Adventures of Venkateswara- Kodur to Talakona Trek

14 brave souls successfully finished the strenuous and adventurous trek in Venkateswara mountain range. Started from the east of the mountain range at the Kodur and ended at west of the mountain range at Talakona covering a distance of 40+kms (Including the exploration).

Adventurous trek:
We had done 13 hours trek during the Day 1 and 18 hours trek during Day 2, which includes

• Rock climbing
• Bouldering
• Rappelling (With the help of a Nylon rope after sun set)
• Deep pools crossing
• Vertical climb parallel to the water fall

The intro section before the start of the trek to know one and another.


The initial trek along a jeep trail and then a dry stream bed under the harsh sun. This makes us to finish the available water.


No signs of water along the stretch till 2:30 PM, this makes us to worry, after a long stretch of 12 km along the dry stream we finally met the live stream felt very happy and had lunch. The trail was full of big boulders,


The views of the rock formations was awesome...


Wonders of the Nature, The tree on a rock helping with its roots to climb.


After another long stretch we reach the cave pool


Fun at the pool


Again steep climb fully covered with 2 feet grass, took a wrong turn and reached the peak of the hill.. The sun took rest for the day leaving us on the top of the hill with full of grass, which is not the right place for camping. So, we decided to get down using the torches. Here are the real adventures.. Rappelled down the hill using a ordinary nylon rope with the danger of the sliding rocks, luckily no major accidents. Its tooks 4 hours to get down from the hill, So this states how difficult was the decent



Bravo for the team spirit and specially the girls. you proved that there is no difference between men and women. Finally 9:30 PM we reached a flat surface and camped.

During the trek to Ombattu gudda, we were welcomed with lot of viper snakes, But this trail welcomed us with lot of water falls


The human chain in passing the luggage safely to the other end of the 1st pool crossing


Carrying a tripod gives an opportunity to catch the beauties of the trek with slow shutters


Here comes with the most challenging pool crossing. The pool was about 100 mts length and deep with both sides vertical rocks. We had no other option, needs to cross this pool. Using the foam sleeping mat and swimming ring, Depankar and team safely carried all the luggage's and helped the non-swimmers to cross this pool...


The water was too cold, this makes the crossing more difficult.


Hmmm... Its the trek of water falls..




The next challenge is steep climb of 150 mt parallel to the water fall using the roots of the trees. We finally reached the top of the water fall and finished the lunch. posed for the group pic.



The next challenge was passing through a slippery gorge. Luckily my floaters had given me enough grip on the slippery surfaces

After another 1 hours trek we reached another beautiful water fall with a nice pool. Again a vertical climb to reach the top of this water fall.. The view was awesome, remembering the Canyon water pool in "127 Hours" movie.




The sun again down for the second day trek and we needs to cover another 10 km of stretch. Took the torches, filled the water bottles, energized our self with the left food.

Hmmm. Finding out the Jeep trail after the source of the water is difficult and finding it after sun set makes more difficult. Here, we took the support of the GPS based watch. hmmm. GPS shows low battery and we took the reference of it and linked the direction of the trail with the direction of three stars in a straight line in the sky.

Again a vertical grass land climb with full of bushes, traces of elephants and other animals. This increases the curiosity among us.  We keep walking and correcting the direction our path with the star reference. Again crossed couple of streams.

As the mountain range was too big (25 sq. km), the chances of getting last is more. So requested all the participants, to save the water and do not urinate until we find the jeep trail. Finally around 11 PM we find a small foot way and felt very happy, we switched on the GPS and came to know we are away 2.5 km away from the jeep trail. We followed the foot way and finally met the jeep trail around 11:50 PM. After another one hours of walk along the jeep trail we finally reached the top of the Talakona water falls.

Here again a vertical decent from 850 Mt to 500mts. Finally we reached our vehicle at 1:30 AM and started back to Bangalore.


The team posing for a group pic..

Thanks to all the participants for organizing me this trek susses fully. Special thanks to the swimmers Dipankar, Arun Karthik, Bharath, Sri Ranga, Abhilash for helping all the non swimmers during pool crossings.

Thanks to Dipankar and Jinu john for the GPS support. Rajesh P for the transportation vehicle support and Srikanth Gubbala for walkie- talkie support.

Water falls photography

Do you love to see the water falls with blurry milky effect. A slow shutter speed can achieve this. Do you want to capture them and see how beautiful they will be. I would like to share my knowledge about capturing the water falls interestingly in a generic day to day terminology.                                              Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1.3 sec, Aperture – 7.1, Focal length – 7.6 mm
Have you ever been to grocery shop??? Hope they do have a shutter door, which will be opened in the morning and closed in the evening. After the shop’s shutter is opened customers can enter the shop and purchase what ever they want. Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 2.5 sec, Aperture – 7.1, Focal length – 6.3 mm Water Stream, Ombattu gudda mountain range, Karnataka.
Similarly, there is a special door in the camera, which will be closed by default. As soon as the shutter button is clicked, shutter door will be opened for a particular period of time and closes immediately. During this time, the light from the subject will be captured by the image sensor inside the camera. So, Camera's shutter door along with aperture will decide the exposure of the subject.                                                        Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.8 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length – 5 mm
The speed at which the shutter door opened and closed is called shutter speed. If this speed is high, exposure time will be less and this will results action freeze of the subject (water Fall). In the below picture you can see water drops individually. Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.006 sec, Aperture – 3.6, Focal length – 7.6 mm Talakona Water falls, Venkateswara National Park, Andhra Pradesh.
If the speed is low, exposure time will more and the action will be blurred. In the below picture you can see water drops forms like a line because of the long exposure.                    Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.125 sec, Aperture – 8.0, Focal length – 8.9 mm Water fall, Venkateswara National Park, Andhra Pradesh.
Refer the below picture, the first one is with a faster shutter and the second one with a slow shutter.


Along with the shutter speed, you need to manage aperture to get the desired exposure. Refer the below collage of pictures. The first one with a slower shutter speed  of 1/30 of a second and aperture is f/16, the second one with a 1/60 of a second and the aperture is f/11, the third one is with a fast shutter speed of 1/125 of a second and the aperture is f/8. As the shutter speed decreases the aperture f stops needs to be increased to decrease the amount of light entering into the camera. If you wont adjust the aperture as per the shutter speed, the picture captured may be over exposed or under exposed.
Getting the blurry shots during day time is difficult because of more light which in turn effect the exposure time. so, one way to reduce the shutter is by adding the polarizing filter’s. Other things needs to considered

• Keep the ISO as low as possible to avoid noise.
  
• Focus manually and use evaluative metering.
  
• Set the white balance to as per the lighting conditions.
  
• Mount the camera on a tripod for steady shot. With the slow shutters, even a small hand shake can blur the picture.
  
• Use self timer or remote to operate the camera. so that you do not introduce any movement as the shutter button is pressed.
  
• Switch on your live view to compose the shot easily,  bending for a long time will introduce noise in your back and results backache.
  
• The most important thing is to keep the camera gear safely, moisture can create problems.

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.125 sec, Aperture – 8.0, Focal length – 8.9 mm Dudh sagar water falls, Goa.
To create interest to the frame, add a foreground subject. The below picture was taken during the Dudh Sagar water falls trek, It is listed as India's 5th tallest waterfall,and is 227th in the world at 310 m. I waited for a long time to capture the water fall with the train on the bridge, finally decided that i had to move as there is no sign of the train from a long time. After covering a distance of 1/2 km, i heard the horn sound of the train and ran back in hurry. Luckily, by the time i reach the view point, the train just  entering the bridge                                     
Be creative, The water stream looks like it is rushing out of the mouth Exif info:ISO – 200, Exposure – 0.007sec, Aperture – 4.6, Focal length –17.1mm Cave pool, Venkateswara National park, Andhra pradesh.
Follow rule of thirds to please the eyes                Exif info: ISO –64, Exposure – 0.125 sec, Aperture – 8.0, Focal length – 10.4mm
Capture peoples joy to make the frame more beautiful Exif info:ISO –800, Exposure –0.006 sec, Aperture – 5.5, Focal length –37.8 mm
Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.2 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length – 5.5 mm
Framing will also adds interest.                             Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.013 sec, Aperture – 7.1, Focal length – 6.3 mm Sathodi water falls, Yellapur, North Karnataka
Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.33 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length - 5 mm
The same effect can be applied to the flowing water too Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1 sec, Aperture – 9.0, Focal length – 14.6 mm Lakshmana Tirtha river origin, Bramhagiri, Karntaka
Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.042 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length – 5 mm

Kodur to kalakona trek DOA-1 and DOA - 4, Andhra Pradesh

Kodur to kalakona trek DOA-1 and DOA - 4 (19 and 20th June 2010) - part1

Kodur to kalakona trek DOA-1 and DOA - 4 (19 and 20th June 2010) - part2

Siva Samudram water falls and talakad Coracle rides, Karnataka

Gaganachukki and Barachukki waterfalls is at Sivanasamudram (aka Sivasamudram) near Malavalli, Mandya district. The waterfall is around 50meters tall on River Kaveri (Cauvery) and is a beautiful sight, especially during monsoon. Talakkad situated in the banks of Kaveri (Cauvery) is known for its sand dunes and the temples buried underneath. River Kaveri flows very shallow here and is ideal to take bath and play around. Talakkad is in Mysuru (Mysore) district.

Siva Samudram water falls and talakad Coracle rides