I always admired the monsoon season in karnataka, especially the monsoon of Coorg and Chickmangalore. They are the beauties of karnataka.Too peacefull to live. But after the blast "Mungaru male", it was Sakleshpur which caught my interest. We decided to go to Rottikkal, a home stay near sakleshpur.
When my friend said we are going there, the first thing i did was to hit Rottikkal in Google :). But this time there was an opportunity for me. There were no blogs, no Information about this place.
Ok enough introduction.
I virtually stopped working on friday afternoon when my friend got a photo of the location and sent the following mail.
You are here now(Mg road, Bangalore)
In another 12 hours you will be here...
Finally we started at 3.30AM in the night from Bangalore.In fact that was the best time, as Sakleshpur is 4.5 hours from bangalore, so we reached Sakleshpur Early in the morning.
The journey itself was wonderfull. The previous night it was again a hectic day with Bangalore's bustling traffic Jam, Smoke dust etc. By the time we started it was Calm, peaceful...it was looking like Bangalore of 90's. When we woke up at 6.30 in the morning it was time to see some lush green paddy feilds near Hassan. it was already drizzling a bit and it looked like a haven for us who came from Bangalore which was witnessing high temparature. As we crossed Sakleshpur whether started turning violent. that was a gradual change.
It was around 22 kms more for us to Rottikkal for us from Sakleshpur. Sakleshpur was fully covered with mist and the visibility was very low. As we started towards Rottikkal, the rains were becoming more and more stronger. This was the photo taken from our vehicle
This was actually arranged by rottikkal home stay and hence we had no worries for food and shelter.We had booked a one day package for Rs 1600/-Finally we reached Rottikkal, where bisi bisi(Hot) Akki Rotti and
Soppin palya (Malnad style Curry )was waiting for us. In fact we were happy for that itself:).The taste was worth.I felt, I got Half the money back:)
Finally it was 11.30 when we reached the actual place.Whatever my friend told me was true. At morning 11.30 the whether was like this.(see the timings in photo)
The place was fully covered with mist.The breeze was wild. The organizers explained the beauty of the place.Indeed it Was. They said it Rains around 250 inches(15 Times more than bangalore) annualy here. And we were experiencing them live.Large part this place untouched.Then we were given some kind of Special Raincoats, to start trekking towards, Actual rottikkal view point.We got some instructions also.
We were told that, we may not be able to make it to Rottikkal summit(The second photo), as the weather conditions were too wild. Even if we reach we may not be able to see anything as the thick fog was covered everywhere making the visibility very low. But that didn't dampen our spirits. The pleasure we were experiencing at the base point itself was too heavenly.This Snap was taken on the way.
Just have a look at the photo.Its 14.33 in the afternoon.the pleasure was awesome. we were into a 100% oxyzen zone from 70% Carbon-di-oxide zone in less than 12 hours as my friend told. In fact some guys in our troop went by jeep in the same road. Huf that might have been a amzing experience.I missed that and preferred to trek:(Finally We stopped at this valley as the whether started turning too violent.
it was raining like hell here and we spent an hour here before going to the base point.Overall it was an experience for lifetime.We enjoyed the true monsoon @ Sakleshpur. @ Rottikkal.
We had lunch @4 and it was time to play in this stream.
We had a heavy dinner in the with camp fire(in a closed dining hall) and slept in the cottages. it was another experience to listen to frogs music and heavy rains dashing against the tiles of our cottages.
We started back to Bangalore on next morning after having a breakfast (again it was some malnad food which was equaly good like previous days Akki Rotti.)
People said, the place is more beautiful in post monsoon when the fogs are cleared and grasses are grown. I am waiting for post monsoon :).
