18 December 2006

A weekend in Honnemardu.

Last weekend(16th,17th Dec) I had been to Honnermardu. Honnemardu is supposed to be a village submerged under the Linganmakki reservoir in Shimoga district. On the way to Jog Falls one has to take deviation from a village by name Hiremane (2 km from Talguppa). A drive of 10 km from Hiremane will take us to Honnemardu, where there is Indian Institute Adventure and Application (IIAA) run by S.L.N Swami.


For Booking Contact:
The Adventurers - A Wilderness School
# 142, 69th Cross, 5th Block,
Rajajinagar, Bangalore – 560 010
Ph: 080 3409712/3305508
Fax: 080 3324338

Distance: 392 km.

Route: Bangalore->Shimoga->Sagar->Talguppa->Hiremane->Honnemardu.


This was my second visit to Honnemardu. Last time I had been there with my engg classmates in Dec 2004. This time it was with my colleague Harish Malleshappa and his friends. I managed to get Manish and Naveen(Ande)on board. Totally we were 12 people.

We departed from Bangalore on 15th Dec around 12 midnight in a Tempo Traveller. Manish joined us on the way at Bhadravathi. We reached Honnemardu around 8.30 am. Before starting activities, we were asked to fill a form providing details such as name, address, phone no, declaration etc. Then we had introduction round followed by do's and dont's. Our instructors were Nagaraj and Chidanand.

After intro it was breakfast time. We came across stupid rule that we have to get our own plates. Last time when I had been there, plates were provided by them. Further a lady at the institute showed too much attitude (saying "How will you eat now ??"). We somehow managed by sharing 5-6 plates given by them. After breakfast we started our activities.


Campus walk:
I feel this activity was there just for time pass. We were taken to different locations in the institute. One of them was a view point of Linganmakki Dam. We had photo session at the same place.


Linganamakki Dam

Swimming:
The reservoir is some 80KMx50KM and you can see water until your sight gets lost. The water is pretty clean and left virtually untouched. After an initial 'how to use' session with life jackets, we were on our own swimming to a nearby island, of course with our jackets on. You can literally float without any effort and that was the reason for all our faces getting tanned. For some of the guys, it was the first time experience with swimming.
While swimming I relaxed for 2 minutes because of cramps. when I was about to start again I realised that I am back to place where I started !!!. The same happened with Praveen(Chote miya) and Sanjay. But Harish, Jatin, Praveen(Bade miya) managed to reach the island. Other people gave up at 3/4th distance.

After swimming we had a heavy lunch. Many of them had sound sleep. I tried to do some R&D with photography. Here is one of results of it.


Result of my R&D

Coracling:
Evening time was 'Coracle' time. 'Coracle' (Teppa) is a big round tub like thing with seats. Two people row it. We went to a nearby tiny island for the night's stay. Ande(Naveen) had gone to Talguppa to make some emergency official call. By the time he came back we had already left for the island. So after dropping luggage at the island, me and Nagaraj(instructor) coracled back to pick up Ande. This gave me oppotunity to capture many landscape-shots which wouldn't had been possible if I had stayed in island.


Captured while Coracling


Night Stay at Island.
We collected firewood, pitched our tents, made the campfire, had food and chatted, sang, danced away to glory. After dark, we could see the beautifully lit Linganmakki Dam. It was a sight to watch (though our cameras could not capture it).


Campfire


Day 2:
Next day morning we coracled back to the mainland. There were heavy winds blowing and we had to coracle against the winds/waves and after much struggle we reached the Mainland. Coracling against the tides is pretty difficult, infact our coracle almost toppled twice near the starting point itself with 6 ppl in it. Then Nagaraj accompanied us with totally 4 in it. It took around 1 hr to reach to mainland. For entire one hour we had heart in our mouth. I couldn't capture any of these moment as I had kept my cam in Nagaraj's bag, which he had left in the island.

Few of our friends were struck in the island, so Harish and Jatin with the instructor coracled to the island and got remaining people back.

Canoeing:
Next in the store was 'Canoe'ing. Canoe is the normal rowing boat. We Canoed till one of the Islands(which we are supposed to reach by swimming on Day1) and returned back. This was the best part of the trip for many of us.


Manish and me Canoeing


After finishing lunch, tea we left the place around 4pm. we were back in Bangalore on Monday morning by 3 am(18th Dec).

To conclude, eventhough this was my second trip to Honnemardu I was not even bored for a second. Honnemardu is the place which one can visit 'n+1' times. One of major difference to previous visit is that I have started blogging. The result is the post which you are reading. I also found lot of change in attitude of caretakers of Institute. They showed too much attitude will booking the slot and also for the new rule "that we have carry our plates". These things were not there 2 years back. Anyway the experience was different and adventurous compared to all the trips/trek.

According to Harish "if one is looking out for luxuries, then forget, Honnemardu is not the place for you". We literally have to do all things by ourselves, wash dishes, carry our tents, get firewood etc ... Music, cigars, drinks, non veg and plastic are not allowed in Honnemaradu. Food and accomodation is pretty bad, but it is worth a place to visit and experience all the activities.

Thanks to Harish Malleshappa for organizing this trip and also to contributing to this post.

Snaps are shared at
my picasa album
Pravin's yahoo album

FAQs (added after comments from Darshan)
* Do we have to hire an instructor and move.. : No need to hire an instructor. Our instructor was a student of the institute.
* wat abt the food and accomadation: Food will be provided by the institute. Don't forget carry your own plates. Accomdation doesn't matter as the night activity is camping in the island.
* do we have book in prior and if so by how many days : i am not sure about this .. important thing is that the slot should be available .. we had booked 2 weeks in advance.
* how many days do we require to cover Honnemardu properly : 24 hrs is sufficient for all main activities, but as per new rules a group has to book for 2 days minimum.
* wat are all the stuffs that we got to carry on : 2 pair clothes, shorts, plates, tumbler, spoon, torch etc.
* roughly the expenditure cost per individual please: our expenditure was Rs. 1730 per head (including Rs.1000 paid to the institute.).

For more information check this link.

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:35 AM

    It was a pleasure to be Honnemaradu
    Let me just add to the return from the Island scene.

    Wind blowing at great speed creating huge waves. 5 of 12 started in "TEPPA 1 " along with Chidananda .Next 6 in one "TEPPA " could not fit as waves were huge , so only 3 + Nagraj left from the island , leaving 4 of us back in island. 2 Life guards were sent for our rescue. They could not do the job, so we sent them back . Between we though that people had forgotten abt us . But luckly we had the luggages with us. Finally Chidananda came with some food, Puri and sagu , enough energy to row the boat. Between Nath had this fear of N==1 syndrome ( only Child), his face was a treat to watch. 3 of us + chidananda left the island leaving behind Nath in Island , all singing "dooni sagali ...". chida gave us a lot of courage. Soon water began in fill in "TEPPA".He said even if "TEPPA" was filled with 100% water it wont sink ,this gave us some more courage.We some how managed to reach the Island.Between Praveen C managed to kiss the river in order to drink some water while were rowing almost toppling the boat.

    I never had been in such a situation before when my heart came in out mouth literally. Realized what risk really meant.

    Concluding "Experience has to be felt cannot be told or heard".
    Visit Honnemaradu to experience life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. u dint go in the world famous(in karnataka :) ) train from talaguppa to shimoga?

    ReplyDelete
  3. "I managed to get Manish and Naveen(Ande) on board"

    But you cant manage the ppl who are dying to come with u :( [its me]

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Totally we were 12 people"

    It's not Ocean's 12, it is Shande's 12.

    Awsome 12some.. good job [BJ]

    ReplyDelete
  5. How far is this place from Bangalore?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Honnemardu is about 375+ km from Bangalore.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The snaps showing ur R&D with your camera...is just tooooooooooooooo amazing...can u pls mail the snap to me would like to use it as wallpaper..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi am Darshan here.. Just read abt ur experience on Honnemaradu.. Have few queries to be asked..

    -Do we have to hire an instructor and move..
    -wat abt the food and accomadation, do we have book in prior and if so by how many days.
    -how many days do we require to cover Honnemardu properly
    -wat are all the stuffs that we got to carry on
    -roughly the expenditure cost per individual


    please reply back to the queries above to the undersigned mail ids.
    It wud be really kind of u to send it by today(04 jan 2007)

    Thanku

    darshan_gangadkar@rediffmail.com
    chandanmnkumar@yahoo.co.in

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Darshan,

    Here are the answers to your queries:

    * Do we have to hire an instructor and move.. : No need to hire instructor. Our instructor was a student of the institute.
    * wat abt the food and accomadation: Food will be provided by the institute. Don't forget carry your own plates. Accomdation doesn't matter as the night activity is camping in the island.
    * do we have book in prior and if so by how many days: i am not sure about it .. important thing is that the slot should be available.
    * how many days do we require to cover Honnemardu properly : 24 hrs is sufficient for all main activities, but as per new rules a group has to book for 2 days minimum.
    * wat are all the stuffs that we got to carry on : 2 pair clothes, shorts, plates, tumbler, spoon, torch etc.
    * roughly the expenditure cost per individual please: our expenditure was Rs. 1730 per head (including Rs.1000 to the institute.). we had hired a Tempo traveller for transportation.

    see this link for contact details.

    Rgds,
    Shande.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi
    This is Keshav from Bangalore,

    Can u plez suggest me how i can book ticket & for how many people i can book. Whats the accommodation plan there, wat i shoul do for it?

    ReplyDelete
  11. hi kesh,

    thanks for dropping by.

    for booking just call up the institute office and ask if slot is available on a specific weekend. You have go there and confirm the booking.

    Number of people, I am not really sure, 25-30 may be upper limit.

    There is no accommodation at Honnemardu, you will be staying there only one night and the activity will be camping in one of the islands.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dear Shinde,

    Thanks for info,

    I am just trying for institute phone, but nobody in picking hte call.

    Any other way i can book

    ReplyDelete
  13. HI,
    I am priya.
    I have gone there long back but not remembering who organised and all, please can u let me know the contact address of them? i guess Adventures group organise this.. rite?

    ReplyDelete
  14. yeah .. ours also was organized by Adventures .. I am also not sure abt current scenario .. it's been 4 years since my last visit.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous3:57 PM

    Yeah, theres a lady by name Nomitha who shows too much of attitude & thinks we are at her mercy. So avoid going..

    ReplyDelete