Trek to Mullayanagiri - April 2010

Trek to Mullayanagiri

Date 09/04/2010

Starting from Shimoga.

Number of people: 2 (me and my cousin Rajath)

Pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pprao123/MullayanagiriTrekApr2010?feat=directlink

Summary

Since anyone searching for and reading this article is already interested in treks and inspired enough, I do not delve into the poetic descriptions of how beautiful the journey was. It suffices to say that despite spending 7 grueling hours on the road and trekking for 4 hrs in mid-day sun at close to 60 deg inclines, it was one of the most exhilarating and fascinating journeys I have been on. The pictures with this article will speak of the serene beauty. The following sections stick to only the practical details – of how to get there, how much time is required and what facilities are available.

What we tried to do:

Trek to Mullayanagiri (MG) in the morning, and then trek to Bababudangiri, aka Dattapeetha (DP) from there. Camp at night, and come back the next morning by bus to Chikmaaglur.

What we did:

We trekked to MG starting at noon. Then we trekked about 1.5 hrs on the way from MG to DP. Then, due to an injury to Rajath, we turned towards the tar road and came back to Chikmagalur – Shimoga by vehicles on the same evening.

I will describe the location, our route, and what should have been our route below.

The hill.

Mullayanagiri, the highest peek in Karnataka at 1918 m, is about 20 km from Chikmagalur by road. There is a temple at the very top. There is a well constructed tar road till almost the peak. No buses ply directly to MG as of today, but one can go by a private/rental vehicle up till the top. Rentals available at Kaimara (see map). Steep stairs from the end of the road will take one to the temple, and anyone can climb the stairs within 15 mins. Ofcourse, one can trek all the way from the bottom of the mountain, as we did. The mountain lies in a range of mountains called Bababudangiri range. The peak of MG is 13 km from Kaimara and that of Bababudangiri (Dattapeetha) is 22 km from Kaimara. Buses go all the way to DP from Chikmagalur. I am not sure of the frequency of the buses.

A note on safety/Naxal activities: There is a police checkpost at DP. We talked to a few good police personnel who had arrived at MG. They mentioned that there is not really much Naxalite activity in this area.

The route.

The route is depicted roughly in the map at the top, and is fairly self explanatory. One has to go to Kaimara where plenty of buses arrive from Chikmagalur frequently. Then one has to follow the road to Mullayanagiri-Dattapeetha, till it branches to Mullayanagiri at point “A”. Sign boards point to the way towards MG here. The regular trekking trail, starts from a place called ‘Sarpadari’. No one knows this trail head name except the very local population. To go to ‘Sarpadari’ trail head, do not take the deviation at “A”, but instead go about 1 km further. There is an arch with stairs behind it, on the left side of the road. That is the starting point of the regular trail. It will take about 2.5 to 3 hrs on this regular trail from the starting point to reach the peak.

Once at the peak of MG, multiple options exist –

1. Trek to DP in 4hrs, and stay there (as a police officer told us at MG, there is a temple and a mosque to stay there), come back by bus next day from DP.
2. Come back by your private vehicle to point ‘A’ and go to DP by road
3. Go to Manikyadhara by trek from DP to see a waterfall, and come back to DP.
4. Trek to Manikyadhara – Jannatnagar and then to Mallenahalli. Go to Chikmagalur or Shimoga by bus from Mallenahalli.

Many private buses ply from Lingadahalli to Chikmagalur through Kaimara, at least once every 0.5 hrs in day time – I am not sure about early mornings and night timings.

Our journey – details of facilities, what to carry, and what to and not to do:

1. We started the journey from Shimoga at 7 AM. We took a private bus to Chikmagalur. The bus took a winding route till Tarikere, and spent 4 hrs from Shimoga to come close to Chikmagalur, which made us regret our decision to get on that bus. The only good thing was that our bus route came directly through Lingadahali – Santhaveri – Mallenahalli and Kaimara. However to make matters worse, we got down at Mallenahalli instead of Kaimara. Some young fools at Mallenahalli tried to make money out of our ignorance, and treated and mocked us as if we were two amateurs trying to climb something like Mount Everest. Fortunately some Samaritan asked us to simply board the next bus to Kaimara, which was in just 10 mins. Finally we came to Kaimara at 1130 AM.

Suggestion 1: Get as soon as possible to Chikmagalur from where ever you are. In our case, from Shimoga, we should have taken a govt bus to Chikmaglur, which would take 2.5 hrs (Birur way).

Sugestion 2: Ask for buses to Kaimara. No one – anywhere, knows “Sarpadari”.

Following the above two suggestions would have made us to come to Kaimara by 1030 AM.

2. Once at Kaimara, there are jeeps, autos and cars available for rent. Although we did not enquire, I guess they must be relatively expensive considering the roads, area and the type of customers. We started walking towards Sarpadari (“B”), but soon hitched a ride on a tractor trailer. Not knowing where Sarpadari was, we got down at point “A”, by 12 noon. We started walking from there, but suddenly started to climb the mountain to our right just after 0.5 km, and our trek started from there (point C). I cannot pin point the location of our start of climb, but it was within half a kilometer, just before the road turned towards right.

Suggestion 3: Do not take the deviation towards MG at “A” if you intend to trek to the peak. Go a kilometer further and then start the trek from the regular trekking trail aka Sarpadari.

As a result, our trek was quite steep, self guided, and short. However it was quite adventurous to go off the road and off the beaten regular trail, and find our own way to the top. Some times we had to even crawl to climb up. I always had my rope ready in my pocket. We reached the temple just before 2 PM.

3. The priest at the temple lives there. They prepare meals, and offer lunch to any trekker. The lunch was very filling, and wholesome – parboiled rice, lenthil sambar, and Raagi ambali (with pickles. We rested for a while in the temple, and started to trek to DP. Although the priest did not ask, we donated some money towards our lunch heartily to the temple.

Suggestion 4: Carry lunch, but expect a wholesome meal at the top. Carry plenty of fruits, and stack/energy bars. There is water available at the temple. But carry enough water as well.

4. We had talked to some police personnel and the priest at the temple, and as per their suggestions, we decided to trek to DP. We thought we will camp mid way somewhere if we do not make it to the DP by 530 PM. Then in the morning, we planned to take a bus from DP to Chikmagalur.

5. We started our hike to DP by 315 PM. The hike was quite scenic. We walked on the trail for about 1.5 hrs, and found some good places to camp at night near hill tops, flanked by boulders (important from the point of view of wind/lightning strikes). But nowhere on the route, we found any water source.

Suggestion 5: Fill enough water at MG for the night and the following morning if you intend to hike to DP.

6. Rajath got injured in his ankle badly midway, so we had to cut short our trip. Luckily for us, we were quite close to the road leading to DP. After some first aid to the injury, we got down to the road by 445 PM. Many vehicles were plying between Kaimara and DP. We then hitched a ride to Chikmagalur in a truck at 515 PM. We found the starting point of Sarpadari (“A”) on the way back. We came to Chikmagalur by 6 PM. Caught a bus to Shimoga at 630 PM. The bus took the Birur-Kadur-Tarikere-Bhadravati route, and came to Shimoga by 9 PM.

Suggestion 6: Carry first aid kit. Do remember to have a crape bandage, and pain killers.

It was a moderately difficult but wonderful trip, and will be cherished for a long time. I do not wish anyone to go through the agony of slow buses and public mockery as we saw, so I have made a map of the route and posted it here.

Items check list for trekking with camping at night.(for future reference)

To be added soon.

Sunfeast 10K

So I ran the first running event that was held in Bangalore after our move back to India. It was a 10 K (6.25 Mile) run organized by Sunfeast. The last time I had run in an event was the half Marathon in AnnArbor exactly 1 year ago. I finished the 10K in 66 mins - felt that its high time that I improve my timing. Over 12 people from GM ran the open 10 K.

I started from my home in Brookefield at 615AM, and caught the bus to the Kantheerava stadium at 630. I was there by 7 AM. Saw the elite runners start off. By the time I met Ashok (my research group's manager at GM, who also ran trained for and ran the race very enthusiastically), wandered here and there, drank some water and kept my bag in the lockers, the elite runners were back and finished! - in 28 minutes. It was simply amazing to see them run - if I run that fast, I will not run even 1/2 a kilometer. Our open 10 K event started at 810AM. The crowd was very enthusiastic. Sowmya, Pranav and Ramesh (Sowmya's brother) came to see and congratulate me at the end of my run around 930 AM. There was a 'Majaa run' of 5.7 km after an hour of the 10 K start. I missed its starting fun, but Sowmya said it was pretty funny, with people in all costumes running together - there was a 'tree' which took 1 ft steps, there were people dressed up as squirrels, peacock etc - I think you can see this only in India. While the open 10 K had 8000 participants, the Majaa run had 13000 people.

I had heard of so many stories of running events in India being conducted in a silly fashion - dogs chasing runners, water available to only elite athletes etc. Since I saw and participated in this event myself - let me say - this event was organized in a flawless manner, with all facilities provided to the runners. Sure, the toilets in the stadium were messy - but one should give considerations in India, and when 8000 people use toilets at once, you can not expect it to be shining spotless. But apart from that, the organization of the whole event made sure that all the runners got bottles of water and glucose when they ran, and after the run , every one got a bottle of water, a bun, fruit and biscuits - very very impressive indeed, considering that the entry fee was just 200 Rs!

All along the way there were people to cheer us. It was a blast.

Why the name ?

Balikukki - my son coined this word. Just one a few cute words that he uttered before he spoke of words similar to the ones in 'our' languages. This one was very popular for about 2 months after he turned one and a half years old. It has no meaning at all, but reminds me of his liffle face with big smile with big eyes.

Feelings of moving back

Did I become less socially aware and less pro-active towards our community/country after I returned back to India compared to when I was outside the country? I find myself thinking less about things that I pondered freqently over, during my stay outside as an NRI. Especially so over thoughts that brewed in my mind when I made a firm(er) decision to get back to India for good. Such thoughts were over
Helping people in India in general - social service or "giving back" - Helping our old schools, communities, and elders who we interacted with long time ago.
Travel plans (there is an intense urge, but practically I have not done too much due to lack of time, and excuses of lack of roads, traffic conditions, facilities etc)
Hobbies - of running, Yoga, painting, trekking camping etc .
Alternate work - farming, teaching, etc.
Welfare and well being of our family (this is mostly unchanged) and contact frequency with friends.

Possible reasons:

Initial chores of settling down - renting, looking for a place to live, setting up of basic amenities.
Additional, increasing responsibilities - of family.
True travel obstacles - traffic/roads mostly. (lately I have learnt that if you take an initiative and 'let go of things out of control', travel is not that difficult in here, at least locally, during off-peak traffic times)
Quips from relatives (quite high, frustrates a lot - the "petty" things)
Beauracracy (experienced a little till now - banking, obtaining voter's id, ration card etc)
Continuous bombardment of bad news in our society from news papers and other channels, and the Big Rat Race.

In the long run I do not want to get so much into the rat race here in Bangalore that I forget the reason I moved back and more importantly forget the basic force and goal that drives me.
Two weeks ago on a Friday it took me 80 min to travel 8 km in flooded rain and stand-still traffic. Everyone around me was angry and frustrated, competing with one another to move a few of centimeters ahead of the other person. I never grew up among such competition (over space, time and over "My and Mine" stuff) when I was younger. In our towns and villages people were (still are) more friendly than here in Bangalore. The rat race makes you so frustrated and angry that you tend to forget the better things of life in this side of the world.

The only way to fight of this feeling of apathy and comfortable forgetfulness is to keep reminding myself about:
1. The things I intended to do when I get back home, and more importantly - execute the plans.
2. Appreciate the advantages of the move - closeness to family, friends (in a positve way), freedom to pursue any work anywhere, culture, music, availability of any daily, mundane "service", little things that we all loved from our childhood, the opportunity and closeness to explore our own country, and the opportunity to directly serve our society.

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