Bandaje Arbbi Falls / 2

This attempt started off with a frustration out of the fact that we have not trekked for entire seven months after our OG/1 in February. I could not analyze why these long delays only happen just after February every year, close to the appraisal time; may be many of us think IT companies evaluate us on the efforts put up only in these months. We did not plan anything as the memories of Bandaje Arbbi /1 were fresh in our minds. We called Narayana Gouda of Bandaje village to check the ground realities and a huge disappointment was in store in for us. He said that the Bandaje stream was over flowing due to recent rains and advised us to postpone our plans at least for three weeks. Our hands were full with workload and could not plan on something else with in the intended dates; we just wanted to elope out of Bangalore. So we thought of giving it a try even though it did not seem feasible, is this heights of frustration.
The team consisted of Vinayaka, Ambareesh, Sashi, Jayaloknath and myself. For Jayaloknath and me this was our second attempt. But I could sense that the excitement was not that high in the team including myself as many people backed out at the last moment and it was raining when we started our journey. We reached Bandaje village only to see that the place wore a monsoon look. We reached Narayana Gouda’s place at around 9.30am, he advised us to return back as it was not possible to cross the stream and also it was raining heavily after evening for a couple of days. We convinced him that we will see for a safe passage to cross the stream and if could not find we will return and started off from Babu Naik’s house.

We steadily started the ascent, the terrain was slippery but fortunately there were not much leeches compared to our previous trek. We were not mentally prepared for this trek and this proved by the early fatigue signs. We had frequent stops to replenish our energies and after a descent one and half hour trek we reached the smaller stream from here it would take half hour to the Bandaje stream. Small stream was flowing in full force and this seemed the end of our frustrated trek. We collectively decided to return back as there was no point to go up to the Bandaje stream and then return from there. In an hour we descended back to the village and this officially ended our smallest trek ever.

As soon has we left towards Idya the trek start point which now would be our trek exit point it started raining heavily. We managed to reach Idya and caught a local bus to Ujire .Now we were even more frustrated that we were returning back. The conductor of the bus informed about another waterfall close by; but don’t know why we did not listened to him consciously. After reaching Ujire caught another bus to Dharmastala and few minutes later we were lazily roaming the streets of the temple town. We cancelled our return tickets of Sunday night and booked tickets to Bangalore for the same day (Saturday),this is the advantage of e-booking.The cold weather tempted us to have a cup of pepper butter corn. We booked a temple room for 50/- and had a good cold water bath. Visited a nearby hotel and had a couple of onion dosas and coffee. I returned to the room to take a nap and others visited the temple and came late after finishing their dinner served at the temple as prasadam. We left the room and walked the whole way to new bus stand to board the waiting rajahamsa bus to Bangalore. Reached Bangalore and were at our home sweet homes a day earlier to every one’s surprise.

A big disappointment was in store for me as I checked a couple of news paper cuttings of different adventure places I have collected for years and by chance got to see a beautiful water fall named Anadka, this was the same water fall the bus conductor had mentioned to us. Anadka is a 365 day water fall and falls from the ridge of 120 feet high. After Idya (the start point of Bandaje Arbbi falls) one need to continue further for 12kms to reach Didipe from here a km away is Anadka village and from there a small trek leads you to this falls. One can board a local bus from Ujire to Didipe or hire an auto from Idya. There are other trekking trials from Ballalarayana Durga Fort to Anadka falls refer map 48 O/8 trekking this route will be an adventure in itself. Also only few of them have planned and manage to reach the base of the Bandaje Arbbi falls which will be another adventurous option. Also there is one more unexplored falls to the East of the Fort mentioned in map, may be the right route of the Y fork near the fort mentioned in Bandaje Arbi /1 will take you there.Know more about Anadka falls @ Treks and travels: Charmadi: Day two – Anadka and Ermayee falls

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Written by:Mudassar

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Mudassar