I'm all about intellectual curiosity. What are you curious about?
Last Sunday, we hiked the 10-mile (15-16 km) Lake Chabot Loop with friends. It was amazing fun because of some new people we met, a beautiful lake and trail and it had been a long time since I had walked so much! (My legs informed me about that the next day ;-)
I came to know there was a water rappelling event organized by VRangers this weekend via the Mumbai Hikers blog. We booked it and only realized later that it was 220+ km away and we’ll have to be there by 10am. Ouch. We inquired for stays in Igatpuri so that we can reach there on Saturday afternoon and head back on Sunday afternoon. No luck – every single hotel we could reach out to was fully booked. Yikes, what is so special about this place Igatpuri that the whole area is full? We were going to find out later since we decided to head out anyway, and started driving at 5:30am on a Sunday morning.
We headed out on the Maharashtra State Highway 50 which is a 2-lane no-divider highway which made it difficult and slow to drive because of the slow heavy trucks. An hour later, we stopped at this beautiful spot to have packed healthy sandwiches for breakfast:
Less than an hour later, Google Maps showed a possible route other than going through Nashik and we wanted to avoid going to Nashik. So even though the locals also discouraged us, we decided to take the shorter SH51 route that Google Maps showed us, and boy are we glad that we did!
After feasting our eyes on lush green hills, beautiful waterfalls far and near (by the road side) and green fields with grazing animals, we reached our final destination – Vihi gaon, near Manas Resort, Igatpuri, after 5.5 hours of driving through countless bends and turns.
We were both excited to do waterfall rappelling but when we reached, they said that due to heavy rainfall and strong water flowing, the number of safe spots that rappelling can be done from is only one and another group had already taken it up, so we were going to do another activity. We were disappointed at first but safety concerns are important, so we were happy there was another activity – the flying fox (also called a zip-line).
Although there were too many people in queue (nearly a hundred!), the organizers VRangers handled things very well and ensured everyone’s safety as well as fun.
A video of the view from the start of the flying fox rope : this is my wife who is going down the rope, it hard to get a good shot because, due to safety reasons, the waiting folks were at a distance from the crew and the cliff:
A view from the other side, the end of the flying fox rope : this is a random person coming down the rope:
Experiencing the water splashes:
We enjoyed being at the waterfalls for quite some time, then went to a nearby Greelands hotel, changed to dry clothes in the surprisingly clean bathrooms, had lunch and finally headed back to Pune around 4:30pm in the same route.
The highlight on the way back was a beautiful rainbow:
We had dinner around 8 at Chaitrali restaurant – their Veg. Kasuri is a must-try. Then headed out again doing the sometimes-scary highway overtaking and the even-more-scary overtaking from left because of slow-moving moron drivers who insists on being on the right side of the lane. We finally reached home at 10:30pm, I washed up and crashed for the night with a smile on my face and aches everywhere.
My wife and myself recently had a great time at The Machan in Lonavala, Maharashtra, India. It’s perfect for nature lovers who want a weekend (or in our case, weekday) getaway and be amidst greenery and silence. It is certainly not the place if you’re looking for “activities to do in a resort”.
The word “machan” means “a platform erected in a tree, used originally for hunting large animals and now for watching animals in wildlife reserves.”
To reach the place, you need to first book online. Couples and small families go into the Canopy Machan, big families or groups can go into the Heritage Machan. Then, you follow their directions or use their location in Google Maps, because you won’t find any signage anywhere. In fact, even after reaching the place, their name is not mentioned anywhere. They really want to be as natural as possible, I guess.
After we were done admiring the place and the view, we had a scrumptious simple lunch served by the courteous and helpful staff in the open dining area.
A negative at first is that there is no phone connectivity but it quickly turns into a positive because you end up reading a book or enjoying the calmness.
We met another nice family and had a great time chatting with them. It is one of those chance encounters that leaves a lasting positive impression in your mind.
P.S. Special thanks to BG for telling me about this place.
A couple of weeks ago, we went to Yelagiri Hills (in Tamil Nadu) on a one day road trip.
It’s a great little hill station which has not yet been commercialized (relatively speaking) and has a neat trekking trail.
Eleven of us went trekking to Tadiyandamol. We ended up trekking more than 25 km on day 1, literally walking in the clouds, pitching our own tents, and braving the winds during the night. All in all, a beautiful place, awesome company and a memorable sunrise made it a great weekend.
This weekend, we climbed Mullainagiri and Bababudanagiri. Even though this is my third visit, it never fails to delight me on its beauty. Mullainagiri and Tadiyandamol are my favorite trekking spots in terms of scenery.
In the 3-4 days before the trek, we didn’t spend enough time on the preparation and hence we were worried. So I wrote a “Trekking Howto a.k.a. “The Checklist” which we can read before a trek so that we won’t have to rethink every time about whether we have taken care of all aspects.
It was a perfect trek in terms of weather and company. We had the most fun in looking back after every few hours and seeing how far we have come, since we could actually see the Mullainagiri temple while trekking towards Bababudanagiri.
How to do the Mullainagiri trek : Arrive at Chikmagalur. Hire a jeep to take you to the starting point of the trek, cost Rs.250. The starting point is a small iron gate that will lead you directly into the hill. Follow the path. After 1-2 hours, you’ll reach the topmost point – the temple. You can request the purohit here to stay for the night and they’ll even prepare dinner if you ask them. Wrap yourself up in your sleeping bag for the night because it is going to get really cold.
The next day morning, start early or late depending on whether you want to face the cold weather, but leave at least by 8 or 9. Make sure you donate a good amount to the purohit for being a good host. Follow the path downhill towards the right from the temple. After a few hours, you’ll reach the road. Cross the road towards the right and start trekking downwards. This is the start of a good long up-and-down route towards Bababudanagiri. Once you reach the destination, have some tea and pakodas at the stalls. Then either hire a jeep (Rs.10-20 per head) or walk down to the Bababudanagiri temple. Make sure you catch the 3.30pm bus which will take you back to Chikmagalur.
The photos are of low quality because they are taken using my mobile phone. Regardless, the rest of the photos are in my Flickr set.
Update: Photos by Vikram and photos by Varun.
This weekend, one of my long-pending wishes came true: I finally trekked Kodachadri.
Kodachadri is a mountain in the Western Ghats, in Karnataka. It is a famous trekking spot.
On Saturday morning, we reached Nittur, grabbed some breakfast and then proceeded towards Kumble, the starting point of the trek. Right there, I could see clouds playing hide-and-seek among the mountains and I knew it was going to be a good trek.
What I didn’t know was how awesome the 14 km of terrain was going to be. At one moment we would be trudging in the mountain avoiding branches and forcing through thick vegetation, the next moment we would be crossing a stream of water…
… Some time later we would be climbing up very slippery stones right next to flowing water, then suddenly in an open area and then walking along the edge of a cliff while it is raining and then walking in the clouds, literally. This was easily one of the best trekking spots I’ve ever been to, and I was so happy that I finally got to be there. We even got to drench ourselves in a freezing cold waterfall.
I thought I would get a damn good sleep in the night because I was so
tired. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Not with the snorers
around. On top of that, it was so cold and I didn’t have a jacket.
I kept tossing and turning all night.
At 4.30 am of Day 2 (June 01 Sunday), I was jolted by a shrill
cock-a-doodle-doo sound. Soon enough, our leader Narayan woke us all
up. I was surprised to see everybody get up immediately. At around
5.30 am, we all went out in search of sighting some animals.
Unfortunately, we were too loud to get to see any animals. Even our
footsteps, especially when crushing leaves, were loud enough to alert
the sensitive-eared animals. Our guide who was in front saw some
bisons but they ran away in lightning speed. I didn’t know they could
do that.
We were soon enough on top of another hill and got to see another
beautiful view. Heh, I’m such a landscape-voyeur.
And it was funny to see the things we do for poses in photographs.
What was amazing though was we could see islands in the Arabian Sea.
And then Narayana found viper snakes! These are poisonous snakes and
one bite could have been fatal for any of us.
For a while now, I was annoyed by the fact that it has been more than
a year and a half since my last
trek. So when I saw a call
for people who want to join a trek in Shimoga in the [Orkut Bangalore
Trekkers
group](http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=63252&tid=5202222619863645450&start=1),
I jumped at the chance.
A few days later on May 30 night (i.e. last weekend as of this
writing), I was on a bus to Sagar in Shimoga district with 13 other
strangers I had never met before. Thankfully, all it took was a few
smiles and laughs and we got along very well. There were people from
varying age groups – 18 to
55 although majority were the young IT crowd.
Then the inevitable happened. Bangalore traffic jam. It took 2-2.5
hours just to get out of the city! There are so many bottlenecks
especially near the Jalahalli cross. No wonder the bus drivers are so
stressed out. God save us all, I wonder how much worse it can
get. Because of all this hungama, we
reached Sagar more than a couple of hours late which threw our
trekking plans haywire. We had to ditch the idea of trekking till the
Belli Gundi waterfall and do a shorter exploration of the area.
To start the day (May 31 Saturday), we got into an open jeep to
transport us to Kattinakaru. We had a fun ride through the scenic
locale. We even saw the Linganmakki dam from far.
A couple of weekends ago, most of the trekware gang met up for a weekend trek. This time we headed to Brahmagiri.
To reach Brahmagiri, take the bus to kuTTa (Madikeri district) but get down in Srimangala. Meet the forest officer (they come in at around 10 am) and it is better if you have called them up in advance and notified them. Enquire shops for guest house to freshen up and also for a jeep to take you to Iruppu Falls.
At Iruppu Falls, we met the forest guard who would accompany us during the trek.
The guest house that we stayed at was in the middle of a field where pepper and coffee was abundant. We plucked a pepper corn and ate it – it was deliciously spicy.
We then started the trek from Iruppu Falls and came across many interesting flora and fauna.
The good …
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