Silent Valley Resort, Kudremukh, Western Ghats

Kudremukh is a mountain in Chikmagalur district, in Karnataka, India. The name literally means ‘horse-face’ and refers to one picturesque view of a side of the mountain. It is noted for its scenic beauty, located in midst of mountains. Three important rivers, the Tunga, the Bhadra and the Nethravathi are said to have their origin here.

Journey Begins:

Two buses started from our office at around 10 pm. One of the buses, watched the movie X-Men2, while the people in the other bus partied and danced to kannada, tamil, telugu and hindi songs. The bus route was Bangalore – Hassan – Belur – Mudigere – Kalasa – Kudremukh. The morning mist and cloud covered valley was just amazing.

photo: mist covered mountains

Silent Valley Resort:

We reached silent valley resort, kudremukh at around 8 am. We checked into our cottages which could comfortably accomodate three persons per cottage and had attached bathrooms. The whole resort could accomodate around 50 people, i was told. The cottages are ethnic styled and had tribal paintings on the walls.

Breakfast at 9 am was herbal dosa, shavige bath and strawberry juice. The pool along the sky-light cafeteria was quite relaxing.

photo: cafeteria
River-Crossing:

Around 11 am, we left for river crossing over the river bhadra. On the way, we stopped at the picturesque tea estate for few photos. The river crossing was organised by Dev Balaji from Nature Admire. However, we realised that river-crossing had turned into “river-landing”. The video below should explain it better.

video: River-Crossing over river bhadra

video: kudremukh road

View-Point:

We returned to the resort for lunch and went for local sight-seeing. First stop was the banks of river bhadra, where we took few photos sitting on the rocks in between the river. Next stop was a view-point, from where we searched for the setting-sun which was hidden behind the clouds. However, the sight of the whole kudremukh moutain range from this point was quite awe-inspiring.

photo: View-Point & Shambu Maharaj

Camp-Fire:

Later around 8 pm, we had camp-fire with dance music. Most of them screamed & danced with few hiccups during music selection by our in-house “DJs” Raja, Siva & Satish. Tip for others: Plan your dance music and burn your audio/mp3 cds before you come to the resort. You will save a lot of time.

The first day thus ended with dinner and a good sleep in our cottages.

Hannumangundi waterfalls:

Day 2 began around 8.30 am when we left for Hannumangundi waterfalls. The falls is located around 32 Km (One & half hour drive) from the resort. Water falls from a height of more than 100 feet. Reaching the falls involves walking down about 500 steps and takes a bit of effort while coming back up. We were not allowed to take bath in the water because of excess of water in the stream and very slippery rocks.

After few photosessions, dipping our legs in the chill water and bombing each other with huge water splashes using rocks, we climbed back up.

video: WaterFall

Lakya Dam:

Next stop was Lakya Dam which is a pollution control dam used by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL). However after stiff agitation by environmentalists, the supreme court of india had ordered the closure of mining activities by KIOCL by Dec 31, 2005. So, the Lakya Dam had no water but had tons of tailings (Mud) from the mining activity.

photo: KIOCL

Forest Walk:

Post lunch, few of us headed for a forest walk (3km) up some mountain close to the resort. The walk was a first leech-experience for many. The highlight of the walk was the view from the hill-top of the cloud covered kudremukh peak at a distance. In the meantime, the others enjoyed a game of volleyball, badminton & rope walking.

photo: forest walk

photo: on the mountain-top

Pool:

Later all of us, had the grand finale of the trip by jumping into the swimming pool. Shambu entertained the group with acrobatics like reverse-somersault jump into the water. Later, everyone joined in games like swimming race, walking race (in the water), coin finding (with the feet), tube capsizing and breath-holding contest.

video: group diving into pool
video: walking race in the pool
At 8 pm, we had checked out and assembled for dinner. Finally, Prashant Chawda gave the vote of thanks to all and to Raghavendar & Rohit Chaudhary, who had put in quite an effort to plan and arrange the whole trip. Thanks Guys !!

Other places to visit at kudremukh:

http://www.silentvalley.net/places.htm