Debbe-Kanooor Kote to Geresoppa

Trek to Dabbe-kanoor fort-basti from 26th jan 2007 to 27th jan 2007 Sharavati valley is beautiful in flora and funa. One need to stay out in valley for two days to enjoy the scenic beauty. Our trek was courtesy to two gentlemen of west karnataka wildlife association. Ganapathi was the trek lead. I got into this program from my friend Sandeep tuppad. This trek was in the span of two days with first day we covered nearly 13-14kms out of 26Kms plan. there is a beautiful waterfall on the route called debbe falls. approach to the debbe is steep 60 degrees slope and one need to be very careful about. I didn't listen to the warning flagged out by our guide and twisted my ankle. . we rested at day one in someones home. Next day was beautiful climb to the cannor fort ruins. and then we crossed the river to go to the recent excavation of jain temple at geresoppa. overall this place rocks and I will be pleased to go again.

trek starts from here

Our trek was planned for two straight days and over lengthy period of 10 hours a day walk. Well we caught the bus to Sagar Shimoga from Bangalore late night on friday. We managed to touch sagar at 6:00Am saturday morning. At sagar Ganu our trek guide had booked a lodge to freshen up. We headed to kargal after super breakfast at bus stop. Our trek startes from small village near kargal.  

First phase of teh trek with Ganesh will take you through thick vegetation and lot of plantation of pepper.
I had never tested pepper fruit, they are tasty but start to become hot as the time pass by.

Local Dam for water conservation

there was lot to see and learn in the small fields of villagers. They had build nice irrigation system using small fountains. There was a dam which feed couples of rice fields.

After long  1 and half hour trek we halt at a house very close to Dabbe falls. One good thing of trekking with ganu is, no need to carry water around. He will take you through village.
And water is everywhere or you can get chance to sip nice hot tea.  

Dabbe falls route is steep at 60 degress. Need a good look at your path before you descend. This is important as I twisted my ankle on first day of trek. 

debbe trek upwards is tiring.

breath taking debbe falls.

these guys ganu and rest were jumping like monkeys on the rock.

At Debbe you can have bath, water is very relaxing and falls is huge. People cam at the base of Debbe. I would not recommend it to everyone as it gets really cold out there.
 After the Debbe feat we came back to the house and had our lunch and were prepared to march to next destination.

heading at the base of Kanoor kote.

 As night dwelled we continiued our moonlight trek through forest to the place very close to canoor kote. It took us 3 hours before we reached the guest house. This was my first night trek and it was awesome.

there were few houses and ganu knew some people out there. we halted at one such house and they offered us tea.

Let me tell you ganu is wonderful cook. Bisibille bath and sambhar rice with kheer was the best menu I had on trek. We had our food and slept off early.

 Next day ganu briefed about the trek to fort ruins and told us to walk silently.It seems there are lots of animals in that place.

something similar to custard apple

 well route to fort has dense forest and often chatter of birds gives warmth feeling.

ganu and rest carring mats and eatables.

walk through forest.

crossing a bit dangerous drench.

Kanoor kote is famous for the queen of Kannor who lived here. This fort had living room and queens large bath tubs. There are huge sculpted pillars lying around. It seems people try to steal them but could not pull them more then few yards.

fort is covered with heavy vegetation

fort entrance

Steps leading to the fort.

rear door to the fort.

pass door to next phase of fort.

artifacts lying on floor

well still has water in it.

small room pillars

Temple inside

Finally after spending some 2 hours at fort ruins we headed back to Geresoppa. It seems Geresoppa has newly excavated Jain temple which is same style of hoysala architecture. Distance from canoor kote to geresoppa is 10 kms . Ganu told us that terrain is easy and we will reach in time for bus.

We took small break at small stream and had our lunch with lemon rice. Food was very tasty.

Ganu cooking food.

Finally after the food we walked for another 2 hours to reach Geresoppa. Jain Temple was right there and everyone was talking about it.

Jain Temple.

We all after our strenuous trek.

After crossing this cable bridge one hits civilization.

Sharavati river

bus stop is on other side of river at about 3 kms from river bank. So more walk.

we crossed the river before the sunset in a small canoe. After crossing the river we had to walk for about 3 kms to get to the bus stop.

we all in small canoe crossing the river.

At around 7:00PM we got bus to Sagar. we said by to ganu in sagar. overall this was very good trek and I recommend it to everyone.

this is what totally we traveled.