Thanks Vamsi. Yes, I may take a life time to see just South India
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In 2005, a group of 7 decided to get together. We had finished our College in 2004. And it was high time, we got together and did something worth while. So, i booked for Jungle resorts - Doddammakali nature camp.
This camp is really isolated. We initially thought, it was close to Bheemeshwari camp and head towards kanakapura and beyond from bangalore South on NH209. Once we reached Bheemeshwari nature camp, we enquired the guys inside the resort and they informed us that, Doddammakali may be 10 Kms upstream on cauvery, but definitely 60 Kms away on Road!! So we drove towards Kollegal road and finally hit Kollegal road somewhere near Malavalli, i guess.
We take a left here and drove till Shimsha Hydro Electric project.
Once you reach this, there is a small jeep track on the right side, after you reach Shimsha. You need to take this jeep track. This route takes you all the way down the mountains on some trecherous track to reach the bottom of the valley, where cauvery is flowing in all her glory. Distance on jeep track is 9 Kms.
No electricity, No human settlements around. Nothing. Just 6 to 8 Tents. Beautiful. peaceful.
This trip happened when i was still driving my beloved 800
And there was my friend Anand's Esteem.
Route:
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Bangalore - Kanakapura Road (NH209) join at JP.nagar Ring road - Harohalli - Kanakapura - Halagooru - Malavalli - (Left) -Shimsha - Doddamakali
Activities:
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We reached there by lunch time. Had a nice buffet of typical Jungle resorts food. Mixture of South and North Indian food.
Rested for a while in the very nice tents with 2 beds each. A attached toilet to boot. Clean.
At 4 PM, they gave us a few anglers and locally made fishing sticks
, and a lot of chapathi dough as bait. We spent 1.5 hours of pure fun with this, even though we never hit any "Mahaseer".
Mahaseer or Mahasheer is the biggest and the most popular game fish in this belt of cauvery.
We took the coracle ride for a few spins. We were not taken far enough as it was post monsoon and the water level was swell.
We spent time appreciating the birds around. Spotted a number of brilliant ones. Kingfishers, ofcourse.
It was dark now. And the guards lit the camp fire. Time for some snacks and BBQ. We sit there and chatted for a long time. Finally had dinner and hit the bed.
Morning 7 am. Guide wakes us all and wants to take us on a hill hike to see the cauvery valley from a vantage point. The girls had a horrid time climbing the hill. At the end of it all, even they felt, it was worth climbing to get that magnificient view of the cauvery.
Cauvery truely flows in some brilliant terrain. Most of which is not accessible around this belt. And in prime Elephant territory.
We come back to the camp. Have a breakfast of Omelettes, bread, upma, dosas and coffee. We spend some time clicking group photos in our analog camera. Digital was not quite there yet. Atleast in our hands.
We finally pack up at 12 noon and decide to leave the camp. It had rained a bit the previous night. And hence the track which looked quite OK, while climbing down when we reached the previous noon, now seemed quite challenging, wat with a maruit 800 2WD ! Gravel was slippery and the tyres were rotating at the idol point. Finally, getting some traction into the tyres with some zig-zag steer, we cross the few slippery hair pins and get back on NH209. And finally reached bangalore via Maddur - Ramanagaram - Bangalore.
Snaps below: