Treks and travels: MG waterfalls

During my visit to my native place during Deepavali, I decided to visit some lesser known falls in the area. My brother and two cousins joined me. It was the same group that visited the base of Unchalli falls last year. This time I was better prepared by bringing a car!! Else, I don’t think that I could have managed to drive last few km to MG village given my miniscule two wheeler skills.

There are two ways to see this falls. An easier way is to reach the top of the falls. But the view is not great and will not justify the long journey we have made to reach that place. Better way is to reach the base of the falls, the trek which is more demanding but provides a cleaner and closer view of the falls.

The first person whom we met in the village tried to dissuade us from going to the falls reasoning that the water was too deep. That did not deter us at all. He reluctantly he showed us the direction. The path continuously went down through plantations and forests. A dog decided to join us. He seemed to be little confused about our destination as he tried to direct us towards local houses!!

Within 20-25 minutes, we had descended nearly 700 feet to reach a tribal house next to the stream. Two dogs in the house did not like us and started barking loudly which led to the house owner to pop out of his house. First he restrained the dogs from hounding us. Having known our intentions, he asked us to continue walking upstream to reach the waterfall. He also mentioned an alternate way that avoids walking along the stream. Somehow this did not register in our mind and we continued walking along the stream.

With limited trekking experience, it was tricky for other members to walk along the stream. That path was slippery. We had to cross over to the opposite bank many times as it was difficult to navigate on the same bank for long. What I thought would be “quick and swift” trek seemed to stretch for a long time. Even after one hour of walking, there was no sign on the falls. The slow progress was the culprit.

We reached a point where my brother and Abhiram decided to put a brake to their walk as they could not cross over to opposite bank. The dog also decided to stay with them. (Later, we came to know that it tried crossing the river but could not succeed!!) I and Ajith continued further and reached the waterfall.

The water drops in three stages. The first stage is on the left side of the valley. It is the second stage that is dominates the landscape. The third stage is very small where the water finally drops into the gorge.

The valley that was wide narrows as we reach the base of the waterfall. It looks possible to get down into water but a safer place to enjoy water is on a “side waterfall” that is about 15-20 feet height near to the falls.

The waterfall seemed to be home to snakes as we saw some fresh mounted snake skin!! And we saw a real one on the way back. Basking in the afternoon sun, it was blocking our way. Both of us scared of snakes stood at our place shocked. The problem is that I cannot recognize snake species. Green snakes and wipers I can identify and also python (though I have never seen it in jungles). The snake here could either be a rat snake or Cobra. It was not facing us and hence could not really make out whether it had a “V” mark. Also, some cobras do not have that mark!!

I and Ajith decided to just wait and watch hoping that it will not come towards us. We could have shooed it away or threw stones at it. But what if it was a Cobra and decides to attack us? Killing or harming a creature was not in our minds. And this snake had not even been aware of our presence. No snake would attack without provocation.

The wait seemed to be a long one but finally snake jumped into water and crossed over to the other side. It was amazing to see it braving the currents to cross the stream. We breathed a sigh of relief but unfortunately we also had to cross the river at the same point!! We preferred to “struggle” on the slippery path on the bank instead of crossing over to meet our friend again!!