Bisle Ghat- An Adventure to Remember
“Don't you long for something different to happen, something so exciting and new it carries you along with it like a great tide, something that lets your life blaze and burn so the whole world can see it?” ― Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows
This line exactly tells me about the situation when I let my life just pass away after coming back from office – what we call, “ the normal life .“ I choose to enjoy the feeling of wilderness as a vagabond within myself which makes me want to go away from the reality. Who does not want to have something in their life where they feel love to do it whatever it takes.? For readers like you can be one thing and for me its the traveling in nature which I crave most. I am always up for that opportunity. As the famous Author Paulo Coelho said, “And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” I was also looking for that kind of time to arrive. So there it was after having been busy with usual job life and busy Diwali, was looking forward to seeing mountains and greenery again this time.
Location – Bisle Ghat
Date- November 21st, 2015
A fairly Unknown place to Bangalore Trek enthusiast. Bisle is a small village in the heart of south-western India's Western Ghats. It adjoins Bisle Reserve Forest, which has some of India's most spectacular rain forests.
Meet-Up:
Lohit as an organizer for Bangalore Hikers and a friend of mine was taking up the responsibility of arranging this trek. I was first one to register. This time, we had five wonder women in our group.As only Sumitra and Lohit were the known faces, rest were new to me, so it was an opportunity to make new friends. Including TT, who arrived almost on time despite our meeting time pushed by one hr due to heavy showers, all of us have got themselves a seat.
We began our journey of almost 300 km. After an initial introductory round of who, what, where among each other, Everyone was wondering what to do in during the journey, after quite a few suggestions it was decided to let's watch a movie. Since everyone was going on the trek, all voted in for Everest Movie, which was available. Thus, the journey continued with the movie, gossips, and Naps. Everyone was excited to spend next two days ahead full of fun.
The Welcome by Stars.
We arrived at the desired destination approximately 0400 hrs, 50 Kms of Sakleshpur in Bisle Rainforest reserve. The visibility was nil without a torchlight. So Lohit including other trek mate were looking for the home stay while few of us were enjoying the beautiful view of the clear sky. Mamta was using the app on her phone to find all known star such as pole stars, planets like Venus and Mars. The words can't describe the magical view of that moment while we were watching the clear sky. Shree tried hard in capturing through his camera but could not get a perfect shot. In spite of the little difficulty in getting hold of stay home guy, we(Lohit, Sagar & Vishwanath) were successfully able to locate it. The stay arrangement with beds made us feel comfortable to doze off quickly. It was the long day ahead, and everyone was looking forward to it.
The Trekking Day
We had to improvise our regular plan for our morning trek due to late wake ups and little delay in having breakfast. It was then decided for a shorter forest trail walk and visit the falls today. A Little change of plan to carry out the schedule for the day 2 was decided. Everyone was ready for the journey ahead after all routine delay to get ready. Two guides accompanied us; every one of us was moderate trekkers with one or two trekking experiences. The journey started with guides carrying boxes of food and our TT dropping us to a point from where we would start walking.
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| The Group |
The Falls
The weather was bright and sunny around 28-30 degree Celsius. To be fair to say a pleasant environment to trekking as such.TT dropped us at a point from where everyone of us could see lush greenery all around as if Mother Nature had taken a green blanket all over it. Few of the Red leaves trees made us feel like walking in the spring season. The initial trail was a dry area, all lush green area with high grass. We got divided into two groups of approx. Six members each depending on the speed of our walk. As the walk continued, one could feel the change in weather. It was a clear sign of we were going more inside into the forest. Moss had started appearing indicating the Monsoon Forest as it was.
The first trail walk was about 4-5 km till deep inside the forest. A mix of uphill and downhill terrain walk but with absolutely no peaks or down as such. The level of difficulty was moderate. The experience of watching the fast moving boar inside four km deep in the forest was one the highlights of that walk. The sound of flowing water in the deep forest was soothing for the ear. The view of Tall Bamboo maze in the middle of the jungle was awesome. Our Guides were cutting the bamboo trees to make a way for us. After walking through 2 or 3 small water streams in-between for almost two hours we reached Dabbe Falls. The beauty of fall can't be defined in simple words here rather it is a must for someone who loves nature. The waterfall will best be described by the photo given below. ....
Lunch Time
Our Guides suggested us to go into the water as we were sitting on the rocks capturing that wonderful scenic moment into our eyes waiting for some other trek mates to arrive. Guides got busy in gathering woods; I thought they had brought cooked food along, but I was wrong, they were going to prepare food here on the edge of this river and falls. It filled my heart with joy, and more so ever when they said that they were serving fresh fish curry to us. It was like a dream come true for me, sitting in the forest along a river, swimming in it and then having awesome food especially fish. Vishwanath did the first honor of getting into that icy cold water. Once I saw him, Sagar and I took off our clothes and ventured into what I would say is heaven. It was like your small pool, it was not deep, I could float on the water for minutes looking into the sky, just being thankful to God for this wonderful moment. In the time as we were busy getting into the water and swimming, the official photographers of the groups Sumitra, Amruth and Shree were setting up their cams and capturing this wonderful scenery in their lens. After a lot of convincing eventually including the organizer most of us one by one started coming inside the water, in the meantime food was getting prepared.
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| The Falls |
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| Another View |
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| Fresh Food |
After posing for pics in all possible ways, emotions, actions, and dramas, it was time to eat. People changed their clothes, were drying themselves down. Hot food were served in bamboo plates. Non-vegetarians had boiled eggs, Rice, Fish Curry, pickle, Sambar and Rice. And to cool down, buttermilk was getting served. It was one of the most delicious food I was having on the trek. The scenery, waterfall, and surroundings were simply adding flavor to that food. It was like a small playgroup in that natural surroundings.
The Experience of walking through leech infested route
After having finished our food, we all started getting ready for the journey back through the route that was different but unexplored. We had to cross one huge stream of water; Guides were carrying the machete to take down tree branches to make way for Us. This path seemed like and old muddy dried river with no footmarks but leech infested. The guide himself was behind, and to avoid leeches everyone was simple walking ahead. I am damn sure; everyone was ignoring the scream of girl who will request to remove the leech climbing the shoes and keep walking as soon as possible. Everyone arrived had 3-4 leech bites on an average. The journey ended on a bridge where the river was flowing, and everyone had the opportunity get their bloody feet cleaned near the bank of the river. Better light for photography made us have some photography session over there.Our TT was waiting for us, After TT driver saw our avatar, he clearly said keep shoes back, no leeches in TT please. It was time to go to next picnic spot the famous Bisle Ghat Viewpoint for sunset.
The Viewpoint
As we hopped into TT, the journey started towards the viewpoint, which was 6-7 km uphill ghat road, We reached after sunset, missing the chance for the sunset experience or some photography pictures nevertheless the place was Nice.
All of us had a nice time there though we missed out on a wonderful scenery. From that viewpoint, we could see straight up Kumar Parvata. Since it was getting darker, it was decided to come early morning next day to see the sunrise at least. At homestay, we enjoyed wonderful bhajia with tea.
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| View |
Bonfire round
All of us reached homestay tired; Homestay had ensured we were getting hot water for shower. The complete area there was no Cellular network, As food was prepared, everyone was doing something, I with few others had the game of cards called the bluff, in few hours bonfire had started, we were going to have food in the open sky again.
As usual everyone was sitting around Bonfire, it was now time to play a team game, We first started with complete the story, which didn't last long, then played Guess, the person. Once dinner was over some went early to bed, few of us were discussing horror stories, as usual I told my typical horror encounter, Sumitra and Lohit heard the same may be for the third time. I heard Instructions from Lohit to get up early in the morning to reach the viewpoint. After setting the alarm and with a feeling of being blessed with great food and company I went into sleeping mode thinking about tomorrow'swonderful day.
Day 2 -Cloudy Sunrise
Everyone was ready to walk towards the viewpoint after waking up around 0500- 0600hrs. Shree was ready with his photography gear to capture the sunrise. We reached the view point in cold weather and dim light. It was pretty cold out, however, in front of our eyes covered in lush green was Mount KP standing tall, all the mountain ranges from that viewpoint seemed like taken over by a blanket of clouds. It was cloudy weather, and we really could not see any sunrise, light was coming out. I decided just to lay down and stare into the sky. Amruth and I started playing this childhood game of what cloud resembles like, from chicken to a sexy girl figure we labeled them. It brought back memories of childhood carelessness and kiddish feeling. Others were just busy in taking pictures of themselves and Mother Nature in all possible angels. With the brief amount of time spent there and lots of photos, we started coming back to the Homestay again. Stopped on way to a small Home cum General Stores to have awesome Tea. It was time to get freshen up now and have breakfast now. Cause we had to get ready for the next adventure.
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| Mighty KP |
View from the top of the mountain peak
After the early morning walk, we were ready for the trek. As per our Guide said it was approx. 6-7 km walks to a Peak offering 360 Degree view. The weather was bright compared to previous day. Initial walking was through flat, crossing paddy fields (rice) till everyone came across a small intersection of the road leading towards bushes. Our Guide was waiting for us at that point
The road less traveled
The road less traveled
There was the clear demarcation between two roads at an intersection; one was a normal village(kaccha Roads) and one which was leading into the greenery. Indeed, we took that road. It was almost 4-5 km walk, the initial patch was little uphill and dense forest. We saw some electric fencing; I was unsure about whether we are supposed to cross that, but that was our way, after the fence there was almost 1 km walk on the edge types. On the left-hand side of me there was mighty KP, we were walking parallel to it. We stopped in at a hill top. Had a photo session, all types of photos jumping in the air, behind the grass, the filmy style pose. It was well-deserved rest, Sun was almost on top of us, it was only one km walk now, we could see the peak now. A difficult rocky patch was an obstacle. But all of us reached safely. There it was the peak had the large flat stone; we could sit comfortably. The best part was almost 360-degree view. The Top was a Cliff from one end, Very high, but all of us were relaxing now, everyone opened their food items, started talking, it was time to enjoy the achievement. It was a dense forest. Though the peak offered a magical view of the environment. We spent round about 1 hour on the peak, some photo sessions, eating and looking down the cliff.
After spending a brief amount of time we returned to the guest house, we didn't take any break while going back. On the very last day, we were served with delicious sambar rice and buttermilk. We were provided with Lemon juice also to keep us hydrated. At around three it was time to say goodbye. We thanked the Guest house managers and off we were with these wonderful memories of Bisle Ghat going back to our usual life.
Stopover at Manjarabad Fort.
While on our way back we went to Manjarabad fort, it's a star-shaped fort in Sakelshpur, kind of ruined fort, but it had the fine surrounding 360-degree view. We spent quite a lot time there, and after this we were on our way back to Bangalore.
Written By:
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| At Manjarabad |
Swajit Gade
Edited By:
Rohit Raman
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