I came to know about BASC through Jinu John when we met at Chembra peak in Wayanad back in January 2012. Since then I’ve been planning to trek with BASC. Somehow I couldn’t register on time for the previous treks.
I saw “Bandaje Arbi trekking registration open” in my Facebook newsfeed on a weekend and I immediately filled in the details, transferred the money and applied for registration. My name was shortlisted along with 12 other experienced trekkers.
Trekking Day
The plan was to meet near Shantala Silks, Majestic on Friday night at 10pm, start the TT journey to Ujire and then to Bandaje village from where the trek starts. I reached the pickup point around 9.30, met few other BASC members who are joining me in this trek. We had a small introduction followed by a short conversation about each other’s trekking experiences.
Now we have Vinay and Ravindra as the organizers of the trek, Priyanka, Ganesh, Prashanth, Madhu, Tejaswi, Anurag, Gurva Reddy, Mehul, Harish, Rajesh and me as the team members.
We started the journey around 10.30 pm. The journey was quite comfortable except a small traffic jam in Shiradi Ghats. We reached Ujire town at around 5.00 am. Got freshened up in the public toilets there, had idly, vada & bun for breakfast from a nearby hotel and left to Bandaje village around 7.30 am. Ujire to Bandaje is hardly 12 kms towards Charmadi Ghats section. We had to reach a village called Mundaje and then take a deviation towards Bandaje village. We proceeded towards Mr. Narayana Gowda’s house, a local guide for treks around Charmadi Ghats. He was not available at his residence; we spoke to their family members: they agreed to send a guide with us half way. Since Ravi and Vinay had trekked the place before, they were confident of doing without a guide.
The trek starts from Narayana Gowda’s house and from here we have to pass through 3 more houses, the last one being Babu Nayak’s house from there the actual trekking trail begins. Anurag volunteered to lead the group and Ravi to come at the end. We crossed the 3rd house and few meters ahead we could see a trail going upwards towards left and another going straight down towards another house. We took the trail towards left and started moving upwards since most of the blog on Bandaje say the trek is only about ascending right from the beginning. I had an apprehension that this could be the wrong route, the trail straight down could be the right one and I did express it to Tejaswi. He countered my argument saying the trail straight down leads to an estate.
We started moving upwards by making way and took any passage which looked like a trail. We climbed for more than an hour crossing two dry streams and slippery tracks. We realized we are in the wrong direction when we were almost at the top of the hill. So we lost the track in the very first instance and we were trying to figure out how we go ahead. The techies in the group started suggesting the use of phone GPS, GPRS functions to find out where we are and where we should be heading to. We had a brainstorming session to figure out the way towards falls at the middle of that thick jungle. Ideas kept on pouring in. Some suggested the use of technology, while others suggested to call someone for help or to go back to the place where we started. Nothing materialized. Finally Vinay picked up his phone and called up Mudassar and explained him the situation. He suggested us to go back and reach Babu Nayak’s house.
We started climbing down the hill. Descending was very steep and the absence of a proper trail added to our misery. Many of us fell twice or thrice, the costliest one being Mehul’s in which he had an airline fracture in his hand. After many slips and falls, we managed to reach a house where we got directions towards Babu Nayak’s house. We were welcomed at Babu Nayak’s house by a host of 20- 30 young and old people. We spoke to Babu Nayak and found out that the actual trek starts from his house; from here we have a clear path till the grasslands. He said the hill we mistook and climbed is called Shantibetta (lol..We never had shanti there:-P). Apparently many people have done the same mistake and came back to his house in search of the actual trail.
Since we all had a tough task of ascending and descending through a non-existing trail, we decided to refresh ourselves at Nayak’s house before we start the real trek to Bandaje Arbi falls. Nayak’s family offered us black tea which had never tasted better for us. Within few minutes of gulping tea, we were set to conquer Bandaje hills. Mehul backed out due to the injury on his hand, decided to stay back at Nayak’s place.
The trek started around 11.15 am under the thick cover of shola forests. It had rained heavily for the last three days in that region and the trail was infested with lot of leeches. The trail was ascending right from the beginning; there were hundreds of leeches waiting to suck our blood. We could also spot dry elephant dung throughout the trail. Most of us were tired after climbing Shantibetta and this ever ascending trail curtailed our pace.
We reached the stream in an hour and half and took a long break for some food and snacks. We removed our shoes and socks to see number of leeches plunging to our legs .We crossed the stream and continued ascending towards grasslands. Majority of Bandaje trek is under thick shola forests. At a point of time we got bored of it and were craving to see a change in vegetation. The path ahead was tough and ascending through the thick forest cover. After 2 hours of continuous climbing, we could see a ray of light through the passage. YES…we are nearing grasslands. We were so glad to reach grasslands and expressed our happiness by shouting and clicking pictures. A little ahead from the grasslands, we could get a sneak picture of Bandaje Arbi falls looking like a needle. The view from the grasslands was amazing. We could see the mighty adjacent peaks and also a good view of Kudremukh National Park.
Priyanka, Ganesh, Anurag, Gurva and I reached the grasslands pretty early and were waiting for others to come. In the meanwhile I took a small nap in the grasslands. I woke up after 30 mins to a misty surrounding wherein the visibility is hardly 10 – 20 meters. The time was 3.30 pm and we are already behind the scheduled time. From grasslands, it’s another neat one hour uphill to reach the falls. Anurag and I took the lead and found out the way towards falls with much difficulty. We managed to reach the camping point near falls around 4.30pm. We both went to the falls and spent some time near the tip of the falls. The view from here was breathtaking and said ourselves it’s worth the climb. We couldn’t spent much time there since we had a fear of others losing way. We moved towards the camping point, others have already reached there. We started collecting dry wood for campfire. It was drizzling all over and there was a strong possibility of a heavy rain. Some of us started making the campfire while others started erecting tents with 2 tarpaulin sheets.
Campfire and tents were almost ready and it’s time to start cooking for 13 people. Since we had less water, Prashanth and I went to the falls to fetch water. He wanted to see the falls; we decided to go towards the tip of the waterfalls. Thanks to his suggestion, we had an awesome sunset view from there; we spent some good time talking about Western Ghats and its priceless beauty. It started getting dark and we decided to come back to the camping spot since people were waiting for us to get water. The dinner was lavish considering the place we were in. We prepared soup as starter followed by Maggie Noodles, MTR Bisibele bath and Tomato rice. Everyone had enough food and its time now to hit the bed. We cleaned up the place and erected the tent properly to fit in 13 people. The surface was full of stones which prevented us from a comfortable sleep. Nevertheless we all had a sound sleep only because of the tiresome day.
The plan was to wake up at 6.00am and to leave by 7.30 am which dint happen. We got up around 6.30am, few went to the waterfalls, and other few attended nature’s call. The morning view was different and good; the adjacent peaks were looking great in the sunlight’s reflection. We prepared some Maggie Noodles and soup and had it for breakfast. We packed up and were ready to go around 9.30am. We clicked some self timer group snaps to mark our presence at the hills and started towards Bandaje village. The descending was easy unlike the uphill trek. We crossed the grasslands and entered the shola forests less than an hour and from there to stream in another half an hour. We took a small break at the stream; Priyanka, Ganesh and I started towards Babu Nayak’s house.
The scariest moment of the trek came up in few minutes. Priyanka was leading in front, followed by me and Ganesh at the back. While descending through the jungle, I could see a cobra very next to my right leg with its hood on. I could clearly see the lines behind its hood. I couldn’t move forward or backward since Priyanka and Ganesh were at both sides. I jumped towards my left to a relatively steep valley. I broke my bag’s waist belt and a small injury in my legs. Thank god we had a narrow escape.
We reached Babu Nayak’s house in another few minutes. On the way, we met Mehul checking out the trail and clicking pictures. We requested Nayak’s family to prepare some food for us. We helped them in cutting vegetables to make sambar. Within half an hour, we have sambar, red rice, pickle and a jack fruit piece for lunch. They served us without any hesitation and we were happy to have a good lunch after the trek. (“Annadhaadha Sukhibhava” – Let the god bestow happiness to the one who served us food!!!)
Nayak’s family refused to take money for serving us Black tea yesterday and for today’s lunch. Raju forcefully gave 300 bucks to the children at the house and also some biscuits and chocolates. We left Nayak’s house around 2 and moved towards Narayana Gowda’s house where our TT is parked.
The plan was to go to Aramane falls and Anadka falls followed by dinner at Dharmastala Temple. We went to Anadka falls: the other falls heard to be dry from the localites. We had to trek around 4 kms to reach the falls. Not many were interested in trekking in the hot sun to see the waterfalls. Few of us went to see the falls, while others stayed back near the stream. Anurag and I took bath in the stream, came back and joined others in their conversation. The topic started with ‘Which is the best city Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore or Kolkata?” and went on to politics & corruption. There was no sign of those guys gone to the waterfalls. We decided to go to the main road to have tea. We went to a small shop in the main road and found two local drinks Zaffa and Super Joy - Made in Ujire. We had some snacks along with hot tea. The discussion on various topics continued along side.
We left to Dharmastala around 5.30pm. We had a good dharshan and dinner at the temple and left to Bangalore at 10.30pm.Thus ends our trekking weekend!!!
The organizers have to be appreciated since it’s the first time Vinay and Ravi are organizing a trek from BASC. They took care of all the necessary things right from Transport to food and tents. We all made good friends in two days time. In Toto, a memorable trek with a good bunch of people.
Kudos to BASC. 