Tuesday August 30, 2005

A long trek in Kodachadri hills and Jog Falls Uncle, Dipanker and I were planning for a trek for quite sometime. Since the Janmashtami weekend is a three day weekend (26th Aug 2005 being a holiday), we decided to visit Jog Falls and Agumbe. Initial plan was to take car but I soon realized that roads could be bad due to heavy rains and Jog falls is quite far. Since I'm the only one who can drive, we decided to catch Shimoga Express train on 26th Aug night. Luckily we got the tickets and return tickets were in waitinglist. Since we booked a day before leaving for Shimoga, the return tickets were not confirmed yet we were sure that it will get confirmed.

Day 1

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Train journey was quite relaxing and we could sleep well unlike in overnight bus. Soonafter reaching Shimoga at 5.00 am we decided to walk down to the bus stand to catch a bus to Jog Falls. On the way, we were in double mind to visit Jog Falls or Agumbe (for trekking). Once we reached the bus stand, I saw a bus going to Karwar and I suggested to visit to Karwar, but soon they didn't agree and I had to think about Jog Falls and Agumbe. Till the last moment it was looking as if we will go to Agumbe, but just when we saw a private bus standing for Jog Falls, we decided to jump in without further delay. It costs us Rs 45 per head from Shimoga town to Jog Falls. The bus journey was tiring as it stopped at almost all the villages. Jog falls is 105kms from Shimoga. We were in little hurry. But it still took more than three hours and we were little dissapointed with this. Anyway, without any further delay, we decided to descent down to the bottom of the water fall. We left our rucksacks in one of the shops there and started decending. The weather was okay but little humid. The water in the water fall wasn't as much as we had seen it last year when it was in full swing. However it was still looking spectacular. We met a guy from Spain who was travelling alone. It reminded me my journeys to Lahaul and Spiti. Anyway, we took bath and were there for more than an hour. Climbing back was little painful because of hot and humid weather. But we had to do fast so that we can catch next bus on time.

Just when we were at the top, we saw a bus going to Sagar (on the way to Jog Falls from Shimoga). We were still not sure whether we will go to Agumbe or Kodachadri. The confusion got over at Sagar when we decided to do trekking in Kodachadri and if time permits we can visit Agumbe to see the sunset. In fact sunsets are quite famous from these places. On a clear day sea could also be visible.

We decided to catch a bus to Nittur from Sagar. It costs us Rs 25 and a free ride on a launch too. That excited all of us. I was excited because I had never taken a launch. After travelling for more than an hour the bus stopped to get into the motor boat. The motor boat was already carrying a car, two autoricksaw and few two-wheelers. We were asked to sit in the front of the boat and then the bus was also pulled in. The bus was 35 seater bus (so not a small one). The view was as if we were travelling to an island. Looks like it was a backwaters of Linganamakki dam. The journey was of 15 mins. We were eager to do more such trips on a launch but we had to move on. We were in Nittur at 5.00 pm and started asking how to reach base of Kodachadri. Someone told that you can either start trekking from Nittur itself (jeep route) which is 15kms or you can go to Nagodi and start trekking from there (5kms) upto Hari-Ram-Hari-Krishna-Ashram. We decided to stop trekking to the Ashram as we were already getting late. The trek went through thick forest and in fact the trail was jeepable upto Ashram. It was dark by the time we reached Ashram and soonafter we got a room in the ashram. Thanks for a lady from Greece who showed the way at the last moment. We were little afraid of finding the Ashram itself as it was dark by then, but luck was with us. Anyway, they offerred for dinner but we had food. We soon slept so that we can start the trek early morning.



Day 2:
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From the Ashram, Kodachadri is just 6kms trek. In fact the Ashram is situated in a valley and you can witness surrounding hills. There are very nice camping sites as well. By 7.00 am we geared up for 6kms trek. We noticed a jeep route again. We first had tea and asked about the route to Kodachadri hill. He showed the way and then we didn't look back. The trail went through thick forest and then nice lush green mountain hills. It was a simple trek with a steep climb at few places. We reached at the top of Kodachadri in two hours. After reaching at the top, someone told me that we can visit a cave and Shri Sankaracharya temple also. So we decided to visit these places without any delay. The cave of lord Ganesh was small. The flowers on the way were in full bloom. We then went to a temple followed by another cave which is down the hill and requires half an hour of continous steep decent. Anyway the weather had started becoming cloudy and misty so we were reliefed from humid weather at the top. The hills were looking great and Dipanker captured everything in his digital camera. We returned to Kodachadri hill after visiting these places and soonafter I realised that I lost my Sun cap. I was little disappointed because this is my third cap which I have lost in just two years.

After taking bath and having lunch, we decided to climb down. There was a jeep route so we decided to take jeep route to avoid Leeches. We knew that this route would go down to Ashram. After climbing down through jeep routes and beautiful lush green hills, we stopped at a place were we saw two routes. We then asked where would this route go. The villager replied and said 'Nittur'. We were shocked to hear this as we wanted to go to Ashram. We soon realised that this is not the same jeep route which we saw near the Ashram. The villager insisted us to not take the route through jungles to reach Ashram. Instead he suggested to take jeep route but we wanted to go back to Ashram as they had invited us to celebrate Janmashtami. At 4.00 pm we decided to take the unknown route in the Jungle.

After trekking for one hours (no trails as such), we reached a small village (nice paddy field), we asked a person for the Ashram. He had to come with us upto the Ashram to show the way because there was no trail in the jungle from there. We gave him Rs 100 for guiding us. We would have for sure lost our way had we gone alone. Thanks to him.

After reaching Ashram, we participated in few games, had good food and took arti in the temple. At the night uncle and dipanker had slept on the floor as they didn't bring their mats.



Day 3
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The next day we decided to return and visit a Mookambika temple of Goddess Durga ji in Kollur. After trekking for an hour (4kms) we reached a roadhead and from there we caught a bus going to Kollur. On the way we found a route which can go to Kodachadri hill and it's just 13kms of trek passing through a water fall also. Hence we came to know that there are three routes to climb Kodachadri hills. The visit to the temple was quite nice. Sun had come out and we were forced to take cold drinks. Soonafter we got a bus to Shimoga and just before Shimoga I lost my specks. Since then I struggled to see things until I reached back home. The train was at 10.00 pm and we were in Shimoga at 5.00 pm itself. So we had lot of time to kill which we did quite nicely by gossiping about our trips, experiences, share market, work and all. (2005-08-30 21:05:57.0) Permalink Comments [3]