Day 1: Saturday...Kemmangundi and Hebbe Falls:
Train Journey:
After a lot of deliberations about the places to visit and who would come along, it was the four of us who agreed for this trip.We had a long weekend of four days, thanks to Ugadi, so decided to make the best use of it. All of us (Ashish, Ruchit, Vishal and myself) were supposed to be at the Blr. City Railway Stn. at least by 5:30am to buy the ticket (from Bangalore to Birur), but since they had to come all the way from the Hostel at Elec.City, the onus was on me to get there soon and get us the tickets as I was staying at my home in Shanthinagar, they waking up late didn't help the cause either. Actually the tickets could only be brought a day in advance but everyone had a ready alibi - "Work" including me he he... anyways it was decided we would assemble at the Rly Stn. and get those tickets early in the morning.
I reached the City Railway Stn at around 5:40am and made a dash for the queue, it was the weekend and Ugadi close by, so you could guess that all the counters had serpentine queues. Chagrin took over me instantly when I thought when this long queue would end, the train was due to leave at 6:30am. I decided I had to change course and made a beeline to the counter despite the stares from many people, luckily it worked for me and in 10 minutes I got us the tickets. Meanwhile, I informed my friends that I had the tickets booked and was waiting for them on platform 9 in the train (Shimoga Express), telling them the details. At 6:15am they reached the station and were frantic to get to the train. It was 6:25am and still no sight of them near the train, the train was due to leave at 6:30am!!!...they finally made it in the nick of time, the time on my watch showed 6:40am, that’s when the train left, a few moments after they got in. It was our lucky day!
We had breakfast (giant sized idli's) in the train and all of us decided to get some much needed rest, it was a chair car so we just put our heads back and went to sleep. We woke up after sometime; probably couple of hours I think and started chatting with fellow passengers on how to get to Kemmangundi from Birur. Some said to get down at Kadur, from there private buses ply to Kemmangundi but Ashish was pretty confident that Birur to Kemmangundi would work out shorter; he had devoted the free time at work or rather time at work to a lot of reading on the journey itinerary. We stuck to the plan. We got down at Birur Jn.around 11:30am and headed for the bus stand which was a short walk away from the station. We spent nearly an hour here enquiring from locals on how to get to Kemmangundi and waiting for the right bus. After a unanimous decision we decided to go to Lingadahalli (20kms away), which would get us closer to our destination-Kemmangundi. The bus ticket was really cheap and in about an hour after the bumpiest ride we ever took on a bus, we got to Lingadahalli. We still were 15kms away from the Government guest house we booked (Department of Horticulture). The next bus to Kemmangundi was to leave at 3:00pm; and it was already 1:30pm. We didn't want to miss goin to the famous Hebbe falls, so we had to cough up 350 bucks for an eight seater auto, needless to say bargaining didnt help much. We reached the guest house and dumped our bags and jus took whatever little we needed for Hebbe falls and headed to Hebbe falls.
Hebbe Falls:
We reached a point where only Jeeps dared to venture. The path from there to Hebbe falls could only be commuted either by trekking/goin by a good 4WD. The 90 minutes of the ride in this jeep were almost bone shattering, the Jeep was a Mahindra 4WD but probably was around 20 years old and one could say from its appearance that the driver didn't care to maintain it well. Actually, if you ask me it wouldn’t be very lucrative to put the money into fixing of the vehicle as it would return to the state prior to fixing after traversing that terrain. Anyways, we all thought that at least the suspension of the jeep and the rear door needed some serious attention! The jeep managed to rock us back and forth every time the terrain got ugly, when we finally got down, we were still vibrating :). We reached a moderately dense forest where we had to trek for about a km to reach the falls; thankfully the Jeep couldn’t go here. Here, we had to cross three streams before we could get to the base of the fall. This is an amazing place to get some great pictures of small cascades.
My Cannon SLR was my weapon of artistry and it knew no bounds. Ashish too got into the act with his Sony Digital camera. Both of us got some decent shots and when we finally reached the falls, we just stood there looking at the spectacular cascading falls which fell from a height of 550ft. We took some more pictures and then decided to take a dip, the water was almost freezing even in such hot weather, and this was bliss... We waded through the chilled waters and spent some time there taking some more pictures until we decided it was time to get back. (The Jeep driver had given us a time to get back). We got back on time and headed back to our Guest House at the Dept.Of Horticulture. It was bone shattering time once again, but this time around we saw a lovely sunset on the way which made it more memorable. We reached our rooms after about an hour. It was sometime before we could have dinner, so we went back and relaxed a little while. When it was dinner time, we ordered fried rice and some meals; there was some confusion w.r.t to the communication gap for some of us, which gave us a nice thing to laugh about :) Day 2: Sunday. Z-point, Sringeri and St.Mary's Island.
We woke up the next day around 5:30am and got ready to catch the sunrise at Z-point, Kemmangundi. The cab which we had booked for our tour arrived from Chikmagalur; it was an Indica...enough to fit the four of us. The cab took us towards Z point, till a point from where we had to trek to get to the top of the peak. From there, we proceeded to get to Z-point. We had to trek couple of Kms to get to the top of the peak, but halfway we found that we were not ascending Z-point but an adjacent peak (there was no guide nor people that time whom we could follow:D) .We decided to continue and reached the top of the peak after some panting. To our good luck, we could see the sunrise from there perfectly...Z point is ideal to view the Sunset but don't head there to catch the Sunrise. Anyways, we relaxed a while and took pictures of the surrounding mountain plains, which were a little dried up since it was summer. Meanwhile, I set up my tripod so that we could all get into the picture and used the timer setting in the camera to get a nice shot of all of us and took some decent pictures of the Sunrise as well. It was almost 9am by now and it was time to get back, we had to travel to St.Mary's Island which was near the Malpe Beach. Malpe is around 220kms from Kemmangundi. The descent was tricky as the path we took to climb had gravel which constantly made us slide, we decided it was best to trek down on the grass sideways. We got back to our rooms, had a bath (hot water is available after 8am in Govt. guest House) and had our breakfast in the canteen there. It was almost 10am by the time we left Kemmangundi for Malpe.
As we moved away from Kemmangundi, the weather started to get hotter. We had mentally prepared ourselves for the hot weather but at the same time it didn't dampen our spirits as we would think about our next stop which helped to keep our spirits up. We stopped by at one Bhadra Coffee which was after Chikmagalur, it's a nice looking spot in the shape of a hut to stop by for a taste of Chikmagalur’s coffee. We saw some other groups of tourists too who had stopped by there. We refreshed ourselves with the coffee and moved on. It was around 12pm at that time and we decided that we would stop at Sringeri for lunch.
We had lunch at Sringeri's famous temple and got on with our journey to Malpe. Malpe was still around 100kms away.On the way we saw Mullayangiri, Baba Budangari and Deviraman Betta peaks, they looked majestic, too bad we couldn’t get the time to trek as our schedules were tight and we had places to go. We reached Manipal at around 4:30pm and knew we would be late for the ferry to St.Mary's island from Malpe beach; we just prayed that we could get a chance .We managed to reach Malpe beach around 5pm (you know when you are close to the beach when the strong smell of fresh fish hits your nostrils from more than a Km away) and immediately rushed to get the ferry tickets to St. Mary's island, the ferry was almost full and about to leave, we just made it in the nick of time. Our prayers were answered After a 15 minute ride through the blue waters we made it to the picturesque island of St.Mary's. The water was surprisingly pristine and to add to it, it was a white sandy beach. Long coconut trees, amazing rock formations, blue waters, white sands is what you get when you get here...We were however left disappointed when we learnt we had to get back by 5:45pm, as it was the last ferry back to Malpe beach. We took some pictures and crossed over to the other side to get a better view, the water here is unpredictable, it is shallow at the start but gets deep jus after a few steps, so it's better to stay on the side where the ferry initially dropped you off, here it's not too dangerous to play around but if you want to see more of those amazing rock formations and a beautiful sunset then get to the other side. Just make sure that you have at least couple of hours with you if you plan to come to St.Mary's Island. Anyways, we got back by the last ferry back to the beach.
We stopped at the famous Krishna temple and then looked for a place to have our dinner. After some wandering about we went to Shanthi Sagar restaurant at Udupi. This is a highly recommended place for great food and value for money. We however, resisted our temptations to eat to our hearts content as we were supposed to have dinner at Doddamane, Agumbe. All of us had some dosa(from the many different varieties) and headed back to our Cab. We were running an hour late to have dinner at Agumbe. Initially,we had planned to book our nightstay at a hotel in Agumbe but when we heard about Doddamane, we din think again.Doddamane is a homestay which is almost 110 years old, it is the biggest house in the small town of Agumbe. Some of the famous Malgudi Days episodes were shot here. Anyways, we had to travel for more than an hour to reach Agumbe, we encountered a lot of hair pin bends here and there was almost no light which made it more difficult to traverse. Each km we travelled took us 5-10 minutes as it was pretty steep with almost no light. We finally made it to Agumbe,there was a checkpost before we entered and we didn’t have to hunt a lot to get to Doddamane, everyone there knew where it was, it was the biggest house there(a big old bungalow rather and one couldn't miss it).
We were pleasantly surprised when we were welcomed for dinner even at 10pm at a homestay, we knew that we were in a very hospitable place, we were tired and sleep deprived but the way we were treated immediately refreshed us and helped to lift our spirits up. We were treated with a sumptuous south Indian dinner and then chatted with Kasturi Aunty after that. She was easily 70 years old, but her effervescence could easily put youngsters like us to shame. Her memory was remarkable, she asked for our names just once and thereafter she called each one of us by our names, never making a mistake to fumble on our names. Anyways, after a chat with her about the places to visit in Agumbe, we went to our beds to get the much needed sleep. We had to wake up by 5:30am, to catch the sunrise at Kundadari Hills.
Day 3: KundadariHills, Onnake Abbe Falls
We woke up at 5:30am sharp, not wanting to miss the Sunrise. The morning was very foggy, and we never expected this during the summer. It was probably due to the fact that Agumbe is 2,710 ft above sea level. There was hardly any visibility; we really don’t know how our driver was driving through that road shrouded with fog as we progressed towards the hills. We had to cover 10kms to reach Kundadari hills, from Doddamane. As we drove on, the fog started to diminish and we could see the lovely landscape, it was like we were driving through a jungle. We started to encounter the hair pin bends now and they were getting really steep one after the other. As daylight started to gleam through the thick vegetation, our paths felt almost illuminated. We had the feeling we were late for the sunrise, but jus then we witnessed something ethereal. We saw what seemed like the Sun floating on the Sea. We took a shot with our cameras immediately. It was actually the Sun floating on the clouds beneath!!!... This is the kind of view one gets when on an airplane and floating through clouds!!!...The pic. Which I captured was by far the best Sunrise picture I could have taken; it still adorns my desktop as Wallpaper. We drove faster now and made it to the peak soon. There was a stairway to climb to the peak, it felt like the Stairway to Heaven! ;)
The Sun had risen a tad all right but we still got bird’s eye view from the peak and the clouds floating over the town of Agumbe with Dense vegetation below and the Sun rising over made it a truly spectacular and incredible sight to behold. I got my tripod out, mounted my SLR on it and started to click pictures of this incredible sight. There was a small Jain temple at the peak too and one small pond there which had a few lotus flowers. As we got busy being bedazzled by nature’s awesome splendor, we had company!!!... We saw the silhouette of a few men armed with Rifles, we were petrified, were we being followed by Naxalites???...
I guessed they knew we were nervous, when one of them came and said don’t worry we are from the military. Soon, we started talking to them. They were very friendly and even allowed us to touch their Rifles and take pictures with it. By now, the Sun had risen significantly and it was time to head back to base (Doddamane). We left with some rather vivid memories of the hills.
We got back to Doddamane, this time the drive was much faster and fun. We got back and had some amazing Set Dosas for breakfast (not any darshini in Bangalore can match the taste it had). We packed our stuff and bid Kasturi Aunty and others there a good bye and thanked them for the most wonderful stay we had there.
We had a few hours on our hands to visit a waterfall, there are around 3-4 of them in Agumbe.Kunchikal, being the most famous one, which is supposed to be the second highest in India. We however decided to take the road less travelled and opted for some adventure. We learnt from the locals there that there is a waterfall called “Onnake Abbe”, for which you need to trek through a dense jungle for around 3-4kms. It was pretty hot as you could imagine but that didn’t dampen our spirits, we decided to go ahead with this trek. We had to cross a lake to get to the jungle; we crossed the lake and started our trek. This was one dense jungle, I’ve been to treks before but they pale in comparison.
We encountered some tall trees, trees with aerial roots and many strange looking trees. Pretty creepy place actually, would be teeming with life during monsoon. We luckily had a narrow path for directions, which was obviously carved out by enthusiasts like us who wanted a taste of adventure. We trekked through the dense forest and came across a series of steps which we descended before we could reach what seemed to be a cliff. It was now that we could hear the sound of water gushing through rocks clearly. When we got to the cliff; it was one breathtaking picture which lay before our eyes. 
There were two waterfalls here, one really small but was enough to have a good shower and the other one which fell from the cliff, this one was truly captivating. It was dangerous enough to get near the cliff and take a few shots with our cameras but we somehow managed to pull it off, it was thrilling to say the least !... After refreshing our sore bodies with the cool water we headed back to our Cab. This was the last place we visited in Agumbe. We wanted to go rafting but there was some work going on at Sita Nadi and rafting was closed for the time being.We wished we had more time on our hands to explore more of this Nature’s paradise. We had to get back to Birur now from where we initially boarded the bus to get to Kemmangundi. After travelling through Shimoga for nearly 4 hours we reached Birur that night by 8pm and stayed in a lodge there near the railway station. We had already booked return tickets back to Bangalore from Birur via Hubli Express for Monday morning. We arrived at the station at 10:30 and boarded the train and by 1:30pm, we were back to Namma Bengaluru.
We were surely exhausted from the constant travelling and trekking, but the time spent in those fantastic getaways rejuvenates our memories every time we think about it and begs us to get back again someday.
Summary of the trip:
Bangalore-->Birur-->Lingadahalli-->Kemmangundi-->Hebbe Falls-->Z-Point-->Rock Garden-->Mullayanagiri-->Sringeri (Temple)-->Manipal-->St.Mary's Island-->Udupi Krishna Temple-->Agumbe-->kundadri hill (Jain temple)-->Onake Abbi Falls-->Bangalore
Duration: 3days: Distance Covered: 1300Km
