Trekking @ Kanoor

Trekking to the Kanoor Kote - my first trek with some experienced trekkers. Kanoor kote is a very old fort in the dense forests of the Western Ghats and beneath the mighty peaks runs river Sharavathi originating from a place called Ambhutheertha, the place where Rama broke the bow to win the hand of Sita according to Ramayana. We started in our Vehicle from Talaguppa, a village 14 km away from the Jog falls in Shimago district and reached a place called Hosagadde. We were a group of 13 and each of us were carrying a ruck sack with clothing, gear, accessories and ready-to-eat food items. The plan for the first day was to reach a village called Kanoor, about 18 km from Hosagadde through green patches of paddy fields and sometimes totally uninhabited regions.
As we started from Hosagadde, we had to walk along the narrow banks of a stream under the shades of the dense bamboo trees. It had rained for the previous two days and our path was fully infested with leeches. We were instructed not to stop at any spot till we cross the entire stretch of the stream. Throughout our way, we had to cross small narrow bridges and had to stop at the houses near the fields to ask for the correct trail to Kanoor. We lost our trail twice and spent 2 hours inside the jungle to find the right path. Somewhere around 2 pm we finished our lunch that we carried in our back pack.
On the way, we stopped at a house to ask for the trail at the end of a steep hill and the owner of the house offered to help us as a guide till we reach Kanoor. The route to Kanoor is not entirely through the jungles and along the slopes of the hills we could see lonely houses in the middle of the fenced farms and each of the villagers we saw, were actually the owners of the farms marked by boundaries made of wooden fences. The Guide took us through the woods across the hills and again through a patch of green fields. Now and then we stopped at some of the houses to fill water. Around 5 pm in the evening the entire group was very tired and were trying really hard to keep up with the pace of the Guide who was cheerfully walking and greeting the nearby fellow villagers in Tulu.
Around 6 pm, it started getting dark and we completed our final stretch of forest patch to reach the road towards the Kanoor School where we had planned to stay. The school is nothing sort of one could see in the towns, it was a small building with just one class room and a veranda. We placed our ruck sacks in the school veranda and 6 of us climbed the nearby hill to get a better view of that place. We spent an hour there until it was totally dark. The others started cooking for us with the ready-to-eat food items. After completing candle light dinner, we slept off in the sleeping bags on the school Veranda.
Next day morning we got up and were getting ready to start. We were aware that its going to be difficult than the previous day and three of our group members already dropped out. They boarded the only bus in the morning which the villagers use to reach the town . The remaining 10 of us started with our belongings into the dense jungles..again.. This time it was denser than ever. The path was very narrow surrounded by bushes on both sides that one can hardly walk through it with the back pack.
After two hours, we reached a house famously known as "Doctor's house" in Kanoor. The Doctor's house was surrounded by Cashew Trees and Pine Apple farms. We collected some Cashew fruits in our Ruck sack. We met the Doctor's Son, a retired Army man and kind person. He helped us finding the trail to the Fort - Kanoor Kote.
From the Doctor's House, we walked around 5-6 km to reach the Kote atop the mighty peaks of the western Ghats and reached the remains of the Fort around 11 am. We halted there for half an hour and finished our breakfast (chocolates and biscuits). Then we started descending down towards the nearby village. The descend was the highlight of this trek with the slopes of the mountain being steep and we had to carefully follow each other. It started drizzling and we had a long way to go. We walked almost 2 hours through the forest and we had little water left in our bags. Fortunately it was not raining heavily and we came out of the forest safely and reached the nearby village on time. We stopped by a house and filled water and started walking towards Gerusoppa, the place where we had planned to board our vehicle towards Bangalore.
The last 6-7 km of the trekking was the most tiresome part of the entire program and it was so hot that one of our friends fainted. We stopped there for some half an hour till he got better and started walking again. All of us were very tired after walking for more than 25 Km.We reached a small village on the banks of river Sharavathi and Gerusoppa was on the other side of the river. We crossed the river on the boats and then we took bath in the river. Around 5 pm in the evening we got back to our vehicle and started towards Bangalore.
As a whole, this trip was a very refreshing experience away from the hustle and bustle of city life.