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Kodachadri is a mountain peak (altitude - 1343 m above sea level) in the Western Ghats in South India (Karnataka). The name is a corruption of the Sanskrit word "Kutakachalam". Kodachadri forms a picturesque background to the famous temple of Mookambika in Kollur. Situated in the middle of the Mookambika National Park, it is home to several endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna. Tha rain forests loom in a perpetual layer of mist around the peak.
This peak is where 'Shankaracharya' did meditation. You will find a 'Sarvajna Peetha' of Sri Shankaracharya at the top. Adi-Mookambika temple at Kodachadri village is believed to be the 'moola sthana' (the origin) of 'Sri Mookambika Devi'.
It is also an excellent locale for Trekkers and backpackers..
March 25, 2005 (Friday)
Smiley took the responsibility of arranging a Tempo Traveler. Sheky & Juicy took the responsibility of getting all other logistics required for the trek. Smiley and Jaggi got the TT near our Gym at about 09.30 pm and we all left to Kodachadri with great enthu cracking lot of jokes in the TT. We stopped at a Dhaba next to Vijayvittala Temple on Tumkur Road. Some of us had rotis and the rest of us had some Beer.
We took the Route: Bangalore – Tumkur – Tiptur - Arsikere - Shimoga – Hosanagar – Nagara – Gowrikere – Sampekatte - Kodachadri (Gowrikerre is the place were there is a left deviation to kodchadri , its approximately 3 kms before Nittur also called as kodchadri cross).
At Arsikere, we gave a stop at around 2.00 AM, where Sheky and Brother belted some Idlis (Midnight Snacks).
March 26, 2005 (Saturday)
Down at the peak of Kodachadri is small village called Sampekatte (1.15 hours before Kollur) where we had our morning breakfast of Idlis. The Thursday’s rigorous workout made us to eat more. So all of us belted idlis like wafers and filled our stomach for the trek.
“After the breakfast sheky said "He will carry 25 ltrs. of Water Can to the summit" u guyz can guess what would have happened if he had done that!.
Before reaching the bottom of the peak, we went to a place where we found a small temple. In front of the temple there is a water pool in which the bubbles populates very frequently. The excess water of the pool was flowing out to a tank. Nice place to take a break.
The summit (Sarvagnya Peetha) is 12 Kms from the bottom of the Peak (Start of Mud Road – Jeep Track). We asked our TT driver (Sridhar) to wait for us on (Saturday March 27, 2005) on the other side of the peak near Kareghatta (Bus Stop) which is 4 kms away from the small Malayali tea shop at the bottom of the Kodachadri peak (Kareghatta End).
(Note: If you are planning for a night halt at the summit of the peak, please carry your sleeping bags or good blankets of sufficient amount of liquour which can keep yourselves warm till morning)
We started our trek with all our eatables and belongings. Initially we took the mud road, but immediately turned on to the route which goes through the forest which is more exciting than walking on the mud road. One can see very good views/ sceneries on the way. Way was quite steep at some places and some manageable. After walking for 3 and ½ hours we were able to see top of temple and PWD guest house. After sighting the temple we have to walk almost ½ hour to reach that place. This walk was quite difficult phase. Finally after walking for 4 hours we reached the temple PWD guest house destination. We went to PWD Guest house first asking for a room, when we checked the rooms, the rooms were horrible. Then we went to Bhattara Mane near the temple checking for the rooms. A separate small room was available where 2-3 persons can sleep, but they agreed to all of us can stay there in the main hall. We had a nice lunch at the Bhattara Mane (Full Meals). After full meals, we took a small nap in the main hall. All of us were so tired that none of us got up till 5.00 pm (Trilok, Prasad and Brother’s all three were in such a deep sleep that the decibels of their snore woke all of us up).
We all finally got ready to go to Agasthya Theertha (A small waterfall about 0.5 kms from Bhattara Mane) inside the forest to have bath and to summit the Peak (Sarvajna Peetha) as per our Plans.
We somehow found the way to the Agasthya Teertha where we took Bath (The water was very cold). Took some photographs there and proceeded towards the summit. On the way to summit, you find a small Ganesha Temple. Finally at around 06.00 pm, we touched the summit of the peak (Sarvajna Peeta). Before we could reach the summit, already there were 2-3 gangs who had come before us. The view on the summit is awesome and unexplainable. Sudhir took lot of photographs of sunset and surrounding nature.
It was 07.00 pm, some of us thought that we can spend the night in the summit. Initially some of them refused, but after some discussion all of us agreed to spend the night under the moon. So we went down immediately to Bhattara Mane to get our stuff. Some of us finished our dinner there and rest of us packed our dinner to summit. We started our night trek to summit at around 8.30 pm. It was short but was too good. We reached the summit at around 09.00 pm. The experience of night out at the summit was amazing. We planned to put some bonfire, but we had to search for the dry wood in the woods. Sheky and Jaggi went in search of the dry wood, managed to get very few of them and set them fire. We started our initial drink at around 10.00 pm. Finally when we finished and got charged the real fun started. We woke up the guyz of the other gang who were already slept in front of Sarvagnya Peetha made them dance to our tunes and when we finally slept for an hour it was about 2.00 am. Lot of us couldn’t get sleep because of the cool breeze on that night. Sheky, Chesty, Juicy, Bonda, Jaggi, Trilok were awake till morning.
March 27, 2005 (Sunday)
Sudhir took a lot of photographs of morning sunrise and we started getting down to Bhattara Mane from the summit. After reaching Bhattara Mane we finished our bath and had our breakfast and started trekking down to the other side of the peak Kareghatta. The path towards Kareghatta is very beautiful but very steep (one has to be very careful while getting down). After 2 ½ hours of trek we were about to reach a small Malayalee Tea Shop, which means further 4 kms of trek to Kareghatta Bus Stand. Everyone were hoping that our TT driver would have come till the Malayalee Tea Shop as we were so tired we didn’t wanted to trek another 4 kms in mud road. When we saw our TT parked in front of the Tea shop, we all were very happy and thanked Sridhar (TT Driver). We had some snacks in the small T stall and left for Kollur Temple. We reached Temple at around 12.30 pm and took Darshan of Goddess Mookambika, had our lunch in temple and proceeded towards our next destination, Anegudde, Kundapura, Malpe (St. Maris Island) and Back to Bangalore. |
