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. This post has the details of the Bhimgad wildlife sanctuary which we covered on second and third days of the trip.

All posts related to Belgaum trip (Feb 2018) –

• 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

Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary – Belgaum trip

Dates – 18/02/2018, 19/02/2018

Location

Day 2 – 18/02/2018

We got up late and got ready at the lodge in Belgaum. 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. We could not make out clearly from the distance. Saw few beautiful birds. Prashanth was able to capture few of them with his camera. We reached a view point from where we could see Hemmadga and few nearby villages in the distance. This was the destination of our small trek. We spent some time here an started on our return trek. On the return path we saw a heard of wild boars. We could not click their pics. We also saw a mongoose. Soon we reached back to the camp. This was less of a trek and more of a evening walk in the forest.

We had good dinner at the camp 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 it 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.

Photos