Hide ’n’ seek: Chasing the monsoon across the ghats

Do you plan to chase the monsoon in the Western Ghats? Forget it, unless you have a Sherman tank. It is no exaggeration: National Highway 48 between Sakleshpur and Mangalore has developed craters as large as a small car.

There was a time when chasing the monsoon was a favourite sport for many enthusiasts who came from as far as north India and the Persian Gulf, with Mangalore-Kodagu, Chikmagalur-Hassan and Shimoga-Bangalore being the preferred routes.

But bad roads have driven away monsoon-chasers in recent years. Muralikrishna from Jayanagar, Bangalore, and his group have never missed ‘monsoon-chasing’ over the past five years. They’d travel through Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, and wind up in Mangalore.

“But during the past two monsoon expeditions, due to bad roads, we spent most of our time tending to vehicular problems, replacing flat tyres, fixing broken suspensions and changing drive shafts. We used different vehicles in the past five years, but each time, we faced problems,” he said.

This year, Murali and his friends travelled by bus to Gundia and then headed to Bisale Ghat.

“Karnataka is the most exciting place [while chasing the monsoon]. We cross Agumbe, Charmady, Shiradi and Sampaje Ghats. The entire route has lush forests and waterfalls. It is a pleasure driving through Bhagavati Reserve Forest, Subramanya Ghat, Bisale Ghat,” says Dinesh Holla, a trekking enthusiast.
There is another breed of ‘monsoon-chasers’, who have chosen trekking to driving, he adds.

“Rain is the main theme of our trek. We wear raincoats, rain-boots and carry waterproof backpacks. We even rain-proof our cameras, MP3 players and cellphones. It’s worth it since we walk in the rain as we cross district boundaries and go to the foot of waterfalls in uninhabited places in Amedikallu, Banjarumalai and Thannerhalla. There are about 120 spots that can be visited on foot along the Western Ghats,” says Holla.

A Gulf-based monsoon-chaser  group, headed by Roshan Pais holds at least three monsoon expeditions. “This year, we’re going from Kumara Parvatha to Pushpagiri, which is also an elephant migration path. The group also wants to visit tea gardens on the slopes of the Kudremukh range,” says William Pais, an expedition organiser.

There are at least 15 houses between Kumara Parvatha and Pushpagiri that cater to tourists. Some monsoon-chasers like to stay at home-stays, particularly in the Dubare-Polibetta-Sampaje range. But the state tourism department has not capitalised on ‘monsoon-chasing’.

It’s still in the domain of local tour operators. The forest department does cooperate but insist that tourists enter forests only at designated entrances.