Ballalrayana Durga and Alekkan Falls

It’s the time to share my experience of yet another alluring destination in Karnataka - the secluded Ballalrayana Durga! Ballalrayana Durga confines in its ruins, the memories and legends of the great men, who ruled Karnataka once upon a time. To this day, Ballalrayana Durga seems to be shrouded in an aura of the bygone era. All I know about the history of this fort is that it was built by Ballal raya(there are Ballal I, II and III. No idea which one built it!) and that it was later captured by Tipu Sultan. We started from Mangalore at 5.15 a.m. on a weekend to explore this seemingly alluring fort.

Ballalrayana Durga as seen from the 

starting point of the trek

The fort walls being seen along the hill.

There are two routes to reach Ballalrayana Durga – via Ujire and via Sunkasale. En route the fort via Ujire you come across the Bhandjje falls. This is however a tough uphill ascend of more than 10km. and may not be possible in a single day.

We took the Sunkasale route, which is much shorter and easier as we had only a single day at our disposal. A three-hour drive through the scenic Charmadi Ghats took us to Sunkasale. At the starting point of the trek lies an old Kalabhairava temple. It is said that this temple has also been built at the same time as the fort.

As is a routine now with every trek, there has to be a surprise awaiting the Gypsies! This time the surprise came in the form of a tractor ride from the temple along a very kutcha but motorable road.

It all started when a tractor attached with a carrier came and halted in front of us as we were preparing to begin the trek; courtesy some labourers who were transporting soil in the carrier. Needless to say, a photo shoot followed where the tractor was the celebrity! The labourers offered to drop us till the point they went along the trek route to pick soil. We were too happy to oblige. Soon all the Gypsies were in the carrier of the truck, enjoying a bumpy ride along a bumpy road. It was like volunteering to sit on a machine made to administer birthday bumps! Every moment we were being tossed up a few centimeters in the air and were then landing with a thud back in the carrier. The constant vibrations were displacing our sun protection gear. Hats were falling off and sunglasses rattled on the nose. In the melee of vibrations, a water bottle escaped to freedom from the confines of a bag’s side pocket. A labourer found it lying on the road and handed it over to us. Truly, a worthy beginning to our trek!

A memorable tractor ride!

The next couple of hours were spent ascending through forests for some time and then following a curvy path in the vast sunny grasslands. The fort walls, which looked like a thin line drawn across the peak, beckoned us silently all along the way. The fort walls extend over a couple of kilometers in the endless stretch of grass -that is all that remains of the fort. Along the wall, a few circular watch points are built at strategic locations, which offer an unhindered view of the town below along with the many approach roads to the fort. Undoubtedly, this must have been a strategic location in the olden days! From the fort, you can also see all four peaks in the Charmadi ranges. After an hour of exploring the fort we started back to our base. We visited the ancient temple, which had signified the start of our trek and started on our way back to Mangalore stopping only for a photo shoot in a sprawling tea estates a few kilometres away and then, to visit the Alekkan falls situated along highway passing through the Charmadi Ghat.

Trekking through the sunny grasslands.

The tea estate a few kilometers

 from the Kalabhairava temple

A watch point at the fort.

Visiting the Alekkan falls was yet another adventure. We had to go down the highway into the valley along a very steep and slippery descend for about 200 meters. From where we were standing, the way to the falls looked too difficult. We stood there contemplating how to go down; and if we manage to go down, how can we climb up again! It was the proverbial “So close yet so far” situation! But we were not the ones to give up… slidding and falling, slowly and cautiously we decended to reach the Alekkan falls. The Alekkan falls flow through the Charmadis from one side of the highway to another. A manhole has been constructed under the road to allow the water to flow without any obstacles. On the other side, when we went down the valley, we could never guess that the waterfall flows beneath a cement and concrete road. Even so long after the monsoons, the water flow was quite strong. Alekkan, though, bears the burnt of being situated so close to the higway – it is littered by the usual culprits – loads of plastic…

Climbing up to reach the highway was much easier than we had anticipated! Soon we were back on our way home after a day well spent exploring nature and the relics from history. 

The Kalabhairava temple.

The steep decent to the Alekkan falls.

Alekkan Falls

Gypsies at the Alekkan falls

Date : 19th January, 2013

With: Fahad A.R, Achalesh J, Mahesh, Fairoz, Giri Tanari, Sahana Varadraj, Vidya, Nachiket, Charan Walke, Shubham, Sarath Gopeenathan, Venugopal, Suchit, Aditi, 

A surprising Ermayee

Waterfalls are a pleasure to watch when they are flowing aggressively during the peak of monsoons. The falling water appears dangerous then, threatening to swallow anyone who dares to go too close to it. When we visit waterfalls in the monsoon to witness the power they have acquired from the dark clouds above, little do we realize that the turbulent opaque whitesheet of water must have hidden a chest full of treasure behind it! Perhaps the rough water also prevents us from witnessing the chiseled beauty in the rocks that support its flow!

The rocky bed of a waterfall is known to form due to erosion by the strong water currents and the stones and sand carried by it. Many times a shallow cave-like formation is formed behind the waterfall due to a processknown as “splashback” of water. This cave like formation is known as a “rock-shelter”. Moreover, when the water pounds forcefully on the rocks at its base, a deep plunge pool is formed due to the continuous erosion.

In monsoons, the turbulent waters of Ermayee falls hide numerous rock shelters, which are inaccessible then. Early in winter when the force of the water lessens, one can easily see that the bedrock has been carved out intricately to resemble a five-storied gorge-shaped structure - the rock shelters forming the five storeys in that structure, with the water flowingforcefully in the bend of the gorge. It being midwinters, the surrounding bedrock was not wet or slippery. We managed to find a way to enter one of the rock shelters with a slight struggle to climb up the steep rocks, which had verynarrow holds at some places. We climbed easily to about 30 meters on the rock and then had to move horizontally for the next 30 meters along it using only the narrow holds for support. The footholds were only a couple of inches wide at some places. It was a bit risky, lest someone should lose their grip andfall 30 meters below on the rocks. We moved cautiously, helping each other.Once on the “third storey”, we crouched to get into the rock shelter.

Climbing up to the rock shelter was worth the effort! I cannot fully describe the exhilaration of being behind the waterfall without getting wet! There were two rainbows parallel to each other in the sheet ofwater. You can imagine the beautiful photographs we got clicked by someone at the base of the falls, as we posed behind the translucent sheet of water broken at some places due to deformities in the rock; with a couple of rainbows in the water in front of us!

Later we were in for another pleasant and beautiful surprise. When you climb to the terrace of the falls, you reach yet anothersmaller waterfall. The water of this falls appears to be flowing through a roofless cave (at times the water flow becomes even lower making this sheltered spot a perfect one to camp at!) The climb to the terrace of the Ermayee falls, though, is treacherous due to the numerous vertical rocks, having very little holds, along which we needed to move very cautiously. Climbing to the terrace is not possible in the monsoons. A water pipeline runs through the topmost falls to the base of Ermayee falls. At the terrace, a bund has been built due to which, a nearly 20 feet deep pool has been formed. A few ropes have beentied along the rocky climb to the terrace, probably to assist workers to beable to climb to the pipeline. After spending sometime with this surprise at the Ermayee, we headed back to Mangalore!

The Ermayee falls had turned out to be more of an adventurous surprise…! We felt really lucky to have had this spectacular experience!

Climb along to rocks to 

the rock shelters

The Ermayee Falls flowing through

a gorge

In the rock shelters

The treacherous climb

Bliss in a cave!

The source of the falls through a closed cave

On the top of Ermayee

Climbing up to the top

(Photographs courtesy Charan S.Walke)

Ermayee Falls in Monsoons of 2008 

and winter of 2012 courtesy Fahad A.R.

Route: Mangalore- Belthangady-Ujire
Date: 29th December, 2012

With: Fahad A.R, Nitin Shettigar, Ramaprasad, KarthikPrabhu, Manoj, Smitha Upadya, Arun Mysore, Aditi Vishwasrao, Vikram Kaparthy, Javid Karangi, Abhilash Desai, Fairoz Fahad, Madhu Ramaya, Prachi Bhosale

Butterflies in my way! Aanadka Falls

Nature never ceases to surprise us! We climb mountains, cross the oceans and fly in the open skies thinking that we have “conquered” nature. The truth is that nature always “conquers” us… by unraveling the many mysteries she has hidden within her depths. Numerous such surprises were thrown at us when we, the Gypsies, trekked to the Aanadka falls (also called Kudumagundi falls) in the Kudremukh National Park.

Trekking through thick forests to Aanadka Falls

The Aanadka Falls

After trekking to Kudumari falls and then to Kumara Parvata on successive weekends, the trek to Aanadka falls was destined to be clear sailing. Surprises started even before the trek began. These were the surprises thrown by “human nature”. The Gypsies ritual of waking up fellow trekkers by giving them a wake-up call was broken when the Gypsy in-charge of this “tough” job failed to execute it. The result being many gypsies turned up for the trek without taking a bath! We halted, as usual, for breakfast at an eatery on B.C. road. The relaxing nature of the trek was such that we forgot to pack lunch and it was too late when we realized that!
More surprises waited as we reached the Kudremukh National Park…the forest officials (unfortunately for them), had kept the checkpoint office shut; thus missing out on what could have formed, a major chunk of their earning that fateful day!

The trek trail passed through a couple of sprawling village estates, streams and thick forest. We were moving ahead cautiously due to the dense vegetation and thorny shrubs lining the trail. There was no wind and the vegetation was not allowing the sunlight to stream through it. The quietness of the forest was disturbed only by the occasional jingle of the flowing stream and by our footsteps crushing the dried leaves along the trail. It seemed as if we were the only moving creatures there. Nature proved us wrong again as it threw up a really pleasant surprise….

After crossing the first stream, a flurry of activity rose through the vegetation with our every step…the butterflies!! The trees along the trail were inhabited with thousands of butterflies. Every step we took shook a hundred butterflies from their peaceful slumber and they hovered excitedly around us; like glittering angels arising as a result of some magical charm. The Western Ghats is known to be home to hundreds of species of butterflies. These were the “tiger” species – the common tiger that has flame colored wings with brown border and the blue tiger that is black in color with closely placed sky blue spots on the wings. We had a wildlife enthusiast, Arun, with us and he also spotted a few other species in that melee of colorful wings - The common crow, the spotted kites and the common jezebel. We heard a peafowl screaming, “may-awe”, saw many parrots and parakeets, the sun bird, the red-whiskered bulbul and the green bee eater among others. The trail to Aandka falls was also a nature trail buzzing with variety.

A tree full of butterflies

A bettle with a pattern of human face on it

(Photographs courtesy Charan S. Walke)

Aandka falls in monsoons of 2008 and 

winters of 2012 courtesy Fahad A.R.

The butterflies welcomed us hostilely as we approached the waterfall, resting only after we had left their territory. We were enjoying the numerous colorful wings swarming us as we moved ahead! 

As it was almost the end of December, the water currents were not very strong and we could stand right under the water flow or go behind it. The rocks over which the water flowed when in full flow, were now exposed. They had a slippery layer of moss and lichen covering them. This was enough to lower the friction and make a couple of us slip again and again until they hurt their behinds!

After frolicking around in the falls for an hour and having a minimal lunch of snacks, biscuits and oranges we were ready to return to Mangalore. That is when Fahad suggested that we had plenty of time to visit another falls – Ermayee that was close by and was just about a kilometer and a half trek . The rest of us were more than happy to agree!

Route: Mangalore-Belthangady-Ujire-Kudremukh National Park


Date: 29th December, 2012

With: Fahad A.R, Nitin Shettigar, Ramaprasad, KarthikPrabhu, Manoj, Smitha Upadya, Arun Mysore, Aditi Vishwasrao, Vikram Kaparthy, Javid Karangi, Abhilash Desai, Fairoz Fahad, Madhu Ramaya, Prachi Bhosale