We had planned to cover Kodachadri-Kollur- Marvanthe-Gokarna- Yana –Jog Falls in 3 days. But because of the heavy rains in North Karnataka we were unable to cover Gokarna and Yana.
When we started the plan, we were only 6 members who were very desperate to freak around. Then we started sharing our plan, Jayaram and Prahalad joined us. So, we were 8 members which was really very feasible for our pockets. We arranged a Qualis at Rs. 6 per Km and Rs.175 per Bata for the driver. The cost was approximately Rs. 3000 per head for the approximation of 1500 kms. Everybody were happy and started gearing up for Oct 1 2009 to arrive. Because of personal reasons, Giri and Prahalad could not join us for the trip, instead Rahul joined us which was better in terms of our budget.
Our Stays
1. Simha Farms, Kodachadri
Address :
Simha Farms, Near Kodachadri,
Kollur - Shimoga State Highway,
Madodi, Hosanagar – 577452, Shimoga
Contact : Aditya Biloor : 08185-253738, 254838
Website : www.simhafarms.com
2. Hotel Shalom, Kundapura
Address :
Near Shastri Circle, NH 17
Kundapura-576201, Udupi District
Contact : 08254-232797, 232798, 232791
Our Journey
We started our journey on 1st of Oct 2009 at 11.00 PM and reached Simha Farms via Arasikere-Shimoga-Hosanagara-Nagara-Sampekatte around 9.00 AM on 2nd of Oct 2009. We got freshened, had a tasty breakfast and enquired about our guide for Kodachadri trek and a jeep to travel back to Simha Farms. Adithya, the owner of Simha Farms arranged a guide Vijay and a jeep to come back.
We left our cottages around 11.00 AM and started to trek to Kodachadri via Hidlumane falls. The weather was not supporting to us and was about to rain. Most of the people advised us to go via the road way to the peak as it was difficult to trek via Hidlumane in the rain. We were not happy to trek on the road and thus decided to go via Hidlumane. We were all excited to trek as it was the first trek for most of us in our life time. For initial 1.5 kms it was almost like a road way.
As the guide took us towards the jungles, we started walking in water. The leeches were also excited to suck our blood. Me and Jayaram were most scared of leeches. Nayaz was the first person for the leech to attack. We had not applied salt and lemon as it was useless due to rains. We started removing the leeches using a stick before they sucked our blood. We walked in water which was a small river flowing on the way. We reached a small house where we rested for 10 mins. Jayaram and others were searching whether if leeches were inside their shoes.
The way towards Hidlumane was almost like we were walking in a dense forest. We reached Hidlumane falls at 1.00 PM and we were really happy to the see the falls. We wanted to play a lot in the water. But we could not spend much time there as we had to reach the peak at the earliest. But, we made sure that we played up to our satisfaction. It started raining when we were still in the falls. But it did not matter for us as we were already wet by the water fall. After sometime, our guide called us to trek between the water fall. But, we were wondering where is the way until the guide told us that we should actually climb through the fall. We thought he was joking, but soon realized that he wasn’t when he asked not to look up or down and to just follow his steps. We followed him as there was no other goal. Astonishingly, there were steps and we actually climbed along the fall. That was truly a life time experience. Many of us fell down due to slippery rocks and wet land. But, those were not at all our stop criteria. We took some snaps on the way and trekked through the forest for almost 2.5 km. It was so dark in the forest due to lot of huge trees and bushes. We crossed the dense forest area and reached an area where it was very steep and was only covered with green grass.
We had almost 2.75 km more to go with this steep green grass area. By the time we covered 1.5 km, we were very much tired as it was very steep. The guide kept on telling us “Still only 1 km”. Though it was tiresome, the scenic beauty was so beautiful which was a mixture of rain and clouds together, that we felt we should reach the peak. Unfortunately, we could not click snaps in this area which was heavenly. The rain was so heavy that we could not take our cameras out. We were unable to see what was there just 5 ft ahead of us. It was all covered by mist and clouds. Somehow, we managed to go another 0.5 km. After that we had Glucose, Chakkuli, Water etc. to get rid of our tiredness. They were really our life savers. Later, it was still more difficult as the area was steep, we were almost exhausted that we could not keep one step ahead and leeches were also more. The guide asked us to walk fast as the leeches could get on to us very easily. We were not supposed to stop anywhere as the leeches were waiting to attack us. But, I stopped for every 5 mins due to tiredness, because of which even Nayaz, Kishor and Nitin also stopped. Vijay, our guide really helped me a lot to trek. We almost stopped caring for leeches as our tiredness was much more. After all the struggles we somehow reached the road way at 4.45 PM from where it was not steep and no leeches. We felt better to walk on the road now. We walked on the road for another 1.1 km. We felt that we cannot lift our legs as the clothes were wet and were heavy. Finally, we reached the peak at 5.15 PM. It was fully covered with clouds and it was like we were almost standing on the clouds. Nothing was seen except clouds. But, within no seconds the clouds got cleared and we were able to see the mind blowing scenic beauty of western ghats. We just felt that it was worth getting exhausted to see that beauty. We did not miss to take snaps and videos there.
It was too chilling and we were also hungry. We were not interested to visit Peeta. So, we found one small canteen to eat something. We had hot Omlets and Chilli bajji’s. It was really good in that weather.
We had our tea and called the jeep to return to our cottages. Till then, we forgot everything about leeches. We remembered them again when we sat in the jeep and felt something was there in our shoes. In fact, for the first time I saw a big leech on my leg which had become really big after sucking my blood. It fell down as its stomach was full. We sat for almost an hour in jeep waiting to reach our cottage, just to remove our shoes and check for leeches. Raghavendra Udupa, who was driving our jeep was a really good driver. Myself and Praaveen were amazed to see his driving and his control on the vehicle in such a bad road. We actually felt that we were nothing in front of him. At last, we reached Simha Farms. We thanked Vijay and Raghavendra for their help throughout.
Soon, we removed our shoes and checked for leeches. We were badly hurt by them. Jayaram was worst effected by leeches. I got hurt in 5 places. We were bleeding continuously. Everybody started applying limestone to clot the blood. The only persons who were not hurt by leeches were Kishor and Nayaz. Lucky Guys !!!!
God bless the maid in Simha Farms who had kept the hot water ready in the evening for us to take bath. We all had a warm bath and home food prepared in Simha farms. The whole day went on really well and worth for the money we spent. We took rest the whole night.
We vacated Simha Farms at 10.00 AM on Oct 3rd after a cool breakfast and turned our vehicle towards Kollur. We had plans to reach Kollur by 10.00 AM but got delayed. Couple of us were upset due to the delay. That delay could have ruined our plan if we had not changed our plan. We finished the ‘darshana’ in Kollur. We had got the news that we cannot get into Gokarna Beach due to heavy rains. And we cancelled our program to Yana as we no more had energy to face the leeches. As we cancelled Gokarna and Yana, we had no point to stay in Kumta. So, we cancelled the booking in Hotel Pandurang International and thought of staying in Kundapura.
We reached Marvanthe Beach at 12.45 PM which was 10 km from Kundapura. We were all happy to see the beach and hear the music of waves in Marvanthe. We took some snacks and tea as we were little hungry. We played a lot for 4-5 hrs in Marvanthe. Our driver was too intelligent to bring the vehicle to the beach. The vehicle got stuck in sand and 10 people struggled for 40 mins to get the vehicle out of sand. Even that was a funny experience.
We left the beach at 5.30 PM and reached Hotel Shalom by 6.00 PM. We settled down in our rooms and relaxed for some time chatting. We enjoyed all dialogues of Rahul. Jayaram and Rahul had been to Jayaram’s brother’s house and returned by 8.45 PM. We had our dinner in Shalom and rested there thinking of next day’s plan. We had a nice time chatting, pulling each other’s legs.
Next day, 4th Oct 2009, we vacated the hotel at 9.00 AM, and started our journey towards Jog falls via Bhatkala. We could see some small water falls on the way which made our journey interesting. We reached Jog around 12.45 PM. We enjoyed the divine beauty of Raja , Rani , Roarer and Rocket. It started to rain to ruin our happiness. We stood aside. Within no time, the jog disappeared. We doubted whether the Jog was there before. The clouds were heavy. Fortunately, within 10 mins the rain stopped and Jog appeared like a magic. We took snaps and were watching Jog for a while.
We had our lunch in a nearby hotel and started our journey back to Bangalore. On the way, we discussed about all the experiences we had. We exchanged and viewed each other’s snaps. We all had the same feeling that the beauty which we captured in our eyes cannot be captured in cameras. Everyone must visit western ghats once in their life time and see the heavenly beauty. Indeed , myself and Nitin had a fight for him deleting some of the snaps. Anyway that did not last as we had enough snaps.
We discussed all about our forthcoming plans to freak and hoping to happen. All good songs from my CDs were played on the way. We reached Bangalore at 1.00 AM on 5th Oct 2009. It was a great experience.
I am thankful to everyone who made this journey a memorable experience. Hope we will have the same troop for further journeys. I think Kishor, Praaveen, Nitin, Nayaz, Jayaram and Rahul have enjoyed this. Expecting Giri and Prahalad to join for further journeys.
Smiles,
Meera
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