Agumbe and Kodachadri

Day 2 (20th Oct 2007)

After getting drenched and roaming around in Agumbe rain and after having good dinner we slept well in the hotel that day. We were expecting Hari to arrive Shimogga by 5 AM at least. I was awake by that time and was looking forward for his arrival. I started planning for the big day. My plan was to start from Shimogga, reach Nittur via Sagara and start trekking towards Kodachadri right from Marakuttaka which is around 2 kms from Nittur. I wanted to start trekking at least by 10:00 AM. Reach Kodachadri Guest house by 3:00 or 4:00 pm. Have lunch, relax a while and then go to the peak to get a glimpse of Sunset.

Kodachadri is the highest point of the Shimogga district and second highest of Karnataka state. Its altitude is of about 1343 m above sea level. This lies in the belt of Western Ghats and rare of the rarest flora and fauna inhabit here. This is also the place where Adi Shankaracharya did meditation. It also has the ‘Sarvajna Peetha’ at the peak. To reach kodachadri one has to go through the villages, streams, small & serene water falls, picturesque Ghats, thick forest, and ya, leech bites too. It’s famous for the heavenly sunset. Even though sea is quite far from the Kollur, on a clear day one can see the Arabian Sea from the peak during Sunset.

I was waiting for Hari to arrive at Shimogga at least by 5:30 am. But he didn’t. 6 passed, 7 passed, no sign of him. At last he arrived at 7:45. He had missed the bus last night because of the traffic jam in the Majestic (Bangalore) and some how managed to get another bus at 12 in the night and managed to reach Shimogga almost 3 hours late. I thanked him for not returning back and getting himself to us after all the troubles. This was the first of the misadventures. We got ready for the day and started towards Sagara (a small town 100 kms away from Shimogga) by 9:00AM. Another mistake that we did was that we underestimated the distance between Shimogga and Sagara (blame Google maps). We reached Sagara by 11:00 AM. We also came to know that there were other better routes to Nittur other than going over Sagara. We got another bus to Nittur from Sagara quite soon. It’s another one and half hours of journey from here to Nittur. This means that we were badly running out of time. But going over Sagara proved to be a blessing in disguise. Exactly after an hour or so the bus stopped on the banks of picturesque Sharavathi river. The sight was amazing. The river was full as it was rainy season. The river was surrounded by thick green forest. There was a launch waiting for us. We were asked to get in to the launch. We got in to it and after every one got in to it even the bus got in to the launch. The launch hit the river soon giving breath taking views and experience of the place to us.

We were stunned. I personally felt like I am in one of those expeditions of Nat Geo to Amazon.

In 10 to 15 mins the launch did hit the bank of the other side of the river. The bus got down first and then us. We got in to the bus and then bus hit the road again. The whole ride on the launch was just 1 rupee. This is the Irony of life. Some times we get priceless things or experience for a very cheap price. Only thing is we have to make an attempt to go there. We didn’t expect a detour to bring such a pleasant surprise for us. We would have missed this if we didn’t take the route over of Sagara. Really it was a blessing in disguise.

By the time we reached Nittur it was almost 1:00 pm. We went to a local hotel for lunch. Actually it was me who insisted for the lunch in spite delay for trekking. We had pretty decent food to fill us up for rest of the day. We enquired in the hotel about the route. Our plan was to get down at the Marakuttaka bridge on the way to Sigundur (3 kms) from Nittur. At the left a road goes next tothe bridge. This is Marakuttaka trek route. We didn’t wanna give a miss to Hidlumane falls. This is the route to Kodachadri via Hidlumane falls. But the locals told that it rained heavily for last 2 days and this is the honey moon time for leeches and the route will be dangerously slippery. Some of them suggested us to cancel the plan altogether and some suggested to take a guide. Since just 4 to 5 hours were left for the darkness to fall and no one liked the idea of getting lost in the thick jungle in the rainy season and spending whole night there. We thought that it’s better to have a guide with us. We did hire a local guide Vjiaya for 200 rupees to guide us through the jungle. He was a thin fellow of average height and looked very fit. We decided to trek right from the Nittur itself instead of Marakuttaka bridge. That add up 2 more Kms of walking. Over all its around 15 kms of walking over the village, hill and thick jungle from Nittur to Kodachadri.

We started towards Kodachadri from Nittur. Our guide Vijaya showed a glimpse of Kodachadri from Nittur. He pointed his finger towards a peak almost hanging in the sky and told us that that’s where we have to reach by the end of the day.

On the way we found some huts and small cute houses and kids playing cricket. It was quite fun to watch all those beautiful and innocent faces. They all look totally unadulterated from the latest of the civilization.

We also crossed some small streams on our way. They were quite refreshing. Continue..

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