My second road trip to Kodachadri for trekking - October 13th to 16th 2022

Road trip to Kodachadri Trekking with Friends

Date - 13th October 2022 to 16th October 2022

It had been the most sought sojourn among our friends since we were all are planning to disown our families for few days to lead a blissful Bachelor's life. Planning was done almost a month back and finally the day arrived with much of real enthusiasm rather than a hyped one. 

There were couple of friends who had joined us from Chennai and it was Rishi's PG classmates, Rishi being the protagonist of the gang. The Plan was to pick four of them from a near by metro station and start the journey by 6.30 am on 13th of October. Since the distance to be covered was 420 kms the plan was to  reach our place of stay asap. To my dismay the coterie reached the station only at 7.20 pm late by almost 50 minutes. Our plans of beating the weekday morning traffic crumbled like bread crumps. We decide to finish our breakfast within the city since we were anyway late. We had a sumptuous breakfast at Adigas Kanakapura road to the delight of my friends. We then started our journey at 8 am IST on 13th. We  took Nice road from Kanakapura road and exited at Tumkur. We continues our onward journey via Neelamanga, Tumkur, Hiriyur, Hosadurga and reach Simha farms at Madodi at  3.30 pm. After Tumkur the road was a single lane country side road aka state highways all the way till the destination. 

  

I had called the hotel guys requesting them to keep lunch till 3.30 pm since we are not going to stop for lunch after leaving Bangalore. We had couple of pit stops enroute to quench our thirst by having tender coconut and bio breaks.

Sathya one from the gang helped in driving for some 100kms, indeed it was an helping hand since I was suffering from cramps in my left thigh due to a very recent trip the previous weekend.

We reached Simha farms at 3.30 pm and never wasted time in having our tasty lunch. Later we retired to our rooms. Rooms were two bedded cottages which were newly built, I had been with my family some 5 years back to the same place but things have changed since then. The rooms were spacious and posh with enough comfort and I was happy to know that my friends too liked them.

We had some Beer in the evening along with some hot fuming pakodas or bajjis. There was an unexpected and unprecedent rain which looked more like a cloud burst and we were even thinking about the probability of the next day's trek since the rain didn't stop for more than 3 hours.

After our so called bachelors party, we had our dinner and went back to our rooms to chat and have fun. Anticipating our next day trekking itinerary we were all excited and decided to catch up some sleep.

  

Day 2 - The Trek Day

It wa sa sunny day with humid weather. We were all ready by 9.30 am after a sumptuous and homely breakfast. Our Trek guide Balakrishnan was a college going youth who was pursuing his final year B.Com from Udupi and he has a clear plan of what he wants to pursue after completing his B.Com UG degree. Since he had a been a Trekking guide from the age of 5 and his experience his taking groups of wanderlust like us  is amazing. Well built , short energetic youth of  early twenties.  We had our trekking gears like shoes and gloves. We also took some strong odor medicines like Bengay cream for sprains and Dettol for the leech attacks along with salt and salt water. We rented out Anti-Leech sock from the property which is nothing but a thick cotton cloth socks which covers 75% of your crus below the knee. This kind of material prevent leeches from getting in. Tip - Would be to wear shoes without pores or netted shoes so that leeches don't try to get in through the pores.

  

We drove in our car for 5 kms to reach the starting place of Trekking. We have to cross a forest check post where you will be frisked for plastics and any other intoxicants. Forest entry fee is 400 per person. Tip - If you are working for central government or Karnataka state government then forest entry fee may be waived. You have to carry ID proof that you are an government employee.

We started our trek with  all the enthusiasm along with the leeches. Since it had rained heavily the previous day leeches were hungry latching on to our shoes and our anti-leech socks. It was fun as I had been before to the same place with a similar leech attacks. We were making carrom shots to push the leeches  that had clanged on to our shoes and socks. It was fun Tip - Don't get bothered or frightened by leeches they are harmless and they suck bad blood even if they get on to your skin

Our first place is to reach Hidlumane falls.

Many of  us were not  habitual trekkers nor trekked ever before this trek so it was really exhausting for us to climb the first 4 kms to the falls. It was an adventurous climb along the down flowing river and at some places they have ropes to hold and climb some bits of ground. This was an fantastic experience even though were tired and gasping for our breathes. we had a small  pit stop before climbing to the 3 stages of the falls.  the place was beautiful and any poet would love to describe the beauty through a poem. A small village with couple of houses, they were selling some refreshments like butter milk and juices to quench your thirst. There was a paddy field next to he house which was an epitome of greenery at its best swaying in the wind like a swing as if mother nature was singing a lullaby to the paddy grass After quenching our thirst we walked  along the paddy fields which were on the slopes of the forest plain. There are 3 stages of the falls and each stage of the falls was getting bigger as we crossed the first and second stages. Finally we arrived at the falls and it was nature at its best. We were in the middle of the forest with river pouring from the sky .  It is a place with no words to describe. We relaxed for some 30 minutes while few of our gang started bathing in the falls. We had still a long way to climb another 6 kms to reach the top of kodachadri hills..

Our  Crucial Decision

One of our friend was unable to trek further and we all unanimously decided to stop trekking and take a jeep to kodachadri hills from that point which was not in our plan nor in the itinerary. We all decided to assess our situation and tiredness and decided to trek back to the village where we had initially stopped for a break . We once again climbed down to the village of two houses which was never an easy path and was equally daunting. We reached the Village, relaxed ourselves by removing our shoes and socks. To our surprise there was not even a single leech that had gone on to our skins and the anti-leech socks really served the purpose. We had our packed lunch (which was chitrana/Puliyogare) and then took the Jeep to the top of  Kodachadri hills. For people who had not visited kodachadri in the past even a jeep drive in the rocks is equally an adventurous one. You have to ensure that you don't get hurt due to the topsy turvy Jeep ride on boulders and rocks. Finally we reached the summit of the Kodachadri hills . 

Our Trek to Adi Shankara Japa Peedam 

We decided to trek to  Adi Shankar Japa peedam which was another 3 kms  from the Summit / the last point  beyond which you cannot drive. This time the terrain of the trek was not as daunting as it was in the morning to the falls. It was manageable but still it needed some energy when we all were sapping for the same. Nevertheless we reached the Japam peetam within 45 minutes of trek . As we climbed we were accompanied by stratus clouds walking along with us which created a fog for us to sail through it.

Once we reached the Japa Mandapam we found a group of people singing bajans in praise of Adi Shankara. It is a small single sanctum where you could see the consecration of Adi Sankara. We sat and meditated for 5 to 10 minutes which gave us a fresh life. 

I heard that on Mahashivratri day the deity not sure whether it is Adi sankara or Kollur mookambika is brought by 4 people in palanquin   at midnight  and it has to be trekked and brought in that terrain which makes us feel hair-raising. 

We started climbing down and reached the place where our jeeps were parked and it took us less than 20 minutes to climb down.

After that we got dropped at our parking lot to pick our cars and we all retired to our rooms after a tiring day of Trekking experience.

Day 3

I had my thighs stiffened due to the trek and I was not as flexible as I was before the trek. 

We had planned for a relaxed day just visiting Kollur Mookambika temple which was approx 25 kms from our resort. We left at 9 am after our break fast and reached Kollur at 10.30 am. Waited for an hour in the queue to have darshan. It was a wonderful darshan . We reached back to our hotel for lunch at  1pm and spent the afternoon relaxing. We strolled around the resort to explore the surroundings. At  5 pm we went to a nearby place at Nittur the hanging bridge. It was a beautiful bridge across the river almost 500 meters long. We walked to the other side, took some lovely photos and dipped our toes in the wates. We were warned by localites to come out of the water due to crocodiles. We spent an hour and then returned back to our hotel.

  

Day 4

Our itinerary was coming to an end. We have to drive back to bangalore after our energy sapping trek trip. We took a different route to bangalore this time via Shimoga->Chitradurga->Bangalore. The stretch between Shimoga and Chitradurga was very bad. They were laying road and at many places it was a mud road. Driving was a challenge since we could not drive at more than 60 kms/Hr speed. We stopped for lunch at 2 pm at Chitradurga since there were very few hotels on the highway. We started from chitradurga at 2.30 pm and reached bangalore konankunte cross by 5.30 pm. It was a high speed thrilling drive since couple of our group members had come from chennai and they are supposed to board their train in the night after visiting one of our Friend's place.

To sum it up

It was a great bachelors trip with some very old friends of bachelor days, definitely to be cherished for a very long time.