Totally unplanned 3 day trip to Belgaum. We managed to cover 2 falls – Gokak falls and Godachinmalki falls and also trekked on two routes in Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary. We could not cover Vajra falls this time due to forest permission issues. But we will come back to visit this falls soon.

Follow the below links for details on each day/place –

Gokak Falls – Belgaum trip – Day 1
Godachinmalki Falls – Belgaum trip – Day 1
Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary – Belgaum trip – Day 2 and 3
Belgaum trip – Gokak falls, Godachinmalki falls and Bhimgad sanctuary – master post

Dates – 17/02/2018, 18/02/2018, 19/02/2018 (3 days)

Belgaum trip details

Day 0 – 16/02/2018

I had booked a overnight bus from Bangalore to Belgaum. Started from my place at 7pm, got into a pickup van from Koramangala to Anandrao circle to catch the VRL bus to Belgaum.

Chandresh started from Mangalore and Prashanth from Pune. Both in overnight buses.

Day 1 – 17/02/2018

My bus reached Belgaum at around 7:30 am. I waited for the others to reach. Chandresh reached around 8:30 am and Prashanth around 9:30 am. We had breakfast, booked a lodge for a day and freshened up.

One place which we wanted to visit was Vajra falls. But we need to get forest department permission for this. So we went to the forest department office in Belgaum and met CCF of Belgaum. We did not get permission to go to Vajra falls but then the CCF arranged for stay and trek in Hemmadaga in Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary. We decided to go for these treks in the next to days.

Gokak falls

Since it was already around 1 pm, we decided to go to Gokak for the day. We caught a bus at KSRTC bus stand in Belgaum to go to Gokak falls. We reached the falls at around 3 pm and saw the falls from the top. The falls is huge and the water falls from a considerable height into the pond below. We found a path that leads to the bottom of the falls. This goes through a cave and we reach the bottom of the falls. We get good view of the falls from here. This waterfall will be very beautiful during the monsoon time. We clicked a few pics here and decided to head to the next falls.

Godachinmalki falls

Godachinmalki falls was next on the list. It was around 4 pm and there was no buses to this falls now. But there are few “luxury” vans which operate on this route and go towards Pachhapur. We got into one such Van and got down at Godachinmalki. We then walked for another half an hour to reach the falls. This falls is beautiful and water falls in step formation. The water here was not very clean. We spent another half an hour here and started walking back to the main road. It was around 6:30 pm and the view of the sunset on our walk back was beautiful.

We had missed the 6:30 pm van to Pachhapur, so we got a lift from lorry to go towards Konnur. Thanked the driver and got down at the crossing and caught a van to the Konnur railway station. We caught the 7:30 pm passenger train to go back to Belgaum. We had our dinner and got back to our lodge for the night.

Day 2 – 18/02/2018

We got up late and got ready at the lodge. Had our breakfast and caught a bus from Belgaum KSRTC bus stand to Khanapur which is near Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary. Here we went to the forest office and met the ACF. It was around 1 pm. Since it was already late, there were no more buses to Hemmadga. ACF arranged for a jeep to drop us off at the Hemmadga cross. From here we got into a Tipper and reached Hemmadga check post. After informing the RFO and DRFO of this range, we got accommodation at the tents in the Hemmadga camp.

We had our lunch at the camp and started on an small evening trek. One of the forest guards accompanied us to show the route. I think we saw a barking deer on the way. Clicked few pics of birds and reached a view point and started our return trek. On the return path we saw a heard of wild boars. This was a mild trek and we reached back to the camp. Had good dinner and slept in the tents. The tents are huge and very comfortable.

Day 3 – 19/02/2018

We had already talked to the DRFO and arranged for another trek in the morning. So we got up early in the morning and packed our breakfast and filled our bottles and started our trek at around 7 am. This time we were accompanied by two forest guards to take us through the forest. This was also a mild trek. We soon reached the destination which was Shri Siddamachindraath Math on a hilltop. There is a Baba living in this Math. Baba offered us tea and some gyan. We had our breakfast and started on our return trek. We reached back to the Hemmadga camp at around 12:30.

Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary has lot of wild animals like the tigers, leopards, bears, wild boars, deers, etc. It is also home to many birds like the hornbill. There are few places to visit here if the forest department opens up for trekkers. There is a fort, Vajra falls and few other places which are kept secret due to some endangered species found here.

We freshened up, had our lunch and waited for 2 o’clock bus to go back to Khanapur. But we had missed the bus, so we had to take a lorry to Khanapur. We caught a bus from here to Belgaum. We spent time at a lake in Belgaum and then caught our respective overnight buses to go back to Bangalore, Mangalore and Pune.