Narasimha Parvatha Trek || Agumbe Trekking

 

View Enroute Agumbe Ghats

 

Narasimha Parvatha Trek route which lies through the jungles of Someshwara wildlife sanctuary starts from Malandur village near Agumbe in Karnataka till Kigga at the other end.  Since camping is not permitted on the peak now, we had to complete the 20 km trek by sunset on the same day. Two      weeks before I called up Forest     Guard Mr Gurunath conforming about our trekking dates. Booked train tickets from Calicut to Uduppi for my cousin Sreejith aswell who is joining me on the trek.  I had a long journey from Chennai to Gudalur in the Nilgiris, picking up my wife and son from Gudalur to Calicut the next day and stayed at my wifeys home at Calicut to catch the morning train to uduppi. Friday 19^th October me and Sreejith reached Uduppi by 2pm and the next bus took us to Agumbe by 5pm. A small village with a deserted look. It was pooja holidays and the long weekend had many tourists, but somehow we managed to get a decent room to stay in the one and only visible lodge at Agumbe. Had dinner from the opposite hotel and settled for the night. Next day morning we vacated the place and had breakfast with packed lunch and reached the Barkana falls road by 8am waiting for Mr Gurunath. As soon as he came he arranged a guide Thimmapa for us. Entry tickets was 200 rs per head and guide fees was 500rs per group. Next we had to reach Malandur by an auto which is again 6km. Never thought we would reach malandur safely because the auto driver was heavily drunken and was rolling all over the hills as if he was skydiving. Thimmapa showed us his house and we waited him to get ready and by 9am we started trekking…   

 
Me & Sreejith @ thimapa's house  Trek starts from Malandur Spotted a small snake here...                                                                                                                                           

Several patchy grasslands with deviations...

Sreejith and Myself trying hard to find the Rainforest we imagined... i know that spotting a King cobra purely depends upon Time and luck factor but the word Rainforest in Agumbe is often used to the Cm 's of rain received in the region and has nothing to do with the type of evergreen thick rainforest. It is no different from the type of wildlife sanctuary shola forest what we see in karnataka excluding the Tiger reserves.

 Barkana Falls. similar to Bandaje falls in charmadi. Eventhough we were on the edge of the big rock, the flow  beneath was blocked.

 Beautifull views with a two layered waterfalls on the opposite mountains.

After 4hrs the sholas were giving upto the grasslands and the lesser thickening surrounding was engulfed with mist.

                                                                                                                                                 Selfie @ the Peak 
The final grassland stretch had more inclines i slowed down the pace and rested at a couple of places. The breaks had two purpose. .one was to sip up water and oxygen and the other was to clean up hanging leeches from our leech socks. By 2pm we reached the peak and it started raining. Since there wasnt any cover in the near sight we continued walking down upto the water source near the old house and refilled our thirst and opened the packed lunch.

  After 13km of climbing up hill we are now descending down to the Kigga side. The trail was almost lost for the first 1 km. From then on the next 4 km was mostly through a long ridge without much altitude changes. The final 2 km had some steeps and rocky paths.

Reached Kigga by 4.30 pm .Thimmapa bid good bye to us near the small lake at Kigga village as we saw him running to catch a bus back to agumbe. We got bus to sringeri and settled for the night. Next day morning back to Mangalore by bus and back to calicut by train i was back with my son and wifey sharing another wonderful word called "Trekking".
 

 

   Team: Anish, Sreejith, Thimappa

Place  :  Narasimha Parvatha Peak, Agumbe, Karnataka.

Elevation Min/Max : 1150 Meters,

Km Covered      : 1day|| 20 Kms 

Forest permission : Gurunath ( Forest Guard - Agumbe )- Ph : 9448248024

anish@ambikadigitals.com