The original plan created by Jammy (member MM440) involved attending the Sakleshpur OTR event on Independence day and then drive over to Muthodi Forest Reserve for two days of relaxing and mud trail safari. However, the first part started getting shaky as I realised I need to reach Sakleshpur by crossing the dreaded “Miner Truck infested” Shiradi Ghats in the night in my open Jeep. Going by the latest reports, it could take anywhere between 5 hours to 12 hours depending on the nighttime congestion on Shiradi ghats. I couldn’t drive out on previous day due to work. Then my Jeep ended up in the Garage for heart surgery, so that totally eliminated the possibility. Even Jammy decides to skip OTR and head to Muthodi directly.
Therefore the new plan was drive directly to Muthodi Forest Reserve Office and claim the rooms by 4PM. These rooms can be booked only from DCF office in Bangalore, no walk-ins are entertained. The reservations are considered cancelled , if not claimed by 4PM, or so we were told. Since I was the closest to the destination, I was given the responsibility to claim the rooms on time. We would be travelling in Grand Vitara to Muthodi and hop on to other Jeeps while entering the Safari trails.
Biggest problem was we didn’t know where this place was located, and Internet was of no help. Finally India Eicher Map shed some light, it placed Muthodi Forest Reserve near Balehonnur which was about 110Kms from my home. So we figured it should be within 2-3 hours for us, or so we thought.
We left home at around 1PM, we took only the elder kid, the baby was left behind since we had planned lot of Jeep riding. I was driving very fast since I was afraid we may not reach by 4PM, after all we didn’t have any directions after Balehonnur. We passed through Agumbe Ghats for the 3rd time in the last 2 weeks, it looked pretty much similar to previous trips, but we didn’t feel the weather since we were cocooned inside the air-conditioned GV. I feel that kills half the fun of driving around in Agumbe in this weather. We didn’t take any photographs here for obvious reasons, there are loads of them posted here from my last two trips.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...mbe-ghats.html http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...s-part-ii.html
We rushed through Agumbe and raced towards Sringeri, this again involved driving through another ghat. But the road quality was impeccable, so I ripped through the twisting roads. After Sringeri we turned towards Jayapura and we encountered another excellent ghat. All this fast driving in consecutive ghats finally took toll and my wife threw up all the lunch in 2-3 installments. At Jayapura I notice a shocking board, Muthodi 85Kms. That would put Muthodi 70Kms away from Balehonnur and it was already 3PM. After some consultations at Jayapura they asked me to consult further at Balehonnur. About 15 minutes later, I repeated the act at Balehonnur and ended up in the local forest department. I was told to go to Chikmagalur (60Kms) and then drive further 30Kms to Muthodi. By now it was 3:30PM and so I called Jammy and told I can’t reach Muthodi by 4PM. He says he is still 30Kms away from Hassan and we decide to continue hoping they will keep our reservations.
So I continue towards Chikmagalur and after 8Kms at a village called Kadabagere, I see a board pointing left saying Muthodi 35Kms. That is like 40% of latest estimate. I quickly stop and enquire at the roadside shop about the veracity of the board. They agree that the board is right, but they doubt my car can navigate the road. I asked whether Jeeps can do it, they say yeah, even buses travel that route and it is tarred. I decide any route can be handled by buses should be easy for GV and we take the left turn. Suddenly there is hope of reaching at 4:30PM if not yet 4PM. After couple of Kms, that hope starts fading. We enter a forest gate and onto a very narrow twisty forest road. There were fallen/cleared trees, cleared landslides, etc., all along the way. First 25Kms we didn’t encounter a single vehicle passing us from the front. This can’t be taken as good news, it could also mean there is a road block due to landslide or tree fall.
Notice this half-cleared tree wreckage, I had to drop one wheel into the gutter to get thorugh.
We decided to leave all the photography for the return journey and proceeded with utmost haste. But this road had numerous forks and turns and twists enough to spin your head, there were simply no sign boards anywhere. We had to stop and ask at every fork to ensure we didn’t end up somewhere else. After 10Kms of driving, one guy predicted 40Kms of driving to Muthodi, he was kidding no doubt. Anyway, after about 30Kms from our turnoff at Kadabagere we see a wonderful sign. Muthodi nature camp 1Km straight, Shigekhan 3Kms to the right. The latter happened to be the very building reserved for us. It was about 5:15PM at this time.
At first we turned toward Shigekhan and it turned out to be a treacherous mud trail. After one KM into the road I wondered what if nobody is there at the building. So I figured it may be better to check-in at the nature camp first and then proceed to Shigekhan. So we turned back and headed to the nature camp. At the nature camp nobody knew about our booking. When I tried to call Jammy, I found it was BSNL only territory. The nearest public phone was 5Kms of very bad road away. Anyway, I was nevertheless told to go to Shigekhan and check-in. First they say GV can’t go, when I said it is a 4x4 SUV, then they say it should be fine. After 3Kms of hilly mud trail driving, I stopped at the very first building and it turned out to be our destination.
The GV after the mud trail driving to Shigekhan.
The wonderful backdrop to the parking area.
The partial view of Shigekhan Inspection Banglow
The view from the Balcony
The caretaker opens the door, but we have no proof of reservation since
Jammy was supposed to get that. But looking at the family and probably GV, the caretaker opens out a room for us. As we were planning to settle down, we discover few problems.
Me: What about power?
Caretaker: No power, just solar light for the hall, you use candle in the bedroom and bathroom.
Me: Why there is no water?
Caretaker: The elephant tramples the pipe regularly, we can’t go there to fix it after dark, got to wait till daytime. But I can get you an extra bucket from the nearby stream.
Me: What about dinner?
Caretaker: Since we had no notification of your arrival, we have no grocery, we have to get it from 15Kms away.
Me: Can I make a phone call from here, I want to make sure my friend isn’t getting any grocery himself.
Caretaker: I have a BSNL phone, but the currency ran out. Got to go to Chikmagalur for recharge.
Me: $#^@#@$$*^&
My primal caveman instinct takeover at this point, after all I am in the middle of wild forest. As the only adult male it is my job to hunt/forage food, so I decide to take him for grocery shopping, in fact we all go. On the way we also sight an elephant grazing 50m from the trail. Meanwhile, the caretaker turned out to be a Mangalorean, so he switched to Tulu after hearing us talk.
At the nature camp they are surprised to see me back so fast, they figure I came back after seeing the condition road. Only after seeing the caretaker they realize I made it there and back. They suggest me two grocery shops, one is 15Kms away on good roads (the way I came) and another 5Kms away on bad roads (the other direction). Couple of guards argue GV can get hurt on latter route, and I repeat the 4X4 SUV mantra, and the forest ranger says it should be fine, GV should be able to do it without much problem. So we go, and boy, they weren’t kidding. This stretch of the road would make NH-17 look good. But GV takes it in well and we are at the grocery shop in no time.
This tiny shop apparently has everything, vegetable to grocery to even BSNL recharge. I ask him to purchase one Rs.60 prepaid card for me, so that I can use his phone for my calling needs. I try to reach Jammy, but his phone is out of area. All us Airtel users are practically cut-off from the world around here. While we are buying grocery Jammy and Shravan land up there, the ranger had told them where to find us. Shravan is the Yellow Jeep driver who was stuck in the water in Coorg OTR for long. They had brought Karthik’s (member aquamaverick) MM540 Jeep along with them.
Meanwhile the shopkeeper turned out to be a Tulu speaker too. Then I saw a whole lot of youngsters chatting outside, again in Tulu. It was like I was still in my native town. Turns out most of the labourers and shopkeepers here are migrants from Mangalore/Udupi side. Once our purchase was over, Jammy asked us to continue to Shigekhan, he will follow us in 15 minutes. Then we can await the guys attending Sakleshpur OTR to come and join us. Their dormitory was near the nature camp.
However, that never happened. Our caretaker was tense since he believed the road to Shigekhan is not safe after dark because of elephants. Anyway, we reached uneventfully and ask him to prepare food. After two hours of long boring wait, the dinner finally arrives, but no sign of Jammy or Shravan. Since we can’t communicate, we assume there was a change of plan and call it a night. However I was able to contact Shakir (one of the OTR attendees) and confirm that they won’t be leaving Sakleshpur until 8-9PM, which means they will reach very late. Jammy’s original plan of 6AM safari and breakfast may not happen.
So we got up at 6PM and after breakfast we slowly proceeded to the dormitory near the nature camp. We found everybody snoring the ceiling away at 7:45AM. The reason why Jammy couldn’t follow us, the Jeep had a breakdown while turning back from the grocery store, the main shaft near the gearbox had sheared away clean. Besides, the riders of Sakleshpur didn’t make it until 1:30AM. It was a miracle they found the dormitory or even the nature camp at that hour in the middle of the forest. It was almost 11:30AM before everybody got up and finished breakfast. The new joinees were Shakir, Dev, Mark & Prithvi. They actually won second place in the OTR event.
We found Shakir’s MM540 and Prithvi’s Gypsy parked outside.
I parked next to the Gypsy, look at the underbody clearance of these siblings.
The entrance to the lodging area at Muthodi.
As we were standing around, I fell victim to a leach. It had already scooted
leaving bloody marks on my pants. We soon found that the entire area was swarming with leaches, we had to keep checking every few minutes for leaches on our shoes and legs.
A close up look at the leach. I even have a leach video which I will upload later.
As we were waiting for guys to finish breakfast, my wife and I decided to take a stroll in the road checking out the camp.
This is the main building of the camp.
As we were walking back, I see something crawling on the road.
The stripe pattern, color and slow moment rings a bell in the mind but the size was confusing, it was barely 2ft long. Then it does something totally unexpected.
As it sensed me, it raises the head like a cobra but there is no hood. This act completely confuses me, which snake can do that.
Notice the eyes looking directly at me. While the extent of raised head is not clear,
watch the shadow it cast on the water below, the head is raised quite high.
Soon a local woman confirms it is a python, no wonder the bell rang and I was unable to pick on it. I had never seen a baby python before, but only adult ones. She further added that the mother python was recently caught and shifted to deeper jungle leaving the babies here.
Finally breakfast is served and we have it again considering it is 3 hours since our first breakfast.
Now we leave the GV behind at the nature camp parking lot and hop on Jeep and Gypsy. Since one Jeep is down, we are a little crowded on just two jeeps. We first head to Shigekhan and let other take in the views.
The last photo tickles our curiosity and we decide to visit that place seen in the distance.
This is an amazing jungle trail and Shakir negotiates the trail with great skill with minimal discomfort to the passengers. Since I was in Shakir’s Jeep, I try to capture Prithvi’s Gypsy from the window.
We finally reach the private resort seen in the distance, it is called Tex Woods (google it). If you don’t want to deal with government bunglow’s this is a good expensive alternative. They even had swimming pool, so food, power and water should not be an issue. As we were talking to the Tex Wood manager, I discovered that the owner, manager and most of the staff were also from Mangalore area and spoke Tulu. Basically there is no scope for any loose comment in Tulu with my family.
To be continued.