Trek to beautiful Netravati Peak

It was quite some time since we went with the larger group. My last three treks to Kurinjal, Tapteshwar Betta and Vellaingiri were all in smaller groups, and I was keen to go with the full team. It was Chinese New Year holiday, and thirteen of us trekked Netravati peak in Kuduremukha range on Saturday, 28^th January. For me, this was fourth trek in this range, Kuduremukha, Kurinjal and Mehti kan gudda being the other three (description can be found in my earlier blog posts https://balutreks-balachandra.blogspot.com/).

I had talked to Hari before coming back to India and we had decided the date. Earlier he said we will go to Gangadikal in the same range, but later dropped the ideaa because it was too simple. Netravati was a lesser known trail, getting popular now. Some of the members of the trek group were eager, while some others were reluctant and needed persuasion to find time from their busy schedule. Finally, it was Hari, Yatish, Chetan, Pramod senior and Pramod junior, Sujith, Gururaj, Arun Kashi, Pratap, Chinmay, Shashank, his brother Shreyas and I who joined the trek.

For those unfamiliar, Netravati is one of the peaks at an elevation of 1520 meters in the Kuduremukha range and is the birthplace of river Netravati which flows from the western ghats in Chikamagalur to Dharmasthala and to Mangalore. The range is also the birthplace of two other rivers Tunga and Bhadra, and this known as Ganga moola. The base camp is same for the four Kuduremukha treks mentioned before, a town called Samse near Kalasa.

Once gain it was for Hari to do all the planning: choosing the place, booking the homestay and the vehicle. He circulated a list of things to carry, and the pickup points in the WhatsApp group.

The vehicle started from electronic city around 22:00, and picked people at Nayandanahalli, Laggere and Goragunte palya. I got a drop to Laggere by my son, Bhargav, who had done couple of treks with us before, but couldn’t join this time due to a planned run on the weekend. It was almost 00.20 by the time all got into the Force traveler. The driver, Sachin, was an expert, and we didn’t realize how the distance of 310 kms was covered. After reaching Samse, the tempo went through a very rough road to the Homestay called Riveredge (http://riveredgekudremukh.website2.me/). It was 6:50 by the time we reached. This was certainly one of the best homestays we had been to, with all of us having individual beds, nice bathrooms, scenic surroundings, and very delicious food. The owners Shrinik Kumar and his sister Shylaja were very hospitable.

Ready to travel!

Riveredge homestay

River in front of teh homestay

Breakfast

Ready to go!

At the start of the trek

We started freshening up, had tea/coffee, and gathered for breakfast at 8:00. The breakfast of neerdosa, chutney, poha and masala goli bhajji was yummy. We also gave our tiffin boxes to pack puliogare for lunch. We got ready by 8:30 and left for the base by the Mahindra open truck. The journey was like a roller coaster ride! Hari got the forest permission (Rs 500/- per head, Rs 300/- each for the two cameras and Rs 1000/- for the guide).  The vehicle took us to the base that was quite far. We reached by 9:20 and the guide, Lakshman joined us there. We started walking through a trail of thick canopy. In about 10 minutes we reached a waterfall known as Abhale falls. It was very scenic all around. We spent some time there and proceeded further. The trail was beautiful through thick Shola Forest. Around 10:30, we reached another small waterfall on Netravati where we spent some more time. Once we started from here, the forest trail opened into grasslands and started becoming steeper. It was 11:30 by the time we reached on top, and the 360 degree view was breathtaking. There were many other trekkers on the peak. We met a senior guide called Narayan who explained things around. We could see the birthplace of Netravati in a distance to where entry was prohibited. We could also see among other peaks, Kuduremukha. App on Pratap’s mobile captured the names of shows some of the peaks around. This can be seen in teh photo attached.

At Abhale falls

 

View of Kuduremukha

Narayan explaining

At the top

After a lot of photography at the top, we started descending by 12:10, and reached the Netravati River side by 13:15. Here we settled for lunch and had the packed puliogare with boiled eggs brought by Shashank. After spending good time here, we started coming down at 14:40, reached the base, caught the truck, and came back to the homestay by 16:00. Some of went to the river in front of the homestay for bath. I took a quick dip in the cold water and came out, while others enjoyed some natural jacuzzi.

Natural jacuzzi

Evening snacks

Racket tailed drongo

Bblack backed wagtail

That evening we had refreshing bhaji with coffee, and later gathered for a campfire with a lively Karaoke session. It was interesting to see our driver Sachin also sing. The homestay makes only vegetarian food, but teh owner had ordered non vegetarian dishes for us from outside.

Next morning, the home stay owner played beautiful flute misic on his system and the atmosphere all around was divine! Birds chirping made it more enjoyable. Around 8:30, we had breakfast of paddus and left for Bangalore by 9:30. We stopped on the way for a sumptuous lunch. Later for some time, we played antakshari on the vehicle and then got dropped at our respective spots.

The Netravati trek was a great opportunity to be in the pristine western ghat trails once again and was a refreshing experience. Thanks to Hari for immaculate planning and to the team for a great company. I have earlier given the homestay website's address, though which people can book for stay at Riveredge. Some people come there just to enjoy the serene nature.

An adventurous trek to Tapteshwara Betta

It was already three months since the Merthi Gudda trek and I started missing trekking. On checking with Hari, I came to know that few of them were planning to do a day trek on Sunday, 27^th March 2022. The plan was to hike Tapteshwara betta, a part of the Kaiwara Kailasagiri hills. While there are regular treks under the Karnataka eco tourism (https://myecotrip.com/trailDetail/13/kaiwarabetta), the Tapteshwara trail is less frequented and seems to be dangerous based on a YouTube video that came about an year ago (https://youtu.be/8Mcyq7wJEec).

The regular Kaiwara betta hosts cave temple that is famous. Kaiwara is a popular name in ancient history starting from Krita yuga (Vritasura story), Treta yuga (Lakshmana created a lake here during Ramayana) Dwapara yuga when the town was known by named Eka chakra nagara and the hills were named as Bheema bakasura hills based on the fight between the two. In recent history, the town was known for Kaiwara Tatayya or Yogi Narayana Yatindra who lived between 1726 and 1836. He wrote devotional poems in Kannada and Telugu.  Further information can be read at https://www.tirthayatra.org/kaiwara/.

There were supposed to be 8 of us, going to Kaiwara by two cars. Pratap, Varada, Varada’s wife and I by Varada’s car and Yatish, Vinayak, Yatish’s friend and Hari by Hari’s car. We decided to meet after Devanahalli toll for breakfast around 7:00. I tried to set alarm for the next morning at saw that there was one at 5:10 which I chose and went to bed. Next morning when Varada called after leaving RR Nagar at 6:10, I got up realizing that the alarm set was for 5:10 pm! I rushed through to reach the ring road at Laggere around 6:25. Varada was waiting near Rajkumar Samadhi and Hema dropped me to the place. Obviously, we were running late and reached the restaurant Srinidhi Vaibhav beyond Devanahalli at 7:30. Hari, Yatish and Vinayak had already finished their breakfast. We had quick breakfast of Idli-Vada and left together. We followed Hari’s car and arrived close to the place. Yatish got down on the main road and went looking for the trail. As he didn’t come back in several minutes, we decided to search for him and start the trek. Due to the hurry in the morning, I had forgotten to carry my water. There was a five litre can in Hari’s car that we left as it was heavy. After some time of searching, we found Yatish who seemed to have discovered a way. It was 9:00 when we started walking up. A guy on motorbike (Murali, whom we met during our return) was telling us not to go there and go further, but we had to catch Yatish.

We walked for half an hour through a stretch that didn’t look like a trail and came to a steep rock that seemed difficult to climb. Varada and his wife were a little behind and decided not to continue further. Despite our requests not to go further, Yatish decided this was the way, as we saw the steel ladder further ahead. With lot of difficulty, he managed to climb and convinced Pratap to follow him. I was thinking that even if we manage to cross this hurdle, there may be a bigger hurdle ahead. Hari, Vinayak and I decided to turn back and look for a route to join the actual trail.

 

Start of Yatish's trail!

Rock climbing

We descended and walked next to a big rock, the path was just not there, and we had to make way through thorny bushes. This led to lots of cuts and bruises. In a short while, I found a trail that was going upwards. It was also steep and slippery due to the dry grass but was clearly the path that was used earlier by people. In about 15 minutes, we reached the spot where we had to take an iron ladder downwards. This was the ladder Yatish had seen earlier. We also realized that Yatish and Pratap were stuck after the first climb as the second climb is too steep.

We were wondering how to pull them up. There was a small temple like place with a flagpole bearing God Maruti. The wooden pole looked ling and string enough to get them through. Yatish was particular the two people help the pole from our side. I stayed on top and Vinayak and Hari tried pulling Yatish using the flagpole. It took several attempts, and with Pratap pushing from below, Yatish could come up. Now was Pratap’s turn. For him there was no help from below. After some effort, it was seen that whole holding one end of the pole, moving clockwise made the climb easier. Varada called from down and we advised him to return to Bangalore. Now all five of us were all on the top and had to cross a steep rock with the help of chain that was fixed to it. Some of them literally crawled even with the help of the chain. Once we crossed the rock, there was a long iron ladder downwards and then with the help of a tree, we could get to another ladder that led to the Shivalingas that were inside a cave. While the larger linga and a big trident (Trishul) looked very divine, the place was a mess due to the trash left over by devotees. We consumed the fruits dry fruits and chikkis that were with us. Unfortunately, we had completely run out of water, and were dehydrated due to the tough climb and scorching heat. We spent some time there, took pictures and carefully retraced our path to reach the trail downwards. It took about half and hour to come down the steep trail.

Pratap, Hari and Yatish were ahead, and it took some time for Vinayak and me to trace them. They were resting at Murali, a local farmer’s place. He was the same person who was trying to guide us to the proper trail in the morning. Murali was kind enough to give us enough water to quench our thirst. He normally bought the RO water from a vending place and kept in the small hut in the middle of his land where he grew tomatoes, capsicum and few other vegetables. He also told how revered the Shivalinga was.

Tapteshwara

Savior Maruti!

A temple at the base

With Murali

Now was the time to quench the hunger. Morning’s idly, vada had melted down long ago. We visited a dhaba called “Nature’s aroma” near the Kaiwara cross. The food was sumptuous and delicious. After lunch, Hari dropped us back. I got down at Laggere and caught and auto to reach home by 18:30.

Though it was a one-day trek, The Tapteshwara Betta hiking had the twists and turns of a thriller, and the adventurous experience is unforgettable.