Kodachadri Trek

The moment "market slowdown" or "meltdown" or even "recession" or "economic climate" (yeah, recently got a mail from someone which went like... "In the current economic climate, we need to ensure we spend our dollars wisely" ) hit me, i made up my mind to take it easy this year. that means, more fun, games, outdoor expeditions/adventure and considerably lesser amount of dedication to work/anything that makes me take responsibility for my actions :P which involves buying a domain in your name and hosting a public blog to write abt the escapades :)

it started with the Kodachadri trek, Praveen, a friend from work had his friend organise a weekend trek to kodachadri peak. Dates: 20,21 Dec 2008.

we left from bangalore, one friday night, reached Shimoga next day at 5 in the morning. the bus to Nittur left at 5:45. its freaky/weird how time flies in the morning. 3 and a half hour journey to nittur left us hungry. "The base station" where we "reported" had bathrooms and a huge hall. after freshening(funny how, all that u do is dirty stuff, but its called freshening) up, and having idlis and lemon rice, we left with a 11th standard student (name forgotten or unknown) as our guide to the peak. the destination is 13 kms, we are told. thru the idlumane falls.

the trek was moderately uphill in the beginning, starting off from a tar road, advancing to a mud road/Jeep track, and then, into the forest with paths and finally, the paths disappearing leaving u totally dependent on your guide. its amazing how some people have a sense of direction and purpose in life. it comes in handy in such situations :D

The final leg of the trek after the falls was very tiring. it was my first such serious trek and believe me, it was very very difficult to even stop to catch a breath or two cos it just made u more weak. more so, cos we were trekking wen the sun was out! there is a small stall situated in no mans land, out of reach to every man and serving only people like us, lone trekkers. after some lemon juice/glucose biscuits and bananas, we carried on with the trek. Electral comes in so handy, i figured out on this trek. keeps you from cramping and generally restores the lost salt n electrolytes in ur body.

we reached the peak at around 4 in the afternoon. had simple but sumptuous lunch (rice, sambhar, pickle and one veg palya). crashed for half an hour talking abt UK trips.

UK is Uppittu Kesaribath. the concept goes something like this. when u are of ripe age, parents will start looking out for you and you are taken on trips to girl's houses where you are most often served with uppittu and kesaribath. the concept also advances to mention that, in case u eat kesaribath after uppittu, it implies, you are ok with the girl. incase u leave just eating uppittu, u are not really into the girl.

one of our friends on the trip, had been to a trip and he was sharing his experience with others who were about to go on such trips soon. :)

There is nothing much to be done at the peak. for Sunrise and Sunset, there are some spots nearby which requires you to trek a bit more. the location itself is very cool and relaxing. camp fire in the evening/night to keep ur bones warm... after dinner, we just crashed.

Some from our gang woke up early in the morning to catch the sunrise, i took a wild guess that it will be just clouds/fog. the gang was disappointed. and i got the much needed 2-3 more hours of sleep.

we started trekking down the peak after breakfast. we were to hit the arashinagundi falls on our way and then finally finish our trek at kollur. the trek down the peak till the falls was mostly downhill. it wasnt tiring but, was very taxing on our soles/calf muscles. arashinagundi falls took away alll the pain :)

we reached Kollur in the evening and left to shimoga by the 4 o'clock bus. we were in shimoga by 9. had dinner, and took the 10:30 bus back to bangalore.

The trek was special for many reasons. Made new set of friends, was my first serious trek (30 kms on two days), learnt so much abt trekking/surviving in general. and Shimoga is simply too good a place! its not a co-incidence that "malenada hennu" is praised so much :)