Kanoor Kote Conquered

The plan to trek upto Kanoor Kote was made because my manager from Geneva was coming down and I had promised to show him the unexplored, little known parts of India.

After some discussion with my friends, we decided to do the trek with Sharavathi Valley Group.

As always we left on a Friday night and headed out towards Jog Falls. How could one visit the region and not stop at Jog.

While I didn’t expect Jog to be overflowing with water, the sight that I saw was disappointing. There was hardly any water and one could hardly hear the falls. The only thing in abundance here was tourists. After some hot cup of coffee we headed out to Kanoor.

When we reached there a hot breakfast of Idly , sambar and kasaya awaited us. We quickly freshened up and attacked the food.

Once satisfied, we were ready to scale the hills. The plan was to cover some waterfalls on day one and then do Kanoor Kote the next day.

We had to go through a steep descent to get to the falls. Some of the first time trekkers found it really hard and took a lot of time getting down. Once down, it’s a treat to all the five senses: sound of flowing water and birds singing, breathtaking waterfalls (Haaragere), sweet tasting water. Most of us were ready to spend the whole day there. While the swimmers took a dip here, some of us climbed to the next level of the falls and cooled our feet; this was supposed to be the place where we stopped for lunch.

The best thing about going with this group is the fact that you get freshly cooked, hot food. Eating rice and sambar with papad in between a dense forest is an awesome experience.

Post lunch, we walked along the stream towards Vasugatti Waterfalls.

Most of the walk involved hopping and skipping on rocks. The final climb was at an 80 degree angle from Vasugatti Falls and was the toughest. By the time we were done, we were hungry and could eat anything. Luckily for us we were serve hot bajjis and tea. The day ended with Hot bisibele bath, Chapati and Palya and Payasam.

Though the plan was to start early the next day, since we asked for Rice Rotis it took longer to make and we started at about 9 am. Though the trek upto Kanoor Kote was not a difficult one, it was mainly through flat road, paddy fields and small stretch of forest; it was a long one.

The fort suddenly appears out of now where and has creepers and plants growing all over. The complex has been looted by treasure hunters and is in a bad state.

With all this the fort and the temples in it still had a charm. It talks of an era thats bygone. There are some very pretty carvings around.

While some of us walked around the fort, the guide went looking for water to start cooking. Since the water source had dried up it was decided that we would head to a tribal hut close by and cook there. It was heavenly to eat freshly cooked food in the middle of a forest.

Soon after lunch we started off again as the walk back was long. Since we had some first time trekkers we were taking twice the amount of time to cover the distance. As the shadows got longer we started getting worried as the region was known for sloth bears. It was decided that Mike and the guide would walk ahead and bring the TT into the forest. When this happened it saved us walking 5 kms of the trek in the dark. By the time we reached back it was well past our departure time. After quickly freshening up we headed back to Bangalore.

Pictures in the link below:

https://picasaweb.google.com/belliappaaishwarya/KanoorKoteTrek?authkey=Gv1sRgCITBl9b68N3cHg