Throwback : Malnad Magic in Monsoon Surge – Part 2
Prologue
Before the main picture, here is aDetour attempt to understand one of the reasons for higher rainfall in Western Ghats.
Be it Cherrapunji or Chinnakalar, Mountains and Monsoon complement each other like a charm! The wettest places of the country are on the windward side, often on the Ghats. The magic weaved is mainly attributed to what is called the orographic effect/lift. There have been so many studies on various factors that influence orographic rainfall, some of them include; slope of the mountains facing the incoming winds, elevation, width of the mountain barrier, terrain complexity.etc Although, in general, Western Ghats and the hills in the North East(especially Khasi-Jaintia hills) portray the ability to trap moisture in the mountains and the valleys from the rain-bearing winds which then brings precipitation aided by orographic lifting, thus making these regions the rainiest.
Lamaj – which has been topping the charts in recent times is one of the wettest places in Maharashtra and India (received over 10,000mm+ rainfall during SWM in 2019). It is a village in the Koyna Reservoir catchment area, and is interlocked with valleys and mountains. Looking at such a terrain, no wonder it gets dumped with such huge rainfall every year.
Similarly, Amagaon (Belgaum dt) – which received 9000+mm rainfall last year and topped Karnataka’s charts sits atop ghats facing Goa and has deep gorges created by Mandovi(Mahadayi) river! Places nearby like Gawali, Kankumbi are all SWM giants.
There are so many such places from north to south in Western Ghats, be it Patharpunj, Agumbe, Hulikal, Chinnakalar, Upper Bhavani. World famous Cherrapunji and Māwsynrām too.
Without too much of aDetour, back to the main story. In Part 1, we experienced the orographic rains in the classical SWM giant belt of Varahi, Masthikatte, Hulikal, Agumbe areas.
In Part 2, we drive through the Kudhremukha region. This region with mostly grassland tops turns so green during the Monsoon. Kerekatte, Samse are known rainfall toppers of the Chikmagalur district. Kerekatte receives atleast 4000+ mm most of the SWM seasons.
Image Courtesy – Google Earth
Sunday, June 10th, 2018
What’s a perfect Malenadu vibe? Watching the early morning rains with a wonderful Malenadu Filter Coffee – a perfect start to the day.
It was yet another rain filled day, we wanted to exit the Malenadu sector and reach Bangalore by late evening so that the last leg to Chennai would be completed before midnight. Alas, just aDetour wasn’t enough, we finally ended up crossing Sakleshpur only after 7pm!
It was raining right from the moment go. Wet roads, skyscapes filled with monsoon clouds
At many places, there were fallen tree branches. As we crossed the Sringeri town which was just waking up, we were stopped for 20 minutes because a tree was fallen and the rescue cutting work was on.
We stopped by the Sunkadamakki hanging bridge, over Tunga River. It was just drizzling when we got out. Within 10 minutes, it was a heavy downpour. On this stretch, Tunga flows right next to the road from Hariharapura till Kerekatte
At Tanikodu Check Post, we had to enter the details and were then given a pass. The journey through Kudhremukha National Park is 48kms from here till Bella Check Post, near Samse – this 48 kms is supposed to be completed in 90 minutes, although at the other end, they are bit lenient on the timings. If you are exiting through Mala Check Post towards Karkala, the duration would be lesser as the distance is only 30kms.
As we cross Kerekatte (one of the SWM giants of Chikmagalur district), rains picked up. We drove through the narrow forest roads till SK Border, after which we turned towards Kudhremukha
The road widens once we turnoff from SK Border, even the landscape quickly changes, the dense foresty route transforms into rolling grasslands, unfortunately 9/10 times covered by fog
As we were entering the grassland stretch, we crossed the Kadambi Falls midst heavy rains. It was not possible to get out, here’s a picture clicked from the Car window. This is upstream Bhadra River
This was one wonderful sight, Grasslands playing hide and seek, thanks to the Monsoon bands.
The next band we passed through was intense. Tree branches had fallen all along
We stopped at the end of Kudhremukha Ghost town (which used to be earlier called Malleshwara), to view the Eastern Ranges of Kudhremukha. Same story here too, needs no description, here is the before vs after
We exited KNP at Bella Check Post near Samse, We were flagged off, even though we had taken around 105 minutes. The drive through Kalasa was quick, as we meandered across the hills from forests to tea estates. A friend who was bringing up a property near Sunkasale was waiting for us after Kalasa. Along with him, from Marasanige to Sunkasale, we took aDetour via internal routes, with a bonus view point overlooking the plains of Belathangady!
View of Didupe, Bangady areas in the plains. They are located in a narrow strip of plains, after which is KNP again i.e these areas are surrounded by lofty ghats on 3 sides!
After this loop, we reached Sunkasale to take aDetour again, this time towards Durgadahalli/Ballarayanadurga View Point/Rani Jhari/Ghattikallu
Here, we are, at the Rani Jhari ridge edge, overlooking the Ballarayanadurga peak on one side and a steep valley of Didupe-Bangady on the other side
Watching the Monsoon clouds lift up from the valley and cover the Rani Jhari edge was fascinating. This region has so many trekking opportunities, whether it is Mullodi – Kudhremukha peak trek, Ballarayanadurga fort trek, Bandaje Arbi trek. This friend with whom we came here now, has also driven from Samse to Didupe via an offroad trail through Yelaneeru Ghat!
We went back to Sunkasale for a Lunch around 3pm. It was a simple anna sambhar lunch at the one of the few restaurants in Sunkasale. After this, we had a choice to start the return drive or check out his property which was <5km from here, in Madugundi. As he was also leaving for Bangalore in another 2 hours, we decided to go to his property and then drive back together.
His property is very close to upstream Netravati river, near Madugundi falls. Although, information about Gangamoola always says that it is the origin for 3 rivers including Netravati, it is difficult to understand how it reaches this area. But, information about Netravati always says that it originates in Bangrabalige valley, Yelaneeru Ghat, which matches with the reality.
Here’s a picture of Netravati river, so tame, we’ve always seen it being so wide and beasty around Bantwal and Mangalore.
A quick visit to his property. It is surrounded by tall lofty hills in all directions. The top of Ballarayana peak is visible from here. The sound of Netravati flowing across Madugundi falls is so therapeutic. What a wonderful location!
We started from the property at 5pm. Here’s the last picture of the drive.
Rains gave us company all the way as we drove into Hassan district. We crossed Hemavathi twice – at Jannapura and Sakleshpur, it was looking beasty too. We stopped for a Coffee break in Sakleshpur, and reached Bangalore around 11pm, our Chennai folks reached home 4 more hours later. What a rain filled drive!
When we looked back at the KSNDMC daily report for that day, it is no surprise. We were around Samse for many hours, it received the highest in Karnataka with 291.5mm for that day. The map also shows that the places we drove through right from Koppa to Sakleshpura were all in HR-VHR category.
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