A very well planned and executed trek to Ethina Buja happened on 12th April, 2014.

Ethina Bhuja,meaning "Bull's shoulder" is a remote place very near to famous Dharmasthala in the district of Chickamagalur. People willing to trek this place can approach from two places .

One is from Shishila ,nearly 32 km from Dharmasthala and the other is via Byrapura near Mudigere.The second is the very easiest though from Shishila the trek is nearly 14 km .

Myself, Prakash Rao, Kishore Mogeraya, Shriraj Shishila heading towards Shishila village on 11th night. Since it was village and hometown of Shriraj, we were not much worried on our journey.

Our pre-booked Karnataka Vaibhava was ready and started at 10.00 P.M

To our disappointment, bus was not at our comfort zone but we didn't realized much as the talk was on till 12:00 midnight.

We reached kokkada at 5:00 A.M and Shriraj's prebooked vehicle was ready to take us to his home(shishila). It was dark all around and was drizling. We reached Shriraj house and we met Shriraj's Dad and Mom. They were bit confused on what to do initially ;) Then they picked up to our phase..:) We finished brushing and started deciding on where to take bath. Finally decided to go to the famous Shishila matsya teertha(Kapila river) to have our bath.

I clicked some snaps on our way and reached the temple.

As soon as we reached, we were welcomed by a nicely constructed bridge and sign board "Matsya Smaraka"(Fish Idol).

After crossing, directly we went to "Matsya Sarovara"(Kapila River), where we found an innumerable number of fishes. Shriraj brought some rice grains and we feed the fish then entered the pond to have our bath, not so deep looked like a natural swimming pool to me. Not to mention we enjoyed the swim :)

We went back to Shriraj home, got ready and guess what...It's breakfast time and we were damn hungry and went to breakfast point at Ganesha Gokhale's house..:)
Pre-arranged breakfast "Shavige Bath/ Vermicelli Upma/Shavige Uppitu" was ready and we had it tummy full.

We joined with 4 more named Thejas Kadamannaya, SumithRaj Saralaya, Adarsh Kadamannaya, Vishwas Kadamannaya and our pleasure got doubled... :)

All are new for trekking and only myself, Shriraj had the previous experience. Among us Thejas was youngest just stepped into his 10th Class and Shriraj was eldest among us.

We are getting to know each other and few distance walk made us to catch an auto rickshaw with which we entered the starting point of the trek.

The source of water at the starting point made us feel good and the destination point looked almost impossible. We clicked few snaps on our way..:)

One more Durga temple also seen at the starting point of Trek.

Few meters walk and we found the fresh dung of elephant which created a bit fear among us on our forward journey but we really don't need to bother much as our guide Chenappa is well aware of the place...:)

As we went forward, the sound of water made us excited and we all went to watch the flow of water and to fill our water bottles as that is the last point of water till we reach top.

Sun is peeping through the bamboo which is dense all around..!

Look of Adarsh "Hahaha...First go and sharpen your sickel"..;)

Scroll down to watch few snaps of excitement....:)

Thejas says "ufff!! this is not the right place yaar..:P"

Smile says it all...:)

Vishwas....Vish[A Look of poison ;) ] 

 The actual trek starts and it is a journey of 14kms from bottom to top and we were all set to conquer the shoulder of bull. Nothing comes easy and we need to struggle a bit to capture..;)

 The result of the struggle is      sweat....Are you sure?

 Not really! It is also the part of our  journey..:)

                            Adarsh never forgets to give phose to a snap...:)

     We can understand.....you were tired...:P :D

We had two packs of glucose powder to reach top and on our way we saw some strange uncommon apperance. Scroll down to know more.

1. Thorns of Thorn Pig is one among uncommon seen and there were two pigs dead.

     2. An indication of black magic can be clearly seen which is second uncommon doing. 

Looking at those uncommon world, we went to a place where our destination was very clearly visible and we were so much delighted to watch the wonderful sight. Few snaps as soon as we are nearer are shown below,

 

 Sickel came to Sumith's hand....Vishwas be careful!!...:P

    Forest Jasmine on our way top..:)

Forest Jasmine: Botanically known as Jasminum abyssinicum, this species is a woody climber with dark glossy green foliage, and five or six lobed flowers are borne at the ends twigs in axils of leaves, they are a bright white with pink fringes. 

Source of water even here at the top made us jump in joy and we had enough water filled to all the water bottles and as we progressed to drink water, our blood is consumed by leaches which we were unaware and as soon as we saw, all of us started vacating the place quickly...:-)

Lunch time and we were damn hungry. Everyone was curious on the items and we were with 200 chapatis,
1 litre tomato ketchup, pickle, biscuits, wooden plates, fruits such as apple, orange, butter milk..etc made our tummy satisfied....:-)

We were tired and tummy full of food, what next? You guessed it right. Some of us went asleep quickly while some of them started preparing for tent...:)

We have to remember our guide Chenappa here who was an extreme helping hand for all, in all the aspects from cutting wood for the fire camp tonight till preparing tent for us.

Now the people who were sleeping also woke up, our tent was also completed and time was ticking 4.00 P.M, so what next?

Yes!! We headed towards conquering the bull's shoulder. 

                                                     "Naa nadedadde daari" meaning Wherever I go, that is the path..:-)

Few steps to reach the top :-)

Finally the destination point of Ethina Buja reached and we were top of heaven :-)

Wherever you go our network follows slogan suits here...:-)

    Sunset is approaching soon and clouds are playing with it :)

We had full of joy literally jumping all around, few of the glimpse of our enjoyment can be seen below :-)

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight....:-))

 Thinking himself as Harry Potter :-)

When he smiles it's as if you'd just told him the first joke on earth and this one is my favorite click till date :-) 

Sunset was very quick and we all headed towards tent and its the fog surrounded all around giving a chilling effect. What next?

Absolutely!! Fire camp and here it goes :-)

 

Its time to remember chenappa(guide) again who make sure the fire was alive whole night by waking up every one hour and went to sleep by 5:00 A.M. We had our dinner and went to sleep quickly.

Busyyy, no time to smile too :-)

 

Its time for a tight sleep and in no time one by one falling asleep....:)

I woke up around 5 A.M and it was still dark. Sumith was awake and fire was on, it was good time to heat up urself...:) It was close to 6 and I was eager to see the heaven on earth. Heaven? Yes!! Watch out :-)

 
 
 

 
 

 

 

This ends my 2nd and longest blog....:-) 

I would like to thank Shriraj Shishila without whom nothing would have been possible.

I thank Mr. Ganesh Gokhale for the preparation of food though electricity power was off.

I thank Shriraj's father and mother for the love and affection shown especially his mom for the preparation of mouth watering butter milk and evening delicious upma...:) 

Last but not the least I would extend my regards to each one of you who participated for the trek and the one who read my blog :-)

Excuse me for any mistakes, hope you all liked it and let me know if you do liked..:-)

For any more details you can keep in touch with my facebook id https://www.facebook.com/prathik.bht

Regards,

Prathik Bhat