Nishani Motte : Easy steps for trekkers

This trek happened somewhere around the month of September. Rainy season had just got over, falls were full. But visiting falls now would mean lot of crowd. Hence we thought of visiting place with very very less crowd. After searching for places, we finally finalized Nishani Motte. But things were a bit different this time. It was to be a group trek, and moreover I along with couple of other friends had to organize the entire trek.

So, once place got decided, people started coming in. By the day previous to the trip start, we had around 18 people. It was quite a big group to take care of, moreover arrangement's had to be made too. Finally we were all set with the bookings. We had booked a mini bus, stay for 18 people, contacted forest officials, everything was almost set.

So, finally it was a Friday evening. Bus started from Hebbal, picking up people on the way. We had booked for stay near Bagamandala, as its quite close by to the trek next day. By the time the bus left Bangalore, it was almost 11 in night.

Day 1:

We somehow managed to reach Bagamandala by around 6 in the morning. We had already booked a homestay for our stay, Akshaya Homestay. After getting freshen up, and having breakfast, we started our trek.

Before beginning the trek, we had to go and register in the forest department office, Bagamandala. After submitting the required id proofs and enrolling in the register, we were provided with a guide. The actual trek point was around 3-4kms from here. Since we had our own vehicle with us, it was easy heading to the starting point. There are actually 2 ways to trek to the top, and we choose to ascend in one and descend in another. 

Board near Forest checkpost depicting the entry point

Walk-in thru the plains

Just another walking day!

Algae all over a tree on our path

So, finally the trek began. The initial few kilometer's were nothing more than walking on some grasslands. But since it was just after onset of monsoon, we had our blood sucking friend, leeches, all around. The second phase was somewhere in midst of forest, well shaded. The last phase, was however a bit tiring, since it was a quite steep ascend. Throughout this stretch one could witness amazing scenic views all around. This stretch almost had everyone tired. Finally, after ascend the steep steep, we managed to reach on top. On top, it was clouds all around. It was just like walking in heaven, amidst of clouds. 

View en-route the trek

Just few more steps

Through the clouds

And the top of Nishani Motte

After a steep hike, everyone were quiet hungry and, we had the lunch which we had packed from the base. Now was the time for descend. It took us around 1 hour or so to descend. It was a very quick descend. But again, there were a lot of picturesque places with amazing sceneries both during ascend and descend. Finally after about an hour of walking, we reached another forest check post. This checkpost marks the end of our trek. From here we had to walk around 4-5kms to reach back to main road. But luckily for us, there were some local jeeps going, and we all hopped in it. Finally we reached back to our bus, waiting for us at the main road.

A small leaf frog 

It was evening by now, and most of people were already tired. Hence we headed back straight to homestay, had our campfire, and called off for the day.

Day2:

The next day, everyone were quite relaxed. After having an amazing breakfast at the homestay, we set off towards Talakaveri. It was hardly 15kms from here. But the entry to hilltop at Talakaveri was closed due to some reason. Hence we couldn't visit the hill, but visited the temple and headed back.

On our way back, since we dint have anything much to do, we visited Sri Bhagandeshwara temple, Bagamandala.  We were here almost at the lunch time, hence we decided to have our lunch here as well. Post lunch we were spent some time getting relaxed at the Sangama, where the rivers join to form Cauvery. Few of us got into water enjoying in the slow paced river, while rest were playing games, roaming around, keeping themselves occupied. 

Finally our group trip had come to an end today. We started back to Bengaluru from here, managing to reach by around 11.

Overall it was quite a wonderful trip. NishaniMotte, is absolutely an amazing place to trek by, especially given the fact that not much people come here. Moreover, the difficulty of the trek is somewhere around medium, but the view is as breath-taking as any other treks.

Goa-Belgaum : An Amazing Combination

Finally this trip came after long. A long waited time. It was mid-October, one of my best friend got engaged. And soon enough he was getting married. There was no much time left. With things going in this fast pace, we really dint have much time for a trip. Finally after struggling, we found one time slot , ideal for all of us, Karnataka Rajyotsava, Nov 1, was a holiday and finally we all had some time for some trek.

Finally after going through places, we finally finalized on Goa-Belgaum Border. Even though I had been to Goa plenty of times, this time the trip was gonna be different. I was sure we would be exploring that side of Goa, which is never talked about. Also, the very famous Dudhsagar falls,which I have already written here, also lies in this stretch, attracting so many visitors. So, no doubt there are innumerable places in this stretch of western ghat.

And hence, in next 2 days everything was set. We would all meet at Belgaum, a day prior to Rajyotsava. From there we would head towards Amboli, then enter Goa. Then slowly move towards South Goa, trek few falls, and then return back.

Day 1:

All of us met in Belagavi. One of our friend was actually based in Belagavi and this helped us a lot. So quickly that day we started off from Belagavi. The first thing we decided to visit was the Amboli waterfalls. It was around 70kms from Belagavi, but we had our transport, and hence it was fine. After a heavy breakfast at friend's place, we started off from Belagavi by around 9 in the morning. On the way to Amboli, we thought of exploring few more places.

The first pit stop came almost 50kms away from belagavi, Nangartaswadi Mandir. The temple was a small temple, but besides it was a beautiful waterfalls, just close by the road.

After this we next headed towards Ghatkarwadi Dam. It was around another 5kms in direction opposite to the Amboli waterfalls. This was a beautiful picturesque place, with  a very huge water body, and green vegetation around. It was more of a perfect place for picnic. There were hardly any people around, making it both quite and calm, in midst of nature.

Huge lake by the banks of Ghatkarwadi Dam

From here, we headed to Kavalesaad, aka Kavalshet. Its a beautiful mountain range, with  amazing views & numerous waterfalls to spot by. After spending some time in this beautiful Kavalshet, we finally headed towards Amboli falls.

Amazing view from Kavalaset

On the way to Amboli, just before the falls, there's one more view point. But since it was quite sunny already we decided to skip it. Amboli was quite crowded, with so much people around, even though it was  a week day. We were just wondering how would it be, especially on a long weekend like weekend tomorrow. The water wasnt full, it was in its reclining levels. Anyhow since we werent gonna get down to water due to the rush around, it was fine for us. We were already hungry by now, but there was nothing great to eat around. We just had some quick snacks in the small shops just opposite to the falls.

Very famous Amboli waterfalls

From here, we were to head to Goa. But now that it was almost around 2 and we hadnt had a proper lunch, we decided to stop for lunch in Sawantwadi. Sawantwadi, is a border town in Maharashtra, but its very famous for the Khanavali's. After searching for sometime we found one amazing home made place, Sadhale Mess. Even at around 3, the place was full, and we had to wait for around 30 mins to get in. But it was a very delicious veg lunch, worth the half an hour wait.

After our good lunch,we headed towards Goa. We were looking for Hostels for our stay as it had good entertainment along. We found one near Anjuna beach, very very close to beach, but the rooms were almost full there. Hence  we headed towards Baga, and finally found one, Cohostel Backpackers Hostel, to call off for the day.

A good place to relax - CoHostel Goa

Day 2:

The next day we all woke up quite lately. After having the complementary breakfast at the hostel, we started off to our next  destination. We were to go towards East , Netravali wildlife sanctuary. Since it was around 2+ hours from here, we decided to give pit stops on our way. Our  first pit stop came at a roadside dhaba, somewhere in outskirts of Panaji. From here we next headed to Salaulim Dam. Salaulim Dam is located on the Salaulim River, and has a dam, quite different from the regular dams. Though the dams operational through out the year, water falls only in the months of Monsoon, and couple of months post monsoon. The dam has a small entrance fee to be paid, but is worth it. Apart from dam, it also has beautiful garden, play area, medicinal garden too.

Some fun activity near Salaulim Dam

A very different Dam- Salaulim Dam

From here, we headed next to Netravali willife sanctuary. By the time we reached it was around 4pm. The gaurds at the entrance, dint allow visiting the falls, as we had to trek and it usually takes time. Moreover the entrance to falls, close by around 5pm. Hence we thought we will explore some other falls. Just on our way to wildlife sanctuary, we spotted a board saying Palli waterfalls. Since we dint have any other major tasks for the day we thought of heading to it.

We parked our car at a point, and started walking. Upon inquiring localities, we got to know that it takes around 1+ hours to the falls. Initially the roads were all wide, with few trees fallen along the road. But walking around it wasnt a problem. Finally after walking for hour, we came upon a board showing directions for the Pali waterfalls. But when we headed in that direction, we couldnt spot the actual waterfalls. It was all confusing with no one to guide us. We roamed around the place for around 1 hour, finally found  something similar to falls. We also had some snake encountering experience of Viper snake. Lucky enough, none of us stamped it,  though it was just cms away from the pathway. It was already getting dark, and since neither of us had seen the actual Pali waterfalls we consoled over-selves with it, and headed back to car.

View post sunset - enroute Palli waterfalls

By the time we reached car, it was already night, hence we set off searching for stay. Luckily we found one, around 3-4kms from Netravali wildlife sanctuary. This place, Netra Tourist Guest House as the only hotel/homestay around. We called off for the day.

Day 3:

It was a big day today. Morning we checked out of the room, had some local breakfast and headed to sanctuary. After paying entrance charges, we first visited Savri waterfalls. This was around 1km walk from the main road. The waterfalls was amazing and we were the first visitors of the day.

Beautiful Savri Waterfalls

After spending some time here, we set off to see the local villages inside sanctuary. To our dismay we found one more board of Mainapi waterfalls. We were supposed to visit this too. Since we already had this in the list, we started off. It was more like a back side entrance to the falls. We almost trekked more than half way, when we lost the way. There was no way further, and more than the way, all of us were concerned more about the blood sucking leaches around. Hence  we thought of calling off, and were returning back towards our car, when we spotted one more waterfalls, Udengi Watefalls.

Udengi watefalls had literally nobody around. It was more like a view from the top, and due to lack of visitors the path was fully filled with bushes. We had to make the pathway to reach the falls. After a free fish pedicure here, we headed back. We were already hungry, and thought we will just go back.

Not so explored Udengi Waterfalls

It was on our way that we spotted the actual way of Mainapi waterfalls. This one was a very well spread road, preferably for  a jeep or two wheeler. Finally after having to walk like around 5kms from the car, we found the falls. This was a majestic one, water falling from quite  high. Even this was so empty, we were the only ones there. We got into water, and after spending some time here, we headed back to car.

Gigantic Mainapi Waterfalls

After having some food at roadside eatery, we were thinking where to go next. We dint want any more trekking for the trip, we were already tired. Hence we decided to go back to Goa, and just chill. Since south Goa was close by, we decided to visit Palolem.

We reached Palolem by around 6 in the evening. Searched for room, since we dint have any pre-bookings. Finally we found one, just by the side of the beach, within our budget. We called off for the day.

A common sight in Goa Beaches - Palolem

Day 4:

This was the last day of us here. Tonight all 4 of us would be heading in different directions. Hence, we though to spend some time here rather than wasting time travelling. Since we were already in Palolem we decided to do some beach activity. Palolem has a range of beach activity, including kayaking. But since it was already around noon, we dint want to Kayak in the hot sun. Hence we thought of going for the island ride. Finally after bargaining, we found one guy, who would take us to Islands. We set off from Palolem, visiting Butterfly beach, Honeymoon beach, also spotting few dolphins.

En-route to island visits

Some hands to get the boat off shore

Post the beach ride, we had lunch at shacks. Now it was time for us to depart, until our next trip. One of our friend took a train from here, while we three headed back to Belagavi to catch bus from here.

Overall the trip was quite joyful, covering all different types of places. Most of the places mentioned are definitely worth the visit, but more importantly in the right season. And there's definitely a lot in Goa than just the usual beaches. One should just have an eye for it.

Rishikesh, Haridwar, Mussoorie enroute to Kanpur

One of my friend had been studying in IIT kanpur, and this was his last year in the IIT. Even though he had asked me to visit IIT several times, I couldn't make it before. Figuring the this will be his last year in the IIT, me and 3 others decided to give a visit to him.

5 days, and thats all we had. We thought of covering IIT and some other places near by. Initially we planned to take up some trek near Dehradun/Rishikesh, but due to lack of time, we cut our-self to just visit places and enjoy our trip.

Day 1:

27th March, and we left Bengaluru to Delhi. After having a good heavy breakfast at the airport lounge,we reached Delhi around 1 in the noon. We had a zoomcar booked from Delhi for our trip. From the airport we directly headed to the zoomcar pickup location. After completing the formalities, we were all set, ready to go.

With no destination in mind, we decided to visit the nearby India Gate. Though  it was pretty crowded and the temperature around too quite hot, we hardly spent half an hour here. After having some snacks at the local eateries, we decided to continue further.

The India Gate

After India Gate, our next stop was Haridwar. Haridwar was another 6 hours drive from here. Now that we were all set, we started off to Haridwar from Rishikesh.

We manged to reach Haridwar only by night, and booked  stay at some Oyo room online.

Day 2:

The next day, we visited the Haridwar Ganga Ghat (Har Ki Pauri). Every morning pooja's happen in this Ghat, at the time of sunrise. Purohits take aarati of river Godeess Ganga, and people will be queued up to witness this holy tradition. Also, arati's happen even in the evening, at the time of sunset. After taking a dip in the holy river Ganga, and after witnessing the Arati, we decided to move further. Our next stop was Rishikesh.

Sunrise over river Ganga at Haridwar Ghat

Har Ki Pauri

The actual Indian tooth-brush

Rishikesh was another 25 kms from Haridwar, According to Etymology, Rishikesh, means a name of Vishnu composed of hṛṣīka meaning senses and īśa meaning lord, thus Lord of the Senses. We managed to reach Rishikesh by around 11 in the morning. Rishikesh is famous for its temple, the hanging bridge, yoga, and river rafting. With quite some time of the day left with us,  we decided to do the river rafting.

Since we didn't have any pre-booking done, after reaching Rishikesh, we started to inquire about the rafting and other adventure activities. After inquiring some 3-5 places, we found that the price of all adventure activities has been raised now. Now there has been a authority set and rates are made uniform for all. And for the rafting, we had been given 4 options:

• Rafting for 9kms , at 500/head. 
• Rafting from Shivpuri, 14kms,1000/head. 
• Rafting from marine drive, 24kms, 1500/head. 
• Rafting from Kaudiyala, 32kms, 2000/head.

Since that the time was almost noon, operators werent ready to take for rafting from Kaudiyala.  Finally after some bargaining, we decided to take up rafting from Marine drive. The main starting point of rafting for Marine drive  is around half an hour drive from the Rishikesh center. After the warm up and know-how session, we began our rafting.

The rafting took us around 1.5-2 hours, with some very good rapids in the path. Some of us were even thrown out of the raft into the mighty river Ganga. But overall it was a really good experience.

And thats our raft!

Cliff Jump

After finishing our rafting, we still had some time left. We thought of heading to do Bungy jump, but figured out that the in order to reach there it takes around 1 hour. Hence we decided to do the Bungy jumping next day. Now that we dint have anything from morning, we decided to fill our stomach and headed to  the most famous Chotiwala restaurant, near the temple. The restaurant is famous for the full meals , and its varieties that is being offered.

Chotiwala !

After having a good meal, we were set off to explore Rishikesh. We headed to the Ganga ghat to witness the evening Aarati, after having some roadside mouth watery snacks. Again just like Haridwar, the Aarati is performed on the banks of river Ganga, twice a day, once in morning, and once in evneing. The evening arati here was a bit crowded, with a mixture of localities, tourists and travelers.

After witnessing the Aarati, we headed to our stay. We had booked a backpacker hostel for our stay, which turned out to be a good experience as well.

Famous Ram Jhula

Well lit Ram Jhula

For the next day, we had planned to visit  Kunjapuri for sunrise the early morning, and then head towards Dehradun  and Mussoorie.

Day 3:

Though we had planned to visit Kunjapuri for sunrise today, none of us could get up that early in the morning. Automatically our plan to visit the Kunjapuri for sunrise got cancelled. We straight away headed towards Dehradun . Dehradun to Rishikesh is around  45kms and is a journey of around 1.5 hours. Dehradun was just a pit stop for us enroute to Mussoorie. But now that we were already in Dehradun , we decided to visit a place or two.

After searching for places around, we found Robbers cave(a.k.a Guchhupani) quite interesting. This cave was all cool, with water flowing along the cave, making it a cool and pleasant place to visit. By the time we reached Robbers cave there weren't many people around. The robbers cave is a 600m stretch of cave that runs along the small river stream. The cave also contains a small waterfall caused by the flowing river.

Robbers cave

Waterfall inside the Robbers cave

By the time we finished exploring the robbers cave, it was already noon and we were quite hungry. After having some snacks, we next straight forwardly headed to Mussoorie. Mussoorie was another 35kms from here, around 1.5 hours more, but the road to Mussoorie was just amazing. Wide roads with curves and a breath taking view, what more could one ask for.

After reaching Mussoorie, we decided to visit Mossy falls. Mossy falls is in fact  a small  waterfall located in a serene and peaceful environment.

Mossy falls

From mossy falls we decided to head to famous Mussoorie lake. Mussoorie lake is a man made lake located few kms before the actual Mussoorie town.The lake has boating, along with some adventure activities including zip lining, paragliding, etc.

Mussoorie Lake

Paragliding at Mussoorie lake

Flowers in the garden of Mussorie lake

We next thought of going to Kempty falls, but it was almost near sunset and hence we had to skip it.

Instead we decided to explore Mussoorie town by walk. We parked our car and headed walking towards the Camels back road. This is a scenic walk way with unlimited scenery all around. This walk way also covers the Hawa mahal view point, and Camel rock view point, before finally leading to The crowded busy Mall road. The mall road is where the entire Mussoorie lies. One is definetly bound to find whatever one requires in this road, right from eateries, pastry, dress, books, gifts,etc. Also, not to forget, the famous Ruskin Bond author resides  in Mussoorie, and there is one shop along the Mall road, where you get autographed books by Ruskin Bond.

View from Hawa Mahal view point

After exploring the Mussoorie town, we decided to call it off for the day, and headed back to our hostel.

Day 4:

We didn't have much to do in Mussoorie and moreover we had to reach Kanpur by the next day. Hence we started back to Rishikesh to complete what was left off, the Bungy jumping. But unfortunately for us , it was  a weekend, and upon reaching the Jumpin Heights location, we found that the slots for the day was already booked. It was then that we realized that we should had booked our slots for weekends. Disheartened , we left from Jumpin heights to explore the hidden beauty of Rishikesh.

We were roaming freely, along the river stream of Ganga, sitting by the sides of rock and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Along side us were few couple of foreigners who too were relaxing, enjoying, meditating. The place was all calm cool and refreshing that we just dint want to go away from it.

But it was already noon and we had to head back to Kanpur from Rishikesh which was like a 12 hours drive.  Just when we were about to leave Rishikesh, one among us decided to give  a final try for Jumpin Heights and called them. We were all filled back with excitement when they said that they  have slots for us as some group of  people  who had booked their slots cancelled it. Hurriedly we went back to the same Jumpin heights again,this time filled with excitement and some pinch of fear. It was a first time experience doing Bungy Jumping. Jumpin heights, was originally founded by an ex-army men, ex Capt. Rahul Nigam, and offers a Bungy jump from the height of 85mtrs. The number 85 mtrs might really feel a small number to you when reading , but the moment you stand on the edge of the deck and look down your world just crumbles down to pieces.

That was the moment that I realized, post looking down from the edge of the deck, standing 85mtrs above, that it really takes large effort to convince your inner self that yes, you can do it, that yes, you too can jump.

And this is where one jumps!

But the jump was really amazing. The free fall was just like heaven, but the spring rollbacks were pathetic. I ended up swirling  like a ballerina dancer in air, after free-fall. But overall it was really a great experience.. Though personally I felt the prices (Rs 3650) were overpriced, but if you are gonna pay for the experience, then its actually worth a go.

After finally finishing the Bungy jumping we started to head back to Kanpur. But, we were again hungry and hence we set to explore Rishikesh again. This time we headed near the Lakshman Jhula. After parking our car, we set towards  Lakshman Jhula on foot, and on the other side of the river, were a numerous cafe, restaurants located. We decided to visit the most famous Little Budha cafe. The cafe was all full the time we reached. But luckily we got a side seat, overlooking the beautiful Ganga river over sunset. After having some variety of foods here, we had to head back to Kanpur.

Kanpur was still some 12 hours from here, which meant continuous driving all night. But the zoom car which we had had a speed restriction of 80kmph, and driving at 80kmph over the long never-ending highways especially at night was more challenging.

Day 5:

Somehow driving whole night, we managed to reach Agra, in the early morning hours. We decided to visit the famous Taj Mahal, for sunrise. The early  morning view of Taj mahal was really good, and we also witnessed a foreign couple getting engaged before the famous Taj Mahal.

Jilaukhana in front of Taj Mahal

From the Taj Mahal we straight forwardly headed to Kanpur, which was another 4 hours from here. We managed to reach IIT Kanpur finally, and had an amazing lunch at one of the hostels there. The IIT is quite spaciously placed and definitely makes you realize that you are in IIT.

Post lunch, we had to head to Lucknow, to drop our car and also to catch our flight back to Bangalore. Finally our adventurous trip ended  in Lucknow, and we bid bye to Lucknow just to visit again.

Overall the trip was good. With an excuse of visiting IIT, we visited quite few other places around.