Mekedaatu(aka Mekedat)

Everything has to have a beginning - a humble one i would say and thats how the trekking trips started.
3rd Sem Engineering. Our group of under-sized guys(as you ll see in the pics) decided we need to go a trip somewhere for the weekend. Dont remember for certain, i think Pavan suggested the spot. Atleast i had not heard of that place before. Anyways we decided to go to Mekedaatu that Sunday.

First the characters(other than me of course).

Keerthy - His yes is almost assured for any kind of trip (courtesy his rather cool parents of course) - All you have to say before any trek is that ' I read in some blog that they took 6 hours to climb' - He ll immediately plan to finish the trek in 3 hours - His speed being legendary among our group

Avinash Gupta - Might compete with all south indian heroes for his one-liners. His trekking capacities are at best left unspoken (Sorry maga).Unofficially the entertainer of the group.

Pavan(aka Boda) - Most enthusiastic about treks atleast he went to US . Spends half his free time planning on next trek(most of the places he picks are unheard by rest of us) and rest of the time playing cricket or badminton.






Dattatreya - Used to see most of the places via his camera lens instead of his eyes till he decided that photography is best left to amateurs and not for experts like him.






THE TRIP:

Date and Time: Probably October 2004. Morning around 8 am

This being our first trip, we didnt want waste our time convincing parents to let us go in Bikes. So we assembled in Banashankari Bus Stand and took the bus to Kanakapura at around 8 in the morning. Man was it crowded !! We somehow squeezed in and waited for the crowd to reduce which never happened. In about 1.5 hours we reached Kanakapura and had our breakfast. Caught a bus going towards Sangam which was way less crowded than earlier bus and reached Sangam around 11.30. The roads were pretty good all the way.

Now, Sangam is kind of the starting place for mekedat. All the vehicles are parked here and you ll have to cross the kaveri river to start trek(more of walk i would say) to mekedat. The river had fair amount of water - varying from 1 feet to 4 feet depth of water. Anyways, we crossed the river and had an early lunch - each one of us had packed so much, with everyone assuming someone else might no get it, that in the end we had to give some of the home-cooked food to dogs !!

Also, there is an option of taking a mini-bus to the top (mekedat) from the place where we crossed the river. But we decided to walk .Started the trek at 12 - it was fairly hot and we did this for about 30 minutes and we were seriously bored in our first trip. It was almost like walking on road except that it had 5 degree inclination and was mud-road. Dont know who came up with the idea but we decided to go offtrack. We just got down from the road onto the right sloped area and proceeded from here. And this was the most exciting phase of Mekedat trip ..For about hour and half we just continued on excursion crossing streams of water, small whirlpools and finally climbed back onto the road just before the summit.

Now, the summit is Mekedat(Supposed to mean Goat Crossed It). This place is actually pretty beautiful. Though however the valley between two mountains which the goat is supposed to have crossed is around 60-70 feet wide !!! We just hung about there and decided to make it to a huge rock ahead of us where there were only couple of guys. It was while climbing this fairly steep rock, that avinash asked me to help him climb up. What happened eventually was that combination of his weight and gravity resulted in me going down instead of him coming up !! Well almost our first mishap and nothing happened and we reached the top to find one guy fishing (thats what he claimed he was doing) - Remember guys he was on top of rock may be 100 feet high and fishing in the fairly fast flowing river below - Must be a damn lucky guy if he really caught fish.

One important point is that last bus from Sangam back was supposed to be 4 pm. So left around 3-3.15 and walked down -this time on road. For some reason Pavan and Datta ran almost half the way while the rest of us took easy. Reached Sangam at around 3.45 and waited for the bus. Will never forget that waiting though as it went on and on. For some reason that bus didnt come at all. There were few TTs and Cabs and we asked i dont know how many of them to drop us somewhere to some town - All of them claimed to be full - Finally one of the Vans offered to take 2 of us. So around 6.30 Pavan and Datta went in that van. Me, Keerthy and Avinash walked further towards someother nearby bus stop and waited.. again ..Some bus did eventually come and we came to Bangalore in the same route as in morning at around 10.30 in night - Made a strict resolution that we are using bikes next time and never again depend on Bus.

Also, in 2004, there was absolutely no signal of any cellphone network there - might have come up now.

So, this was our first adventure - slow start - good interval scenes but ending up in rather anti-climax

Difficulty Level: Easy

Route :

1. From Bangalore, take the Kanakapura Road and go to Kanakapura around 45 Km from Banashankari.
2. From Kanakapura, take the road leading towards Sangam around 45 km from Kanakapura
3. From Sangam, Cross the river - Either walk or take the mini-bus to Mekedat around 5 km

Total Distance: 90 Km from Bangalore to Sangam

Better To Know:

1. Better take Private transport - Bus facility is pathetic at best.
2. Cell Phone didn't work few years back.
3. There are small shops around for food and snacks - though better carry from home if anyone is concerned about quality.