THE Palace!!! Trek to Kalhattigiri falls.....

It was 3 weeks since we were in 'so near and yet so far' situation, again we were ready for another exciting, exhilarating and exhausting trek. This time our Jack Sparrow wanted to trek to Kemmangundi from BabaBudangiri [Both in 'Chicka'magalore district in Karnataka]. The route was unknown and captain wasn't even sure of the existance of the trail. We booked tickets [KSRTC- 'Volvo' this time:)] from Bangalore to Chickamangalore for Friday night. Journey lasted for around 300 minutes and we were in Chkmglre by 5AM on Saturday. There are no direct buses to Budangiri from anywhere I guess.. There's only one bus from Chkmgl to budangiri which leaves whenever the driver feels like placing his ass on the driver seat. The bus usually leaves around 7:30AM [if its full else god knows] and probably will make 2 trips in a day.

We had lotta time to kill before the bus moved but all of us wanted to reach budangiri ASAP so that we could avoid trekking in the heat of the noon. So we looked for alternatives like Jeeps or taxis. Budangiri is around 35 kms from Chkmglr [Road's gud but route's bit curvy and hilly]. It was too early to even find a Jeep. We had to wait till 6-6:30 AM. In the meanwhile Rikshaw guys offered us their service of dropping us in budangiri. They were kidding I guess. Imagine 4 people in a rickshaw traveling 35kms in the route which would take a jeep easily 90 minutes even when road's pretty decent. We would have had to push the rickshaw through 75% of the route. Then a Ambassador guy offered his service and we laughed @ his offer saying him that its was impossible for him to take all seven of us in that car. We thought it was just not possible. But, for our surprise the car could accommodate all of us. We had to shell out 600 bucks for the drop.

Trek Begins..

We reached Budangiri at 8:20AM. Weather didn't require us to wear any jacket or sweater or whatsoever. Even at that altitude & not too late in the morning it wasn't even near to cold. Good for us but it meant that noon will be hotter and would make our trek tiresome and we would get dehydrated sooner. It was a beautiful view from budangiri. We could see mountain ranges and clouds far below us. We felt like we were on top of the whatever... We started following the trail not exactly trail but a road till it ended. It was around 3km walk I guess. This walk ended with a lake [man made] & a small temple next to it. There was a pole and a huge grinding stone next to the temple smeared with red coloured fluid. We all guessed it to be blood of an animal which was offered to the god. People find some or the other reason to build a temple and kill animals. Actual road or trail ended here..

The place was all barren with patched of forest, that meant no shade!!! It was 9:30 when we left the lake & temple. Since we didn't want to lose out on time all of us decided no to take a dip in that lake which was dirty with mud. We were heading to the top of Kalhattigiri falls where we would camp for the night. The nearest landmark to this was a PALACE. Yes, you read it right 'A Palace'. It was king Ashoka's summer palace. It was a 7 floored palace with white marble finish [Thinking of Taj Mahal... Hold on to your imagination], huge fountain at the entrance & a beautiful multicolored chandelier. Ok, ok, will come back to palace later. We headed in the direction of the palace based on inputs from captain Jack and 2 other commanders in control of the mission as they were here at this place once before.

We walked for a km or two when we saw a trail. This trail would be harder to find if anyone visits during winter or rainy season as the land would be covered by pretty long grass. It was dry and was burnt when we were there this time. So it was relatively easier for us to figure out the trail. We walked for couple of hours before we could hit a stream. We rested for few minutes and had let some protein sneak into our stomach [Oat meal bars, high energy bars, protein supplements etc etc.. :)]. We started again and it was already around 12pm and few of us were hungry and were waiting to reach the palace and then the camping site so that we could call the trek off for the day.

Now back again on trail I was desperately waiting to have a look at this palace. We saw our trail turning right. 'After turning right we would see the palace' said someone who had been to this place already. We were relieved. We took the right curve and at last we saw it.. The PALACE.. There it was standing tall and strong with white marble finish & beautiful fountain.. Did you really believe when I said that? Non sense.. in a place like this where there's no proper trail you shouldn't expect a palace with chandelier... :) Even though it wasn't a palace as per my description we were very relieved to see something closer to civilzation after walking for 4-5 hours non-stop under scorching sun.. The biggest relief was that we were not lost we were on track to Kalhattigiri falls. Rested here for 10 mins and then it was an hour walk which deviated from the trail to the mouth of Kalhatti falls... All of us were tired and hungry and relieved. It was almost 2PM. None had energy to jump into the water but sit n sit n lay down.. Even though we were hungry the walk had left us lazy and tiresome and it took us 20-30 mins before we decide that we would have our lunch....

Continued in next post........