Mullaingiri – Travelogue

Have you ever tasted depression for no good reason? I have. For many people depression is a disease. Some thing to panic about. No. It’s not. It’s just a state of mind we get in to. A very much necessary state of mind which tells us to get a change. Which tells us to grab a life. This is the state of mind in which I pack my bag and hit the road.

19^th March 2008, it

was the day I was supposed to leave to Chikmagalur from Hyderabad. I had cancelled my ticket of late night journey and rescheduled myself to leave by 3:00 pm so that I reach early enough the next day so that I have enough time to explore Chikmagalur. Initially it was only me who was in the list to hit the road. But soon my
friends also dropped in to the list. Hari, Deepu, Prashanth and Adi were among the others to join me. They were leaving to Chikmagalur from Bangalore. Chikmagalur is around 251 kms away from Bangalore.From Hyderabad it’s around 1000 kms.

Chikmagalur (town of younger daughter) is a small town in the laps of Western Ghats in Karnataka. It’s famous for its picturesque surroundings and also for the coffee cultivation. Chikmagalur along with Coorg and Mysore is the largest producer of the Coffee in India. I wanna kiss this land. Let me tell you why. In 1670 AD Baba Budan was on his pilgrimage to Mecca. He traveled through the seaport of Mocha, Yamen and here he discovered coffee. He wrapped seven beans around his belly and got them out of Arabia. He came back home after pilgrimage and planted them in the hills (which is now Baba Budan Giri) of Chikmagalur and hence introduced coffee to India and Indians. I can’t imagine my life without Coffee. How can I thank this person?

I was supposed to attend a meeting with my manager and my team and then leave for the day’s journey. I attended the meeting, finished my responsibilities in the office and started to leave from the office to get my bus at 3:00 pm. I was getting bored of the plastic faces around me in the city (including mine). I wanted to see some fresh, exuberant and unadulterated faces. My bus started exactly at 3:00 pm. It was a bus to Shimogga. From Shimogga I was supposed to take another bus to Chikmagalur. It was an ordinary bus. I knew that this bus is gonna stop in all the villages and towns on its way and many people are gonna get in and get out. Yeah… I knew. It’s gonna be fun. The kind of contrast land shows during the journey from east to west makes the journey interesting. The contrast in the land creates the contrasts in the faces of the people hailing from these lands. And the contrast in culture these personalities portray is what makes the journey worth living.

There were many people who were coming and sitting next to me and getting down. There were these two men from Gulbarga or rather Bijapur who sat next to me. People of Bijapur and Gulbarga have the mixed culture of Marathas and Kannadigas. Their dressing is very much like that of Marathas and their Kannada has many Hindi, Marathi words and slang mixed in it. They looked like farmers. I was playing around with my MDA touch screen cell phone. They were excited about this gadget in my hand. I could easily observe their astonished face. They were trying to steal a look of my cell phone. I tried to show them friendly face and they started getting comfortable with me. They introduced themselves to me and I introduced myself to them. Very soon they started to play around with my cell phone. I showed them an episode of Malgudi Days from my cell phone. They called their cell phone with mine and did all the things that a kid would do. It was great to look at their face of excitement. As expected when they asked me about the price of the cell phone and when I answered, they almost stopped their breath and looked at each other. They were also still in the time of Tape Player and Transistor. When they saw my mp3 player of 1 GB (which in itself is a bit outdated) they were again awestruck. Such a tiny one. How can that hold 100s of songs?!!! Pheewww. They got down of the bus at their destination. They turned and looked at me couple of times giving me honest smile. I was gadget guru for them.

I reached Shimogga at 6:30 in the morning. I recharged myself by having a cup of tea in tea stall and enquired about the next bus to catch to Chikmagalur. Next bus was at 7:15 and to my surprise, distance to Chikmagalur from Shimogga was around 150 kms. This is the reason I preponed my journey by 4 hours. I was expecting this unexpected guest (problem). Well, I put my earphones on and started another journey of 3 hours towards Chikmagalur. By 9:30 am I was in Chikmagalur. Call it a co-incidence or anything. I pleasantly entered the town of Chikmagalur listening to ‘Chikkamagalura o Chikamallige’ song. Here is a snap I took while entering into the Chikmagalur town.

I met my friends there who were waiting for me since 5 in the morning. They had booked a room in a hotel. I
don’t remember the name of the hotel. It was pretty decent one. Every one was ready and it was only me who had to get ready. I got freshened up and we had good breakfast and started towards our trek destination Mullaingiri.

Mullaingiri is the highest point in Karnataka. It is located in the Baba Budangiri range of hills. With a height of 1930 m (6317 ft.), it is the highest peak between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris.Wind speed is also recorded as the highest over here. At night wind speed of 60kms can be expected here.

Ours was not exactly a trekking. There is a well made and comfortable road up to the peak. We hired a car and started towards the peak of Mullaingiri. Mullaingiri is 22 kms towards the north of the Chikmagalur town.As we were climbing we could see the breathtaking view of the Baba Budangiri range of hills. The contrasting greens all over were gorgeous.

This range of hills is considered to be having large number of fresh water lakes. I remember seeing national
award winning movie Dweepa (Island) few years back. It had amazing locations and it’s an awesomely shot movie. This movie was shot in and around this place.

On the way we encountered a small Matha called Datta Peetha.

This is quite spacious place on the hills. This place offers real good view of the mountain range and few lakes. We were just half way through but already clouds were kissing us.

We went ahead towards the peak in our car and took few snaps of the blissful views. We met few more people who were as awestruck by the beauty as we were.

I am a fan of Kalidasa’s shrungara kavyas. So you can imagine what I am imagining looking at this pic

Look at the contrasting colors.

We abandoned the car on the way and started to walk. Me in the front, Prashanth, Adi and Deepu. And ya Hari behind the camera

Sooner we abandoned the road too and started climbing the hill. Like adding cherry on the cake, it started to rain too. Wow. Completely covered by the cloud, getting drenched in the rain and climbing the hills. It was a True Nature experience.

Awwwwsome. This one shot made my trip worthy. Look at the color and the stiffness of the tree in the wind. Tells me that if roots are strong you can withstand any wind.

Lost in the mist

We reached back to the road and eventually we reached to the end of the road too. From here we have to climb around 1000 steps to reach the peak. Any one can reach until these steps by car or bike and start climbing these steps.

No he is not dancing in this photograph. He is just resisting the wind.

Peak on the peak

Climbing these steps doesn’t seem to be real hard. While climbing these steps we met few ladies too who were going to the shrine in the peak.

We reached the peak. We were on the highest point of Karnataka. Peakof Mullaingiri. We could see only clouds from here. There’s also a small temple of Lord Markandeya on the peak.

Mullaingiri Welcoming us. Spare the spelling there.

The Markandeya Temple

I am flying

We offered small prayer and tried to grab a look of the city from the peak. It was difficult to get the look of the land from here. It was completely covered by clouds. Anyway we were here on the peak of Mullaingiri stretching our arms to the swifting winds whispering in our ears its Majesticness, clouds flying over these mountains kissing each other.

View of Chikmagalur from the topmost point of Karnataka.1930 m.Thats almost 2kms above ground. This is the height at which eagles fly.

Chikmagalur was my destination of vacation during my school days too. My cousins used to live there. I used to go there to meet them and spend my vacations. Even now my aunt and uncle stay there. They just refuse to leave that place and settle in Bangalore. But the thing is I never realized the beauty of this place until now. It was just another town for me at that time. Anyway it isn’t anymore for me. I parted my friends and went to meet my aunt and uncle and stay there that night. I gave them a pleasant surprise by landing at their door without giving any notice at almost midnight. It was more than 5 years since I had been to their place. I was cordially treated by them with some amazing last minute food(my aunt is a great cook in our family). I talked to them for a while and went to bed.

I woke up by 5 in the morning or rather I was woken up by 5 . I got ready for the day’s journey. I had my breakfast and I was waiting for the sunrise. Sun rose up and ahh,, ….. what a beautiful morning it was. Sparrows chirping (I had almost forgotten them. I donno when they vanished from Bangalore), sun rising and filling the surrounding with green, cattle grazing the grass. It’s such a beautiful place my aunt and uncle were living. Now I knew why they never left that place. Yes, I was rejuvenated.

Mullaingiri – Located north of Chikmagalur at a distance of 22kms. Local cabs are available in the town. They charge around 1000 per day.

Connectivity – Chikmagalur is around 251 kms from Bangalore. There are many private and government luxury buses running throughout the day & night.

Lodging – There are lots of budget lodgings (less than 500) near Chikmagalur bus stand. This road is a parallel road to MG Road.

Time – Any time of the year.