Kadambi, Sutanabbe(Hanumanagundi), Shringeri, Sirimane and Chatnamane falls

Kadambi, Sutanabbe(Hanumanagundi), Shringeri, Sirimane and Chatnamane falls

After Virasat-2004 we were all in a mood to enjoy and so planned a trip to Sirimane and Shringeri. The places for this trek were common spots for the class trips and so the population of our members was minimal. We were around 30 members.

As usual we chose to start out around 6 am and left NITK in a luxury bus (2+1 seater). Our first destination after the breakfast was Hanumanagundi. We had our breakfast at a hotel in Padubidre were we spent around 45-50 minutes and then headed towards Hanumanagundi. We received the information that the falls would open at 9 am at the forest check post.

The Kudremukh range has a splendid view of the South Canara district while we were climbing the winding roads, till we reached S.K. Border where we have a sight seeing spot. We could not get down here as parking vehicles there was prohibited(you can always do if you have a 2 wheeler). We then took the path which leads us towards Kudremukh to go to Hanumanagundi. When we reached there we were early, so decided to go a little further (approx 7 km) from here where we had a road side falls namely Kadambi. Here no one got down to enjoy at the falls, all of us stood on the bridge picking up photos to keep this road side falls in memory for longer time. The bus in the mean time went a little further and came back having changed its direction. Kadambi falls is used by people for trick photography and few of us gave a try at it. Meanwhile, one of our members had got along with him a special invitee who was too hungry (leech). This leech is a parasite which sucks in blood and then slowly falls off, but its saliva prevents blood clot immediately and the person looses a lot more blood. Then after spending a total of 35 minutes here we got into the bus and went towards Hanumanagundi. The entry fee here is Rs 30/- per head. A few of us did not get down here as they had already seen the falls. The others got down here. The people who got down enjoyed themselves for about 45 minutes without realizing the leeches trying to feed on them and finally when they came up to the bus they had got along with them a lot of leeches. The people who remained back took a stroll of about 2 km down the road and reached a place with very good scenic beauty. They did not have a camera with them and hence could not get any snaps. The bus took off from Hanumanagundi at around 11 am and on the way back we tried taking the scenic snaps from within the bus. We reached Shringeri around 12:15 pm. We spent some time around Shringeri before we had our lunch at the temple. We were joined here by our guide who would lead a few of our interested members to a new falls (Chatnamane) for the NITK trek freaks. After having our lunch at the temple, we left Shringeri towards Kigga (around 10 km from here) from there we would trek 4.5 km to reach Sirimane falls. We reached Kigga around 2 pm and started our trek. When we reached Sirimane it was around 3:15 pm and a lot of batches came even later. Almost all of them got into the water to refresh themselves after this long and tiring trek. Few of us even tried climbing the steep walls of the falls to reach towards the top of this falls. Another family had also come in to enjoy the falls. We played along with the tiny kids who had come with them. Few of us had nasty falls trying various pranks and stunts. We had nice photography club member using a camera with improperly loaded photography film. This proved most of our stunts a waste of time. We took snaps before trekking back to the old temple at Kigga (of Ramayana fame). Some of us took a break with cool drinks, tender coconuts before getting all the members to climb the bus.

Two of our members who had seen Sirimane earlier and interested in finding the new falls went along with the guide towards the Chatnamane falls (around 4 km from Sirimane). The remaining people enjoyed themselves at the Sirimane falls taking snaps, playing in water, fighting with leeches. The two members and their guide spent another 1 hour searching for the falls which they finally reached by great difficulty (thanks to the marshyness of the forest and almost a galaxy of leeches). They reached this new falls around 4:15 pm. This new falls is used by locals for their drinking water supply. The falls is about 1.5 times the height of Sirimane and is narrower than Sirimane by say 50%. They took snaps and started there trek backwards. We reached Kigga at about 5:45 pm with day light fading and a majority of the trip people being bitten by atleast 2-3 leeches. We then set on our journey backwards. Two of our members got down as one of them had to go to Bangalore and the other accompanied him to the bus stand. The remaining of us came back to Padubidre where we had our usual Sonu Dhaba dinner.