Agumbe - Trek to Narsimha Parvat and a Trip to the temples of Sringeri

Land of King Cobras, Darjeeling of South India, few of the heighest seasonal waterfalls in south india, hosting one of the most magnificent sunset view amongst the western himalaya peaks, The mysteries revolving around being home for the naxalites, and/or having witnessning malgudi days,  Agumbe and its forest range has more than one reasons for us to long for a trip to this place, ~380 KMs from Bangalore.

Agumbe was first place which came to our mind after starting our own group, for trekking as well as travel trips and since then mulitple trials for making it happen, finally we make it to Narsimha Parvat on Full moon night of Feb 2010. 9 of us, choose to leave board a bus from kempagowda /majestic bus station to Agumbe at 10:00 pm, friday 26th of Feburary. The route is NH-4 till Tumkur, then NH-206 till Shimoga and then NH-13 to Thirthahalli. from Thirthahalli  it take another 30-40 minutes to reach agumbe village.

We reach at the bus stop a little after sunrise. Agumbe is a very small place, and all you can find there is a Kamat restuarant on your left and mallya guest house on the right with police station at  short walk. we freshen up at the guest house, and pack our luncheons, have our breakfast and meanwhile also register at the police station. (which is a must, and you need atleast one identity card each for males and females in your group)

Krishnappa, who' I realised later, as the most silent and sober guide I have every had in any of my trips, joins us later there. we take a jeep to the trek start point at Malandur, 6 KMs from the bus stop. This is a dry season, and hence you wont find leaches and much of shade, in the initial rocky path until you get in to deep jungle. Barkana falls is 7 KM from the start point, and you slowly gain altitude while you trek to the falls. only once you cross a stream in entire 7 kms. the entire path is full of dry leaves and hence its very difficult to identify. (not advisable with out the guide or GPS, you'd be loosing singals as well inside the jungle). and Ah. where are the cobras? The jungle walk reminds be of Bandajje Trek. that however is steepy while this one is pretty easy, so in less than 2 hours we do reach at the top of the falls. where our entrance to the stream path leading us to the falls is again a little similar to Bandajje.

The river which creates the fall is Sita river. there is a baby pool at our exit of the jungle and when proceeding to our left we can reach up to the razor edge of the fall. this being the season fall, there is less water at this time of the year, so i am not sure if that little view point is available in monsoon to look down at 850ft drop. this also give a magnificent view of the valley and you can also see a falls on the other side of the valley.  there is a level one to Barkana, which is a little difficult to reach out to, but if you do, the bathing experience is incomparable, and I personally can vouch for it. the water force is strong enough to sustain you under the water not more than 30 secs. but you cant get enough of it. and you keep getting back under the falls.

After a good 2 hours lunch and bathing break at the pool, we start our trek back to Narsimha Parvat. again the left over distance is just 5 KM . the grassland starts after an hour. cool wind comes to the rescue from scorching heat. The trail in the grasslands is visible, and crossing just two mountains you see a land on the top, and a beautiful valley towards the east, the kigga valley.

we spend a few minutes on top, waiting for sunset, but there arrives the mist, and we get down to the small guest house build on the top of Narsimha, and unlike of other shelters in jungles, we experienced before, this seems well mainted and clean. with clouds rolling in blocking the entire view of the valley and the sunset, and the chill outside, we have a very little doubt that we gonna stay outside in the tents, but we still pitch those in. A camp fire,  an awesome dinner and a traditional game of UNO only, what might have been required for the night apart from the beautiful full moon, and we get all. closing the night around 10:30 PM.

So what we if missed the sunset, there waits a beautiful sunrise the next morning, and we definetly have got no plans to miss it, hence 5 of us run to the  path to the top of the the other hill, towards the same path where we plan to descend today and where we have 2 small wells, made by a spring the only source of water on top of the hill. Well I am not a poet, and i find it very difficult to explain the beauty, hence I click pictures, see for yourself though my lens, what I saw from my own eyes. a gorgeous sunrise and the green valley revealing veils of the colors of rainbow each one by one..

A descent towards kigga is just 7 KMs. so we taken good enough time on the top, freshening up and having our variety of breakfast. not sure if it was easiness, mercury level, or the run to get under the fall, we get  down to Kigga in just one hour and 20 minutes. meanwhile we see some or rather quite a number whole entire engineering college ascending to the top, with 0 size young girls, few saari clad teachers, and guys not sure if the students only trying to impress girls on the way. (like if thats all they can do!) some of 'em even ask if we are from the national geographic.. :P

Anyways little cooling down at a shop near outside the temple, we keep our trekking bags, and head towards Sirimane falls in the auto. which is 6 KM from Kigga on the opposite side of the sringeri, which is 15KM. Sirimane reminds me Hanumandgundi and so is the entrance stairs getting down to the falls and the crowd.. and its as pleasurable to get under the fall as Hunumangundi falls. we play under the fall, get a good back massage and even see 2 small rainbows.

We reach sringeri around 1:30 PM putting up our shoes and bags in the lockers outside the temple, which are safest there, we head to the dining hall, of sringeri temple to have our lunch. The Bhojan Shala, is huge enough to facilitates a 1000 people and the serving system is pretty interesting as well, with wheel barrows carrying the thalis, or the rice. the ana-sambhar meal includes paaysam, rasam , sambhar and buttermilk.

After a satisfying meal, we move towards the temple ground. both vidyasankar and sharada temples and tapovan remains close till 5 PM. so we decide to spend some time with the beatutiful black human size fish in tunga river ghats.  still some time left over, for the evening, we sleep in the resting hall like home less people. 5 PM we make a round of tapovan, and to the temples. a quick dinner and 8:30 bus back to bangalore the trip doesnt end at 6:00 AM on monday March 1st on the day of Holi.a holiday as well  thus the fun continues..

The Planned Itinerary:

26th: Bangalore-Agumbe: 385 km. Rajahamsa: 10PM

27th: Breakfast at Agumbe(if we can get awesome kotte kadubus ;-) ). Agumbe-Malandur: 6 km(by jeep/tempo).

Malandur-Barkana falls: approximately 8 km. (3 hr. trek)

Barkana falls - Narasimha Parvata : 5-6 km (approx. 2 -3 hr. trek)

28th: Narasimha Parvata- Kigga : 6 km. (approx 2-3 hr. trek)

Kigga-Shringeri :  25 km. ( by Auto)

Book some rooms, freshen up, visit temple and river

Shringeri-Bangalore bus (most prob. 8:30PM)

29th: Morning 5:30 AM Depart

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Total Cost :  INR 1080 per head.

Breakfast: 330/-

Jeep : 200/-

Police station/ forest dept : 45/-

Guide charges: 900/-

Sirimane falls entrance fee: 51/-

Auto :500/-

Tea + misc : 130/-

Dinner : 330/-

Tents: 800/-

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GPS Co-ordinates :

More pictures on flickr