More photos by:

• Abishek Sahai
• Varun Prabhakar
• Vinayak Hegde

In the 3-4 days before the trek, we didn’t spend enough time on the preparation and hence we were worried. So I wrote a “Trekking Howto a.k.a. “The Checklist” which we can read before a trek so that we won’t have to rethink every time about whether we have taken care of all aspects.

It was a perfect trek in terms of weather and company. We had the most fun in looking back after every few hours and seeing how far we have come, since we could actually see the Mullainagiri temple while trekking towards Bababudanagiri.

How to do the Mullainagiri trek : Arrive at Chikmagalur. Hire a jeep to take you to the starting point of the trek, cost Rs.250. The starting point is a small iron gate that will lead you directly into the hill. Follow the path. After 1-2 hours, you’ll reach the topmost point – the temple. You can request the purohit here to stay for the night and they’ll even prepare dinner if you ask them. Wrap yourself up in your sleeping bag for the night because it is going to get really cold.

The next day morning, start early or late depending on whether you want to face the cold weather, but leave at least by 8 or 9. Make sure you donate a good amount to the purohit for being a good host. Follow the path downhill towards the right from the temple. After a few hours, you’ll reach the road. Cross the road towards the right and start trekking downwards. This is the start of a good long up-and-down route towards Bababudanagiri. Once you reach the destination, have some tea and pakodas at the stalls. Then either hire a jeep (Rs.10-20 per head) or walk down to the Bababudanagiri temple. Make sure you catch the 3.30pm bus which will take you back to Chikmagalur.

The photos are of low quality because they are taken using my mobile phone. Regardless, the rest of the photos are in my Flickr set.

Update: Photos by Vikram and photos by Varun.

Kodachadri is a mountain in the Western Ghats, in Karnataka. It is a famous trekking spot.

On Saturday morning, we reached Nittur, grabbed some breakfast and then proceeded towards Kumble, the starting point of the trek. Right there, I could see clouds playing hide-and-seek among the mountains and I knew it was going to be a good trek.

What I didn’t know was how awesome the 14 km of terrain was going to be. At one moment we would be trudging in the mountain avoiding branches and forcing through thick vegetation, the next moment we would be crossing a stream of water…

… Some time later we would be climbing up very slippery stones right next to flowing water, then suddenly in an open area and then walking along the edge of a cliff while it is raining and then walking in the clouds, literally. This was easily one of the best trekking spots I’ve ever been to, and I was so happy that I finally got to be there. We even got to drench ourselves in a freezing cold waterfall.

We stayed at the government guest house for the night. I didn’t get any sleep because of a broken window which made the howling winds and pounding rain make me feel their force even though we were inside four walls. Also, the combination of freezing cold weather and lack of a sleeping bag made me repeatedly mentally note not to repeat this mistake next time.

I also happened to do enough blood donation to our good ol’ friends – the leeches. I have become so used to them that I was almost completely unbothered by them, even though I have 3-4 bite marks on each leg. There were some new trekkers who were freaked out about the leeches and one of those girls even had nightmares about them that night and cried during her sleep.

On Sunday morning, we climbed up even higher to visit the Sarvajna Peetha where it is said that Sri Shankaracharya had meditated. After paying our respects, we went and sat down on some stones next to the cliff. It was a contrasting feeling to feel good to have scaled the mountain and be sitting on the peak and at the same time experiencing the power of Nature – the winds were blowing so hard that it was difficult to even stand!

We also visited the Ganesha Guha. The guide said that there are tunnels here that go all the way to Kashi and Gokarna! It was a little unbelievable but then again, who knows what the reality was thousands of years ago.

We started our descent and after an hour or so, I saw a remarkable thing. We’ve seen rain and clouds all our lives but to see the rain actually coming out of the clouds was surreal. And more so, when you’re walking around the edge of the mountain and you can’t see the ground below the cliff…

The fierce intermittent rain prevented me from taking snaps, especially when we were seeing the best scenery. In any case, photographs would have never done justice to what we were experiencing.

After we reached Kareghatta, the endpoint of our trek, we travelled to Kollur. Almost immediately, we dived into a hotel and feasted on dosas because we hadn’t had lunch amidst all that 10 km of trekking. Then we prayed at the Mookambika temple and headed back to Bangalore.

I couldn’t stop smiling because it was such a satisfying trek. I guess this was one of the last few trekking spots that I’ve really wanted to visit in Karnataka. Of course, there are hundreds more, but I think I have covered most of the major ones so far.

The rest of the photos are on Flickr. Special thanks to Mr. Chandrasekhar for organizing this trek, and to the guides Aarya and Vijay for taking us through such good routes and keeping us safe.

At 4.30 am of Day 2 (June 01 Sunday), I was jolted by a shrill cock-a-doodle-doo sound. Soon enough, our leader Narayan woke us all up. I was surprised to see everybody get up immediately. At around 5.30 am, we all went out in search of sighting some animals. Unfortunately, we were too loud to get to see any animals. Even our footsteps, especially when crushing leaves, were loud enough to alert the sensitive-eared animals. Our guide who was in front saw some bisons but they ran away in lightning speed. I didn’t know they could do that.

We were soon enough on top of another hill and got to see another beautiful view. Heh, I’m such a landscape-voyeur.

And it was funny to see the things we do for poses in photographs.

What was amazing though was we could see islands in the Arabian Sea.

And then Narayana found viper snakes! These are poisonous snakes and one bite could have been fatal for any of us.

After the morning excitement, we got back to Padubeedu. Had a quick breakfast and headed out towards Goodana GunDi waterfalls. While walking, I thought to myself that I was happy to see a group so enthusiastic about nature and trekking. But mind you this was no nature walk, some of the paths were pretty rough and some were really slippery. And to get down to the waterfalls, we had to crawl and climb down rocks. Sometimes they can be really scary.

Once we reached the falls, we were in the water in a snap!

It’s hard to imagine that there are very few people who actually know about these places. This is a good thing because they are unspoilt and clean. Our organizer Sampath constantly reminded us to keep it that way. There were strict rules we followed about the usage of plastic and not leaving any artificial stuff behind (My shoes were so worn out that a part of the sole tore off. I carried that piece of rubber all the way back to Bangalore.)

Being IT people, we stuck to the specifications that our organizer told us – we didn’t get our backpacks for this part of the trek. Which means we didn’t actually think that we should get our plates for lunch. Uh oh. We ended up gathering in groups of 4-5 people and eating together out of the big utensil-covering-plates

While many of us relaxed, others went photographing crabs, others were wondering why butterflies were attracted to a particular guy’s shoes only and many went down the cliff to explore more waterfalls. My acrophobia kicked in, so I didn’t go for the latter option.

Then it was time to trek back to Padubeedu. I was saddened that we were done with the trekking so soon.

Once we reached, we gathered around for a round of feedback and views of the trekkers. Most people had a lot of positive things to say. And everybody thoroughly enjoyed it. My plus points were the good mix of people who came, the experiences such as the sugarcane place, exploring an area of Karnataka that I haven’t been to and the minus point was that we did a lot less trekking than I expected. I guess you can’t have everything.

And the next thing we knew, our kind host brought us fresh honey complete with wax that he pulled out minutes ago! This was just too good to be true.

Remember, folks, to suck the honey but don’t eat the wax.

Rest of the Day 2 evening was travelling back to Sagar and then Bangalore.

All in all, this was one heck of a weekend. Trekking, nature, new friends, non-stop repartee and fierce debates. I wish I have more of these weekends!

A few days later on May 30 night (i.e. last weekend as of this writing), I was on a bus to Sagar in Shimoga district with 13 other strangers I had never met before. Thankfully, all it took was a few smiles and laughs and we got along very well. There were people from varying age groups – 18 to 55 although majority were the young IT crowd.

Then the inevitable happened. Bangalore traffic jam. It took 2-2.5 hours just to get out of the city! There are so many bottlenecks especially near the Jalahalli cross. No wonder the bus drivers are so stressed out. God save us all, I wonder how much worse it can get. Because of all this hungama, we reached Sagar more than a couple of hours late which threw our trekking plans haywire. We had to ditch the idea of trekking till the Belli Gundi waterfall and do a shorter exploration of the area.

To start the day (May 31 Saturday), we got into an open jeep to transport us to Kattinakaru. We had a fun ride through the scenic locale. We even saw the Linganmakki dam from far.

After the food materials were distributed among us, we gathered our rucksacks and started walking from Kanchina Gadde along the Goodanagundi stream. Half an hour later, we heard a bear. Then we ate many wild berries that our guide Narayan suggested.

We were lucky to have such a knowledgeable and trained guy like Narayan. Interestingly, the guide Narayan, the organizer Sampath and a few others are the only ones who organize trekking trips in the Shimoga area. They know nooks and crannies of this area that most of humanity doesn’t!

Sampath does this for interesting reasons – to show people that fun can be more than just boozing and partying, to encourage people to lead more simpler and ecofriendly ways, to sensitize people towards rural people and at the same time, provide a source of income for the locals by way of us travellers! I thought it was a beautiful way to combine all these goals and Sampath, an avid trekker gets to trek himself. Lucky guy.

And then, we were reminded the monsoons were coming. Why? Leeches. Slimy crawly blood-sucking leeches.

After much discussion, I arrived that the magic to avoiding them is a three-pronged strategy – rub your legs and feet with dettol (the strong smell repels them), sprinkle salt over your socks and shoes (they can’t tolerate salt) and put a chakravyuha of lime paste/salt/chunna on your shoes. I am not sure if the lime paste makes a difference but the dettol and salt are very important.

Leeches will still manage to get on to you. If you find yourself doing some blood donation to these creatures, just put some salt over them, they’ll curl up and then you can remove them. You may be able to pull them out directly but that way you’ll end up bleeding more.

Yep. It sucks. Err, the leeches suck. Ugh. Whatever. I’m bad at humor.

Surprisingly, I was less bothered by the leeches this time. I guess some experience in dealing with them made me okay about it.

The best part (or worst depending on your point of view) undoubtedly was stopping in the middle of the forest at 4 pm and our cook Umapathi prepared anna-saaru right there! We devoured it like we haven’t seen food in years.

After that, we continued trekking towards Padubeedu. I realized that I so missed the forest. It’s good to get away from humanity once in a while, especially the daily bhaag-daud, and be amidst nature. They say that the color green is good for your eyes and I was seeing plenty of it.

Our night halt was going to be at the home of a tribal Chota Nayak. Their family were friendly and fun to converse with. After a little relaxation, we started walking to a place where they crush sugar cane. We got to see some beautiful views of the DevkaaNbare hills. If only we could have reached 10-15 min earlier, we could have catched the sunset.

When we reached the sugarcane place, I was amazed to see a crusher machine in the middle and two bulls walking in circles to crush the sugarcanes!

The crushed juice goes down a pipe to collect in a huge vessel. And they were kind enough to let us drink the fresh juice made right in front of us. It was simply heavenly. What you get in the cities are so diluted. This was fresh and pure. The difference was remarkable.

And it seemed, the best part was yet to come. We got to taste fresh liquid jaggery! I personally don’t like sweets but this was so good. So good. It’s apparently referred to as ‘joNi bella’.

Thinking back, these are the kind of experiences that I look forward to in a trek/travel. Money can’t buy you this stuff. It was remarkable that they didn’t take any money for this and yet encouraged us to drink and eat to our heart, err, stomach’s content. I guess it’s true that villagers are more open-minded and more giving than urbanites.

Our group’s non-stop jokes and banter continued during the short campfire and we even played dumb charades. And then Umapathi did it again with sumptuous palav for dinner which was the perfect way to end the day.

We were all so tired especially with the back-breaking journey and the leech-avoidance running and dancing. We just crashed on the mats in the open area.

Next: Day 2 of the trek

To reach Brahmagiri, take the bus to kuTTa (Madikeri district) but get down in Srimangala. Meet the forest officer (they come in at around 10 am) and it is better if you have called them up in advance and notified them. Enquire shops for guest house to freshen up and also for a jeep to take you to Iruppu Falls.

At Iruppu Falls, we met the forest guard who would accompany us during the trek.

The guest house that we stayed at was in the middle of a field where pepper and coffee was abundant. We plucked a pepper corn and ate it – it was deliciously spicy.

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We then started the trek from Iruppu Falls and came across many interesting flora and fauna.

The good …

… and the ugly.

Yes, that’s right, leeches! Creepy, crawling things, they were such a nuisance. I had a routine of stopping every 45 seconds to remove how many were crawling up my shoes and socks. Towards the end of the damp covered forest area, I think I had a count of 40-50 leeches that I had pulled out and thrown. Many of us had donated quite a good amount of blood. Once we were back in the open fields, it was just smooth walking.

It turned out to be one of the easiest treks we have done, but the scenery was breathtaking. This was the first time I saw so much endless greenery that I actually got to walk in, and that too we crossed from hill to hill so quickly.

We reached the guest house just in time to grab some food, and then run out to watch the sunset. It was very peaceful and serene. One of those rare moments where the whole group tends to be silent because they’re just in awe.

We came back to the guest house, took out some chairs, sat in the open in a circle, and had a long fire-side chat without the fire.

We slept in quite early and then I realized why. It got very very cold in the night, and I didn’t get much sleep in the night because of that. Next day morning, I got quite fed up, and just went out for an early morning walk, and I’m glad I went.

After I came back from my walk, we had breakfast which was mostly snacks and bread and then we started our trek downhill but on the other side, which happens to mean getting down in Kerala!

We could clearly see the two lines that distinguish Karnataka and Kerala states. I was joking that I could kill someone here and wouldn’t get caught because either state police would claim it’s not their jurisdiction.

We were slowly getting into our descent when suddenly our forest guard shouted at us to get down and hide. Why? Wild Elephants! Although they were in the adjacent hill, he said it was still dangerous because the younger of the elephants get curious easily and can charge towards us humans. He asked the people in bright colors (even white) to cover themselves with jackets so as to not attract attention.

It was amazing to see how fast these elephants moves, their sizes are quite misleading. The guard said that they can jump up to 2 metres at a time. Wow. I must mention that the forest guard was a gentleman – he always guided us, but never said a word or interfered in what we did or discussed, and made sure we are safe at all times.

We waited for quite a while, but the elephants were confused on which way to go since we were in one of the routes they frequent, so they went back and hid in the forest. Not willing to take a risk, our guard took us through a different route but we had to go through the same hill. As we were walking, it was both exciting and worrisome to know that wild elephants are just there on the other side of the hill.

After that excitement, we took some rest at a spot. Because of the elephants, we hadn’t actually climbed the Brahmagiri peak, so some of us who still had energy ran back to climb the peak and take in the sights. Then, it was the start of a long walk downhill.

When we got down, we discovered we were in Thirunelly, Kerala. We went to a lodge and relaxed for an hour. Then, we changed some 5 buses to get back to Karnataka and finally come back to Bangalore.

All in all, another good weekend

P.S. Some of the above photos were taken in my mobile phone camera and hence have low resolution and clarity.

To reach Anthargange (from Bengalooru), get on Old Madras Road and head towards Kolar (which is around 65 km away).

On the way, we saw a beautiful sunrise.

Then we came across a karela field, then a grapes field.

Then, a beautiful flower field.

Just around 10 km before Kolar, stop at Kamat restaurant and have breakfast. When you reach Kolar, ask for directions to Anthargange. Basically you have to take a left turn before the main bus stand, and then just keep going straight. You’ll reach an arch that says Anthargange.

Now, don’t take the steps, dive into the forest and make your own route

After a long 4 hours of trekking and lots of false paths, retreats and further trekking, we finally reached the top. What a view.

It was time to get back, but we didn’t want to take the gruelling route that we just took, so we started to look for an easier route. We got lost. We had to plan a way of making sure we reach some sort of civilization, and luckily, we met a cowherd who had got the cows on top of the hill for grazing! That means there should be some easy path, so we asked him for directions and followed it. And we still got lost. So, we charted our own route, and then went zigzagging our way through the forest as quickly and safely as we could. We were elated on reaching flat ground.

Although the hill looked quite small, it really wasn’t.

After getting so many scratches from thorny bushes and cacti, and facing the heat of the sun, and getting lost (literally), jumping down rocks, crawling in crevices of caves, climbing steep rocks, and facing shortage of water and a stomach grumbling for lunch, it was time to head back home. It was a good day.

To reach Mullainagiri, start at Chikmagalur bus stand, walk down a few hundred feet and have amazing idly and vada for breakfast at the Soundarya hotel in the main road, and then take a local jeep (next to the bus stand) to the Mullainagiri starting point. We took the jeep option, and as usual, we eventually got on top of the jeep. We had to make sure the jeep driver took us to the small iron arch where the trek is supposed to start.

There was a lush green colour all around us, and we were taking in the fresh clean mountain air with joy. The best part of Mullainagiri is its visibility – you can’t see anything beyond ten feet, because there is so much fog. Then, we got to the part that we were waiting for – rain. And boy, did it rain.

As we reached the top, we found this cute little fella:

We reached the top of Mullainagiri, admired the harsh winds, hard rain, and full cellphone connectivity and finally got inside the temple room, and got some black tea from the pujari and his helper. We opened up our supplies of bread, jam and cheese and munched away.

Then, we began our very-long-but-easy-terrain downhill walk.

It is boring to go downhill and we were getting impatient, but we trudged on, and some hours later we were back on the road.

Then, we walked a distance, and got to see an amazing view. It was as if the clouds and mountains were playing hide and seek with us.

Then, we had to get to our next stop – the starting point for Bababudangiri. So, we went to catch the bus and waited at the bus stand, but one of the locals said that the bus may be delayed by hours, so we started walking down anyway. After some time, a private bus came, and it was going to take us to Hathi Gondi and it was completely full inside, we were wondering how we were going to fit inside with all our baggage. Then, one of us asked the bus conductor whether we can get on top of the bus, and he said yes… the rest is a crazy memory.

We got down from the bus at Hathi Gondi, barged into a local tea stall, had very satisfying tea and coffee, and one of the most softest bread buns I’ve ever eaten.

We started our walk towards the top of Baba Budangiri, and we took the shortcut straight to the top which criss-crossed the road some 7 times.

The weather was so amazing, I just lost it, and started running, trying to see if I can hug the rain. Heh.

When we reached the top, we decided to rent few of the “shutters” rooms and stay there even though we had carried two heavy tents. There was simply no way the tents would have withstood that rain and winds. We wrapped ourselves in the rugs we borrowed from the chai shop walla, and then started telling stories about each other, it was a laugh riot, including the story of how one of the guys proposed to some girl with a potato … and then there were some recollection of old memories and the newbies of the gang were initiated about how the trekking gang got together and so on.

We finally went to sleep, but the intense cold didn’t spare us. Our sleeping bags were too wet from the rain to be of any use, so we had to wrap ourselves in the rugs on top of the slightly wet sleeping mats. It was a cold cold night. The three of us in our room kept talking at regular intervals sometimes out of pure frustration and sometimes purely to check that we’re still breathing. One of the newbies was praying so hard and was so happy to see the first rays of sunshine at morning 5 am.

Next day morning, three of the gang went back to Chikmagalur, while the rest 6 of us went in search of the famous falls that we heard so much about.

This turned out to be the best part of the trek. The winds were so hard that I was walking at 45 degrees angle. It was unbelievable. I’ve never experienced or seen such strong winds ever. Combining this with the lush greenery, the rain, the cold and the company, was simply an unforgettable experience. Due to the same combination of factors, we got very few photographs because we couldn’t take risk the cameras, and we were more worried about staying together and making sure we didn’t get lost.

And then we did get lost. So, we backtracked a bit, and then found something that can be called a path, and eventually jumped with joy when we discovered we were back on a road. When we were near the end of the road, we came across a lake. That’s right, a lake. And we jumped in. Crazy.

After some time, we convinced ourselves that we have to leave, we sort of dried our shoes and shirts, and continued. When we reached the end of the road, we came across a tea stall! Now, this is what I call “high tea”

There was six of us and I think we had around some 40 pakodas, and they disappeared as soon as they arrived near us.

We got down the stairs and saw the falls. It was a major major disappointment. It looked like three water taps were on, let alone resemble a “falls”, but it didn’t matter too much to us since the journey to there was more than worth it.

Then, we got back to Bababudangiri, took the bus and went back to Chikmagalur. We had our customary dinner-in-the-town where we recuperate, discuss our favorite parts of the trek, and then prepare for the reality that we have to get back to our normal lives the next day.

Directions to reach Tadiyandamol : Take the bus from Bangalore to Virajpet. Catch a local bus to Kaikamba, which comes before Kakkabe. From there, you can ask the locals for “raja mane” (King’s house) and you can start trekking. To book food at the Palace Estate, you can contact Prakash at 98804 47702.

The scorching heat was a problem, especially for the first-time trekkers, but we pushed them on.

The view from the Tadiyandamol peak made it all worthwhile. It was simply breathtaking. Many of us were silent for a while, just letting our eyes do the savouring. After that, we started chattering again, taking some crazy snaps and even dancing on top of a stone next to the cliff.

Wallpaper-quality photos:

We had lunch at King’s Palace and the food was just great. I liked the bread payasa.

Unlike many of our previous treks, this trek was preceded by a lot of preparation – from amount of food and water to take, the sleeping bags and mats to the bus seat booking and also getting permission from the Forest Department to trek to the top.

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Our plan was to climb up from the Kukke side, reach the top, sleep there in the night, and then get back down from the Somwarpet side.

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The Day 1 trek from the Kukke side to the top was 15 km and was especially gruelling because of the scorching sun heat. Since I have gotten used to trekking and daily jogging now, I didn’t feel tired soon, but after a few hours of trekking, my goal was to catch up with our frontrunners of the group and that was indeed the toughest part of the trek for me. I had resigned myself to be second best many a time, but I kept trudging on and I reached them eventually.

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The scenery from this place was breathtaking because we were at such a height and best of all, we could see the trail that we were taking but couldn’t exactly see the trail in front of us, because as soon as we reached a peak and followed the trail, we see another peak to conquer.

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After a simple and nourishing lunch at the famous Bhatta’s house, we continued on, and after nearly 8 hours of trekking in the day, we reached the top, and it was a magical place. It was literally a “walk in the clouds” and we the clouds were moving in between us. The last time I had experienced this was the Mullainagiri trek. After forcing ourselves to eat only chapatis since we had run out of water, we curled into our sleeping bags and slept as we watched the clear sky lit with countless stars. It was b e a u t i f u l.

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The next day morning, we took photos of the sunrise. My favorite photo taken by Ajay is this one :

and Mahesh has taken this “stitched” photo that covers 180° angle (full size version is here) :

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Then we took the help of the localites who had come up from the Somwarpet side for puja in the temple at the top and they showed us the direction. We were thankful that the trek that morning was easy and we were walking in the forest shade especially because we had no water.

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After a while, we could hear water and on an impulse, we rushed to the water fall.

Then, we got down and reached the “Hegde mane” (Hegde’s place) and were disappointed to realize that our trek was over! A festival was going on at the temple in this place and we realized that it was for Shivratri. There were speeches by a MLA regarding the status of a road they are building, and the local inspectors were also the guests of honour. We were asked by many localites to join them for the lunch at the temple and they requested with such warmth that we couldn’t refuse (even though we had lots of food in our rucksacks).

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We hired an open air jeep to take us to Madikeri, and we enjoyed the cool breeze and good road and time was spent by singing lot of songs and discussing lot of stuff and more places that we intend to go to.

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That evening, we strolled around Madikeri, had a good dinner at a hotel we randomly walked into, and 12 people laughed so much that the hotel owner was getting concerned but said nothing.

I wish I have more weekends like this.

Update : Mahesh has a more detailed story of the trek.