Dondole and Alekan falls

Dondole and Alekan falls

This was the second time in our experience of three and a half years with Spicmacay and its trips that 7 girls had come for the trip. The second years after a successful Aradhana-05 where very enthusiastic to go for a trip.

Trips are not just a means for enjoyment, they mean much more. Trips work essentially as a team building factor. It helps us understand each other in much informal way and removes out any misunderstandings. It helps the new members to understand the way the senior members coordinate (with each member taking up a special responsibility and performing it so as to make any event a success) among themselves be it interacting with people or searching for something new or even guiding people. Our main aim in organizing this trip was a better 2^nd year and 3^rd year interaction.

The Aradhana josh of the second years made around 30-35 people raise their hands when initially the idea of the trip was proposed. This made us organize a second trip in the same academic year. When most of the ground work was done for the trip we found a much lower crowd, probably because of improper communication of the information among the second years. But we later had around 13 boys of second years coming up for the trip. Totally for the trip we were 37 people. Our initial plan was Kemmanagundi but due to administrative problems of the GB warden we had to change our destination to Dondole falls, Charmudighats and Alekan falls.

We set out from our college at 5:45 am (amazingly with a delay of just 10 minutes). We had a long bus(54 seater, the one out of fashion) with a higly experienced aged driver not willing to go at a speed greater than 40kmph. We had planned our breakfast at Belthangady (at 7:30 am), but thanks to our driver we reached there at 8:15 am where we had breakfast at Hotel Samatha. In the meantime during our journey we were desperately trying to get the cassette player to work fine which finally came true in the hands of a psycho (electrical engineer). Then he was put into complete incharge of that 1942 modelled cassette player. After about one hour we set out towards Dondole falls, along the Ujire-Shimoga highway. At a place called Kakkinje we took a deviation and went in for about 12 km. The remaining approximately 8 km had to be trekked (could have also used a jeep which didn’t strike us initially). We set out on the trek which would last for about 2 hours before finally reaching the stream which made the falls. As soon as people found the water and a little falls sort of thing they started getting into the water and enjoying, till one of our senior member ran all the way and found the actual Dondole falls. Then the other members were lead till this falls via trechorously slippery rocks and sharp boulders. Some of our members were reluctant to go to the main falls considering the danger involved in moving over the rocks (thanks to some handsome suggestions by another member). But most of our members not just reached the falls but also went to its top. Few of our members had nasty falls along the way thanks to the high erosion by the fast currents of the stream during the rainy season. The falls is a splendid one if it was seen during early winter. One sad fact about the falls is that more than 80 percent of the water is deviated by the estate owners against the government rules to utilize it for their individual needs. We picked up snaps of the falls and its surroundings. It was around 12:30pm when we decided to walk back to our initial enjoyment spot where we planned to have our light snacks carried along. We rested after snacks for a while before a quick group photography session. Then decided to walk back and reached the bus it was around 3 pm after a long trek with the midday sun staring from above. When the last group reached the bus it was around 3:30pm. We set out from there without any further delay towards Charmadi. Charmadi range is one of the most scenic in the whole of the Western Ghats. We picked up snaps from the bus of these scenic spots all along the way. Our destination was basically the Alekhan falls. This is a road side falls. It was 4:45 pm when we reached the falls. The driver was very upset for having brought him this long. He was also not willing to let the members get down to the base of the falls, sighting the delay to get down the ghats as a reason. This brought in a difference of opinion between among the senior members and finally a few members (highly interested) got down to view the falls from its base. Finally when we set out from Alekhan it was 5:30 pm. We reached Charmadi at 6:15 pm when we took a small break for tea. We finally set out to Mulki at 6:45 pm. When we reached Bittu it was 8:30 pm.

All along the way (though with initial delay) we enjoyed the trip, some of us cracking PJs, doing stunts, playing antakshari, overacting.

The main motive of the trip namely, interaction between the meager count of the 3^rd year members and the highly enthusiastic 2^nd year members so as to let them function in a better manner during the next academic year was successful to about 80 percent (in a final year members perspective). We final years had a lot of interaction informally with the participating members.