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#

Next Trek is on 1-2nd Nov 2008

2 days trekking on 1-2nd NOV 08
Dear Trekkers, We have 2 days trekking on 1-2nd NOV 08. In this route there are 2 newle explored water falls and a ruined fort and a Jain basadi.

Route:- Veegi falls —> Melnur –> Kanoor Fort —> Nagara bastikeri –> Gersoppa..
Departure:- 31-10-2008 Friday night.
Transport:- KSRTC Rajahamsa Bus to Sagar.

Itinerary:-
Date:- 31-10-2008
* Deaprture from Bangalore by around 10:00 PM.

Date:- 1-11-2008
* Reach Sagar by 6:00 AM in the morning.
* Catch a jeep or van to reach trek starting point and freshen up on the way in a stream.
* Reach Trek starting point and have Breakfast.
* Start the trek towards first veegi falls. Spend some time in falls
* Trek to second veegi falls. Play in the falls if interested.
* Have lunch and trek towards melnur tribals house..
* Reach Melnur and Camp in tribal’s house.
* Have fun time around camp fire.
* Have dinner and retire for the day.

Date:-2-11-2008
* Wake up by 5:00 AM and get freshen up quickly.
* Have Tea and start the trek towards Kanoor fort.
* Reach kanoor fort lake and have breakfast
* Trek inside and ruined fort and then trek towards Bastikeri
* Reach bastikeri and visit 14th century stone curved Jain temple (Basadi).
* Have lunch and play in the river and trek to gersoppa
* Catch a local bus or hired jeep to Sagar.
* Reach Sagar and have dinner.
* Start the journey back to Bangalore by around 10:00 PM

Photos of the previous trek
Photos by Shashidhar
http://picasaweb.google.com/shashi.gadad/HaadagereVasugatthiFalls1819Oct08#
Photos by Phanikiran
http://picasaweb.google.com/pvpkiran/KanoorKoteChaturmukhaBasadi#

Blogs:-
http://sharavathi.blogspot.com
http://aravindgj.blogspot.com

Please MAIL me to prapancha@gmail.com if u need any more information .

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

2 days trek on 18/19th Oct 08

Hi All,
We have planned for 2 days trek on 18/19th Oct 08. Part of this route is going to be a exploratory trek till ‘Haadugere” tribal settlement. This route will have 3 unexplored water falls and beautiful valley view near haadugere. Also we can visit Jain basadi in gerusoppa

Trek route:- Vasugithi water falls –>Bellur falls –>Haadugere —>Chaturmukha Basadi—> Gerusoppa.
Trek Date:- 18/19th October 2008. 2 days.
Travel to trek point:- KSRTC Rajahamsa up to Sagar and back.

Likely itinerary is as fallows,

17-10-2008

* Departure from Bangalore @ around 9:30 PM from Mejestic

18-10-2008

* Reach Sagar by 6:00 AM in the morning and freshen up and have breakfast.
* Catch a jeep or van to reach trek starting point.
* Reach Biligar and start the trek towards Vasugithi falls
* Play in the falls and start the trek to Bellur falls
* Play in the falls if interested or trek towards Haadugere.
* Reach Haadugeere and Camp in tribal’s house.
* Have fun time around camp fire.
* Have dinner and retire for the day.

19-10-2008

* Wake early in the morning, freshen up and have breakfast
* Start the trek towards Chaturmukha basadi
* Reach Basadi and visit the 14th century stone curved jain temple.
* Have lunch on river bank and play in the river for sometime.
* Start the trek towards Gerusoppa.
* Reach Gerusoppa and catch bus back to Bangalore

Have look at part of the trek route snaps
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/mpkrish/SharavathiValley
http://picasaweb.google.com/prapancha/DabbeHaadugereBasadi

As we are Traveling in BUS this time, i need advanced confirmation to reserve the tickets. So if u r joining, please confirm me ASAP.

Kayaking, Camping and Trekking in a paradise

When i heard that there is going to be a water sports and Camping in Sharavathi backwater…It was a great thrilling moment for me. Because after about 8 long years, i was going to touch ‘mother Sharavathi’. As usual i am very attached to this river, to its valley and to its people. This is the only major river which takes birth in Karnataka, even though it is for a short distance but flows in Karnataka, serves kannadiga’s by providing 30% of states electricity needs and finally finishes her journey at Honnavar in Karnataka only!!!.
Sharavathi backwater is about 60 KM in length and about 15 KM wide !!!!. It became backwater when dam was constructed at Linganamakki of sagara taluk in Shivamogga(Shimoga) district to the river Sharavathi.

As i had some work in Sagara, I had gone there bit early and i had camped at Sagara. Johny coordinated the camp members at Bangalore. They hired a Qualis, and started off from Bangalore on 5th Sept Friday night. Another camper Shashi joined me at Sagara directly from Karwar, where he had gone on a vacation. We all met up at Sagara on 6th Sept Saturday morning at Sagara. Had a Morning tea and left to our base camp. Base camp is about 25KM from Sagara and we reached reached the place by 8:30 AM. Ravi, who is camp coordinator at this place, was ready with equipment at the water front. We wasted no time on the main land, we just fastened ourself with life jacket and hoped in to waiting coracle and left to one of the island, where we supposed camp. While we paddled coracle to our camp place, every one was quite! watching the beauty of backwater was an awesome moment. There are plenty of islands along with ocean like backwater and these islands are covered with thick rain forest vegetation. As we paddled through these amazing islands, we were in the camp site within no time, even though it is about a KM+ of paddling. I heard murmur of campers “we reached so eaarrllyyy is it? :-p”.
Dharmanna, our cook, was really in fast mode and prepared “Uppittu” quickly. We had stomach full breakfast. That tomato uppittu was really yummy !!!. Had tea along with breakfast and got in to action quickly. I called up every one for the equipment briefing and after brief introduction we all moved to different island for the practice session. I briefed everyone about how to swim with life jacket and how to float on water while watching that clear blue sky surrounded by thick vegetation filled islands. As everyone was eager to get in to water, all of us started off with the floating session. Initially it was a small round near the shore. Once we got the confidence started off swimming in to deep inside. Our guides team leaders Ravi and Ashok were monitoring us on coracle to instill confidence in us to swim where ever we feel like. In the backwater there are plenty of dead trees. Some tall one among them were visible above the water surface. These tall trees branches were inviting us with open arm..!! So we made them as target, kept on hoping between them…! It was a great fun. After a while, It started pouring…It was nice experience to float on water when it was rainging from top. We spent good amount of time in Swimming/Floating on water. Even that huge anount of “uppittu” which we had stuffed in to our belly got digested quickly…! So we called off this session, hoped in to coracle and headed to our “Kitchen” island, where Dharmanna was preparing the hot lunch.

We wasted no time…Everyone arrived with their plates, like in jail :-p for the lunch. All of us squatted on the ground with sleeping mat spread. Dhrmanna served the hot food, and all of us relished the rice, sambar, pickle, pappad etc., After the lunch we rested for about half an hour. Then we started of our islands exploration in the backwater, which was main part of our program. All of us hopped in to 2 coracles and started off. It was breezy evening, with cloud dancing on our head, waves on the water surface were playing rhythmically. Our coracles too were giving company to these waves and so we too .
After a KM of paddling, we took first break and our photographers were busy clicking the various posture of this mother nature. We decided to move to another island which was again at a distance from here. As soon as we reached that island, our main photographer, Johny declared that this is the best place to watch the sun set..!. Everyone agreed and waited patiently. No uttered any word, everyone were observing the “Mouna Vratha”. Like everyone enjoying the rhythmic beats of waves to the shore, chirping sound of birds in the island and the moment of sky getting red…all these made our stay in the island heavenly feeling.

But we were not so lucky..! A thick wave of clouds just moved in and positioned themselves and blocked the sun like herds of Cows and Buffaloes squatting in a busy Bangalore street. I think all of us experienced these moments in Bangalore :-p. We still waited patiently while cursing the clouds. But happening on the sky was not favoring us. But sun on the sky was doing hide and seek between clouds. So Johny and Shashi were busy clicking photos of what ever scenery they got. After a while finally sunset was over and sadist clouds were rejoicing looking at our disappointment .
As it was getting dark, we decided to move to our camp island. As the sun was set, and the clouds were still around in the sky, it was getting dark quickly. With heavy hearted, we paddled slowly towards our camp island. everyone was silent, waves were too. Only sound audible was that of paddles hitting the water and that of bird chirping in near by islands.
We reached our camp island and pitched the tent immediately. By then Dharmanna had prepared “Kashaya” and was waiting for us. This “Kashaya” is a local drink, which is made by powder of various routes. This powder is mixed with milk to have it. It is prepared in same as how Tea prepared, but instead of tea powder this powder is mixed. All of drank this like water and finished it within no time. It was chill over there, so our guide Ashok sensed this and quickly arranged the camp fire as were troubling Dharmanna in his cooking process!!! by sitting around firewood stove.
So we all moved to the new camp fire and settled there.
Even though we wanted to have a fun time around camp fire, nobody was interested as of us were tired to the core. Just in couple of mins dinner got ready, as all of us were hungry after a long paddling, so quickly got ready to have food. It was a full meal with Chapathi, curry, rice, rasam and finally ‘Payasam’ (sweet). Everyone enjoyed the dinner and went in to their tents and and dozed off !!!. It was a sound sleep. At around 5 am, it was like water poured on us!!!. All of us woke up to see it was raining outside. As we wanted to breath fresh air, we opened all tents ventilation and we were sleeping. So we had to have this unexpected shower !. We some how we covered these and tried to sleep, But i did not get the sleep. So i got up and started off daily routines.
It was beautiful scene in the morning to see the calm water, the silence around us and the birds song. Near our camp site there were 3 small islands, so we made one of the near by island as a toilet island exclusively !!!. All of us got in to coracle and moved to this island to relive ourselves :-p. Many of us swam back to the camp island and had hot Tea. Johny and Shashi were busy shooting morning beauty of the location. After a while every one got in to water and had a nice morning swim. It was time for breakfast. Todays special was “Akki Rotti and saagu” the combination was just superb….
I called up everyone to brief about our next activity “Kayaking”. Kayak is a single men paddling boat, which is fun to paddle around. As everyone was eager to have ride, assembled within not time. After briefing one by one tried a small ride and once they got the confidence, everyone took for a long drive. It was time for lunch. But none of us were hungry as we had tucked in lot of ‘akki rottis’ in the morning :-p.
But still we finished lunch formalities and decided to say good bye to these islands.
Everyone hopped in to coracle with their belongings and started back to mainland after 2 days of isolation . After reaching mainland, we started off our last leg of our program, which was to trek to ‘Devaragudda’ to have panoramic view of Sharavathi backwater and the valley. Till ‘Gubbagodu’ there was a track, but later there was no track and the climb was getting tough. As we climbed we could see the heavenly valley in different view points. Finally we reached the peak and the everyone were screaming, shouting and dancing in joy. Everybody’s question was that “Is that where we played and stayed for 2 days?” in disbelief !!!. After spending sometime and photo shoot in the peak, we started trekking towards ‘Alahalli’ on Jog falls –>Sagar Road, where we suppose to catch bus back to Sagar and then to Bangalore. We reached ‘Alahalli’ 5:20 PM and caught a bus to sagar which was about 10KM from there. It was a fantastic, memorable weekend for all of us. All of us were asking 1 question that “Do we have a place like these still on earth? !!”.

Photos of our Adventure Water sports and camping Faliclity in Sharavathi backwater
http://picasaweb.google.com/stanfrancis/VIRGINLANDONSHARAVATHYRIVER#
http://picasaweb.google.com/shashi.gadad/SharavathiValleyWaterSports#
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/ganeshkudva1977/Sharavathi06Sep08#

A Blog on our new Adventure Water sports and camping Faliclity in Sharavathi backwater
http://vivek-nag.livejournal.com/4623.html

–
Sampath Kumar
The Sharavathi Nature Trails…..
Mob:- 98453-97386
E-Mail: prapancha@gmail.com
Blogs:- http://sharavathi.blogspot.com
http://kuchodya.blogspot.com

Likely itinerary for the Oct first week (2nd–5th)

Hi All,
As we all know that there is 2nd Oct Gandhi Jayanathi holiday which falls on Thursday, If we can take a day off for friday, we can have fun for 4 days of trek and water sports.
So here i am sending a tentative plan. If anybody is interested pls let me know ASAP. As it is a long weekend, getting public transport reservation will be difficult, so confirm me if u free and wish to join us for this event.

Likely Itinerary,

Date:-1-09-2008

Departure from Bangalore in KSRTC Rajahamsa Bus by 11:00 PM to Sagara in Shimoga District.

Date:- 2–09-208

* Arrive at Camp site. Freshen up and Have Breakfast
* Group Introductory session and initial briefing by the Camp leader
* Introducing everyone to water, and a small swimming/floating session.
* Transfer to Island in coracle.
* Long Swimming and floating session. Initiation to Coracle paddling.
* Have Lunch and rest for half an hour.
* Start the Islands exploration trail by Coracle.
* Return back to the camp site and have tea
* Have a camp fire and fun time at camp fire
* Have dinner and retire for the day

Date:-3-09-2008

* Wake up early in the morning. Freshen up and have tea
* A small swimming/floating session
* Introduction Kayaking and Individual Kayaking session.
* Have lunch
* Trek to “Devara gudda”. Spend time on view point. continue the trek to Marattur.
* Camp in a tribal house in Marattur.

Date:-4-09-2008

* Wake up and have break fast. Start onward journey Hogevaddy, which is another trek starting point.
* Reach Hogevaddi and start the trek to Basavana baayi.
* Reach basavana baayi and play in the water falls.
* Have lunch and trek to ‘Kendollare’ peak. Spend some time on the ‘Kendollare’ peak.
* Trek down to ‘Padubeedu’ and have a camp fire. Have dinner and retire for the day.

Date:- 5-09-2008

* Wake up very early in the morning, say by 5:00 AM and Have teak.
* Trek to ‘Ganaganadu bare’ view point and have a magnificent view of the valley and Belligundi water falls. Spend some time at the view point
* Trek to ‘Goodanana gundi ‘ water falls and play in the falls.
* Trek back to ‘Padubeedu’ and have lunch.
* Start back the journey to ‘Shimoga’ by 12:00
* Reach back Bangalore latest by 9:00 PM.

Photos of our Adventure Water sports and camping Faliclity in Sharavathi backwater

http://picasaweb.google.com/stanfrancis/VIRGINLANDONSHARAVATHYRIVER#
http://picasaweb.google.com/shashi.gadad/SharavathiValleyWaterSports#
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/ganeshkudva1977/Sharavathi06Sep08#

A Blog on our new Adventure Water sports and camping Faliclity in Sharavathi backwater
http://vivek-nag.livejournal.com/4623.html

Photos of the trek route:-
http://www.photoshop.com/user/saloon12yrd/?galleryid=8ad0cbb45a85428ba497840086b0013c&wf=share&trackingid=BTAGC

http://picasaweb.google.com/abhivishwanadula/SharavathiValleyTrek#

Blog on this trek by Sachidananda:-
http://sachi-webpagebackend.blogspot.com/2008/09/sharavati-valley-trek-1.htm

We will hurry up and plan out properly, so that the program will be hiccup free.

Also as this a long weekend, getting Bus tickets for onward travel will be bit difficulty. So we need to plan in advance and freeze the group. Max we can accommodate for water sports is 10. So let us freeze the group for 10.
Please announce this in ur network. If getting 10 is difficult, i will announce here and pull some ppl.

Please reply if we are going ahead with this plan. If there is a prob for u also , pls let me know ASAP.

–
Sampath Kumar
The Sharavathi Nature Trails…..
Mob:- 98453-97386
E-Mail: prapancha@gmail.com
Blogs:- http://sharavathi.blogspot.com
http://kuchodya.blogspot.com

Updates on August 30/31st 2 days weekend trek

After i came back from August 15th long weekend trek i wrote a treklogue and forwarded to all in my mailing list. This created lot of interest in the group for this trek route. So whoever had missed this route had replied and asked me to arrange again. So started the preparation for August 30/31st trek. Finally after so many addition, deletion and updation we were 14 of us out of this 3 had come from Hyderabad directly to Sagar and joined us in JOG falls and there were 3 foreigners in the team.
This time to save the time, we arranged a tempo traveler. I had requested all trekkers to be there in Mejestic by 9 PM. Many of them respected the request and they were on time. After a brief hand shake session we started off from Bangalore @ 10 PM. We were expecting lot of traffic problem, but was not a major problem to get out of city. Everyone went in to deep sleep mode within no time, i thought of giving company to driver and did not sleep much.
By 6:00 we reached Kargal on the way to trek starting point and we picked up trekkers from Hyderabad who were waiting for us there, had a morning tea and left to Hogevaddi which was our trek starting point.

By 8:30 we reached Hogevaddi. By the time we reached there, breakfast was ready. This time the food theme was “local flavor”. We had local dishes cooked like, ‘AKKI ROTTI’ , BAALE YELE KADUBU’, ‘NEER BELLA’ to name few . Every one enjoyed the food. Then we trekked towards basavana baayi.
Rest of the trek report is on Sachidananda’s blog,


Trekkers:-
1) Dominique from Germany
2) Dileep from Bangalore
3) Jennifer from Malta
4) Peter from Germany
5) Ananthraj from Bangalore
6) Varun from Bangalore
7) Abhiram from Bangalore
8) Neeraj from Bangalore
9) Vinay from Bangalore
10) Sachidananda from Bangalore
11) Abhilash from Hyderabad
12) Karthik from Hyderabad
13) Riaz from Hyderabad.

Route covered:-
Hogevaddi—>Basavana baayi —> Kendollare –> Padubeedu –>Belligundi falls –> Goodanana gundi falls.

Blog on this trek by Sachidananda:-
http://sachi-webpagebackend.blogspot.com/2008/09/sharavati-valley-trek-1.htm

Snaps of this trek links:-

Photos by Dominique
http://www.photoshop.com/user/saloon12yrd/?galleryid=8ad0cbb45a85428ba497840086b0013c&wf=share&trackingid=BTAGC

Photos by Abhilash
http://picasaweb.google.com/abhivishwanadula/SharavathiValleyTrek#
Photos by Sachidananda
http://picasaweb.google.com/sachidananda.bs/SharavathiValley1#

Photos by Ananthraj
http://picasaweb.google.com/ananthambas/Sharavathi#

Note:- Our next trekking program is on 20/21st Sept 2008. If anybody interested, pls mail me ASAP