Exactly 2 years
back; while I was exhausted and dehydrated but still driving enthusiastically
through the southern fringes of Belgaum forests on a cold monsoon dawn, god rendered an unforgettable visual that
kept burning within until I completed this Jaunt after 24 months of impatience.
It was a nostalgic drive then, in 2012, when I and David were constrained on
resources, friends, energy and even courage; as we both were in the concluding
phases of our long, lonely drive from Chennai to West Coast and then back into
the Peninsula, after photographing Jog and Dudh Sagur falls. It was one of
those few drives, of the many we both had done, that would remain always at the
brink of our memory and keep disturbing us in our sleep years later. Ever
since; I wanted to conquer this long drive again, get past Belgaum and venture
into her Jungles to explore the beauty she had held behind the seducing Ghats
that were covered with infinite spread of meadows and Jungles. 2013 came close, as I drove past Belgaum
and ended up in a comfortable resort rather than exploring nature’s hidden
secrets, nevertheless; it was an eye opener as it ignited the already fuming
urge to dance to the tunes of Belgaum’s forests. When I drive through the
fringes of these forests, unlike the forests of Agumbe which instill certain
romantic addiction to loneliness, it always felt like being pulled towards a
distant ballet being performed by the master himself. These forests weren’t as arrogant as those in Agumbe, here; you don’t
need to run, you don’t need to bother, you don’t need to fear, you don’t need
to look back, rather; you hear tunes that aren’t audible, you make moves that
are unseen, you begin to dance to his tunes, you begin to forget everything,
you begin to get everything, you begin to live real. These 2 years have
seen me grow in strength, experience, stamina, love, passion, equipment,
knowledge and outlook, but for one thing; and that’s the child inside me when
it comes to Indian forests. They have that certain aura which pulls me down
from anywhere I may be and make me seem a small boy, as I was years back, and
make me dance and shed tears. Now again,
as in the past and forever as I live, the powerful combination of monsoon,
rains and my love for “secluded submission” to the depths of rain forests
pulled me towards this untouched section of Western Ghats. What I went through
for the next 2 days would be romantically recorded in my passive memory, only
to be pulled out at some point of life when I felt tired and bored about the
long journey I have been asked to go through by my fate. What added certain
extra specialty to this long Jaunt was the 2014 Jetta DSG that I bought after a
long debate between my heart and the brain, and this induced a superb feel to
kick start the first official trip of this SW monsoon considering the delayed
onset for the year 2014. It was a dream come true, as I turned the Bi-Xenon’s
to Auto mode and rendered the dangerous path ahead to child’s play with the bright
daylight like illumination while intermittently touching insane speeds this
German Sedan just loved to.
The reason I chose
Belgaum as my destination was primarily because I wanted to test the high speed
capability of the Jetta and this was only possible on the majestic NH4 with its
sparse traffic and wide open lanes speeding through the countryside of
Karnataka. It was the usual romantic
loneliness that accompanied us, apart from the cold darkness, until we hit our
favourite tea stop at Tumkur where I parked the Jetta just adjacent to the
national highway and enjoyed a cup of very hot, refreshing Chai looking
excitedly at the splendid, timeless beauty of this perfectly proportioned motor
car. It has been long years of dreaming for me, dreaming about this moment,
moment of laziness, laziness to do anything but to only stare at my beautiful
car on a cold dawn alongside a national highway and with this; I eventually
woke up to the occasion me and my friends were pursuing. Keeping aside my childish selfishness, the
real driving factors behind this 2000 Kms long road trip were 2 lesser known
beauties hidden in the forests of Belgaum, subtly set along the border of
Maharashtra. I had dreamt about them for years now and the time had come to
meet these 2 secret falls, eyeball to eyeball; when they were at the apex of
their “beauty potential” during the SW monsoon of 2014. Sada and Shimbola, as
they are called, are 2 remote waterfalls that couldn’t be accessed without the
guidance of a native and this made the claim about their seclusion more
fortified. NH4 was graced by the distant
monsoon winds from the west coast and it was a romantic drive all the way upto
Belgaum, after which begins the insanely romantic Chorla Ghat road. Ever since I met her during the monsoon of
2013, Chorla gained a remarkably special position in my list of highly exotic
locations. With a dozen bottles of Budweiser stuffed in, we left behind
Belgaum to manage its daily chores on its own to pursue our weekend seclusion
that lay a good 40+ Kms on the monsoon drenched and enigmatic Chorla Ghat road.
To nurture our weekend seclusion and subsequently, the very ambition of meeting
2 concealed waterfalls I had fixed an appointment with Infinity Adventures; an
adventure camp that specialized in treks into the forests of Belgaum and the
neighboring jungles of Goa and Maharashtra, to take us close to Sada and
Shimbola through the mesmerizing forests of Belgaum. What makes Infinity
special is the fact that this camp is located just adjacent to Chorla Ghat road
making way for an easy access and also, giving a distant glimpse of the
speeding vehicles unaware of the beauty and life this Ghat sections holds
beneath. Outside temp was in the range
of 18 degree Celsius and this made our bath in the extremely cold water a mind
numbing experience, as we came running out of the bath one after the other
shivering but; delightfully refreshed. As darkness fell the facility was
lit with battery power, Infinity relies on solar/ Battery for power and this
meagre supply is only available between 19:00 and 23:00 hours, forcing us to
cautiously plan our steps into the darkness and a sudden chill on the ankles
meant a rouge leech has managed a bite. After
a quick sprint we hit the generously lit eat out area to relish a night that
was decorated with cold monsoon winds, chilled Budweiser, hot chicken meat from
the tandoor, couple of great friends, rain splash, absolute silence, remote
feelings, gushing streams in three directions, a lonely but courageous pussy
cat and a generous dinner thereafter. Feeling of discomfort that arose from
lack of water heater, a fan to dry ourselves and some light for a comfortable
walk were soon pushed to oblivion only to be surpassed by the extraordinary
ambience that helped us fall asleep without the slightest of materialistic
thoughts.
As Dawn emerged,
fighting through the darkness of monsoon clouds, it was cold and damp with rains
at their shivering best while ravaging the Ghats with remarkable intensity and
passion. The day and weather were
perfect to step into the forests of Chorla to meet the mighty Sada, falling
from over 300 feet somewhere deep down the valley with her roar being “hushed”
by the dense jungles all around. The journey to Sada is invigorating and it
takes you through mind boggling terrains that are a mix of steep elevations,
rugged off-roading, spreading mists, high intensity intermittent showers, fresh
oxygen and lots of romance. The access to Sada is through, first; the Sada
caves, next; the Sada village, and the journey until these two themselves will
relax your unsettled mind like a bottle of 12 years old scotch. The jeep dropped us at an elevated plateau,
which I believe is a reminiscence of ancient volcanic activity (Photos 5,10 and
18), and the journey of “Awe” begins right from here as tons of mist,
accompanied with sharp intermittent drizzles, suffocate you with fresh oxygen
and hair raising cold. The trek upto Sada
caves (Photo 7) is thrilling and thereafter it turned out to be more of my
kind of feeling, that remote and wild seclusion which imparts a feel of being close to the master (Photos
12,14 and 20). From Sada caves it’s a straightforward descent to the Sada
village, which in itself is a different world, and after this remote village (Photo 6) the journey
into the depths of Chorla forest intensifies. This region is only slightly
northerly to the dense forests of southern Karnataka, but the drop in
temperature incredibly transformed into a mind boggling reduction in leech
population. If I were inside a forest In Agumbe or Mundaje I would be a
minority and would have been abused by hundreds of Leech bro’s, but here; I was
able to hike without the slightest of worries about these blood suckers as they
were very few, I meant VERY FEW. As I
walked through the romantic forest trails I was wondering how the absence of
these tiny creatures had increased the happiness coefficient of my trek by 200%
and it made me wonder how happy a man I would be if all of the rainforests were
devoid of these bloody and elastic suckers. To compensate for the absence
of Leech Bro’s these forests were infested with huge caterpillars and we had to
be extremely cautious to not step over them, for we were the intruders. After unknown hours of hard hiking past the
jealous inducing vistas (Photos 29 and 30) these forests were blessed with, the
first view of Sada (Photo 16) emerged out of the dense canopy we were walking
under and with further more precarious steps the complete picture emerged
(Photo 25) like out of a fairytale. She was imposing and like nothing I
have seen before, she wasn’t the biggest but still; she had a strong grasp on
our emotions and thoughts at that particular point of time while we were
mesmerized by the spray her powerful fall was spewing in all four directions.
After a terrible struggle avoiding the water spray on camera lens, I managed
few clean shots of Sada and leaving her without those pictures would have meant
a punishing blow to my enthusiasm and the long travel over the last couple of
days. Natural wonders are to be left on
their own, they induce emotions but they themselves are devoid of any. It’s we
humans who fall victim to their beauty while they go about executing exactly
what they were intended to. Understanding this concept is important to depart
without a hard feeling as I managed to bid goodbye to her and embark on my
return hike back to the Infinity adventure camp. Sada evoked a cocktail of
exotic emotions as she presented me with few of the most beautiful visual
spectacles I had ever witnessed, nevertheless; certain natural creations may
not be as big or as beautiful as Sada but still, manage to get that “exotic”
badge tagged to them and the waterfall I was to visit the day next was one
among them.
The final day of
this long tour was quiet, rainy and lonely as we were the last remaining
tourists, resilient to natural forces, determined to complete the task that was
chalked out 975 Kms away from the action zone we were walking through. The hike to Shimbola waterfalls, though not
as eventful and as long lasting as the one to Sada, is in a different league
with its extremely isolated forest tracts, stunning quietness, fear inducing
density of vegetation, little bit of more leech population and that “something”
which makes this hike a hands down winner in terms of thrill and satisfaction.
The hike starts from a small unknown village that seems to be straight out of god’s art gallery (Photo 9)
and quickly transitions into a dense forest tract that leaves hardly any space
to watch out your back. The trek continues to take you further deep into the
jungle which initially seems intimidating but gradually turns out to be an
exotic indulgence as you begin to feel privileged to be allowed to witness few
of nature’s powerful visuals. The first sector of this trek concludes abruptly at the end of a cliff (Photo 15),
from where you get to witness the mist clad peaks and the valleys in between
them as it turns out to be a revelation when the guide mentions we will be
descending into one of them to pursue and meet Shimbola. This place also offers a sense of space and freedom to grasp quick
chunks of fresh air after that heart beat increasing hike through the dense,
mildly leech infested tracts as we look into the distant emptiness and breathe
a sigh of relief unaware of what is down there in the depths. After few
minutes of descent we were sturdily made aware this trek was much tougher and
riskier than Sada and extreme caution need to be exercised to avoid a fall or
from stepping over an exotic, colorful creature. After many desperate minutes
the first glimpse of Shimbola appeared
through a clearing in the canopy (Photo 13) and she seemed to be in a very
angry mood due to the relentless rains that had been thrashing this region for
the past 2 months or so. Shimbola was an
average sized fall, but what made her special was the ferocity with which she
surged down from the heights and the anger with which she drenched whatever
that ventured near her. She was so ferocious (photos 4 and 22) that I was numb
to the lone leech that was busy climbing up my waist until I realized it was
time to whip that away and photograph the remote, romantic Shimbola. Unlike
other falls that make your attempt to photograph a nightmare with generous
supply of water spray, Shimbola; though ferocious, was well behaved and not a
drop of water hit the camera lens until I completed my photographic indulgence
leading me into astonishment. Rain gained intensity and the dense
vegetation provided excellent opportunity for the rouge leech bro’s to climb up
onto our drenched bodies camouflaging their trademark “chillness” the instant
they cling. With things turning out to be wild, we embarked on the return hike
through a different route that would make us trek straight through the middle
of a wild stream for more than a Km with dense rain forests on either side. As we emerged out of the valley and climbed
up, I requested my friend to shoot this departing shot (Photo 19) with me
looking at the distant spray of Shimbola for I knew it would be a nostalgic
reminder of the exotic moments we savored at one of the best locations hidden
deep in the Ghats. The trek back was
as close as one could ever get to ecstasy and the fact that, with this
concludes the potentially “Alpha” trip of the 2014 season made me dwindle into
a state of sadness. When we returned back to Infinity camp and packed up
after a sumptuous lunch, it was still pouring and I was extremely reluctant to
leave behind this ambience and hand over myself to the clutches of urban
congregation. As we drove through the
Chorla Ghat it was still dark, romantic, pouring and nostalgic, only strengthening
the fact that monsoon is a magic that makes millions go mad. For us, now; it
was a long 900+ Kms drive back to home to sleep and dream if it all were real
that we experienced in the past 3 days. With this posting about to end few
of you could have wondered why I didn’t utter a word on Photos 1 and 28 which
seem to be the highlight of this Jaunt, I didn’t for I had poured my entire
creativity for this waterfall during my 2013 visit to Chorla in the form of a
separate posting “The Loan”…She is yet another marvel of this blessed region,
the fabulous Sural falls, but for this trip; she was just a starter…
