Place: Kodachadri
Date: 04/June/2011
Inspiration: Gaalipata (Kannada) Movie
It was a sudden plan and worked out to be best trip for us.
It was a team of 10. We called up Rajendra 9449145540 / 9242892299 days before regarding our trek to Kodachadri. Rajendra is incharge of guest house on top Kodachadri. He takes care of providing guide, lunch, dinner and accommodation once you reach Kodachadri. He charges 400 per head, i guess its decent.
Taking our own vehicle wasnt helping us as our goal was to trek and bus will stop at Nittor, from where trekking starts. And more over our vehicles are not suited for muddy, slushy and hilly roads of kodachadri. It is best suited for Mahindra Jeep 4x4. So we booked tickets in SRS travels to Nittor from Bangalore for Friday night.
We all boarded the bus at 10:30 pm from Yeshwantpura junction. We intimated Bus driver to intimate us about the Nittor stop. As indicated Bus driver dropped us at Nittor at 6 am.
Oh God, no signal. Mine is Airtel and most of others are Airtel or Vodafone. We waited for half an hour for some shops to open up and requested to call up Rajendra about us.
Keep aware that Airtel, Vodafone, .....signal doesnt reach, except BSNL.
We talked to Rajendra and promised the guide will be coming in another half an hour.
So meanwhile we completed our breakfast and hot tea. Villagers warned about heavy rains and leeches.
To safeguard from rain we bought big covers to cover up bags and upper part of body, of course it didn't help much later except contents of bag.
As per Indian Standard Time, guide came 1.5 hrs late. Without wasting much time we started off with great enthusiasm. There are 2 routes one from Karakatte and another from Nittor. Guide suggested to take us from Nittor as we get Hidlumane falls on the way.
At around 8 am we started our trek. Weather showing signs of rains. Trek is around 12 kms, guide estimated that it will take 4 hrs to trek for average person.
Initially we felt it would be easy trek after seeing path.
Later we realized we haven't reached start of Kodachadri hill. After walking a couple of kms we reached a lonely house. Unfortunately we didn't find any people there to have a word. Path behind the house leads to start of Kodachadri trek. As we started, it started raining heavily. It was so heavy that our umbrellas or the temporary plastic covers was of no use.
As we continued, the trek was getting difficult. But the beauty of nature and the proper mixture of rain was creating more enthusiasm in us. The fog raising from forest, the birds speaking in the silent jungle, big trees, smell of flowers .... all in all felt like staying there for couple of days, But ya my manager was waiting with big work for me ...
Just having funny conversation on the way, i didn't realize that i was first to become victim to leeches.
No pain, No sensation, i applied some salt on the leech. Don't try to pull, it feels awkward to touch leech.
Now actually blood started flowing like river, it takes a while to stop as leeches have some mechanism to prevent blood clotting while it sucks blood. My white socks was slowly turning red.
As we continued our journey, after few kms we met with Hidlumane falls, it was nice falls. Guide told water will be full and we cant cross the falls during peak of rainfall.We didn't dare to spend time in water as we knew leeches were waiting for us.
We had some photo sessions and moved on. Next path was most difficult and couldn't take pictures as it was steep and too many leeches on the way. This path is next to water fall, so we need to climb up. On this path if we wait at single place for more than 1 minute, u must be sure u have 1 or 2 visitors on your legs. Leeches are found everywhere on the ground , on leaves so need to be very careful. Guide later suggested to carry Zandu balm or Amruthanzan next time. He said when we apply these to legs and all exposed parts of body, then leeches wont come.
After completing this patch of difficult trek we entered plains. It was very beautiful along came heavy rains with strong winds. All our umbrellas got tore, till then i hadn't experience such strong mixture of rains and winds.
We gave pit stop to clear off all leeches over our body. It was surprising that leeches had reached a many places on our body and having blood party. It was free feast for leeches from our side. I really dont know how much blood we had lost to leeches.
After crossing few hills from here, we reached a mud road which is actually vehicle (Only Mahindra Jeep) road to Kodachadri summit. We walked few kms in mud road to reach Kodachadri.
Lunch was ready, had nicely ......... slept for a while as everyone were tired.
Next morning we left to Nittor in Jeep. It was around 100 per head.
From Nittor we went to Kollur in local Bus.
Kodachadri looks more beautiful during October. Since we experienced heavy rains, heavy winds, leeches during our trek and the spectacular view we all consider this was one of the best trip.
Date: 04/June/2011
Inspiration: Gaalipata (Kannada) Movie
It was a sudden plan and worked out to be best trip for us.
It was a team of 10. We called up Rajendra 9449145540 / 9242892299 days before regarding our trek to Kodachadri. Rajendra is incharge of guest house on top Kodachadri. He takes care of providing guide, lunch, dinner and accommodation once you reach Kodachadri. He charges 400 per head, i guess its decent.
Taking our own vehicle wasnt helping us as our goal was to trek and bus will stop at Nittor, from where trekking starts. And more over our vehicles are not suited for muddy, slushy and hilly roads of kodachadri. It is best suited for Mahindra Jeep 4x4. So we booked tickets in SRS travels to Nittor from Bangalore for Friday night.
We all boarded the bus at 10:30 pm from Yeshwantpura junction. We intimated Bus driver to intimate us about the Nittor stop. As indicated Bus driver dropped us at Nittor at 6 am.
Oh God, no signal. Mine is Airtel and most of others are Airtel or Vodafone. We waited for half an hour for some shops to open up and requested to call up Rajendra about us.
Keep aware that Airtel, Vodafone, .....signal doesnt reach, except BSNL.
We talked to Rajendra and promised the guide will be coming in another half an hour.
So meanwhile we completed our breakfast and hot tea. Villagers warned about heavy rains and leeches.
To safeguard from rain we bought big covers to cover up bags and upper part of body, of course it didn't help much later except contents of bag.
As per Indian Standard Time, guide came 1.5 hrs late. Without wasting much time we started off with great enthusiasm. There are 2 routes one from Karakatte and another from Nittor. Guide suggested to take us from Nittor as we get Hidlumane falls on the way.
At around 8 am we started our trek. Weather showing signs of rains. Trek is around 12 kms, guide estimated that it will take 4 hrs to trek for average person.
Initially we felt it would be easy trek after seeing path.
Later we realized we haven't reached start of Kodachadri hill. After walking a couple of kms we reached a lonely house. Unfortunately we didn't find any people there to have a word. Path behind the house leads to start of Kodachadri trek. As we started, it started raining heavily. It was so heavy that our umbrellas or the temporary plastic covers was of no use.
As we continued, the trek was getting difficult. But the beauty of nature and the proper mixture of rain was creating more enthusiasm in us. The fog raising from forest, the birds speaking in the silent jungle, big trees, smell of flowers .... all in all felt like staying there for couple of days, But ya my manager was waiting with big work for me ...
Just having funny conversation on the way, i didn't realize that i was first to become victim to leeches.
No pain, No sensation, i applied some salt on the leech. Don't try to pull, it feels awkward to touch leech.
Now actually blood started flowing like river, it takes a while to stop as leeches have some mechanism to prevent blood clotting while it sucks blood. My white socks was slowly turning red.
As we continued our journey, after few kms we met with Hidlumane falls, it was nice falls. Guide told water will be full and we cant cross the falls during peak of rainfall.We didn't dare to spend time in water as we knew leeches were waiting for us.
We had some photo sessions and moved on. Next path was most difficult and couldn't take pictures as it was steep and too many leeches on the way. This path is next to water fall, so we need to climb up. On this path if we wait at single place for more than 1 minute, u must be sure u have 1 or 2 visitors on your legs. Leeches are found everywhere on the ground , on leaves so need to be very careful. Guide later suggested to carry Zandu balm or Amruthanzan next time. He said when we apply these to legs and all exposed parts of body, then leeches wont come.
After completing this patch of difficult trek we entered plains. It was very beautiful along came heavy rains with strong winds. All our umbrellas got tore, till then i hadn't experience such strong mixture of rains and winds.
We gave pit stop to clear off all leeches over our body. It was surprising that leeches had reached a many places on our body and having blood party. It was free feast for leeches from our side. I really dont know how much blood we had lost to leeches.
After crossing few hills from here, we reached a mud road which is actually vehicle (Only Mahindra Jeep) road to Kodachadri summit. We walked few kms in mud road to reach Kodachadri.
Lunch was ready, had nicely ......... slept for a while as everyone were tired.
Next morning we left to Nittor in Jeep. It was around 100 per head.
From Nittor we went to Kollur in local Bus.
Kodachadri looks more beautiful during October. Since we experienced heavy rains, heavy winds, leeches during our trek and the spectacular view we all consider this was one of the best trip.
Nice blog :):) leaving tomo mornin :) hope this helps!!
ReplyDelete