2 New beautiful water falls explored !!!

We had been trekking in one of our beautiful trek route Hogevaddi-->Basavanabaayi--> Belligundi falls --->Goodanagundi falls for quite a long time. This time we decided to explore new routes. Our Guide Narayana took the initiative and within couple of days he identified 2 new beautiful water falls !!. So we decided to trek in that route and i announced the new trek for October 18/19th weekend. After all addition and deletion, finally we were 13 of us. I booked the tickets in Rajahmasa while going and in meghadootha while returning.
On 17th Friday night we all assembled near enquiry counter of KSRTC bus stand by 9:00 PM. Some had problem reaching on time as it was bit early departure(9:30PM) this time. All of got together and after brief introductory hand shake at the bus stand, we all got in to bus and settled down in our respective seats. After little chit-chat, all of us went in to deep sleep mode!!.
When we reached Sagar, it was about 1 hour behind schedule. Narayana had come with vehicle and waiting for us in the bus stop to take us to trek starting point. We wasted no time, all of us hopped in to waiting vehicle. We drove to 'sainya' gate and stopped there for to finish our "nithya karmas"!!. Immediately everyone ran in different direction! and leisurely finished it. Again got in to vehicle and drove to Kargal. Narayana ordered very much awaited morning tea, we all enjoyed the tea and started off onward journey to Trek Starting point. After about an hour journey there we landed to trek starting point.
Our cook had already reached this spot and had prepared hot chapathi and cabbage palya!. Best thing was we got 'neer bella' (liquid joggery) there also!! Chapathi with Liquid jaggery was just too nice. As many wanted kashaya(a local herbal drink) than tea, kashaya was prepared by dharmanna and we all had it nicely. Again we did not waste any time, fastened the backpack and started off the trek. After some distance, reached a quite place and requested everyone to stand in circle for a brief introductory session. Everyone introduced themselves with their trek experience.After this brief session, everyone wished each other and started off our trek towards the first veegi falls.
Initially it was flat and less vegetation, as we trekked on we got in to dense vegetation. After a while the trail was getting toughen with 80 degree slope and added to that, it was slippery to the core. Everybody trekked down by hanging on to the routes, taking help of shrubs. As we inched closer to the stream, we could hear the roaring sound of water. Finally we got in to stream. wow, what scene it was..Beautiful it was. As we just turned right, further astonishing scene was awaiting... A beautiful water fall!!!. It was awesome, amazing, etc etc., The scenery was looking like some fine artists work on canvas !!!.Everybody just sat and lost for a while!. All of us enjoyed the nature beauty and sat for a while watching the different hues of the falls. After a while, all of us decided to trek towards another water falls in the upstream.

We could not trek in the stream itself as the falls area was a high rock. So we trekked up in to jungle and got down to the same stream again. Trekking along with the stream was really adventurous, as the stream had huge slippery boulders.We trekked up the stream cris-crossing the flowing water. It was really tiring stretch, but the stream view was amazing...!!. So did not feel the burnout at all.
After trekking for nearly 2 hours we reached second veegi falls. It was a great view from the far. The falls is more than 200ft high and scenery was awesome. By then everybody were hungry, so Narayana distributed "Avalakki". We had avalakki and relaxed for a while. It was late for lunch, so everybody hurried up and started the ascent up the valley. It was steepest possible assent with almost 85 degree inclination. It was very tiring, but it was a short one. After we came up the stream, we trekked to the lunch point, where our cooks had already prepared food. The menu was rice, sambar, pickle and papad.The sambar was fantastic, so everybody had nice lunch and relaxed for couple of minutes. Later decided to trek towards a tribals house where we supposed to camp over night.
Initially the trail was flat but later it was again tough one as had to climb a small peak.Everybody were tired by the time they came up the hillock. So rested for a while in a beautiful grass patch and moved towards the tribal's house. We reached the camp place pretty early. As soon as we reached, we just threw our backpacks and spread the mats and squatted in the courtyard of tribal's house. Our cook Dharmana got in to action, prepared tea quickly and all of us had tea. All of us sat together and talked various issues of general in nature. Some shared their other trek experience etc., By 8:30PM our dinner was ready, so call came from Dharmanna. Dinner menu was Rice, rasam, pickle, papad and moong Payasa( A liquid sweet). After we had nice dinner, rested for some time and decided to retire for the day. Narayana anounced that everybody should wake up by 5:00AM in the morning!!. As all of us were tired, got in to deep sleeping mode within no time.
It was like just 5 minutes!!! 'saar 5 oclock, please everybody wake up' shouted Narayana. Without any force!!everyone woke up and got ready quickly. By then tea was ready, all of us had tea. We circled up and and thanked Mani, the tribal for hosting us for the night and started off our trek towards Kandodi. The trek route awesome, we trekked along a beautiful ridge for about 5 KMs. To our left it was kanoor and to our right it was haadugere valley. As it was thick vegetation, we rarely got to see the complete valley. But we used to get now and then view points and so we enjoyed the awesome valley view. Specially the view at Melnoor was just too good, with arabian spotting. By 7:30 we trekked down to kanoor fort lake and decided to have our breakfast.Our cook dharmanna had prepared the the famous local dish "Akki Rotti" by waking up in the night 2 oclock!!!. Rotti with palya was simply great. All of us had nice breakfast and everyone came to know that kanoor fort was just close by!! so some of them pestered us to show it(It was not there in our itinerary). So Narayana took all of them and showed the fort. After finishing the fort, we started our descend towards Kandodi. In about an hour and half trek we reached Kandodi. Many of us were tired, so sat for a while and moved towards Jain temple (Basadi). Finally we reached Basadi and our cook Dharmanna went strait to the river side and started off the lunch preperation process and we went to the temple and saw rhe awsome architecture and sculpture. It was built in 16th century by Rani Chennabairadevi. The fort in Kanoor is also built by the same dynasty. She was a very brave queen, who protected Shivaji when Delhi sultanites captured shivaji's administration. She was called "Pepper queen" as she was exporting black pepper to the european countries in that time only. This structure looks like Hoysala style temple with temple built on Star type foundation. There are some curving, but can not be compared with any hoysala temple. Inside the basadi, there is this chaturmukha statue. local care taker took us around temple and explined the history of the temple.
After thanking the caretaker, we moved to the near by river side, where our cook was preparing the lunch. It was bit hot outside, so we wanted play in the water. So all of us got in to river and had a nice swimming session. After a while, lunch was ready and all of us had lunch and trekked towards gersoppa, where we were supposed catch the bus back to Sagar. We trekked to bastikeri and crossed the river sharavathi in snake boat. Then trekked to the gersoppa hand post and took bus to the Sagar. The journey was pathetic as it was full to the core. We had dinner at sagar and waited for our bus, which was reseved earlier. Finally we boarded the bus back to bangalore and reached 6:30AM monday morning. It was a great trek, as we explored 2 new virgin water falls and second day we trekked about 20+ KM by 1:00 PM!!!. That was hard trek, but it was very satisfying trek.

Trekkers:-
1)Sampath
2)Shashidhar
3)Aravind
4)Phanikiran
5)Uday
6)Vinay
7)Santhosh
8)Parag
9)Nikhil
10)Survesh
11)Prashanth
12)Chetan
13)Arjun

Photos of this trek

Photos by Shashidhar
http://picasaweb.google.com/shashi.gadad/HaadagereVasugatthiFalls1819Oct08#

Photos by Phanikiran
http://picasaweb.google.com/pvpkiran/KanoorKoteChaturmukhaBasadi#

Photos by Aravind
http://picasaweb.google.com/aravindgj/HaadagereAndVasughittiFallsKanoorKoteAndChaturmukhaBasadi#

Blog by Sampath
http://sharavathi.blogspot.com