Trekking in the dark
Trekking in the dark with a small torch can be exciting (boring too, if you are walking on a tar road)
![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png)
. When we started off from Manikyadhara, it was already dark and we still had to trek 4 kms to Bababudangiri. Since it would still take sometime (given the condition we were in) to reach there, we decided to make camp at Bababudangiri and then start the trek to Galikere early next morning provided we were in a condition to do so. Slowly we kept on moving in the dark with our torches on the tar road. We had to take numerous breaks in between to rest our sore legs and shoulders. One of my friends had injured his toe while trekking and he was in a lot of pain. But, inspite of that, he did trudge along. My shoulders were petty sore after carrying my heavy backpack all day. So, we had to rest in between.
Another issue was finding firewood to light a fire for our cooking. At this time of the night, where could we find (dry) firewood?? So, we decided to have our dinner at a hotel in BBgiri. If we were lucky, the canteen owner in Manikyadhara would have informed the hotel in BBGiri that there were some customers on the way. If they had not informed, we would have had to look for alternate means.
After walking for about an hour and a half, we reached Bababudangiri and headed straight for the hotel. It turned out that the Manikyadhara canteen guy had informed the hotel that we were on the way. The hotel had kept some food ready for us by the time arrived. There was no menu though; we had to eat whatever was left. So, we had a nice hot dinner and hot hot tea. This much heat was like heaven in such a cold place. After this heavy dinner, we were so lazy to pitch a tent and so asked if we could rent a room for the night. The hotel guy showed us a room which was just that!! A small room. It was actually a shop with a rolling shutter. But this room had beds and blankets. It was so cold that we slept in our sleeping bags on the bed and with the blankets on us. Now it was warm and comfortable.
After a good night’s sleep, we woke up next morning only to find that the time was 8.30 am (IIRC). The cold and misty weather and made us sleep more than what we had planned. We had decided the previous night that we get up at 6 am and start the trek to Galikere-Kemmangundi by 7am. We had overshot our target time by 2.5 hrs. This was a very big mistake since we had a full day’s trek ahead. The jinx had struck us again. We could not trek to Kemmangundi this time also
![Frustration](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Frustration.gif)
. This trek was planned because we wanted to reach Kemmangundi and again we had to let go of it. The jinx is still going strong. As I am writing this, the trek to Kemmangundi has been postponed 3 times due to many reasons after this trek happened. So, we’re still not sure when it is going to happen.
Sights in and around Bababudangiri
Packing up in our room – Still very misty
The view from the room
The shops next to our room
To top it, even if we wanted to get back to Chikmagalur, there was no bus. Bus services to Bababudangiri had been cancelled because of a huge landslide near Kavikalgandi check post. Just a few days before the trek, the landslide had been cleared partially to allow LMV traffic, but for heavy vehicles, it was still a no go.
Then we decided to hire a jeep to get back to Chikmagalur. There was only a single jeep and he was asking around 1000 bucks to drop us to CKM. Without any other option, we agreed to his rate but bargained a little to include Galikere in the trip. We really wanted to see Galikere because we had missed to camp there on 2 consecutive attempts.
The road to Galikere
We then had breakfast (bread & omlettes) at a shop and then started off in the rickety old jeep. Galikere is around 4 kms by road and there is a tar road for most of the distance. This road is motorable by cars during the summer. It is very narrow and is prone to landslides. Galikere is a small lake atop the mountain. ‘Gali’ means wind and ‘kere’ means lake. So, it is called ‘the windy lake’. True to its name, it gets very very windy at this place. We also passed a couple of small landslides
The lake; huh, where is it??
A small walk near the lake
A lone tree shaped by the wind at Galikere
Around Galikere
Road to Bababudangiri
Small landslide on the way
View from the road
Continued.....