Getting lost in a big jungle for the entire day and finding your way back was one kind of an experience. I was fortunate(or should I say, unfortunate) to have had that experience a few years back. We, as a group of 7 people, decided to do a hike to Bandajje falls - gorgeous waterfalls in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, India. None of us had been to that place anytime before, and we just went through some blogs and decided to make a trip.
It was 13th Oct 2006, Friday; we started our trip from Bangalore at around 10 pm. We booked a minivan to go from Bangalore to Sunkasale - dropping point from where we started the hike. It was an overnight journey through the western ghats. As we embarked on our trip, the first surprise was waiting for us. Our driver got news about the Naxal attack near western ghats through his friends. He quickly the changed the route and took a long strenuous one; however, it paid off at the end when we safely reached our hiking point in the morning.
Western ghats get rainfall throughout the year; and since we visited in the rainy season, trail paths were all muddy, leaches were all around. As we started the hike, within no time leaches were inside our shoes and socks, literally sucking our blood. None of these things bothered us, and we continued our trek with full energy and reached our first destination - "Balarayana Durga Fort", around lunchtime. Trek to the fort was relatively smooth as there was a trail all along and not enough altitude to make us tired. We had lunch, took some rest, and started trekking again.
Our next destination was actual Bandajje Falls itself, and the plan was to reach the falls before sunset and put a tent close to the falls. The route from Balarayana Durga fort to Bandajje Falls missed any sign-boards or trail paths. We took the trails that were most used assuming it will take us to the falls. After 3 hours of trekking, we saw the falls, at a distance - the moment that we waited to see from the morning. We reached the waterfalls around evening. We took some photos, got drenched in water and decided to put tent close to the falls. It was a freezing night, so none of us got any sleep even with the campfire on; so few of us came outside the tent and just sat next to the campfire and started talking through the whole night.
It was 13th Oct 2006, Friday; we started our trip from Bangalore at around 10 pm. We booked a minivan to go from Bangalore to Sunkasale - dropping point from where we started the hike. It was an overnight journey through the western ghats. As we embarked on our trip, the first surprise was waiting for us. Our driver got news about the Naxal attack near western ghats through his friends. He quickly the changed the route and took a long strenuous one; however, it paid off at the end when we safely reached our hiking point in the morning.
Western ghats get rainfall throughout the year; and since we visited in the rainy season, trail paths were all muddy, leaches were all around. As we started the hike, within no time leaches were inside our shoes and socks, literally sucking our blood. None of these things bothered us, and we continued our trek with full energy and reached our first destination - "Balarayana Durga Fort", around lunchtime. Trek to the fort was relatively smooth as there was a trail all along and not enough altitude to make us tired. We had lunch, took some rest, and started trekking again.
Our next destination was actual Bandajje Falls itself, and the plan was to reach the falls before sunset and put a tent close to the falls. The route from Balarayana Durga fort to Bandajje Falls missed any sign-boards or trail paths. We took the trails that were most used assuming it will take us to the falls. After 3 hours of trekking, we saw the falls, at a distance - the moment that we waited to see from the morning. We reached the waterfalls around evening. We took some photos, got drenched in water and decided to put tent close to the falls. It was a freezing night, so none of us got any sleep even with the campfire on; so few of us came outside the tent and just sat next to the campfire and started talking through the whole night.
No alarm, no phone call but a beautiful sunrise woke us up and we started our next part of the trek after morning duties and a quick breakfast. As per the blogs, we were required to walk along the water streams to reach a place called "Gowdara Mane.". We started walking along the water stream, sometimes in the middle of the bushes clearing and making our path. After a day-long trek, at around 3 pm, we reached a point from where we could see a gigantic waterfall at a distance. We suddenly realized, the place we saw last night was not the actual Bandajje falls; we stayed in the wrong place and took the wrong route. At the same time reaching the waterfalls looked next to impossible as there was no direct path and its cut off by mountain on one side and valley on the other. Now we started getting little scared as we didn't have any clue how to reach the falls. We figured out we can't climb up the mountain and reach the other side on the same day as it was getting close to sunset and we were running out of energy and food.
We decided to stay back at the same place as it was getting dark and decided to skip the dinner and keep the remaining small food for the next day. Luckily one of our team members got the phone number of local MLA (Gowdara mane), and fortunately, we got one "stick" telephone signal near our place. We called Gowdara mane and explained our situation, and they were kind enough to listen to our problems and assured to rescue us. We put up a tent close by and went to bed, but none of us got any sleep. That night appeared really long, as we were just waiting to see the sunrise and start walking towards the falls. We didn't inform any of our family members that we were lost and decided to wait until the next day.
Next day, we started climbing up the mountain to reach the other side. We didn't have enough water and to make the situation worse there was no water stream close to that place. One of our friends came up with a brilliant idea; he asked us to wrap a cotton cloth below our knee and start walking in the midst of long grasses. Cotton cloth absorbed all the morning dew, and we squeezed the cotton cloth to get the water. When you are in a life-death situation, your brain works faster than any other time. With all these tactics, we managed to climb up the certain distance; however, after some time we ran out of energy. At that point, we decided to go down the valley instead of climbing up, and we rolled down the valley as there was no energy left even to walk. We crossed the mountain region and entered the flat land forest area where we saw water streams. We drank water like we had never seen before and it gave us that minimum energy to go forward.
Since there was no mobile network, we started shouting at regular intervals so that the people who were coming to rescue us can hear. We kept trying to reach our rescue team whenever we got some telephone network. Luckily call got connected once and when they said, "we heard your voice", we almost got our dead life back. That one phone call gave us enough confidence as it assured us about the direction of the path we were taking. Finally, after a day-long search, we found our rescue people near the falls at 4 pm - 24hrs after we got lost. They got some banana, puffed rice and coffee and I don't have words to explain the happiness we felt after eating them.
We started walking towards Gowdaru mane along with our rescue people and they got us to Gowdara mane at 11 pm in the night. We met Gowdru(MLA) and his family and they kept everything ready for us when we reached their home including hot water to take bath and delicious dinner. We thanked Gowdru and started our way back to Bangalore.
I have done many treks, but this one will remain in my memory for really long time - definitely the best one. I am writing this blog 11 years after I did this trek, but even today I can picturise every single event happened on this trip. Life takes different twists and turns but this twist I can never forget.
We decided to stay back at the same place as it was getting dark and decided to skip the dinner and keep the remaining small food for the next day. Luckily one of our team members got the phone number of local MLA (Gowdara mane), and fortunately, we got one "stick" telephone signal near our place. We called Gowdara mane and explained our situation, and they were kind enough to listen to our problems and assured to rescue us. We put up a tent close by and went to bed, but none of us got any sleep. That night appeared really long, as we were just waiting to see the sunrise and start walking towards the falls. We didn't inform any of our family members that we were lost and decided to wait until the next day.
Next day, we started climbing up the mountain to reach the other side. We didn't have enough water and to make the situation worse there was no water stream close to that place. One of our friends came up with a brilliant idea; he asked us to wrap a cotton cloth below our knee and start walking in the midst of long grasses. Cotton cloth absorbed all the morning dew, and we squeezed the cotton cloth to get the water. When you are in a life-death situation, your brain works faster than any other time. With all these tactics, we managed to climb up the certain distance; however, after some time we ran out of energy. At that point, we decided to go down the valley instead of climbing up, and we rolled down the valley as there was no energy left even to walk. We crossed the mountain region and entered the flat land forest area where we saw water streams. We drank water like we had never seen before and it gave us that minimum energy to go forward.
Since there was no mobile network, we started shouting at regular intervals so that the people who were coming to rescue us can hear. We kept trying to reach our rescue team whenever we got some telephone network. Luckily call got connected once and when they said, "we heard your voice", we almost got our dead life back. That one phone call gave us enough confidence as it assured us about the direction of the path we were taking. Finally, after a day-long search, we found our rescue people near the falls at 4 pm - 24hrs after we got lost. They got some banana, puffed rice and coffee and I don't have words to explain the happiness we felt after eating them.
We started walking towards Gowdaru mane along with our rescue people and they got us to Gowdara mane at 11 pm in the night. We met Gowdru(MLA) and his family and they kept everything ready for us when we reached their home including hot water to take bath and delicious dinner. We thanked Gowdru and started our way back to Bangalore.
I have done many treks, but this one will remain in my memory for really long time - definitely the best one. I am writing this blog 11 years after I did this trek, but even today I can picturise every single event happened on this trip. Life takes different twists and turns but this twist I can never forget.
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