Mullayanagiri to Bababudangiri Trek: A walk through the clouds!

Crew Members: Arun, Geo and myself.
Duration: 3 Days.
Expense: ~3000 per head.
Date: 29th, 30th and 31st of August 2014.
Terrain: Rocky, Steep and Slippery.
Abstract: Storm, Showers and Mist!

Geo calls me up on 26th of August at 1 AM when I was about to doze off and asks about plans for the weekend and he suggested about doing a trek as Arun is also craving for one! There we go. I lost my sleep. I started searching for destination the moment he dropped the call. Next day, I met Arun from office and he suggested this place Ettina Bhuja which is supposed to be a difficult one but doable in two days. We had three days and I wanted some thing that would need all three days and then I found this Ettina Bhuja to Ombattu Gudde trek! We got all excited reading various blogs and seeing the difficulty level. On 26th night, I decided to call up Patrick, BASC organiser and a master of exploratory treks. I learned from him that since these destinations belong to Sakleshpura reserve forest there is a temporary ban for trekking there and if caught, it could be a disaster and he suggested Mullayanagiri-Bababudangiri-Kemmengundi-Hebbe falls trek which would need 3 days. We decided to take that up! It was been only two weeks since I visited Mullayanagiri by bike! :D

Arun could get a GPS track of the entire trek done by one of his team mate few years ago. He managed to to load that into Google Earth in his phone and we could see the terrain as such! Excitement just got multiplied by 'n'! :D We searched around for interested trekkers in our group and seeing the difficulty and strain, there wasn't a fourth member. We three form a good team from the experience we have with Kumara Parvatha trek that was done nearly 10 months ago! ARs were assigned to each of us by Arun and we did procure all the stuffs required.

Getting to Chikamaglur became an issue as most of the buses were full and trains were running on waiting list. We decided to try for tatkal and there lied some luck for us! Our plan was to reach Birur at 10:45 PM by train and then try to see if we can reach Chikamaglur the same night which is 40 kms away or else settle at Kadur, a small town 14 kms away from Birur enroute Chikamaglur.

Train reached Birur 45 mins late and it was drizzling. We boarded a rick from Birur station and the driver said we'll get Chikamaglur bus through out the night from Kadur. We paid him 180 bucks and got down at Kadur bus stand. With in 15 mins, we got a jam packed Chikamaglur bus and we decided to board that anyway! We settled ourselves at the foot board and had a nice journey and by the time we reached Chikamaglur, it was 1:30 AM! We walked around for a lodge and could find one close to the bus stand. Seeing our gadgets, person at the reception could make out we are on for trek! I asked him about the weather conditions and the level of rains. He said "Rain is a part of nature. People who are born and brought up in cities don't know what nature is. You get in the rain and you get a cold and fever, one believes its caused by the rain. But actually, the ailment is because of your weakness and rain is not the one to be blamed!". We decided to crash there.

We checked out of the lodge at 8:30 AM and went to the hotel Annapurna right opposite to the bus stand. Couple of weeks ago when I came to the same town on my bull, this hotel was getting inaugurated! I should say this - If you are going to Chikamaglur, go to this restaurant and try out the Guntur Idli and Bisi Bele Bath! My taste buds went all excited tasting these two items there! We soon went to the taxi stand and we were swarming with taxi drivers in a second! We told them we wanted to go to Sarpadhari - The starting point of the Mullayanagiri trek! None of the appeared familiar with the name Sarpadhari. We had to tell them we wanted to climb the whole hill and not to go to the peak by a vehicle. And they started shouting out prices 700, 600, 500 and finally 400! Driver who shouted out the least hit a jackpot! :P

Slight drizzle soon got a bit heavy and in 20 mins we were dropped near Sarpadhari! We got our Ponchos out and started our hike at 9:45 AM! I couldn't take a pic of the entrance because of the rains and so did I miss out a lot of awesome shots where I cursed rains!

Initial climb was pretty easy except for the rains. I got a wooden stick thick enough to serve as a trekking assistant and we climbed as soon as possible. Ponchos were going out of control because of the force with which the wind was blowing! And we decided to get the poncho off and walk in the rain. All our belongings in the bag were sealed in air lock zip bags anyway.

We got a bit of a break from rain and I soon got my camera out. Place looked heavenly with all the mist around. Temperature must have been close to 20 degrees and we didn't have any thermals due to lack of space in the bags.

With few pit stops, we kept moving. Our aim was to hit Mullayanagiri peak by 11 AM! Arun had some stiff muscle problems because of which we had to take some stops. Seeing the rains vanished for more than half an hour and rising fog, I got my head wrap and smurf wear on! By 11 AM, we could reach a small shrine in the middle of some trees! Believe me, that's the most sanctimonious temple I have ever seen! Nature had decorated the shrine so well that one wouldn't walk past that point with out spending some good amount of time there. There was a small Nandi statue inside the temple and entire place was decorated with pink flowers which appeared to me like led lighting. Greenery and mist around added to the beauty.

Place was all wet with the rains and every single leaves around carried rain drops.

We sat there for sometime and had some carrots that Arun carried. We could hear people talking and realized that peak is not very far. We started moving and there were few people coming down to this shrine from the peak. Those people asked me "Did you guys just climb all the way from the bottom? Didn't you know there is a proper road that can take you to the peak?" and I said in my mind "Did you guys just drove up till the peak? Did you guys know what exactly did you miss out by choosing not to climb?" :D

Just before hitting the peak we spotted a cave on the right side of ours and decided to explore it. Cave went in indefinitely and we didn't want to go deep into the dark.

We soon reached the peak and time was 12 PM and people around were looking at us as if they've spotted a group of aliens! We didn't know how to find the trail to Bababudangiri. We asked one of the priests and he directed us. He asked us to removed our shoes, carry in our hands, take a half a round walk with in the temple walls and then to walk out of the gate near the restrooms. I went inside the shrine and took a glance at the deity and moved as he directed. We got out of the gate he said. We were expecting leach bites and none except one was found so far. One leach tried attaching me at the temple entrance but was spotted before it would dig its fangs in. Geo had brought a custom made leach repellent and we applied that on our feet, had some energy bars and decided to take up the visible trail in front of us. Arun was constantly tracking the route in his phone with GPS on. Still we missed the trail couple of times and managed to get back to the right one with not much waste of time. Climate was just perfect. We walked enjoying the beauty around.

By 2:45 PM, we hit Swamy Vivekanda point above the forest check-post! We entered the road where the check-post is located and we are supposed to take the trail opposite to the check-post. 

The trail was clearly visible, but was closed with the board saying "No Admission"! We were skeptical about getting permission to get through the forest check-post. There were two forest officers and we went and enquired about the route to Bababudangiri and one guy pointed us the motor road and said you can either take a bus from here or walk up 16 kms! He also said there is a small junction named Attigundi in between where you can have food in between. I asked him what's the no admission trail opposite to their office and he replied saying that's a route to some quarters. We decided to have our lunch from the bus shed there and eventually the officer who talked with us left. I went and had a talk with the other officer. Knowing to speak Kannada, being in India and forest dept. being under government sector, things were dealt with the way it is supposed to be! We decided to finish off our lunch asap! Mean while, a tourist taxi came up there and driver came to talk to us when his passengers went in search of the Vivekananda Point. He warned us about walking in the forest as there is a tiger that's wandering there lately! We have heard such comments at many places as the local people find some kind of immense pleasure in scaring shit out of the trekkers! We didn't bother to pay attention and we were soon on our way stepping over the "No Admission" sign board. :D

It started drizzling again. Carrying tent in hand is an irritating job while doing hikes, so we tried to tie it on top of Arun's already heavy enough 70L backpack. Our trail started getting treacherous! A stretch of trail here is over a ridge with pointed rocks!

Both the sides were pretty deep and wind was no less. Slippery  rock and lack of visibility served as right toppings! But believe me, that was one memorable stretch I have ever been through. We realised we are far behind our schedule and should increase our pace. Soon we got to plain land and walk was damn easy there. Rain never stopped since then.

After a long stretch of walk, at 5 PM, we took a halt and Arun opened up his pack of dates. We were just talking about what the people who don't do treks are missing! We were all by ourselves there. Calm and quite except for the howling wind. We could see the mist moving with speed over the rocks and we just sat there enjoying the emptiness! Myself and Arun switched our bags.
Soon we got back on our feet. We should be getting to a village near to Bababudangiri peak before night fall. We kept on following the trail and later realized, some where in between with out noticing we deviated off the course and were 500m away from the actual trail! We had to climb a small steep hill to get back to the trail shown by Google Maps. Walk over the mountain with out a proper trail costed us a lot of scratches as it was through thorny bushes. We could see foot prints of Deer/Byson which we couldn't be sure. It appeared like a herd of one of these animals had passed not long ago. We managed to get back to the trail and this happened 4-5 times! Trails are damn tricky in this place. Finally, we did a continuous stretch of 4-5 kms over a very clear slippery trail and when Arun checked maps, we learned, we have walked past Bababudangiri peak and have done an additional walk of 4 kms! We missed out the BSNL mobile tower which is supposed to be the peak identification point due to lack of visibility. It started getting dark and wind became torrential! We were completely drenched and temperature made a sharp decline. We were left with no option but to walk towards the nearest road without any trail. We managed to climb a hill and to reach the road on the other side! Guess what happened! Where the google maps displayed a road, there was a huge water body! Can you imagine what we would have felt at that point considering all the environment conditions! We were completely lost!
Finally, I managed to find road through the mist and that was a huge relief! We reached the roads and rains got heavier. Couple of vehicles with tourists passed by and they were all staring at us seeing walking outside in such a weather. We asked one of the drivers for the nearest village and he directed us to walk through the roads another 1.5 kms. We would have walked at least 2.5 kms and we didn't find any village. All three of us were shivering like anything. Another 15-20 more minutes in that weather, at least one among us would have blacked out!
Out of no where this empty jeep appears in front of us and we asked for lift. Driver was headed to Attigundi which was 12 kms from the place. We closed every hole in the jeep and got ourselves warm. He took us to Attigundi and we had some hot coffee. He arranged a lodge room for us at 1000 bucks per night. Guess what the villagers asked us! They all had one question! "Did you get to see the tiger?" The same tiger about which the cab driver told us appeared to be real and it comes in the roads as well to attack the cattles it seems! I was like WOW. We expressed our gratitude to the jeep driver and he laughed and said he always gets passengers like us while driving back to his house from his hotel near Bababudangiri peak! :D

Day 2:
Next day we had a brain storming session on what to do with next two days. Our options were Kudremukh trek/Kumara Parvatha trek/Jog Falls visit. Kudremukh would have the same climate and the green carpet view wouldn't be visible at this time. Kumara Parvatha trek was already done by us from Kukke side. We thought of hitting the peak from Somwarpet side. I called up the lodge reception where we stayed 10 months ago at Kukke and he said its raining heavily there. Finally, we settled for Jog Falls and boarded a bus to Shimoga and from there to Sagara. We took a lodge room and decided to call it a day!

Day 3:
We had our breakfast and asked around for a sightseeing cab. We got one soon and made a deal for 2100 bucks. He took us around covering Siganthur Chowdeshwari Temple, Ikkeri Aghoreshwara Temple, Keladi Rameshwara Temple, Lingadahalli Dam view point, Jog Falls - Mungarumale view point and Jog falls front view point.
Sigandur Temple journey consist of backwater crossing on a boat.

Ikkeri Temple is an ancient stone temple with beautiful carvings.

Keladi temple looked very much like ancient temples/houses in Kerala.

Lingadahalli view point was amazing with the distant view of the dam.

Drive towards Jog Falls from Sagara is extremely scenic with all the agricultural fields on either sides of the road!

Mungarumale view point was less crowded and was very scenic.

Main view point was all covered with mist and we had no view of the falls initially. We had to wait for almost an hour to get some clear view of the falls! We had ample time as our return bus was at 10:30 PM and Jog falls was our last sight seeing point.

Things to remember:
1. If you are to planning to rely on mobile phone for maps, do carry a power bank for your power thirsty batteries.
2. Carry precautions for leach bites.
3. Carry zip lock bags as rains in Malanadu area are totally unpredictable.
4. Carry antiseptic and pain killer medics.

Do's:
1. If you are a lousy trekker and is eager to do this trek, you may as well opt to reach Mullayanagiri peak by a vehicle and then do a trek to Bababudangiri. I would recommend other wise though! ;)
2. Make sure the weather is apt for trekking.

Don't:
1. Be a responsible trekker and carry back all our plastic/metal waste. We carried all our garbage in our bags to the next garbage bin available.

Finally, our group pic: