On to the Kudremukh mountains

I wanted to explore the Kudremukh mountains so my brother and I started off one day by car to Kalasa. This was during May 2006. The family was in Chennai and we two decided to go off to Kudremukh. I was fascinated by the Kudremukh region when we had earlier gone from Sringeri to Hornadu.

I searched the travel books and came to know that there are only two options which are available for your stay. And both of them at Kalasa. There is no option to stay at Kudremukh. One option is the Silent Valley Resorts and the other is Hotel Chandan . Since Silent Valley Resort was fully booked, I called up Hotel Chandan and booked a double room.

Kalasa is a small place and the hotel isnt great a great place to stay if are with your family. I saw lot of small cockroaches in the room. So avoid it if you are going there with your family. The Silent Valley Resorts is the other place and is around 5 to 6 kms from Kalasa on the way to Kudremukh. Those who have stayed at Silent Valley Resorts have not waxed eloquently on the facilities but were quite neutral. Food is a problem in Kalasa. You dont have any decent hotels here and people werent too happy with the food in Silent Valley either.

We started off early in the morning from Bangalore, stopped on the way at Hotel Mayura enroute to Hassan. Then we took the Belur road. The road was newly laid at that time and it was a great pleasure driving on this road. From Belur you go towards Mudigere and then towards Kottigehara. (You can find the directions for reaching Kalasa in the Silent Valley Resorts website www.silentvalley.net/roadmap.htm). At Kottigehara, we stopped for tea. You need to take a right turn here and proceed 7 kms before taking a almost U-Left turn. The road climbs steeply here. We missed this turn and by the time I realised it we were far gone !!! It turned out to be a blessing in disguise since the road was in a bad condition compared to the wrong road that we took. (We realised it when we came back by the normal route). We went almost till Ballehannur and took a left road which led us to Kalasa. We checked into Hotel Chandan.

After having lunch and relaxing for some time, we left for the Annapoorneshwari temple at Hornadu. Hornadu is around 7 kms from Kalasa would take you around 15 mins to reach there. On the way you get a nice stream where you can stop for some time. The road is also good in the sense that there are lot of twists and turns. (I am nowadays so hooked to these ghat roads that driving on straight roads doesnt give much pleasure :(

You can rarely get such a location as the one where the Annapoorneshwari temple is situated. It is in a valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides. The mountains seem to enclose this place and the moment you stop your vehicle and get out, you feel a kind of calm even before you enter the temple complex. Sitting on the steps leading to the temple and looking at the mountains rising in front is an experience you must not miss. If you sit there during the twilight hour, your experience will be more enriching as it was in our case. Being so close to nature gives a sort of peace which we city dwellers can only dream about.

The temple is a nice though not as spectacular as the more famous temples of the south. The idol inside is a big one. As is the custom in many temples of this region, guys have to go in bare chested. Free meals are provided in the temple. (Afterall, she is Annapoorneshwari , one who provides food and she cant let her devotees go hungry)

Next morning, after a simple breakfast (we really didnt have a choice :) we left for the Kudremukh National Park. My idea was to just drive through that region and enjoy the scenery around. We passed the Silent Valley Resorts on our way to the park. The drive is an enjoyable one with the forest cover or coffee plantations always with you when you drive. The roads have lot of twists, turns and gradients to keep you awake :)) It is green all around and you may spot a langur or two on the way. Though it is called a National Park, except for monkeys and birds, you will not get to spot any wildlife.

Our stop in the National Park was at Hanumangundi Falls. On the way to the falls you see a board saying 'Ganga Moola' 1 Km. You need to trek for a km to get to the Gangamoola but the problem is that you need to stop your car and then trek. At the place where you want to stop there is a No Parking board !!! Infact at many places they say that you shouldnt park your car in the park and wander around. I dont know how they expect you to trek to this place if you cant park your car anywhere nearby !! Gangamoola is supposed to be the birthplace of three rivers, Tunga, Bhadra and Netra. Given the peculiar problem that I described, we couldnt trek to this place.

We stopped at the Hanumangundi falls. Dont immediately imagine that we stopped very near the falls and you can see the falls from the place where we stopped !! The place where you have to stop is near the Hanumangundi Falls hoarding !! There is an office here which will issue a ticket. I forgot the cost of the ticket. After you buy this ticket, you need to climb down a good number of stairs before you see the waterfall. The steps are steep and you will lose breath climbing back if you are not in good shape.

The climb though is worth it. The waterfall is a nice place to have a bath. So go prepared with change of clothes. You will find people at the waterfalls but it is not overly crowded. You do get a feeling of seclusion even if a few people are around. You can easily spend an hour or more at these falls.

From here, Karkala isnt too far off. If my memory serves me right, it should be around 25 kms or so from here. At the Karala, you can get to see a nice Jain temples and a huge statue of one of the Jain gurus. This place is situated on top of a small hillock. The temple was closed when we went. We could only see the statue from outside the gate and it looks impressive.

More importantly, Karkala has some good places to eat !!! Seeing the hotels, I thought it would be a good idea to stay at Karkala and explore Kudremukh than staying at Kalasa. We had a decent lunch and got back to our hotel. We left the next morning to Bangalore and on the way I was able to get some good shots of the mountains with the sunlight filtering through the clouds.

This area is definitely worth a two day trip.