Belgaum+Amboli+Jamboti 28th – 30th Aug 2009

Contact of Rohit – The man with a magic wand when camera in his hands.

Am a hardcore follower of Rohit’s photography, surprisingly received a well planned trip to Belgaum on our company’s mailer list.  High on enthusiasm to travel, accepted to join a bunch of 8 unknown people for the life.  But it proved to be opening the flood gates of trips and treks in Rohit’s company.

27^th August 2009

The team consisted of Rohit, Harish, Gururaj, Satya, Naveen, Subhojit, Sangram, Yeshwant and myself. We started from Dhanvantri Road near Majestic Bus stand in a Temp Traveller at 23.00 Hrs.

28^th August 2009

Travelled overnight, reached Belgaum by 9 O’ clock in the morning.  We started very well, by taking blessings of the Lord Ganesh in a make shift temple in a public place.

Then headed towards Hidkal Dam.  It was ocean of water al-round.  Then our visit to Godachinamalki water falls was really a breathtaking one.  With water al-round, it reminded us to Ksheerasagara in vaikunta- the abode of the lord Vishnu.   The words will not describe the water splendor in the form of falls, even though water was not falling from a great height, still it was a picturesque place around. Took bath there, played with water close to an hour, then headed towards Gokak falls.

The Gokak falls seems to be a damp squib with no water in the falls, it brought enough tears in our eyes.  It reminded us, how cruel the mankind is, who is simply on a machine to destroy the mother nature.  The hanging  bridge across the water falls was simply awesome.  Almost a century old bridge, which is mainly built for the people, who are working for the Gokak mills, to cross the water falls, still in its glory.  The walk on the hanging bridge in the windy afternoon was really awesome.  We just imagined how it will be when the water falls will be in its glory during the monsoon times.

Our temp traveler turned towards Belgaum, stayed back in a hotel, played poker – a playing card game launched and taught by Rohit till 2 o clock in the night.

29^th August 2009

Woke up by 7.00 in the morning, decided to take a Bus to Amboli in Maharastra, as the permit for tempo traveler was found to be around Rs.2500/-

There we hired a Maruthi Van on payment of Rs. 800/- if my memory is correct to take us around in Amboli.  Our first point was a temple on a rainy ghat “Hiranya Keshi Kund”. It was a good temple, but the path leading to the temple was maintained extremely well.

 

Then we headed towards Kavaleshad point – The star place of our trip.  The scenic beauty, playing “I spy you”,  to give a glimpse of what it was storing on a misty weather.  As The sun god showing little mercy, we could able to see the spectacular valley with “n” number of waterfalls around.  We ended up loosing the count every time, coz, whenever we start counting, either rain gods completely covered the valley or sun gods were at the mercy of chilling misty winds.  I lost at my words to describe the breathtaking valley, only some my snaps can provide a glimpse of what I was trying to tell.

Then the driver took us to one more magnificent place, The Amboli Ghat.  The falls in the ghat was at its glorious splendor inviting us to enter its house of water covered with mist.  We couldn’t resist the temptation, entered in to the water climbing the neatly constructed water flowing steps, which lead us to the basement of the waterfalls.  The chilled bath was a memorable one. The drive down to the Bus stand in Amboli was even more scenic.  Our camera didn’t disappoint us; it heeded our words, and swallowed all the scenic locations in its memory card to keep a memento through our life.  

30^th August 2009.

The drive to Jamboti forest was really amazing one.  Our driver had a tough time driving through the moist, slippery, winding, muddy path.  Finally he had to bow his heads down, as the Tempo traveler refused to go further. We started trekking on a treacherous route to reach the Mandovi river, then a local jeep driver gave a lift till the jamboti village which was a good 2-3kms away from our last stop of tempo traveler.  Then we hired a localite to take us through the Jamboti forest to reach the Vajrapoha waterfalls.  But eventually we couldn’t make it to the falls, as the river was in full flow, to reach the waterfalls, we were suppose to cross the river, then cut through the dense forest, which was next to impossible.  We were forced to satisfy with the glimpses of the Mandovi river and the Jamboti forest.  With a half hearted we headed towards Belgaum and then to Bengaloru.