Greens and Mud Splashes-Treknic to Didupe and Ermai Falls

MAJESTIC- The crowded bus junction of Namma Bengaluru which not all of us wish to visit at 10 p.m.on a Friday night after working hours right? However, 13 souls had all set up their minds to reach this place on time to start a journey so exciting. There is always one or say two or say three who are never on time. The much-awaited journey began at around 10:30 p.m. The very world famous BTC intro session of Dumb Charades followed by unlimited talks and learning Spanish sessions continued. We got lucky to have a Spanish Senorita with us. In no time, we embraced the beauty sleep. With initial hiccup of our vehicle we managed to reach our destination Malavanthige by 7:00 a.m. We walked for about 3 kms to reach our homestay. Mind you, few of us even lost our way, it was fun though. 

DAY 1- To our eyes, was the view of floor half covered with Areca nuts, 5 warm smiles and all very happy and barking Das. Yes, Das, the cute doggy who was the happiest to find so many people around him.We quickly freshened up, had our breakfast and we walked faster to the falls nearby.

DIDUPE FALLS-The pathway was through a field, lot of Areca Nut trees, crossing many streams with the clearest water I have ever seen. To the end was the sight of a serene waterfall. Water so cold, gushing to the rocks at the bottom passing through those beautiful pink flowers. The troop rushed as the water gushed. There is nothing that makes you feel better other than the cold water hitting you so hard and it doesn’t even hurt. The weather as expected was hot and humid but the water relaxed every inch of our body. We spent good amount of time playing in the water and clicking pictures.

Drenched us walked back to reach our homestay, carry our bag packs and start of our trek for the day. The journey to the woods. The woods that seemed simple but was a little tiring because of the weather. Anyone planning to trek here, make sure you carry energy bars and energy drinks, one gets dehydrated quicker. We had two of our localites accompanying us to reach the water fall point. The walk lasted for more than 3 hours to cover 8 km distance with pit-stops. We reached the waterfall point and had our lunch that we carried with us, rested for a while and started to trail sooner as the localites wanted us to cross the forest area before dark to avoid Elephants. We managed to reach back to the homestay around 7:00 p.m. A total close to 16 kms trek! All exhausted, all headed to hot showers, bon-fires, music and some Dakshina Kannada style dinner. We then played Mafia, a game of mind gamblers and tactics which was super fun and the Mafia’s won it all the time! The insane brains always work different and smarter! We then slept off to start an early day. 

DAY 2- An early day began with some music, hot tomato soup, breakfast and Das of course! We bid adieu to the wonderful people who took care of us as their own, walked with us on the trek, motivated us to walk faster, most important fed us good food and made sure we were all comfortable throughout.

MUD GAMES- The lush green paddy fields, with the scorching sun on top, the coolest breeze, and the soothing soil with a layer of water. Trust me, this was the most awaited part of the treknic. All of us just realized we were “Litter of Piglets”. We made sure we applied the soil on our face, hands and legs and we reached back to our childhood where all that matters is how dirty you are coz that proves how much fun you did have! Believe me, I saw a child in every soul that morning, who had an empty head and innocence filled heart! When I say this, I mean it!! All the boys who were max in number started with the volleyball match, umm a tough match though. The boys played it well.! We had a short running race which was nothing but making sure you splash all the mud on each other assuring no one stayed clean even a bit. (I am still smiling when I type this here, rewind of fun times in head). Then the war began! The Tug-Of-War. Two teams, playing their best and the best team won! Well my team won, proudly! Clicked pics amidst all being piggy. For a while Being Piggy felt so much better than human life! We cleaned the mess and were all set to reach our next destination for lunch. We had two men who accompanied us in our games and care taking and a humble lady with us gals.

I would like to mention about the lady. Her Name is Rachana, I had a quick conversation with her and realized how lucky are we as girls that our parents brought us up to be independent and carrier oriented. She is young, married and a mother too. She told me that she wished to work and live a life outside the village and was proud of all the girls out there who are working and managing a life of own. A short conversation with her made me realize that there are people with bigger problems than me and life has treated us better which we shouldn’t take for granted :)

YUMMY LUNCH- With this, we moved on to our next destination at Mithabagilu, who were an inspiration altogether. Mr. Parameshwar Rao, son of Mr. B.K.Deva Rao, the farmer/ scientist known to grow more than 160 variety of rice! Yes, you read that right. It is an honor to be fed by the farmer himself. We had an amazing lunch with the flavors of Dakshina Kannada, me being a girl born and brought up in the same region who misses the amma made food, had the best lunch of her journey! He then explained us about how paddy fields help in rain harvesting, the age of the soil, the organic farming, and the varieties of rice.

ERMAI FALLS-With this in the late afternoon, we went to our destination. Lucky us, got an open jeep, who gave us lift to reach the falls sooner. None of us were in a state to walk, tummy was too full of too good food! The beauty of Ermai falls is the natural zig-zag cut of the rocks and the water flowing through it made the view splendid. Good photo sessions, cold water over the tired poor foot and some walks and talks ended the fall journey.

Note: The water in this land is so clean and clear, one can just drink it and be assured it isn’t polluted!

We got back our TT, played dumb charades, sang songs on top of our voices, pit stopped for our dinner, a feedback session, some interesting talks on supernatural stuffs a.k.a ghost stories and off to sleep. Reached Majestic at 4 a.m. and got back to our homes.  “The journey ended where it all started-Majestic”. 

Written By     : Neetha Bhat

Organized By : DG & Aman

Date of event : 12th & 13th Jan, 2018

Place              : Didupe & Ermai Waterfalls

Pictures          : BTC FB Album