Mullainagiri & Kemmanugundi

Aye Captain! WOW! What a fantastic weekend it was  or was I only dreaming?
We were walking in the places where heavens met the earth with kiss of the clouds.
Chickmagalur being only 250 kms away, we chose to leave late from Bangalore. Everyone dropped into our house, parked their car, and loaded into a common vehicle. Reshmi, down with a severe cold and depressed about dropping out the last minute, wished us a teary farewell & a happy journey!

To wile away more time we took a long break at a Coffee day near Hassan! Yet we reached Chickmagalur in the wee hours. We freshened up at a lodge and had idly with many servings of piping hot yummy sambar!

We started the trek by 7:30. Perfect weather helped the pace. Furious winds were blowing our way almost pushing us off the pathways. Looking down was as exciting as it was dangerous. Rain Gods ensured our safety by not pouring. The National Geographic 1 & 2 went clicking their cameras and capturing the divine beauty in their lens.

The rocks in this terrain were totally different from anywhere else. They were naturally sculpted; multitude of colors & patterns shone from within the rocks. Further, up the hillock, we came to a huge crevice, almost forming a small cave. Here was our first big break. The sunny weather changed its mood. Strong winds brought clouds our way. We found ourselves cutting through the mist. The visibility dropped to 10 ft. Afraid it would rain, we quickened our pace. The weather changed its mind again, the sun shone bright, and we took an apple break. The self designated Captain, Yogi, marched orders to his soldiers. The weather was playing a game with us. Heavy fog enveloped us and visibility dropped to 3 ft. It was very exciting. We were almost close to the peak, when we heard a rumble. A land slide was happening. Thankfully, we were not in the way and were amazed spectators. The winds had picked up speed. We saw birds flying, the winds were so strong that, the birds were pushed back and dropped their feed. WOW! What a sight!

We managed to reach the peak without much difficulty. It was very relaxing. The temple of Mullaina Swamy or Shiva, was being renovated. There were many workers involved in the construction. The priest agreed to feed us. While our lunch was being prepared, we went to explore the caves.

Giri, Anand & Mahesh, first timers to Mullainagiri, went into the smaller cave. Their excitement knew no bounds when they were shown the deeper cave. The beautiful natural patterns on the rocks inside held us enthralled. The torchlights lit up the pitch-dark caves and opened a new world of wonder to us. The cave was clean and the bats flying past us had us ducking our head more than once. Karuna, Mahesh, Anand, Giri & I went at least 50 ft deep. Yogi refused to be tempted to try this adventure and relaxed at the cave entrance.

We then had simple, hot lunch at the priest’s place. Rice & potato sambar with buttermilk satiated all of us. Thanking the priest and getting more directions, we started our descent. Fog engulfed us again. We thought we were lost. Taking left & right direction in wilderness was confusing. After losing the path once, we were back on the correct trail. The scenery changed before our eyes. Every minute, the cloud magic waved by the winds changed the color of the hills. We were all so taken with the ambience, it was difficult to go back to concrete jungle. Anand and Giri took many pictures of the landscape. We completed the trek by 1:30. Though, it felt like 5 in the evening. All of us were famished despite the lunch just a couple of hours before. We made some fabulous sandwiches with tomato, cucumber, onion, ketchup, lime & chips. Yummy!

Our drive was waiting for us at the designated spot. We decided to skip Bababudangiri & go to Kemmannugundi. The bumpy drive could not stop us from dozing off. Captian Yogi, was awake, watchful of the road and the driver. We lodged into our rooms at the Kemmanugundi horticulture Cottage and ordered food for the night. It was very cold; the temperature had affected my phone too.

Dinner was very satisfying. The long day ended with lots of activities. The next day, Anand, Mahesh & Karuna went to another trek to Z-Point. Giri, Yogi & I took our time, and followed them after a while. We visited the rock garden. Life was back to Kindergarten Park again ;) Seesaw, Swing, etc.

Rose garden at Raj Bhavan did not have any roses, but the view from the highest point at Kemmanugundi was spectacular. Bhadra Reservoir could be seen from here. School children on picnic were playing gaily.

Lunch was another satisfying affair. We decided to try another route to avoid bumpy roads and left soon after. On the way, a signboard displayed Kalhatthi falls. Kal is stone, hatthi is climb, and one has to literally climb the stone to get to this falls. Another horticulture guesthouse very close to the falls inspired us for the next event. Yogi also promised to find information about kayaking in Chickmagalur. Next time!

Karuna, Giri & I went to see the temple. We had to wade through calf length water from the falls to reach the temple inside the stone caves. There were a lot of stone carved idols here, the water from the fall was flowing in a very different way from behind the idols.

We saw a strange event here. A young boy of 14 years of age was carrying a very heavy looking huge plate with an idol, flowers and things of worship on his head. A couple was pestering him to answer their questions and resolve their problems. Many people were dancing around the boy with more idols. The Goddess was supposed to descend into the boy’s body and speak. We did not stop to see the consequences and were back on our way.

I bought some very sweet local citrus fruits, the orange variety. Only Giri braved to try one, the rest declined and stuck to mineral water. We had avoided all bumpy roads and were fast approaching the city. The conversation in the cab moved from diverse topics, a debate about internet as a medium to arrange marriages; how Giri, Mahesh, Anand, Karuna & I decided upon our life partners; Nuclear Reactors and Nuclear Plant; Hasiru Usiru; etc. Very Interesting! Avoiding all crammed roads of the city, we reached home well ahead of scheduled time. The icing on cake was the Rainbow we saw at Tiptur. Our pot of gold on the other side of this rainbow was Mullainagiri!