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Trekking/Hiking:
KumaraParvatha
| Yaana
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If you approach from the western coast of India you come across some huge mountain ranges like
a great wall separating the Deccan Plateau from the sea. These are the mighty Western Ghats, which stretches over from Maharashtra to the tip of the Indian peninsula in kerala. A major part of the Western Ghats lines the Karnataka coast. Westerns Ghats are one of the 25 biological hotspots.
The sheer natural beauty and the biological diversity surprises and cast its spell on any one who treads foot on these
Ghats. These forests are also home for many animals like the tigers, leopards, lion, Tailed Macaque, Sambar, Barking deer, King Cobra, a variety of Horn Bills and Malabar Whistling thrush and also millions of species of flora. All types of forests mark these Western Ghats from the evergreen where there heavier rainfall to the semi evergreen and moist deciduous forests.
Kudlu Teertha
Day 1
Kudlu Teertha
Our trek started from a place called Tingale in the Someshwar Wildlife Santury. It was a 5 km trek from the main Tingale bus stop
which was our Base camp. The Base camp was on the banks of a river whose name I don’t remember.
It is on the was to the way to holy Kudlu Teertha Falls. Kudlu teertha falls is revered in these parts of the world by the local villagers and was until now very not easily accessible. Now he tourism department is on the overdrive for the promoting of the tourism and we have a motor able road half way up to it. It would be a challenge to maintain the serenity and the sanitation of this place with the influx of tourists. The Kudlu Teertha falls is a very beautiful waterfall of about 126 feet. The water drops from the top to the bottom in one big leap and is great sight to watch lying there on your back. As you go very close to the falls, we can feel the cold water sprinkles and makes you forget all the strain of the 4 km walk.
Early Morning Sunrays at the Base Camp
Day 2
Bharkhana
 The trek to Barkana viewpoint was a very eventful trek and a very memorable one. It was due to the shear beauty of the sceneries and the thick forests and the variety of the forest crossed. The forests flora used to change very 100 meters. From bamboos, to shrubs to huge trees. The specialty of the this forests was the flowering for the plant called “Gurugi”. This is plant, which flowers once in 7 years and the local villager believe it brings the drought with it. Along with the drought it also brings honey in bountiful, whenever this flower blooms, there is a large-scale production of honey, due the plenty of the availability of these flowers. These flows are very pungent, if this flower or its leaves make contact with your skin, the smell persists for a couple of hours.
After walking about 5 km we came across a stream and unpacked our lunch.
All along in front of us is huge wall of the Western Ghats range the Gumbo
Ghats. The entire mountain slope is covered with the green tree and is a beautiful sight to see. Now we had come to the part of the trek where we had to climb over the
Ghats. The slope was very steep almost 75 to 85 degrees in some places .The climb was very taxing and we had to rest frequently. We held on the plants and the roots of the plants and the climb was very slow. We climb almost 2000 ft form the valley to the peak of the Barkana view point.
It is a great feeling to see the valley and the path we had climbed from the Barkana viewpoint.
The forest is very thick in this part and green. The Barkana falls is great sight for the point. The falls during this time had very less water and was flowing like a snake from the top with a curvy path. We can see the valley covered by the Ghats by all four sides as though some huge walls are built to protect the land. There is a motor able road from Agumbe to the Bharkhana viewpoint to
savor the nature’s beauty. The next camp was another 4 km trek for this viewpoint. As a matter of fact Agumbe is the place, which receives the highest amount for rainfall in Karnataka.
Hiking Agumbe Ghats: View of Barkhana Valley
Day 3
Narasimha Parvata
Day three started with the ominous start of the bright sunshine. We started our trek and passed the Mallandhur village .We could see the villagers casually walking to the forests to pick up firewood and thorns to build fences, etc. It was the village life in perfect harmony with the Mother Nature .We could see the many mountain ranges and had to trek fro a coupe of hours in which was more or less a flat land through the forests. Here the forests are not too dense, but could see some very tall trees of about 40to 50 feet. After a couple of hour’s
trek we came across the “tanner Hole “ or “Vaate Hole “ which forms the Bharkhana falls. We went the tip of the falls and its the sheer drop take your breath away. Can see the other side of the
Ghats and surprisingly it was rocky cliff. This is the only source of water from here to Narasimha Parvata, which is further 8 km from here.
The next two to three hours we climbed through the
hills. The change in vegetation was drastic with the fewer number of trees and different type of trees. We were almost nearing the peak, we could see the barren stretches of land
near the peak. These are actually grasslands and we came to know that the grass is usually burnt in summer to prevent jungle fires. These are all shoal forests. Shola forests are found in mountain peaks, which are covered with grasslands, and the slopes are covered with thick forests. It is a natural phenomenon where the forests are denuded due to the soil erosion and the grass instead of the thick vegetation. As we were racing the peak, we bore the burnt of the sun as we did not have any canopy of trees which we had for most of the trek .It surprises you to see the trees abruptly ending and the grasslands starting all of the sudden.
A View of KudreMukh Range of Mountains from
Narasimha Parvatha
Narasimha Parvata is the tallest peak in these part of the Western Ghats and is about 3780
feet. were just in time to see the sunset. It was one of the clearest sunsets .It was beautiful sight to see the change in the colors the sky.
You can see the majestic kudremukh ranges. These mountain ranges form a very beautiful sight and look like the undulations of waveform. The sun
rise is equally enchanting. We just sat there on one of the peaks and viewed the sun rise
which is a great feeling and lets you be own with the nature. We saw the sunlight slowly touching all of the life and waking them up for another day.
Day 4
Kigga
We started descending form Narasimha Parvata towards a place called Kigga. We see many ranges of Narasimha Parvata all along the way while descending.
We pass through many villages, which are on the fringes of the forest, and
finally arrive near the mage bail village, which has the Mage bail falls. There
are proper roads once you reach the village and from there you can easily reach Kigga. The last stop was the Sere mane falls and had a refreshing bath. The Sere mane fall is a beautiful falls of about 20 ft and is quite filled with waster too. Kigga is some 16 km from Sringeri and there terminated our trek.
Sunset at Narasimha Parvatha
How to reach Tingale and Distances:
Udupi is some 350km from Bangalore. Udupi to Hebri 46.Hebri to Tingale -10 km. Buses are very rare for Hebri to Tingale.
Tingale to Kudlu Teertha -10km.
Alternately reach Agumbe and trek to Narasimha Parvata. Kigga to Sringeri 16 km.
Trekking/Hiking:
KumaraParvatha
| Yaana
Yeshwanth MCH is a Software engineer by
profession and lives and works in Bangalore
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here if you would like to Contribute or send a feedback. | 
