Mulliyangiri - Chikmagalore

About :

Chikmagalore is nestled somewhere close to the western ghats and is the gateway to the Malnad region of Karnataka. This region is bestowed with coffee plantatations , dense forests with hardly any sunlight penetrating throught.. Its a trekkers delight and more info can be searched for online..

When : 29-30 Nov 2008

How to get there :

A very good bus service from Bangalore but just be sure u take possibly the last bus out of Kempegowda bus station else you would find yourself in Chic-magalore at unearthly hours with not a coffee in sight. The last Rajahamsa leaves at 23:30 and takes you there by 5:30 and is possibly the best way to go there.

It all started when the call within me got stronger as it had been months since I had done a real trek with the rainy season done. So when Diwakar calls up and asks "macha trip barthiya ... all I said was "Yes Yes" .. Then started the planning phase and with a few names floating around we finally settled for Mulliyangiri..proclaimed the highest peak between the Anaimudi peak of Nilgiris in the south and Himalayas in the north. Enough said , you can find all this in the tons of blogs online..


So here we were .. Avinash , Shashi , Prashanth , Sampath , Vishwas , Diwakar, Vishwanath, Deepak(me)

at the Majestic Bus Station and here I was late as usual giving them a last minute scare.After the customary exchange of hi's , we got into the waiting Rajahamsa and it was a comfortable drive to Chikmagalore with the occasional rain in between.


The bus reached sharp at 5am and it wasnt till I got my coffee that I was actually awake. Prashanth suggested we stay at his hostel and we readily agreed given the cost cutting mode we were in these days..Blame it on the recession.. Bad joke.. Lets move on.. Wat was told to me as a 3km walk turned out to be a 6km walk at 5 am in the morning of a couple of half awake guys.. The only source of entertainment was a dog which walked us right till the hostel room!!It got its reward of human biscuits too.. After watching the Mumbai story continue on for a while and debating on the ways to end terrorism :) , we came back to reality.

After getting done with the freshening process and being treated to a sumptous breakfast..not bad for a hostel.. , we started off for our destination. After reaching the place where we had to board a bus to the trek starting point , we realized that we also need to pack our lunch. During this , we also missed our bus and cursing our luck we waited till we hopped into a bus which took us to Kaimara. The Sarpdhari or the start of the snake shaped path to the top was a 6km walk away.. As we walked along and after a few encounters with ahem :) , we finally started waving to
every passing vehicle till a friendly "uncle" in a jeep stopped by and we gladly accepted . We drove along till we reached the arch ,, which signalled the start of the trek. After bidding tata to "friendly uncle" , we finally commenced our trek.


Smoke rings.. do u see any ..

It was almost 10 in the morning and there was mist all around. After ambling along for some time, blowing smoke rings for kicks , we reached a fork.. This is a trekkers delight .. Of choosing the wrong path , reaching a deep scary abyss and returning back.Thats wat a few of us did while the rest had taken the path on the right which was the right path.. The trek got more exciting now and due to the rain and mist , the path had also become quite slippery .



As we climbed higher , the view below got prettier and scarier too. There was a stretch where to your right was a deep deep abyss and to ur left you only had some creepers to hold on to and the path was wide enough for a single person to walk and was slippery too.. One slip and you would attain nirvana. After some scary moments , we reached a lonely tree. The sight was out of a postcard. Heavy mist all around and this tree standing out fearlessly , it all felt worth it.. One could just about see the contours of the mountains in the mist around and it was 11am !!


one of the numerous breaks...


discovery of the last bottle of water

The path got a little more predictable from now and was laden with stones giving a better grip. However it did get a trifle steep at places where some amateurs like me had to hold on to every stone for grip. There was a sensation in me to fly away but I came back to my senses quickly.

The weather was perfect with the sun still hiding and the clouds giving us company. I was told about a change in vegetation with altitude and I could make it out clearly here.The Shola grasses , the mist laden webs .. this was something out of the world. After numerous such breaks ,, we finally could see the temple on the peak.



Feeling the ice cold water in the temple admist ice cold winds hitting your face was something which cant be penned down. Water never felt so better :)
The trek had taken us 2 hours to reach the very top and we were hungry . The packed stuff disappeared in no time n the dog ( its everywhere) was left cursing its fate.
There was also a cave nearby but we couldn't explore much of it due to the poor visibility.





After playing for a while with a cat which mysteriously appeared and spending some time in the temple , we bade goodbye and start the walk down along the motorable path. The haematitie laden slopes and the the near zero visibility slowly changed to a warm , sunny afternoon .

After walking for what seemed eternity , we finally reached the starting point of the trek where again a jeep suddenly metamorphosed out of nowwhere. However we had a problem . There was no room for me. I was egged on by the jeep guy to stand on the footboard behind and enjoy the view and said Wokay .. so be it. This was probably one of the best jeep rides I had been in. As the jeep turned, twisted along the mountain slopes with the wind kissing my face , I had a panoramic view of the world around me. I was really sad the jeep ride came to an end.Aradhna ( if uv seen the movie) types feel u can say.. wat was that song btw :):)

Post a bus journey , we were back in Chikmagalore , tired but content. We now had a few hours to kill and a brilliant thought emerged. "Lets go for a movie" , found support amongst the junta.With a few guys backing off ultimately Diwakar , Shashi , Vishwas and Me decided to go watch Dostana ( i now think a kannada movie in a shady theatre would have made more sense). After asking some hazaar junta for directions ,we reached our destindation .Though the theatre wasnt shady enough , it did well for Chikmagalore. The movie was one stupid work though with only "desi girl' offering a glimmer of hope.. returned back to the hostel , tired . After a quick dinner , as I was off to crash, I was told that it was someone's birthday and there was the usual birthday "cake + smear cake on face ( no one can say there was none on mine dat day :-) - whack " tradition typical of any hostel. Post this , I could hardly keep my eyes open and missed an important piece of information which had arrived courtesy the air waves , which I'l make up for quickly enough :) :) . End of Day 1

Day 2 started off pretty early... After polishing off some dosas at the hostel ( I must say again they were pretty good for a hostel mess ) , we were off on a touristy day . First stop was a temple where apparently sanskrit the language of god . Amazing that such places still exist ( I know of a village near Shimoga , Karnataka where Sanskrit is the language spoken commonly ).
Then post some chai paani we headed off to Bababudangiri . The route suddenly got cold and misty with clouds all around.



( Easy to quote Robert Frost in such a surrounding ,, it was as if the scene was right out his words ) . We couldnt see the Datta Peetha due to the mist and continued on to a waterfall. There we were told that its a tradition of anyone who wants to take a shower under the waterfall needs to ditch his clothee forever :-) .. Anyways after some usual snaps and banter around , we headed back to Datta Peetha which was slighltly visible now. But I must say , it was very windy and the ice cold winds made it a great place. I still rue not going to Gaali Kere ( Wind - Lake in Kannada) in this weather.

A quick decision was made to go to Kemmangundi next . A little gaana , listen to gaana and we were at Kemmangundi and hunger was coming now .. A shack nearby was the only option and we gleefully took it .


1 plate "chitra-anna" (a.k.a picture rice literally) -Rs.15 .
Getting shooed off - priceless
matter of survival of the fittest..

A few mins later I guess we were forcibly shunted off as the shack ran out of supplies.. We then took off to Kalhatti falls .


Monkey to junta log : "Scram...!!"

On reaching there , I was personally disappointed with the place as it was a commercial disaster and not an unspoilt secret of nature. Some of them wanted to trek for a while and go to the water. I also injured my leg in the process . It was really sad to see people leaving behind crates/broken bottles of beer .. The whole beauty of the place was getting tarnished. However the water in the upper reaches was slightly better and few of them jumped at it while I rested my bleeding toes.. The waterfall reminded me of Irpu Falls in Coorg with its step like structure.



After spending a hour or so there and some arbit pics beside some coffee seed :) .. we were back in the vehicle and decided to call it a day and head back to Chikmagalore.

We finally reached the KSRTC bus station in Chikmagalore at 5 . Spotting a restaurant closeby , we had a quick hog before pushing our way into a bus and crashing off . The bus left Chikmagalore at 5:41pm and as it made its way through the sunflower laden fields and as it started raining , a feeling of contentness swept me . When I got down at Navrang Theatre stop , it was midnight. I was dead tired and so dint even bother wat the rick guy asked for the fare and the only thing I remember next was waking up the next day and realizing "11 am .. Oh no..late to office on a monday morning!! not again .. sigh :) . . arbid .