A One-Day Trek to Kodachadri Trek

On October 8, I had the chance to be in Bangalore on work, and decided to make a quick trek to Kodachadri, a small mountain about 4,400  feet high, about 78 kms from Shimogga, and an overnight drive away from Bangalore.

I took an overnight bus from Bangalore that started at 10 pm from Majestic (Gurushakti Travels) to Sampekatte at 7 am that costed me Rs.700. I then took an autorickshaw from the bus stop to Kodachadri Mountain View Eco Stay, locally known as "Jayakka's homestay" for Rs.250 arriving there by 8 am. I had breakfast, took some packed lunch from the homestay, and started right out on my trek.
Bhatt, an old man who also works at Jayakka's Homestay, was our guide for the trek. He walked around in very worn leather chappals, brushing off leeches that occasionally caught on to his legs, but slowly enough so that the fastest of us could keep up with him, kitted out in our trekking shoes, wearing pants, huffing and puffing from our city lives.

A view of the road at the starting of the trek. You have to be careful about leeches, that bite you all over. I carried salt with me and dropped it on two of them, one on my foot and the second on my jaw, and they dropped away. But two more still managed to draw blood, one behind my ear, and the second that had crawled into my pant and on to my calf. Leeches are harmless except that the bites they leave take time to heal, and if pulled out suddenly, can leave their mouthparts behind.

A view from small bridge we crossed on the way.

Along the way, there were farms and pastures, before the forest area started.

Farms along the way.

Another view of a field in a farm. At the forest gate, they collect a small amount of Rs.400 per trekker as forest fees. There's also a last store where you can buy water, lemon water, buttermilk, some soft drinks, as well as snacks,

This was a tiny wisp of a rivulet, before the major Hidlumane Waterfall.

We had to slither up the rocks along the waterfall, and the rocks were mossy and slippery!

Another view of the rock which we had to slither up!

This is the trail looking directly down. You can see the small figures of trekkers on the way and the steepness of the climb.

The awesome Hidlumane waterfall! The prospect of climbing up the rocks and going on was daunting! I don't know how I did it at all, except that others were doing it, which meant it was doable. All I had to focus on was looking up or laterally, and refusing to look down, because all I had were toeholds to climb up.

It's always thrilling to have the clouds below us!

My fellow trekkers, Nasar and Mansoor.

The upward slope seemed never ending!

Another view while looking back to see where I came from!

Another view of the never ending slope!

Somewhere in the cloud, lost on a misty mountain.

The mountain seems distant in the cloud, as visibility was down to hardly a hundred feet. I realized we were actually walking in a cloud and visibility would improve as soon as the cloud blew away.

A trekker walking along the narrow trail. On the right was a ditch. Breaking your legs by falling right was preferable compared to falling left and falling off into the unknown, thousands of  feet below.
Every local place has its legends. This was supposed to be the place right on top where Adi Shankara came and prayed. Given the number of places he seems to have prayed across India, along with the lack of any historic information, I think it is most probably a nice mythical story made up by the Brahmins of the region. Besides that, Adi Shankara is also credited with trying to bring down the goddess of the mountain back to Sampekatte. The story further goes that he wasn't supposed to turn back and doubt the goddess, but he did, and the goddess turned to stone half-way down, so a temple is erected to Mookambika out there where she turned to a stone idol! A quaint tale believed by adults.

Bhat had the most striking light gray eyes, white unkempt beard, and was an indeterminate age, maybe 21 years, going by his agility and pace.

Trekkers after climbing all of 10 kilometers! The total trek was about 14 km but we walked all the way from 8:30 am till 4:30 pm by the time we reached Mookambika Temple. We then waited an eternity for the jeep drivers to agree to take us down to the village. The jeep ride charged us Rs.500 each, taking in 8 people in each jeep. The four-wheel drive was worth every penny, since every turn and rock was an obstacle and the jeep angled at ridiculous 30 degree slopes, descending about 10 kms in the space of over an hour. I wouldn't dare to drive a jeep there at any speed.  

Back at the homestay

Mountain View Eco Stay essentially runs an Areca Nut plantation at the back of the home stay, and charges about Rs.1200 per guest. I stayed in a room meant for three, since I paid the full price, unlike the 70 odd trekkers who were staying in shared dorms or rooms. The place makes excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner over weekends for trekkers, and it is good weekend income. I would ideally suggest staying there for a couple of days, walking around the plantation, making their parrot learn new words besides wishing "Good Morning" or asking who has come. Vishruth is a great host, and Jayakka was at one point of time, a celebrity and TV anchor for the Kannada Version of Big Boss.

A pool on the way back, that lets out bubbles of air whenever you clap. The vibrations are enough to send up a stream of air bubbles trapped below the surface.

A view from Nagala Fort, that we stopped by on the way back the next morning. The bus stopped briefly here after starting from our home stay at 8:30 am. We reached in the night at 9:30 p.m. delayed due to a small accident where our bus was scraped by a truck. The return journey was free for me, courtesy Pourna Jo, of another trekking group, thanks to Vishruth from the homestay who organized everything for me.

A view from Nagala Fort, a medieval era fort from the 1500's. The view doesn't seem to have changed much over the last half-millennium.