Trek to MUTHYALA MADAVU (PEARL VALLEY)

Last Saturday (19-May-2007), we 6 friends (on 3 bikes) went to “Muthyala Madavu” (aka Pearl Valley). The plan on Friday night was to go to “Bandipur” Forest, where we can spend Saturday night and come back by Sunday evening. But, that program got cancelled due to couple of reasons. One reason being it was a very long drive around (230 KM from Bangalore). Then there were 2-3 other options left like some fishing camp, or Mysore etc.. I was insisting on some forest like place. Then a friend came up with an idea of going to this place, which was just 40 KM from Bangalore. So, after having our morning Breakfast and all, we left for the place at around 12:30 P.M. We had an idea that this place is somewhere near “Anekal”. So, we took the “Hosur road”. After driving for 20 KM, we took a right turn to go towards Anekal (the SH-35). After driving for 11 KM. we were at Anekal. Once you reach Anekal just take a right from the "Gaon ki Chowpal". People from North India will understand what “Chowpal” means. For others, "Chowpal" is a just like common platform/stage, where the village elders sit and have discussions on various things. After taking a right from there, go straight for another 4 KM or so. Then from there, again take a right turn and go for around 5 KM. and you are at your destination. This 5 KM. patch is very bad to drive, because there is no road. Though some road work is going on (keeping the coming rainy season in mind), but still for now, there is no road. Let me also tell you that the earlier 35 KM drive is really an excellent one. There we found Karnataka Tourism Development Corporation’s restaurant. It’s a nice and decent hotel. Without wasting much time there, we straight away started getting down in the Valley. Within minutes we were at the bottom of the valley (there are proper stairs to reach to the bottom). There is one very old temple down there. There we spent some time resting and shooting monkeys, of course with camera. Then we started heading inside the forest. After walking for around 1 hour or so we were quite deep inside the Jungle. Since it’s a summer season, there are less bushes and trees there, but I could imagine how heavenly it would look during Monsoon and winter. Some localites there had told us that if we're lucky enough, we might get to see some elephants also inside the forest. But, we couldn't see one. May be they were further inside the forest, and we were still not there. However, we saw elephant dung at a couple of places. We also saw many snake holes on our way. We started back from there at around 4:00 P.M. and reached the restaurant in half an hour. There we had lunch, yes lunch at 4:30 :) !! and then started back towards Bangalore with some fantastic views of valley and with a feeling that we will visit this heaven once again in Monsoon and/or in winter. Overall it’s a really nice one day picnic spot if you want to spend some time with Mother Nature to rejuvenate yourself.