Dedupe & Jamalabad Trek

It had been over 6 months since I had gone on a trek, every time I would give a reason. This time I decided to break the routine. We decided this trek around a month back, but priorities are quick to change, and we landed up being only 5 people for the trek - Tyagraj, Naveen, Niranjan and Rajat.A team of 5 people decided to have a fun in the Western Ghats.

After a tiring work on Friday, we decided to catch up at Domlur and then leave for the trek. Excepting for Rajat who stays on the other side of KBS, all of us began our trek from Domlur.

Catching a bus to KBS on Friday evening from Domlur is never easy, there is always going to be people and you need to deal with the packed buses and traffic to reach on time. We reached there just 15 min before the bus was to leave! (thank God we had booked our bus in Advance)Rajat who came from the other part of the city was already there... it was the last seat an we though we wouldn't have any sleep.

I was damn tiered and caught sleep quite early, didnt mind the road bumps that were there on the road. Its only when the bus stopped that I woke up. After a long journey we reached Dharmasthala at 5:30 am. Tyagraja our host was very courteous to give us his new house to sleep before we began our trek. All of us had a nice nap.

Day 1:

We woke up at our own convenience, there was an awesome breakfast and then with some packed up some food for our trek. We reached Dedupe by car to compensate for the delayed start. This was my second trek to Hanadka, while Tyagaraj had spent his early childhood at his Uncles home near the falls; and the other three were very watchful of the picturesque surrounding. The road was a jeep track for a long distance and so occasionally Naveen who was craving for some more variety would choose to use an alternate route to reach the same point thorough some shrubs, bushes and dried up streams.

After a simple walk in the steaming heat for around an hour we reached Tyagaraj's uncles home. I was a very refreshing break from the heat, the cocum juice that was served was just awesome and I was shameless to ask for another one - it just tasted so good! Thanks for this one.

We also got to know that Hanadka was the last in a series of 7 falls (and one of the most beautiful and easily accessible ones). I made a mental note that, I would get to check all of these out sometime - this is for another time. The starting point of this trek it seems is from Samse - will do the checking and then start off some other time. We decided to resume our trek after a refreshing break.

All refreshed with a 30 minutes break, we moved through the plantations by the side of a pipe which provides good drinking water to the houses near by, we reached in 15 minutes to the very elegant Hanadka Falls. We spotted a waterfalls, at a distance - this was the 4th level of the falls (I for a moment thought i wish I could get there today).

I was taken aback, this time when I compared it with the first visit. It was very neat, undisturbed by the plastic & filth that careless people who come for an outing leave behind. I was feeling guilty, since my blogs might have given the access to this beautiful falls - my humble request to all the trekkers who read my blog and go to those places, please act responsibly. The ecosystem is very sensitive, do not leave behind any plastic or non-bio degradable material which might disturb the ecosystem.

Naveen, Niranjan and Rajat, were excited by the elegance of the falls and decided to have a shower in the falls. I generally retrain from having a bath in the falls that I visit. After some fun, we had a good packed lunch and decided to try out exploring some higher levels of the falls.

It was around 2 in the afternoon, and we had time till till 4:30 pm to try out some exploration. I detected a small path in the adjacent forest and followed it to reach the top of our falls. It was quite slippery and narrow and having reached the top, asked if we would really like to continue.

The enthusiasm was contagious, we reached the top of the falls and waited to refresh ourself. After a small break, we decided to follow the water on its trace and explore further. After 30 minutes of trekking we reached a split. It was a very silent and beautiful falls. This was the second level, a very neat one!

On the right we spotted another another stream joining this one. We couldn't climb the 2nd falls so we decided to follow the other stream and began climbing trough the slippery slopes and leaves.

The slopes and leaves made the climb very treacherous. Towards the last section of this climb, we could see a nice falls (not exactly a falls but a small flow of water over the rock surface). The route was through slippery rocks, we didnt have any ropes to help us climb and so we decided against taking the risk of slipping and falling on the rocks.

We had some photo sessions all along the way, and finally reached the first falls - our base. The time was around 4:45 pm. After a refreshing break at the falls again, we began walking back at 5:30 pm. We reached the car at 6:20pm.

We drove back and had a nice dinner after a long day of trek in the hot sun. After dinner and catching up with some news we had a sound sleep.

Day 2:

We got up at 7 am, freshed up and decided to get going on the 2nd Phase of the trek before it would be hot!. The trek was to Jamalabad Fort.

This too was the 2nd time I was getting to Jamalabad, and I knew that the later we get started,the tougher it would be. Given the hot sun and the steep accent it would make it really hard.

We reached the base of the fort at 8:15 AM. After purchasing the ticket, we began our trek to the peak. Nirajan who wasn't feeling comfortable - decided to stay back. The rest of us continue to the peak.

Trek was slow and challenging. The sun was raising higher, making the surrounding air hotter. We could spot a lot of mountains, houses, bridges, rivulets as we began but as we continued the distant objects dissolved into the bright light.

The climb is long and hard one when it gets hot it becomes harder. We had sufficient water and that helped us refresh ourself as we climbed. Lemon is another aid in these conditions.

After a climb of around 1:30 minutes we reached the peak. The last part of the trek was the hardest. Given the steep slope and the large steps - it gets us frightened. Slow but sure, we reached the peak. Lot of things have changed since the last time - where is the cleanliness gone!

After surveying the peak end to end, we began the descent. In 45 minutes we reached the base. After refreshing ourselves, we began back. We reached Tyagraja's home, and got back to Dharmasthala.

Tyagraj decided to stay at home for some more time, while we decided to get back to Bangalore by night and take a nap. After lunch, we caught a Suvarna Sarige and reached Hassan.

After a tiffin at the bustand we continued our journey to Bangalore. We reached home at 1230 am.

It was one awesome trek!