Kodachadri Trekking

Well this was also a long planned trip. For the 1^st time we had planned to go to Kodachadri in October. That time we couldn’t get the bus tickets to Kodachadri, we diverted the trip to Madikeri and spent 2 days there. I booked the tickets to Kodachadri in the starting of November for 4 people. As the publicity increased 4 more guys joined us and our count to Kodachadri Trekking became 8 from 4, in one week. We had planned to go to Kodachadri on 22^nd of November’2008. I contacted Umesh who is from Nittur (a village on the way to Kolluru) to book the bus tickets and the guest house on Kodachadri for us. I got his contact from Rajendra, who was the in charge for the Guest house. Umesh and Rajendra organize trekking events. On 21^st Nov’08 night around 8 o’clock in the evening, we reached Majestic. Praveen was with me, we both started together from Marathahalli. Sunil and Sameer were already in the Majestic. With them Surendra and Sameer’s 2 friends Rajneesh and Prasanna were there. Later Shivu also joined. From there we went to catch the bus near Swathi Hotel, Rajeev Gandhi Circle (near Natraja talkies). We reached Swathi Hotel and had dinner there. Then we boarded the bus to reach Kodachadri. I met my hostel friend Ambareesh, who also planned to Kodachadri with his friends. Bus left Bangalore around 9 o’clock. After that night travel on the bus we reached Nittur around 7 in the morning, where Umesh was there to receive us. We got into the hotel, where we needed to fresh up with all our routines. We’d a nice break fast there and waited for a guide to come. Finally Mr. Guide, Ganapathi arrived and we started to trek at 8.30 AM.

10.30 AM: crossed 2 villages

11.00 AM: reached a small water falls on our way

1.00 PM: reached the jeep track

2.30 PM: reached the top of Kodachadri

By then we were tiered and retired. After having nice lunch in the travellers bunglow on the top of the hill, we slept for 3 hours and few of us missed the sunset part. Around 7PM Ganapathi arranged for the campfire. After some enjoyment at the campfire we went for dinner. The dinner also was wonderful. Around 9.30 PM we thought of sleeping early so that we can catch the sunrise part in the morning without miss.

As per our night plan we got up at 5 AM in the morning and went towards the sunrise point. After the sunrise we headed towards the bunglow. We got fresh up ourselves and finished the breakfas. By 9.30AM we started to towards the Nagara - Kollur Highway. By 12 noon we reached the highway and took bath in the small steam of water and cought the bus to Kollur. After the Mukambika Devi darshana we finished our lunch in the temple and thought of going to Nagara so that we can cover the Fort in that place before catching our return bus to Bangalore. By 6 o'clock we reached Nagara Fort by catching up another bus and roamed around there for an hour or so. After having dinner in a hotel in the Nagara Bus Stand we waited for the return bus which arrived around 10PM. The next day morning around 7AM we reached Bangalore and dispursed to our destinations.

More snaps of Kodachadri can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/nlgirish/Kodachadri

Skanda Giri ...experience of night trekking

...finally that saturday arrived, which we're awaiting almost for a month or so. We had planned to go to Skanda Giri (Kalavarahalli Betta) for almost one month, since the coming monday was a holiday. It was on 5th April'08 we all started towards Devanahalli on our bikes. It was bit traffic day since the roads were being blocked due to road construction work which was going for almost 2 years for the sake of Bangalore International Airport. I picked PJ at Hebbala where Manja who carried Jaggu on his bike also came. We waited for Suprith & Kiran also to join us. When he arrived, we started towards Devanahalli, where nice snacks were awaiting for us at Kiran's house in Raaja Beedi of Devanahalli. We stopped at one place where we had to wait for Kariya who was new addition for our Trekking plan, to join us with his friend. By the time we finished our tea he also came and then we finally left to Devanahalli. It was almost 5 in the evening when we reached Kiran's place. By then HV also came from his native. After light snack session at Kiran's house we left to Devanahalli Bus Stop where we're expecting Blade Sunil to come from Bangalore. Finally he arrived at 8 o'clock and our count totally became TEN, not a bad figure I tought. Once we picked Sunil we left to Panjabi Daba where we had planned PJ's long pending treat to be given.
We reached the highway Daba and finished our Dinner there. Then we left to Suprith's house in Chikkaballapur for staying till 2 o'clock that night. We din't had tent or some coverings to stay whole night on Skanda Giri, we had planned to stay in Chikkaballapur and leave for trekking in the midnight. We reached Suprith's house around 10 in the night and parked all our vehicles there and entered the house thinking of sleeping early, so we can get up by 2 o'clock and leave to Betta by 2.30 or 3. After a long time we all hostel mates were together instead of sleeping we started putting blade...infact you know when people meet after some time what topics 'll be there to chat. Even after forcefully we tried to sleep, it din't reach us. When we checked for time, it was almost 2 o'clock mignight. So just thought of leaving to trek bit early, we got ready by finishing nature calls, brushing, face washing....
Finally we were on the way to Kalavarahalli Betta with Suprith guiding us as he knew the place. We reached the temple at the beginning of the Betta around 3 o'clock where we parked our chariots and went to collect parking slips by paying some amount...I don't remember how much we paid. Some people were there who insisted us to get a guide for whom we had to pay 300-400 bucks. I thought its waste as I knew the route as to how to go to the starting point of the trekking place. I had collected some routing information from my colleague friend Shrini, which helped in saving those 300 bucks.
We started to trek around 3.15 in the middle of the night. It was a dark night as expected since it was Amawasya the following day. I had instructed my friends to get torches as Shrini had suggested me earlier, as it going to be very dark night. We used the torches and mobiles to find the route to climb till the peak of the Betta. We had few topics left even after we skipping the sleep that night, which helped us to forget the strain. We took regular intervals since it was long time we had been into trekking... When the time was around 4.45, we reached about 75% of the Betta. We hurried up as some body was telling that by 5.30 sunrise would happen. After about 30 minutes of trek we were on top of SkandaGiri where I was shocked to see so many people already there to watch sunrise.
It was very cold and the morning breeze was amazing. The time was 5.50 when sun showed a sign of rise. By 6.10 the clowds started covering the hill and its neighbouring hills. Bit worry arrived us as the clouds were covering the sunrise part as well. By 6.16 the much awaited time had come. The sun started to rise in the eastern parts. The lucky part was we could watch it also. Before we could actually enjoy the scene the clouds were bad enough at that time, they covered the Sun again. We sat there on a rock waiting Mr. Sun to come out of those white mammoths. Mean while we started eating the Bread and Jam which we took in Devanahalli the previous night, as it was so hungry for all of us after the trek. We sat there for some more time expecting Sun to come out. But the Mammoths were strong enough to hold him so that Sun couldn't peep on to us. But whatever, the one scene when we saw the world's light source coming out after a night sleep was enough for us (we tought as there was no choice). By 7.30 we started to roam around the top of the hill and found nothing but the wreckages of a temple. When the sun couldn't come out, we thought of give up and started towards the bikes parking point. During trekking down also the scenaries around the Betta was superb. We reached down by 9.30 and headed towards Suprith's house wehre nice tiffanis were awaiting us. We reached home by 10 and had nice break fast. Finally we dispersed around 11 o'clock to reach our native places. Altogether we had a great time with this plan. More snaps of Skanda Giri can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nlgirish/SkandaGiri02