Bangalore ASCenders 10th Birthday

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Bangalore ASCenders 9th Birthday

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Monsoon Trek to Tadiyandamol

Monsoon was at the peak, all rivers & lakes were flowing across the valley, the entire range was decorated by green carpet, many small waterfalls on it glory, mist, rain, wind, leaches made the trek more beautiful and challenging. Spontaneous variety of food-snacks throughout the journey!!! Yes it was Tadiandamol weekend trek with BangaloreAscenders on 27 – 28^th June 2015.

Tadiandamol is the second highest peak in Karnataka located near Kakkabbe, Virajapete Taluk, and Kodagu District.  It was a very special trek for me since my close friend Suresh organized the event.  The person who has motivated me and because of whom I am now mad about treks, thank you so much Suresh.  Secondly thanks to Shanthi Prasad, a wonderful person who made me join this trek.

I had been to the base point of the trek Nalakhand Palace thrice before this; however I was not able to venture it.  The main constrain was that I was with family on vacation.  This was one of to-do list of my treks since a long time.

26.06.2015

When I saw the preparatory mail by Suresh where he clearly assigned each and every individual to get certain things.  The list was endless and great effort by my friend but just got a shock, I asked myself “Are we going to trek? Or any party celebration”.

The grocery items listed below:

Name	Item Description
Karthik	Ghee 250gms  x 2 Pkts (Nandini only)
Shanthi Prasad	Tomato/ Vegetable Soup Packets for 25 persons & Tarpaulin
Vidyasagar	Knife 1
vivek bhat	2 Breakfast & 1 Dinner preparation items
Satish G	Potato 1kg
Kota M Anvinash	Capsicum – 2 Kg,
Basavaraj S	Tomato 4 Kgs, Serving Spoon
Ramesh Raithatha	Beans 1 ½ kgs
Arjun Muddaiah	Sugar 2 Kg
Ashwin V	04 persons Tent
Chandrakala BV	Tea Filter (New cloth or filter) & Knife 1
Sandeep Gowda	Cashew 500 gms, Almond 100gms, Dry Grapes 200gms
Naveen Gowda	Salt 500Gms & Crystal salt 500Gms
HEMANTH K	Big Serving spoon
Priyank Goel	Good Life Milk 4 Ltrs.
Pragati Agrawal	Cucumber 4nos.
Sowmya s n	Coriander leaves, Curry leaves each 1 bunch, Green Chili 400 Gms., Lemon 12 Nos, Ginger 300 gms
Anvesh Reddy	Tea Powder 500gms., Coffee Powder 100 Gms
Rekha G	Potato Chips 1 Kg & Khara Bhundi 500 Gms ( MTR or Mayas)
Girish NL	Mung Dal 1 Kg
Prabhakar Gowda	Onion 5 Kg, Carrot – 4 Kg,
Rathna V	Green Peas 01 Kg
Skanda	Sun flower Oil 1 Ltrs
Sunil Kumar OG	04 persons Tent
Suresh	Bread, Jam/ Tomato sauce

I called Suresh to get confirmation about the trek. Reached the pickup point Shanthala Silk well before the time.  After some time one by one joined us.  The mini bus was ready to take us, team size was 26 members.  Left Majestic around 11 pm. There were many known trek friends and few were new, the journey was smooth.

27.06.2015

When I opened my eyes we were already in Kodagu district. The hills were decorated by clouds, everywhere water was overwhelming all the way, and entire atmosphere was filled with peak monsoon. We reached the base point of Nalakhand palace around 7.30 am. I have to appreciate Suresh’s organizing skills, he booked a small home at starting point of trek. He called Thammayya to arrange a Jeep to carry our grocery items. You may imagine the volume of the items considering a big team of 26 members.

Soon we finished our morning itinerary near the stream.  Few of us headed by walking towards Thammayya’s house which is around 4 km away from the place.  The tar road will run you through the beautiful valley with many coffee estates.  On the way we came across many small falls which were on their glory. We reached the base camp home by around 9 am.  The small old house of Thammayya is a very peaceful place.  This is the last home on the way to Tadiandamol.  This is a best place if anyone is planning a day-out with family & kids. This is the first trek where I did not take even Biscuits with me.  I was hungry and wanted to have something, friends shared light snacks so I was able to manage till the breakfast.

The cooking team was excellent.  The team is headed by great guys Vivek Bhat and Prabhakar, who supported the entire team. The supporting team members were Sunilkumar, Anvesh, Madan, Pragathi, Rekha, Naveen, Chandrakala, Ashwin and the entire team.  They are professionals and planned the entire menu.  Filled our stomach with spontaneous Awalakki and coffee.

Everyone was now ready to venture the Tadiandamol, the highest peak around Kodagu.  We took the group pic and headed towards the summit.

The climate was perfect and rain was pouring with intervals.  Initial trail was through the normal ascend with view of beautiful valley.  Crossing small waterfalls we reached the grass land.

We found a big rock where we have to keep towards right.  The mist was high, so could not see anything beyond 10 meters.  The summit becomes more and more ascend from this point.  We took multiple breaks for photographs. After a steep ascend we entered into dense jungle.  The leaches were on their job, many of us had sweet bite of them.  Reached the Tadiandamol peak around 12.30 Noon.  Because of the huge mist, we missed to witness the beauty of the valley.  We enjoyed the moments of the rain, mist and wind.  Spent couple of minutes on the peak.  Now was the time to move back.

The descending part was not much difficult, taking multiple breaks reached the big rock.  Photography took more time with each one of the group.  Adieu to the Tadiandamol valley. We then headed towards Thammayya home for night camp. Reached home by 3 pm, where we had enough time.  The hot water was ready for bath. We all took bath and got refreshed. Soon the great team served hot tea and coffee followed by Sandwich.  Few of us engaged with playing cards, few chitchat with their experiences, few were indulged in preparation of dinner.  The entire atmosphere was looking like a wedding ceremony.  Each one of us were enjoying the moment.

I and Shanthi Prasad had a small walk around the valley.  We met one more team who were trekking with different trail.  Heard their adventurous encounters with unlimited leach bites.  The Thammayya home is well structured to enjoy the valley with family.  We decided to re-visit this place with beloved ones (family).

The dinner was ready with payasam. Salute the effort and interest of the core cooking team in serving all of us spontaneous food. We had to adjust a bit due to place constraint. The team was not in mood to spend any more time for any cultural activity.  The rain was pouring heavily; so we missed the fire camp.

28.06.2015

The morning was always early for me in any trek; got up at 4.30am and finished morning itinerary.  One by one everyone got ready.  Morning again tea-coffee with biscuits and bread.  Soon the team prepared Uppittu & Kesari Bath.  Finished our breakfast and had a photography session around the home. The home is situated in a beautiful place. It was then time to head towards the palace where our vehicle was waiting.

Enjoying the valley soon we all reached to Nalakhand palace. The caretaker of palace briefed about the place and its history. Very soon finished the palace visit and proceeded towards the next destination which was Cheluvara Falls. The Cheluvara falls is around 15km away from this place.  You have to take deviation near Cheyyandane village.  I am well versed with this place, last year I had been this place with family.  The Cheluvara falls on it peak flow, could not venture inside the water.  Spent couple of minutes watching the glorious falls.

The time was passing very fast,

our initial plan was to visit Cheluvara Falls and Mandalapatti.  Due to time constrain, we decided to skip Mandalpatti.  The time was 12 Noon and no one was interested to visit any other place.  Finished our lunch near Virajpete at a dhaba.

The return journey was busy with everyone watching movies.  Soon we hit the Mysuru city, as usual the Mysuru – Bengaluru worst traffic.  We had no option to tolerate the journey, reached Bengaluru majestic by 9.45 pm.  One by one we all bid adieu.  Over all it was a wonderful wedding ceremony / NCC Camp for me. I was missing my DSLR on this trek.

Thanks to:

Entire team who was very co-operative and enjoyed each moment.

The cooking team who were excellent and served delicious food through out the trek

Suresh & Shanthi for making me join this trek

Bangalore Ascenders for organizing a wonderful Monsoon Trek

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Vidya Sagar

Composed by: Ramakrishna Nagaraja

Date: 27 & 28th June 2015

Event Organized by: Suresh Babu

Image gallery: Sunil, Hemanth Kumar & Sowmya

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Motor bike trip to Ganalu Falls and Shivanasamudra – 7th June, 2015

It had been quite a while since I went on a road trip on my bike, hence when I saw mail from BASC with the title, I immediately felt the need to register for the trip. To make things better, I noticed that the organizer was Patrick Samuel, with whom I had been on a New Year day bike ride to Kanva reservoir. So immediately registered for the event and received the confirmation as well.

On Sunday, 7^th June, 2015 we all decided to meet at Jayadeva Flyover at 6.15 AM. Everyone were on time and we left Jayadeva by 6.30 AM as per schedule. We headed towards Kanakapura road and couple of folks joined us near Banashankari. Once we crossed the NICE road – Kanakapura road junction, we parked the vehicles on the side of a road and had the customary introduction.

Post the introductions we headed towards our first destination – Ganalu Falls. It was around 7.30 AM as we entered Kanakapura. We decided to have our breakfast at Vasu Hotel. However, since it being a Sunday, the place was extremely crowded. Hence we decided to visit another hotel for our breakfast. Hot idli-vada with spicy sambhar and some hot tea, all of us were set to resume our journey. Soon we were zooming past the pristine Kanakapura Road (NH – 209). We all decided that our next stop would be Sathanur. The road was in great condition most of the times, with some stretches being recently re-laid. This way, we could maintain good speeds and were as per our schedule. We all regrouped at Sathanur and then decided our next stop would be Halaguru, where we were supposed to take a turn from the NH. As per our plan, we reached Halaguru at around 9 AM. We then took the village road towards Ganalu. We did lose some time as we were stuck behind a tractor for a considerable amount of time in a narrow road. The sight of Yamaha Fazer, Bullet, R15 and Karizma ZMR dragged some eyeballs from the curious looking villagers.

At one junction we took the help of the villagers, as we were not very sure regarding the route that GPS and Google Maps were showing us. However the ever helpful villagers made sure that we were always on the right path. Few stretches of the village roads were also in great condition. However, post some distance, we had to take a muddy path to reach the waterfalls. This road was completely filled with gravel and gave us a good chance to test our bikes off-roading capabilities. Somehow we were able to reach the waterfalls by following the sound of water. We parked our bikes and headed down the trail to the water falls. It was a small path to the falls and we reached quite quickly. Though the water in the falls was not at high levels, it was good enough, considering it was summer. We had a quick photo session and drank some cool fresh water directly from the streams. We decided to head back and climbed our way up the rocks. The uphill climb was a bit taxing as by then it was around 11 AM and the sun had reached its maximum power.

We started our bikes and headed back. We had crossed a stream on our way in. We decided that a dip in the canal was a must and all of us stopped our bikes  and headed for the water. It was a great feeling to get inside the water.

Post the swimming session and few more pics on our bikes with the background as the canal, we headed back to NH 209 to continue our journey towards Shivanasamudra. We decided to have our lunch at Malavalli. Post the filling lunch we headed towards Gaganachukki view point and reached by 2PM. We also had plans to visit Bharachukki, however with the bridge being closed we decided against it. The view of Gaganachukki was simply breathtaking. The water levels were considerably high. We decided to head back to Bengaluru and had some refreshments at Gaganachukki view point.

Post that we hit NH 209 and were riding back towards Bengaluru at decent speeds. We had decided to meet at all important junctions to make sure that we don’t miss anyone. During one of our stops at Halaguru, we learnt that one of the bikes had a punctured rear tyre. So we waited for it to be repaired and headed back to Bengaluru. We were back at the NICE road junction by 5PM and bid our final goodbyes to each other.

Participants: Patrick (Karizma ZMR), Bhupati (Pulsar), Ramkumar and Dinesh (R15), Manoj (Bullet 500),Pravin and Avinash (Impulse), Pramod and Gan (Fazer)

Total Distance covered: RT Nagar to RT Nagar – 330 KM

Route: Bengaluru – Kanakapura – Sathanur – Halaguru – Ganalu – Halaguru – Malavalli – Gaganachukki – Malavalli – Sathanur – Kanakapura – Bengaluru.

Road Conditions: Good most of the times. (Single lane NH 209 and village roads)

Ride level: Easy-Moderate

Best time to visit Ganalu: Post monsoons, since the approach roads can get very tricky to drive during monsoon, and during summer the water levels can be very low.

Best time to visit Gaganachukki: June – January.

Written by:

Event Organised by: Patrick Samuel

Date: 7th June 2015

Composed by: Ramakrishna Nagaraja

Image Gallery: Manoj

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Trek to Narayanagiri

Our trek to Narayanagiri, Jalamangala near Ramanagaram, the town made famous by the Bollywood movie ‘Sholay’ was quite exciting not just because of the nostalgia associated with the place but for the place itself. We boarded the train to Ramanagara from Bangalore railway station at around 8 15 a.m and as always the train came quite late. It was almost packed but most of us managed to find a seat. After an hour or so we alighted at the Ramanagar station and headed out for breakfast at a nearby Adiga and took parcel for the lunch. From there we boarded the bus to Jalamangala, our trekking destination for the day.

After around 15 to 20 minutes in the bus we walked for another 400 metres to the base of the hill. We snapped a few pictures and started climbing at around 11: 10 am it was a moderately difficult trek.

   

It is definitely one of the most mesmerizing amazing climbs one can take and the view is just breathtaking and will present you with a whole new perspective. The hill itself is quite beautiful with many crevasses narrow pathways.   The hill doesn't have any traditional steps or railings so we had to climb it the old fashioned way, which made it all the more exciting and fun.

On our way we were accompanied by a family who shared our enthusiasm for trekking. We later found that our interest aligned not just for trekking but also books and literature. 

Exploring the hill and the crevasses we reached the top At around 1 p.m. We were still spellbound by the beauty and the scenery at the peak. It overlooked the entire town and was a sight to behold. After sometime we sat down for lunch, sharing stories of the town and the nearby locations.

We started the descend at around 2 p.m, and after a few hours we took the bus to Ramanagaram railway station and reached Bangalore at around 6 p.m. It was definitely a trek to remember.

Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Saleem

Date: 18th Jan 2015

Composed by: Shruthi Venugopal

Event organized by: Shamanth P

Image Gallery: Nikhil, Kishore

Crew : Ranjith Damodaran, Kishore, Jyothi, Manideep, Sharat Honnatti, Aparna S Honnatti, Shamanth, Sagar Mehta, Shailesh Sohani, Nikhil, M A Arun, Saleem U, Vikram Thakur, pragati agrawal, Kumar, Medha 

  

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Bicycle ride to Devarayanadurga

Cycle is a funny machine,
the driver is it’s engine!

Life is like a 10 gear cycle,

Most of us have gears we never use!!

Yet another journey with BASC, yet another journey with Patrick, yet another milestone achieved!
This seems to have become a habit now!
It was during the Ganesh festival weekend that Patrick organized a seemingly incredible 160+ km Cycle ride to Devarayanadurga. I was like, why not, after all I always complain about not getting enough company to accompany me on my occasional weekend cycle rides in and around Bangalore!

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Night Trek to Kaurav Kunda

I am Vinayak Surve, a Veterinarian from Mumbai. My childhood and teenage life is spent in Sahyadri, Konkan region, Ratnagiri District of Maharashtra. Naturally, I have some experience of crossing hills, rivers, forest and different challenging trails.

Preparations:

Thought about going to Kaurava Kunda trek was exciting to me because it was my first trek with experienced trekking group where I was supposed to meet new friends with great interest in trekking. I received an email from Patrick (organizer) and rushed to buy trekking tools and gears like wind jacket, sleeping bag, torch, snacks, etc. Sharing this pre-trekking excitement was great fun with friends, family, colleagues and everyone whom I met during that week.

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Monsoon Trek to Nishani Motte/ Betta

Not sure how many leeches have bitten me and not sure where and all it attacked. Certainly it was one of my most difficult monsoon treks as of now. The rain, wind, steep ascend and the leeches made it tough, for all my buddies. Did many treks earlier in monsoon, however this was the one where I got leech bites all over my body. You might be thinking introduction itself is started from leeches! Of course during the course of the two days, everyone was more concerned about the leeches.

Nishani Motte / Betta is relatively unknown peak in the range of Bhagamandala (Talacauvery) range, Coorg. The trek distance from the base point Talacauvery is around 14 to 15 kilometers. We can enjoy the 360 degree panorama view, which is wonderful and most beautiful. Layers of the hills covered with clouds and mist is awesome. We can spot the villages, across the Kerala border, if the view is clear.

Our planned trek route was:

1^st Day: Talacauvery to Nishani Motte (Betta) – Night Camp at APC

2^nd Day: APC – Kurudi – Bhagamandala

27.06.2014

We started our journey with 21trek friends, at 10.45pm from Shanthala Silks, in a mini bus. Many known faces and few were new. This was my first trek with Vinay who organized this event. The journey was pleasant and reached the Bhagamandala around 6 am.

28.06.2014

Before this, I had been at Bhagamandala, thrice. Each time the weather was pleasant, greenery everywhere and had seen the entire range flooded with small falls. The Triveni Sangama was in full flow each time. Unfortunately, this time I was disappointed; understood from a local that, since a week, there was no rain in this range. 

After getting freshened up in the morning, took Sri Bhagandeshwara Swamy darshanam and headed to have breakfast at a nearby hotel. Packed pulav for lunch and had idly-vada for breakfast. Meantime Vinay purchased the grocery items, for the preparation of the day’s dinner and the next day’s breakfast. Our guide Jayaprakash & his colleague (another forest official) joined us and we finished the necessary formalities for the trek, at the Bhagamandala Forest Office.

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