A trip to heaven..... KODACHADRI
KODACHADRI: 1393 mts above sea level,the cool breezes flowing through the western ghats gently pass us by. what it brings in we do not understand. but the coolness is the least of it. situated 12 kms from mookambika temple in kollur, i think the air must be pretty blessed also. For the boring details, kodachadri is a peak in shimoga district. It is situated in the middle of the Mookambika National Park and is home to several endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna. The peak also holds religious importance as it is believed that Adi Sankara meditated at this peak. Hence, a temple or “Sarvajna Peetha” was built at the top. The view of the sunrise and sunset from here is considered to be something which should not be missed. how we came to be here is a small tale in itself, involving a self repecting amount of "mallu" pride, wild animals, and devout engineers.
Just a visit to the Kollur mookambika temple. We left from Bangalore by road, in a Toyota qualis on Friday night. Reached Kollur by around 11 am on Saturday. Went to the mookambika temple and the day was spent there and by evening we returned back to our lodge. We could see that the neighboring houses all have electrified fences. On enquiry we came to know that those were protection from wild animals... whoa... wild animals in the town. except for us that is.....
We all had planned to go to kodachadri, but by vehicle. but on Sunday morning we decided... what the heck, lets walk our way up... a couple of us had gone earlier to town and made enquiries about trekking. The information was that it was roughly about 8km and should take u around 3 hrs. And most important piece of information was that we had a mallu tea-shop on the way... yeah... that’s right we had a kuttapan chettan's thattukada... (Kuttappan da dhabba). So we all make of by around 7:30 from the hotel. Our driver "Gowda" took us to a point from where we needed to start our trek. We reached there by around 8 told the driver to be back at this point by 2 or so.hope my friends, make us do many things... least of which is a confident us telling the driver to come back on time.
And then we start off. I think I forgot to tell how many of us were this "WE". We were a five member gang. My room-mates. We didn’t have a proper breakfast that morning, since we would get to kuttapan chettan's shop and we could have proper breakfast from there, so why spoil your appetite by having anything else... Another hope thing this one.
And we started off. There was a narrow beaten path between dense forest. huge, gigantic, enormous trees. not enough big synonims exisst for the trees. I think the road was for trucks to pass with jungle wood...(or so we argued.. proper way for brigands likes veerappan.)
And the road went on. It never seemed to end and by this time we were all getting hungry. persistence being our motto and mainly becaause there was hardly anything else to do. We should have reached the tea-shop in about a 20 30 mins. And its past 9 30. Almost an hour and a half since we started off. So are we in the right direction? Are we going inside to the jungle instead of going towards the temple. The question haunts us.
We walked on for another half an hour with no one or interesting thing in sight except for blood thirsty leeches. Now these leeches are pretty smart. They just lie around on the ground until some passes nearby. It grabs on to the footwear and works its way up to your leg where it can get a good bite. You never feel the bite unless you are watching it. Then it sucks on and on and on. It uses some chemical which will prevent the coagulation of the blood which will make sure that the leech gets an uninterrupted supply till it’s full and it simply detaches. But still the effect of the chemical remains which means that you'll be bleeding until you stop it with some salt.
Hungry and tired we are walking kind of lost and then we spot a cow. Holy cow... that was a domestic cow with a rope on its neck. Cool. So we do have humans nearby… J so we looked even further and we saw a guy. Phew... finally we see a soul. We asked him whether we were on the right track or not. He assured us that we were on the right track and the greatest assurance we got from him was the tea shop was nearby. Finally by 10:30 we reached kuttappan chettans thattukada... wow... what a relief....
The menu was limited but the food was really tasty... quite natural. its like what home food is to hostellers. I have got the point across haven't i?
We all filled up our stomach. One quick quiz. Once we are done with our breakfast..Filled our stomach, what do we do next.. Plan for the travel?? BUZZ.... wrong answer.. Plan for lunch we asked kuttapan chettan to prepare lunch for us. So that was done.. We paid a small advance also and booked lunch... and then we planned the next leg.
We asked for directions and filled up our water bottles and set off. From here onwards the path completely changed its form. From a narrow road to it became an actual jungle trail. Full of rocks, bushes thorns and blood thirsty leeches. Slowly we made our way through all those... then the path stopped abruptly. Leaving to the traveler to decide how to move on from now on... well when you are climbing up a hill the general direction to go is "up". So we just followed the general directions and moved on...
The climb was very tough. Especially for HEALTHY people like me. Wait. This owe an explanation. There are two categories of people. One is skinny and the other is healthy. And as you have rightly guessed I belong in the healthy category... so I had to huff,puff and gasp a lot to keep up with the gang. But the climb was pretty tough even for the fitness freak in our gang.
slowly and steadily we were climbing up and in about a hour we could feel the climate changing and so was the scenery... we could feel the cool breeze as we were climbing up.
The climb was pretty peaceful though. No noise of vehicles, no phones ringing no TV sounds.. Nothing.. Complete bliss. The only sounds were the occasional clatter from the birds on the trees. Sometimes the peace was also scary, we didn't see anyone on the way. Neither going up nor down. There was another thing bothering us.. We were told there are wild animals in these forests.. And the place seems completely deserted.
We reached the top a small peak. one down, many many more to go. Suddenly we walked into a clearing from the woods.Lo and behold.. It was really a marvellous spectacle.We could see the clouds touching the mountains.We were literally walking through the mist and fog which group up to become clouds. felt like this is the road to heaven.
Then came a treacherous part. Walking along narrow strips on mountain sides. One slip.... and you are history. There is no way anyone would even hear your scream let alone help you out....
At this point we could see at a far away mountain some buildings. phew... so we were on the right track. but the building seemed pretty far away. a couple more hours of climbing and we were all out of our final oodles of strength and stamina. And out of water. But wait, do mine eyes deceive me? what do we see? a guy selling nimbu paani. And guess what? that’s also a mallu guy. got reminded of the forward where a mallu tea stall is setup at the moon when Neil Armstrong lands there.
Well whatever you say nimbu pani never tasted better. We asked the guy about the doubt we had, regarding wild animals. He confirmed there are wild animals in that area. Apart from elephants and bears all other animals are there. That’s the assurance that he gave, and he has seen them also.
From there we could see the buildings and the temple on top. So we were pretty close then. so within another 45 mins to 1 hour we reached top. What a relief. But the feeling that you get is supreme. We have springs originating from that point. Never tasted clearer water.
Visited the temples there and then had lunch from a hotel there. Pity that we didn’t have any mallu hotels there.. :(
But honestly the food was good and hot and filling. We ate our stomach full.
Now we needed to plan to go back. It was already 3pm and we were way behind schedule. It took us more than six hours to reach the top. So return we decided to hitch a ride on a jeep. Got hold of a jeep driver who agreed to take us down to Kollur.
So our return journey begins.. Even this is no less an adventure. The roads are nonexistent. Jumping over from stone to stone and taking perilous hairpin curves with just one hand. Now I thought I knew how to drive... nope... my skills are nowhere near this master. we bow to him, he who holds our lives in a hand.
After a bumpy ride for about 45 mins we were back on level road. Then we sped away towards Kollur. In about another 15 mins we reached the spot where we left our qualis. After getting freshened up we started back to Bangalore
a little tale but nevertheless one which was enjoyed to the most.
Just a visit to the Kollur mookambika temple. We left from Bangalore by road, in a Toyota qualis on Friday night. Reached Kollur by around 11 am on Saturday. Went to the mookambika temple and the day was spent there and by evening we returned back to our lodge. We could see that the neighboring houses all have electrified fences. On enquiry we came to know that those were protection from wild animals... whoa... wild animals in the town. except for us that is.....
We all had planned to go to kodachadri, but by vehicle. but on Sunday morning we decided... what the heck, lets walk our way up... a couple of us had gone earlier to town and made enquiries about trekking. The information was that it was roughly about 8km and should take u around 3 hrs. And most important piece of information was that we had a mallu tea-shop on the way... yeah... that’s right we had a kuttapan chettan's thattukada... (Kuttappan da dhabba). So we all make of by around 7:30 from the hotel. Our driver "Gowda" took us to a point from where we needed to start our trek. We reached there by around 8 told the driver to be back at this point by 2 or so.hope my friends, make us do many things... least of which is a confident us telling the driver to come back on time.
And then we start off. I think I forgot to tell how many of us were this "WE". We were a five member gang. My room-mates. We didn’t have a proper breakfast that morning, since we would get to kuttapan chettan's shop and we could have proper breakfast from there, so why spoil your appetite by having anything else... Another hope thing this one.
And we started off. There was a narrow beaten path between dense forest. huge, gigantic, enormous trees. not enough big synonims exisst for the trees. I think the road was for trucks to pass with jungle wood...(or so we argued.. proper way for brigands likes veerappan.)
And the road went on. It never seemed to end and by this time we were all getting hungry. persistence being our motto and mainly becaause there was hardly anything else to do. We should have reached the tea-shop in about a 20 30 mins. And its past 9 30. Almost an hour and a half since we started off. So are we in the right direction? Are we going inside to the jungle instead of going towards the temple. The question haunts us.
We walked on for another half an hour with no one or interesting thing in sight except for blood thirsty leeches. Now these leeches are pretty smart. They just lie around on the ground until some passes nearby. It grabs on to the footwear and works its way up to your leg where it can get a good bite. You never feel the bite unless you are watching it. Then it sucks on and on and on. It uses some chemical which will prevent the coagulation of the blood which will make sure that the leech gets an uninterrupted supply till it’s full and it simply detaches. But still the effect of the chemical remains which means that you'll be bleeding until you stop it with some salt.
Hungry and tired we are walking kind of lost and then we spot a cow. Holy cow... that was a domestic cow with a rope on its neck. Cool. So we do have humans nearby… J so we looked even further and we saw a guy. Phew... finally we see a soul. We asked him whether we were on the right track or not. He assured us that we were on the right track and the greatest assurance we got from him was the tea shop was nearby. Finally by 10:30 we reached kuttappan chettans thattukada... wow... what a relief....
The menu was limited but the food was really tasty... quite natural. its like what home food is to hostellers. I have got the point across haven't i?
We all filled up our stomach. One quick quiz. Once we are done with our breakfast..Filled our stomach, what do we do next.. Plan for the travel?? BUZZ.... wrong answer.. Plan for lunch we asked kuttapan chettan to prepare lunch for us. So that was done.. We paid a small advance also and booked lunch... and then we planned the next leg.
We asked for directions and filled up our water bottles and set off. From here onwards the path completely changed its form. From a narrow road to it became an actual jungle trail. Full of rocks, bushes thorns and blood thirsty leeches. Slowly we made our way through all those... then the path stopped abruptly. Leaving to the traveler to decide how to move on from now on... well when you are climbing up a hill the general direction to go is "up". So we just followed the general directions and moved on...
The climb was very tough. Especially for HEALTHY people like me. Wait. This owe an explanation. There are two categories of people. One is skinny and the other is healthy. And as you have rightly guessed I belong in the healthy category... so I had to huff,puff and gasp a lot to keep up with the gang. But the climb was pretty tough even for the fitness freak in our gang.
slowly and steadily we were climbing up and in about a hour we could feel the climate changing and so was the scenery... we could feel the cool breeze as we were climbing up.
The climb was pretty peaceful though. No noise of vehicles, no phones ringing no TV sounds.. Nothing.. Complete bliss. The only sounds were the occasional clatter from the birds on the trees. Sometimes the peace was also scary, we didn't see anyone on the way. Neither going up nor down. There was another thing bothering us.. We were told there are wild animals in these forests.. And the place seems completely deserted.
We reached the top a small peak. one down, many many more to go. Suddenly we walked into a clearing from the woods.Lo and behold.. It was really a marvellous spectacle.We could see the clouds touching the mountains.We were literally walking through the mist and fog which group up to become clouds. felt like this is the road to heaven.
Then came a treacherous part. Walking along narrow strips on mountain sides. One slip.... and you are history. There is no way anyone would even hear your scream let alone help you out....
At this point we could see at a far away mountain some buildings. phew... so we were on the right track. but the building seemed pretty far away. a couple more hours of climbing and we were all out of our final oodles of strength and stamina. And out of water. But wait, do mine eyes deceive me? what do we see? a guy selling nimbu paani. And guess what? that’s also a mallu guy. got reminded of the forward where a mallu tea stall is setup at the moon when Neil Armstrong lands there.
Well whatever you say nimbu pani never tasted better. We asked the guy about the doubt we had, regarding wild animals. He confirmed there are wild animals in that area. Apart from elephants and bears all other animals are there. That’s the assurance that he gave, and he has seen them also.
From there we could see the buildings and the temple on top. So we were pretty close then. so within another 45 mins to 1 hour we reached top. What a relief. But the feeling that you get is supreme. We have springs originating from that point. Never tasted clearer water.
Visited the temples there and then had lunch from a hotel there. Pity that we didn’t have any mallu hotels there.. :(
But honestly the food was good and hot and filling. We ate our stomach full.
Now we needed to plan to go back. It was already 3pm and we were way behind schedule. It took us more than six hours to reach the top. So return we decided to hitch a ride on a jeep. Got hold of a jeep driver who agreed to take us down to Kollur.
So our return journey begins.. Even this is no less an adventure. The roads are nonexistent. Jumping over from stone to stone and taking perilous hairpin curves with just one hand. Now I thought I knew how to drive... nope... my skills are nowhere near this master. we bow to him, he who holds our lives in a hand.
After a bumpy ride for about 45 mins we were back on level road. Then we sped away towards Kollur. In about another 15 mins we reached the spot where we left our qualis. After getting freshened up we started back to Bangalore
a little tale but nevertheless one which was enjoyed to the most.
posted by Sanoop at 9:25 PM
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