Chikmagalur Trip

We were planning this one for quite some time, but it finally worked out last week. Off we went to Chikmagalur for a trip of a life-time. (Not to mention it was a difficult decision as the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup was in progress!)

We started off on Saturday morning [15 Sept] at 6:30. We had hired a Chevrolet Tavera with a driver to take us around. It’s a different matter that we intended to leave at 5:30. Fortunately, the car was comfortable & the driver was pretty good. Memories of a forgettable car & driver on our previous trip were immediately left behind. We tried to doze off but the early morning freshness didn’t let us do that & soon we were whizzing past Moodubidri. We stopped at Karkala around 7:40 and had breakfast at Sagar (restaurant).

We started off again & realized that we probably chose the best time for this trip because it was just after the rains and there was amazing greenery everywhere. Our next target was the Hanumangundi waterfall. It lies between Bajegoli & Kudremukh, around 20km before Kudremukh. We reached around 9:15 but sadly, it was closed, maybe due to slippery surfaces or heavy current caused by heavy rains over last few days. So we carried on. But we made up for the loss by stopping on the way for snaps at some stunning locations. The best one was Kadambi Falls. Its a very pretty and small waterfall but it makes for very good pictures. We crossed Kudremukh around 10 am.

Soon we were in Kalasa, surrounded by beautiful tea gardens. We stopped at Goomankhan tea estate for a cup of hot tea right in the middle of the sprawling tea garden. That was a wonderful experience. Then we took a diversion to Horanadu as we still had enough time. Horanadu has a nice temple of Annapurneshwari located at a pretty high altitude and offers a good view. The statue of the goddess is covered with gold and silver, and the calm feel of the temple is very soothing. This formed the spiritual quotient of our trip!! There was some confusion about the road ahead but we were soon on track with help from locals and stopped only after reaching Chikmagalur around 1:50 in the afternoon.

Nitin’s house in Chikmagalur was the right place to land up, nice and cozy. His mother is a wonderful lady bubbling with enthusiasm. She had a sumptuous meal ready for us and we had our hearts fill. But we were running out of time and soon started off again. Our next target was Mullaingiri. This is the HIGHEST peak in Karnataka at 6317 feet above sea level. Apparently it is the highest peak between the Nilgiris & the Himalayas!! The most amazing part was that a temple has been built on the top of Mullaingiri and I have no clue when and how they managed to do that! Rain & fog tried their best to spoil our plans but we kept going till the Tavera could not go any further.

The last part of the journey required us to climb 350 steps to reach the top. To top it there was a somewhat heavy drizzle with very strong (& cold) wind. Bhatia was not well & we were also short of one umbrella. So we left him with Satish (the driver) in the car & started off. I was scared to take the camera or mobile but thankfully Mahesh had his N70 for our photo needs. He was clicking pretty much throughout the way & by the time we reached the top, our jaws & ears were paining with cold. But it was a memorable experience. I had never experienced this degree of cold in Karnataka, especially coming from Ahmedabad with its chilly winters. We went into the temple without our footwear & our feet went numb stepping into rainwater on the floor. But it was a truly amazing experience.

On our way down, the rain had stopped and the wind was feeling even better. Halfway down we saw Bhatia & Satish coming up. No amount of persuasion could stop them & they went all the way up!! We took some more snaps till they came back and started on our way back. Being in the land of coffee, we could not avoid Café Coffee Day!! All of us had coffee & cake at the local CCD and then headed home. On the way I picked up a kilo of coffee powder for my granny which she had been asking for since long.

We reached home around 7:30. Again, aunty had piping hot tomato soup ready for us & we couldn’t ask for more. We caught up on the day’s matches with updates from Nitin’s dad and were soon engrossed in the ongoing match. Dinner was as good, if not better, than lunch; which was followed by ice-cream & fruit salad. We went to sleep after watching Bangladeshi pyrotechnics against the Proteas.

Sunday began at 7 am and we got ready for breakfast. We had some wonderful Neer dosas before we took off at 8:30. On the way to Bababudangiri, we saw the Attugundi falls by the roadside. It’s a very interesting waterfall. It is very small but its shape & path are very pretty. The neat look is due to the cement platform over which it flows down. From there we went straight to the Bababudangiri hills. This place offers a breathtaking view of the ghats. We also visited the Manikyadhare. It is believed that if you bathe under the Manikyadhare and throw off your clothes, your sins will be washed away!! Unfortunately we could not visit the Dattatreya Peetha and Baba Budan shrine due to time constraints. This has been a site of controversy for a long time.

There was an absolutely stunning pond in the midst of the hills which caught our attention. When we reached there, it was covered with fog and we could not see the other end and that made it look huge. Later when the fog shifted, we saw it in its entirety. It had a leafless tree in a corner which added to its beauty. Then we quickly moved on. The road from Bababudangiri to Kemmangundi was the worst stretch we encountered. There was virtually no road! It was very difficult to navigate the curves on such a bad road and so we took long to reach Kemmangundi (reached around 12:30). Kemmangundi is a cozy tourist spot. We spent some good time there. The gardens there had some beautiful flowers. I had a nice time taking lot of macro-mode pics of the flowers.

We left Kemmangundi around 1:30. On the way, we stopped over at the Kalattgiri falls. Nothing great about it but you can’t deny admiring the stone carving BEHIND the waterfall. You can make out Shiva and elephants carved out of the rock over which the water is falling!! But there is a small temple and sadly visitors make the place dirty by bathing and washing clothes. We didn’t stay for long and were back on track. We were already getting late and reached Chikmagalur at around 4 pm. We packed up quickly, had some snacks & started back.

We had a nice time in the car on our return. We had some good chatting, some even better fights (over playing of music, opening/closing of windows, volume of music played - of course I lost all of ‘em) which added to our fun. We stopped in Karkala for dinner at – where else – Sagar and had a good meal. We finally reached home at 11:45 pm, taking extra time due to Ganesh processions & pandals blocking the way in the outskirts of M’lore (15th was Ganesh Chaturthi). We finished our day by watching the South Africans beat England in their Super 8 encounter. As I write this, India and Pakistan have set up a dream final in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. Wow!

Here you can see all the snaps we took. Enjoy!!

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