Kodachadri

About

Kodachadri is located close to Kollur,which is located close to Mangalore.
It stands approximately 1400mts tall.It is said to be the peak where Shankaracharya did penance and a Sarvagna Peetha stands testimony.

How to get there

From Bangalore :
1.Take the Bangalore-Shimoga-Hosanagara-Nittur route
2.Take the Bangalore-Mangalore-Udupi-Kollur-Nittur route
Ample KSRTC Buses ply on both the routes
One can also hire your own ride

When

25-26-27th Dec,2009

Who

Soumyak,Bikash,Lalit and Me(Deepak)

*****************Some Fundaes on the Trekking Routes******************

-> Route #1 : Sampekatte , Gowrikatte , Nittur, Kollur are points where a jeep ride all the way to the top is available. Takes ~~Rs.200 per person one way

-> Route #2 : This starts at Karakatte Gate , passes through Santosh Cafe and is a an easy-moderate way to reach the peak..Best Part about this is that the IB (more on this later) and its beacon bulb is visible all the way till the top.So you know how much more to go rather than be fooled by the locals whose only intent is to motivate you by specifying some random distances :) . Nothing more to describe about this route which also has some pretty ridges along the way.

-> Route #3 : This is by far the most challenging,tiring and a breathtaking route.It starts off from Nittur where you follow the jeep track for a while till you reach a hut on your left.Then follow the mud trail on your right. This route joins the trail from Marakuttaka. You will then reach Yemmehonda village and further on Yemmehonda School.This means your on the right path.The first landmark here is Hidlumane Hut.From here you have 2 paths :

--> Path #1 ( This is taken during the rainy season ) goes by the hut and finally reaches the jeep trail further up

--> Path #2 goes through Hidlumane Falls.You need to hop - skip - jump your up 5-6 falls till you reach the actual Hidlumane Falls. There is a trail to the right of this which you need to carefully take and this leads you all the way to the top after passing through a steep terrain consiting of grasslands,narrow ridges.But this is very tricky and having a local guide is advisable as there are too many forks enroute and you dont want to spend the night with the inmates of the jungle here..Though thats a tempting option too!

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A year had gone by and bereft of any treks and replete with checkins,deadlines,meetings and more such hard stops,everything seemed black and white.So finally one fine winter evening , just a few days before Christmas, a plan for a plan was made.Post a few phone calls,plan and re-plan a place was decided upon and then again this was changed and we zeroe'd in on Kodachadri.

On Christmas Eve, the four of us left Bangalore in an Indica.It was 11ish or so when we left Malleswaram(my home).But what awaited us was a massive traffic jam right from Yeshvantpur..stretching across Peenya.It was only 12:30am when we could see a clear road..What a start!! Post that it was clear road and we were off..After exhausting what ever little energy we had in some small talk most of the people drifted off..I was by the driver and so kept awake lest I became the driver :-).We kept each other awake by putting arbit fundaes off n on..Tumkur zoomed by and we hit the slightly bumpy Bangalore-Honnavar (BH Road) route , which would take us to Shimoga.I knew this road and the life in its little towns well, having taken it a hazaar times on my umpteen trips to Shimoga as a kid.. After driving along for a few hours the driver could have it no more..At one point I actually had to hold the steering wheel..So we came to a stop on a sunsaan (read isolated) point where we dozed off reminding ourselves to wake up post 15mins..

It was 5am and a good 1 hr when we awoke from the little slumber..Shimoga beckoned us and off we were.We managed to reach Shimoga around 5:45 am and headed straight to the circle near the bus stand for further directions.After the chai break, we started asking junta around..Lo n behold we had people pointing us in 2 opposite directions with each one claiming his was the shorter route.Finally we decided to 'trust' one bus driver and headed on the route towards Sagar(another familiar place for me). We were told to keep left post a certain pillar and thats what we did.Meanwhile people in the cab started waking up and we were greeted by the rising 'Sun'.My rising 'Sun' :). We drove along ...Hosanagar->Nagara went past and the road had become real bumpy..We suffered the first flat tyre enroute too.Finally we reached Nittur by 9:00am , the base camp for the trek.
(Route : Bangalore-Shimoga-Hosanagara-Nagara-Sampekatte-Gowrikatte-Nittur-Marakuttaka-Nagodi Check Post-Karakatte Gate-Kollur)



Nittur Village..where only BSNL rings..

Being a long weekend , the crowd at the base camp made us prepare for what awaited us.It was a basic hall available here.Post freshening up, a quick breakfast at Nittur consisting of Puris and Rava Idlis wolfed down, we started off with a guide to accompany us.We took the path up the jeep trail for a while and then entered the mud trail which took us to Hidlumane Hut..



Hidlumane Hut

No sweat and the world seemed good till now.Post relaxing a while and making some talk with other fellow trekker junta we climbed down ??? the path to the Hidlumane Falls.We had to scale small rapids to reach the actual falls..Being winter the path alongside the rapids was not that slippery (Tho i mananged a fall once ..Blame it on my Centre of Gravity shifting and my shoe giving haath) and we made good progress till we reached the actual Hidlumane Falls.



Hidlumane Falls

The Falls was good but we werent in a mood to get under the water given the amount of distance we had to cover.The trail from here was a little tricky and also steep,laden with stones and needing real patience and grip.The glucose packets came out and were getting devoured real rapid.The rocky , slippery path seemed to be going on and on while the guide just kept saying 5km more!! Bikash had a fall once and thankfully he wasnt badly hurt and could continue.This was his first trek and boy did he get to climb some mountain!! Finally we hit the 1st stretch of grasslands where we took a slightly longish break consisting of cake-glucose-cake ..



Change in Vegetation

When we thought the road ahead was smooth,we hit another steep stretch of grassland where it was just a steep path up..No zig-zag,no smooth trails! This was the beginning of my climb for 2mins-relax for 3mins sessions.However this path also brought with it some stunning views of the landscape.We seemed to have reached some sort of a peak..Suddenly cell phone connectivity seemed to have come back..But then our joy was short lived as the guide showed us a peak yonder and said "Allige hogbeku" (read : We need to reach there)!! Now that was easily another 1.5hr climb. We were fast running out of water too and had just about a litre of water for 4 of us.





We hit a narrow ridge..To one side was the steep abyss presenting a straight 1 way ticket to the nether land and the other side was loose grass to hold on to.Though a trifle scary,this was one of the best parts of the trek and culminated at the foot of the final climb to the top..View from here was something which I cannot do justice to in words..Needs to be seen-felt-captured-sensed and etched in memory forever.The sharp contrast in landscape was something which amazed me..What seemed dense green vegetation comprising tress , shrubs gave way to tall grasses in a rather abrupt manner..There are lots of metaphors to compare it to..Hmm..Imagine a head gone bald just at the top :-)..By now we were dead tired and without any water ,with only glucose to chew on,we crashed on the smooth grass and slept amidst the grass for a while.Being dead tired,,to crash in the grass and gaze at the sky over you while the wind swept the grass off your face,just felt divine.This was life!

Anyways coming back to reality , we could see the destination now.Now this is surprising but on treks when the final frontier appears,a hitherto hidden energy manifests out of nowhere n so we finally hit the jeep trail in no time.This was the good ol 'On Top Of the World' feeling which all of us experience..The sheer height which we had covered seemed breathtaking.The hut which we hit on the route up seemed but like a small dot in the landscape.Post the customary 'we reached the top' snaps we started ambling along merrily along the jeep trail.It was as if the mighty powers above had seen our quest that a resourceful 'Majjige(read ButterMilk) guy appeared out of nowhere and lo-behold , in the next few minutes he was left with no stock!But the cold buttermilk touching the parched throat was insulin to the tired soul..Our luck only got better as a jeep stopped by and it had enough seats for us n some fellow buddies from RV..The reminder of the path was done in the jeep and we finally reached the temple.



Bhattra Mane

Post catching our breath,gloating over our 'achievement' we were back to reality..The place resembled a near 'Halli (read Village) Santhe (read Fair)..Lots of junta (mostly from Bengaluru..mostly people rotting away most of their time in front of PC's..coding..) around. Lunch awaited us at Bhattra Mane (house of the temple priest) and was simple fare comprising Rice-Rasam/Sambhar-ButterMilk but yet felt divine. Post lunch,fruity n some random banter, we headed up to catch the sunset. We trekked along a 'short cut' as mentioned by our guide 'Raghavendra' and stumbled upon a Ganesh gudi along the way and finally reached the summit of Kodachadri..The Sarvagna Peetha was also visible close by..It was slightly misty and hence the horizon did not extend far.Nevertheless seeing the orange sun set to culminate a tiring but a breathtaking trek was picture perfect.The view from the top extended to as far as the waters of the Linganamakki Reservoir
(Sharavathi River)



Sarvagna Peetha..yonder..,at the Summit




Sitting there watching the sun set admist the picture postcard landscape on Christmas Day, personally was a humbling experience.I do not know what triggered the feeling but I felt humble,small before mighty 'Mother Nature' and her rules of life of which we are just puppets..Oh man Philosophy and here I digress again..Happens when you start writing after a long break..Anywas, we spent a good hour there soaking in everything there to offer.It was way beyond what the 2 eyes we have been endowed with can soak in..Something so beautiful ,that only a lady could come close to matching it but definitely this would win hands down.

We then descended from the sunset point to the Inspection Bungalow(IB) a.k.a PWD Guest House.This was under repair and we were given tents to sleep for in the night.A campfire was lit and we spend the next few hours warming ourselves and making small talk , before the tent was set up.Somehow the tents were not large enough for our liking and hence we decided to sleep in the IB itself.The rest of the junta could be heard singing and dancing away the night..Post a quick dinner at Bhattra Mane (which a few skipped) we crashed for the day.In between I heard from the old lady at Bhattra Mane on how they got 'no' electricity from the govt n generated their own hydel power! A small note on the residents on Bhattra Mane. Whatever people might say of the Bhattra Mane(read house) and the food ..blah.., I felt they were a bunch of kind souls serving the tired trekkers with hot food and giving them shelter in the night in the cold peak.One doesnt need more than the essential "Food-Water-Shelter" and this they provide.No compliants..A humbing and satisfying Day 1 came to an end and Kodachadri had made me happy.Extremely happy..Yay :) !

It seemed like only a few minutes back that I had slept when Bikash woke me up.Time to leave..Sigh..Eyes did not open at all (6am wake up time was something unheard of in Bangalore with its divine winters and cozy beds ) and so I missed the sunrise..It was a cool-fresh winter morning as we descended down to Bhattra Mane.Post freshening up,some tea, we contemplated what next..Bikash n Lalit decided to take the jeep down.They had 'had' enough.Soumyak n Me decided to trek down the Karkatte gate route.



Inspection Bungalow..Visible as we descend




I did not want to leave Kodachadri! in The sun was slowly coming up and we embarked on the way down..The way down seemed a hop-skip-jump cake walk compared to the ascent path.We ambled along..taking pics..indulging in some light banter..One notable thing is that the IB at the top is visible all along this route..The trail passed along the ridge by the grasslands and post that was a well sheltered trail with hardly any sun creeping in.Post a relaxed 1.5hr descent we reached Santosh Cafe!



Santosh Cafe

Dead hungry , a plate of Idli-Kadla Curry (watever) and lemon soda devoured , we were thinking if its worth it to walk along the jeep trail to Karakatte gate..Lo n Behold a jeep metamorphosed out of nowhere and we rode all the way till the gate,hopped onto a passing bus and reached Nittur. Reaching Nittur , we waited for the cab driver (who had gone for tiffan(read breakfast) alongwith Bikash,Lalit).

Post completing the formalities at Nittur,came the question what next! It was just about 10:30am and there was no way we were heading back to Bangalore.Post some discussion with fellow trekker junta and locals, we closed on reaching Udupi (~~100Km away on a decent road) and so we hit the road again,with some unheard of Hindi Songs playing in the cab and making an attempt to sing along some very random lyrics.Post a traffic jam in Kollur( near the Mookambika Temple) , which seemed more like Mallu land , we hit Kundapura and finally Udupi..Deciding quickly we reached Malpe Beach.The sand was golden here but the beach was a victim of crass commercialization with Water Sports et all..Definitely not my kind of beach!!We reached the harbour to catch the ferry to St.Mary's Island.The ride to the island took us 30mins.



St.Mary's Island

The island actually surprised as I had expected the place to be another commercial disaster.The waters were actually clean and the beach had more shells than sand.Playing in the water for sometime(darn we forgot to bring a change of clothes and hence could not swim here), a few pictures,collecting shells, it was time to bade goodbye.The thought of spending a night on St.Mary's Island suddenly came to me n passed by :) . On the way back , there was suddenly a commotion on the otherwise calm ferry..To my amazement,there were 2 dolphins in the sea who came up.



The dolphins were here :) ..

Now this was out of the blue as I had heard of dolphin visits off Malpe's Beach.Having reached the short , we headed out for lunch in the nearest close we could find.We had 2 course meal (sort of ) in a place called Hotel Sunshine consisting of Dosas for course , Dosas for course 2 :) and coffee for dessert.Actually there was just 1 waiter serving the whole section and he was a hassled man as everyone in the section seemed super hungry and made him run to n fro.Lunch polished off..Kaup Beach beckoned us.A friend of mine had also recommended it amongst the beaches there and with the sun also coming down,it seemed like the perfect way to end the day.



Lighthouse,Kaup(Kapu) Beach



Kaup Beach was exactly the way I had imagined it.A qaint village beach with a lighthouse(though off late its slowly becoming a commercial one is what I felt and I hope it retains its charm). We spend a good hour there playing in the clean waters of Kaup(or Kapu??) Beach , which was I must say was pretty rough for the Arabian Sea,which is generally calmer compared to the Bay of Bengal, a personal observation.
It was dark now and the light house shone majestically , the beacon for the ships in far seas..Pity I could not climb it and catch the view of the coast line..Save it for the next visit I thought..Had a 'Mango Dolly' ice cream standing by the sea and then it was time to say bye to this pretty lil beach..I wanted to stay along ,sit by the sea,walk along the beach and then..then gaze at the pretty star struck sky..A night by the beach is always on my 'Must Do' things each time..Triggers a lot of feelings inside (ahem..Reminded me of Gokarna too)..To be honest,I did not want to leave this leave but coming back to reality , we had a long drive back..

There were multiple options on the route back and we finally zeroed in the Mangalore-Madikeri-Srirangapatna-Bangalore route after the hazaar advice from fellow cab drivers n locals about the pathetic condition of the other routes.We hit the NH17 towards Mangalore..Passed by Surathkal(where we caught a glimpse of NITK by the highway..This college has its own private beach!) and then headed towards Madikeri.The so-called good road was a patch work of sorts and we bade our time with Bikash telling us about his 'Pursuits' and adventures..We took a pit stop at some random non-descript restaurant where I was forced to call some huge looking rice grains as food..What saved me was the super hot 'Black Lemon Tea' and that served as my dinner in that cold winter night!

The journey towards Madikeri continued and I should say you need to be real careful as this road has numerous Y Forks and one can lose their way easily.But as we started ascending and the familiar tall,dense 'Coorgi' trees alongside the road started showing up alongwith the magical mountain scent of Coorg, I was pretty sure we were on our way to Coorg..People were drifting in and out of sleep though I somehow never got a wink of sleep..It started raining and rain on a cold winter night with the sights,sounds,smells of the rain laden forest replete with mountain streams flowing by making a 'sweet ruckus', while going through the wilderness of Coorg,you simply cannot 'sleep' on such a magical night.We stopped by here n there to heard the sound of water gushing through the mountain streams..It had suddenly gotten cold too.One point to note is "Never honk while driving through the ghat sections in Coorg". (Source : Cab Driver's fundaes to the sleepy me :)).Honking would attract the elephants..Now this was something I wanted to see happen..Apparently our driver has seen it happen a few times too..The journey continued till we reached Madikeri at midnight.
Walked on the roads,stretched for a while ,catching in the moist air and then continued on..The descending road towards Mysore was pathetic (to sound politically modest/diplomatic) as it could not be described as a road at all..The driver started playing the 'Bad Songs' again and I let it be just to keep him awake!Kushalnagar(known for its Majestic Buddhist Monastery in Bylakuppa settlement) passed by and as we approaced Hunsur , the road morphed into a smooth 4lane highway..We stopped by for a quick 1 hr sleep as all of us were dead tired.It was 5am when we continued on..The road ahead was smooth and we bypassed Mysore..A small section prior to Srirangapatna was described by the driver (Fundae session again!!) as robbery prone as the 'gabbars' of the area block the road with boulders, sit on the small hillocks on either side of the road and then make their move :) .

We went the Mysore-Bangalore Highway and the journey here on was uneventful and smooth..Cruising along,the sun rose when we touched Ramnagara.Finally passing along the outer ring road we reached Malleswaram where I bid "Tata" to the gang.

This sums up my 'Date with the Wilderness' , a time well spent.. .. ..

Dandeli

About

Dandeli is a district in Northern Karnataka. The place is known for its waterfalls, white water rafting and the numerous other activities in the jungle. Its well connected from Bangalore ( and other parts of Karnataka) with umpteen KSRTC busues plying. However the best way to get there is to take the overnight train , hop off at Alnavar and take a ride to Dandeli. If u prefer to be more adventurous , there are other ways to get there too.

When

April 25-26-27 , 2008

Who

Ashish , Gaurav , Anshul , Prajna , Bharti , Jyoti , Radha , Divya , Madhav , Mansoor, Krishna , Suhas and Me (Deepak)

There was always the desire to go rafting and what better than the waters of the Kali river. It was with this thought in mind that we hit upon Dandeli. Post some quick phone calls , it was decided upon taking up the package offered by Jungle Lodges which included rafting , rappeling , a midnight trek , camping and some touristy rides. But I was told that Karwar was closeby too and it being a long weekend it was decided .. after numerous discussions about the "risks" involved in missing a train/bus/lorry/jeep/bullock cart/whatever , we decided to hit the Bangalore - Kundapur - Karwar - Dandeli circuit. It took a lot of convincing from me of the "Scenic Beauty" involved in the route and this name has stuck with me ever since. For a change we also decided to use the train-buses available instead of hiring the usual "Munna" TT service..

The D day arrived. But as usual Prajna had this "brilliant" :) idea of kickstarting our trip with "Secret Santa" and so a few days prior to the D-day , we had chits distributed amongst us of the people we were "destined" to gift something. So when the day arrived , as we came to office ,all of us had something sitting in our cube. My secret santa(no names here) decided to make a miniature model of the Train ride we were supposed to take from Kundapur to Karwar. It was a cute piece of work with "Scenic Beauty" adorning the model. Still sits in my cube today and people pass by with bemused expressions!! Each one had his own gift and tale to tell with someone even getting his own personalized video!! Appu had also made his grand entry ..!!


Gifts done , it was business as usual at work. We also had one person backing off and one new addition which thankfully evened up and almost gave us a fright. Finally we left for the Bus Station at around 8 and got into the comfy Volvo which would take us to Kundapur. The ride didn't start off with the greatest of feeling but I just let the thought fly away assuring myself that the journey - the place - the feeling of getting lost in the jungle would heal "whatever-whoever".I was sure it would. Since it wasn't our own private ride, no naach-gaana here and so we killed time playing a quiet game or two. Me, Gaurav , Krishna and Divya started playing this game of telling a story and suddenly things started getting senti-ish and with the arrival of Mysore , the game ended. Oh btw , we passed by good ol RV on the way..

Post Mysore , most of them drifted off to sleep but it was a pretty night and I lay awake taking it all with my phone a.k.a everything in 1 ,giving me company. The route started getting a little bumpier and better too.. We were passing "CoorG" .. Haven't been to this place actually and one place high on my list is a visit to the Kushalnagar Monastery and the Talcauvery.. I assured myself quietly that I'l be here sometime again and watched the bus sped past Madikeri ( the district hq of coorg). I could make out that we were descending with the bus taking twists and turns and the abyss towards one side gleaming in the moonlight( was a full moon night I think..check the calenders).. I might have drifted off to sleep probably coz the next time I saw out , the sun was breaking out and the roadposts said "Manipal".. The road was by the sea and as Surathkal , Udupi went past, we reached Kundapur and it was time to say Tata to the bus. I must admit the Volvo is one comfy bus except for the bad legroom...

The bus was on time and we had an hour or so before the train .. So much for the "risk" taking.After meandering on the road for sometime , we spotted a hotel and decided to freshen up. After polishing off some idlis and after a divine cup of coffee , we decided to head to the station. There were thoughts of gatecrashing into Krishna's home but we took pity and decided we'll spare him the thought for a later time. On reaching the station we still had a good 45mins left and so decided to play a quick game of cricket.





Teams decided , we were down to business.. Darn the match actually went to the wire with a bowl out deciding the fate, with the local junta giving some support. Exhausted , we returned to the platform and waited for the elusive train.

Finally when the train arrived , it was a run to the coach since the stop was barely a few mins and we were off.. After lazing around for some time and no scenic beauty we got down to business of dumb-charades and other earthly stuff..There were a few folks in the adjacent compartment who started dancing suddenly...

I could spot a thing or two such as the Murudeshwar idol in the horizon. A few tunnels in the route also gave some entertainment with the howling echoing through and the feeling of poking ur head out of the window(been doing it for some 20yrs now and yet it gives me the kick) ,watching the end of the tunnel in the yonder with the bright streaks of sunlight, sitting/standing by the door , by and letting the wind sweep you away,watching the bridges and numerous stations go by ..sheer delights of a train journey especially in the Indian Railways.. At one of the stops in the middle of nowhere , I actually went to the engine and asked the driver about the famed "Konkan" route and was told that the section in Goa and Maharashtra was the best..So much for my scenic beauty !! We finally reached Karwar around 12pm and were exhausted. It was hot and humid too. An auto took us to a hotel where we crashed off..

I was woken up from slumber by the TT guy who wanted to know when to send the vehicle when I thought he already knew that we were already miles away from Bangalore..After initially asking him to not take the trouble of sending anything,further probing and I gotto realize that he was referring to someone from the Richmond Circle office and I quickly asked him to check with the right person lest some poor souls were left TT-less..!! Awake now and hungry , post a cold shower we had lunch at 4pm and topped it off with some divine ice cream( who ever invented this should live forever in peace). Post lunch we decided to hit the beach and were off to the Rabindranath Beach of Karwar.



After a round of frizbee and post losing the frizbee , some caricatures sessions in the sand , watching the orange sun set admist a picture postcard setting at Karwar beach , we were back at the hotel. Post a Quick dinner, our ride to Jungle lodges had arrived and off we went.

The road was admist dense forests and it was really quiet enroute..That was outside..Inside was the usual gaana session on in full volume . Probably this scared the animals away too as we could only spot some wild cats enroute.We finally reached the jungle and its resort "Stanley Farm House" post midnight. The arrangments were pretty decent I must and we were also showed our tents set admist the wilderness. We were also told that elephants sometimes frequent the place!! Since this was the first time in the tents for most of us , we were pretty excited about the whole thing though Krishna's tent had some wild life loitering inside which made him the only poor soul to sleep in the room instead..:).. We finally hit the sack I mean the tent at 2am or so. My roommate or rather tentmate was Mansoor for the 2 days. After scanning around for friendly wildlife and listening silently for any cat-calls / elephants ,we were asleep in no time though it was pretty hot inside the tents..Day 1 had ended...




Canine alert!!

I awoke with almost a jolt the next day as there were threats being shouted off about letting loose a dog into our tents.. It was almost 7 am and there were still a couple of lazy bones still asleep.. After strolling around and a game of "chidiya ud" , some breakfast and catching up with the sights and sounds of the morning , we were set to go rafting !!!! It was the first time for most of us and we really had no clue about what was in store..We reached the banks of the "Kali" river. A round of do's and dont's followed and then we were asked to put on our rafting gear and grab the paddles. A war cry later , we were split into 2 teams and we got into our respective rafts. After paddling in still water till we reached the middle of the river, we were issued a stream of instructions and how to's . And then all of a sudden the instructor says this " Jump off the rafts and float" !!!. The waters were ice cold even in May and I didn't even know how to swim properly though we had the protective suits on.. Yet we were pushed off into the cold waters of the Kali.It was a chilling but fun thing to float in the river and then jump into the raft holding on to the rails. There were a slew of other instructions but I was too excite to concentrate!! Training done and a war cry later , we were off.. There were I think around 8 rapids and 2 of them supposedly big!! The synchronization to be achieved while navigating the raft ,the postures to be adopted while different phases , all were being shouted out as we hit one rapid after another. It was out of the world to experience water hitting you with all the force as the raft wobbled along. Divya even fell off the raft at one instance!! . There was this rapid where we were told to stop and navigate against the current and hit the rapid head on.. Once we did so , we held on as the waters of the Kali just swept our faces and everything else with such force which just cant be described in words here.. Finally we had successfully negotiated all 8 rapids and our tryst with the raft ended.. I wanted to do it all again but sadly had to jump off.. After some water splashing , rhyme singing in the water , we got into the ride which took us back to the farm house. It was an adrenline pumping experience and was worth every rapid literally.
Since lunch was sometime away , we decided to play for a while and hence started the game of "pithu" .. This went on for an hour or so till no one could stand .




"Pithu"



Not really "Idhar Udhar"


After finishing lunch and lazing around , passing time doing craft :) , we were set for the next big thing "Rappeling"!!!.




On reaching the hillock and standing over it , I started getting doubts if I could actually do this. The fear of heights had hit me again.. We were showed a demo and then it was our turn.. Mansoor went first and could finish it with no sweat.I tried to break it down to a 6-step process and I realized the 1st step was all that I had to brave and the rest should be fine. Armed with this , I decided to go .. I guess 4th or 5th.. The start of the climb down was scary to be simple.. Standing at the edge of the hillock with 2 ropes to hold on to isn't something I had dreamt of doing..All kinds of doubts like "what if my grip loosens? What if I forget for a split second that one shouldn't look down :) " ,cropped up.. Finally deciding that it was now or never , I took the first nervous stride down and slowly released the rope and was slightly vertical for a moment. This was Step 1 which was the scariest and 5 secs later I was horizontal again , feet gripping the rocks and hands gripping onto the ropes.. Though I wasnt 100% horizontal .. the way they show it on TV .. , yet it was a comfortable climb down.. But with my reputation of screwing up did show up , when after hitting a stone at the bottom , I left the rope for a split second and there I went slipping down till I gathered control. This was the only mistake I had made . The instructor said I was going good and should have concentrated more.. But I was happy , I had conquered my fear and done something I was very nervous about initially. The rest of the time was spent looking at the others achieve the same thing and barring 1 or 2 , everyone did a good job. It was dark now and we returned to the resort.


The camp fire was young.. A game of musical chairs ensued.. Me n Ashish ended up breaking a chair in the process.. Musical chairs done , it was time for some random dance sequences.. .Gaurav was as usual leading at his best with the others following.. What followed was a session of each one adding a new step to the story...replete with fixing bulbs and turning taps.. and completing the whole story. Exhausted we just collapsed on the grass and gazed at the star lit night sky till dinner was set.. Post dinner , we left for a night trek in the jungles.. Being summer , it was pretty hot as we waded our way past streams , spotting wild cats and scaring the birds away with the whistles and sounds made by us.. The torches were the only source of light and it was pitch dark all the way ( like as if you expect lights in the jungles).. Was disappointing in the end as we ended up spotting only a wild cat or two after nearly an hour of trekking through the jungles.. Back to the farm house , no one had the energy to talk also and all we were thinking of was to crash in our tents.. Thankfully for Krishna, his tent was all his for tonight with no wild life for company.. Thus ended Day 2 .. tired but an accomplishment filled day for most of us.. This was a day I would remember for a long time for sure..


It was almost 9 when I opened my eyes on a Sunday morning.. Atleast for most of us.. Quick breakfast and formalities done ,we left for a trek . This was a long and tiring trek in the midst of the jungles.. A few started singing along too but after a while the heat got to most of them.. After what seemed like eternity , what greeted us was out of the world.. Out before us was this beach like place with water all over.. After an initial skirmish where a few of the gang had turned adivasis , all of us headed for the water like fish.




No one was ready to leave the place and only after being told that what was next was even better did we listen and marched along. The trek back was actually quicker , informative as I gotto see how the insides of a crab look like and shorter and only then did we realize that we had been tricked into taking the long onward route :).. The next stop was a Jacuzee.. I knew jacuzees existed in a Spa and was curious to see what this was.. I was assuming this was another of those over commercialized places... But after travelling in the coracle and when I saw what was termed the jacuzzee I had to eat my words..



Set admist some rocks was rapid currents of the Kali. I could barely hold on to myself and was afraid the currents might sweep me away. It actually felt healing as you lay down in the water and felt the rapid currents hit you.. This was another out of the world experience ( I'm running out of metaphors). I forgot , we were joined by Anusha , an adorable little girl , in all these activities ,splashing water at us , trekking along with us.., who despite her age turned out to be braver than most of us :).. We bade goodbye to Anusha and headed back..

There was a pending visit to Sintheri rocks to check out some Stalagmites but most of the junta were dead tired and just wanted to relax before we called it a day. So we did and after a reallly loooong lunch , it was finally time to say Bye to Dandeli and Stanley farm.. Costs settled , we settled down in our ride .Our train was from Hubli and it was a 2.5 hr drive I think from Dandeli to Hubli.. It was a ride worth remembering as each one had to say a few words describing the rest and it was actually nice to hear people associate with quite a few things which you were never aware of. Finally Hubli arrived and our train was waiting .. No one was in the mood to sleep and so after a quick hog , we settled down to dumb charades and some mild masti in the train.. This went on till almost 2 in the night and slowly one by one people started leaving the game and settling down in their berths.. By 2 , all the lights were out and next thing I remember was waking up and finding that Malleswaram had gone by. My attempt at saving 20 bucks had just crashed.. We finally reached the City Station at around 8 or 9 in the morning . Bidding "tata" and promising to catch up in office in a few hours time , we finally boarded the autos taking us home..
Trip 2.0 - Dandeli had come to an end and one mindblowing trip it was.. . The advent of Appu , the sunset at Karwar , the currents of the river Kali , conquering your fear of heights , the jacuzee experience ... all in all a trip which left us with tons of memories .. .. . .

Mulliyangiri - Chikmagalore

About :

Chikmagalore is nestled somewhere close to the western ghats and is the gateway to the Malnad region of Karnataka. This region is bestowed with coffee plantatations , dense forests with hardly any sunlight penetrating throught.. Its a trekkers delight and more info can be searched for online..

When : 29-30 Nov 2008

How to get there :

A very good bus service from Bangalore but just be sure u take possibly the last bus out of Kempegowda bus station else you would find yourself in Chic-magalore at unearthly hours with not a coffee in sight. The last Rajahamsa leaves at 23:30 and takes you there by 5:30 and is possibly the best way to go there.

It all started when the call within me got stronger as it had been months since I had done a real trek with the rainy season done. So when Diwakar calls up and asks "macha trip barthiya ... all I said was "Yes Yes" .. Then started the planning phase and with a few names floating around we finally settled for Mulliyangiri..proclaimed the highest peak between the Anaimudi peak of Nilgiris in the south and Himalayas in the north. Enough said , you can find all this in the tons of blogs online..


So here we were .. Avinash , Shashi , Prashanth , Sampath , Vishwas , Diwakar, Vishwanath, Deepak(me)

at the Majestic Bus Station and here I was late as usual giving them a last minute scare.After the customary exchange of hi's , we got into the waiting Rajahamsa and it was a comfortable drive to Chikmagalore with the occasional rain in between.


The bus reached sharp at 5am and it wasnt till I got my coffee that I was actually awake. Prashanth suggested we stay at his hostel and we readily agreed given the cost cutting mode we were in these days..Blame it on the recession.. Bad joke.. Lets move on.. Wat was told to me as a 3km walk turned out to be a 6km walk at 5 am in the morning of a couple of half awake guys.. The only source of entertainment was a dog which walked us right till the hostel room!!It got its reward of human biscuits too.. After watching the Mumbai story continue on for a while and debating on the ways to end terrorism :) , we came back to reality.

After getting done with the freshening process and being treated to a sumptous breakfast..not bad for a hostel.. , we started off for our destination. After reaching the place where we had to board a bus to the trek starting point , we realized that we also need to pack our lunch. During this , we also missed our bus and cursing our luck we waited till we hopped into a bus which took us to Kaimara. The Sarpdhari or the start of the snake shaped path to the top was a 6km walk away.. As we walked along and after a few encounters with ahem :) , we finally started waving to
every passing vehicle till a friendly "uncle" in a jeep stopped by and we gladly accepted . We drove along till we reached the arch ,, which signalled the start of the trek. After bidding tata to "friendly uncle" , we finally commenced our trek.


Smoke rings.. do u see any ..

It was almost 10 in the morning and there was mist all around. After ambling along for some time, blowing smoke rings for kicks , we reached a fork.. This is a trekkers delight .. Of choosing the wrong path , reaching a deep scary abyss and returning back.Thats wat a few of us did while the rest had taken the path on the right which was the right path.. The trek got more exciting now and due to the rain and mist , the path had also become quite slippery .



As we climbed higher , the view below got prettier and scarier too. There was a stretch where to your right was a deep deep abyss and to ur left you only had some creepers to hold on to and the path was wide enough for a single person to walk and was slippery too.. One slip and you would attain nirvana. After some scary moments , we reached a lonely tree. The sight was out of a postcard. Heavy mist all around and this tree standing out fearlessly , it all felt worth it.. One could just about see the contours of the mountains in the mist around and it was 11am !!


one of the numerous breaks...


discovery of the last bottle of water

The path got a little more predictable from now and was laden with stones giving a better grip. However it did get a trifle steep at places where some amateurs like me had to hold on to every stone for grip. There was a sensation in me to fly away but I came back to my senses quickly.

The weather was perfect with the sun still hiding and the clouds giving us company. I was told about a change in vegetation with altitude and I could make it out clearly here.The Shola grasses , the mist laden webs .. this was something out of the world. After numerous such breaks ,, we finally could see the temple on the peak.



Feeling the ice cold water in the temple admist ice cold winds hitting your face was something which cant be penned down. Water never felt so better :)
The trek had taken us 2 hours to reach the very top and we were hungry . The packed stuff disappeared in no time n the dog ( its everywhere) was left cursing its fate.
There was also a cave nearby but we couldn't explore much of it due to the poor visibility.





After playing for a while with a cat which mysteriously appeared and spending some time in the temple , we bade goodbye and start the walk down along the motorable path. The haematitie laden slopes and the the near zero visibility slowly changed to a warm , sunny afternoon .

After walking for what seemed eternity , we finally reached the starting point of the trek where again a jeep suddenly metamorphosed out of nowwhere. However we had a problem . There was no room for me. I was egged on by the jeep guy to stand on the footboard behind and enjoy the view and said Wokay .. so be it. This was probably one of the best jeep rides I had been in. As the jeep turned, twisted along the mountain slopes with the wind kissing my face , I had a panoramic view of the world around me. I was really sad the jeep ride came to an end.Aradhna ( if uv seen the movie) types feel u can say.. wat was that song btw :):)

Post a bus journey , we were back in Chikmagalore , tired but content. We now had a few hours to kill and a brilliant thought emerged. "Lets go for a movie" , found support amongst the junta.With a few guys backing off ultimately Diwakar , Shashi , Vishwas and Me decided to go watch Dostana ( i now think a kannada movie in a shady theatre would have made more sense). After asking some hazaar junta for directions ,we reached our destindation .Though the theatre wasnt shady enough , it did well for Chikmagalore. The movie was one stupid work though with only "desi girl' offering a glimmer of hope.. returned back to the hostel , tired . After a quick dinner , as I was off to crash, I was told that it was someone's birthday and there was the usual birthday "cake + smear cake on face ( no one can say there was none on mine dat day :-) - whack " tradition typical of any hostel. Post this , I could hardly keep my eyes open and missed an important piece of information which had arrived courtesy the air waves , which I'l make up for quickly enough :) :) . End of Day 1

Day 2 started off pretty early... After polishing off some dosas at the hostel ( I must say again they were pretty good for a hostel mess ) , we were off on a touristy day . First stop was a temple where apparently sanskrit the language of god . Amazing that such places still exist ( I know of a village near Shimoga , Karnataka where Sanskrit is the language spoken commonly ).
Then post some chai paani we headed off to Bababudangiri . The route suddenly got cold and misty with clouds all around.



( Easy to quote Robert Frost in such a surrounding ,, it was as if the scene was right out his words ) . We couldnt see the Datta Peetha due to the mist and continued on to a waterfall. There we were told that its a tradition of anyone who wants to take a shower under the waterfall needs to ditch his clothee forever :-) .. Anyways after some usual snaps and banter around , we headed back to Datta Peetha which was slighltly visible now. But I must say , it was very windy and the ice cold winds made it a great place. I still rue not going to Gaali Kere ( Wind - Lake in Kannada) in this weather.

A quick decision was made to go to Kemmangundi next . A little gaana , listen to gaana and we were at Kemmangundi and hunger was coming now .. A shack nearby was the only option and we gleefully took it .


1 plate "chitra-anna" (a.k.a picture rice literally) -Rs.15 .
Getting shooed off - priceless
matter of survival of the fittest..

A few mins later I guess we were forcibly shunted off as the shack ran out of supplies.. We then took off to Kalhatti falls .


Monkey to junta log : "Scram...!!"

On reaching there , I was personally disappointed with the place as it was a commercial disaster and not an unspoilt secret of nature. Some of them wanted to trek for a while and go to the water. I also injured my leg in the process . It was really sad to see people leaving behind crates/broken bottles of beer .. The whole beauty of the place was getting tarnished. However the water in the upper reaches was slightly better and few of them jumped at it while I rested my bleeding toes.. The waterfall reminded me of Irpu Falls in Coorg with its step like structure.



After spending a hour or so there and some arbit pics beside some coffee seed :) .. we were back in the vehicle and decided to call it a day and head back to Chikmagalore.

We finally reached the KSRTC bus station in Chikmagalore at 5 . Spotting a restaurant closeby , we had a quick hog before pushing our way into a bus and crashing off . The bus left Chikmagalore at 5:41pm and as it made its way through the sunflower laden fields and as it started raining , a feeling of contentness swept me . When I got down at Navrang Theatre stop , it was midnight. I was dead tired and so dint even bother wat the rick guy asked for the fare and the only thing I remember next was waking up the next day and realizing "11 am .. Oh no..late to office on a monday morning!! not again .. sigh :) . . arbid .

Wayanad

About Wayanad

Wayanad is a district in Northern Kerala nestled amidst the beautiful Western Ghats . Its known for its "scenic" beauty ( :-) can't miss referring to this one ) and has a plethora of stuff on offer.

When : 21-22-23 March 2008

How to get there

Wayanad is 6 hrs drive from Bangalore . There are ample buses plying but my take would be to hire your own vehicle or even better drive all the way down .If u have a bike , thats even better

Formalities set aside , lets get into business..

One warm afternoon as I kept staring at my waves sitting in my cube , something suddenly hit me . It was close to a year since I had gone on a trek of some sort and this set off a chain of events which culminated in this blog ... Frantic search of places ensued , blogs ( thanks for them ) read and a couple of enquiries lead to a choice of places of which Wayanad was one of them ..
I had a couple of things in mind when I chose this place and I was just hoping I wouldn't be let down.. This was followed by tying up all loose ends such as travel , places to stay , learning some mallu-english ( think Prajna would agree after all those uncountable phone calls to people I dont even recollect now ) and finally a picture was emerging out ...

Day before the trip , I sat down and composed the last email which was sent out to a surprised few who dint even know where this place existed .. A few of us had made up our mind that come what may ,, rain or shine , we are going ahead ...

What then followed was an eager wait for the day to arrive .. Most of us were pretty excited from the morning itself and I guess we hardly spent time in our cubes .. Post lunch Mansoor, Suhas , Krishna , Prajna n Me headed out ,with Commercial Street close to office ,to pick up stuff to drink and eat .. It was a beautiful day with a slight drizzle on and so we ended spending all our time loafing around Commercial street ... It was 6pm by then and we only had a couple of hours before we left ..
Thankfully for me not a single one backed out!! It was finally time to say Tata to our comps..
The wait for the TT had began.. Some of killed time playing TT , a lil of the Wii , some soccer before the Pizza arrived and finally our ride had arrived .

Travellers :
Suhas , Mansoor , Krishna , Anshul , Gaurav , Ashish , Madhav , Bharti , Prajna , Radha , Shilpa and Deepak( Me)
who finally made it to the trip..

It was I think 10: 30 p.m by the time we left AMD's Poddar Facility and headed out to Richmond Road to pick up our last travellers - Bharti and Madhav, from the Mantri Facility on Richmond Road . A slight drizzle had begun to fall and after a quick refuelling we were finally headed out of Bangalore and its maddening traffic.

Traffic was slow as usual on Mysore Road and we crawled tilll RV .. Yes,, each time I go past my college RVCE ,, it brings back a lot of memories and it was the same that day .. We picked up pace there on things seemed smooth till we had our first flat tyre !! Things were happening already..

However by this time Gaurav was in his elements , inventing game after game .. We graduated from playing 5/6/7 up to a game whose name I can't even remember .. Basically one guy described and the other had to imagine n draw it and people were guessing .. Here was Radha with her directions like 17.5 degrees etc ... We then moved on to an antakshari of places .. Now this is when people started inventing places and we went to the extent of citing the local market .. ( Azadpur Mandi for starters or Yeshwantpur ) and Ashish was really at it this time coming out with places probably even fables wont have!!!

By now the road had become quite bumpy and it was close to 4 in the morning and most of the others drifted off to sleep... I usually never sleep in a bus and so here I was watching the beautiful night sky. .

It was 4:30 am when we crossed the Kerala State Check Post and we had finally arrived . What greeted me was stunning .. In Mid March , we had dense fog and the visibility had nearly gone down to a few metres.. I woke up a few and all of us just looked stunned at what we greeted us. Wayanad had given us its first glimpse .. .We zipped past Sultan Batheri and reached our base camp Kalpetta at 5 a.m . We had booked 3 rooms and since we reached early , we had to kill a little time in the bus itself. Most of them were tired and with a little of prodding we managed to get our rooms a good 2 hrs early..



A small note about the hotel .. Hotel Affas as the signboard says was a truly good find and all I can say is "Thank You" to the good samaritan , from whom I gotto know about this place ..
Most of us dint know what happened after as we crashed straight on our beds and it was almost 8:30 before we opened our eyes .. Krishna woke up first and the others followed . By the way , people in the other rooms were still fast asleep with no intention of seeing the morning sun..




After the usual freshening up , we headed out for breakfast around 10 I guess . It was Holi that day and so we thought the Hotel guy was playing a joke on us by giving us colored water .. But we later realized it was "root bear" . Post breakfast we debated n debated on what to see and what not to see and finally headed out to Soochipura falls.

The weather was amazingly cool for March with a slight drizzle and we headed out to Soochipira Waterfalls... The waterfalls can be reached after a slightly longish walk down a hill but it was worth it .. Here we had our first victim.. Ashish hurt his leg trying to impress someone which was followed by Mansoor beginning his saga of injuries.... The walk uphill saw Bharti n Mansoor climb trees ..etc .. Then all of a sudden there was this sudden burst of colour on my face . I looked back only to find Suhas all smeared in gulal . So , someone had come out with this brilliant idea of playing Holi in Wayanad and here we were running helter skelter throwing color .. The locals just stood bemused !! .. I have played a lot of Holi before however this was unique ..




It was almost 4 by the time we reached the hotel again .. Post a quick nap n lunch , we headed to Pookot Lake only to find that Wayanad shuts shop by 7 pm !! However some one suggested going to a viewpoint close by and what greeted us there was mind blowing. We had a bird's eye view of the winding road from Wayanad and the steepness of the landscape made me jittery !! However It was a sight to see.. Satisfied that we had achieved something , we headed back to the hotel . Each one had a song to sing in the ride back ( moi excluded :) ) and Anshul's flute too had us captivated .. A quick dinner and we decided to head out and check out Kalpetta ..





Think the cops thought we meant trouble and we were actually warned to head back..
So we trooped back to the hotel and with no one in a mood to sleep , we started our usual round of games . We started off with Dumb Charades and it was then that we gotto see somthing which definitely can't be described.. It was Krishna's depiction of " I always knew what you did last summer" and all I can say was this is part of Dumb Charades folk lore ... This was followed by the game we call " Village" where as usual we dint find the killer . It was almost 3 when we hit the sack ..This ended Day 1 and we had just about started with no idea on what was to folow..

Day 2 was meant to be the best of the 3 days planned .It was meant to be a trek to the Chembra Peak..

Suhas was determined to head out early and he was the first one to wake up followed by Krishna n then Me .. The others were still sleeping and a couple of loud thumps on the door and threats by Krishna meant all were awake ... Post a quick breakfast , we were about to embark when it started pouring .. A thought just crossed my mind whether we would make it but I was determined to go ahead.Come what may!! We headed out the Chembra estate which was the base camp .It was then that Wayanad showed us her beauty. The rain made it a chilly day and the drive up the estate was amongst the clouds..It was almost as if we were touching the clouds..
It was only after we reached the base camp that we were told we needed the estate officer's permission and so we had no other option but to head back.. Meanwhile I was trying to catch the morning mist in my camera and here came Bharti who wished to captured in as many pics .. Hmm. Plus we also had Krishna with his matrimonial pics .

Gaurav , Prajna n Mansoor decided to take an imaginary short cut and join us half way down while the rest of us went down in the bus.. The short cut proved otherwise and we never gotto see these people again !! They have a tale to tell of their own of the things they encountered.
After the drive down , the next thing to do was to find the estate officer which we did after learning a smatter of broken malayalam .. Since it was raining we also ended up doing some shopping and here's when I heard an interesting tale . Apparently a group of campers had forgot to douse a campfire properly and there was this sight of the burning Chembra Peak . From then on there was no camping allowed there and one need permission to trek. That explains why we goofed up . Anyways it was 12 noon by the time we again made it to the top and thankfully Gaurav , Prajna n Mansoor were there too with their tales..

Finally we were all set to go and I had this rush of adrenaline flow . The weather had relented a bit but still the sun was hidden behind the dense clouds .. I thought we were really lucky to trek in such weather in March. . Some of the girls were apprehensive about the Leeches but I was happy none of them held back and were raring to go like all of us and so we set out to conquer Chembra...





The trek started admist a lot of mist around and as we climbed up it got better and better.. It was tough to find a good grip too and when it started raining , all hell broke loose.. There were streams of water gushing down and people kept falling.. But we kept climbing along till we hit something called a "love lake" ..



The "Love Lake"


It was incredible to see a heart shaped lake at such a height.. With rain poring down and with freezing cold , we decided to call it quits here though the peak beckoned me.. By then pangs of hunger had struck and inspite of the freezing cold , icy winds blowing over n pouring rain , a make shift dhaba was setup under an umbrella with Anshul the main chef.. It was truly a sight to see everyone grabbing the first loaf of bread offered and within minutes we had wolfed down everything we had.. Bread never tasted better , I swear.



After the heavenly lunch beneath the umbrella

A few customary pics later , it was time to say alvida to the love lake n the peak and we started the journey down. The journey down was pretty rapid , literally with people falling off , sliding along and we were back to the TT in no time.
The journey back to the hotel was spent in silence ( quite unusual for us) as everyone was exhausted after quite an eventful day where the trek itself was in doubt.. After lazing away in the hotel for a few hours , it was time for the Wayanad Awards session to commence.



There were quite a few skirmishes esp with the funny bone awards ( which is debated even today) and things would have hottened up.. A few performances and a few awards n a few games later , it was time to end a tiring albeit well spent day.. Day 2 came to an eventful end.

Yawn.. it was a lazy beginning to Day 3 with aching limbs .. But we decided to head down to wat was proclaimed as one of the largest natural dams.. Yeah the dam n all was fine but whats the deal for us there.. Tats the question which arose in my mind.. Post some naach gaana , we reached our destination.. Armed with a tennis ball n a football we set out to make the most of what lay in store.. There was a speed boat ride on offer there but there was a long wait for it. We needed to kill time . Initially it started off with angling stones into the dam waters and to watch them dance along and then suddenly someone got this brainwave of an idea to pitch some wickets there and start off a game of cricket..



The war cry


Cricket in progress..




This turned into a full fledged free for all with new rules being framed every moment. It was time for the speed boat drive which was amazing fun but we just wanted to get on with the game we had to complete. We also had junta crowding around and shouting on.. Finally it was time to call it stumps and head back.. After a divine "fundae" a.k.a ice cream , we headed off back to the hotel . The next few hrs were spent roaming around , catching a few sights around and then a loong loong dinner at some place I dont even remember the name of now..
We left for Bangalore , tired but contended. However the story doesnt end here.. We were at Maddur's CCD at 1 am itself and we definitely had to kill a few hours.




There was a fundae session by Krishna on blowing smoke rings and it was almost 3 am by the time we left CCD. Reached Bangalore in the wee hours and dropping off everyone at their places..This ended a trip which was gives each one of us a high whenever we think of it..