Brahmagiri - Irupu trek (18th, 19th Sept)

Uff!! Writing a travelogue is like writing an examination. You will have to remember and puke everything (in terms of writing) on to the white paper. But there are times when you feel the best about bragging about the best trek you did, this was one of those kinds.

This was the best trek we did in Karnataka. An amazing place. Beautiful landscapes, picture perfect all around, wildlife at its nativity, splendid climate and leeches pestering more than ex boyfriends. Ok Now that I have given so much a build up, I will reveal the place. This is Brahmagiri, which is in the western ghats, between Wayanad and Kodagu. At 1608 height, it has a good wildlife to see.

We book KSRTC Bus from Bangalore to Gonikoppalu. There are many buses. we took the one which starts at 10.03. After reaching Gonikoppalu at around 5am, we took a room to freshen up(rooms available near the bus stop itself). We took a nap and woke up by 8am. There are many small hotels there. Food was average. We had breakfast at Kamath Hotel and boarded the immediate bus to Sreemangala. Sreemangala is around 6kms.

At Sreemangala forest office, we took the permission to trek from the DFO and paid around 4500 for the same. (We were a group of 13 people)

We  took another bus from Sreemangala to  Irupu falls. (Mind, bus goes away from Irupu turn, to a school and comes back to Irupu junction - Dont get down at that junction, he will drop at the base of fall)

We did not stop at the Irupu fall. We took a guide from the base of the fall. He was fussy since we told him we will be cooking at the top. He said the logs will be wet and there is no dry wood anywhere. We took the risk. (We did not have stove or any other back up).

We started trekking by 11. The trail is beautiful, plane meadows and bamboo all around. The only painful part of this trail were the leeches. There were SO MANY!! It was just sticking on  one after the other. The moment you stop to get rid of one, two would get onto you. So, please be prepared for the deadly attack if not anything.

We reached the IB (Very early, thanks to leeches :P) at around 2pm.This was about 4km trek and was not tiring.

Then comes the FUN part. We planned to cook!! No wood, if at there, everything was wet. We tried tried and tried real hard. We had bought camphor from the Rameshwara Temple at the base and with a lot of difficulty and loads of expert advises, lit the fire. Thanks to Basha for his endless breath which kept the fire. Finally we managed to cook some rice (something like it). We mixed Puliyogare gojju and had our lunch by 6pm. It was heavenly to have hot Ganji with Uppinkai and Puliyogare in Bisibele bhaths disguise.

Some guys wanted a caffeine break, so they all formed a small group. I squeezed myseld in conviniently, nothing like a smoke amidst the foggy mountain. We all went a little distance and felt the fantabulous evening breeze. Then a thought occured to me. Why not use the natural resources for nature's calls(Or Missed calls!) You got it right! Fog is vapourised water, and we need water soon after nature's call, so, why not use fog for the same. All the engineers and non-engineers thought about this formulae and some testers visited the same place in the morning(Ahem, I DID NOT GO WITH THEM THIS TIME), and tested the funda. [Result: I donno, guess it didnt work, amusingly none of them were stinking (yeeks!!), so I guess they used  our poor old formula.]
Guys were trying to be supermen! tying DJs shawl around the neck. Yess!! No undies out but. We clicked so many superman pics, Kajol(s) and what not.

Coming back from the evening /smoke walk, we played Dumb charades for some time and laughed till the stomach ached at DJs hilarious acts.

There was another batch from Bangalore Ascenders and there was barely any place to sleep. So we applied all possible algorithms and squeezed ourselves in a 10x10 room.

We started our trek to Brahmagiri by 9am next morning. We had prepared Vermicelli the previous evening (remember with lot of trouble we lit the fire?), but there were no traces of vermicelli in it. It was totally Overcooked with lot of water and reminded something we cooked when we just started learning to cook.

Well here I paused. Just to cause some awareness. We spotted some human DUNG at the ONLY path way back home. There was some guy from the other troop who had conveniently got light early morning, that too on the way. It was disgusting.

So it is wise not to trouble others with the ones dump. It may be an interesting thing to him, but am sure its disgusting to all others.

So, we started our trek. The landscapes around were picture perfect. If God spent some time creating all, he sure has spent years together to make such wonderful picturesque wonder. Everywhere you see is beauty at its best. Green landscapes, light mist, fog here and there and sunlight playfully hovering around the mountains. I thanked everything and everyone who made this trek possible.

First we spotted a herd of elephants. There were about 12 and 2 baby elephants with them. They were grazing for some time and one of it did get a hint of us, so it made a noise and all of them disappeared in no time.

The peak is very steep and vertical. The soil is slippery and the border drawn on it is rocky. So we had to be very careful in climbing the vertical. I spotted someones Sony Ericcson phone, which later fetched us some Rotis and chocolate :P( I am good at trading)

Also on the way to the peak, we spotted a lone Sambar. It posed for long enough and then ran.

We spent some time on the peak. Beautiful. Foggy, quick climate change and so graceful.

Climbing back was easy, and we didn’t take the same slippery route. The grassy downhill was easier to climb down.

There were some streams on the way and we relaxed in the cool water.

Reached the IB back by 2 and started to trek down. I felt leeches on Brahmagiri were lesser than the trail back to the fall.

We reached the fall by 4pm and played in water. The fall closes by 5 PM so we had to come back to the base by 5. The waterfall is easily accessible and hence is very crowded. Wish it was not as much crowded.

We reached the small hotel at the base and had our tea and snacks. The other troop offered a drop back to Gonikoppal and like we all were waiting we got into the TT. We reached Gonikoppal by 7pm and had our Lunch/Dinner. Our bus was at 11, so we got enough time there clicking photos and talking. Some even took a nap on the steps we were sitting.

  

The bus came at sharp 11 and we all reached Bangalore back by 4.45am.

I quote again, this was the best trek I ever did in Karnataka. I would want to go again, next time via Srirangapatna.

Partculars:

 Bangalore to Gonikoppa – 250km

Gonikoppa to Srimangala – 30km

Srimangala to Irupu falls – 6km

Total trek was about 24 kms.(Irupu to Brahmagiri)

Click here for Photos: