Rappelling, Zummering, Chimney Climb and Bouldering at Ramanagaram!

Last weekend we had a pleasant surprise regarding the exciting adventure sports that are possible in the sleepy town of Ramanagaram, (Bangalore).  Twenty five of us from IISc registered for an adventure sports stint at General Thimayya National academy for adventure(http://gethnaa.org). It was a two and half day introductory course to adventure sports costing us 250Rs including food and accommodation.(thanks to Govt. of Karnataka)

Not knowing what to expect, we started early on Saturday morning carrying minimal stuff like couple of blankets, shoes, shorts and light snacks. We were greeted by an enthusiastic coach who straight away took us on a jog. After a hearty breakfast, we started on a trek up the ram-giri betta. Unusual rains put paid to our plans of bouldering and we simply trekked up the hill. The climb was enjoyable and slightly steep towards the end. In between we were asked to wriggle through a tiny cave in the mountain. This became hilarious when some of us(fat ones like me) got stuck half way through the cave. The view from top of the mountain was very nice indeed. While trekking down, we chose the route through the forest. The climb down was steep and exciting.

Climb up Ramagiri betta

Wriggling through a cave

After the lunch, we had a session in Rock climbing. This was followed by rock bouldering session. Most of the people got through this fairly easily. The task was to cover three boulders, using simply your hands, legs and cracks in the boulder. Once you get you start trusting your legs(and well shoes) this was a pretty easy(the boulders were thankfully not very big). The chimney climb was far more harder. This requires deft hands and feet and also physical power to lift yourself 25ft up. Luckily we were roped up and managed to come down safely.
After a night in tents, we left early again next morning to Rappelling. This was certainly the most exciting part of the trip. The sight of a 120ft vertical rock left me dazed. Luckily, I found out that it was not a climb up but a climb down. One by one, we trekked up to meet our destiny. The coach who roped us up had good fun making the Mickey out of us. It was not as dangerous as I thought it would be. After the initial nerves we had an enjoyable climb down. After this we finished the trip Zummerring. This involved us getting roped up and climbing up a tree. This was also pretty challenging. 

The guides we had with us were very encouraging and the cook was brilliant as well. Getnaa, a must visit if you are around.

Trip to Dudh Sagar- December-January

Dudh Sagar in full glory-Monsoon

This new year we made a trip to Dudh Sagar, some thing of Chennai Express fame. We started on Monday evening 6 PM from Bangalore towards Dharwad by Car. Six hours on the fabulous NH-4/AH-47 was all it took to make it to Dharwad some 430 KM from Bangalore. After a stop over for five hours at a very comfortable and reasonably priced Hotel Hoyasala, we started at 5:30 AM on Tuesday morning towards Kulem, Goa. We took the Honapur-Malwad-Ramnagar route to reach Kulem. The distance to Kulem from dharwad is about 130 KM, but driving through the ghats took nearly three hours. After parking at the Kulem Railway station, we had a quick breakfast at Kulem(not very good stuff, better carry your own food) as we wanted to catch the train that's available from Kulem towards Dudhsagar. Unfortunately we missed the train and decided to trek till Dudh Sagar. The distance was 11KM along the train track and not very risky. The only issue is that once the initial enthusiasm ebbs out, trekking up the stone track is pretty irritating. On starting the trek at 9.15 AM we reached Dudh Sagar in about 3 hours. We came across three-four small tunnels. On the way was a small staion Sonalium, that is approximately at 2/3 stage of the trek. There was nothing available to eat on the way up, better carry your own stuff. The falls was quite a spectacle as it has a three tier structure. It falls beautifully through the train bridge and makes a very nice pool of water where you can swim/ play around. The small disappointment was that the falls was not as thick as what we had seen online(Monsoon).

We can spend about a couple of hours at the falls, having whatever lunch we have bought. There was a small shop at dudh sagar, something that we did not explore. On the trek back to Kulem we were extremely tired and decided to wait for a train. We stopped at sonalium and waited for a train. At around 2 a goods train came by and after seeing the large number of people waiting he obliged to our request and stopped. A surprisingly short half an hour later we were at Kulem Railway station. This left us the whole evening to explore goa.

Dudh sagar in Dec/Jan

Monsoon-Dhudh Sagar

What can ideally be done?

• Started from Castle Rock station(C), thats there in Karnataka.(this avoids the 250rs toll at goa, if you have  no intention of going to goa ).
• Though Dudh Sagar is about 15KM from Castle rock, the goods train drivers are pretty good and will(hopefully) stop at castle rock and take you to dudh sagar railway station(A).
• Catch  another train back from dudh sagar to castle rock(C).
• Note that also there is jeep service available from Kulem Railway station. This is said to be pretty expensive and may cost about 2500 Rs up and down.

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  B is Kulem in the map