Trip to Agumbe

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 00:16

Here's a travelogue on our trip to agumbe last weekend.

I was just back from my monsoon trek in the sharavathi valley, when my friends started planning for a weekend trip.
One of our friends who is studying abroad was here for a vacation, and we all thought we should go on a trip together.

This time, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind as to where we should go, thanks to Fauji and his thread!

When I went through his thread, I had decided I SHOULD make a trip towards thirthalli this monsoon, and this was a perfect opportunity to fit that in!

I suggested the place, with some teaser photos, and all of my friends gladly accepted!
Made a list of places to visit from Fauji's thread and the dates were confirmed. We were supposed to be leaving on friday night.

But somehow, most of us got a bit busy, and none spent time to finalise the plan and logistics, even till friday morning!
There were talks of calling off the trip, and driving to some place nearby like tonnur kere in pandavapura.

But I was adamant that it had to be malnad, and we can still go through, and managed to convince everyone!

First thing to do was travel plan. Since we were 7 of us, the option of driving ourselves was excluded.
After a bit of discussions, Innova/tavera/qualis was also eliminated, and we booked a tempo traveller.

Booked rooms at shimogga for a quick sleep overnight.

I then quickly collected some more details of the places we planned to visit, and we were all set to leave by 8PM.

One of our friends was joining us from mysore, and we had asked him to get down at the NICE junction and wait for us at the toll plaza.

So after a couple of pick up points for the 6 of us, we headed towards NICE road from banashankari after a good delay of more than an hour!
Poor guy was stranded on the empty NICE road counting trucks for an hour!

We stopped at kamath dabaspet for dinner around 10:30.

Post dinner started the first movie of the trip - "EddeLu manjunaatha"!
Its a very enjoyable movie with hillarious dialogues, and all of us had a blast, although most of us had already seen the movie!

Reached shimogga around 2:30 AM and checked in and crashed!

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 00:25

Next morning, left shimogga around 8, and had yummy buns and idlis at thirthalli for breakfast, and headed towards agumbe.

The movie playing was Kashinath's "Anubhava".

After reaching agumbe, we checked for directions towards barkana falls. after travelling for around 5-6 kms, we enquired again at another house, and the person there was kind enough to accompany us to the falls through the jungle route.

Road towards Barkana falls

Streams enroute Barkana falls

Prior warning was given about the leeches, and we started preparing for it.

I had found out during my recent monsoon trip that applying amrutanjan on our feet works like magic, and suggested the same to everyone.

It did work like magic, although we were wearing only sandals, all of us got just about a couple of bites each.
The leeches find it hard to pierce through with the amrutanjan layer, and its so easy to pluck them off the legs. Unlike when they are already feasting on blood. Also, amrutanjan doesn't get washed away in the water when we pass through streams and rains.

After a walk for about half an hour, we reached the view point from which the barkana falls can be seen in full glory. It was a fantastic spot, with the misty valleys and the waterfalls. After a quick photosession, we started the walk back, and then headed towards jogi gundi falls.

Barkana Falls

The walk to jogi gundi falls is quite similar, but the falls is very different. Its a very short fall, and forms a pool and then flows downwards.

An ideal place to have a fresh bath! All of us got into the water and had a good time!

It was lunch time, and we set our eyes on the 'neer dosa' available at someshwara. I had read we get yummy neer dosa at someshwara, which is after the descent from agumbe ghats.

The downward drive through the hair pin bends was very enjoyable (Not to the driver I guess).

Reached someshwara, and chose a hotel among the 3 or so available there and then started the dosa attack!

The waiter there was struggling to keep count of the dosas we were eating! Had one of the best goli baji there as well.

We also bought some malnad specialities like jackfruit pappad, potato pappad, and so on.

I was interested in visiting the koodlu theertha falls, which was a further 25kms ahead, but most of the others were not too keen on another waterfall, and more importantly, another journey with the leeches!

So we decided to head back to agumbe and visit the Agumbe rainforest research centre, and the sunset point.

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 00:37

The route to the ARRS(Agumbe Rainforest Research Station) is again a short road through the jungle. Our vehicle could go only until some point mid way, and we had to walk further.

It was a precarious walk with a lot of noise from the crickets and other forest creatures.

And suddenly we spot a huge snake on the road!

Some of us were quite scared, and we did not know how far ahead to walk too, so we almost started walking back to the vehicle, when an auto came towards us. We were told we were just 5 mins away from reaching the ARRS. We thanked him for that and stated walking in again.

ARRS is mainly known for its research on the king cobras, which are found in abundance(relatively) in the forests around agumbe.

We were amazed with our luck, when we heard that the volunteers there had just spotted a king cobra nearby, and we rushed there along with a volunteer.
The beast was resting on a branch inside a bush. It was such a sight!

We had a nice chat with a volunteer there, and he gave us an insight into the activities of the research centre. We were also invited there for some workshops if interested.
He also suggested us to stay at doddamane, where malgudi days was shot. We had enquired at the forest IB by then, and were told to call back around 7 to check availability.

We then went to the crowded sun set point, and started waiting for the sun to set.

There was not too much hope, since it was cloudy. Clicked some pics and waited for almost half an hour, but the clouds set in and we couldn't witness the sun set.

We then went to doddamane, which is very close to the agumbe juntion where the roads towards shringeri, thirthalli and udupi meet.

We checked with kasturi akka there and she gladly arranged for our stay there.

Its a very nice place to stay, and gives a perfect malnad touch. The hospitality and the food was among THE best I have experienced.

Surprising part is that she doesn't demand any particular fee. Just gladly accepts whatever we pay, without even counting!
Hats off to 'kasturi akka', as she is fondly called by everyone.

She can be contacted on this number 08181233075.

We were expecting a lot of rain in that area, agumbe gets the second highest rainfall in the country!
We went prepared with umbrellas as well.

But it was not to be, just a slight drizzle here and there! The locals told us that usually during this season, they hardly see the sun for almost 3 months.

There was a lot of discussion of what places to visit the next day. A couple of them were interested in visiting a beach.

The nearest beach was the malpe beach which was about 55kms, But I had been there just a week ago and found that it was like just another beach.

Marvanthe beach, which is very scenic is around 80kms, and we would have a very long travel back to bangalore.

My suggestion was to visit the kundadri hills in the morning, drive to shimogga, and break to visit the tiger and lion safari at tavarekoppa.
After a lot of debate, and voting, the second option was chosen.

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 00:46

Next morning, We had a super breakfast, thanked Kasturi akka, and started towards kundadri hills which is around 15kms from agumbe.

It has a good view of the surroundings, which is fully green with water patches in between. The cool breeze adds to the beauty too.

There's a small temple and a pond there, and some rock formations.

We spent almost an hour there, and then started towards shimogga.
Movie running now was Jaggesh's "Mata"

We reached tavarekoppa around 2, bought entry tickets, and roamed through the mini zoo there, since the safari starts only at 2:30.

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 00:57

The safari is in a swaraj mazda, fully grilled from outside, with small holes left in the windows to fit camera lenses.

The first part is tiger area. there are around 6-8 tigers there, roaming freely. [Their territory is restricted by a larger boundary though]
The bus stops near the tigers for us to click some pics.

There are only 2 lions currently, and one was apparently ill. So we could see only one lion, and even that was lazing inside the cage!

The safari then passed through the area with sambars and deers, and ends in about half an hour.

We then had lunch at hotel samrat in shimogga, and started our journey back to bangalore watching "Ajagajaantara", by Kashinath again!

Dropped off our mysore friend at arasikere around 6, and we reached bangalore around 10, with a couple of tea breaks and dinner break at tumkur.

Total distance covered was 960kms.

It was an enjoyable trip with some fun time spent with the (almost)whole group after a while, watching some funky movies together, checking out the ever beautiful malnad, the waterfalls, the yummy food and lot more.

Looking forward to my next trip already.

benbsb29 · 19th July 2011, 12:15

Thread moved from Assembly Line to Travelogues section.
Thanks for sharing, figo_united !

anantu2001 · 19th July 2011, 12:29

@Figo_united..

Wonderful pictures. I can totally relate to the selection of movies my friend

Friends, a trip and these movies make a deadly combination

Regards,
Anant

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 12:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by anantu2001

@Figo_united..

Wonderful pictures. I can totally relate to the selection of movies my friend

Friends, a trip and these movies make a deadly combination

Regards,
Anant

Thanks Ananth!
Couldn't accomodate "ananthana avanthara" and "tarle nan maga"

Have been postponed for the next trip!

anantu2001 · 19th July 2011, 12:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by figo_united

Thanks Ananth!
Couldn't accomodate "ananthana avanthara" and "tarle nan maga"

Have been postponed for the next trip!

I guess that would have been an overdose

Save something for your next trip.

addyhemmige · 19th July 2011, 13:29

Great trip you had figo. Barkana falls looks awesome. How far did you have to walk to reach the view point? Is it possible to trek to the actual falls?

Yes, Agumbe has one of the highest densities of King Cobra population in India. Apparently, around 10 KCs are killed as road kills every year in the region.

Btw, which was the huge snake which you saw when you were going to ARRS?

There are quite a few anti-leech solutions available. Amrutanjan, Odomos, Vollini and the like. The simplest one would be rubbing salt, but in raininy conditions salt will get dissloved. During our treks, we use snuff powder mixed with castor/coconut oil. It works pretty well although it leaves a pretty pungent smell on our hands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anantu2001

@Figo_united..

Wonderful pictures. I can totally relate to the selection of movies my friend

Friends, a trip and these movies make a deadly combination

Regards,
Anant

+1

Quote:

Originally Posted by figo_united

Thanks Ananth!
Couldn't accomodate "ananthana avanthara" and "tarle nan maga"
Have been postponed for the next trip!

What a coincidence. Me and a couple of friends planned to watch Ananthana Avanthara and one more movie (again from Kashinath) last saturday, but the VCD we had was old and our player could not play it. These are all epic movies of a certain kind

.

black12rr · 19th July 2011, 13:43

Awesome , thanks for sharing ,this will be in my to do list . Please post more pictures .

ravib · 19th July 2011, 13:48

Very nice snaps figo_united.... more to come ?

-Ravi

figo_united · 19th July 2011, 14:32

Quote: