Trek to Kodachadri

Date: Sometime in Oct, 06

Mission: Trek to Kodachadri peak (~1400 mts) and Arsingundi falls

Prologue: This was my first trek after I relocated in Blore if I don't consider the walk down to Jog falls in september. Also this was the peak trekking season with monsoon in last stages with intermittent downpours expected and this was supposed to be my third trek to Kodachadri (two times I had done it during Btech days). Since number of people was not decided till the end, we didn't get tickets in the only rajahamsa to kollur via shimoga. We ditched plans of going thru m'lore due to bad roads between sakleshpur and gundya. So 7 of us (Me, Suny, Karthik, Raghuram.l and three of his friends) caught 11.10 pm train to shimoga..reached shimoga at 5 am..took 6 am private bus to kollur. The memorable part of the 3.45 hrs journey from shimoga was an excellent breakfast at Rippanpete.

Day 1

There are two main routes to reach Kodachadri. One a 18 km jeep track from nittur (~25 kms before kollur) and another a 8 kms path (half of which is a jeep track and rest a well trodden path) from karekatte (~12 kms before kollur). We took the later since we wanted to visit Arsingundi waterfalls. Tea shop is 4-5 kms from karekatte and there were few leeches on the way. We reached the tea shop at 11 am. The thick forest cover was lush green with overnight rains. Here we had to ditch our plan of going to Arsingundi falls as people suggested it takes atleast 6 hrs to and fro and we wanted to be at Sarvajna Peetha (Kodachadri peak) to watch sunset. Another 2 hours of uphill climb frequently encountered by leeches we reached Kodachadri at ~2.30 pm. We rested for a while after having lunch at the first Bhattara mane. By now the whole area was covered by thick rain clouds. We decided to go to the peak which is 30 mins hike from there.

We walked in the midst of thick rain clouds and drizzle with visibility dropping to less than 10 mts. Near the peak we were greeted with ear splitting thunders. We ran back for safety and while running a thunder struck a small tree just 5 mts beside us. That was the closest I came to experience lightning. During monsoon lightning kills scores of people particularly who till the land in open area where you can't find vegetation for long distance. After it stopped raining we reached peak at ~5.30 pm. It is a treat to watch western ghats tropical forests soon after rains. As said many times before photos don't do justice. We ditched plans to goto the place of origin of river sowparnika due to leeches. Reached back Bhattara mane at 6.30 pm, played cards, had a nice dinner and went to sleep. There was no power (No Electricity lines are there. They use solar or generate it by a small turbine which was not working). I also saw the largest lizard in the house which was atleast 1 feet long.

Day 2

Next day only raghu went to the peak to view sunrise while I went half way, took a left deviation to reach a nearby peak. Sunrise was awesome. We left from Kodachadri at 8 am after the breakfast. Reached karekatte at 11 am after a brief halt at tea shop. We spotted a sleek small snake (must be poisonous since it looked very active) on the way back from tea shop and karekatte. We reached shimoga at 3 pm and were back in majestic by 10 pm. It can be noted that Arsingundi falls can be done during 2nd day. One can reach kollur by evening and be back in blore by next day morning. To reach Arsingundi falls itz better to take guide from tea shop since it is easy to get lost in the forest. I had this experience on my first Kodachadri trek and had to return back after wandering in the forest for 2-3 hrs. Since folks in our groups wanted to be in blore by sunday evening we had to abandon that plan. But I'm sure to do this part during my next trek to Kodachadri.

Cost per person: Rs 700 /-