The starting point of the trek1st February 2008-friday
10 PM
The qualis starts from Balu's place at Madivala. Picks Srikanth(kaams) from Banashankari at around 1030 PM and Me(Pavan) and Avinash(Gupta) from my house at 11 PM.Next is Shashidhar at around 1115 from the chord road - mysore road junction and subsequently Shreyas and Bala by around 1130.
All set, we leave to a place called Shishila. This place is about 18 kms from dharmasthala.On NH-48 just after a place called kokkada, a deviation takes us to shishila.This place is famous for the Shishileshwara Temple and the fish in the Kapila river which flows right next to the temple.
2nd February 2008-saturday
7:15 AM
We reach Mr Gopu Gokhale's house.
Mr Gokhale can arrange the whole trek for you.including arranging a guide for the trek, providing you with the morning breakfast, packing lunch for the trek, the next day's lunch, and also provides place for all your morning ablutions, bath(hot water too)...!! You can also bathe in the kapila river which flows right next to the farm behind Mr Gokhale's house.
9 AM
We ate delicious puliyogare for breakfast.
10 AM
Mr Gokhale had our lunch packed(chapathis and the gravy which u call 'ghasi' in local lingo). We leave his house in our qualis with our guide Channappa.
10:18 AM
We reach the starting point for the trek which is about 4 kms from Mr Gokhale's house.
The journey up and onward
To reach Amedhikallu a.k.a amedikallu a.k.a amedikkel a.k.a amedhikkel, we need to cross and go around about 2-3 hills...and through the shola grasslands and through dense forests and of course steep rocks...
We cant see the amedhikallu peak from where we start the trek..only after a 2 hour climb over and around the steep hills do we get the first glimpse of amedhikallu peak when the forest opens up into a small patch of grassland. and what a view it is...simply spectacular...This view makes it clear how small man is when compared to nature. and then after about an hour or so's hike through the alternating forests, grasslands and small hillocks we reach the base of the peak..from this place, the amedhikallu peak looks phenominally ominous or you may prefer to call it ominously
phenominal.
10 PM
The qualis starts from Balu's place at Madivala. Picks Srikanth(kaams) from Banashankari at around 1030 PM and Me(Pavan) and Avinash(Gupta) from my house at 11 PM.Next is Shashidhar at around 1115 from the chord road - mysore road junction and subsequently Shreyas and Bala by around 1130.
All set, we leave to a place called Shishila. This place is about 18 kms from dharmasthala.On NH-48 just after a place called kokkada, a deviation takes us to shishila.This place is famous for the Shishileshwara Temple and the fish in the Kapila river which flows right next to the temple.
2nd February 2008-saturday
7:15 AM
We reach Mr Gopu Gokhale's house.
Mr Gokhale can arrange the whole trek for you.including arranging a guide for the trek, providing you with the morning breakfast, packing lunch for the trek, the next day's lunch, and also provides place for all your morning ablutions, bath(hot water too)...!! You can also bathe in the kapila river which flows right next to the farm behind Mr Gokhale's house.
9 AM
We ate delicious puliyogare for breakfast.
10 AM
Mr Gokhale had our lunch packed(chapathis and the gravy which u call 'ghasi' in local lingo). We leave his house in our qualis with our guide Channappa.
10:18 AM
We reach the starting point for the trek which is about 4 kms from Mr Gokhale's house.
The journey up and onward
To reach Amedhikallu a.k.a amedikallu a.k.a amedikkel a.k.a amedhikkel, we need to cross and go around about 2-3 hills...and through the shola grasslands and through dense forests and of course steep rocks...
We cant see the amedhikallu peak from where we start the trek..only after a 2 hour climb over and around the steep hills do we get the first glimpse of amedhikallu peak when the forest opens up into a small patch of grassland. and what a view it is...simply spectacular...This view makes it clear how small man is when compared to nature. and then after about an hour or so's hike through the alternating forests, grasslands and small hillocks we reach the base of the peak..from this place, the amedhikallu peak looks phenominally ominous or you may prefer to call it ominouslyphenominal.
From this place onwards, the climb becomes very steep and quite hard. this stretch will make u rest literally every 1 or 2 minutes.for every 4-5 steps u climb up, u feel like resting for 2-3 mins.so much is the incline.
At around 2:30 PM we reach a place which has a huge rock forming a nice shelter.This is where the initial stretch of pretty steep climb ends.We had lunch at this place.We spent around 30-45 minutes in this place since everyone were already exhausted.
Now starts a not so steep climb in the forests for abt 20-30 mins...We now are at a place where the "ame"(tortoise) rock stands to the left of us. An even steeper and a more risky stretch
than the one before lunch starts here. it is advised that anyone climbing this stretch not look behind him/her.u simply should be concentrating on moving ahead than looking back where you came from.about 30-40 mins of such a climb will still not take u to the top of the "ame" looking rock..neverthless u stand right at its base.The time was around 4:15 when we were at the base of "ame".we rested there for a few minutes...from this point till the actual peak, we have only rock to deal with...it is steep, but not very dangerous..about 3-4 minutes of rock-climbing will take us to the final destination...what a place it is...we saw two flags being erected there by previous trekkers...and surprisingly, while one of the flags was just a white towel, the other one was a BJP flag(the plastic small banners u see just before the elections tied perpendicular to the length of the road in your neighbourhood)...Another point worth mentioning here is that the last stretch of rock we need to climb to reach the peak looks more than dangerous...the length to be negotiated is only about 6-7 feet...it is less than a feet wide,inclined at an angle, and there is dead drop to ur left..the safest way to handle this is to walk on all fours like a baby...infact the guide advised us that the best way of going on this path was to simply zoom past on all 4's..!!
2 more groups were behind us..so it was a good choice that we pitch in our tent at the best place..u need to climb down from the "ame" peak and then only can u camp...there is only one camping spot right on the peak...but its too risky since the place is very much vulnerable to strong winds...there are 2 spots to pitch in ur tents in the open..both of them are well protected..one side by a huge rock and the other side by trees...but our guide suggested that we camp inside the forest which adjoins the peak for 2 reasons...one being the availability of water inside incase of emergency and the other being the fact its always feels good to sleep inside a forest...
we need to climb down deep into the jungle for about 15 mins to reach the campi
ng spot.The time was about 5:30 PM when we refilled all our bottles with the trickling water inside the jungle..we started pitching the tent and we were all done for the day by 6:15 PM...only a good night's rest lay ahead of us...In the meanwhile our guide channappa was very busy collecting huge amounts of firewood for the campfire so that it would the last the whole night...we started the campfire by about 6:45..ate chapatis by the side of it and decided to call it a day...Me, Balu and Kaams decided to sleep inside the 3 sleeping bags we had brought...the remaining 4 slept inside the tent...and by 8 PM
2 more groups were behind us..so it was a good choice that we pitch in our tent at the best place..u need to climb down from the "ame" peak and then only can u camp...there is only one camping spot right on the peak...but its too risky since the place is very much vulnerable to strong winds...there are 2 spots to pitch in ur tents in the open..both of them are well protected..one side by a huge rock and the other side by trees...but our guide suggested that we camp inside the forest which adjoins the peak for 2 reasons...one being the availability of water inside incase of emergency and the other being the fact its always feels good to sleep inside a forest...
we need to climb down deep into the jungle for about 15 mins to reach the campi
ng spot.The time was about 5:30 PM when we refilled all our bottles with the trickling water inside the jungle..we started pitching the tent and we were all done for the day by 6:15 PM...only a good night's rest lay ahead of us...In the meanwhile our guide channappa was very busy collecting huge amounts of firewood for the campfire so that it would the last the whole night...we started the campfire by about 6:45..ate chapatis by the side of it and decided to call it a day...Me, Balu and Kaams decided to sleep inside the 3 sleeping bags we had brought...the remaining 4 slept inside the tent...and by 8 PM everyone had crashed...channapa slept in open air on a rock right next to our tent...but for a frightened scream from a sleep-talker, the rest of the night has nothing much to talk about....
3rd February 2008-sunday
5 AM
We wake up...spend some time at the early morning campfire...pack up everything by 5:45-6 AM and leave towards the peak again for the sunrise..
6:25 AM
We are at the peak to catch the sunrise...but the sun simply refuses to come out till 7 and we lose all hope of catching a spectacular sun-rise...but there u go...the sun slowly starts to rise above the clouds by 7...the sunrise wasnt as spectacular as expected...but neverthless watching sun rise is always a pleasant experience...and by the time sun took time to emerge from the clouds we had already finished our breakfast which consisted of chapatis and puliyogare from balu's house...
7:25 AM
We started the descent back along the same path we came up...There was nothing very significant in the descent except for the fact that gupta twisted his legs twice and so his pace downhill reduced drastically...and also the sighting of 2 different snakes by kaams and gupta...
11:25
Everyone in our group finish the trek....we board our qualis and we traverse the 4 km mud road path back to Mr Gokhale's house...(u can descend down in 3 to 3.5 hours even at moderate speeds)
12 PM
Mr Gokhale welcomes us with amazingly spicy buttermilk...each one of us drank 2 glasses of it...while everyone rushed to bathe in the kapila river, i stayed back at Mr Gokhale's house for a bath...everyone finished their bath by 1:30 and we were ready for lunch...We had a sumptous meal...the food was so good that we filled our stomachs to the brim...then relaxed for a while...and left shishila by 2:30....visited the temple there...fed the fish in the river...and then started our journey back to bangalore...
3rd February 2008-sunday
5 AM
We wake up...spend some time at the early morning campfire...pack up everything by 5:45-6 AM and leave towards the peak again for the sunrise..
6:25 AM
We are at the peak to catch the sunrise...but the sun simply refuses to come out till 7 and we lose all hope of catching a spectacular sun-rise...but there u go...the sun slowly starts to rise above the clouds by 7...the sunrise wasnt as spectacular as expected...but neverthless watching sun rise is always a pleasant experience...and by the time sun took time to emerge from the clouds we had already finished our breakfast which consisted of chapatis and puliyogare from balu's house...
7:25 AM
We started the descent back along the same path we came up...There was nothing very significant in the descent except for the fact that gupta twisted his legs twice and so his pace downhill reduced drastically...and also the sighting of 2 different snakes by kaams and gupta...
11:25
Everyone in our group finish the trek....we board our qualis and we traverse the 4 km mud road path back to Mr Gokhale's house...(u can descend down in 3 to 3.5 hours even at moderate speeds)
12 PM
Mr Gokhale welcomes us with amazingly spicy buttermilk...each one of us drank 2 glasses of it...while everyone rushed to bathe in the kapila river, i stayed back at Mr Gokhale's house for a bath...everyone finished their bath by 1:30 and we were ready for lunch...We had a sumptous meal...the food was so good that we filled our stomachs to the brim...then relaxed for a while...and left shishila by 2:30....visited the temple there...fed the fish in the river...and then started our journey back to bangalore...
at his house with Mr Gokhale
4th February 2008-monday(today)
12:30 AM
I reach home...and totally charged for a good night's sleep :-)
4 PM
Incidentally i am on leave today...am saturated of sleep...hence jobless...so im sharing my experience of the trek with aching thighs...
Highlights of the trek
-> Number of participants - 7 + the guide.
-> Participants - Me (Pavan),Balu,Balakrishna,Shreyas,Srikanth,Shashidhar,Avinash
-> Mr Gokhale takes care of the whole trek if u want to. His contact number is 08251-269246.
-> It is advised that u take a guide since it is hard to find water once u start the trek.guides know about the sources of water in the forest.
-> our guide channappa was a 48 year old man.his trekking ability is amazing...he treks with his hawai chappals..really great..
-> The hardest iv ever been to so far....
PS: im really bored to type...so hav given only some useful info...for more details/queries, i can be contacted at this mail address - pavan_mh2003@yahoo.com
PS: im really bored to type...so hav given only some useful info...for more details/queries, i can be contacted at this mail address - pavan_mh2003@yahoo.com
3 comments:
looks like you guys had lot of fun..
yeah quite a lot...especially at the camping site and the peak...maja ittu :-)
Great trek man.
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