Kaghinare to Yedkumari trek: Jumanji/1

This was my first trek with Bangalore ASCENDers (BASC) and definitely the most adventurous trek I've ever had. The experience was just great as it was full of challenges and uncertainties. The way we overcame all these challenges with the great teamwork made it a successful trek.
As a first timer , few words on BASC:
I just loved the care taken by everyone while disposing the garbage. No one threw plastic covers or any garbage and on top of that, they made sure that others dint throw! Hats off guys!!
The way we did the trek was great, Sudhir leading the group, Shreedhar as sweeper making sure that everyone is in front of him and bunch of experienced trekkers in between motivating others.
Food! Having a sip of hot lemon tea or hot noodles really pumps up our spirit. Thanks to Sudhir, Shreedar and Saroja for your cooking efforts :)
Opportunity to make friends: Most of the people dint know each other. And the trek really helped in uniting us and form a good team and make new friends :)
This is how we finished trek and reached our destination :

DAY 1:

* We reached Sakleshpur Bus station at 4.30.Had an early  morning breakfast @ 530, bought vegetables,packedfood and then we took the bus towards Kaghinare @ 7.30
* Reached HongaDahaLLa (last stop ) .After talking to the localites, we decided we'll start the trek from that place. There's a clear path from that place to Yedakumeri. Once we started, everyone felt its not fun to walk on a road. So came back and took a Jeep to Kaghinaare!!
* After finishing the breakfast near a school building, we started walking towards Kaghinare Ruins. Panoramic view from the ruins was beautiful. One must be a great nature lover to build a watch tower there :-)

* From the ruins, we started walking into the WILD :) Jumanji Started! We knew the direction but there was no trail.  Series of Grasslands,mountains,valleys,streams was on our way to destination. The forest was very thick . Rotten leaves/twigs, loose mud, leeeches , thorny plants , Elephant footprints: these things dint let our spirits down :) Finding a way to the railway track was all in our minds!
* We kept on walking and somewhere ,in all of our minds, we had a thought of being lost in the wild. But we alwaays knew we are heading into the right direction.   @ around 3.30 , we saw the Dam built across the Kempuhole and after crossing couple of peaks,We could see the Track, down the mountains.
* Sun was signing off and it was getting darker really fast. The track was getting closer but we didnt have the time to make it when the day light is on. Camping on grasslands/forest was highly risky and we dint have water.  After a quick round of brainstorming, we decided to move on! All of our torches were on and we had to cross forest and green land twice, before we almost reached the track!

* There comes another challenge! around 20 to 25 feet of vertical drop was in between us and the track! It was dark and 830 in the night . But Sudhir gave us the confidence and showed that we can descend it down ! We had support till first 5 feet. After that we had to jump or slide down to reach the ground.All of us held our nerves and overcame the challenge! Huh! It was scary!
* It was easy once we reached the track. We got water and saw couple of railway workers. After waiting for the Bangalore-Mangalore train to pass, we had the last 4kms walk for the day and reached Yedakumeri station at 12.30 in the night !:) Thanks again for people who cooked the food. Especially Saroja - You are awesome! The energy and the enthusiasm is inspirational! :) It was around 2 am when we were done for the day and to have good night sleep :)

Day 2:

* New day! New beginning and new challenges were ahead of us ! Sipping Hot Lemon Tea with the cool breeze made a great start for the day :)
* We walked back along the tunnels and bridges . The valleys beneath the bridges/the roaring stream/narrow pathway is challenging.

* After walking some distance, we got the jeep trail which leads us to the highway.We were walking through the heart of lush green Forests.Serene nature gave us the spirit to move ahead :) We were walking in the land of  "Jugaari cross"!
* There were elephant dung everywhere and fresh footsteps. We caught a resting Black cobra. He was silent and was in no mood to bother us :)
* We stopped at a stream ,which joins Kempuhole, and prepared food,had a bath and walked towards the highway.
* Kempuhole was ferocious and was eager to take everything on its way with it . Rocks were slippery .It wasn’t deep though. After initial round of investigation, we thought it was impossible to cross the river and started walking towards dam . But we couldn’t find it and also we could not find another easy path  to the highway. Result: We came back to the same spot again!
* By that time another group of trekkers were crossing the river with the help of a rope and they did it successfully. They came back for us and helped us in crossing . ah! finally we had crossed all hurdles and reached highway.Bliss :) :)  We walked around 5 kms before we got a jeep and reached Subramanya.

2 days were just great, full of  extreme experiences and fun in the pure nature, far away from the civilization . I'm looking forward to participate in many more treks. Thanks to BASC for organizing this. You guys rock :)

Visit our Group @ CLICK HERE
Join Bangalore ASCENDers @ CLICK HERE

Written by: Chethan
Event organized by: Sudhir
Image Gallery:
Chethan, Shreedhar, Jinu John