An awesome trek to the beautiful Narasimha Parvatha

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity." - John Muir

Our last trek to Bisile ghats was on the weekend of March 7-8, before Covid19 ravaged the country and the lock downs affected lives of people. Most of us were stuck to homes and were waiting for an opportunity to get into the nature. In the recent weeks there was some relaxation and we got an opportunity to travel to Agumbe and trek Narasimha parvatha. I and Hari had several conversations and decided that we will do a Western Ghat trek in the weekend of 5-6 December, most probably to a place where we haven’t been earlier. Hari as usual did the bookings keeping the place a surprise from the group till the noon of the day of leaving. Though initially it looked like not many people would turn up, the count went to 13. The group had a good mix of the youth and the elderly. Participants were Hari (Hariprasad Kashi), Sujith, Gururaj M J, Yatish (Yati), Vinayak Pai (Pai mam), Pramod K, Pramod R, Rajendra Sagar (Raju), Captain Krishnamurthy, Shashank, Bhargav, Poornachandra and I.

For people who are unfamiliar, Narshimha parvatha (Narshimha parvata), also known as the “Agumbe peak” is the tallest mountain in the Agumbe range at 826 meters above sea level. It is a popular trekking destination and is considered as one of the best trekking trails in Karnataka. It is a surprise that we took so long to plan this trek. Agumbe is known as “Cherrapunji of Karnataka” due to the high rainfall it receives. As a result, the trails are green all the time. Narasimha parvata allows beautiful views of the Kuduremukh range as well as that of Barkhana falls, one of the ten highest water falls in India, formed by the Seeta river.

Bangalore has been receiving continuous rains this year even after the monsoons were over due to regular depressions and cyclones on both the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea. We were a bit sceptical about the trek, but later realized that the Agumbe area was not affected. Hari shared the list of things to be carried and assigned responsibilities to individuals.  We got the pickup schedule on the day of leaving. There were three points: Mysore road at Nayandana Halli, Laggere bridge on Ring road and Goragunte palya on Tumkur road.

On 4^th December, Friday, I and Bhargav took an auto to the Laggere bridge and waited for the Force traveller. The vehicle came at 10 pm. Yatish, Vinayak, Gururaj, Hari and Poorna were already there in it. We then proceeded to the last pickup point on Tumkur road and after some phone exchanges got people in two groups to get into the vehicle.

It was 10:30 when we left the last pickup point. The driver Srinivas was an expert and the journey through Hassan, Chikmagalur and Balehonnur was comfortable. We reached Mallandur, a small village near Agumbe, at 6 am and after some searching found the Agumbe Homestay.

The home stay is an old house next to paddy fields. Many beautiful birds visited the place. Two rooms on either side of a long veranda are given to the guests. We freshened up and had breakfast of Pundi (steamed rice balls) with coconut chutney, that was filling. Our lunch boxes were packed with puliogare for lunch. We left for the trek at 8:20 am. Avin, the owner’s son was our guide. He had obtained the permission for us to trek. We walked through a trail and crossed the forest border in about 10 minutes. It was sunny, but as most of the trail was under a thick canopy of trees, it was very pleasant. Sometimes the trail got tricky due to fallen trees and obstructing creepers. The trail was beautiful with wildflowers and variety of mushrooms grown on the way. We also saw fresh dung of an elephant indicating elephant movement in the place. In about two hours we crossed a stream. Avin said it was Malapahari river. 

Agumbe home stay

Pundis

Trail

At the forest gate

Tricky trail

At Barkhana viewpoint

Barkhana falls

Around 10:30 am, we arrived at Barkhana falls viewpoint. The huge rocks made a perfect photo spot. There were couple of other groups visiting too. We stayed there for about an hour and after lot of photography, proceeded towards the Narasimha parvata peak. Half of us arrived at the next water point around 12:15 pm, but the other half took almost half an hour more to join. Meanwhile, as Avin was pushing us to be faster, we finished the packed puliogare. Around 12:50 pm we started the trek again towards the peak. Once gain the trail was through alternating thick shola forests and open grasslands. The final stretch is through grassy slopes that led to a flatter area of the peak where there are some rocks and a flag marking the peak. Pramod R and Bhargav were the earliest to reach the pack and most of us caught up around 3:00 pm (~ 7 hours from the start). This had taken 23300 steps and ~ 16.6 kms of walking (based on the mobile tracking, may not be accurate).

On Narasimha parvata peak

The peak had a 360^o amazing view of the towns, paddy fields and the Kuduremukha range of Western Ghats. We rested for some time, took group pictures on the central boulders, and left towards Kigga at 4:00 pm. The descent was steep. We crossed a ruined house in about 15 minutes and a pond that possibly had steps many years ago. Most of the descent was through dried waterways that had uneven rocks, making it challenging to climb down. Once gain there were tricky passes through fallen trees. It was getting dark quickly and Avin, Hari and Raju just sped through and disappeared. Most places in the trail didn’t have mobile signal, and I could catch Hari over phone at 5:30 pm. They had already reached the road. At this time, we still had 6 people behind us, and we were not sure how far behind they were. As it was getting dark, we decided to wait for them and go down together. Yati blocked some misleading trails so that the team behind shouldn’t miss the way. We waited there and once everyone arrived, descended further with the help of our mobile torches. It was 6:30 pm by the time we reached down, and little more walking took us to Kigga, a small town close to Shringeri. Kigga is famous for the Rishya shringeshwara temple. We couldn’t visit as it was already late. Our force traveller came there to pick us up. The home stay was 35 kms from Kigga and the journey took about an hour.

Typical descent

On the way to Kigga

After reaching the home stay, we had refreshing hot water bath that helped to ward away the pains. Later there was campfire and dinner. The owner asked us not to be loud with our singing as his neighbours would object. We had a subdued singing session and went to bed. That day we had walked 34,000 steps (~24 kms) as per my mobile phone!

Though some of us had carried "leech-proof" socks, we didn't wear them as Avin told us that there were no leeches. But most of us had at least one leech bite as a memento!

Next morning, the breakfast was delicious chitranna (made with the leftover rice). We had breakfast and left the home stay around 9:45 am towards Jogigundi falls. The tickets (Rs 30/-) for visiting are supposed to be bought at an office in Agumbe!

Jogigundi

Jogigundi falls

Anyway, there was a guide to whom Avin had spoken and he led us to a walk through a forest path that led to downward steps. Jogigundi is a pool into which a waterfall about 20 feet height enters. It is indeed a very scenic place. The guide had warned us not to get into water as it was supposed to be dangerous. We stayed away and took pictures in front of the falls and the pond. After spending about an hour there, we started back around 11:30 am. On recommendation of Bhargav, we stopped at Maharaja grand, Chikmagalur for lunch. The non-vegetarian food was very delicious. After the sumptuous meal, we left for Bangalore.

We rested for some time and for the last couple of hours played anatakshari. It was around 9:30 pm by the time we reached home.

The Narasimha Parvata trek is indeed memorable for many reasons. Mainly, it allowed us the most needed break to be in the nature with friends. The beautiful scenery that we witnessed will remain green in our memory forever. I thank Hari for organising the trek, The home stay owners for their hospitality and my teammates for their wonderful company. For those interested, the home stay costs Rs. 1550 per person and the forest entry fee is Rs. 250 per person.