06/06 Antragange Cave Exploration

Friday Night on 5th June, I took the bus to kolar from KR Puram railway station. The buses start from where the hanging bridge starts and for those driving in their own vehicle, the drive is a bliss. Smooth and sexy. 

There is also a train apparently that starts from Bangalore Cantt, through KR Puram till Kolar. But, bus stand is nearer to Antragange. 

I had planned for a night trek but couldn't gather the courage. I reached the trek starting point alone at 9pm in complete darkness, no fellow person, lightening behind the entire Antragange range and a pack of dogs guarding the entrance barking at me from a distance. I followed my insticts, took a lodge for the night, had an on and off sleep and started early morning towards Antragange base. 

I started my Antragange trek early morning around 6. The weather was really nice and I reached the temple and then further the vegetation within no time. The trek was a short and easy one. 

Early morning View from the point after
I finished the initial trek to reach the vegetation.

This is where the cave exploration starts. There is apparently a road route to reach till here. The caves are not deep caves but natural formations of rocks where you can pass through from tight passages. Antragange are a range of rocky mountains (more than 10 atleast), most of which are unexplored. The place is a delight to explore during early morning. I roamed around a lot and tried to explore a lot of it. Found a virgin cave also which was not polluted with any paper or plastic. The cave exploration was exciting, peaceful relaxing views were a good break from noisy Bangalore.

I trekked down from the top around 10 and it was getting hot, so I tip toed quickly among the rocks to reach the base. Took a bus back to Bangalore (which dropped me at KR Puram). Buses from Kolar to Bangalore run till 12pm.

Mantapa in middle of an open field.

Early Morning View from near the Mantapa

Beautiful. Isn't It ?

Another trek route (starts from the left) into one of the hills. Less Explored.

After trekking the hill quite some distance, an open field.

A lot of such unexplored caves/rock passages are there in Antragange.

Peace, silence, soothing wind, no sun and a joint.
This place was really amazing ! :-)

Top Trekking Destinations Near Bangalore

A personal Checklist of To-Do treks near Bangalore.

Following is the list of some famous treks very near (< 150 kms) from Bangalore, Karnataka, India. 

1. Kabbal Durga Trek
2. Savandurga Trek
3. Skandagiri Trek (~ 70 kms)
http://wishgo.blogspot.in/2015/01/0401-trek-to-skandagiri.html 
4. Bheemeshwari Wildlife Trek
5. Rangaswamy Betta Trek
6. Makalidurga Trek
   http://www.getbeyondlimits.com/treks/makalidurga
   
7. Nandi Hills Trek (70 kms)
8. Chennarayana Durga  (100kms)
9. KuntiBetta Trek (125 kms)
   http://wishgo.blogspot.in/2015/03/0802-kuntibetta-trek.html
10. Devrayana Durga Temple trek
11. Nijagal Betta Trek
12. Mekedatu Trek
    http://traveltwosome.com/blog/day-trips-from-bangalore-mekedatu/
13. Antragange Cave Exploration (Near Kolar)
    http://wishgo.blogspot.in/2015/06/0606-antragange-trek.html

Treks at an overnight journey (> 200 kms) from Bangalore.

WESTERN GHATS :

1. Kumara Parvatha Trek (Karnataka)
http://wishgo.blogspot.in/2015/03/2802-kumara-parvata-trek.html





Kurangini >> Kollukkumalai >> Meesapulimala >> Silent Valley (Kerala)
Kodaikannal > Munnar (http://usandeep.com/trekking/kodaimunnar.html) (TN/Kerala)
Vellarimala / Vavulmala (Kerala)
Tadiyendamol > Coorg (Karnataka)
Wayanad -> Chembra peak, Anaerangal, Anamudi, Ponmudi, Nelliyampathi and Dhoni, Agastyarkoodam  (Kerala)
Kudremukh / Thirumaleguppi (Karnataka)
Kodachari (Karnataka)
Chikkmaguluru (Mullayangiri and Bababuddangiri) (Karnataka)
Coorg (Karnataka)
Gokarana beach trek (Karnataka)
http://www.usandeep.com/trekking/gokarna.html
Periyar Tiger Reserve (Kerala) http://periyartigerreserve.org/
Fort Rajmachi Trek (Maharashtra)
Sakleshpur >> Yedakumari  (Karnataka)
 Harishchandragad-Bhairavgad-Kunjar (Maharashtra)
Jungli Jaigad Fort Trek (Maharashtra)
Karla Caves (Maharashtra)
Naneghat Fort (Maharashtra)
Agumbe (Karnataka)

EASTERN GHATS :

1. Nilgiri (Tamil nadu) 
2. Nagalapuram (Andhra Pradesh)

08/02 Kuntibetta Trek

After Skandagiri and Hampi (which wasn't a trek really), Kuntibetta was a disappointing trek from trekking perspective and even sunrise perspective. It was an easy night trek, but I enjoyed every moment of it because of the company of friends. No, we did not litter anything at the top.

It was an easy trek and a short one and even the clouds weren't there to give the sun a sparkling entry.

But, Sunny (and Purnima), Sahil (and Ankita), Doctor and Me had a really good time. We hired a personal taxi till the base. Sahil had come here once before and told that you do not have to take a right turn where there is a small board that has something written on it in Kannada. We did not have a Kannada friend, but we had an ex-Kuntibetta trekker amongst us, who guided us the base and till where he went last. I took over the lead on the trek up and doctor took the lead on the way down.

There were some trekkers who had come through a package and were guided by a person also, we let them pass us by, while we waited for them to disappear. At some points, I deviated from the main path just to make the trek a little difficult, but still all of us reached the top easily. We were up the entire night, drinking, gossiping, smoking. We enjoyed the campfire and the viewpoints till sun came and we started enjoying the sunrise. We went to the lake later but it wasn't worth the visit.

The next time I am going to Kuntibetta will definitely be a time when there is no moon and it is cold or monsoon.

28/02 Kumara Parvata Trek

On 27th Night, I and a handful of my office friends boarded a bus to Kukke Subramanya temple, reached there by 28th. Took a cheap basic lodge, freshened up and started on our way to the base of KP.

This was a two day trek with camping on top of Kumara Parvatha being the agenda. The end result was a sense of achievement that I can never forget. You can say one place ticked off my bucket list.

The trail is approximately 14 kms one way from the base and traverses through the forest, grasslands and shola forests. You can add another 1.2 kms from the temple town Kukke Subramanya.

This was the base of KP. We entered the small gate behind us and started trekking through the forest. Since it was early morning, there wasn't any sun and we were trekking fast to beat the sun as much as we could. 

After trekking through the forest which took about 2-3 hours on medium pace and decent rest, sun was out and we were on top of some hills. In open fields under the sun and lots of water in the bag, we walked. There was nothing else to do, so we walked and rested and that's all we did. There was a visible trail, so it wasn't about the difficulty, it was about stamina. We stopped for sometime at Battara maane, where a local family serves you food. 

 The first 6 kms is an uphill path going through the forest till Bhattara Mane where the forest starts thinning. It took about 4-4.5 hours to reach the first way point. This is where we took a lunch break .

After having basic (rice, rasam, ginger pickle, butter milk) but very delicious food (all of us were very hungry), we embarked on the next arduous stretch of 2 kms where the trail is almost on a constant incline of 40-50 degrees and a path that goes through the grasslands with very little shade here and there until you reach another way point called Kallu Mantapa. I reached there first. The next source of water or probably the only source of water during summer time. Beyond this one will not find any drinkable source of water. I wasn't very tired, smoked up a joint, waited for all my friends there, because it wasn't a difficult trek but lengthy. I enjoyed looking at all the tired faces climbing four steps, looking up the distance, climbing four more steps and looking up the distance and so on till eveyrone reached Kalumantapa, enjoying and mocking them !! 

When everyone made it till Kallumantapa, I, Ritesh and Rishabh started the trek to Sheshaparvatha. Aahhhh, the trek from Kallumantapa to Sheshaparvatha was a bliss. I enjoyed it more than ever. I again took the lead and wasn't in sight. I waited at Seshaparvatha for Ritesh and Rishabh to catch up who weren't far behind. The trail leading to Sesha Parvatha tricks you with many false peaks giving you a false sense of hope and making it appear much closer than you think. Sesha Parvatha itself provides some wonderful views. One can spend some time here before you begin the last stretch. Then we started trekking from there till KP which was the most difficult part, only because I was tired and could watch KP from Seshaparvatha and didn't expect it to be that far. The last stretch of the trek involved another 2 kms of going downhill and then uphill through the forest to reach the summit. The top of Kumara Parvatha offers some flat ground for people to pitch their tents and camp overnight. We took wood, camped there, put up the sleeping bag, cooked dinner, drank old monk, smoked up some joints, had a lot of laughs and everyone went to sleep. I didnot have a sound sleep because we pitched the tent at a very little slopy surface, which I realised at night was slopy enough to slip me to the other side of tent every half an hour. Amongst all the gang, I was the only one who could not get up to view the amazing sunrise. 

After I got up and everyone had breakfast and packed up the tents, we were ready to trek down with a very good feel and an amazing sense of accomplishment. But, If you ever thought that getting down is easier, yes its marginally easier, but takes a tremendous toll on your feet.

The journey began on day 1 at 6.45 am and ended at around 6.30 pm when we reached the summit. On day 2, being downhill, we started at around 10 and reached the base at around 6.45 pm.

The KP now allures me to do a trek post monsoons to capture the wonderful vistas.

There are somethings that can only be experienced no matter how much ever is written about it. KP is one such thing. You can only experience it in person.

 

Please read through : http://www.kotresh.com/index.php/kumara-parvatha-trek

Battarmaane : 

water refill: Available

Toilet facility: Available
Distance: ~6km from base point
Time Taken: ~3 hours (7:15 am to 10:20 am)
Accommodation: Available
Food: Available
Contact: 9448647947 / 9480230191 ( phone signal is weak here, you might have to try multiple times)

Post(s) from my fellow trekkers :

http://travelzofalifetime.blogspot.in/2015/03/trek-to-kumaraparvatha.html

04/01 - Trek to Skandagiri

Rahul and I started our little journey on 3rd Jan night to Nandi Hills and reached Skandagiri base at 2am following Google Maps. The rest of the trek can not be described in words. Both of us had never done any trek before. Well, I had done one in Ramanagar earlier but that was very easy.

We started following a bunch of localites who had come to trek Skandagiri and we thought that they knew the way. 20 minutes into the trek and having cleared some 2-3 normal to difficult hurdles, we encountered a major hurdle which required a group to act together. Well, they helped us out. 30 minutes further, we were in middle of slippery rocks, bruised by thorny bushes, low light and real green shiny snake with no way further and needed real courage to cross that snake/steep slope/slippery rock hurdle . Yes, we made it till the top by taking time and finding ways, but gosh it was no ways an easy trek as I had thought. Well, this post is not a travelogue, so, all I want to say is :
1) Go there if you know which way to go up. There was a very easy way (comparatively) through which we climbed down. You should know that way. There are some local guides which charge you for that. Either hire one or go through an adventure company.
2) I hope you get lost and I really do because that quadruples the adventure. In that case, make sure you have a good torch, water bottle, a very light backpack, a knife and will to climb up through the thorny bushes and dangerous wildlife and scary slopes and drops.
3) There was maggi, water at the top and very cold breeze. the Sunrise was just beautiful. All the people went nuts at the first sight of the sun.

We had a lot of fun climbing up to the top and there was not much tiredness after the trek although the legs were paining towards the end of the trek. I had a little sleep in the afternoon and went to a party in the evening.