Kodachardi - Abode of goddess Sri Mookambika, Kodachadri is a well known trekking spot in Western ghats. Many many years ago (guess it was Year 1992), as part of a NCC trip I had trekked to Kodachadri peek. "Sampe katte" and "Bhattara mane" were the only two words I could remember from that trek. After 23 years, I revisited the place. Though a lot of things have changed, the pristine beauty of the mountain remains same.
As usual, after many rounds of discussions, email exchanges we decided to go to Kodachadri. Initially, a total of 18 people showed interest and then it came down to 12. After reading few blogs & looking at the google map a basic plan was prepared. We had three options to reach base point:
- Take a night train to Shimoga, and then take a Bus to Nagara. Take another Bus or hire a Jeep to reach base point Kattinahole
- Take a KSRTC bus till Kollur (which 38 Kms from the base point), and then hire a Jeep
- Take our own vehicle from Bangalore to Kattinahole which is around 400 Kms
From my past experience, I know that booking & cancelling train/bus tickets is a pain. After discussing with Prabin & Laxminarayan, we hired a 21 seater bus at 19 Rs per kilometer fare. We had new friends in the group this time, and some of them were first time trekkers. Many trekkers have suggested to contact Mr Rajendra for food & accommodation bookings. I called him several times & requested to make arrangements for accommodation. For some reason, he did not respond well and finally I had to stop calling him. We decided to start on 21st August night, and the accommodation booking was not yet done. Normally, we are least bothered about food & accommodation. We carry our own food & tents so we don't care about any rooms availability. Some blogs indicated that there is no permission to pitch your own tent as the area has been declared as a protected area. After scouting the web for contacts & calling them, I found Ramesh to be very nice & co-operative. Unfortunately, he was in Mangalore and he suggest another person Prakash. Prakash is another gentle man, and he took care of food & accommodation bookings at IB. Many many thanks Mr. Prakash.
21st Aug 2015, Friday:
We decided to meet at 10:30pm at Silk board, since it is easy for both the people coming from Whitefield & BTM layout. We (me, Deepa, Manjari & Roopa) reached the silk board junction at 11:30pm due to heavy rain & traffic. After mutual introductions are complete, we started off our journey. It took almost an hour to take the NICE road on Hosur road from Silk board junction.
22nd Aug 2015 Saturday:
I woke up at 5:00am, and we were at Shimoga. The driver Vinay kumar was a nice guy & he drove very well. We stopped for morning Tea at a road side hotel in Ayanur. Hot water tastes better than the coffee here ;). I'm not sure of the Tea though. We resumed our journey, and reached Chitrakuta homestay at 8:00am which is 2 kms before the trek start point. Its a nice home stay, and the cook Ganesh was very friendly. They gave us a room to freshen up, and had made Idli's & Upma for the breakfast. It was delicious breakfast. Later, the driver dropped us at the circle from where the trek starts. Our guide, Annappa was very young & smiling. We started our trek at around 9:30am. After walking a kilometer or so, we had to cross a stream. It was not that deep, but enough for our shoes to get wet. I did not care about it, because shoes are going to be wet at one or the other place and you cant completely avoid it. Few wanted to avoid getting their shoes wet but failed miserably :). Ritu slipped into the water & Manjari got one of her shoe wet. While we were coming down the next day, Manjari had a nice slip which I've captured in a video. If these incidents aren't there the trek would have been very dull :). After crossing the stream, we had to leave the jeep track and enter narrow trail. We have to ascend from this point and after walking through a forest patch, we arrived at someone's home. A big group of 150 NCC students had come from Bangalore & their teachers were struggling to manage them. After having nice buttermilk there, we started walking towards Hidlumane falls. From here it is around 1.5 kms walk to the falls. Due to rains, the rocks were very slippery. It was fun watching one or the other NCC student slip on the rocks. It wasn't different in our group also. But, all of us managed to reach the falls without a majory injury. The falls is one of the best I've seen. In most of the water falls, it is either difficult or dangerous to go near the base. But here the setting is just perfect. You can walk in the knee deep water and take a shower in the cold water. The water falls from a height of approximately 100 ft and gives a very good massage. We were already half drenched, so we did not care about changing the dress and walked straight to the falls. It was around 12'O clock when we reached the falls & we spent around an hour there. We had to reach the IB for lunch, so reluctantly continued our trek. Climbing up from the falls was a real challenge. It was very steep climb, but more challenging was the crowd. 150+ students from Bangalore, all at the peak of their "masti" had made a fish market there. Girls pleading their boy friends for help, Boys trying to impress their girl friends, Helpless teachers & guides - it was a total chaos. After few minutes of climb up through the forest, we reached the grass land. But, the climb was not yet over. After an hour or so, we could see the Jeep track. We waited for others to join, and then started walking towards the Jeep track. It took another hour to cross a small forest patch and climb up a hill.After hitting the Jeep track, the IB is around 1.5 kms. By, 3:30pm we reached the IB & checked in to a room. After changing the dress, we had delicious lunch cooked by Mr. Sandeep. It was very cold outside and drizzling. There was no point in going to the Sun set point as it was very cloudy. So we had no option but to wait in the room for Dinner. One of my sleeping bag was wet and I & Deepa tried our best to dry it before night. At 9:30pm we were called for Dinner, and after having nice rice & sambar, we called it a day.
23rd August 2015 Sunday:
We all got ready by 7:30am, and after having the "Rava Upma" prepared by Sandeep, we started walking down the Jeep track. It was 8:20am when we started, and by 11:00am few of us reached the "Ritu's point" (Remember where Ritu slipped into water). We had nice bath, while waiting for others to join. Original plan was to leave Kattinahole by 11 and reach Shimoga by 2 for lunch. But the plan was ruined by "white walkers" oopss "slow walkers". So, called the Ganesh of Chitrakoota homestay and arranged for the lunch. Afte lunch (75/- with Rice, Rasam & Sambar, 60/- without Sambar), we left for Bangalore around 2:00pm. On the way, stopped at a new hotel in Kadur & had snakes(?? :)) & coffee. We took the Chanarayapatna route, as it is wider and we can go faster. We stopped at Hotel Mayura for dinner and reached Bangalore by 10:00pm. Manjari's parents were waiting at Devegowda petrol bunk, and as we got down from the bus, they picked up "only her" and went home. I, Deepa & Roopa waited for an Auto, and reached home by 11:00pm. I then dropped Roopa to her home.
It was a very nice trek after a long time. I was little disappointed that we could not neither visit the Kollur temple, nor the temple atop Kodachadri. But something good happened in my life after coming back from the trek which I can't disclose here :). So, I'm visiting the Kollur temple next week to pray. God bless all ..
Important Phone numbers to note:
Prakash (Jeep driver) at Kodachadri : 94493 27846
Ramesh at Kodachadri: 94810 09983
Ganapathy (IB incharge): 94480 65836, 98804 80005
We decided to meet at 10:30pm at Silk board, since it is easy for both the people coming from Whitefield & BTM layout. We (me, Deepa, Manjari & Roopa) reached the silk board junction at 11:30pm due to heavy rain & traffic. After mutual introductions are complete, we started off our journey. It took almost an hour to take the NICE road on Hosur road from Silk board junction.
22nd Aug 2015 Saturday:
I woke up at 5:00am, and we were at Shimoga. The driver Vinay kumar was a nice guy & he drove very well. We stopped for morning Tea at a road side hotel in Ayanur. Hot water tastes better than the coffee here ;). I'm not sure of the Tea though. We resumed our journey, and reached Chitrakuta homestay at 8:00am which is 2 kms before the trek start point. Its a nice home stay, and the cook Ganesh was very friendly. They gave us a room to freshen up, and had made Idli's & Upma for the breakfast. It was delicious breakfast. Later, the driver dropped us at the circle from where the trek starts. Our guide, Annappa was very young & smiling. We started our trek at around 9:30am. After walking a kilometer or so, we had to cross a stream. It was not that deep, but enough for our shoes to get wet. I did not care about it, because shoes are going to be wet at one or the other place and you cant completely avoid it. Few wanted to avoid getting their shoes wet but failed miserably :). Ritu slipped into the water & Manjari got one of her shoe wet. While we were coming down the next day, Manjari had a nice slip which I've captured in a video. If these incidents aren't there the trek would have been very dull :). After crossing the stream, we had to leave the jeep track and enter narrow trail. We have to ascend from this point and after walking through a forest patch, we arrived at someone's home. A big group of 150 NCC students had come from Bangalore & their teachers were struggling to manage them. After having nice buttermilk there, we started walking towards Hidlumane falls. From here it is around 1.5 kms walk to the falls. Due to rains, the rocks were very slippery. It was fun watching one or the other NCC student slip on the rocks. It wasn't different in our group also. But, all of us managed to reach the falls without a majory injury. The falls is one of the best I've seen. In most of the water falls, it is either difficult or dangerous to go near the base. But here the setting is just perfect. You can walk in the knee deep water and take a shower in the cold water. The water falls from a height of approximately 100 ft and gives a very good massage. We were already half drenched, so we did not care about changing the dress and walked straight to the falls. It was around 12'O clock when we reached the falls & we spent around an hour there. We had to reach the IB for lunch, so reluctantly continued our trek. Climbing up from the falls was a real challenge. It was very steep climb, but more challenging was the crowd. 150+ students from Bangalore, all at the peak of their "masti" had made a fish market there. Girls pleading their boy friends for help, Boys trying to impress their girl friends, Helpless teachers & guides - it was a total chaos. After few minutes of climb up through the forest, we reached the grass land. But, the climb was not yet over. After an hour or so, we could see the Jeep track. We waited for others to join, and then started walking towards the Jeep track. It took another hour to cross a small forest patch and climb up a hill.After hitting the Jeep track, the IB is around 1.5 kms. By, 3:30pm we reached the IB & checked in to a room. After changing the dress, we had delicious lunch cooked by Mr. Sandeep. It was very cold outside and drizzling. There was no point in going to the Sun set point as it was very cloudy. So we had no option but to wait in the room for Dinner. One of my sleeping bag was wet and I & Deepa tried our best to dry it before night. At 9:30pm we were called for Dinner, and after having nice rice & sambar, we called it a day.
23rd August 2015 Sunday:
We all got ready by 7:30am, and after having the "Rava Upma" prepared by Sandeep, we started walking down the Jeep track. It was 8:20am when we started, and by 11:00am few of us reached the "Ritu's point" (Remember where Ritu slipped into water). We had nice bath, while waiting for others to join. Original plan was to leave Kattinahole by 11 and reach Shimoga by 2 for lunch. But the plan was ruined by "white walkers" oopss "slow walkers". So, called the Ganesh of Chitrakoota homestay and arranged for the lunch. Afte lunch (75/- with Rice, Rasam & Sambar, 60/- without Sambar), we left for Bangalore around 2:00pm. On the way, stopped at a new hotel in Kadur & had snakes(?? :)) & coffee. We took the Chanarayapatna route, as it is wider and we can go faster. We stopped at Hotel Mayura for dinner and reached Bangalore by 10:00pm. Manjari's parents were waiting at Devegowda petrol bunk, and as we got down from the bus, they picked up "only her" and went home. I, Deepa & Roopa waited for an Auto, and reached home by 11:00pm. I then dropped Roopa to her home.
It was a very nice trek after a long time. I was little disappointed that we could not neither visit the Kollur temple, nor the temple atop Kodachadri. But something good happened in my life after coming back from the trek which I can't disclose here :). So, I'm visiting the Kollur temple next week to pray. God bless all ..
Important Phone numbers to note:
Prakash (Jeep driver) at Kodachadri : 94493 27846
Ramesh at Kodachadri: 94810 09983
Ganapathy (IB incharge): 94480 65836, 98804 80005
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