week.

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Monsoon Trek to Nishani Motte/ Betta

Not sure how many leeches have bitten me and not sure where and all it attacked. Certainly it was one of my most difficult monsoon treks as of now. The rain, wind, steep ascend and the leeches made it tough, for all my buddies. Did many treks earlier in monsoon, however this was the one where I got leech bites all over my body. You might be thinking introduction itself is started from leeches! Of course during the course of the two days, everyone was more concerned about the leeches.

Nishani Motte / Betta is relatively unknown peak in the range of Bhagamandala (Talacauvery) range, Coorg. The trek distance from the base point Talacauvery is around 14 to 15 kilometers. We can enjoy the 360 degree panorama view, which is wonderful and most beautiful. Layers of the hills covered with clouds and mist is awesome. We can spot the villages, across the Kerala border, if the view is clear.

Our planned trek route was:

1^st Day: Talacauvery to Nishani Motte (Betta) – Night Camp at APC

2^nd Day: APC – Kurudi – Bhagamandala

27.06.2014

We started our journey with 21trek friends, at 10.45pm from Shanthala Silks, in a mini bus. Many known faces and few were new. This was my first trek with Vinay who organized this event. The journey was pleasant and reached the Bhagamandala around 6 am.

28.06.2014

Before this, I had been at Bhagamandala, thrice. Each time the weather was pleasant, greenery everywhere and had seen the entire range flooded with small falls. The Triveni Sangama was in full flow each time. Unfortunately, this time I was disappointed; understood from a local that, since a week, there was no rain in this range. 

After getting freshened up in the morning, took Sri Bhagandeshwara Swamy darshanam and headed to have breakfast at a nearby hotel. Packed pulav for lunch and had idly-vada for breakfast. Meantime Vinay purchased the grocery items, for the preparation of the day’s dinner and the next day’s breakfast. Our guide Jayaprakash & his colleague (another forest official) joined us and we finished the necessary formalities for the trek, at the Bhagamandala Forest Office.

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Night trek to Kabbal Durga

It was my first trek with Bangalore ASCENDers (BASC), I was so excited about the event and I called Vinay many times to know the details about the trek. Common meeting point was at Jayanagar 4th block near Jain Temple, we gathered at 7.30 PM but started journey by 8.30 PM. 

Since we all were hungry we decided to have food on the way, so we went to Kamath hotel and finished food and started journey by 10.30 PM.
There were 3 cars, I was in Promod’s car, Kunal and Sathish were accompanying along with me and we started our journey towards Kabbal-durga. It was a great journey, in-between Pramod was cracking nice jokes.

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Kumaraparvata Clean-up & Awareness drive in April 2014

BASC completed its first cleanup drive in Kumaraparvatha (KP) on the occasion of its 5th B'Day. A big THANKS to all the participants (Satya, Sandeep, Anitha, Vinuthna, Ramkumar, Govind, Ram roop, Sreedhar, Srikanth, Kamal & Skanda) for the hard work done in collecting garbage and taking it back to Kukke. Team work made BASC's first clean-up drive a successful event. Also thanks to driver, Chetan & his friend Lokesh for joining us in cleanup drive. We collected 22 bags of garbage!!! And same we took back to Bangalore and dumped in plastic recycle plant near Nayandahalli. Thanks to plant owner Selva who waited for us till 11:15PM.

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Write-up from Sandeep Kulkarni:

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Let me breakdown my post event write up into two parts.

1. One about the cleanup drive and creating awareness

2. General Event write up.

1. Cleanup drive and creating awareness.

I never imagined a cleanup drive would be so much fun. As a team we got to undo at least some of the mess, which some people had left behind. We could not completely wipe out the man made hazardous materials, but it was a great attempt though.

If more and more individuals come together and work together we not only can make Kumaraparvata litter free but also create a basic awareness amongst all those nature lovers who come to Kumaraparvata, to be more responsible. (Applies to other places too). A big round of thanks to the entire team who stood united during the whole event. Also a special thanks to our driver Chetan and spotter Lokesh, who voluntarily participated in the cleanup event and also helped us to bring back the wastage to Bangalore.

Thanks to Ambareesh Karanth for short listing me for this event.

2. General Event write up

No sooner I saw the registrations open for BASC Kumaraparvata clean up drive, event. I registered. I was looking forward for the clean up activity but prior to the trek my main motivation was to reach the peak. (Nothing to hide though). We did not reach the peak, but in the end and I came out as a proud and happy man after making some contribution during this event.

It all started on a Friday late evening 18th April at 10PM where we assembled for our pickup. Amongst the whole team, I only knew Ram Roop as I had met him during the Hampi photography event. Around 10:20PM odd, our vehicle arrived. Surprisingly we could see a driver and along side him was another person, you can call him navigator/spotter/cleaner. Let me tell you these two people not only accompanied us to Kukke but also till Bhattara Mane, involving in the cleanup activity all the way. It was like having two extra pair of hands and indeed a pleasant surprise. Believe me it helped a lot too!

Others in the group comprised of Ram Kumar, Govind, Ambareesh, Satya, Skanda, Kamal, Dr Srikant, Sridhar, Anita and Vinutna. Chetan was the driver and Lokesh was his friend accompanying him. It was a regular drive on Mangalore highway where heavy rains greeted us after Kunigal. For few minutes it was rain, rain and more rain. Eventually, after around 25-30 minutes of time, it stopped to rain. We had couple of breaks during the journey, one initially, just after the 60 kilometer toll road ends and the other one somewhere near Sakaleshpura. We made it to Kukke around 4 20 AM. The van was parked next to the Kumaradhara river. We got freshened up in a while and around 6 10 AM we started towards Kukke. We had breakfast at the hotel opposite to Neo Mysore Cafe. We filled our water bottles were about to start for the trek.

There was a change in plan. Initially we thought, all would go to the peak and camp. But since it was raining in Kukke since 4 days, we thought of reaching the peak and coming back to Bhattaramane. Chetan and Lokesh told, they would accompany us along the trek. Ambareesh split the entire team of 12 + 2 into two.

First Team which would trek fast and reach the peak and start cleaning from the Kumaraparvata peak. 

Second Team which would start cleanup activity right from ground zero, I mean from the (main road) entrance till Bhattaramane.

It was 7 AM i think when we started. Being part of the first team, I felt good, I thought I could trek fast and cover good distance and start cleanup at the peak. The team comprised of Govind, Ram Kumar, Ram Roop, Satya, Skanda, myself and Sridhar. We stayed together at a good speed till Bheemana Bande after which Sridhar and myself were behind by 5 minutes than the rest of the team. We did not do any cleanup on the way and our only intention was to reach Bhattaramane quick. Then dump extra luggage and start cleaning from over there. The first team (except me and Sridhar) reached Bhattaramane around 8 40AM. I was behind by 10-12 minutes owing to my cramps and Sridhar was behind me by 3 minutes or so. But the good thing was I walked alone. So much serenity, so much silence, nature at its best, cannot ask for more. The humidity was there, but that was sidelined. When I reached Bhattaramane, Ram and others were ready to make a move. I too immediately reduced my baggage weight by unloading some of the stuffs at Bhattaramane. Meanwhile Sridhar too came. All of us then made a move towards the forest check post, and Sridhar caught up with us over there.  This was the first time, I was making a move from Bhattaramane this early and that too without lunch. For a minute I was wondering whether, not having food would make a difference. But it did not. It indeed was a time saver. We reached the first view point and started picking litter over there. Then towards second view point and slowly we gathered litter all along the way till Kallu Mantap water source. It was 11 45 AM I guess. We had covered whole lot of ground and also reached Mantap pretty quick.   Ram and Govind decided we would finish snacks/food and then start once again with the cleanup. So we took a break near the Kallu mantap water source and after 20 minutes we were back again. Dividing ourselves into different teams, we scouted the area around the water source for 1.5 hours more. We ended up with 4 full bags of waste. Govind's bag was a huge one more than 7 kilos. While me and Sridhar took a break near the water source, Ram, Govind and others made a move to the Kallu mantap, to put up banners asking nature lovers to keep KP clean.

At 1 40PM, we took a call, not to move towards the peak, due to many reasons. One being time constraint. It would be difficult to reach peak, do a cleanup and then bring back waste, before it turns dark. And we did not have torches too.

Second being chances of rain. If it rains, its really difficult to manage, since few of us were carrying lot of luggage. So we headed right back to Bhattaramane. Initially I was disappointed that, I could not reach the peak. But, yeah, reaching peak was never the event's priority. It was cleanup. Getting down was a bit tough, the way was packed with stones. Ram, Govind, Satya, Sridhar each carried one fully loaded bag containing plastic waste. Me and Skanda initially managed to share the load by carrying the bag using a stick, with each one holding one end. But it was difficult and needed synchronization. The moment Skanda took the bag by himself, he rocketed. Meanwhile Ram and Govind too were ahead of us. So it was 4 of us behind, Ram, Satya, Sridhar and me. After certain distance, Ram took up Satya’s bag and me took Sridhar's bag. We finally made it to forest check post at around 4 50 PM or something.

Ambareesh and others were about to enter the forest, looking out for us, if we needed any help to get the waste bags back. Now the whole team came back to Bhattaramane. We freshened up and it was a pleasant surprise to see, lunch was still available. Food felt really good after this cleanup exercise. Ate till my stomach was full and took couple of minutes to rest. Ram Roop went towards view point 1 to take some pictures and rest of the crew headed to a nearby view point. Evening dinner was served at 8PM. Then it was sleep time. We woke up early. Everyone was now focused on how to get the bags down and also collect the waste bags which had been gathered by Team 2 along the way. Yes Team 2 had worked pretty hard to gather stuffs along the way to Bhattaramane. In the process they had accumulated the litter at certain points, which needed to be picked up along the way down.

Started early, Satya, took one waste gunny bag and headed first then, Ram Kumar and Ram Roop headed with their gunny bags too followed by Govind and Ambareesh. Skanda managed to take Govind's backpack along with his and Kamal took Ram Kumar's and one more backpack with him . Vinuthna took Satya's backpack along with hers, I had my backpack and one gunny bag with me. Anita, Vinuthna , Dr Srikant, Sridhar, Chetan and Lokesh were the one's who were looking out for waste and litter along the way. Rest of them, had loaded and sealed bags, hence proceeded right with the descent.

As usual, I was the slowest during the descent, but right after Bhattaramane, where we encounter a major dustbin, Govind, Ambareesh, Anita, Sridhar, Dr Srikant, stayed back segregating the waste from the dustbin and picking plastic ones. Now I got a chance to move ahead. Meanwhile Skanda too started looking out for litter along the way. On the way, I then caught up with Ram Kumar and Kamal who were taking a breather. Then I caught up with Vinuthna, Lokesh and Chetan. Their tally of bags had almost doubled. Together between them they now had 6 plastic bags hanging by a big wooden stick plus their backpacks. Later I took a break when some of the guys moved ahead. Meanwhile, Ram Roop and Satya had made it to the main road ,and Satya was back again, to take few more bags. Eventually the whole team was back to the entrance by 10 15 AM.

Ram Kumar, Chetan and Lokesh went ahead to bring the vehicle near the entrance so that we could load the bags right up over here. A family who noticed and appreciated what we were doing, agreed to drop Ram Kumar, Chetan and Lokesh to the place where our TT was parked. Indeed thanks to them. One more team from Mangalore comprising of 4-5 guys lent us their entire nylon thread which we used to tie up few bags. Thanks to you too guys. But we could only load few of the bags since there was a electric wire, which would come in contact with the bags. So with few bags loaded we headed towards Kumaradhara river where we found shelter under a tree and loads of time to tie up the bags on top of the van. All the huge bags were now bundled into medium size gunny bags and the total tally went up to 22 bags. Chetan and Govind did a tremendous job in loading the bags on the van and later all of us made it to the Kumaradhara river to take a dip. The water was warm and it felt good. The cleanup activity was a success. We felt refreshed and then we moved to the same hotel where we had our breakfast.

Completed our lunch and were off by 3 30 PM. With couple of breaks in between we made it to Nelamangala by 9 30 PM. We could make it to Nayandahalli by 11 PM after dropping few of them at Shantala Silks. I got down at Nayandahalli, where the van proceeded to a recycler.

So two days of sheer fun & hard work came to a close. 

Things to take away.

> Loads of time spent amidst nature.

> Tremendous team work.

> Doing our bit, in keeping KP clean.

> Meeting interesting & like-minded people.

> Dip in Kumaradhara

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Write-up from Ram Roop

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On the weekend before Earth Day ( 22nd April ) 12 enthusiastic members from BASC embarked on an ambitious and noble cause of removing the non bio-degradable waste ( plastics bottles , covers etc ) from the beautiful Kumara Parvatha .

We arrived at Kukke at 4:30 AM on Saturday 19/April/2014 and after having a heavy breakfast we split-up into two teams comprising of 7 members. I was part of the team comprising of Ramkumar , Govind , Skanda , Satya, Srikanth and Sandeep and our task was to clean up the region starting from Bhattru Mane to the peak.

We started our trek at 7:00AM and our staggering pace ensured that we reached Bhattru Mane at 8:40 AM .  From Bhattru Mane we went to the office of the forest guard. The officer there was pleased to hear about the brilliant initiative by Bangalore Ascenders and even offered to help us by requesting his sub-ordinate to assist us with disposing the garbage.

As we trekked towards the Kallu Mantapa it was clear that we will have an extremely difficult task of clearing the massive garbage left behind. After filling multiple bags of garbage it was clear that it would not be feasible to trek beyond Kallu Mantapa and go towards the peak owing to time constraints.

After collecting all the garbage around Kallu Mantapa we headed back to Bhatru Mane . A few of us felt adventurous and slept at the breathtaking view point - “Raja Seat” . Even though most of us had sleeping bags we were forced to use a tarpaulin sheet as a bed sheet owing to the intermittent rain fall.

The next day ( Sunday 20/April/2014 ) we left Bhattru Mane at 8:10Am as we knew that our descend will be extremely slow as each of us had to carry a garbage bag in addition to our trekking bag. After reaching the base of the mountain we tied the garbage bags to the top of our Tempo Traveller and cooled ourselves in a nearby lake. Next we ate a sumptuous lunch and headed back to Bangalore.

Wanna know about the trash we found at KP? … keep reading ( order - most expected to the least expected )

·         Cigarette packets

·         Potato chips packets / Chocolate wrappers

·         Water bottles

·         Alcohol bottles

·         Shoes

·         A dominos pizza box + the seasoning, etc.

Each of us had a great experience at KP and we are happy that we removed as much garbage as possible from the beautiful peak .

The task of having a clean and green Kumara Parvatha will be tough and each of us realize that this initiative should be repeated multiple times to achieve that goal , but “ A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step “ , and I am glad that Bangalore Ascenders ( special thanks to Ambareesh for organizing the event ) have taken the initiative to kick start “project KP” ( taking the liberty to give the initiative a name ).

I would like to thank Ambareesh Karanth for giving me the opportunity to be part of such a great initiative and I would also like to thank all the participants for having made this a memorable experience.Until next time , Happy trekking

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Date: 19 & 20 April 2014

Composed by: Sandeep Kulkarni

Event organized by: Ambareesh Karanth

Image Gallery:

Dr Srikanth, Sandeep Kulkarni, Ram Roop

The team : Ambareesh Karanth, Govind Gorur, RamKumar UN, Satya Prakash Panigrahi, Ram Roop, Skanda S, Anitha MS, Vinuthna, Dr Srikanth K, Sridhar Thyagarajan, Sandeep Srinivas Kulkarni, Chetan, Lokesh

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