And we end up in Santaweri | Budangiri – Trek Notes
Clicked in Jan 2004 / Budangiri Trek (*album)
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On the day 3 of our hike – A glorious morning. Ravi was the first to wake. We were all up by 0745 hrs. After attending to the essentials we packed our bags, rolled our tent and began our hike. It was an uphill trek and the trail went towards a big shola. After a little distance there was a fork. We took the one going to the left… a little more distance and we hit another fork. We ditched our bags and explored. The one going to the left went back into the valley we came from and was infact an animal trail. The one going to the right went around the big shola and went downhill. We took this route. (Note:The trail going to the right at the first fork went round the big shola from the other side and and went up the hills).
We cut across 4 small sholas with small streams. As we hiked around a hill we saw the ruins/ paalu mane that we were trying to find on the second day. It was up a hill we had come around and it was not visible from the other side. We did not know when or after how much distance along the hike from Gaalikere we would pass it. Hence our exploration the previous day.
Though we found it we did not head towards it and continued on the trail we were in as we had lost sufficient time already. (Note: One of our resources- the guys with whom we had talked to, before coming on this trek had camped at Palu Mane for the night). It doesn’t appear to be an ideal campsite, but definitely worth a visit.
As we continued we passed a picture perfect stream, like the one that you would see in an ad for exotic places… a nice pit stop for us. Once again we indulged in our favorite sport, photography. I am sorry to say I failed to capture it as beautifully as I saw it. Judge it yourself.
From here the trail took us to a view point. There was the jeep track on the right (visible earlier on the trail). We could see a village from here and we took the jeep track towards it. This was Santaweri. Had we taken a left after the stream, just before our view point we would have hit Kemmangundi (info – as per the locals at Santaweri) .
Along this jeep track Ravi’s earlier wish came true, we got to see a pug mark of a big cat (we found out later from wildlife photographer TNA Perumal that it was most likely a tigress). I took a picture with my lens cap which measures 52mm as a scale. We were really pleased as it was our last few hours in the jungle. In the end I am very happy we ended up in Santaweri as we caught many pleasant sights of village life, coffee estates and some really colorful houses.
We took a 5 minute break at a tea stall… after which we caught a bus to Lingadahalli from where we went to Kemmangundi (by bus) , for we wanted to end it there (as we were all stupidly stubborn). From here we went to Beerur via Lingadahalli and caught a bus to Bangalore at 2200 hrs after dinner. We reached Bangalore at 0200 hrs in the morning.
Note: One can go to Terikere from Santaweri which is via Lingadahalli or to Beerur from Santaweri to get a bus to Bangalore. And if you take the detour at the view point and go to Kemmangundi, make sure to reach there by 1630 hrs or you will miss the last bus off the place (which by the way goes to Tereikere via Lingadahalli). In case you miss the bus and still want to get back to Bangalore then you will have to hire a jeep or hitch a ride in one of the lorries/trucks from the mines. (things might be different now… do verify)
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