Heavenly Monsoon Ride to Bisle Ghat, Karnataka

One of the hidden gems in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, Bisle Ghat is a gorgeous tract of montane rainforest, evergreen tropical forest and a less trodden upon narrow and winding highway that connects the temple town of Kukke Subramanya with the coffee estates of Sakleshpur. Usually, most visitors opt for the more popular and larger roads of Shirdi and Charmadi ghat highways and may be that’s why this forest has retained its true character. Even the forest department doesn’t have many stations here. It is just pristine rainforest all the way, possibly some of the best in Karnataka along with the ones at Agumbe.



I was so happy a few months back when I heard that the government had laid a new road on the tiny highway connecting Vanagoor and Kukke Subramanya, but that excitement was short lived as Bisle Ghat was one of the regions that saw many landslides during the recent Karnataka floods. In spite of knowing that most roads were closed, I still decided to embark on a motorcycle ride to this green paradise during the peak of monsoons.



Video Note: Experience of torrential rains at Bisle Ghat view point. Watch in 4K resolution for best quality.

Luckily for me, the minor landslides and tree falls were cleared just in time and I could ride a little bit beyond the Bisle Beauty spot. A few kilometers beyond the beauty spot was a major landslide where the entire highway had caved in, so access to Kukke Subramanya from Vanagoor via Bisle Ghat was totally cut off. Even though I could not ride all the way to Kukke Subramanya, I was fairly happy that I got to experience the winding Bisle Ghat roads and see the Bisle view point during the monsoons.



Heavy rains greeted me for most of my time here, but when they stopped and the mist cleared, the view was spectacular. Tall trees, rowdy brown rivers and a sea of green is what presents itself to you from the Bisle view point. On a good day, one can see the peaks of Kumara Parvatha (Dakshina Kannada), Pushpagiri and Dodda Betta (Kodagu) and Patta Betta and Enni Kallu (Hassan) from this view point.



When you drive from Sakleshpur to Vanagoor, coffee estates, pepper plantations and spice farms greet you all the way. In between, you can also see the vivid greens of the young paddy. As you cross Vanagoor and slowly head towards the forest check post at Bisle, the forests start getting taller and denser. There are no more man made plantations, but nature’s rainforests. And once you cross the Bisle check post, it pretty much becomes dark even during the middle of the day.



Due to the heavy rains, tree branches, leaves, slush, landslides, stones and other natural elements were present on the road. Hence, even though I was riding on a highway, it pretty much felt like off-roading and I was so happy that I had off-road tyres on my motorcycle. As the roads to Kukke Subramanya were closed due to landslides and because of the extremely heavy rains, I hardly saw a few vehicles on the road. It was pretty much our two motorcycles and the beautiful rainforest highway.



The Bisle beauty spot was the only place that was accessible and hence we spent most of our break time there. Extremely heavy rains, sharp winds and dense mist kept us company at the shelter built by the forest department to enjoy the view. The video above should give you a good idea of the rich monsoon experience. From time to time when the rains stopped and the mist cleared, you could see the panoramic view of the dense jungles and the thundering Giri river below, which eventually joins the mighty Kumaradhara river further ahead.



Just this ride through Bisle Ghat and the stop at Bisle view point during the monsoons is an experience in itself. Hopefully, I can complete the entire stretch when the roads are open and offer my prayers at the Kukke Subramanya temple.



Video Note: Heavy rains and misty views at Bisle beauty spot. Watch in 4K resolution for best quality.

If you like off-beat trails, a little bit of adventure, lush rainforests and enjoy getting wet, you will have an absolutely mind blowing time at Bisle Ghat and its various view points. More so if you are interested in trekking, bicycling, mountain biking and/or motorcycling. And the best season to explore this fabulous gift of nature is during the monsoons or immediately after it. For the best views, Jan 15 to Mar 15 are perfect.

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Upcoming Travels: Monsoon Ride to Bisle Ghat, Karnataka

Finally!! After 3 cancellations due to extremely heavy rains, landslides and road closures, I am finally heading to the paradise called ‘Bisle Ghat’, that is one of the most pristine tropical forests and rainforests in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. It has been a good 11 years since I visited this region and I can’t express how excited and pumped I am about this trip.

It is still raining heavily in the Western Ghats, but thankfully the roads are open and I am all prepared for a wet monsoon ride through green heaven.

On the agenda are:

1) Wet Monsoon Ride through some of the lesser known roads between Sakleshpur, Kukke Subramanya and Somwarpet

2) Malalli Falls – the tallest waterfall in Coorg

3) Bisle Beauty Spot, Bisle Forest and Addahole View Point



4) Kaginahare Forest and Fort for a different green vantage point

5) Mookane Mane Falls

6) Manjarabad Fort

7) Kukke Subramanya Temple and the view of the lush Kumara Parvatha (No trek on this trip, but that needs to be repeated soon)

8) Coffee Estates of Sakleshpur and the railway track between Yedukumeri and Donigal, the green route (one of the best train journeys of India)

9) Stay in a traditional home in a rustic setting surrounded by forests, spice farms and coffee estates. No AirBnB or online bookings, but just a good ol traditional homestay.



…and whatever else comes on our way and looks worth exploring. Nothing on the agenda is set in stone as most of the Western Ghats across Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been battered by heavy rains for the last 2 weeks or so and most of the roads are either blocked, inaccessible due to floods or have heavy traffic backed up. As I am not sure of the availability of roads, I will form a route as the roads make themselves available. I am so looking forward to this three day ride. Look me up if you happen to be in the region or catch me on my social channels where I will be posting regular updates.

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A Solo Trek to Kumara Parvatha – Guest Post by Rohith H

This is a guest post written by Rohith H. Rohith is an intrepid traveller who loves to be one with nature during his travels. He is a friend, fellow traveller and trekking and motorcycling partner. All the images in this post are courtesy of Rohith H.
11th Trek to KP and the best one.This place is new every time you trek. There is no other place where you get to test the limits of your body and mind. Monsoon is the best time to trek. The weather is cool, the challenges are high. A moderate trek in the summer becomes difficult during the monsoon. Anyway, decided to go to KP. Wanted to do it alone and in one day. A lot of my friends said I'm nuts (nothing new) when I told them the plan.


Booked our very reliable KSRTC for the journey to Somwarpete. Booked the bus at 10:00 PM. but was under an impression that the bus was at 10:30 PM. Took my own sweet time to reach majestic. Thankfully didn't miss the bus. It was a bumpy ride to Somwarpete, thanks to a truck that had broken down on the way. The bus had to take a detour and through some village. The roads were straight from moon. Reached Somwarpete with a sore back at 5:00 AM on 9th Oct, 2010.


There is a bus named "Bhagya lakshmi" that goes to Bidahalli (starting point of the trek) from Somwarpete. The bus comes to the bus stand around 6:30 AM and departs around 7:30 AM. I was told that it rained super heavy on the previous day and it would be really difficult to trek. I was all excited knowing its gonna be difficult. Reached bidalli around 8:30 AM. It is a 3 km walk from here to a "Hegde Mane". This is a small village near Bidalli. There is a Mallikarjuna Swamy Temple where you can freshen up before you start the trek. The path till the temple has been tarred now :( .You could also ask the priest to cook you some breakfast for nominal charges. I generally don’t have breakfast, so I skipped. Freshened up near the stream next to the temple and started my trek.


There is a jeep track from the temple leading to the forest department office. It is around a km of walk from the temple. The view becomes scenic from here on. The path is surrounded with mountains and it is lush green. Reached the forest office around 9:00 AM. The forest guard denied permission to trek as I was alone. It took me a lot of effort to convince him to grant me permission. The only advantage that I had was he has seen me multiple times during the previous treks.


One of the guards accompanied me for half a km or so just to make sure I knew the path, I'm fit to trek and walk the distance. The total trek distance from Bidalli to Kukke Subrahmanya is 24 km. 11 km of ascend to the summit and 13 from the summit to Kukke. Went ahead with the trek, a lonely walk through the wilderness and a forest filled with mist. The spooky feeling of may be some animal is watching me now. Not a soul around for miles. This was the point of realization that its just an awesome feeling to be alone. No strings attached, nobody around, secluded from the world. You are at a mercy of the jungle. If you are lucky and fit, you walk away alive or with no broken bones.


After 4.25 km of trek from the Beedhalli APC, there is a detour. Here you can decide if you wanna go on till the summit climbing 65 deg inclined rock coated with moss. There are 4 rocks of the same kind till the summit. Or, The other path goes around the hill and merges back to the same trek path after 3 km. This path is through the jungle and is not very hard.


Anyway, being a nutcase I decided to go to the summit. When i started climbing the rock it started to rain cats and dogs. its always better to climb the rock face with only your socks on. The grip level is awesome. I couldn't take any pictures during the rain. However, I'm uploading the snaps of my previous trek.


Reached the summit around 11:30 AM. The sense of achievement was running high. Decided not to waste a lot of time there and keep moving. The whole jungle is infested with leeches. The moment you stop, there will be 5-10 clinging on to you.


While getting down from the summit, you'll have to get down a water path. The path is super slippery, make sure you hold the bamboo shoots next to the stream while getting down. After a while, the water plummets down. Take a detour from the side and crawl down in a zig zag path. Again remember, the socks will give you the best grip.


After getting down the rock, the jungle starts and I was in the thick of it again. There are a lot of leeches and the path is very slippery. The jungle is so dense that the sunlight doesn't reach the ground. Due to heavy rain and moisture, the whole of the jungle was coated in green moss. The pungent smell of wood rotting is something that you can never forget.


The rain is pouring down super heavy now and i decide to pick up the pace a little as it could get really late by the time I reach Kukke. Since this was the first time I was targeting to finish the 2 day trek in one day, I had to keep up the pace without breaks.


Around 12:30 I was out of the jungle and into the grass land next to shesha parvatha. The rain had stopped and lush green grass land was visible all around you. The sight was just an elevated feeling of how wonderful nature is (and how disgusting man is).

 
There are not many leeches in the grass land and the chances of spotting an elephant or any big mammal is minimal. Walked along the water carved path, reached the infamous "kallu mantapa" at 1:00PM. Took a 5 min break, clicked a couple of snaps. Had some water.


The view from the mantapa is just mind blowing. You feel lost seeing wonderful things around you. Decided to move on, had to reach kukke soon. And getting down the mountain on a slippery grass land is more difficult than climbing through the jungle.


Started walking at my natural pace, saw a lot of cobras slithering away from the walk path. The animals won’t harm you unless and until you try to act smart and do something to the animals. Walked for another 90 min to reach Bhattara mane. This is the general pit stop for all trekkers for lunch and sometimes to halt. Bhattara mane is also known as Girigadhe. Bhattara mane has a paddy field and a farm where the bhatta grows rice and vegetables.


Once I reached bhattara mane, i filled the bottle with water, had a quick snack of salted peanuts and a snickers bar. Spoke to bhatta for like 10 mins and left from bhattara mane towards kukke. The jungle is not very thick while walking down from bhattara mane to Kukke, The total distance from bhattara mane to the foot hill is around 6 km. Although the forest is not very thick, the path is filled with uplifted roots. This makes it even more difficult to walk as the chances of your leg getting tangled and tripping is more. Again it is the water path that you'll have to follow. 


There are dustbins at regular intervals through the path. Please use them. "DO NOT THROW PLASTIC". Stop being a menace. I would thump somebody who throws plastic. Continued walking saw a batch of trekkers on the way to bhattara mane. Had a casual chat with them and moved on.
Saw the board that read Subrahmanya 1 km. The time was around 3:15 PM. It was an excellent pace through the trek. Started walking, the last km seemed the longest. Almost near the end of the trek a barb wired fence starts on the left hand side. Which never came even after walking for like 10 min.


Once I saw the fence I was delighted that I survived the ordeal without any injury and finished the trek within a day. I was even more delighted that this was the only KP trek that i hadn't tripped and fallen. The moment I thought about it, I jinxed it. There I had a fall on my butt. I didn't know if I had to laugh at myself or be furious about it.


I reached the foot hill at 3:30 PM. There it was a DONE DEAL. I didn't want to sit around on the road there so I decided to move to the town. It is around a 1.5 km from the foothill. I had the water bottle in my hand now, walked the last stint drinking as much as water I'd like.


3:45 PM I was in front of the temple. All the hotels were full, thankfully got one room in one of the cheap hotel. This was enough to get fresh and stay there till night. I had booked the tickets from Kukke to Bangalore.


Got fresh. Took some rest, went to the temple. Had food. Killed time till 10:00 PM. Checked out of the room. Walked to the bus stop. The Rajahamsa was waiting in the bus stand. The seat was super comfortable. The bus started at 10:30 PM. Just when I got settled in the seat, I felt something biting me. I thought it was mosquitoes. Darn, they were bed bugs. By the time I realized it was bed bugs we had travelled till Sakleshpura.

Changed my seat from middle of the bus (a comfortable place) to the last row seat (the only seat left in the bus). Again a bumpy ride from there to Bangalore. 6:30 AM on 10th Oct, 2010 I was back to Bendakaluru.

A wild wild trek!!!!!

Things to remember: 1. Book bus tickets in advance.
2. Carry enough food. Not a lot as you get food in the temple and bhattara mane.
3. Carry camping and sleeping equipment if you are planning to camp.
4. Carry enough water if you go in summer. After Nov end till July.
5. Carry salt, tobacco powder, limestone for leeches. If you freak out when they get on to your shoes.
6. DO NOT THROW ANY WASTE. ESP. PLASTIC.
7. Carry energy drinks. it helps.
8. Carry chocolates and gum. This will give you small boosts of energy when you keep walking.
9. Do not smoke in the jungle. You risk forest fires and you spoil the air.
10. Do not booze, it will throw you off balance and you could break your bones.
11. Do not throw tins, cans, bottles in the jungle.
12. Make sure you put off the fire if you do put a camp fire.
13. Pack your clothes in polythene covers before you put it in the bags.
14. Carry a sickle to cut firewood in case you are camping.
15. Carry newspaper, half a litre of petrol. to start the camp fire. Please be very careful using fuel.

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Kumaraparvatha Trek, Karnataka, India

2 of us (Vishwadeep Anshu and I) had planned to climb the Kumaraparvatha peak, considered by many as the steepest hill to trek in Karnataka.
 

So on one Friday evening, laden with our backpacks and camping gear, we boarded a bus that was headed towards Kukke Subramanya, a spiritual town nestled deep in the Western Ghats.


There are 2 routes to climb Kumaraparvatha. One, is from the town of Kukke Subramanya and the climb is steeper. The other, is from Somwarpet in Coorg and it provides for a smoother, though longer trek. We had opted to climb Kumaraparvatha from Kukke.


Our bus landed at Kukke early in the morning. As we got down from the bus, we found out that this town had been battered by heavy rain the previous night and knowing the terrain we were in, we expected more rainfall coming our way during our trek.


We had a simple but hearty breakfast at a small hotel by the bus stand. Soon, we asked for directions and started our walk towards the starting point. As soon as we reached the starting point, we were greeted by the sight of the Kumaraparvatha peak and also the steep incline that we had to climb.


Steadily, we climbed the steep terrain. We armed ourselves with short sticks to remove the leeches that were climbing onto our boots. After a couple of short breaks, we reached Bhattar Mane (house of Bhat), which is situated on a plateau.


This was supposed to be our lunch point, but lunch was far from ready. We waited for a while before food got prepared. It was during our halt here that we met fellow trekkers. Soon, we had lunch, refilled our entire water supply for the next couple of days and started our ascent again.


In a short while, we arrived at the forest check post, where our backpacks were checked for fire arms and our permits were prepared. This was where we got our trail map. Soon we were back on the trail and back with our ascent.



After another hour, we found a “nearly” (It is difficult to locate a flat spot in such steep terrain) flat spot by a stream. We decided to pitch in our tents here and halt for the night.


As soon as the tent was set up, my friend got in and got cosy inside his blanket for a power nap. In the meanwhile, I enjoyed the beautiful vistas that lay in front of me. A feeling of being above the clouds and the entire world around one being covered in vibrant green is very eye-soothing.


Shortly, we collected some wet  firewood, managed to get a fire going and cooked dinner over it. After dinner, it was early bed time for us.


The next morning, we woke up before sunrise, finished our morning ablutions, started up another fire and cooked some breakfast over it. Then, we packed up our camping equipment and started climbing towards the peak.


Just before Kumaraparvatha, we came across another peak called Shesh parvatha, which offer great views of the steep cliffs below. We stopped here for a while, got our breaths back, took some pictures and started our descent through dense forests.


As soon as we finished this dense forest section, we got to see the trail from Somwarpet. This is where both the trails joined. Once we reached this point, we could see more trekkers who had trekked from the Somwarpet side.


After this junction, the trail became extremely steep. At some sections, there were no trails and we had to climb on rocks. But, these rocks were very slippery owing to the recent rains. Both me and my friend slipped at a couple of places and came tumbling down, but luckily for us, our backpacks saved our skins.


After a couple of more attempts, we finally climbed up safely. The rest of the trail to the peak is a piece of cake. The peak is not as enchanting as the climb as the views from here are blocked by trees.


We took a long break here. Had some bread and cheese and took a power nap. Some photographic sessions followed to celebrate our climb to the top.


It was just after one pm in the afternoon when we began our descent. We skidded down the steep rocks and climbed our way through the jungles to reach Sheesh parvatha. Just as we began our descent from Sheesh parvatha, it started raining heavily. Soon, the entire trail was filled with water.

As we covered more distance, the water on the trails came up to our knees. Water had gone into our boots and this made walking very difficult. We even slipped badly at a couple of sections, but fortunately suffered only minor scratches. It was nearly dark by the time we reached Bhattar Mane. The rains had seriously impeded our progress. We refilled our water cans at Bhattar Mane and continued on with our descent and this time with our shining head lamps showing us the way.


The trail got more slippery with our descent. We had to watch our step very carefully. To add to our misery, thick fog blanketed our trail and made for poor visibility. All this while, the leeches were happily feasting on our blood. It was close to 8 pm when we neared civilization. We stopped at a nearby shop for some tea. The locals told us that we were crazy to walk the jungle trails in the night as it is elephant territory. We just laughed it off, but deep within, we considered ourselves very lucky. Soon, we reached the temple dharamshala, removed the leeches from our bodies, had a shower, changed into dry clothing, had dinner at a nearby hotel, boarded our bus to Bangalore and slept through the entire bumpy journey.

A great trekking experience!!

Kumaraparvatha Trail Map on Trip Naksha prepared by Ajay Reddy.

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