this is our team minus me,bharath and sri....from L to R..kiran..padmini..sharath..balu....
akshaya..keerthana..keerthy and harini...
The name “maaribetta” itself sounds kinda frightening….and so does its terrain for beginners…but as adventurous people put it , the more challenging the trek , more thrill it is…
The place for the trek was actually kinda accidental…balu actually came across this place on the web on some1’s blog site…just like mine(hope my blog also comes to some1’s use)…well…I wont giv that link on my blog…I ll try to give u a better idea of maaribetta since it is actually unknown to most people…and wud u believe if I say that even the so called local people dunno much abt it..!!...but then…that’s how trek spots shud be…unexplored…unknown…and the like…
Let me start it from the beginning…
The day was 26th of jan, 2007....Our team had 11 ppl…quite a long list…me…keerthy…balu….srikanth…kiran…bharathraj…sharath…keerthana..padmini…akshaya….and harini…(the names are in no specific order…hehe..)...and we had 6 bikes..with srikanth riding single on his bike..people started coming to keerthy’s house from 7 AM…and by the time everyone(minus srikanth) were present it was abt 730…we 10 ppl set out on 5 bikes by 745…srikanth was waiting near the konankunte cross…we stopped there for a minute to say “hey..sri how are u??...long time no c…”..(hehe)…and wen we left the konankunte cross(plus srikanth) it was exactly 755 on my watch…
The road is quite good at most of the parts…so…without any probs we reached kanakpura by 840…had our breakfast in one of the restaurants there…and while some of them were still eating…2-3 of us thot of enquiring the locals abt directions to maaribetta…and to our shock….though maaribetta is located just abt 4 kms from kanakpura none of the locals knew abt it…so in addition to the trek we had another big job in hand…searching for the trek spot…(well that’s wat happens wen we plan a trek by just reading some1’s blog…hehe)…but searching is not at all an irritating job…its quite interesting(only as long as u succeed…hehe)…believe me….
We just had to travel abt 2-3 kms off course to find the exact place…this was after some enquiry from the villagers…from kanakpura we need to go along the ramanagara road for abt 3-4 kms and then take a left turn…and from there we need to go for abt a km on the mud road…one of the villagers was kind enuf to let us park our bikes in his/her house….
From this place u can see the 2 peaks at a distance of abt a kilometre…a 15-20 minute walk along the mudroad thru the village takes us to the foot of the 2 hills…the one to the left is less taller than the one to the right…and the valley in between these hills is the actual path to be taken to reach the durga temple which is located behind both these hills at the end of the valley and below….
We set out thru the thorny-shrubs filled valley…the time was already about 930…we waded past so many king-sized anthills for abt 1 or 1.5 hours when we came to a dead-end…there was literally no path to take except the steep rocks which were amazingly at an angle of about 80 degrees with respect to the ground…while most of the team members decided to sit and rest for a while at this place, keerthy , me and balu decided to hav some fun by climbing those rocks…(inspired by MI2 and lakshya)…keerthy was the first one to start the ascent while me and balu watched…and once keerthy descended ,me and balu started…!!..we went as far as keerthy went and even decided to further climb up the steep rock…we were successful to some extent…but then stopped at some point where we thot it wud b too risky to go any further…we had some of our snaps taken on this steep hill and then started down….
Since this place was a dead-end , we decided to go all the way down again and take another route which wud lead us thru the valley and to the temple…now at abt 1130 we were again at ground zero…keerthy and sri enquired some locals abt the path to the temple and we were asked to take the route along the plains(which we really dint wanna take since it wud be more a hike than a trek)..but we had no other choice actually…so we simply started walking thru those plains with keerthy and sri in the lead(abt half a km)…and since they were in the lead they happened to meet some small children(the oldest being abt 9-10 years old and the youngest one being 6-7 years old)…and more like a coincidence since it was a national holiday for republic day the kids were simply killing time(I presume…hehe)…keerthy and sri asked them for directions to the durga temple and to our relief those kids knew the path thru the valley and the steep rocks to the durga temple…so were kinda thrilled cos we cud put an end to the hike and start the actual trek…
So now we started it all over again at exactly 12 PM…The very beginning of the trek consisted of some very steep rocks…and then too many thorny shrubs….there were infact so many thorny shrubs that each one of us had atleast 10 marks either on our faces or on our hands or both…and believe me…u can easily get lost in this area…
To reach the temple we actually can take a shorter path thru only thick forest cover and cud reach there within 1.5 hours…but the kids took us thru those paths consisting of steep rocks and thorny shrubs…and to reach the temple thru the route we were taking now , we had to reach the zenith of the left peak shown in the pic(shown below) and then descend the peak…and then hike for abt 2 kms thru the thick forests again…and I must mention that these forests get really really creepy at some places…that too wen u are in the middle of it and see the rocky mountains on both sides…well I do believe that there are chances of some wild animals being there…but then…its just my view…hehe…
We finally reached the temple at 2 PM...had our lunch there…saw the temple…shared our lunch with those kids…drank water from the well nearby(the water was greenish to luk at and I was really scared to drink it….but then since we dint hav much water left , had to make gud of whatever was available at the well and luckily dint fall sick the next day cos of that water…)…then left the place at exactly 3PM thinking it wud take exactly abt 2 hours to get back to the place we started…
And before I go any further, one special mention abt harini’s trekking ability…I really dunno from where she generates so much energy…she never complained and completed the whole trek as if it was a walk in the park…and now for sure I know that she will b craving for more and more trekking…hehe…kudos….!!
The first 1 KM hike was along the same path we tuk to reach the temple…but the path simply kept us leading thru the creepy forests no end…we simply kept on walking for abt half an hour and wen we took a luk down the valley we were astonished to see that the place we started the trek was just a few 100 metres below us…we had actually without knowing taken an alternate route for the return journey which completely avoided those steep rocky mountains…and within 45 mins we were at the place where it all began ,at the foot of the 2 biggy biggy mountains…compare this 45 mins with the 2 hours we tuk earlier…..unbelievable !!…and wen we reached the house where we had parked our bikes it wasn’t even 4 PM..!!...
We rested there for a while and left the place by 5 in the evening…and we were at keerthy’s place again by 630 PM..!!...and thus finished another trek…
I just waited for the next day to hear whose legs ached and whose dint…hehe…well…mine actually dint…lucky me…
That’s about the maaribetta trek…and I wud be happy if u leave any comment before u leave this page…!!!!!
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