KODCHADRI-WESTERN BEAUTY

Hello All,

I am here with one more blog after heavenly experience in Kumara parvata, compared to KP, this was an easy one, nature lovers will not like it much as its been commercialized n u can see jeeps reachin almost peaks and the mud roads where jeeps commute will make ur way more horrible covered with whole of dust, but the peak is all dust free n non commercialized so that made us feel it was worth trekking for almost 17KMs.

Kodachadri is a mountain peak with dense forests (altitude - 1343 metres above sea level)^[2] in the Western Ghats in South India (Shimoga Dist., Karnataka State). It is declared as natural heritage site by Government Karnataka.^[3]

Trek Start Point : Nittur

Trek KM : 17 Kms(one way) to the shankaracharya peetha.

Trek date : Dec 15 2012

we started @11:00PM from bangalore in a Xylo, believe me guys the best spacious car where all 7 of us sat very comfortably, just 10 odd KM reaching sampekatte u ll find one bridge and the scene is just amazing, it is one treat to your camera.

After early morning treat of this beauty, we headed towards sampekatte where we thought of freshening up, so friends here is the thing which has to be taken care of!! their is one HOMESTAY called PARVATH HOME STAY, please stay away frm this as first lady told us 50 Rs/Person for fresh up and than insisted us to take BF n carry lunch since we will not get any food in btw, so we ordered avalakki vagarne for BF and lemon Rice for Lunch, we never minded to ask teh rates of BF and lunch, so it landed up quite expensive, they charged 1100.00 Rs for BF and lemon rice for 7 of us, so friends since this has become so commercial ppl around will try to loot u as much as poss, so settle out all in the beginning oly. by 9:00AM we left to Nittur which was our starting point of our Trek, we booked a guide well before leavin bangalore, so we hired a jeep to n fro which costed us 1400 Rs + 600 Guide fee, jeep will take our laguage to the top while ascend  n we all will descend in the jeep after sunrise, that s wat we have planned for!! so we started our trek by 10:30AM and reached Hidlumane falls by 12:00PM, this is one more attraction on the trek way, we took bath here and spent quality 1 hr time.

by 1:15PM we started to ascend again, but root was bit challenging from here, it gets steeper now n we reached a shooting point around 2:30PM, and thought of breakin for lunch, did so.,....and remember guys this the only water source after falls, we had costly lemon rice and ascended towards peak, you will get the view of the golden mountain which is eye catching and some good scenes as well, so keep your camera focused all time.

we reached moola mookambika temple by 4:00PM, where we thought tat we had booked PWD GH, but unfortunately our guide was not successful in booking the same and he gave us a shock that rooms were full when we reached, anyways we started heading towards Shankaracharya peetha which is the peak of kodachadri, the sunset is must watch frm this peak.

After mesmarising senset, we descended towards the pwd GH, where unfortunately we din get rooms and thought of heading towards kollur, guys everything is commercialized here even the Bhattar mane at the top who behaves mad, so please be very cautious, we have to pay in advance to this Bhatta(who basically is a mallu guy) and than @ 7:30PM we asked for Dinner, he was acting as if he is showing some mercy feeding us by asking us to wait till he calls n all, so we left the money and food back their and descended down in jeep @8:00PM and reached by 9PM and had food in Nittur, the guide was also one of those money eater, we have to pay him full even though he din get rooms for us @ top and food......so it was totally a costly affair for us.......but a must trek atleast once with prior precautions......please add me in FB shravan_9886@yahoo.co.in, if you are interested for treks.