When I got into the bus last Friday evening, I was headed towards fulfilling a long-standing plan: to climb up the Brahmagiri hills. Brahmagiri peak, located in Coorg district of Karnataka is a part of Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary. The climb goes through leech ridden tropical forests to grasslands and shola(forest high in the hills where grass is the dominant vegetation, and trees are found in small groups where water is available) above the forest line, and offers great vistas of Sanctuary area and the planes below.
Irpu Waterfall
We started our hike a little late on the Saturday morning. By the time we had breakfast, took the necessary permits and changed buses to reach Irpu, it was already 10.30am. Fortunately it was not a sunny day, which made the climbing easy. The climb starts from Irpu falls, a well known landmark in Kodagu(Coorg). Leeches waiting on the forest floor gleefully welcomed us into the National Park once we walked past the waterfall. The initial part of the journey offers easy walk via tropical forest and lot of bamboo, and starts getting steeper slowly. We encountered several streams on the way and water is in plenty. Forest floor all the way is littered with colorful dry leaves and green saplings besides the bridle path.
Rich colors of the forest
It was 2 hours of climb before we left the forest below us and hit the grasslands. Some steep climbing for another 30 minutes and we reached our base camp – the Narimale forest camp.
The Narimale camp inside the forest
A Stream that runs next to the camp
Narimale camp is built to shelter forest guards who are on duty to watch against poaching. It serves as an excellent base camp to visit nearby peaks – Narimale peak and Brahmagiri peak. The presence of the camp also reduces the load of the trekkers by not having to carry any camping material.
More about Coorg on paintedstork.com
* Driving trip to Coorg
* Relaxing in Coorg in the monsoons
Tired and hungry that we were after a good climb, we quickly prepared food and hogged on it. After a short rest, we headed for Narimale Peak, which is 1.5km walk from the camp. As we walked through the grasslands, a Sambar emerged from the shola and ran away after seeing us. Some one in the group sited an elephant too. Narimale Peak offered us beautiful vista of the plains below, the sholas and the Brahmagiri peak at a distance. As the sun moved below the horizon, we made a quick retreat to the camp. It started raining as soon as we reached the camp and we were lucky not to get caught in the rain. We prepared an early dinner at the camp and then went to sleep.
Our escort takes a look at the sholas from the Narimale Peak
View from Narimale Peak
The next morning was foggy and the visibility was low. We contemplated over breakfast if it makes sense to climb the Brahmagiri peak in this weather. But since we did not have much else to do, we decided to make it anyway. The walk to Brahmagiri takes you through grassland, and occasionally through small patches of shola. Small white and pink flowers dot the green grassy plains.
The peak to the extreme right is Brahmagiri where we were headed.
After an easy walk for almost two hours, we reached the foot of Brahmagiri Peak. As we looked up to it, the peak was completely covered in fog and we could not see what is up for us. The bridle path to the peak suddenly got steep and we were quickly climbing at 45 degrees. It soon got worse – it must have been around 60 degrees slope or even worse. It would have been a climb of may be 150 meters to the top but the quick ascent got us tired quickly. But once we were up there, the vista was beautiful and worth all the effort. Interestingly, while we climbed up in foggy weather, other side was completely clear and offered us nice view of a valley in Kerala.
At the Brahmagiri Peak. Inscription reads that the Peak is 1600 meters above the sea level and is 9kms from Irpu waterfall.
Walking on the ridges of Brahmagiri Peak
We rested here for a while and walked a bit on the beautiful ridges. A bit of walking and we saw a few Sambars and a ma elephant with its baby. Weather had completely cleared up as we headed back and offered good view of the surroundings and the Brahmagiri peak itself. We also got to see Wild Gaurs on the way back. A few of us discovered thorns of porcupines here and there. Elephant dung was littered wherever we went. A pair of Nilgiri Langur were spotted on a tree at a distance. There was life in every part of the sanctuary.
Nothing goes waste in the forest. Even the dung of the elephant supports some form of life
As we returned to the base camp, we packed up quickly and headed back to Irpu. An hour and a half and a lot of leech bites later, we were back at Irpu Waterfall for a refreshing dip in the water. We came down from here for a session of refueling our stomach and returned to the city by the overnight bus.
Brahmagiri Information.
REACHING
Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary is a restricted area and one has to take permission from Range Forest Officer(RFO) at Srimangala village. Call the RFO a few days in advance and inform your trekking plans so that they can arrange a mandatory escort for you. Getting permits is easy and hassle free.
To reach Srimangala, take a KSRTC bus to Gonikoppal from Bangalore, which is 6 hours journey. Change buses here and travel for another hour to Srimangala. Pay the necessary fees at Srimangala RFO office and get your permits. You can also shop here for groceries you will need for your stay at the top. Irpu falls, where the trek begins is another 30 minutes by bus. There are not many buses from Srimangala to Irpu and you may have to hire a jeep if you can’t get a bus.
ACCOMMODATION NEAR IRPU
You can get no-frills accommodation at the temple near Irpu offers. There are also some home stay kind of resorts near Irpu, one is Ramcad which is pretty close to Irpu. Nearby village Kutta has some places like Pearl Garden, Chilligere Estate and High Falls Holiday
TREKKING IN THE PARK
The Narimale camp, which is in the middle of the forest, is the best place to stay. Camping elsewhere is probably not allowed, but check with the RFO if you want to. Narimale camp is 4.5km from Irpu falls and can be covered in 1.5 to 2.5 hours depending on your fitness. From the camp, you can trek to Narimale Peak, which is about 1.5km, and takes around 1.5hrs to go and come back. Brahmagiri
Peak is 5kms and takes around 2 to 2.5 hours to climb up. Another place to visit is Munekal Caves, which is 3.5kms from the camp. Munekal caves is called as Pakshi Patalam at Kerala side of the sanctuary.
As we descended from the heights of Bababudangiri, we could sight some evergreen forest below, thick and dense as usual. But I did not expect to see so many tall and beautiful trees fighting within them for more sunlight. Muthodi, a small village located in the Bhadra wilderness is the place where we were headed, and planned to stay for that night. Bhadra is a protected tiger reserve located in Chikkamagalur and Shimoga districts of Karnataka.
The approach to Muthodi from Bababudangiri
The first thing we noted as we approached the sanctuary in the evening is a remarkable increase in the bird population. And few minutes after we reached Muthodi, I got to see a baby Malabar Giant Squirrel exploring a tall tree. The place we were staying in Muthodi is fairly deep in the forest and has a stream running just behind it!
The stream at Muthodi
The next morning, we headed deeper into the forest. Our jeep dipped into a stream and continued further away from the road. As we headed further, it was forest all around with trees taller than I had ever seen. It is one of those thick forests where sunlight tries hard to reach the forest floor, without much success. We saw quite a few barking deer which are not commonly seen; a peacock, a bison and many chitals in the next hour.
A Wire Tailed Bee Eater
The birds seen included wire tailed bee eaters, rocket tailed drongos and probably a tawny eagle. The best part was listening to variety of bird calls when you switched off the engine – all of them sweet but different. On the way back from the forest we could witness a pair of Malabar Giant Squirrels relishing on a breakfast of raw custard apples!
Pair of Malabar Giant Squirrels
After some refreshing and a lunch later, I decided it was time for another drive. We decided to drive and explore on the main road until we saw a muddy deviation. The small road offered us many surprises. It eventually took us to the top of a hill which offered a panoramic view of the entire Bhadra range of forests. We also saw many beautiful vistas of the hill ranges on the way. The best thing was to listen to funny calls of a lone hornbill calling, sitting on the top of a tree(You should witness that to enjoy it!).
A Malabar Grey Hornbill calling
To our surprise, we encountered some coffee estates deep in such wilderness. The friendly estate owner advised us to go up the top of the hill which gave us such a great view that we felt the entire journey of an hour’s drive and an hour’s walk further was completely worth the effort. He also invited us to his estate and treated us with some nice coffee.
As the sun moved down the horizon, we returned to Muthodi. It was time for us to return to the bustle of Bangalore.
Also read about other places near Chikmagalur on paintedstork.com
* Belur and Halebeedu
* Mullayyanagiri and Charmadi in the monsoons
* Kurinjis in Bababudangiri
* Chikmagalur image gallery
Also read: a more recent story on Belur, Halebeedu and a few other beautiful but less known temples nearby. This article, published in a magazine, covers history and architecture of the Hoysalas in details besides narrating my experience of visiting these architectural beauties.
I was not so very fond of architectural heritage of India. That is until I got a good view of the temples of Belur and Halebeed recently, understood the complexity involved and visualized the minutest details to which the rocks were carved.
A BRIEF HISTORY AND SOME INFORMATION
The temples of Belur and Halebeed were built around 12th century by the rulers of the Hoysala Dynasty. The story goes that the dynasty was founded by a young man called Sala who killed a tiger with bare hands.
The Logo of the HoysalaThe symbol of Hoysalas hence is a man killing a tiger. Halebeed was the capital of the dynasty where the temple stands. The temple of Halebeedu was constructed over a span of 190 years and remained incomplete. The Belur temple took more than 100 years to construct. The material used for both temples is soap stone which is soft and easy to carve when taken out from the earth but gets harder over prolonged exposure to the atmosphere.
HALEBEEDU
The temple of HalebeeduHalebeedu, when translated from Kannada means old habitat. This was named as Dwarasamudra in the times of Hoysala Dynasty and became an ‘old town’ after invasion from Muslim Rulers of the north. As with most of the historic temples, this temple also has seen some damages. The deity of the temple is Shiva in the name of Hoysaleshwara who is worshipped in the temple’s two shrines even now.
One of the largest Nandi statues in IndiaThe temple also hosts two of the largest Nandi statues in India. The guide told us they are the 7th and 8th largest Nandi statues in the country. The carvings seen around the temple are amazing. Every inch of the wall is filled with art and the attention to details in each carving are surprising.
The guide explains us of every detailThe image above shows the carvings on the circumference. The bottom layer are elephants which are more than thousand in number, with each one in a different position than other. No two elephants are unique. There are seven layers with the subsequent layers hosting lions and horses and more.
Bheema killing the elephants!There are stories of the Mahabharata and many mythological stories carved on the outer wall. The above image is of Bheema killing elephants in the war. To his right is an elephant he is tackling and to his left is a pile of elephants he has already killed! Such images are in plenty.
Just after the temple is a big lake once called the Dwarasamudra. Archeological Survey of India have maintained the temple well and you get well informed guides who can show you around the temple. Make sure you hire a guide to make your visit worthwhile.
BELUR
The temple at BelurThe Belur temple is more known for the “Shilabalike” – the images of women carved in stone all around the temple. Each image is of a women doing different things or engaged in different occupations. They have interesting names such as ‘Shuka Bhashini’ for a lady talking to a parrot; ‘Darpana Sundari’ for a lady with a mirror and such.
Shuka Bhashini, a ShilabalikaThe guide said that people hid the temple from invaders by covering it up completely in sand because of which the temple is intact. The carvings in Belur temple are as intricate as its counterpart in Halebeedu. The temple hosts an idol of Vishnu in the name of Chennakeshava, which can be translated from Kannada as ‘the beautiful Vishnu’.
The guide also informed us about another famous Hoysala temple with similar architecture at Somanathapura near Mysore, which I am yet to visit.
Information on Belur and Halebeedu
The two places are around 20kms apart. If you are driving, drive from Bangalore to Hassan. Take NH4 out of Bangalore. After driving for around an hour, turn left to NH 48(Bangalore to Mangalore road) at Nelamangala. Continue driving on the highway till you reach Hassan town(around 180kms from Bangalore) which is a few kilometers to the right of the highway. Ask for directions to Halebeedu once you are in town. Halebeedu is around 40kms from Hassan town. The drive from Bangalore takes around 6 hours.
If you are taking the bus, take KSRTC buses to Hassan from Bangalore where you can change buses to Halebeedu or Belur. Frequency of buses from Hassan to Belur should be good, but try to find bus timings to Halebeedu in advance.
The best town head for staying overnight could be either Hassan or Chikkamagalur. But you can also find some basic accommodation in Belur.