Along the Western Ghats

Sakleshpur Railway trekking

Green Route Trek: Trekking along the Railway Track from Sakleshpur to Kukke Subramanya.

            Ever green remains the green trek in our minds. The Railway Segment from Sakleshpur to Kukke Subramanya road junction is known as green route trek and very popular amongst the trekkers in Western Ghats. The length of the trek is some 52 odd km which comprises approx.  58 tunnels and bridges and a number of water falls all the way.  

Sakleshpur green trek

            The route offers absolute wilderness to the nature lovers. Length of the tunnels varies from few meters to 600 meters and these tunnel are unexplored eco regions with high possibility of poisons snakes, insects. Bridges are breath taking and a bit challenging.

Our Route: Bangalore -> Sakleshpur {Kannur Express at around 9:00 pm from Bangalore city}, Sakleshpur Railway station -> Subramhanya Road Station {via Donigal, yedakkumeri)

     

           It was Friday around 8:30Pm, when myself Sachin, Nishanth, Veere Gowda and Dhanshekara were at the Bangalore Railway station waiting to board  the Kannur express. As soon as the train came, we somehow managed to get a seat, It’s my suggestion as to book the journey earlier else you may land up in trouble just to get some place to stand... Believe me; you cannot travel all the way without a seat, that too during the night time.

           By some where around 3:30 Am on Saturday we were there…..   Where? Yes in Sakleshpura.

Sakleshpur Railway station 

             As soon as we got down, the station master got to know that we were on a trek and he insisted us to go to donigal (Generally trains rarely stop at donigal and also the tunnels and bridges are more from here) but it was our wish to trek all the way and we didn’t wanted to miss anything on this route…  It was pitch dark and as we forgot to get torch, we went to sakleshpura bus stand and got some food for our morning breakfast. At 5:30 Am we started our trek.  

Hebbasaale River Bridge 

                             

            After traversing for an hour, we got the first bridge across Hebbasaale River. First we were very much afraid to neither traverse on the bridge nor enter the tunnels but later on it became a cake walk for us.

Railway Bridges along the Trek

                              

           Donigal is around 7 to 8 kms from sakleshpur. 

                                       

Sakleshpur Railway trekking

               We had our breakfast after donigal station and started walking again. It was a long way to go!

Railway bridges along the trek
                           

            By 7:00 Am again we started our trek. It was very hard to cross the tunnels as we did not had even a single torch. At the time of start the trek sounded like one of the easiest treks that we will have, but this off beat trek along the sidelines of railway track threw up its own challenges. Lining on the side ways of trek was extremely thin and the walking on the rocky bed of railway tracks was extremely cumbersome.             
           Finally we retorted to placing baby steps on the concrete rails and the wooden planks of the trek. The lesson we learnt from here is to take a good torch and backup batteries when you are doing the railway track. But somehow we managed with the mobile lights. 

Sakleshpur Railway Trek

              It was lunch time by then. The walk was getting monotonous with nothing new to see other than tunnel, bridges and green everywhere. we also saw a number of water falls on our way.

  

                                     

            We did not had the correct information about the distance and more than that we had not packed anything for the lunch. Swearing and cursing, we started walking again. With the entire circus finally we did it by the evening.It was almost 5:30 when we were near subramanya road. From there we climbed a rustic and bumpy jeep.

                                  

            We reached subramanya within 30 mins and got a room for us as we could no longer stand. We all sat down to rest. There was hardly any energy left in us for the day.

           On the next day i.e.,  Sunday, after visiting the Subramhanya temple, we turned towards Mangalore. In Mangalore we went to Bharath Mall and returned to Bangalore on the same day.