We had been planning for almost a month and some how every weekend it just kept getting postponed. Finally I decided that it has to be this week, which might be our last trek for this summer before monsoon starts and most of these places becomes inaccessible. Our initial plan was to trek to Chakra falls in one of the most isolated forests of western ghats, not many have gone in here and also a very dangerous trek. But since we didn't have numbers, couldn't get the contact details of guide and other logistical issues at the final stage we had to drop this idea and post pone the trek to December. But we didn't want to drop the idea of going for a trek. Finally Friday afternoon I spoke with Rakesh and got the details for Burde Joga and we booked a one way trip to Siddapura.
The adventure started right from getting to Bangalore bus stand at the nth moment with a bit of distance covered by car, a bit of walk and changed 2 buses at 10.30 pm in the night. Finally got to board the KSRTC Volvo which was an horrible experience. The bus was in real bad shape, not sure if it even had shock observers and the driver was driving like a mad man. The worst experience was its an AC bus and I can't open the window and this driver says its cold and turns off the AC inside the bus. And we guys are sitting in the back and suffocating without air, on top of it these guys are so rude and arrogant as if they are doing me some favor turning on the AC.
We reached Siddapura around 6 in the morning only to know that the first bus available towards Kumta is at around 9 am. We got freshened up and had our breakfast at Siddapura. Funny part was Diwi getting caught exploring women's toilet to attend natures call :-). We managed to reach the starting point of the trek which is around 21kms from Siddapura on the way to Kumta. Exactly around 1km from Kyadagi, you need to get down on the bridge. You will get to see a board giving directions to the Burde waterfalls. You walk on the road in the direction of the sign board till you get one more bridge, from here you need to take a right again and walk on the mud road. Almost the entire journey can be covered by a car with decent ground clearance or easily by bike. The last stretch of around 1km decent has to be covered by walk. For initial few meters they have laid steps and after that its a steep climb down. Well I am not very happy to give these details out but then this falls has been already known to many and the information is also available on other blogs.
We managed to reach the waterfalls around 12 after around 5+ kms hike. There are 4 stages to this waterfalls with 4 and 5th being very dangerous to even watch the waterfall. We managed to get down till 4 but we ran out time and energy to explore the 5th stage, it also looked very dangerous. I have heard couple of people have lost their lives trying to explore 4th and 5th stage. Just like every body we also enjoyed the most in the 2nd stage of the water falls. We spent almost 2-3 hours in the 2nd stage after which myself, prabhanjan and loki we went to explore the 4th stage, well to be frank it was quite risky, rock climbing without ropes is always very dangerous as there would be no second chance if you slip. All was good and we successfully managed to even see the 4th stage. I was just going through the google maps and looks like ahead of Burde joga we have HonneKomb which seems to be very huge, this could also be the 5th stage of the waterfalls but I am not sure. By the way I don't know why it got the name Burde joga :-) some even call it Ilimane Falls.
We got the info from the villagers that the last bus to Siddapura is around 6.30 and so we decided to head back to Bangalore the same night. We started our trek back to the starting point. Even though we did manage to reach the destination well in advance we did manage to miss the bus. Everything happens for good and we got an opportunity to enjoy a good open air drive in a goods auto to Siddapura.
We didn't have a reservation back to Bangalore and we didn't have much options with the buses from Siddapura and here comes the same old Volvo on which we traveled the previous night with an option of 4 seats in the end for us :-) and without AC it was hell of a journey back to Bangalore.
Like always I want you guys to understand please don't litter the forest area with left outs of food and beverages. Please don't have liquor near any water falls and for god sake please don't break your liquor bottles in these places it hurts others with the glass pieces. Please have some common sense.
