Travel, Trek and Hike Forever: Chikmangalore - Top destination In Karnataka

Kept in bucket List for too long time, Chikmangalore was troubling me a lot for not visiting. Its like a feeling to pee. Once you feel like doing it, every minute tend to become hours. Finally the day arrived and I was on my way to Chikmangalure From Bangalore. It was kind of 'planned sudden plan'. This time it was with my Co-Intern Friends in Philips - Sachin, Sai Krishna and Srikanth.

May be when you wait too much, the expectations grow too much that, reality cant meet it. Same happened with me in Chikmangalore. A reason to visit the place again anyways (but with lesser expectation..!! :) And, list for next visit is already up..! (Its Ballalrayana Durga trek !!)

Hired a taxi and left Bangalore at 4 am. With Kannada songs played loud, it was a fun to travel in empty road. Reached Sachin's Uncle's place and had our breakfast and left for the days' sightseeing. In plan was Kallathgiri Falls and KemmannuGundi. If it was only these 2 places on Day 1 then I would have been disappointed like anything. Both the places are not even worth visiting once in my opinion. I still wonder why Kemmannu Gundi is portrayed as one of the touristic hot spot in Karnataka. Its just a Dry garden with no flowers or even plants on a hill top.! And Kallathgiri Falls when I visited was a small stream of water around which people were washing cloths.! And while walking uphill along the stream, realized the fate of Indian Touristic places again. Whole lot of garbage around and icing on the cake for those who love dirt are the glass pieces in the water stream. If you are going there, then never ever dare to walk bare footed in the water. If you do, then dont complain like me about people who drink and throw beer bottles in water.! Yes.. I am being sarcastic here to explain the mentality of people who spoil the beautiful nature. But, on a serious note, its really hard to appreciate a place which is not maintained the way it actually should be.

KemmannuGundi and Z Point

Second destination was Kemmannu gundi. On the way to Kemmannu gundi, 2 kms before the peak there is a deviation to 'Z-Point'. The place which made me realize the beauty of chikmangalore. Yes, Chikmangalore is beautiful if you visit the right place and maintain it in the right way. Z point provides a decent trek and a good walk in nature. Good view points as well. After a good time, we were again ready to visit a Magnificient Sunset from Kemmannugundi and looking at the place, did not feel like waiting til sunset. If you ask me, you can skip kemmannu gundi in your trip to chikmangalore unless you are interested in a dry garden.!!

MullayyanaGiri

If you are on a trip to Chikmangalore, then even if I dont mention, you will not miss to visit this place. One of the most beautiful place in Karnataka. No wonder.. Being the highest peak in Karnataka, it should be! Green carpet all around and cold breeze. To kill your thirst to visit a beautiful place on that weekend.. :) Approach road is narrow and also lot of pot holes in the road. If you are going in a small car, think twice. When we had been there, we have seen cars finding it difficult to clear the ghat.! But, its definitley worth taking some risk and driving to hill top and go to the highest peak in the state.

Exploring any place you go is always a must. walk around and you will find some nice places. In mullayanagiri, walk a little further from peak towards the other side, and you will find 2 caves. After coming back searched in net but did not find much info except what we saw there. The caves look like man made and is lengthy. We went a little distance and found too many bats from where we returned. Absolute darkness inside and its a nice experience. :)

Overall Chikmangalore did not meet my expectation. So, I have decided - I am going there again but with little less expectation.. :) After all we need a reason to travel.!

How to reach ?

To be frank, I have not recorded any of the routes and reaching these points are not difficult since they are very touristic :P So this time I escape from giving routes. :|

Photos