So it all started before labor day's long weekend when Sarjit and me had a discussion on utilizing this long weekend. Finally we agreed on Anthargange!!!
Sarjit asked Shreyansh and Anuj and they both were also ready. Anthargange is a mountain in the south-eastern part of beautiful Karnataka. It is famous of caving and trekking. We need to drive for around 70 kilo-meters from Bangalore to reach here. Me and Shreyansh started at around 6 AM in the morning and reached Domlur , where Sarjit was waiting with Anuj. Highway was very busy and due to traffic in morning I thought we should have left a bit early. We didn't have much fuel so stopped at Indian Oil's. Sarjit was keen to post his travel plan on social network. We clicked few pictures there. Our next stop was SLV Delites, a roadside hotel. We ordered Kesari bath, Dosa's, Idly and Vada's. Food was good and place was clean.
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| SLV Delight Hotel |
We started again. There is a resort, Confident Amoon, on highway which they have constructed on the theme of Egyptian Gods. It couldn't stop myself from taking a picture of their entrance.
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| Entance of Confident Amoon, resort |
Rocks with flora were making highway look very beautiful. This was first time that my 135cc bike touched 112 Km/h.
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| Roadside view on highway to Kolar |
We saw one signboard saying " Welcome to milk and silk city if Kolar". Kolar is also famous for its gold mines. We took a left and entered in thr residential township. Anuj was guiding us with maps and soon we crossed a road covered with orange flowers.
We reached Anthargange at around 8.15 AM. I saw it's gate with something written in Kannada and a Shivalingam on top of it.
We parked our bikes and started walking on stairs. "Monkey's", Anuj said when Sarjit was busy taking selfies. I think there were 30+ monkeys. I kept my specks inside in the fear that any of them will come, slap me and will snatch my vision. It is a forest area and around 100-200 stairs are there to reach the temple. There is a pond which gets water from a Basava ( stone bull). People were filling containers with water coming out.
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| Water from Basava and Pond |
We visited temple and prayed in front of Shivalingam. There were two persons sitting inside temple who started playing one musical instrument. I asked its name and they answered, Nadaswaram.
We came out but didn't know from where to start and at same time one small boy came," Bhaiyya, caving?" I was not too sure if we should take him but then Shreyansh said, 'let's take him". He told his name was Siddhesh and we started trekking by taking left of pond. Shreyansh and Anuj were ahead with Siddhesh and me and Sarjit were a few meters behind them.Suddenly a big monkey came from somewhere and Sarjit, instantly threw water bottle that he was holding. Now, our only hope of water was with that monkey who was drinking it like people drink cold drinks in advertisements. Granite rocks were very sharp and there were cactus plants also.
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| Cactus in Anthargange |
At some places you will find stairs on rocks which make the path easy to walk.
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| Stairs on rock |
I had a bag with my helmet and other stuff. After few meters I started feeling tired. I saw behind, trees on the ground were looking very small. On my left and right, there were huge rocks with plants on them.
"Where are you", Sarjit shouted from some height and I replied back. I started again and after some distance I stopped again. Bright Sun was in the sky, I was feeling the warmth of it. But it was so quiet...not a single word...full of serenity ,which I badly miss in big cities like Bangalore. Road with orange flowers was visible from there. I wanted to spend some more time but I could hear others calling me. Insects in the grass also started making sound as if they didn't like my presence in their area. I started again crossing the stones and rocks.
Others were sitting under a tree with Siddhesh and a vendor, Naveed who was selling buttermilk and water melons. They had a school book of Hindi and Siddhesh started reading it loudly. We had buttermilk and started again to enter trekking cave, as they call it!
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| Entrance of Trekking Cave |
Siddhesh as a kid was very mischievous and was jumping over the rocks. I was a bit concerned about this and he asked," easy way or tough way?" I said, "tough!" Sarjit stared and Anuj smiled at me at the same time. Caving is most beautiful part of Anthargange and it makes you to believe in yourself and your body. We jumped, crawled and somehow came out of this. Shreyansh was confused, " which was the easy one?" Siddhesh smiled and shouted," It's same, I was just playing". I laughed and the we headed downside to enter in another cave called Water cave.
Since water cave had very narrow openings and too dark, Shreyansh opted to sit on the entrance. We turned our mobile lights and entered. This cave was very cold in spite of high temperature outside. We saw some water inside that. Sarjit was wearing jeans and stylish shirt and he had difficulty which crawling inside the cave. I think person with heavy body should avoid entering this.
We came out, tired and satisfied. Siddhesh was keen to run back for new customers, so we paid him and started returning. It was more hot now and we reached down soon. After having cucumber and water, we headed back. We stopped at one roadside food court to have lunch.
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| Food court, Highway star |
Overall trip was memorable and satisfying!!!
Pic credit : Me, Shreyansh
Trip Credit : Sarjit
Map guide : Anuj
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