Trek to Tadiyandamol

Date: Jan 26, 2007

Mission: Trek to Tadiyandamol (~1700 mts), the highest peak in Coorg in one day.

Prologue: What started as a preparation to trek to Kumara Parvatha ended up in a trek to Tadiyandamol. Due to a long weekend we (me, Suny and Karthik) could get reservation only in an ordinary express KSRTC bus to Madikeri on 25th night. The bus was at 10.30 pm from Majestic. By the time we reached corporation at 9.30 there was a complete chaos. It looked like everyone wanted to get out of Blore and traffic was moving at snails pace. It was 10.15 pm by the time we reached Mysore Bank and we had to get down from the BMTC bus and almost run till KSRTC bus-stand to catch the KSRTC bus. Karthik had no clue where we were headed and kept pronouncing Madikeri as Matthikere which happens to be a place in Blore itself.

The bus we had booked was going via Channarayapatna-HoleNarsipura. From Channarayapatna till Kushalnagara, the (in)efficiency of the road department was at full display. I guess no politician of any considerable power lives on this road and made me think that this would be the most difficult part of the trek than any hiking that we were going to do. The bus finally landed at Madikeri at 5.45 am. I was relieved and swore never to travel along this damned stretch again. We caught a local private bus to Kakkabe which was ~35 kms from Madikeri from the private bus-stand at 6.45 am. We had to get down at Kaikamba (Nalaknad palace) just after Kakkabe. The winding roads between Madikeri to Kakkabe with a mix of coffee estates and forests on either side made me forget the sleepless journey from Blore to Madikeri. On the way we had Kodagu style breakfast at Napoklu when the bus had stopped for 30 mins. The bus dropped us at Kaikamba at 8.45 am.

Day 1

Another motivation for this trek was I had bought a new digicam (Canon A530) just a day before and wanted to test my nature photography skills. There were 3 more guys who were going to Tadiyandamol and we went together through a steep path to palace estate. Historical Nalknaad palace was just beside the palace estate but we didn't go there. From the estate there is a jeep track almost till half the distance to Tadiyandamol. Tadiyandamol peak would be visible only once we reach the end of jeep track. This track was very steep but offered shades with thick canopy of forest and coffee estates. The only point of confusion along this is a fork along the road after ~30 mins walk from the estate. We had to take the left one going upwards. I was exhausted as I had no sleep during the previous night and had to take short breaks. We reached the end of jeep track by 10.15 am and the Tadiyandamol peak was visible now. We reached another fork after ~15 mins. I had read somewhere that we had to take the straight one to the peak and the left one took us to a small stream. There was a big boulder near the fork and camping activity was very evident with lots of junk thrown around. The stream was just 2 mins from the fork. It had little water but there was a big group of people there and we beat a hasty retreat.

After the fork the path got steeper. For ~30 mins thick forest gave us cover from sun as the path went through it. We hit the peak at ~12 pm. Karthik who expects to find a temple or a house on each and every peak on the Earth was dissapointed. There was hardly enough space to build a room ! Forest fires (maybe started by smart trekkers who forget to douse the camping fire completely) had burnt down most of the grass around the peak. No comments if the forest deptartment puts up a check post and bans all camping near the peak. But still there was lot greenery. At the peak there was another big group who were making lot of noises. Some of them had even entered the adjoining forest and were behaving crazily. Fortunately they left in ~15 mins and we got a chance to enjoy the natural beauty in solitude. The view from the peak was awesome and made me wonder how it would look soon after monsoon. There were green canopy of forest cover as far as our eyes could stretch in all directions and I saw a peak which was higher than Tadiyandamol at a long distance to the north. I happily thought that it was Kumara Parvatha which was where we had planned initially and now we could alteast get a glimpse of it !

We had bread slices with jam for lunch. We left the peak at 1.30 pm. The descent till the forest cover was slow as there were loose stones on the way. We reached the fork in 45 mins and went to stream. Here there was another big group. So we went further up to enjoy the stream. We stayed here for ~30 mins and again started down towards the Nalknaad palace. We collected lot of chocolate wrappers, plastics on the way back which were not there when we had trekked up. Along the jeep track there were trenches with proper boards just to throw the junk but still people found pleasure to throw junk in this pristine stretch. After some amateur photography on the way we reached Nalknaad palace at ~3.30 pm. No one else were there in the palace and we stayed there for ~15 mins. We were on the road at 4.30 pm trying to get a bus to Madikeri. There was a German who had hiked to Tadiyandamol as part of his 'Incredible India' experience and was waiting for the bus. The bus arrived at 5.15 pm and we were hunting for a decent restaurant for dinner in Madikeri by ~7 pm.

We found a restaurant although I can't say whether the food was descent. Seats were available in 9 pm Rajahamsa bus to Blore that was going via Mysore. The bus started at 9.30 pm and when I woke up it was in Majestic at 3.30 am. This is a trek which gives maximum reward for minimum effort.

Cost per person : Rs 550