Fall into the falls - Bangalore to Didupe to Ermai Falls

It had been quite some time since I wanted to go on a trek with my colleagues, but I never got the right group apart from Neha. The long pause came to limelight when I started work on a new project with a crazy bunch of people. As much I started liking to come to office every day, I loved hanging out and spending most of my time with them. This lead to the idea of pulling them out on a trek, which finally ended in a treknic to Didupe & Ermai falls in Chikmagalur district organized by Bangalore Trekking Club!

March 22, Friday:

The plan was to meet at the usual Shanthala Silk house in Majestic and leave around 9.45 PM. Metro helped us to reach on time. Huge backpacks loaded with sleeping bag and jacket and my favourite people – A long time plan was on action. 21 people were geared for the enthusiastic weekend. We boarded our TT around 10.30 AM and the trek officially began!

The usual BTC-style introduction started. We had to enact our names and the rest of the crowd should guess it. While this had become a routine for me since I’ve been enacting the same way in all the prior treks, Sanjay and Ajay (my team mates) didn’t disappoint us and Sanjay, as always, exceeded our expectations. While the laughter continued till midnight, we took a break when the van stopped for a quick dinner.

March 23, Saturday:

Amidst the continuous chattering from Ajay & Neha, I managed to get some sleep with the little space in my seat (No Sanjay! The person next to me didn’t occupy a lot of space :P ) My alarm went at 6AM and I woke up to the picturesque mountains of the Western Ghats. While the steep roads with a lot of hairpin bends made the ride scary, the green environment made us to disappear into the magic world. We reached Didupe village around 6.30AM and a huge waterfall was visible from one end and the horse-face (Kudremukh) hill on the other.

The guide was waiting to receive his guests and he took us to his house situated amidst the forest. Initially, it started off as a plain stony path, but eventually, we crossed multiple streams to reach the house. We didn’t bother to get our shoes since the slippery rocks posed more challenges. Couldn’t ask for a better start of the trek.

After quickly refreshing, hot steaming idlies waited for breakfast. The guide took us though the day’s itinerary and we hopped out with our day packs. Hidden paths; Improper terrain; Unknown destination; Slippery stones; Yet, I enjoyed every second, mainly because of the people and the unexpected challenges that popped up as we progressed. Leeches, of course added to the adventure!

The entire trek path was inside the dense forest, which was supposed to be elephant’s backyard in the past. The steep ascent drained out the energy right from the start of the trek. In a couple of hours, we reached our first halting point – a beautiful valley which descended into a steep fall. This nameless place was hidden from the external world, and thus the beauty remained undisturbed. Everyone jumped into the water mainly to clear away the leeches that had been sucking our blood inside the shoes and pants, and we spent some time chatting and taking pictures.

After multiple ascend and descend with the removal of thorn pricks clinging to my hair and spotting snakes and weird creatures on our path, we reached our next destination – the next level of the waterfall, which happened to our lunch spot, but also looked like the perfect suicide spot :P One wrong step and you might land up into pieces! Yet, you could have loads of fun if you are careful and our people are extra-cautious bunch of enthusiasts. In no time, people slowly started getting into the falls and everyone hopped in. Savige bath packed for lunch turned out to be devamirtham after playing inside the water. Bidding good bye to the beautiful falls, we moved to our next destination.

This is when we started going down the path to the base, and it was a complete steep. With the help of the trees and stones, we managed to get our grip. As always, people fell down and got bum hits, yet, we were grateful that it didn’t rain, else our path would have become miserable. Although going down didn’t drain out our energy, the sound of our heart beat kept pumping fast due to the continuous adrenaline rush. The only rule of thumb is to sit and slide if you are not confident about the path! We kept moving down parallel to the falls, hence it was a treat to watch the ambience despite the tricky route. And after one final super steep descend came the surprise element of the day – the majestic Didupe falls!

I was stunned at the first look of it – of course love at first sight and the best part was the presence of the rainbow. Even without bothering to remove our shoes, we merged with the mesmerizing beauty. The water force was so harsh that we struggled to move closer to the falls, yet nothing stopped us. At the end of the day, the free massage from the falls and the photo shoot session was worth the pain of reaching it!

We started our way back to the homestay after completely getting drenched in the beauty of the falls and fancy snacks made of jackfruit pappad and hot bajji was waiting for us. As the night fell, it was time for some games. Mafia came to entertain us and of course, it was fun as always with arguments and quarrel and the night ended with a lavish dinner – special mention to the amazing kesari bath I’ve ever had in my life!

March 24, Sunday:

It was a cold morning and I woke up to the view of misty mountains. Idiyappam with milk made of palm jaggery and gravy filled our stomach for morning breakfast. While we waited for our coffee, party time began with people dancing crazily for kuthu songs and not to forget the eye-to-eye romantic dance performance by Sanjay and the doctor in the group!  We set out on our next adventure with all the laughter to the mud games arena. None of us knew what was waiting for us, apart from the fact that we were going to get ourselves dirty. We walked across the lawns and meadows to reach our mud pond spot. Basically, it was the season where the farmers will start sowing their seeds and the land was hydrated and strengthened for a better harvest.

By the time, the entire team reached the mud pond, Vikram and few exuberant people got into the water. It wasn’t attractive at the first look, yet, the minute we stepped into water, the cold waves brought goose bumps and we merged with the enthusiastic crowd. Beach volleyball turned into a mud volley ball and it was fun watching people dive into the dirt water to get hold of the ball.  While the pros got into the game so quickly, novice like me became a spectator despite being part of the team. This didn’t last too long when people voluntarily made us to get into the water and made us look ugly. It ended up in a tit for tat game, people running around and chasing each other with hand full of mud and beating each other.

Next, the stage was set for a game of tug of war – the team was split into two. We used our complete force and tried our best to place our legs firmly and eventually lied down completely in the slippery mud as the pull from the other team increased. After a couple of amateur games, we had a competition between the pro in the village and our strong BTC people. As a spectator, we became the cheer girls for our team and motivated, yet, you know what would have been the result? 😊 Cold buttermilk came to our rescue to quench our thirst. Then one group started to play kabaddi and the rest of us played dodge ball. As always, crazy photo sessions brought an end to our mud game time.

After refreshing, we took a jeep ride to the place where our TT was waiting, which happened to be another adventure. It was a roller coaster ride with crazy bumps and forceful water streams across our way. The other group had also noticed a huge snake. Then we went to our next mane – where our lunch was getting ready for us. We were offered a variety of items – huge ladies finger sambhar, salad, rasam, payasam, appalam and ended with the amazing sukku kaapi. Since we reached the place very late, we missed the chance to go on a paddy field visit.

We took a walk to the Ermai falls where we got an opportunity to do some social work of cleaning the area around the falls – thanks to our cleanliness-friendly people who never bother to use dustbin to dump the waste. The entire place looked so different and free from plastic after the clean-up and I could only wish if people took small efforts to not to ruin the public places and teach the same to the next generation! While the clean-up drive brought mental satisfaction, we were mesmerized with the beauty of the multi-level Ermai falls. Since it was too deep, we did not take extra effort to get into the water, but the swimmers didn’t spare this waterfall too.

As the place started getting darker, we returned our way to the home. Our next task was to prepare our own dinner – the best part of the entire trip! Although I cook just for fun, I’ve never made anything for a huge group. My chapattis had never been round and I was sitting there kneading the dough! :D Vikram was the highlight in our group – he managed most of the cooking himself – special mention to the yummy potato subzi. We started back to Bangalore by 10PM.

Bidding good bye to the amazing group, we departed our ways at 4AM. It was one another awesome weekend with my people. TGTC begins here!