Bandaje Arbi Falls and Ballarayanadurga fort Trek - November 26th and 27th, 2016

This trek was decided at the end moment, since the initial plans was to go Kumaraparvata, and with that being cancelled due to some reasons, I and my other friends who were up for KP now turned to Guru, who was organizing Bandaje trek for same dates. He said there are seats available to accommodate us, and we ended up for this trek. We thus started from Majestic at 9 PM, 20 of us in the minibus and headed towards Ujire.

Day 1, November 26th: (trek to Bandaje Falls and camp for the night)

We reached Gowdara mane at 6 AM. We were a little late though, and we quickly freshened up, since the owner warned us about other two groups who were yet to come. We had breakfast and we got ready for the trek. The forest department officer came to collect the fee and complete the formalities. We were late already, and with a small formal intro and guidelines, we started the trek at 9 AM.

Intro before the start of trek

It was a 8km trek till falls, and the guide said it's a moderate to difficult trek. Taking everything that we need for two days, our bags were relatively heavy, which made it a little difficult for us to trek. Initial 4 km was inside the forest. Though it was steep and a little tiring at times, all those trees never made us realize the heat of the hot sun above our heads. There were few water streams to cross, and in one of them, we took a long break to relax as well as to take some pics. It was relatively an easy trek for these 4 km, and we reached the end of the forest line. It was 12:30 PM and we stopped here for lunch.

Initial forest route

Water streams in between

Lunch point

From here, it was another 4 km walk. No more forest and it was a plain grassland. Just another walk of 100 mt gave us the first view of the falls - that is where we need to reach for today. It never looked it was 4 km away, nor it seemed difficult, since it wasn't that steep as well. But the sun was waiting to drain all our energy, and with those heavy bags, we found it too difficult to trek. We took repeated breaks wherever we found trees and didn't want to let go of that small shade the tree provided. We stayed there for as long as possible, but we had to move ahead to reach our destination. There were no clouds as well to relieve us, and we somehow continued to walk slowly and steady. We finally reached the last stretch up, where the grassland ended on the edge, and from here it was full of trees, with a small way down for about 100 mt to reach the falls. This was a little steep and we then had to cross the stream, and another 50 mt on those rocks took us to the tip of the falls. We were here finally, at 2 PM.

Second half of trek in grasslands

The first touch of the water sent chills through our body. The water was too cold for the temperature of the day. It was surprising, but the fact is that the sunlight never touched the water since it is well hidden beneath the trees of that small patch of forest, keeping it cool always. We went to the tip, and came back and thought of playing in water. We all hesitated to get ourselves soak completely, since it was too cold. But we wouldn't even give up, since it will be very refreshing after a tiring trek. Once we were all in, it was an amazing feeling and all the pain and weariness of the trek disappeared. It was a rejuvenating feeling when we sat under the water, while it gushed forcefully on our heads and our backs. We played in water for an hour, took some pics and then went near the tip of the falls to take some more pics :-P We also took a leap to find out the length of the plunge the water took from that tip, and we estimated it to be about 100 mt. We rested there for a while, and we went to set up the tents and cooking area, and then prepared coffee. It was close to sunset, and coffee was an awesome drink for the moment.

Siva, trying to take a look down the falls

Playing in water

We had to set up tents in the open land, next to those trees and on the tip of the grassland. About 50 mts away, there were a few rocks and we made arrangements to cook our dinner there. Moon was no where seen since it was going to be a new moon day 3 days later, and thus a million of stars in the sky could be seen clearly. All were sitting near the cooking area, and while we cooked bisibelebath, we had a formal intro session, and talked about various other topics, since we hadn't got a chance to do that with the entire group for the whole day. At around 9:30 PM, the dinner was ready and we all had it and walked towards the tents to settle down to sleep. After settling down, Guru, Vatsa, Siva, Adithya and I decided to spend some time near the cooking area and watch the sky for a while, and we went there along with our jackets and sleeping bags. Vatsa also did some star photography, and we slept around 12 I guess. At 2 AM, Guru woke us up, asking us to move inside tents, since it was getting too cold. We thus crept into our tents and slept peacefully.

Campsite

Day 2, November 27th: (Trek to Fort and back to falls, and then to homestay)

Not everyone wanted to come to fort, which was another 5 km trek in the plain grassland. Thus only 9 of us out of 20 decided to go till fort and come back. We woke up at 6 AM, and though Guru had said strictly to start by 6:30, we were late by 15 minutes when we started. The guide didn't accompany us, saying the route is clear enough to figure it out for ourselves.

Despite the guide saying there are no deviations, we somehow missed the route initially and went for about 300 mts and realized we were on wrong path. As per the guide's say, there is only one route - true, but the rock patches in between will not tell you in which direction you need to go. Coming back, we figured out the correct path and we continued the trek without giving up. Thanks to Guru, who volunteered to find the route by going beyond the hills to check for the correct route, while the rest of us were too tired to do it.

View around, on the way to fort

After a walk for another 30 minutes, we got the first glimpse of the fort. It looked far, and there was yet another couple km to cover. But the path wasn't steep, and the view was beautiful. We also found a herd of Bysons far on the other hill. Kuduremukha peak was also visible on the left side. We walked along the flat land, with sun above us and making us tired, though  it was just 9 AM. With some up's and down's here and there, we reached the final hillock upon which the fort was situated. It was a climb for another 200 mt to reach the fort, and we finally made it.

Ballarayanadurga Fort

View from the fort

Group pic at the peak

It was 10 when we reached the fort. It had a couple of trees inside, below which we rested for a while and then took a look of the view around the peak. We took some pics, and we started to trek down again at 11:15 AM. All we had had was a guava, which Guru had bought along. We walked down those inclined grasslands, and without taking any breaks, we reached the campsite at 1:15 PM. All others had rested well, and had had Maggi for breakfast, leaving some for us as well. Meanwhile, the group which didn't come till the fort left with the guide, while we prepared second round of Maggi. We then had the breakfast cum lunch, packed our bags and started our trek around 2:30 PM.

We had to be fast enough to reach Gowdara mane before it got dark. Thus we didn't stop anywhere much, and were making sure everyone was together. The guide had left marks for us in the deviations, making it easy for us. With all the effort put, we finally made it to gowdara mane at 5:30 PM, and we were too hungry now, and had our lunch.

We decided to start the journey at night, since we would reach Bengaluru somewhere in midnight, had we left then. We thus took time and relaxed, and also took bath in  hot water and got ready to leave at around 8:30 PM. We decided to stop near Kottigehara for neerdose, and it was 10:30 when we reached there. Neerdose was too good and ending the meal with coffee, we started the journey to Bengaluru. We had the feedback session, recalling all those wonderful moments, and then slept while the bus made its way to our city.

Yet another destination in Western Ghats was thus accomplished! :)