Drumsticks ka...ka.... breezer

Trek to Sagara, Gerusoppa - Sharavati Valley

This is my fourth trek in last five weeks and second to Sharavathi Valley. I have registered for Bangalore Trekking Club (BTC)'s event to Sagara trek. Given that organizer have not mentioned the exact place in Sagara, have checked with him (a few times) that Kanooru Fort and Dabbe Falls is not present in the itinerary.

We - 20 BTCians including organizer Vikram and guide Deepu - have started our journey on Friday evening [11-Mar-2016] from Shantala Silks near Majestic towards Sagara in a minibus. As usual, our first task to get introduced to each other. Organizer Vikram asked us to do this differently, which is - each one of us has to enact our name and then give further details. Though it seems to be easy, we all had a great time in getting to know everyone. The last one to introduce was the organizer, and we all gave him pretty tough (fun) time. :) After the introduction, we tried to get some sleep (well, some of us got really good sleep and others struggled to get some sleep). We reached Sagara town early morning, our guide Ganapathi anna arranged a place to freshen up and also arranged breakfast. The breakfast menu was Idli, Vada, Uppittu, Sheera and tea. After filling the stomach with delicious breakfast, we traveled towards Kargal which is around 30 km from Sagara. We reached near Talakalale reservoir around 10:00 AM, which is starting point for our trek.

About Talakalale Dam

Talakalale dam was built in the year 1976 for Sharavathi Hydro project. It is about 7 kms from Jog falls. It works as a balancing reservoir. The water from the Linganamakki dam flows to Talakalale Balancing Reservoir through a trapezoidal canal.

From this point, we had to take a motor boat in the reservoir for around 8 km  to reach Sunkada Mane village. After saying goodbye to 'boat driver' (or captain?), we distributed vegetables and groceries required for our cooking in next two days and other common items. Our guide Ganapathi anna introduced two other guides Shiva Kumar and Jayendra - both are locals to this place and they were leading us throughout the trek.

1. Majestic Sharavati River 2. View on our way

We started our hike at 11:30 AM, walked through forest and paddy fields in bright sun light and reached Erkani Mahadeva's house (which is our guide Jayendra's sister's house) around 12:30 PM. We refilled our water bottles and relaxed for some time at their house and continued our hike. Trial started to become more interesting after this point with steep descent and no proper steps present. Also it became tougher as trial was through thick forest area, had lot of dry leaves which was slippery and gave us additional hard time. We all were tired and started asking Ganapathi anna for waterfalls / river stream as he had promised us that we will have lunch near stream. After going for around 2kms of descent and walking through forest, we reached stream around 2:00 PM. We had our lunch and played in water sometime. Further trekking trial was to follow water stream, we walked in same direction of river flow - almost paraller to stream, at some places crossed the stream and walked on other direction.

1. Crossing river through rocks 2. Our way 2. BTC Organizer Vikram

Have found paddy fields at a certain place, many of us started to take out sleeping mats and wanted to camp there. Ganapathi anna told us that we will put camp after some more walking otherwise it will be difficult for next day. Folks started wearing shoes again and rolled sleeping mats and continued our trial. Ganapathi anna, Shiva Kumar, Jayendra and a few others were walking in front, Abhinav (the ola guy), Milind (gole sir), Suman (daada) were in the middle, a few including Vicky, Deepu, myself were behind. After crossing some paddy fields and areca farms as well as enjoying the sunset, taking few photos of sunset at Sharavathi Valley,  we could not see people ahead of us. We followed shoe marks and walked ahead trying to catch up with guys. After walking for some more time, we could not able to find any shoe marks and it started to become dark. Deepu asked us to stop at certain point, he went ahead to check if we can trace them, Jackson went in other direction. After shouting and looking around for about 20 minutes, we heard sound from other folks. When they -middle team- came near us, both groups realized that we all lost front runners. We tried to figure out which direction to go, Shiva kumar came back and took us in proper direction. At the end, we all reached camp site.

1. Sunset of Day1 2. Crossing river 3. Hanging bridge (we lost our way here}

We enjoyed lime tea served by Ganapathi and a few snacks like biskoots, chips etc. After this we set up bonfire - this is where Gole sir revealed the reason for getting lost in the middle of nowhere.

Reason for getting lost

Watch this space for more.. Still identifying best way to write it :)

After bonfire, we had our delicious dinner, thanks to Ganapathi, Shiv Kumar and Jayendra. The food was wonderful throughout this trek. Folks made their bed in the open field and started to log off for the day.

1. Campsite  2. Of course, preparing food :P

Vicky called us for telling some stories/horror stories, a few of us went to listen and others off to sleepig mat/sleeping bags. Vikram shared his college hostel story "Daali ko kya huwa tha!?" and Shailesh shared some more interesting (or scary) horror stories. It was already pretty late and we stopped storytelling session and went to sleep.

Day 2: We woke up early morning in the middle of open fields near Hadgeri village of Honnavara Taluk. Yes, we have croseed Sagar Taluk during our trek and reached Honnavara Taluk of Uttara Kannada district.

View from campsite

After having delicious breakfast, we started our trek. It's already getting hot at around 8:30 AM as we were near to western coast (around 30 km to Honnavar Beach).

Day 2: On your mark, get set, go,

We walked through forest area for almost 10 km, crossed a bridge at Galaduru to reach our destination Gerusoppa Jain Temple.

Day2: Walking

On our way, we were lucky to spot a Giant Malabar Squirrel - Thanks to Sherin for this. Also, special thanks to doctor saab for answering all our stupid questions. This doctor was able to explain a lot of medical detail in common man's words... You rock!

About Gerusoppe Jain Temples:

Gerusoppe/Gerusoppa is a popular Jain Heritage Centre that flourished as a chief Jain centre during­­ the period from 13th-16th century. It was also called by the names Kshemapura/Kshemapura Tirtha/Kshemavenapura/Ballatakipura in the history. It was the capital of the Saluva Kings for a considerable period. The period of Rani Chennabyradevi (1554-1602 A.D.) is considered to be the golden period in the history of Gerusoppe. Historical references state that there existed 108 Jain temples at Gerusoppe spread over a vast area of around 700 acres. However, to its dismay Gerusoppe is in its ruins now to find only five Jain temples, namely - Chaturmukha basadi, Sri Parshwanath basadi, Sri Parshwanath temple, Sri Mahavir temple & Sri Neminath temple. Chaturmukha Basadi that exists even now is one of the best temples that stand as a testimony to the art & architecture of ancient times. Sri Parshwanath temple that houses the Goddess Jwalamalini idol is the only temple where regular pooja is performed. The idol of Lord Neminath at Neminath Temple is very magnanamous & famous for the attractive carvings around the idol. Historically, Gerusoppe is the original seat of Goddess Jwalamalini the chief Goddess of Narasimharajapura. Owing to its vast unexplored heritage & ruins, Gerusoppe is sometimes called as ‘Harappa of the Jains’. More details can be found here: Link1, Link2

We went to the river to get refreshed, played some time in the water, some tried underwater videographies etc... After coming back, we had lunch at Jain temple vicinity. After lunch, we visited old and ruined temples complexes.

Chaturmukha basadi, Gerusoppe

From Jain temples, we crossed a hanging bridge (scary one!) to reach NagaraBasthikere village.

Adventurous hanging bridge @ kallukatte

From this place, we  crossed Sharavathi river in Dingi (Dingi in the local / colloquial word for a small boat ), waited for our bus to arrive.

Crossed river in Dingi

We went to Jog Falls after this, enjoyed majestic Jog Falls as well as Music fountain and laser show. We played anthyakshari and food anthyakshari on our way. We had our dinner at Sagara and left to Bengaluru.