Talewadi - caves and a cascade

April 7, 2012

The drive from Degaon to Talewadi was a rough one. We had to get off at a uphill stretch and guide our cabby Balu. Indica's wheels spun before gripping the rocky-dirt patches. Balu proved to be talented driver. Soon we were driving a flat stretch of dirt road. We saw a couple of thatched roof huts but no humans in sight. Balu caught a movement in one of the huts. We stopped to check if this was Talewadi. Slowly, very cautiously two women, one elderly and one middle aged, emerged from huts. I said namaskar and asked for directions to Talewadi ...the elderly pointed down the road- a little further you'll see two more houses. Barely 250m away, after a bend a road was Talewadi.

These two milestones, a mile away from each other, are from the British era. Distance shown is in miles. These are real milestones. Places mentioned are Belgaum, Shirol, Khanapur and Talewadi.

Right next to the milestone (Talewadi 0) was a house and another one on a small hillock across the road. We saw a man emerge out of the house on the hillock. He was surprised to see us and even more surprised to see an Indica in his village. I introduced myself and the purpose of our visit- Krishnapur caves and Bheemaghad fort.  But since it was a bit too late to reach Krishnapur and Bheema, we'll plan that some other day. Can you show us Talewadi's cave? Yes. Our friend Sateri Dabale called out to his brother Ganapati Dabale and asked him to take us to the cave. Wow! What a host.

We took the Indica for another kilometer and parked at a dead end. From there we entered the jungle. Ganapati led the way, a narrow shaded path, it was silent except for birds and insects going about their chores noisily. Suddenly the shaded path ended and we were out in the open. The path winded through rocks and descended into a wide valley. The cave was neatly hidden behind a  clump of trees. The picture below is a screen shot from a video I made.

A short video of our walk through the jungle to the cave.

The cave's mouth is completely hidden by trees. A narrow path from the side led us into the cave. We approached it cautiously, Ganapati would ask us to walk in a single file as close as possible to the rocky wall to our right, in case we encountered an animal it'l have enough place to pass by. Memories of my visit to Tenginkalbetta came to my mind, our guide had told us animals tend to attack when encountered face to face. They rarely bother when seen to the sides. Slow steps, holding our breaths, we took the first step into the cave. It had a scary look, the innards dark and uninviting.

Ganapati checks if any beast was hiding behind these rocks. No, nothing. Than he told us about a snake he had seen years ago. We spoke in hushed tones.

Feeling confident, we relaxed a bit. The portion behind the group looks ideal for animals to lie down for sleep. No wonder Ganapati checked it.

We decide to explore deeper into the cave. The silence got thicker with every step. We could barely speak with the tension. Ganapti asked if we had a torch. We fished out my LED torch and handed it over to Manju since my hands were full with cameras.

Ganapati pointed out at a narrow opening to an inner chamber. Ganapati located an paw print in the moist floor, our untrained eyes could not pick it. Manju shone the torch at that point. We heard a low growl, a low but a nasty sounding growl for about 5 or 6 seconds. Balu asked Manju to switch off the torch. Now it was confirmed, we were guests and disturbing our beasty host.  We were tense but none of us panicked.

We decided to move towards the mouth for our own safety.

Close to where Balu is, to his left we found several prints of birds' feet.

Ganapati said we can see the rocks of Krishnapur caves from a point on these hills, let's go there. The path went up the roof of the cave. Ganapti, Manju and Balu are standing in the footpath used by animals to descend into the cave.

View of the valley floor and a smaller cave opposite the bigger cave.

After few minutes walk, we were at the highest point of Talewadi. The three small mounds above Balu's and Manju's heads are the rocks of Krishnapur. We are 800m and Krishnapur is 200m above the sea level. We need to descend 600m to reach Krishnapur!

Hope the day comes soon.

A natural stone arch. Miniature version of Sidlaphadi cave.

Ganapti was leading us to another cave. We were walking a crescent shaped valley floor. My guess- during rainy season a stream would be flowing here.

We dare not enter this cave, looks like a perfect home for bears and serpents. We rested here for a while. Earlier, while in the bigger cave I had told lighting a beedi scares away animals. Balu lit a beedi, we cautioned him, a carpet of dry leaves covered the ground we stood on. the cave is at the beginning is a slope. The caves terrace is a part of the valley floor we descended from.

This tree is supposed to be a favorite play spot for tigers. Young tigers would be often found here. Ganapati claimed to have seen tigers running few paces and leaping on to the tree. They would sharpen their claws on the trunk and would lie on the branches. I believed his words. The tree has a kind of look which looks inviting to big cats.

Ganapati is a very patient man. I should spend few days in Talewadi, live peacefully away from the all the madness . We stopped at the cave we had seen from the bigger cave's terrace. I was glad Manju and Balu were enjoying the trip :)

On the way back to the hamlet, we stopped by to see another smaller cave.

We saw something we can never see in cites. A very different type of flower- white, blue and red.

The blue ones seem to the younger ones. The blue top falls off exposing the red inside.

We had crossed over this gully to explore two smaller caves. We spent few minutes examining the types of rocks. These  are ligneous rocks. We could see charcoal grey pebbles and stones, very heavy for their sizes. I picked a few for my collection at home.

We were hungry but something kept us moving. We headed towards the hamlet. Thanks to Rajshekhar Jahaj for suggestion to visit Talewadi.

This story continues in the next post - Talewadi: cascade in Mahadeyi river.
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Degaon, a tribal hamlet

Krishnapur caves and Bheemaghad fort caught my attention. I badly wanted to see them. I located the caves on Wikimapia and checked out possible routes. The closest village marked was Talewadi, entire area is thick jungle with open patches for hamlets. I could see some roads but they could be dirt tracks. I checked altitudes in Google Terrain. Talewadi is at 800m and Krishnapur at 200m. Terrific! I was doubtful if a motorable road existed between Talewadi and Krishnapur. Anyway, I decided to go on a scouting trip to check what's possible and how to take out im from impossible. I asked Manju to join me.

April 4, 2012.
Balu the cabby was late by more half an hour. We left Dharwad by 6AM. By 7-30 we were at Khanapur. We had hot idlis and bhaji at Hotel Chetan at Rumewadi  cross. On enquiring routes to Krishnapur, the hotel  owner told us to go to Talewadi but another man told us to check out route from Gawali. Hotel owner said that a road does exist between Talewadi and Krishnapur. Thank you, we'll go to Talewadi.

Now we were driving through forest area, road wasn't that good. We could see several farm houses. We were wondering how structures are allowed to be built in forest area. The road we were on connected with Anmod, we had to look out for a smaller to our right. At one spot, we saw three peacocks, one had spread it's feathers, a lovely sight that lasted few seconds. Then the peacocks vanished into the trees.

Balu said if we had not stopped they would not have moved from that place, they get suspicious when vehicles stop. A bus overtook us. After a while we saw a forest check post to our right with a dirt road behind it. There was no guard in sight but there was a man standing there with two bags. On asking for directions to Talewadi, he asked us to take the dirt route, its about 8km distance.Then he asked if we could drop him enroute at Degaon. You are welcome.

Our new friend is Rajashekhar Jahaj, a teacher in Government Marathi Primary School at Devgaon. He had just got down from the bus which overtook our cab. Our first question to him was what would he have done to reach Devgaon. Walk. We were zapped- walk 6kms with 2 bags in hands! He told he was lucky. He knows a teacher who has to walk 15km to reach his school. Rajashekhar hails from Belgaum. He goes home during weekends.  I was awe-struck by these people, they work so hard to impart knowledge to the younger generation and make a living. We've got to learn from them. 

About a kilometer inside, the road got rough, we had to get off the car so that the engine chamber does not  scrape rocks. We walked almost a kilometer on and off. We passed by a collapsed bridge, it was damaged by a ore laden truck. Few years back a mine operated here. Environmentalists got it closed. Thank God, the forest is saved. The 6km drive lasted around 15 minutes, we were at Devgaon.
That's our friend Rajashekhar inviting us into his school. The boy standing next to Rajashekhar is Sachin, an ex-student.

As we entered  the hamlet we had seen a bunch of kids but most of them had vanished by the time we walked few steps to the school. Rajashekhar told us they shy away from strangers.

Devgaon is a hamlet nestled in a shallow valley at the tip of a plateau. Konkani and Marathi are the spoken languages. Most elders speak Kannada. Devgaon has no electricity supply but it has BSNL phones working on CDMA technology. No other networks operate here. Telecom companies wanted to install mobile towers but environmentalists put a stop to that. Thanks to them, birds and insects can carry on living normally.

These sweet little kids were sweeping the school's front yard and watering plants. They seem to have high regard for their teacher. I could feel the bonding between them :) God bless them.

I fell in love with this logo years ago. Happy little kids riding a pencil.

We had spoken about the purpose of this visit- to see Krishnapur caves. He said it's a 21km walk from here. It's best to start early morning, it would be a 3 to 4 hours walk. I asked him if we could stay here one night. He showed a little room which  he and two other teachers share. He told us we could stay here if we were OK with it. Of course, that would be fine. No mosquitoes here :)

I asked if there's any ancient temple. Answer was no temple but there are few ancient idols. He offered us to show us. We walked through the hamlet, crossed a stream, not much water at this time of the year, walked through paddy fields ...a short video.

That's a temple. Probably the first thatched roof temple I'm seeing.

A collection of idols placed along the hut's perimeter. The idol to the extreme right is Gajalakshmi.

Rajashekhar gave out more names but I can't remember any of them.

Closer look at Gajalakshmi.

Sachin standing next to a pole which gets felled on Holi day. This pole is erected few days before Holi and decorated with leaves and flowers.

On the way back we take a different path back to the hamlet. We stop by a paddy field right next to the stream. It's a undercover stream because it's lined by tress both sides.

Back at the school; it has two class rooms and about 21 students. I, II and III standard students sit in this room and the other room is for IV and V standard.

Every bit of space is utilized. These teachers are truly dedicated to their profession.

Another video made at the school.

Sachin gets hot tea for us. I was touched by their hospitality. It was time classes commenced, I decided to leave. I had no mind to disturb their routine. The front yard was buzzing with kids ...sweeping and watering plants. I asked them to pose for a picture. Many were so shy they would go into the classes and Rajashekhar had to coax them join the group.

Knowing our interest, Rajashekhar suggested us to check out a natural cave at Talewadi. The cave is large enough to accommodate 20 trucks. We exchange phone numbers and say bye to all kids. I wish I had brought some gifts for these kids. I would love to come here again.

Talewadi is about 4 km from here.
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