Trek to Dhabbe Falls and Kanoor Fort

Before starting this blog about the experiences of the beautiful trek to Dhabbe Falls and Kanoor fort, I would like to tell you one thing if you are only interested about the route and how to reach the Kanoor Fort, please go to the end of this blog. All the information are provided there…

It been a long time we had a trek, since elephant census we never gone for a trek. We are insisting Aman and yogi to arrange a trek; at last they came up with the plan of trek to Kanoor fort. As soon as the place and dates are finalized we started checking with all of our friends who are willing to join with us, finally 11 of us agreed to go for the trek .. me, Aman, Yogi, Prashant, Shwetha, Om Guru, Guru, Ashok, Praachi, Giri, Akash. Myself and Guru started from Bangalore to sagara and the rest of the folks came from Mysore. We booked the ticket to Sagara and the bus started by 9:30 pm sharp and we both were very happy to know that the bus started on time. It reached Shimoga by 4:30 am, again on time and the driver took the bus to depot and stoped in the depot, after 30 mins only we realized that the front tyre of the bus got punctured both the driver and conductor were struggling in removing the nuts from the tyre. For our fate there were no mechanic for the night shift.. this is the sad part of Shimoga bus depot, our own CM’s native L . After struggling for 2 hours we were able to replace the tyre and get the bus out of the depot and headed towards to sagara.

We reached sagara and from there we boarded a bus to Karagal which is 30 KM from sagara. We reached there in 1 hour and from there we boarded one more bus to Biligaru.The rest of the people joined us in Kargal. One important thing here is there are lot of buses to Kargal but there are few buses to Biligaru. While planning for the trek please make sure to reach Kargal early. Biligaru is another 20 KM from Kargal. After some 40 mins of travel we reached Biligaru.

Biligaru is the starting point of trek to Dhabbe falls. From Biligaru Dhabbe falls is 8 kms. We had breakfast there in Biligaru and started the trek after a KM of walking, Guru started jumping, it took some fraction of seconds to realize that there is a Green wine Snake wrapped around Guru’s leg, He was struggling to get the snake out of his leg at the meantime myself and yogi were taking out the camera to capture the photo, but all the effort gone in vein, cos the snake was so frightened we didn’t see where it went. For your information there are lot of snakes in the route, be careful while you trek. There are leaches also. We started from there and continued the trek , the place was awesome and the scenic beauty cannot be expressed in words. There are some agricultural lands also in the path and a lot stream was flowing in the route. We no need to worry about the water in whole trek there are plenty of streams flowing. While walking we found one more Green Wine Snake near to one stream, Prache identified the snake. We all gathered around it and took a lot of photograph. It didn’t move at all, as if it was giving a pose to us.

After trek of around 2 hours we reached Dhabbe falls. There is a house near to Dhabbe falls we need to pay Rs 5 per person and register our name. The path towards Dhabbe falls is very steep and be careful while getting down. We got down and saw the falls from distance, it was HUGE ………….. very beautiful. Almost 400 mts height the water is flowing. We didn’t get down to the falls, because we need to cover another 18 KM to Kanoor Fort so we consoled ourselves by seeing the falls from distance. Since there are lots of leaches we cannot stand still for long time and watch the falls. After some photo sessions we started climbing back to the house. We had our lunch and started enquiring the about the route to Kanoor fort. The guy in that house told us that it will be difficult to reach the Kanoor fort if we start at that time. The time was 2:00 PM and he suggested to reach the kanoor Shale (School) and stay there in night and morning start towards Kanoor Fort, since the route was very confusing we requested him to leave us in Kanoor Shale and he agreed for that and we paid some money also. The route was very confusing; we need to go in between the agricultural lands to reach that place. After walking around 10 Km we reached the kanoor shale by that time it was 6:00 Pm in evening. The school was very small but beautifully maintained. There are some houses around the school. The hard fact about that school is that some of the students are coming from 4-7 KM distance. All of them will walk to reach the school.

We started preparing for the dinner. The family near to the school gave us some firewood. I took the responsibility of making the Tea and made a Tea. After that Shwetha and Prachi our main cooks started the Palav and Pachidi preparation. We accompanied them and helped them in preparing the food. After an hour we had a nice Palav and Pachidi.. thanks to Shwetha and Prachi for their efforts of preparing nice food in spite of the tiredness. The Palav was awesome in taste and I cannot continue further without mentioning one more name behind the taste of this Palav, that is Kumuda, Sad part is that she cannot able join us in the trek to enjoy the tasty palav. After having the food we had a nice sleep. We all slept in the veranda of the school. We need to leave the school premises by 7:00 am. The next day was Karanataka Rajyotsava and the school kids will come by 7:00 am for the Rajyothsava celebrations. We all planned to wake up by 5:00 AM so that we can leave that place early.

I was thinking that nobody will wake up by 5:00 AM but surprisingly I heard Aman and Giri’s voice @ 5:00 am , hey everybody woke up except Prashant .. it’s a usual procedure he is the one always wake up late. We had a fresh tea and finished our daily routines J and had breakfast. By that time some school kids started coming and they started Rajyotsava celebration preparations. We left the place by 8:00 AM and headed towards Kanoor Fort. It was 8 KM from Kanoor Shale. The route to Kanoor Fort was beautiful, there is a jeep track. We all walked in the forest for nearly 3 hours and saw a house. We filled up all our emptied water bottles and the Kanoor fort is 1 KM from there. We need to walk in a jeep track and after a while we need to take a right turn a small place heading towards Kanoor Fort. Finally we all discovered the great Kanoor fort. It was not very huge but rigid, I think now also it can withstand any missile attacks. Be careful in the fort there are lot of snakes, we saw some three snakes in the fort. There is a Doctors house near that fort that is around 2 km from there. Now nobody is staying in doctors house. From Kanoor Fort it is 15 KM distance to Gersoppa. This is the place where we need permission from forest officials (Shimoga District forest). The whole route is full of dense forest and leaches. There is no place to relax or sit for a while, we should be walking all the way. Everybody including me got exhausted and we were desperately looking for a place to sit. Finally we saw a stream flowing and next to that there is a house. We had lunch there and relaxed for a while and started again. It was some 7 KM from there. After walking a KM we saw a beautiful stream flowing, we all had a small dip in the water and refreshed ourselves and started the journey again. Now the route was simple but all our energy got exhausted. Finally we reached gerusoppa village, here we need to cross the Sharavathy river to go to other end. The cost for each person is 1 Re. One important thing to note here is that, there are bus facilities near the bank of the river, the last bus comes by 6:30 PM. If we miss the bus we need to walk another 2 KM. Luckily we got the bus and went near the main road, from there we got into another bus towards Sagara. Its 56 KM from Gerusoppa to Sagara. We reached Sagara, Myself, Guru, Prachi , Om Guru and Shwetha boarded Bangalore Bus and rest Boarded the Mysore Bus. A beautiful Trek came to an end.

Again we were planning to go for another trek in January 2011 the place is yet to be decided. If anybody interested can contact me @ satish06@gmail.com or reach me @ 9845889803

Thanks for your patience in reading the blog.

Route Information:

Sagara – Kargal 30 Kms (By Bus)

Kargal – Biligaru: 20 Kms (By Bus)

Trek from Biligaru – Dhabbe Falls: 8 Kms

Dhabbe Falls – Kanoor School : 10 Kms

Kanoor School to Kanoor Fort: 8 Kms

Kanoor Fort to Gerusoppa : 15 Kms

Total Trek is : 41 Kms.

Photo Link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/satiphoto1/TrekkToKanooorFort#

http://picasaweb.google.com/hnprashant/KannorFort#

GPS Route : http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=872463&code=049eee2caf3bb3a55312912e33ec7e59