With the holiday season of October just a few weeks away, we started planning for a long get-away from work and routine daily business. We started looking for a 3-4 day trip and decided upon trekking the Green route from Donigal to Edukumeri and then move on to Murudeshwara and Gokarna. We were told that since the train service has been resumed on the Sakleshpura track, trekking is banned there and it would be dangerous to go there. We moved ahead with the trek with a contingency plan in place :P :) .
Sakleshpura is in Hassan District around 230 kilometers from Bangalore. The railway track runs continues until Mangalore. The green-route track trekking can be started from Sakleshpura and finishes at Subramanya Road Railway Station 48 kilometers away. This track was abandoned for a couple of decades without any train service and hence became a ideal place for trekkers.Recently after the meter gauge conversion, train service has resumed and Bangalore-Mangalore train runs on this track.
We engaged a tempo-traveller for the journey and after roaming around most of Bangalore for picking up my friends,we finally hit Tumkur road towards Sakleshpura at 11:30 in the night. We spent the night playing cards and watching movies and with just under an hour of sleep,we reached Sakleshpura at 4 early morning. We waited near the tea shops until daybreak and were welcomed by early morning showers. We took directions for Donigal railway station from local people and moved towards our trek starting point. Donigal is around 8 kilometers from Saklespura and the track can be reached from the Donigal Railway station. At milestone number 234 of NH-48 ,after crossing the bridge, a road at the right takes to the Donigal Railway Station.
We started our trek at 6:30 in the morning and a calm sun rising from
behind the clouds just above the forest was an awesome sight.Donigal Railway Station is at 50KM milestone and our destination Edukumeri Railway Station is at 67KM milestone. With long day of trek ahead, we started moving along the track. The sight of ever lasting railway tracks and the thick forest cover was a new experience.The journey of life looks similar to the walk on these tracks. With the past behind, life is all about moving towards your destination overcoming the obstructions by building the bridges and tunnels.
After walking for about half and hour, at milestone 52KM, we came across the first bridge.Though it was a small one around 50m leng th, I crossed it with a bit of hesitation and fear.Crossing the first bridge felt like a new achievement.We moved on taking a few photography breaks and had our breakfast near a stream that runs across the track.Shortly, we came across our first tunnel.Walking through the pitch dark tunnels with just torch as the only source of light was exciting. I and Balu also tried a 100m meter dash in one of the tunnels and I lost the race. :(
Just after crossing one of the tunnels,we heard the sound of train at the distance. We thought that the train was still a kilometer away and we could cross the bridge. While we were half-way through on the bridge,we saw the train coming towards us. We turned around and ran towards the start of the bridge to find a stable piece of land. The long goods train crossed us we were happy to find a train on the track giving company for us.
This pic reminds me of the kannada novel 'Jugari Cross' which has references to this track.
The 'Killer Bridge'
View of the stream beneath the bridge
The bridge again
We met one of the railway guards in the way and inquired our exit point. Our plan was to take the path behind Edukumeri station towards the forest and cross Kempuhole and reach NH-48. The guard told us that Kempuhole was overflowing due to the recent rains and we would not be able to cross it. He told us that we could continue trekking from Edukumeri until 75th KM milestone and reach the highway or we could take a detour at 64KM to move to ongrala village and join the Bisle Ghat road and take bus to Sakleshpura. We decided to move on towards Edukumeri which turned out to be a wrong decision :) .
We reached Edukumeri Railway station at 67th KM at 3 in the afternoon and had our lunch. Upon enquiring, the station master at Edukumeri said that it would not be possible to cross kempuhole to reach the road. We requested him if he could stop any Goods or Engine that would take us to Subramanya Road. He wasn't much helpful and we had to spend the night in the railway station in the severe cold. The cold breeze made me shiver the whole night and I was eagerly waiting for the dawn to escape from this station.At 4:30 in the morning, we caught the Bangalore-Mangalore express train and took a ticket less journey to Subramanya Road Station. Balu and Shreyas had more adventure in store for them. They got down at Shiribagilu station at 5:30 in the morning, raced through the forest track to Gundya to get our tempo traveler to Subramanya Road station.
It was a dream come true to complete the one of the most awaited treks. It was a thrilling hike along the tracks with ranges of mountains and streams and waterfalls visible all around you.The tunnels and bridges added to the excitement of the trek.In the long day of trek,we crossed over 25 bridges and 17 tunnels. The longest tunnel was of length 572m and the tallest bridge ("Killer Bridge"-bridge no 20) is of height around 200ft.
We then moved on to Dharmasthala, Murudeshwara. Murudeshwara is around 120 kilometers from Udupi. It has a temple of Shiva on the shore of the Arabian sea.We stayed overnight in Murudeshwara. We enjoyed swimming at the beach and the early morning beach volleyball match at Murudeshwara.
We then moved on to Gokarna 90 kilometers from Murudeshwara and visited the Mahabaleswara temple and Om beach .We returned back to Bangalore life on Sunday morning.
Date : October 1st to October 5th.
Total Distance covered: 1100 kilometers
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