Whitewater Kayaking & Trekking in Mudigere

The planning started with a sudden impulse, which is normal whenever I feel my life slipping away. I mailed my friends about organizing a trip to some beautiful place, and AJ who resides in Bangalore took the initiative. First thing I did was to book tickets to and from Bangalore for the folks from Hyd - Pran, Naresh and myself. After checking a lot of alternatives, we zeroed in on Capture Adventure Tours and they planned a tour for us which would involve White water Kayaking and Trekking near Mudigere in a 2 day tour.

On Friday Evening, Pran, Naresh and myself came in early from office and started to the Kachiguda Rly Station. We hired an auto, and the autowala was a pure nutcase. Anyway we got there on time, and boarded the train. Next day morning at 7:00 the train pulled into Bangalore. We met with AJ who was waiting along with my B.Tech classmate Revanth, Nirmal his roommate and his colleague Shekar. After exchanging pleasantries we started toward Mudigere about 300 KM away. The first 200 KM was normal, but the next 100 was a Ghat section. By the time we came to our destination - Avanthy Estate, It was almost 2PM.


We met Mr Shabbir, the estate manager who informed us that due to a slight change of plans, it would be better to do the Water Kayaking today and the trek tomorrow. We started for Water Kayaking immediatly. After driving a couple of km along the banks of Bhadra, we stopped at a good spot. Vinay our Instructor was already present there, and we helped him unload the kayaks from his jeep to the river bank. After a couple of instructions about Kayaking, we got into the boats. Nirmal and myself were paired into a boat.

Handling a Kayak, like many adventure sports, is an order of magnitude difficult than what it seems like. We were rowing, but being the first time, unable to maintain any sync. This caused the boat to swirl rather than reasonably move forward. Although it was probably a Class 1 route, we were getting stuck in every rock near every rapid possible. Very soon we were slowly learning the tricks. But the initial effort tired us. The later part was more easier. We did this for about 2 hours until 6 PM or so. Then we went back to our rooms. (Whitewater Kayaking Pics)



That night a campfire was arranged and we had a great time drinking beer and shouting boisterously. Naresh and the others took at pulling pran's leg about his "exploits". After some time we retired to our rooms and then fell asleep.

The next day we woke up at around 7 and Shabbir took us on a Van around the estate. After going for 3 KM we were dropped there, and walked back through the coffee plantation. Later we talked with Shabbir about the trek and we realized that there was a miscommunication due to which no real trek was organized for us. So after some discussion, Shabbir agreed to take us to another nearby Estate called JainKhan estate, behind which there were hills.

After spending some time in the JainKhan Estate, we started our trek at 1:30 PM, and we started to climb uphill. After some time Nirmal, who was not feeling very well, and another group who were with us, turned back. We continued our trek to the summit. The view was beautiful, and we took many pictures at the top. After some time we started our trek back, and lost our way. Luckily we found another way and got back through it. (Mudigere Trek Pictures)





After going back to the room, we had a heavy lunch and some beer. Then at night after dinner, we started back to bangalore at 9:30 PM. It was a long ride, and we reached Bangalore by 4:00 AM on monday morning. After sleeping for a couple of hours, Nirmal and Revanth left for office, whereas the rest of us just lazed around and in the evening we started back to Hyderabad.