[MX6]

Snappy isn't actually a pet. It's an alligator from the everglades. It's a wild one. I call it a pet as it didn't bite me.

And there were more cobras at Udupi years back. I should come over to your place. worth a visit.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

i think you are becoming more predictable now. i had imagined that you would ask this question

Oh man! I knew I should have asked about the "Architect" or the "Oracle" instead.

Originally Posted by pramod

There are a number of villages on the other side of the hills. Not towards NH48 though. From Yedakumeri Station, you have a route uphill, which leads you to villages on the Saleshpur - Somwarpet road (ShukruvaaraSanthe, ShaniwaaraSanthe road). This trek was around 2.5 Hrs uphill. So, i am sure, a local person can do this downhill with idli-vada on his head, in a hour.

Smartcat -- I am tempted to post some of my trek snaps here. Kindly permit me to do so

Go ahead - I want see the Donigal Yedakumeri stretch.

I'm quite impressed by the authorities building a railway station just for people living in inaccessible villages.

Originally Posted by MX6

I call it a pet as it didn't bite me.

Stupid alligator - It should have atleast tried!



YEDAKUMERI RAILWAY TRACK TREK CONTD:

Pic 1: By around 4:30 PM, we started panicking - it is impossible to cross the bridges after sunset. And we had no idea how far we were from the railway station. The next 2 hours, we walked like our lives depended on it - bridges and tunnels were no longer scary. We finally reached the Yedakumeri station at around 6:30 PM. One half of the gang setup the tent on the platform, while the other half went further ahead to a waterfall and fill up all the water bottles.



Pic 2: All the famous trekking spots in the Western Ghats have ready firewood and a bottle of kerosene - these are intentionally left behind by the previous trekkers, to make life easier for the next ones. We made fire and had dinner. This is when we realized that we didn't have enough food supplies to get to Donigal, so we all decided to head back home the next day.



Pic 3: This is our rather cozy tent. Although it was quite cold, Shakeela has a habit of taking off most of his clothes before sleeping. So we put him in a corner and tossed a coin to see who gets to sleep next to him. Jagga (face covered with a towel, for obvious reasons) lost the toss, by the way.



Pic 4 & 5: Yedakumeri railway station @ Dawn. Disuse of the buildings for a long time is quite obvious. Ideal location for the next episode of Aahat or the next installment of RGV's Phoonk movie series.





Pic 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10: The scenary outside looks much better than before, early in the morning.

[MX6]

Pitching a tent on the platform. Nice. Very romantic especially when you share it with a scantily clad shakeela.

And man. go back to your tinkle days. Doob doob is always dumb. He's a distant relative of snappy.

[ampere]

Nice very nice ! I wonder how is the station today? Should have been resurrected!

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by ampere

The story about Yedakumeri goes that when the meter guage train used to run, a guy with food would run from the base of the hill to the station and that would be sold in seconds. The next round was only after five six hours.

I dont know how true is this? But was a part of major trekking folk lore.

Cat, Pramod,

Did you ever come across this story? May be we can validate this with the current BG version of trains running.

I had the privilege of traveling in the MG Mysore-Mangalore passenger in 1995. It was monsoon and it was an awesome experience. The train would move so slow that we could get down and walk next to it.

The train used to stop at Yedakumari station (for a passing, IIRC) for a few minutes and there was a canteen which used to serve yummy dosas. It would definitely be sold out in seconds. I still remember the crowd of people waiting for dosas.

But, nowadays, I don't think any such catering is done on the BG line.

Originally Posted by smartcat

Never heard this "treklore", but could be true. The only way to get to Yedakumeri is from the National Highway which is a 6 or 7 km vertical trek. There are no villages closeby either. Makes you wonder why the authorities built a railway station in the middle of nowhere.

Yedakumari station is a supply and rest point for railway workers. Basically nothing but a campsite for them. Although all trains stop here, passenger traffic is nil because tickets are not issued to/from this station.

Originally Posted by pramod

Hey, some light on thus:

There are a number of villages on the other side of the hills. Not towards NH48 though.
From Yedakumeri Station, you have a route uphill, which leads you to villages on the Saleshpur - Somwarpet road (ShukruvaaraSanthe, ShaniwaaraSanthe road). This trek was around 2.5 Hrs uphill. So, i am sure, a local person can do this downhill with idli-vada on his head, in a hour.
I had done my trek in 2003, when i was in 6th semester Engineering.

Smartcat -- I am tempted to post some of my trek snaps here. Kindly permit me to do so

There is actually a village called Yedakumari in the vicinity. But, the nearest village to the station is a village called Kaginahare around 5 kms or so. To get to Yedakumari village we have to deviate from the track some distance before the station, coming from the Donigal side.

There is a bus service to Kaginahare from Sakleshpur. It goes via Hongadahalla and Donigal. Btw, Hongadahalla is rumored to get the 2nd highest rainfall in Karnataka after the Agumbe region. To know more about Kaginahare, you can check out the following thead

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...aginahare.html


smartcat, I'll post a few pics here hoping that you will be giving permission

Light at the end of the tunnel, but this was not a train


Check out the bridge. There are metal plates on all bridges


It was very green when we went


An old disused bridge under a big bridge


Yedakumari station


A WDG3A from KJM shed, pulling tankers is coming out of Kadagaravalli station. This is the only station between Donigal & Yedakumari.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by ampere

Nice very nice ! I wonder how is the station today? Should have been resurrected!

I intend to take the day train to Mangalore one of these days to find out!

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Yedakumari station is a supply and rest point for railway workers. Basically nothing but a campsite for them. Although all trains stop here, passenger traffic is nil because tickets are not issued to/from this station.

Aha! I have solid circumstantial evidence to prove that tickets were infact issued from Yedakumeri - the fare list at the railway station.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I intend to take the day train to Mangalore one of these days to find out!



Aha! I have solid circumstantial evidence to prove that tickets were infact issued from Yedakumeri - the fare list at the railway station.

Attachment 332684

You got me there!! I guess it was a passenger station during the MG days. But AFAIK, after passenger trains started running on BG, no tickets are issued. I got to know this from a railway worker at the station. Even fare charts in the Donigal station did not indicate any fares for either of the 3 stations in the ghats. After Donigal, the next station was shown as Subrahmanya Road.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I'm too lazy to post more than 10 pics per post

I guess I have to go to Jaisalmer again to get the car trips like the one we did to Jaisalmer! Although almost everybody loves roadtrips, there are some who like trekking too. Trekking builds character. The one real life change in me after I started trekking was - now, I don't mind either sleeping in the car or staying at a Rs. 100/night "temple accomodations". Not being fussy helps!

Smartcat : I tend to disagree with what others say. Even though I am mad about car trips and was fascinated with your road trips I somehow find your trekking trips equally intresting. These are things which you can do only when you are young and you and most of your friends are single. Also as you rightly said you can tend to be not fussy about small things. Infact along with your post I was going through numerous other travelouges including this one by hotstuff. Its about a similar railway track trek in Karnataka Goa border at dudhsagar falls ( http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...dudhsagar.html )
But all said, please upload more than your credit limit of 10 pics per post

[SmartCat]

hey thanks for the dudhsagar waterfalls travelogue link by hotstuff - I've always wanted to see that place. We couldn't do it inspite of our 5 or 6 visits to Goa.

These are things which you can do only when you are young and you and most of your friends are single.

True! Sadly, my trekking days are over (wife doesn't like to trek). Now, the only trekking I do is when we go shopping in malls or Commercial Street. My heavy rucksack has been replaced by heavier shopping bags

[addyhemmige]

smartcat, what time of the year did you go here? The time stamp says December, is that true?

December must be greenest time of the year, but your pics show otherwise.

[KRRaj]

Originally Posted by ampere

Nice very nice ! I wonder how is the station today? Should have been resurrected!

The station is completely rebuilt now and looks like any other station. All officials including the Station Master are friendly to the trekkers and provide advice on what route to take out.

Smartcat, yeah I believe it is illegal, but there are lots of people who do this trek and I guess the Railways turn a blind eye to it.

I didnt encounter a train when on a bridge, but my friends did.. You either run ahead or behind to get off the bridge...

But these train drivers know about the trekking.. Each time they approach a bridge/tunnel, they do sound their horns.. every time without fail... and you also hear the sounds of the train from some distance.. no issues at all.

[SmartCat]

You guys are really crazy
What speed (approx) does the train do in this section?

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

smartcat, what time of the year did you go here? The time stamp says December, is that true? December must be greenest time of the year, but your pics show otherwise.

It was december allright. Although it was not green, we found numerous impromptu waterfalls along the way - that kept the Shakeelas and Silk Smithas of our group happy.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by KRRaj

The station is completely rebuilt now and looks like any other station. All officials including the Station Master are friendly to the trekkers and provide advice on what route to take out.

Smartcat, yeah I believe it is illegal, but there are lots of people who do this trek and I guess the Railways turn a blind eye to it.

I didnt encounter a train when on a bridge, but my friends did.. You either run ahead or behind to get off the bridge...

But these train drivers know about the trekking.. Each time they approach a bridge/tunnel, they do sound their horns.. every time without fail... and you also hear the sounds of the train from some distance.. no issues at all.

The station master was friendly??? Dude, when did you go for the trek? When I went there, the station master was silent at first, but when we asked him if we can pitch our tents on the platform, he started talking all rules and everything and threatened to fine us severely and all blah blah blah.

Then a senior railway worker who was friendly with us, asked us to ignore the rants of the Station Master and pitch our tents. He also arranged for a diesel stove for us to cook (we could not put a fire on a railway platform, could we??). Of course we paid him for that.

We went in May 2009. That station master might have changed now, so I do not know.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by smartcat

hey thanks for the dudhsagar waterfalls travelogue link by hotstuff - I've always wanted to see that place. We couldn't do it inspite of our 5 or 6 visits to Goa.

So, can we expect dudhsagar falls in the 100K + version of your travelouge

[KRRaj]

Originally Posted by smartcat

You guys are really crazy
What speed (approx) does the train do in this section?

hehe.. They are quite slow, about 40kph max I believe.

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

The station master was friendly??? Dude, when did you go for the trek? When I went there, the station master was silent at first, but when we asked him if we can pitch our tents on the platform, he started talking all rules and everything and threatened to fine us severely and all blah blah blah.

Then a senior railway worker who was friendly with us, asked us to ignore the rants of the Station Master and pitch our tents. He also arranged for a diesel stove for us to cook (we could not put a fire on a railway platform, could we??). Of course we paid him for that.

We went in May 2009. That station master might have changed now, so I do not know.

Well, we went in March 2009. hmm, surprising. The Station Master at yedukamari was just my age, max 30 yrs old. Maybe he got transferred.

There were some track work going on and the " mestri " specially cooked rice and rasam for us and gave it our group. Very tasty as well