| Mahesh (The Guide) |
| Krishna Hegde |
| Prashanth Kamath |
| Andy |
| Nishi Shah |
| and Me |
Bheemeshwara and Dabbe Falls [31-Jul to 01-Aug, 2004] |
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The start was far from being pleasant... I slipped and fell with in 100 steps. So embarrassing... I kept wondering whether it was me or my shoes that had to be blamed... (Since I did not fall any where for the rest of the trek, I guess it was my mistake and that woke me up enough). The path started out as a Jeep track and soon was reduced to jungle walk way... After 4 years, it was the first time that I felt I was actually trekking... the other treks organised by Jungle Lodges seemed to be like a picnic compared to this. It was raining continuously and I was really afraid to get my camera out... for fear that it would die if it came in contact with water like one of the reviews said. But when we came to a makeshift bridge that we had to cross, I could not resist myself. I started taking pictures using my cap as a shield... Some times I took photos hiding inside the "Ponchos". Suddenly we had gone back to those ages when a camera man would hide himself under black cloth behind huge cameras and shout smile....
After 2 hours of fun filled trekking... we reached a house. Mahesh says that is the house of the priest of the Bheemeshwara Temple. We left our backpacks at the house and climbed freely towards the temple. The temple attracts visitors mainly during Shivaratri... I wonder why all these hard to find temples are for Lord Shiva... Last month's Cave temple at Kavala Caves was also for Lord Shiva.... Actually the temple is of Goddess Durgaparameshwari and is built according to Jain architecture. It seems that some time a Shiva Linga was brought from Kashi and established here and from then it is known as Bheemeshwara. The 50 foot water falls makes an excellent back drop for this old, poorly maintained temple. The water from the falls actually sprays all over the place. As a result of that the whole place is as slippery as ice. We offered our prayer to the Lord and left for the house again. The lady of the house insisted that we have lunch at their house even though we were seeing her for the first time. I sometimes think what wonders it does to the human mind to stay away from "civilisation". We politely declined her offer and proceeded with trek. The climb from there on was tough and tiring... The backpacks seemed to get heavier and heavier... the rain did not help either... But every now and then, we would walk through a cloud covered mountain or a lush green pasture that would lift our spirits again. |
| A river with full flow on the way to Bheemeshwara Falls | |
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| Lower Bheemeshwara Falls | Bheemeshwara Falls |
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| Krishna | Nishi at Hal Kod | Anand at Jog Falls |
| After spending an hour at the village house, we started our post lunch session at 4:00... Like cricket, here also it was supposed to for 2 hours. At the end of it we would camp for the night is somebody's house. But rain, terrain and backpacks slowed us. No worries though since the sceneries were as beautiful as tough they were to reach. After 1 hours of walking through forests, meadows, paddy fields and crossing innumerable streams we reached the house of the Jain Gowdas at a place called "Haal Kod" (roughly translates to a small stream of milk). The next house on-route was at least 4 Km away and hence we had to stay here. That came as a welcome relief since were very tired by then. However, it meant that we had to cover that much more next day... But who cares all we wanted was a tasty dinner, and a good nights sleep. |  |
| Scenic Meadows on way to Hal Kod |
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The house was full of children - Naveen, Navyashree and Nithin and I guess there was another one with no name. It was little Navyashree's second birthday. She was scared of us (our camera especially) for some reason. Naveen, big brother of Navyashree has a penchant for electronics... he is interested in using hi tech torches and mobile phones that visitors bring to this place.
After chatting for a while and de-leaching ourselves, we started preparing dinner. To be honest, we only cut vegetables and Mahesh prepared nice sambar. Our engineering background haunted us even while cutting vegetables as each one had his own style backed by his logic of Quantum Mechanics... However, it was expertise of Nishi that finally came to our rescue. Mahesh served us a stomach full and all of struggled to stuff all that in our stomachs... In additions to Mahesh's Sambar we were served Hurli Chutney, Amte kai[dont know the English name] and mango pickles by the Gowdas... All in all it was a perfect recipe for a very good sleep. I crashed into a deep sleep soon after that. The plan was to leave early in the morning at 7:30... for that to happen we should get up at 6:30 and prepare breakfast... :-)) as if any body was serious. Mahesh also works for a local newspaper named "Sagara Sutta" [Around Sagara]. He was talking to the Gowdas collecting info on some of his stories wearing the journalist cap... When he was done we requested him to give a back massage. By God, he is good. |
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| Nithin and Navyashree | Kamath cutting Onions |
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We started our trek towards Dabbe falls at 9:00 with very high spirits alternating between meadows and deep forests... crossing numerous streams of ankle (knee, waist, chest depending on the posture:-)) deep water all the way. Since this was the second day, we were more familiar with the leeches and our backpacks were also lighter... we climbed up and down many mountains... Meadows... Streams... Cows... Cow shit... became a cliche... too much of beauty.
After two hours of walking through jungles... banana plantations and private pastures we reached a tar-road... seemed like heaven. But that joy was short-lived... we again head into the jungles... Mahesh was stopping at many houses and talking to them... I thought he was only building his network... But later, we realised that we had lost the way and he was asking if any one would lead us to the jeep track that he was familiar with. I must say Mahesh did a nice job is keeping us calm and motivated... I dont know how would we react if we knew we were lost - especially with heavy back-packs and the suckers at our feet. Finally we had two comrades who would lead us through their own plantations to the jeep track. From there it was simple... jeep track leads to the house of the Havyaka Brahmins... We dropped our back-packs there and continued empty handed (or is it empty backed). We were accompanied by Vasantha... 14 year old boy of the house... He has been to Dabbe falls 4 times before. the trek from their house to the falls was really tricky... we had to walk almost in ankle deep water often and it started to rain too... However the walk was energised by the chocolate burfey that Krishna had brought. After half an hour, we reached another family, which almost served as gate keepers of the falls. They maintain a book of visitors too. The journey from that point was a 85 degree decline to the falls and really dangerous. Mahesh insisted that "we should be extremely careful and get back as group of 7". |
| Lone Shelter in a Meadow |
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The initial few feet of the decline was not as bad as I had imagined... I soon realised that it was worse... It was not only the decline but the rocks were damn slippery. We had to hold creepers, tree roots and branches just to stand straight. What ever apprehensions we had about holding slimy things in our hand vanished in a sheer desire to survive the descent and the climb back. everybody felt like being on the scenes of their favorite action movie... Cliff hanger... Lakshya... MI2... so on... Vasantha seemed to enjoy the most showing off his agility and energy... he had an unfair advantage of faster metabolism :-)). | |
| After 40 minutes of treacherous descent, we reached a flat land big enough for a group of 4 to stand on... Mahesh said that was the end and we could only go further during the dry months with the help of ropes... Well there was a trade-off... the falls would not be as beautiful then... An case we were in no position to bargain... It seems they get only 15 minutes on top of Everest too... Big deal... we also spent 15 minutes in front of the Dabbe Falls. took some snaps and started climb back. Climbing was much easier. It needed bursts of strength in the calf/thigh muscles but overall it was much more easier than getting down... It was also raining heavily just for the 20 minutes we took to climb up. When it was all over we felt that the climb/descent was in itself as rewarding as seeing the falls. |  |
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| Dabbe Falls | The group | |
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