A Tale of WG Nomads : Bandaje Falls & Ballala Rayana Durga Fort-1

It was Christmas vacations and our souls persisted to explore something, a grandeur trek amidst western Ghats. It was my dream to visit Bandaje Arbi Falls during my college days. Now it was the time to execute the plan. After discussing about the places and plan, we chose the entry point as Bandaje village and exit point would be BallalaRaya Durga Kote(Fort). Got all the necessary info from the Google and 8  enthusiastic blazing young guns were ready to scale the heights and put themselves in the adventurous driving seat. 

Boarded rajahamsa bus from Bangalore which would drop us till Dharmasthala. From there we went to Ujire to hire the jeep to Bandaje village. It was 7am in the morning when we reached the Bandaje Narayana Gowda's house. Kishore Gowda is Narayan' s son and he can arrange you trekking permissions and guide. Just you need to ring him before leaving your place. On arrival of Kishore Gowda, he told that forest officials would turnout by 10am and its waste of time to wait for them. So we paid the trekking fee to him and started our endeavor. What I felt at later part is , it's absolutely safe even if u do not pay forest officials. In fact Kishore told the same and considering our safety we paid the fee. Well..!! its your choice to pay or not. But if forest officials spot you, then you should pay the fee. 

Narayana Gowda's House - Badaje Village  

Our Troop : All geared up .. 

  Guide arrived little late, by that time we geared ourselves with all necessary stuffs. Initial path looks flat and you have to cross one small stream and couple of houses. once you enter the forest, then it's absolutely arduous task. The whole stretch till the falls consists of high inclinations , sometimes 70° . But you will be under the shades of the trees. After you enter the grassland then make sure to hydrate yourself. It's fully exposed to sun and he has no mercy upon poor trekkers :p . You can spot the falls as son as you enter the grassland. But you need to hold your horses, coz it needs some more energy to reach.

After some 3 km of trekking inside the thick forest from Narayan's  house we got one stream and decided to take a dip and finish our lunch on the boulders nearby. As usual water was very cold and clear. Enjoyed in the water nearly 1hr and it was time for our lunch. Unpacked the food which we got it from the home. Same time our guide bid adieu and showed us the path to follow. We got all the necessary route info from him, coz next day we planned to exit via BallalaRaya Durga Fort. It was 12:30 when we resumed our venture. Make sure to fill up all your water bottles. You won't get any water till you reach grassland. 

Initial Path 

Challenging task starts from here :

With lots of huffs and puffs we entered the grasslands by 2pm. We were welcomed by lush green grasses and pleasant cool  breeze. Within no time sun started to irk us with his weapon :p . Soon we got the view of the falls and it was a wonderful moment of the trek. All of them got pumped up by seeing the falls. Took some snaps and proceeded towards the falls. It looks near from the grassland but you need to trek some good 1.5 - 2 hr to reach the falls.

Breathtaking view of Bandaje Falls :

After you scale the first mountain on the grassland you will get one small stream. We halted here to wait for our fellow trekkers and took sufficient rest before the final stretch.  Finally we reached the falls by 5pm and started looking for the camp site. You need to cross the stream and reach the other part of the stream. Walk towards the falls, your will get the campsite just before the falls, 50m away from the falls.

Camp site :

 Yummy Soup :)

Quickly we did set up the tents and put the fire to cook. It was dark and soo cold that we dropped our plan to have bathe again. Also we decided to catch the glimpse of the falls next day. Some of the guys strived really hard to get the woods for camp fire. Later we got plenty of them far from the campsite. First we had yummy corn soup and kept rice for our dinner. Spent the evening with chit chat , cracking jokes , making next days strategies etc...  Some of them got settled in the tent by 9pm , rest by 10.