Agumbe and the Curse of Lord Srini

FLASHBACK

Lord srini hailed
   " Lo Tuppa magane, destination is not important! Journey to theyy destination is important "

Tuppa listened, Tuppa freezed and forgot. It was a curse on all of us by lord srini. First of the culprit being me who ran down the mountain in search of signal, I mean mobile signal. Next was Sachin who tailgated lady.

I knew it was coming but I was not sure when it was coming.
Remember " Lord Giveth, Lord Taketh Away "

Our Plan
http://www.pravins-travelogue.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-malgudi.html

Trek Group:

MY GROUP
(From L-R Siddhath, Pravin, Bhatt, Sachin, Tuppad)
(Down Left to right Kaustubh and Ravikiran)

Tuppad leads the group and me , sathya and sachin does the execution of plan. Tuppad is avid mountaineer and holds basic mountaineering course degree. He has taken advance course in paragliding and is also known as pilot.
Kaustubh, Siddharth and Ravikiran were other three members who joined us for the trek.

 Our Journey to Agumbe:- 
 This trek was Sathya's brain child. As usual we did all the study from procuring Nasa satellite imagery for topographic data onto GPS. Sachin completed the Study on flora and fauna in and around Agumbe. With all the food material we were ready to depart. We booked volvo for return journey.

We took 10.00PM bus on friday to Agumbe. Bus reached only at 8:00AM. We landed Agumbe and tragedy struck. 

Ravikiran was missing. We just could not trace him and to make matter worse there were no cell phone signal. Ravi was last spotted sleeping in the bus and that was the only hope for us. Question was when will Ravi realize that he has missed the destination? 

I just remembered the lords words "Destination is not importa......... "

Ravi appeared after 5 minutes of wait at bus stand. We finished the pre-requisite of regestering at police station about our trek and group strength. Little walk from bus stand we spotted a small lodge. 

We booked two rooms to freshen up. It took us another 1 hour to finish the morning raaga. 

For breakfast "Hotel Guruprasad" was recommended by the lodge owner Sudin. 

This place is on the way to Sringeri from Agumbe and en route maladoor village which is starting point of Narsimhaparvata trek from Agumbe side.

Going to Guruprasad!

Start
  Delicious breakfast at Guruprasad and gathering the Rucksacks took us whopping 1 hour of time. Sudin had arranged small vehicle to take us to malandoor village.
We reached at around 11:30AM to the start of the trek. It took us another 15 minutes to unload and start. 

Siddharth inside the forest

Kau, Sachin and me searching for the way out

Route from Agumbe to narsimhaparvata passes through dense forest cover. As most of the people comment that GPS does not work is not true. If you have high sensitivity receiver it will work like charm in this cover. 

This route is very confusing as the trail have many branches and there are chances to get misguided. For this trek one need Map of the terrain along with good days sunlight to complete the trek in right amount of time. 

If you don't have above two means with you than please take guide!

Trying to locate the real trail

Our start did't go very well. We were late by about 4 hours. Route to the peak passes through famous Barkhana falls, which is midway and one of the most prominent water point. Our estimate to this place proved wrong. We took little water with us thinking we will reach the place and refill. 

Initial trail was smooth and easy. Suddenly the trail started passing through dense forest cover. We were on and off the trail most of the time. At some places we found that there are no trails. 

Checking the magnetic bearing on Compass

After about 2 hours of walking and cutting through jungle we had hit the road block. Trail abruptly ended in the open grassland surrounded by thick forest cover. It  took us some time to find the way out and be back on trail again. But from hereon forest started getting dense. We tried couple of paths but it would have been difficult to cut through that. We were nowhere and time was nearing 3.00PM.

Me, tuppad and Sathya thought of exploring the area to find possibility of any signs of trail. We parked our luggage in open space and marched towards a short peak. We were able to climb the peak cutting through lots of thorns and bushes on the way. From top we spotted something which looked like trail.

Siddharth, Tuppad , Gowda and Kau resting for a while.

We quickly climbed down to inform rest. We had radio sets with us. Tuppad informed rest of the people about possible trail and to be ready for move. Without wasting any more time we moved back a little distance and from here on there was clear trail. We were happy to see the trail and this happiness was short lived as we had hit another road block. Trail ended in open space.    

By this time we had already walked nearly 5 kms and exhausted most of the water. GPS bearing showed brkhana falls is 200 meters away from this place. But this being point to point distance, standard assumption could be anywhere between 400 - 500mts.

Almost lost in the race against fading sun.

Tuppad was leading the group and he though of climbing the small peak around to see if he can spot any trail.
This time we all climbed together and in short distance to peak we hit a road block.
There was huge valley with dense vegetation. Again me, Sathya and Tuppad went ahead to explore in the hope of finding the way. We searched little bit but found the jungle to be very dense to penetrate in fading light with king cobras around. Though we never spotted any cobras in our entire hike. 

Mission Impossible:-

 When we were exploring the valley to find the possibility of any trail. We had marked 4:30PM as the time to return back to civilization if we don't see any trail. Finally we lost the battle against time. 

We Tuppad wholeheartedly informed rest of the members about our plan to abandon the mission. We could have done it if we had time and water. But life is all about the enjoyment. 

Back of my mind his highness Lord Srini was reiterating his last words..............!

Return

I was always feeling confident of completing this trail without guide, but I had failed! Curse was hitting me hard. 

At around 4:45Pm we started our way back to civilization. Sachin was leading this time and he started pushing everyone and after a small distance we all synced up again to be in same pace. 

Now Lord was hitting Sachin! He had just lost his beloved Dagger. Last reports by members suggested the place we halted last. 

It was my dagger but I was ok to say good by to it. But sachin had different plans. He took my GPS and along with sathya he went back to the place and found the dagger. 

It was high drama in middle of forest with light fading and we still had few miles to munch.

Illuminated Tent at Night

we were on time to the destination. Without any wastage of time we pitched the tents and started preparing for dinner. Tuppad ordered 3KG of Chilly Chicken and Chicken masala from nearby village

Campfire 

Cluster of the stars at night

  Tuppad and me feasted on Chicken while Sachin was totally unhappy with unauthorized distribution of Scrambled egg by Ravikiran. Sathya clicked quite a few pics of night sky, with unwanted help from Sachin ;) 

Heavy dinner and chill night forced us to surrender inside the tent. 

DAY 2

Next day morning was quite a tricky one with so many thoughts pondering from everyone. With the sip of delicious morning tea we unanimously decided upon three places to see. 

Jogi Gundi waterfalls which was nearby was first choice. 

Jogi Gundi waterfalls 

Walking on tarmac en route Jogi gundi falls

This small relatively unknown waterfall is 2 kms away from malandoor village. Our initial walk was on tar road  till we hit a detour to falls. From here it s about 10 minutes walk in woods to destination.

final descend to falls.

Fallen tree en route.

Final descend is very steep and bit difficult with lots of fallen tree trunks. In about 10-15 minutes we were at the spot. 

Natural Pool of water created by falls 

Jogi gundi falls had small canyon through which water gushes out. flowing water gets settles in to form nice natural pool. 

When we reached the spot, lot of young girls had occupied the most of the space. Ravikiran was spot on to clear the crowd with his unusual act of stripping down to bare minimum before taking the plunge in pool.

Hydrophobia still persists in me and I refrained from entering water. rest all took medieval bath inthe small pond. Sachin tried some floating act while Siddharth and Ravikiran showed their diving skills.

Sachins Love:

 Sachin has fascination for two thing, King and Kings!

Checkered Keel Back Snake

 From day one he desired to catch live king cobra. I think kaustubh spotted small Snake sitting on the half submerged tree trunk in the water pool. Sachin was First to rush to the spot. Tuppads walking stick was used to full potential to analyze the same by Sachin. 

Snake was checkered kill back, typical water snake , non poisonous but very aggressive and can give multiple painful bites. We only got this info later. 

Sachin trying to Catch the snake.

After some playful moments with snake bhaiyya finally we made our way to next destination Guruprasad.

We had to cover more 4 kms to be at guruprasad.

Group just before reaching Guruprasad.

A small shop selling coconut water en-route was quite a relief. We were in time to Guruprasad for delicious lunch. 

We were given special lunch which had Mirsaange Bhajji ("chilli Pakoda") on Sachins request. 

Simply awesome

what a refreshing drink.

Mirsaange bhajji

Simple Lunch

    While tuppad and Ravikiran decided to rest at Guruprasad, rest of us ventured to nearby Augumbe rainforest reserch station in search to see King cobra's. 

ARRS (Agumbe Rainforest Reserch Station)

http://www.agumberainforest.com/

This place is few Kms from Agumbe bus stand. Smalldetour from road takes us to a jeep track. follow the track for about kilometer or so and you are at ARRS. 

Route to ARRS starts with grassland and finally comes to halt at very thick vegetation. Just before the Camp there is small pond cultivated for natural habitat of King cobras. 

ARRS Bunglow

 At ARRS they have fascility to stay in their cottages for 1000/- per night as fees. Place is clean and nice. But bets was yet to come. 

We got permission to venture into trail into which was created to enjoy nature. Trail starts about 400meters from ARRS. 

Cottages

Trail :- 

Trail Starts at the end of grassland. 

As soon as grassland ends trail starts and it takes you through core rainforest. At some places vegetation is so dense and scary. We were again running short of time trying to hurry. Suddenly divine Lords words were audible .......... 

Without thinking about the destination we ventured into the trail enjoying every bit of moment and clicking maximum snaps. 

Salute to king cobra

With the night fall and bus to catch for sringeri town we started our journey back to Agumbe bus stand. 

Vast grassland

After reaching sringeri we took small cleansing walk in to the holy stream. While some feasted on the free Food at temple, Me and Tuppad enjoyed Tiffin room Idly and vade.

This curse of Lord was indeed a boon. Looking back at the story I see lot of achievement. Having seen lot more places than what we would have seen otherwise, I rate this trip to be Successful. 

Hail the Lord!