Archive for August 4th, 2008
This post is going to be the last one in this series 
. I will be writing here the general things you need to take care of, the lessons I had learnt and about the places in general.
The Leeches:
The most scaring part of the trek and the driving force to get to the peak as soon as possible . Better carry some salt, tobacco and coconut oil with you. Tobacco and coconut oil mixture is definitely going to be of great help. What we noticed was that though the leeches might get on to you, because of the tobacco effect, they would not have enough strength to start sucking your blood and ultimately after sometime they are going to die. And salt would kill them instantaneously but you cannot apply salt on you feet and then wear shoes. That would cause blisters. So, use salt whenever a leech is stuck to the body tightly. Just a pinch of salt would do the trick. Also better to carry some clotting agent. It took quite a while and lot of efforts for the bleeding to stop.
The conclusion is that you need not worry much about the leeches…….they are not going to be too dangerous. Its only that you would be short of a few ml of blood . And its absolutely painless when they are sucking the blood. Its just the size of them after sucking the blood that makes you paranoid.
Food during Kodachadri Trek:
The food at Santosh tea stall is good. You can get idli, upma and tea over there. Also you can get some salt here to save yourself from leeches and you can buy some orange candies as well. Food at the kodachadri peak is good. Its a nice home made food and tastes good. You can get tea/coffee, rice, sambar, rasam and curry. All this at reasonable prices. They even provide accomodation at a very nominal price. You can book a jeep to Kollur from here. Only Airtel has got network coverage at this place and that too you won’t get it all over the place. You will have to go and talk at a particular point to get decent signal quality.
Food at Kollur:
We were expecting to get some good food over here. But food at Santosh tea stall and the peak was much much better than food at this place. The strange thing is that you don’t get idly thoroughout the day. Generally whenever I go out, I prefer idlis as nothing can go wrong with it . But at this place I was surprised to see that they don’t have idlis……. they have them only for breakfast. And then this being a temple area, we don’t even get non-veg. One of the guys was very desperate to have non-veg. So, after asking some people we came to know that there is one place some 1 – 1.5 km away from our hotel and we went there and it turned out to be a small bar 
. So, atlast no non-veg…… later when we were about to catch our bus, we found someone making omlettes and that’s where we had our dinner for the day …….two omlettes each.
Arasinagundi falls:
If at all you plan to go to Arasinagundi falls, better take a guide. That’s one thing I had learnt after our experience.
Finally, this trek had everything in it………lot of adventure, leeches, mutiny, scenic beauty of the mountains, the streams in the forest and especially the view of the mountains in the midst of clouds was awesome. On the whole it was an amazing weekend.
August 4th, 2008
Day 2:
I thought of getting up by 8 AM but ultimately the guys who had been to the temple came back and woke us up at around 9 AM . We quickly got ready and then back to the same tobacco business 
as on the trek to Arasinagundi falls also there would be many leeches. Once we were done with applying tobacco, we had our breakfast and started walking towards the falls. What we heard from the locals was that it would be 8 kms on the main road and then 2 kms in the jungle, making it a total of 10 kms one way. We were happy to know that it was just 2 kms through the jungle unlike the previous day’s trek.
After walking for some 2 kms I think, we found a bridge and we were asked to take right near the bridge. But we were confused whether we had to take right before the bridge or after crossing it. After a while, one of the guys saw a sign board over there and could recollect that he had seen the same one in some blogs before coming and we were supposed to go that way only. And you know what that board was saying “T
RAKKING IS STOPPED” . You can see my friend pointing to it in the below picture . That blog said that we have to take that particular way only. The gates were all closed but there was a opening on one side through which we went inside. First wrong information we had was that it was 8 km on main road and then just 2 km in jungle. But here the jungle started immediately and also the leeches. In fact this place was much more damp than yesterday’s and the leeches were also more. We just continued to walk without any doubts in our minds. We found some small streams also on our way and this jungle was much more dense. The ascent was also quite steep. After walking for some half an hour I guess, we saw a small sign board and something was written in kannada. It was mentioning about some place 25.0 kms away. But we did not give much attention to it. Then after a further 0.5 kms, we saw a similar board and it pointed to the same place 24.5 kms. This is when we thought there must be some famous place ahead and when we looked at it closely, we realized that it said the lake was 24.5 kms away from that point 
. We started off thinking that it would be just 10 kms one way and two way it would be 20 kms and we would be on time to catch our bus back to bangalore. But this is where the problems started. Some of us said it might be something else and the others started worrying. In fact, looking at the dense jungle and the number of leeches on our way only, few of the guys were already scared . But me and two other guys were determined to go ahead and we didn’t even stop. The others were following us and still trying to argue and convince that we have to go back now. That’s when we finally announced that we are going ahead and if anyone wants to go back then may do so. So, at last there was a mutiny over there and two of the eight guys went back. Now we were six of us and just a few minutes later we realized that two others also left. So, the head count is just four now.
Determined to go ahead we didn’t even care about them. After going a little distance further we realized that the food bag was with those who had left and we were left with very little food and just 2 litres of water I guess. Even that didn’t stop us and this time I was the one leading….so, I had to take care of clearing the path from spiders and cob webs (remember me mentioning about it in the previous post). So, we were happily going forward enjoying the surroundings….the path we were going on looked to be not used for a long time. It was not the case with the kodachadri peak’s path……there we could clearly see the path. When I was just at my peak pace and going ahead, I got the shock of my life after seeing what was in front of my face. I was barely a feet away from it and
about to move forward and realized that the whole path was covered by a huge cob web with a king size, multi-coloured spider at the centre. I was so scared at the first sight of it that I just screamed and the people behind me thought that I had seen some wild animal . Then the second guy who came saw it and just ran away a few feet . This is the point where we were also doubtful. Looking at the way the whole path was blocked by the web and no clear path on the other side of it, it appeared as if its been a long time since anyone had used that path. If you can see the picture above, there are just dense trees all over and no proper way ahead. So, atlast after this point we had to call-off our trek as none of us dared to clear the web and go ahead as we were not sure of what other surprises might be awaiting us . So, finally we could not see the falls .
On our way back as we had enough time, we could spend a lot of time in the stream on the way back. After coming back to the main road, we found two other guys who left later under the bridge, near the stream. Here the flow was more and we had spent some one hour over there. Then had food by the side of the road itself .
Finally, I had no leech bites. There were 3 – 4 leeches that crawled upto my legs but even before they had sucked my blood, I had noticed them and removed. So, escaped without any leech bites .
After going back to room, four of us who missed going to the temple thought of visiting it once. One strange thing in this temple is that once we are inside the actual core part of the temple, we have to take off our shirts……that was quite surprising for me. As I said before, there is lot of influence of Kerala culture over here and this tradition also looks to be a Kerala one. After having darshan over there (luckily as the chief minister had left by the time we went, there was no queue at all ), came back to our hotel to get ready to catch our bus. The bus dropped us in bangalore by 6.15 AM and we were back home by 7.00 AM. That was the end of our weekend trek.
This was the overall big picture of our Kodachadri trek. In the next post of mine, I would be writing about some other minute details and some lessons that I had learnt in this trek.
August 4th, 2008
Continuing from the previous post………Once we started back to Kollur on the jeep I thought it might be just another ghat road with lots of curves, etc. But once we started going down, that’s when we realized that its not at all a proper road. That was just a jeep track and all over the path there were so many twists and turns with uneven suface and rocks that none of us inside could sit properly. I was sitting on the back side of the jeep and the guy beside me was almost crushing me and on the other side was the seat with some nuts projecting out. My knees were continuously hitting those nuts. The drive was too scary and sometimes we felt as if this time the jeep is going to topple for sure and the next moment we see that we are still safe and sound . On this particular track, its only those experienced drivers who can drive. And once we hit the main road, just after a few kilometres, the gear box became loose . Luckily this guy knew someone who was just one or two kilometres away and somehow they fixed it. Thats when we started back towards Kollur. By the time we reached Kollur it was around 8.45 PM (don’t remember exactly).
We started our search for accomodation. After searching for some 15-20 mins, we could find a proper accomodation suitable for us. Then had our dinner and back to rooms. Dinner was a major issue. These people don’t have anything except dosas and this being a temple area, there are no non-veg restaurants also. I thought idlis would be the safest bet but surprisingly they don’t have that also . Finally had a dosa for dinner. The place appeared to be predominantly inhabited by Kerala people. Though it was in Karnataka, one would feel as if you have entered Kerala.
Next day we were supposed to get up by 5 AM to visit the temple. Unfortunately the chief minister of Karnataka was also visiting the temple the next day and lot of rush was expected . So, I decided that I won’t be going to the temple and would directly go to Arasinagundi falls . At that point of time, for me getting proper sleep looked to be the top priority . Finally I think only half of the 8 people decided to get up by 5 AM the next day to visit the temple. I was not the only lazy guy .
August 4th, 2008
You would find a series of posts about my kodachadri trek experiences as it can’t be covered in a single post (it would become too long)…..and here comes the first one among them .
Day 1:
As mentioned in my previous post, we started from bangalore on friday night. We had taken a bus to Kollur . We were supposed to get down at kodachadri cross or also called Karakatte by the locals over there. This point was some 30 km before Kollur. The bus was already late by 1 hour 45 mins. We should have reached by 5 AM but it was already 6.45 AM. Wasting no more time, we started walking towards our first halt…..the tea stall. Just after a few minutes of walk we realized that leeches had already started their work . This was my first encounter with leeches….I had never seen them before. Somehow we managed to reach the tea stall within an hour…..its just bcoz of the leeches that we did not even stop anywhere….the moment we would stop you would find more leeches attacking you . After reaching the tea stall ( Santosh tea stall), we were all busy checking our legs and I was shocked to see so many of them on my friends’ legs. After sucking the blood they had become so fat and anyone would definitely be paranoid. Luckily till this point I had no leech bites and I just found a few on my socks and shoes. After a thorough checking, we had gone down to a stream to brush our teeth and by this time only half of the people were so frightened of the leeches that they preferred staying back at the tea stall itself. I got down to the stream along with three others and after coming back again two of them had leech bites. And till now I had none of them.
After having hot idlis with hot chutney (yeah hot chutney…….till now I never heard of hot chutney for idlis….this was the first time ) and two cups of tea, we started our actual work…..the tobacco and coconut stuff. By this time, we realized how is the trek going to be with the leeches. So, we started making a paste of the tobacco and coconut oil. We could not make a paste but applied the mixture on our feet and legs. By the time we were done with all this it was 10.45 AM. We carried some salt also with us. We could not apply salt on the feet as that would cause blisters after wearing shoes. The salt would help to kill the leeches. Just a pinch of salt is sufficient to kill any leech. Finally, declaring a war against the leeches, we started off to our next destination at around 10.50 AM.
Inspite of toabcco and the cocount oil, all of us still had the fear of leeches and everyone was frequently checking their legs….and we then hear someone or the other screaming to help take out a leech . This would go on till the end of the trek. The way to the peak was through proper jungle. The weather, surroundings, streams…..everything over there was perfect except for the leeches. But we should actually be thankful to them because its just because of the fear of leeches that we took very few breaks in between and we were continuously walking. The previous day being my birthday, I had nice birthday bumps and then whenever there was a steep ascent, I could feel the pain . After some 30 to 40 mins of trek, I was so tired that the leeches didn’t appear to be a problem at all. We were not in a position to check our legs also for leeches and just kept on walking further. Even for eating or drinking water, we were not standing still because of the leeches .
Once we were like one hour into the trek, we reached a point where in we were actually in the clouds and the view from there was awesome. I really can’t describe that in words. It made us forget about the blood that the leeches had suck and the pains we had taken to reach there . And by this time I had stopped worrying about the leeches and we were just enjoying every moment of the trek from this point. Took quite a few snaps near the streams that came on our way. The way to the peak was not that easy……..at some points it was so dense jungle that we had to bend and walk through the trees. And the guy ahead was saying that we might find some cob webs and spiders on the way…..so he was using a stick or umbrella to clear our way first and then only move ahead ( remember this spiders stuff…. I would be mentioning about it later as well). Somehow after some 2 hours of trek, we reached our next halt. This is the point where we can get food and accomodation. Its just a small house and a few temples over there. From here the peak is supposed to be some 30 mins trek.
We had some hot tea and went to the temple. By then our food was ready. It was rice and sambar with some pickle and a curry. Food tasted great. Then we started off to the peak. It was good to hear that we won’t be finding any more leeches from here till the top . That was a great relief to us. Ohhhh!!! I forgot to mention, the tobacco and coconut oil mixture worked perfectly …. none of us had any leech bites this time . The final part wasn’t that tiring and within 30 mins we were on the top. There was a small cave enroute to the peak. It was called Ganeshaguha……..there was an idol of Lord Ganesha over there. Even at the top, there was another temple. Looks like this place is full of temples . By the time we reached the peak, the cloud cover had become dense…..the visibility was very less. We had spent some 15-20 mins there and started walking back.
Our plan was to take a jeep now to reach Kollur by night and then go to the famous Kollur Mookambika temple the next day morning. After that we planned to go to Arasinagundi falls. We got the jeep by 5.30 PM. They charged Rs. 1500 for eight of us. The distance from here to kollur was 40 km but the first 10 km was through a ghat road. We didn’t knew that this jeep experience is going to be another unforgettable one……….more about this and kollur in the next post .
August 4th, 2008
