Ramnath Kamat

       Makalidurga is a hill fort situated about 60 km off Bangalore towards Doddaaballapura. Summit holds the temple of Lord Shiva with a Nandi.

Approaches:
         One can reach Makalidurga via train, private transport or public transport. Best would be to use private transport as it will take you right below the hill thus reducing strain.

Trekking:

Temple at the summit

         We started our trekking around 11 am. The trekking path goes around the temple at the base. The path is scarce though indicated by some white color painted arrow marks on the stone and is eventually difficult to find. Once you lose your way, you have to make your own way to the summit as we did and this includes climbing big rocks,making your own way through the bushes etc. At the summit there is a temple inside a fort wall alike compound. There is no absolute availability of water from the base till the summit, so don't forget to carry water on your own. Trekking down is an easy part, once you are on a right way you will not lose it.

View from the top

On the way to the summit

Trekking details:
Base camp: Makalidurga  
Connectivity from Bangalore: Well connected train, bus.
Journey hours:  2 hours in bus.

Trekking distance: 2-3 kms

Trekking season:
All time
Difficulty level:
 Happy Trekking :)  

"Adventure must  start with running away from home". May be that is the reason I chose Royal Enfield over all other bikes. After waiting for almost a year I had finally got a call that my bike has arrived. This black beast (I call it Falcon) makes people on the street to turn around and look at it again. In this blog post I will try to write about the journeys I took on this bike.

Falcon resting at garage

Ride to Nandi Hills [ 30/09/2012]:

On the way to Nandi Hills

    Valley of Flowers National Park is located at  west Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The trek to the valley is a long one and requires pre planning and preparation. There are lot of tourist packages which provide affordable service few of which are YHAI and GMVNL.

Our tour was planned for 15 days including travelling from Bangalore.

Day 1: 
    We took Rajdhani Express from Bangalore. Train provides 1AC,2AC and 3AC classes. Total journey duration is  36 hours.Train leaves Bangalore Central at 8pm.

Day 2: 
    Second day of the tour goes in the train journey, Rajdhani express passes through AP, Maharashta, MP before reaching Delhi. Food is served on the train and the service is pretty good.

Day 3: 
    We reached Nizamudin station in Delhi at 5am. Our next catch was Shatabdi Express from Nizamuddin to Haridwar. Train was scheduled at 7am and it was on time. I was standing at the train door during this entire journey, train doors always give you picturesque landscapes. Shatabdi is supposed to be fastest between Delhi and Haridwar, so it is advised to take this one and avoid rest. Train reached haridwar station by 1pm. We were hungry and tired of the continuous journey. Outside of Haridwar station, waiting was hotel 'Pavitra Bhojanalaya'. We had our lunch here. Lunch was yummy.

Ganga pooja at Ram jhula

    Our Check in place was GMVNL resort in Rishikesh. Haridwar to Rishikesh is around 25kms and there are lot of buses running between them. There are ricks also available and they charge around 300-400rs depending on your bargaining skills. We reached GMVNL hotel by 4pm, freshened up and were out of the hotel to explore Rishikesh.
 
  Rishikesh is a holy town situated across Ganges. Main attractions in Rishikesh are the Ram Jhula, Laxman Jhula and Ganga Pooja which is done every evening during twilight time. We made it to Ram Jhula and Ganga Pooja. Ganga Pooja was blissfull. We had famous Aloo tikki  and made back to our hotel by 9pm.


Day 4: 
    The actually journey to valley of flowers starts from day 4. Our bus left Rishikesh at 7 am . We had to travel 250kms from Rishikesh to Joshimath. The road is narrow and passes through west himalayan mountains. Landslides are very common here on the road during rainy season and dont be surprised if you get yourself stuck in traffic jam for hours. Entire journey Ganges will be flowing on your right side, so make sure that you take right side window seat in your vehicle.

Dev Prayag

    You will meet three Prayags(means confluence) on your journey. These are
     1. Devprayag: Here Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river meet to form Ganges. This is the actual birthplace of Ganges
     2. Rudraprayag: Here Alaknanda meets Mandakini river.
     3. Karnaprayag: Here Alkananda meets Pindar river.

Travelling 250kms takes 8-9 hours since avg speed of the vehicle is 40kmph. GMVNL has resorts in all major towns in Garhwal region. We reached Joshimath by 8pm.

Day 5: 
    We had to goto Govindghat, trekking starts from here. Govindghat is around 22kms from Joshimath. On the way you meet Vishnu prayag which is one of the panch prayag. Here Alaknanda meets Dhauliganga river.

On the way to Ghanghria

    Govindghat is located at the confluence of Alaknanda and Laxman ganga rivers. Trek to both Valley of flowers and Hemkund Saheb starts from here. You can find hundreds of Sikhs here who come to the holy shrine of Hemkund saheb.  We had to trek for 15kms this day from Govindghat to the hill town of Ghanghria. One can take horse to goto Ghangria and luggage can be given to porters who carry your luggage till the top. They charge around 500rs for it. There is a well built pavement from Govindghat to Ghanghria, so there is not much of tiring. You can find many hotels and shops on the way. MRP of all food items increases as you hike up. Entire trek you find Pushpavati river flowing next to you. It takes around 6-7 hours to reach Ghanghria by walk. We reached Ghanghria by 4pm. This town has recently got electricity so you wil not find geysers in hotels and they charge 50rs for a bucket of hot water. All food items are sold at thrice the MRP price. You can find only Idea network here, there are PCOs which charge 10rs/1min of call.
Documentary about Valley of Flowers is shown at the tourist center in the evening, We had nice dinner in the evening and went off to bed early.

Day 6:

@ the heart of the valley

    We got up early in the morning and packed our lunch. Around 1 kms from Ghangria is the entrance gate to the Valley. You have to pay trekking fees of 150rs here. Valley of flower trek from Ghanghria is quite easy one and you dont  get tired as you feel like you are walking in the heaven. As you enter the park you can see flowers around getting denser as you move ahead. The trek to the park depends on how much you want to trek. If you want to cover the entire valley then the valley stretches upto 10ks otherwise you can visit Mrgaret Legge's memorial which is around 7 kms from Ghanghria.  Throughout the valley you can see Pushpavathi river flowing adjacent to you. Sometimes you need to cross small streams of water over logs or small bridges. We had our packed lunch here. I went till the end of the Valley where you find the glacier.

Valley of flowers

     It is adviced that you should start trek early in the morning. After 1pm clouds cover the park and it starts raining. Same happened with us while coming back. We were drenched inspite of wearing raincotas and the temperature was very low, freezing cold you can say.

    We reached back to Ghanghria by 5pm, had hot tea which gave us our life back.


Day 7: 

On the way to Hemkund

 Our today's destination was Hemkund Saheb , a holy Sikh shrine. It is about 6kms from Ghanghria and the trek is a difficult one. You can take Horses or porters. Two of us took Horses. Me and Pradeep started walking. The trek was steep and tiring. It took us 4 hours to cover 6kms. On the way we had some amazing landscape views. At the Hemkund there is a Gurudwara and a Laxman temple. You get Khichdi and Tea in Gurudwara which is very refreshing in the cold weather. We stayed here for 2 hours and took some pictures and started climbing down. It took us 3 hours to climb down. We came back to Ghanghria and rested here.

Hemkund

Day 8:
    We started climbing down early in the morning. We were at Govindghat by 12pm. We took bus to Badrinath and had lunch there. Evening time we visited the temple and did some shopping. Bath in the hot water spring at Badrinath was amazing.

Day 9:
     We visited last village of India, Mana. The village is on the border with Tibet/china. In the village are the Vyaas gufa nd Ganesh gufa where the Saint Vyasa narrated Mahabharatha to Lord Ganesha. We started our journey back to DevPrayag. It took us arond 5 hours to reach Rudraprayag.

Day 10: 
    We started journey from Rudraprayag to Rishikesh. We reached Rishikesh by 1pm. We booked our train tickets to Delhi and went back on that day itself.

Day 11,12, 13: 
    We visited India gate, Qutub Minar, Jantar Mantar, Red fort in Delhi.

Day 14, 15: Travel back to Bangalore in Rajdhani Express.


   

Music is everywhere. From the whistle of the wind to the kuhoo of nightingale, from rustling, to the cry of a baby, you see it in every part of this beautiful nature. Then came the mankind. They had this intelligent mind, they wanted to do something for the fun time.They invented this funny things which made funny sounds out of it and they called it instruments,musical instruments. First it was a self leisure, soon turned out they had to do it for the leisure of their leaders and by the time they realized it, it had grown out to be a money making business. Then they had so many different artists, they were called musicians.  Different genres were formed to distinguish the music. Thus evolved the music.

As I am not sure what happened before 50's, what Im gonna tell you about is some songs which some great people wrote about travel. Bob Dylan isnt a bad start, is he?  He has been one of my favorite musician of all time. As you could see, my first blog here was about him. In 1965 he wrote a song, it was called 'Like a rolling stone". The song expressed resentment and a yearning for revenge. It stood out against the society and became an anthem for the people loving freedom. Here is the 6:00 min long legendary track.

         At a height of 2100m, Chembra peak is the highest peak in Waynad, Kerala. The peak is located near the town of Meppady and is 8kms away from Kalpetta. Permission from the forest office in Meppady is required for trekking up to Chembra Peak. 


Preparation of the trek:

Soochipara falls.

Heart shaped lake

A barn with Chembra peak in the backround

Trekking details:
Base camp: Kalpetta or Meppady 
Connectivity from Bangalore: Well connected by Govt buses.
Journey hours:  7-8 hours in bus.

Trekking distance: 3-4 kms

Trekking season:
October- March.

Difficulty level:

         Tadiyandamol peak is situated in the Kodagu district of Karnataka. Tadiyandamol means highest point and as the name suggests it is the highest point in Kodagu district.At a height 1740m, peak gives splendorous views of the western ghats.

Preparation of the trek:
The idea of the trek came up all of a sudden and the planning was done within 2 days. We were 3 people from Bangalore. Reservation of tickets, two and fro, was done by Pradeep. We took KSRTC Airawat  from Bangalore to Virajpete.

Trek day 1:
We reached Virajpete early in the morning at 5. Our next  stop was the Naalku Naadu Palace junction, on the way to Napoklu, Bhagamandala. Napoklu is well connected by public as well as private buses from Virajpete. Buses run between Virajpete and Napoklu every hour. We hired a room to get freshen up, and with the morning blues we were late to get out of the lodge. As the time was passing 10am we decided to take an auto to the Palace. After almost 1 hour of travelling in an auto we reached the Palace which is around 27kms from Virajpete

Nalk naadu Palace

The palace was built by the King  DoddaVeerarajendra in 1792. From the outside looks, palace looks like an old house which you will commonly find in the Malnad sides of Karnataka.

After wandering through the palace, we walked upon the tar road which passes through a  home stay place right at the junction. You have to take the road to the right, which is a fairly steep climb. The trek starts from there. From the palace, it is 2 kms to the the ghat section.

There is a forest guard staying at the foothills of the mountain. You can contact him for any assistance.
We started our trek around 12pm. As we were only 3 people and with the previous trekking experience we were climbing relatively faster.

Halfway through the trek we were already amid clouds as we had picked a perfect day for the trek. Drizzling had started halfway and we were not feeling tired at all. This amounted us to reach the summit within 2 and half hours. On the summit the cloud had surrounded us and the visibility fell to less than 5 meters. And the sad part of it, even today we dont know what is on the other side of the peak.


We pitched tent on the summit, collected wood from the nearby jungle and MTR's ready to eat Pav Bhaji was ready for our dinner.

Trek day 2:
We woke up early in the morning and started climbing down. We were at the foothills within an hour. And reached the bus stop within 1 and half hours. We took bus from here to Virajpete from where we had booked Airawat back to Bangalore.








WARNING:
Camping on the midway of the mountain or near the streams is not adviced since the recently, wild elephants have started wandering into the trail and around the patches of forests. If you intend to camp anywhere, keep a camp fire running.

On the summit there is place to pitch maximum of 3 tents.

Trekking details:
Base camp: Virajpete
Connectivity from Bangalore: Well connected by Govt buses.
Journey hours:  6-7 hours in bus.

Trekking distance: 7-8 kms

Trekking season:
October- January(advised)
You can also visit in the 1st week of June when the pre monsoon flourishes the grass and the place is covered in clouds.


Difficulty level:
Moderate for amateur trekkers.
Easy for frequent trekkers.

Must carry:

• Tent, sleeping bag and mat.
• Good trekking shoes.
• Water(2-3lts). You can find water streams on the hills till Jan.
• Leech repellent if you are going before november( Iodex spray, salt). Leech socks are the best options.
• Proper winter wear if you are going after Nov. Temp stays low in winter.
• Flashlight, First aid kit, Knife, rope, energy drinks and food items.

 Important guidelines:

• Reserve your tickets in advance.
• Start trekking early in the morning, sooner the better.
• Stay with the crowd always.
• Woods in the forest will be wet till October sic rainfall is often in the region.
• Keep your backpack as light as possible. Dont carry too much of food. 

  Total trekking time:

• If you are a frequent trekker, you can reach the summit  in 2-3 hours.
• for amateur trekkers it might take 3-4 hours.

Tips for photographers:

• Dont  forget to capture the macro beauties of the jungle.
• View from the mountain gives a perfect landscape.
• Get up early to capture the most beautiful sunrise you might have seen in your life.

Trekking rules:

• Do not carry alcohol. Do not smoke in the jungle
• Do not throw anything during the trek.  Keep the trekking place clean for the following trekkers.

 Happy Trekking :)

Kodachadri is a famous trekking place in the Shimoga district of Karnataka. At an altitude of 1312 meters it  is surrounded by Western ghats. Situated in the middle of the Mookambika National Park, it is home to several endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna.

Preparation for the trek:
We were a group of 8 from my office and a college  friend of mine was supposed to join us on the way. We hired a tempo traveller. Tents and food were arranged. We left Bangalore on friday night at 9.

Trek day 1:


We reached Shimoga early in the morning at 5. We hired rooms to  get freshen up but ended up sleeping till 8am which resulted in reaching the trekking place quite late. At the foothills of the mountain jeeps are available which take you to the top of the hill. We hired a guide at the foothills as we thought it would be helpful in finding the path to the summit. There are several waya to reach the summit, we decided to take the route which goes through Hidlumane falls. The trekking route goes through the dense and pretty much steep forest. As we had chosen a wrong time for the trek(April), dehydration had started its effect on us and we were loosing energy. After walking for some 4-5 kms we found a house at the base of the Hidlumane falls. Butter milk at the house was refreshing for the people.






Trek continued to the Hidlumane falls which was around 2-3 kms from the house. Even though we were there in the summer, water level in the falls was quite remarking. And the falls amidst the dense jungle reminded me of James Cameron's Avatar movie. After a lot of photography sessions we started climbing a pretty steep rock. And we continued our quest to the summit. We hiked across landscapes, grasslands, mountains, climbed up and down many hills before reaching the Moola Mookambika temple on the hill. There is a traveller's bungalow with basic facilities which should be reserved well in advance. We took rest at the temple for a while as this pace has water taps, spilling the water on the face was quite refreshing in the hard sun.




From here the trek is around 2-3kms which takes you to the top of the hill. At the summit there is small a temple near the peak where Shankaracharya did meditation and ancient Sarvajna Peeta (built out of rock) at the top.We were on time to see the sun setting. we pitched up tents on the top, put up campfire and had dinner.




Trek Day 2:

We got up early in the morning and packed our things and started trekking down till the temple. as most of us were tired and we had to reach Bangalore by night, we took a jeep till the base. They charge 150rs/head and it is about 45min body-shaking journey.



Trekking details:
Base camp: Nittur
Connectivity from Bangalore: Well connected by Govt buses.
Journey hours:  7 hours in bus, 8 hours in train.
 Trekking distance : 12-13 kms


Trekking season:
October-Jan(advised)


Difficulty level:
Very difficult for amateur trekkers.
Moderate for frequent trekkers.

Must carry:

• Tent, sleeping bag and mat.
• Good trekking shoes.
• Water(2-3lts). You can fill it up at Bhattarmane
• Leech repellent if you are going before november( Iodex spray, salt). Leech socks are the best options.
• Proper winter wear if you are going after Nov. Temp on the hill slides to 5c during winter
• Flashlight, First aid kit, Knife, rope, energy drinks and food items.

 Important guidelines:

• Reserve your tickets in advance.
• Start trekking early in the morning, sooner the better. Try to reach the summit by eod.
• Stay with the crowd always. Kumaraparvata is safe though.
• Woods in the forest will be wet till October sic rainfall is often in the region.
• Keep your backpack as light as possible. Dont carry too much of food. 

  Total trekking time:

• If you are a frequent trekker, you can reach the summit  in 6-7 hours.
• If trekking is rare for you and your stemina is relatively less then you will reach mantapa by the eod.

Tips for photographers:

• Dont forget to capture the macro beauties of the jungle.
• View from the mountain gives a perfect landscape.
• Get up early to capture the most beautiful sunrise you might have seen in your life.

Trekking rules:

• Do not carry alcohol. Do not smoke in the jungle
• Do not throw anything during the trek. Dustbins are seen at many places. Keep the trekking place clean for the following trekkers.

 Happy Trekking :)

Anthargange is a small hill situated in the Kolar district of Karnataka, about 60kms from Bangalore. Hill is basically formed of Volcanic rocks which creates some small caves kind structure amid rocks. The place is famous for rock climbing, hiking as many adventure groups in Bangalore often carry out their activities around the area.

Planning of the Camp:
We were a group of 14 from my office, the main idea of this outing was to camp somewhere in the night. Lot of googling answered  this place as suitable for the night trek and camping. We had all the basic accessories like tents, required for the camping .One of us got bbq stand for making barbeque at the night.

Camp day:
We all got together at a common place in Bangalore on the camp day and left bangalore by 4pm in the evening. Madrass road gives you a pleasant journey as the highway is too good for driving. At the Kolar bridge you hav to take left turn, which intern taken you to the Kolar city. The road to Anthargange crosses next to the new KSRTC bus stand. We stopped there for snacks and collected some required things. Drive along the way for 2kms, you reach a big arch. You can park your vehicles there for the night. Place seems safe to park your cars.

Trek starts:

We distributed food, camping luggage equally among us and started trekking. Steps are neatly maintained and continue for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, you reach a temple which is the anthargange temple. Walk around the temple and you find steps to go to the top. At some places steps are carved on the rock while at other places you have to walk through the rocks to reach top. It took us 1 hour to reach on the top and we found a plane place for camping. We put  tents, some guys collected woods from the bushes. And finally tents, campfire,  bbq stand were ready for the nightout.

Next day morning:
Nightout went well and next day we got up early in the morning to see sunrise. But the place was completely immersed in fog and the visibility had dipped to 5 meters. We couldnt see sunrise. Then we started hunting for caves. We walked along and found some villages on the top. Those villages had electricity and are well connected by road. We finaly found a cave which was just a small place amid rocks. We took some early morning photos and started climbing down. Climbing down was quite easy for everyone and we were down at the parking lot  within half an hour.

Trekking details:
Starting point: 2kms from Kolar town.
Endpoint: Summit of Anthargange
Connectivity from Bangalore: Well connected by bus and train
Journey hours: 2hours from Bangalore
Trekking distance: 3-4 kms

Trekking season: All time

Difficulty level:
Easy

Must carry:

• Water
• Good trekking shoes
• Food
• Sleeping bag or tent if you are planning for night trekking
• flashlight, first aid kit and knife

Important guidelines:

• You can take help of locals to explore caves on the top.
• The summit is also connected by road which goes around the hill. So, walking is not the only option

Total trekking time:
  1hour to reach summit

Trekking rules:

• Do not throw anything during the trek. Keep the trekking place clean for the following trekkers.

Happy Trekking :)

          Bob dylan is an American musician, primarly into blues, folk and country rock. He started his professional career in 1960s. His song Blowing in the wind from the album The freewheelin Bob Dylan posed a series of questions about peace, war and freedom.It was considered as the 14th greatest song of alll time by the Rolling Stone magazine. Another 6 min long number Like a Rolling Stone became an anthem for the hippies at Nevada forests. Bob Dylan was not just a musician, he was prominent in the civil rights movements.

                Now let me tell you why most of the young generation doesnt know much about Bob Dylan or why they dont listen to Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's music was never fancy. He never had those fast tempos or the which attracts this young generation. His music was soulful art derived by a God. Note the word God, Bob Dylan is a God for me. This generation thinks that music is all about the voice and the pitch at which they are singing. But I was never interested in the voice. For me all that mattered were those instruments playing in the background. I loved the way drummer changed the course  of the drum, I loved those naughty Tabla beats, I loved the changing of chords. Last but not the lease, Lyrics mattered a lot to me. This is the one which drives the song. And finally when all these things are going smoothly, I would listen to the voice. May be that is why I love metal.

               As I told Bob Dylan's music never had any fancy stuff. It was the pure strumming that I could here all the time. He made the music not for the money, he never commercialised it, he made the music for himself, to express his thoughts towards the society. And when you make music for yourself, you try your best to make it the best one. I never understand the concept of Master piece by an artist. Is it like after creating your master piece, you decide to degrade your work? or you try to beat the rest and make one more best? I like the other half and Bob Dylan believed in that. He created master pieces one after the other.

               At one moment, he was a loving husband who wished his lady could lay across his big brass bed and the other moment he was a activist who brutally questioned the society. he refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind". Look at the other part now, lets take a famous rap verse from a famous song of Linkin ark, In the end. I still have not understood its meaning. And I have seen people singing it without even knowing the meaning and same applies to other these young artists.

              Bob Dylan has received 11  Grammy awards, 5 of his songs were incuded in Grammy's hall of fame and we still think A R Rehman is out of box, dont we?

                 I was trying to figure out which is the best track by Bob Dylan but I couldnt get one. For me all of his songs stand equal respects, still I have come up with a list I admire the most

• .Blowing in the wind
• Tangled up in blue
• Like a rolling stone
• Lay lady lay
• Knocking on heaven's door
• Positively
• The times they are changing

Quick links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdRZ1gFhZP0&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go2jbER0wk0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJpB_AEZf6U&ob=av2n