Been quite a while since I finished this long pending post.
Pictures of the trip can be found here , here , here & here.
For those who have been wondering what is Kemmangundi…well, it’s a hill station around 250 kms from Bangalore in the district of Chikmaglur. The place is also known as KR Hills named after King Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. Places of interest around KR Hills are the Kalahati Falls, Hebbe Falls & Shanti Falls.
We (Me, S & B) started on our journey from Bangalore at around 12AM. It did take us a while to decide who would sit in the front seat of the Indica…and No…the fight wasn’t to occupy the seat but rather giving up any sort of claim to the front seat of a car!!! Reason being that the guy who sits there can’t fall asleep throughout the journey as the driver may get distracted…
Anyway, S agreed to occupy the seat for the first half of the journey and I switched places with him at around 2AM after we had stopped for some tea. One useful piece of advice that I got was, “Put on your seat belt. That way even if you fall asleep, you wouldn’t be using the driver’s lap as a pillow!”; pretty good advice I thought.
We reached Kemmangundi around 4.30AM and boy was it scary? We found our way to the Horticulture Guest house, thanks to a wild rabbit hopping merrily along the road. Of course that wasn’t the only wild life that we saw. A Jackal was moving around in the bush probably looking for some late night/early morning snack. Anyway, we reached the guest house only to find absolutely no sign of any homo sapien…just 4 Canis familiaris (Bole to kutte). It was quite scary when the animals strategized and surrounded us from four different directions, thus preventing us from moving from our spot. S armed with a stick did put up a brave front and chakravyuha ko cheer kar we managed to escape. Luckily, some one woke up and opened a door somewhere. On exploring a bit we were relieved that it was the caretaker. Though, the fun didn’t end there. Apparently, the guy with whom we had confirmed our booking was on leave and hence we were given a temporary room. We had to shift to another place in the morning around 9AM. Though the lady in-charge of guest house bookings was quite helpful in arranging for the same.
All this took quite a lot of time in the morning and we were a bit delayed for the trek hat was planned. Nevertheless, we started on the trek around 12PM, on the lookout for the famous Shanti Falls & the much hyped Z-Point. Well, we did come across these landmarks but the Shanti fall proved to be less of a waterfall and more of a stream trickling down the hill. Of course, the water body proved to be such a big relief on our way back due to the heat and hence thirst. Z-Point was just a small path cut in the mountain in the shape of a reverse Z! Reaching the end of the trek seemed like such an achievement. Walking almost 4 kms on that hilly track was something. Hadn’t done anything like this for quite a while and it was quite exhilarating. J
The return path seemed easier as we were going downhill but at the same time it was scary. There was a point where a wrong step to the edge would have taken us thousands of feet down the valley. It seemed like the entire valley was going around us and we were still, when we observed it from the corner of your eyes as we moved ahead in a straight path. Was a bit dizzying.
Reaching the Shanti Falls was such a great relief…B broke into a song as soon as he saw the water body and ran into the stream in a La-Aamir-Khan style!
Back at the guest house, we headed towards the Nursery, post lunch. The green lawns were so inviting after the tiring trek that we just fell over there lazily. After a few foto sessions returning back to the room was bliss. Evening saw us venturing out for some food (this is a scarce commodity) and dinner just omlette at a roadside thela. Walking in the pitch dark jungle was a bit scary though. The rest of the evening was spent reading books and getting cricket updates on the India-Bangladesh match on the fone. Of course we did have our cricket expert with us (Chk out the pics below) who very patiently heard every suggestion that we made and like a true gentleman and fan didn’t react to the outrageous remarks made by us.
For those who have been wondering what is Kemmangundi…well, it’s a hill station around 250 kms from Bangalore in the district of Chikmaglur. The place is also known as KR Hills named after King Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. Places of interest around KR Hills are the Kalahati Falls, Hebbe Falls & Shanti Falls.
We (Me, S & B) started on our journey from Bangalore at around 12AM. It did take us a while to decide who would sit in the front seat of the Indica…and No…the fight wasn’t to occupy the seat but rather giving up any sort of claim to the front seat of a car!!! Reason being that the guy who sits there can’t fall asleep throughout the journey as the driver may get distracted…
Anyway, S agreed to occupy the seat for the first half of the journey and I switched places with him at around 2AM after we had stopped for some tea. One useful piece of advice that I got was, “Put on your seat belt. That way even if you fall asleep, you wouldn’t be using the driver’s lap as a pillow!”; pretty good advice I thought.
We reached Kemmangundi around 4.30AM and boy was it scary? We found our way to the Horticulture Guest house, thanks to a wild rabbit hopping merrily along the road. Of course that wasn’t the only wild life that we saw. A Jackal was moving around in the bush probably looking for some late night/early morning snack. Anyway, we reached the guest house only to find absolutely no sign of any homo sapien…just 4 Canis familiaris (Bole to kutte). It was quite scary when the animals strategized and surrounded us from four different directions, thus preventing us from moving from our spot. S armed with a stick did put up a brave front and chakravyuha ko cheer kar we managed to escape. Luckily, some one woke up and opened a door somewhere. On exploring a bit we were relieved that it was the caretaker. Though, the fun didn’t end there. Apparently, the guy with whom we had confirmed our booking was on leave and hence we were given a temporary room. We had to shift to another place in the morning around 9AM. Though the lady in-charge of guest house bookings was quite helpful in arranging for the same.
All this took quite a lot of time in the morning and we were a bit delayed for the trek hat was planned. Nevertheless, we started on the trek around 12PM, on the lookout for the famous Shanti Falls & the much hyped Z-Point. Well, we did come across these landmarks but the Shanti fall proved to be less of a waterfall and more of a stream trickling down the hill. Of course, the water body proved to be such a big relief on our way back due to the heat and hence thirst. Z-Point was just a small path cut in the mountain in the shape of a reverse Z! Reaching the end of the trek seemed like such an achievement. Walking almost 4 kms on that hilly track was something. Hadn’t done anything like this for quite a while and it was quite exhilarating. J
The return path seemed easier as we were going downhill but at the same time it was scary. There was a point where a wrong step to the edge would have taken us thousands of feet down the valley. It seemed like the entire valley was going around us and we were still, when we observed it from the corner of your eyes as we moved ahead in a straight path. Was a bit dizzying.
Reaching the Shanti Falls was such a great relief…B broke into a song as soon as he saw the water body and ran into the stream in a La-Aamir-Khan style!
Back at the guest house, we headed towards the Nursery, post lunch. The green lawns were so inviting after the tiring trek that we just fell over there lazily. After a few foto sessions returning back to the room was bliss. Evening saw us venturing out for some food (this is a scarce commodity) and dinner just omlette at a roadside thela. Walking in the pitch dark jungle was a bit scary though. The rest of the evening was spent reading books and getting cricket updates on the India-Bangladesh match on the fone. Of course we did have our cricket expert with us (Chk out the pics below) who very patiently heard every suggestion that we made and like a true gentleman and fan didn’t react to the outrageous remarks made by us.
We left the place early next morning around 9AM for the Kalahatti falls. This is a religious place for both Hindus & Muslims and one can see people from both communities traveling here to visit the shrine.
The trip back home was quite uneventful and the taste of real food at a roadside restaurant near Bangalore was so heartening.
Real looking forward to the next trip.
For those who want to visit KR Hills, I would suggest you get your guest house bookings done well in advance. It can be done by calling the horticulture guest house directly or at Lalbagh.
Details of the same can be found here.
2 comments:
'xuse me WHAT?!
@monts: chk photoblog
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