Brahmagiri , Irpu falls – A trip and trek.
Brahmagiri and Irpu…
The area is a mix of grasslands interspersed with stretches of the shola forests…
A well deserved snack break!
The friendly dog, now called ‘Tommy’ by the group, faithfully followed…
Next stop was the Narimale guest house built in the middle of the forest. It serves as a camping spot for trekkers and as shelter for the forest dept personnel. Out of curiosity we enquired if there is a jeep track to this place, there isn’t one. All the material required to build the guest house was carried up manually! Everyone took turns taking some pics with these skull and horns…
The trail continued towards our goal…
Our first glimpse of the Brahmagiri peak…
Hmmm… This would be the last trek for my old faithful Reebok walkers. After trekking around for three years, they are finally on the verge of giving up their souls (soles)…
The last stream on the trail. All bottles were replenished…
Looks quite far… and it is!
‘Tommy’ continued to walk with the group. It would faithfully stop and turn back to ensure that even the slower trekkers were following…
The fire-line on the hill is also the Karnataka – Kerala border and passes right on top of the Brahmagiri peak…
The Brahmagiri peak…
The last part of the ascent is quite steep and dicey; the loose soil on the track makes it difficult to get a proper grip. The best way to go up and come down is to avoid the beaten path and walk on the grass…
A mini-break in the bushy tracts of the hill. Since we were returning along the same track, we left our bags here for an easier climb ahead. We just carried a bottle of water each…
View from ‘near’ the top…
View from the top…
Some of the team members, (including ‘Tommy’ who accompanied us to the top) took a small nap…
Pics were taken for the records…
We started the descent. It turned out to be a more painful exercise than the ascent, there were a couple of small falls and scrapes and the group made it down in about 45 minutes…
The long walk home…
We stopped for a late lunch near a stream. Pure, fresh and cold – natural mineral water…
The final stretch…
Though we saw lots of signs of elephant activity in the area, we did not spot any during our trek. We saw lots of elephant dung though 
It was completely dark by the time we reached the forest area and the trek turned into a moonlit / torchlight trek!
We could hear the Irpu falls in the darkness and soon reached the small bridge across the river…
Since dinner would be ready only at around 9.00pm, some of us decided to walk the 5 kms back to Srimangala and some preferred the comfort of the TT…
By the way, ‘Tommy’ was with us all the way, from start to finish and even walked with us on the way back to Srimangala. Everyone felt quite sad that we would have to leave our faithful friend here. When the dog started to chase the TT, someone had the thought that it would be preferable to leave the dog near the guest-house and took it onboard the van…
Reached Srimangala by around 8.30pm, freshened up, had a simple dinner and started back towards Bangalore at around 10.00pm. Since it was not preferable to land back in Bangalore before 5.00am or so, the driver was requested to take it easy and he even stopped at a Dhabha for a 30 minute tea break. We reached Blr by around 5.00am and dispersed. It was a great day!
“Brahmagiri , Irpu falls – A trip and trek.”