Sharavathi Valley Trek

By | January 27, 2009
The gang: Anil, Ananth, Anjan, Ashish, Harshal, Rahul, Suhas, Gaurav, Vivek, Lokesh
The Place: Sharavthi valley near Sagara situated in Shimoga.
Places encountered on the way: Kargal(This is where you get down), Yalakanagadde, Sharavthi backwater.
When it happened: 21st Jan 09 to 23rd Jan 09
My 7th semester vacation. This was my first college trip since 3years, but as they say ‘Older honey tastes better’– our wait for the trip made it the best till date for most of us. We planned this in December itself and executed successfully. Our gang split into 3 groups while departing from Bangalore. Few boarded the bus from Majestic, I boarded the bus at Navrang and few others at Jalahalli Cross. Well it was a private travels bus named as Maharaja Travels. We spoke a lot in the bus and all of us were really excited about this trip. At Sagar, we met a person named Mr.Narayana who has 18years of experience in forest survey. He was our guide for the trekking along with few others. 

Day 1:

Meet Narayana at Sagar, get down at Kargal, catch a jeep freshen yourself mid-way where you find a stream. On the way you get your breakfast. Start trekking to view few falls on the way. Have lunch. Continue trekking and finally end the day at ‘Yelakanagadde’. Have dinner, campfire and retire for the day. Below are few snaps.
 
Day 2:
Get up and finish your morning activities, have breakfast and walk few km to reach the Sharavathi backwaters. Start stripping and get ready with your life jackets. Mr.Ravi will guide you on the basics and check you life jacket. Jump into the water, have a long swimming session, coracle ride. At around 2pm shift yourself and your entire luggage to an island. Have lunch, take rest. At 4pm coracle to another island to view one of the best sunsets along with two juice bottles. Return to the island, have dinner, campfire. Due to heavy winds, we could not setup the tents, but Ravi and others made alternate arrangements for us. Below are few snaps.
 
Day 3:
You can get up little late, find a bush suitable to sit, take a mini bath in the water, have tea, watch the sunrise, and have breakfast. Another long swimming session; kayaking and rafting. Unfortunately the paddle of the canoe broke into two and rest of us couldn’t try it out. Swim as long and as far as you want. Start packing your luggage, have lunch and start your trek from ‘Yelakanagadde’ to ‘Devaragudda’. From the peak of the hill, you can see the islands explored. Descend the hill, catch a bus to Sagar and then back to Bangalore. Below are few snaps.
Food we had:
Day 1: Uppittu, avalakki, tea, rice, sambar, pickle, papad.
Day 2: Pulao, tea, rice, sambar, buttermilk, pickle papad, chilly bajji, juice, Kashaya.
Day 3: Akki rotti, rice, sambar, buttermilk. Papas, pickle.
Important things: 
1. You will experience trekking in forest conditions and hence wear proper footwear.
2. Swimming at depths of 250ft, Of course with life jackets.
3. Coracle, Kayaking and rafting.
4. Simple veg food but amazingly tasty.
5. No smoking, no drinking, no non-veg, no littering plastic and garbage.
6. Carry your garbage back.
7. Carry a long lasting and powerful torch, sunscreen is a must, a plate and a glass, good backpack.
8. Be humble towards the local people, treat them as friends.
9. The nature and the humbleness of the people calls you back there again and again.
10. Listen to Mr. Narayana to gain more info about the flora and fauna in the forest.  
If you are interested you can contact:
 Mr.Sampath Kumar
prapancha@gmail.com
http://sharavathi.blogspot.com/
http://kuchodya.blogspot.com/
They have a Registered non-profit organization called “The Sharavathi Adventure Trails….” Which has 2 visions for the society.
1. Western ghat conservation
2. Employment for the local youths.

See also  1191mi Day 1 - Bellevue to Eugene

Clcik here to view some fantastic snaps 



8 thoughts on “Sharavathi Valley Trek

  1. ashwini

    Hey!!! Very nice snaps! Guess you guys have enjoyed a lot!
    Nice travelogue.. enjoyed reading it:-) Looking forward to visit the place ASAP 🙂

    Reply
  2. Anil

    hey seeing the snaps and reading it makes me jealous …i should’nt missed it!!! and superb pics da

    Reply
  3. jithesh

    hip hip hurray was jst awesome toesome huh!!!!!any one who views thses pic wud sure b lookin fwd 2 go 2 thse place !!!!!those trekinn pic r also 2 gud….really d coolest pics i hav ever seen…..

    Reply
  4. Ashish Mukundan

    what a trip! never thought our patience would pay, and how…!?

    seeing the pics and reading bout the things we did is just wow! just feels bad that we’re not there now..
    dunno if it was the company, the activities or the place, but its turned out to some very special days of our engineering course…

    Reply
  5. Ananth

    well let me tell u guys one thing u can have trips but not like this one……….
    loved every part of it, be it the gang, company we got der( the guides, cook, life guards),trecking,gossiping and stories during journey, the ride in jam packed jeep(with 2 guides and a cook sitting on top of a soft top jeep for 40 km), places where we had our singles and doubles ,break fasts,bathing and playing under falls,lunch on a lake side inside a dense thick forest, pittying abt guys who were shit scared while trecking on steap slippery places, ghost stories in campfire and learnt few life saving and survival skills…………….
    i can fill pages……its all in my golden memories………..
    ALL IN ALL ITS ONE OF MY MOST ADVENTUROUS,JOYFULL COUPLE OF DAYS WHICH WILL STAY WITH ME FOREVER
    ………FOR THE TEAM………CHEERS

    Reply
  6. Martin

    The real estate is one sector that features as one of the most badly hit sectors following the global economic meltdown. Especially in developing countries like India, where real estate was going great guns, so to say, faced a steep downfall following the recession and inflation. Especially in the metros and the developing cities like Bangalore, real estate suffered dearly as the demand for the residential units, though increasing became a pent up demand. The badly hit economy particularly the IT sector that has a strong foothold in Bangalore, and the high rates of interest in home loans made the demand for residential units go down or at best become a pent up demand. It is believed that once the situation stabilizes the demands would start surfacing. Another very problematic issue that the real estate dealers are facing is that patrons of the currently booked flats are not willing to pay the original price that they had agreed on but the current price that is less than the original amount owing to the current economic condition. Not only the residential units but the commercial properties like the hotels in Bangalore have also naturally seen a drop in their occupancy. The ITC hotels in Bangalore that registered the highest occupancy, as high as 83%, have been forced to cut down on their tariffs by almost 20% as the occupancy has also gone down by 20%. On the contrary, the business hotels in Bangalore are surviving the tough times as the number of business travelers has not been affected as hard as the umber of leisure hotels. The budget hotels in Bangalore have seen a hike owing to the obvious reasons.

    Reply
  7. Heart Mates

    I was looking for blogs related with bangalore, karnataka and found your blog as an interesting one with relevant information. I felt that you blog post is worth enough for a valid comment. I enjoyed reading your post and your blog photos.

    India is truly a great place with lots of diversity and is a unique place in the world. Even after the terror attacks in india and the the economic melt down india tourism industry has performed well. I am person who is closely watching the trends and developments in India tourism and always enthusiastic to know more about India. You can follow my updates on @india_tourism in twitter or in my india travel blog.

    Reply
  8. M Gaurav Mallik

    Hi macha reading it now really brings out mixed emotions 😀 wat a time we had ! I feel bad that that magical moment passed 🙁 an I feel joyed remembering that I too lived that moment with the coolest an joyous gang 😉 Thanks for the splendid time.
    An as always U did a marvellous work capturing the past in your blog.. kudos 2 ya 🙂 Splendid work- thanks for this 1's again 😉 cheerzzz

    Reply

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