1-2nd Nov 2008 Trek report

In the Previous Trek we had explored 2 new water falls in the valley, code named veegi falls. After i shared these snaps in my mailing list, some more trekkers wanted to trek in this route to see these falls. So i decided to arrange the trek on 1-2nd Nov 08. Initially there were few people , but later numbers swelled to decent 10. We booked TT for the travel as all buses were running full because of the Deepavali festival rush. We left Bangalore by 10:00 PM and reached Sagar by 5:30 itself !!!. We reached Sharavathi chain gate by 5:45 AM and stopped to get freshen up in the river. After an hour on banks of river, we started off our journey towards trek starting point. On the way we had tea in KARGAL.
We reached trek starting point by morning 8:00 AM, by then our cook had prepared AKKI ROTTI (A local dish made up of rice flour) and Khara baath. The best thing was that we got the Neer Bella (liquid joggery) this time too..It tastes like honey !!. Evey one enjoyed the breakfast. Then came the Khashaya (A local herbal drink)all of us had stomach full and decided to start the trek.
Before we started off, We had a introductory session and I gave few safety instructions to everyone and requested them to introduce themselves.
We started off the trek and after about a KM of trek, we were getting down to the first water falls. It was almost 80 degree slope with wet surface!!!. Everyone started going down carefully! even then some had a free fall...!. After about half an hour struggle... it was spledid view of the falls. All of us just stood where were ...! It was a great view. Then we went near the falls and took some snaps. We had D40 and 40D photographers (Shashi and Krishna) who were busy trying out their skill!.
Later we decided to say "SAYONARA" to the falls and trekked along with the stream to the second falls. It was a nice trek experience with Cris-crossing stream now and then. After about an hour trek, we reached the second falls. It was amazing falls and it was apt place to enjoy in the falls. So all of us got in to water within no time as we wanted to refresh ourselves very badly...!. All of us played in the falls for about half an hour. By this time Our cook Dharmanna had prepared the lunch and we also were hungry after a nice play in the water falls.
It was superb sambar and rice along with the papad and pickle. All of us had stomach full and rested for about 10 mins. It was about 2:00PM so we decided to start the trek towards Melnur, where we planned to camp for the day. Intially the trek was tiresome as we had to climb up the valley. But later it was a flat trek on nice ridge. It was 'Haadugere valley to our right and it was kanoor valley to our left. Even though we were trekking in high point ridge, we were not able to view the valley clearly as thick vegetation was blocking the view. After about 2 hours of trek, we reached a another beautiful valley view point. Here we waited for sunset and it was great experience to watch the sunset in the silence with bird chirping. Our D40(Shashi) and 40D(Krishna)'s were busy clicking the sunset pics and tried many techniques...Some were annoyed with their photography technique discussion and started pulling their leg :-p.

After the sun set, we trekked down to the tribals house, by then our cook had reached early and prepared the tea to all of us. We had refreshing tea and we were having some time pass talking. Our regular trekker Krishna knew that our guide Narayana knows lot of interesting puzzules. so he pulled narayana and requested him to give some puzzles to solve. First one was to make 9 equal pieces in the 3 small sticks with only 3 break :). All of them got in to serious thinking mode, But Dinesh came out with some unreasonable solution which everybody rejected it but finally it was solved Muruli ...! Later some more puzzles were given by narayana, all of them were solved with little effort by our trekkers.By 9:00PM dibber was ready. Dinner was superb with the Hesaru kaalu payasa (made of Moong grain). All of us had nice dinner and retired for the day.
All of woke up by 5:30 AM and finished out routines. And were ready by 7:00. Break was ready by then. All of had breakfast and tea and started off the trek towards Kanoor fort. Before we entered the fort i brief the history of the fort. It was built by Rani "Chenna baira devi" of salva dynasty in the 14-16th century. Now just a ruins are left. There some beautiful stone temple still which are partially destroyed by 'Treasure Hunters'. After an hour of trekking inside the fort, we explored most of the ruins and decided to trek down to a Jain temple which was built by the same queen in the 16th century. While trekking down, on the way we stopped for lunch. We played int he stream. It was a welcome splash with lot of humidity around. By then lunch was ready. We had lunch and trekked towards Temple, which was nearby. We visited the temple. Temple history was explained by the care taker cum guide. This temple has been maintained by Archeological society of India(ASI).
After the whirl wind tour of the temple, we trekked towards Gersoppa. We had to cross the Sharavathi river in the boat. The boat is a snake boat. As we had instructed our driver to come and pick us from this point, he had come their and was waiting for us. All of just took a final group photo and started off our journey back to Bangalore. It was an another memorable trek.

Trekkers:-
1) Sampath
2) Shashidhar
3) Krishnamurthi
4) Prahlad
5) Dinesh
6) Murali
7) Palghun
8) Santosh
9) Shashidhar R
10) Kiran

Photos links:-

Snaps by shashidhar
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/shashi.gadad/SharavathiExploratoryTrek1st2ndNov08?authkey=qd17f9MK1p8#
Snaps by Krishnamurthy
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/mpkrish/SharavathiValleyTrek3#
Snaps by Prahlad
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/askpsk/SharavathyValleyNovember1st2nd2008?authkey=PAHz7l08KaI#