Trek to kodachadri through Hidlumane falls in the monsoon is one of my most memorable and chilling experiences so far. The dense forests, hungry leaches, the slippery and lush green trails, creaky termites, thick clouds, tiny streams with gushing waters and creamy mists is the total package for this wonderful adventure.Kodachadri extends the western ghats and it is located in shimoga district, near to the famous Kollur temple in karnataka. This dense forest is not only rich in flora but also houses for some of the wildest animals like tiger, deer, cheetah, wild cats, bears and bison.
The hiking team had 9 people, Seven of us (Fire IPS alias Yajensh, Bunts, Yash, Sandeep,Sandhya,pavan, myself )started off from bangalore at 8.00pm on 20th June and reached kollur via Siradi ghat at 8AM next day. The overnight journey was not bad, We took a guest house in kollur to refresh ourself and caught a bus to nittur at 8.30AM. Dynamic Raghu akka our Project manager and our guide vijay had promisied us to meet in nittur. After reaching and catching up those guys at nittur, we took some food stuffs and tucked in our bags.
Aalagudu is the starting point for the hidlumane falls-kodachadri trek and its around 1 km from nittur. The initial stretch is pretty straight forward and easy but as you pass by the villages one will be greeted by rich green vegetation and streams with ice cold fresh waters and tiny fishes surfacing over it. A small break in the stream will refresh the journey.
after the village, one has to pass by the dense forest, the stretch is bit slippery since it rained heavily for the last few days. The wet leaves spread across the trail, the creaky termites and our friendly neighborhood leaches welcomes you as one gets deep into the forest. The rich vegetation has everything from jack fruit to wild animals like tiger, bear, bison and cheetah. The weather was pretty calm and much cloudy. The trail to hidlumane falls is not so easy, its quite narrow, and need to cross over by couple of slippery rocks.One has to take the help of uprooted shrubs and roots while crossing the slippery rocks.
The difficulties in reaching the spot was paid off after taking bath in the wonderful hidlumane falls and relaxing under the powerful water gushing out, it will massage one's body and relieve all the pains from the journey. The hidlumane falls could be around 70 to 80 feet of height. It was around 1PM, after taking bath we were hungry for food, we opened up the parceled food items and had everything one by one. Next we had to climb the slippery rocks and move on to the next trail to kodachadri.
We trekked for around 5 KMs in the dense forest and reached the Jeep route of kodachadri. After 30 Min's of walk we reached the top of kodachadri where Kannada film GAALIPATA was shot. The location was awesome, it was around 5.30 PM, the
weather was bit cloudy and windy but there was no rain, the creamy cloud started to engulfing the top of kodachadri from a distance. One can see the beauty of Western ghats over here. The team rested for a while and after few pose for the photos, we headed towards the kodachadri guest house. The time we reached guest house was totally engulfed by the clouds, the visibility was very low by 6.30PM. We were served by Hot tea and later with awesome dinner. We called off for the day and everyone got into deep sleep.
The guest house is run by karnataka state government and it is located almost at the peak of kodachadri. At 7.00AM the visibility was very bad and with downpour started in the early morning hours the weather was very cold. After having good breakfast, we headed towards Shankarachary's peetha. The entire stretch is once again a feast for one's eyes however, because of heavy mist the visibility was quite poor. Shankaracharya's peeta is located at the top, and one can also see the SunSet point. Folks from nearby state kerla rush to this place in the auspicious days.
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