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.