Kodachadri Trek

9th to 12th April : The summer adventure!! This trip was special to us for many reasons.. I will get to those details later, but even after coming back to Bangalore I cant help but think of those amazing 4 days at and near Kodachadri.

After a lot of pestering Muneeb finally agreed to come and in style!! He made the trip memorable by making sure he slips and falls at every new place we visited :). It was Thursday evening and karthik was angry that we all came late as usual. We left Bangalore around 8 pm Thursday night. . as usual the forbidden night journey :). On the way to Kodachadri we stopped at a village where yakshagana was going on at 4am Friday morning. Where Arun was ( excited to be precise )surprised when a girl yakshagana character called him to take snap. But after he got to know that all yakshagana characters are played by guys.. the excitement died :P. There is a fort on the way, some 2 hours before Nitur . A nice place to spend some time . We reached Kodachadri around 5am. Kodachadri is the second highest peak in Karnataka and is also a holy place for many as the Sarvagna peetha is present atop the hill.

Kodachadri (Friday Day1) - Nittur : We changed and filled the bags with minimum necessities for trek , left rest of baggage in the car and got read. Had our breakfast in a nearby hotel. Accompanied by a guide we started trekking from nearby Nittur . It was pleasant morning... way different from Bangalore pollution. The trek path has more of forest path.. birds chirping , the early morning breeze kept our spirits high. The afternoon heat was not much of a problem as we were in the shade of trees most of time. Its around 10km trek from where we started to the peak. Most of it is forest except nearing the peak where its around 3km of open grass land. We reached the open land after many timeouts by Muneeb. On our way we enjoyed some time in water at Hitlumane falls. Water level was less but who cares when we are in high spirits :). After resting for sometime and having some snacks we started again.The forest cover began to disappear slowly as we entered the open grasslands . But the view from those plains are a treat. Much to our respite, there is a buttermilk shop on the way , where the galipata set was set up. The experience is unforgettable. 6 glasses of butter milk each and we were ready again. Towards the end , we will have to walk for around 2kms on road. At around 12:30 we made it to the top. There we planned where to camp. After having lunch, it was matter of seconds before we all started snoring. Had a peaceful nap till 4. And when we wole up Kodachadri surprised us. It was fog fog and fog everywhere. The hot sun beating on us at 2pm was not to be seen. The weather turned pleasant and we set out to climb to Sarvagna peetha. A 2 km trek from the IB camp site. Amazing place and an unforgettable experience. Came back after sunset and prepared for the camp fire. Night was crowded unfortunately, as it was public holiday and many had the same plans.

Kodachadri ( Saturday Day2) - We set out to see the sunrise early morning after a good fight for bathroom. Beautiful hills stood covered in early morning mist . The sun began clearing the mist and covered the forest ranges with its golden rays. You have to experience it to know it. After breakfast we started to climb down. We had planned to cover Kollur, St Mary's Island and Malpe beach. It was an eventful trek down hill as Muneeb entertained us with his falls ;). The descent was fast, we took around 2 hours . 11am we left Kodachadri towards Kollur. After a short visit to Kollur temple we left to Udupi where we had lunch. Next stop - St Mary's Island. We have to take a ferry to the place and its around 70 per head. Worth a ride! :) It was high tides and we had jolly time on the deck. St Mary's Island is worth a visit. You will find a lot of crabs and snails . And as usual Muneeb continued his falling spree.It was around 6pm when we left for Malpe beach. It was a lovely evening, shekar scolding not to venture deep in to the sea and we all running against the tides. That night we stayed at Ashwin's aunt's house. We were treated with Udupi hospitality. We visited Mahalingeshwara devasthanam before ending the day with good food good place good stay.. it was time to rest after a long eventful day.

Udupi (Sunday day3) - After early morning breakfast we left to Udupi Krishna temple. A quick visit to the temple and from there to Agumbe - Sringeri. We were planning to visit the King Cobra natural park but could'nt make it. Agumbe ghat was a superb drive. After taking some snaps of the view at sunset point at noon, we reached Sringeri around 1pm. Running to avoid getting our legs burnt, visited the temple . The fishes at tunga are a treat to watch. After a quick lunch at Sringeri we started at around 2:30pm to Bangalore.

It was after coming back from the trip, that we got to know, we had ventured to the most sensitive of naxal prone areas. Well sometimes its better to know things late :P A wonderful joyful trip to remember and unforgettable experiences. And lots of pictures for memories :)