Monday, July 05, 2004

Trek to Tadiandamol

The Trek to Tadiandamol.


It had been 4 months since i had been out of the city for another great adventure in the Jungles of Karantaka. Finally called upon few of my friends who were willing to break from the same routine of 9-9 work schedules. Since i have been to treks with different set of friends like School mates, Engineering mates and off late with colleagues, it took sometime to get the response from each of them. After a lot of correspondance between my friends who work in diverse tribes of IT, we finally managed to find a common date for the weekend getaway, that would be 11thJune2004.Unfortunately many of them backed off at the last moment, so finally we were four of us. Myself, Raghunanadhan(Rags), Naveen and Matthew.

As always we planned to leave on friday night by KSRTC bus from Majestic to Virajpet. We took the ordinary bus which leaves Bangalore city at around 2200hrs. The only thing which we regret on this tour by travelling in an ordinary bus. I would suggest u to take a Rajahamsa Bus which would be much comforting on your night travel.

As Virajpet is around 270kms from Banaglore it would take around 6 hrs of journey. You do have 3 10'mins stops on the way to Virajpet. I could never catch sleep during the entire journey because of this huge person who was sitting next to me, I could notice matthew feeling uneasy with the seat. We envied naveen & rags who sleept for most of the journey.

Finally, we reached Virajpet in the wee hours of morning i.e around 0430hrs. It was already drizlling and we could predict the weather for rest of theday. Anyways we knew before we landed in Virajpet that it would be raining in Coorg district, as it was rainy season here and we were prepared to take on the rain. The tea shop was open by then, so we had our chai and biscuit. We got some brief inputs from the shopkeeper and now we
had to plan our schedule for the remaining day.

Search for Lodging

Since Tadiandamol is around 40Kms from here, we decided that Virajpet would be our base were we would halt for the night. So first we needed a place to lodge. But due to our(rags and myself) previous experience in Kushalnagar where we had a tough time getting accomadation due to the peak season, we hoped that this time which was off-peak we wouldn't face the same. First we went to Shiva's Regency and the manager says rooms are available and each one would cost Rs250 for 24 hrs, we were happy, but the underlying catch was that only 2 per room. Which lead us to search for other Lodges, we did find Bhagyalkshmi and Sangeeta, but for our misfortune both were full. After walking through the lanes of Virjapet in the wee hours with the drizzle we finally had to came back to our only option, Shiva's Regency. As soon as we got the rooms, me and matthew wanted to catch some sleep and decided that we would start our next journey at around 0800hrs. I
had one of my deep and short sleep. Freshened up and was little off to see that climate here had not changed even after 3hrs. We had our breakfast in the Hotel which is attached to the lodge.

The journey to Aaramane Gate

Finally we took the Express bus to Aaramane Gate from the Private bus stop at 0915hrs. The journey was very long one, i say that because just to travel 40 kms it took almost two and half hours. But the travel to Araamane gate was a memorable one. I have always heard about the weather here in Coorg and South canara districts change very rapidly, but here i was witenssing what i had heard about. It is absolutely amazing to see how nature chnages her behaviour in every second, every moment is different in these
places. It keeps changing with every breath you take, from bright sunlight to dark clouds covering the sky and with in the next few seconds it starts raining.All along the journey u see the dense coffee estates with patches of paddy fields on either side the roads. The secene is in the eyes of beholder, which i will never forget. You are far away from the concrete jungle, the pollution in all forms(noise,air,water) most of all
the maddening crowd.

Conquering the highest peak in Coorg district

After passing by Karanga, Napokla, kakabbi we reached Aaramane Gate at around 1145hrs. From the bus stop, we need to walk for 3kms to reach the base of the hill. It was still raining when we got down from the bus, we took shelter in the bus stop. There we met a carpenter he was saying that we have come during wrong time, as he said it would be very
difficult to climb the hill while raining and lot of leeches. He also said there would be lot of mist and winds would be very strong. The rain never seemed to end, so we began our trek. Intially we were little bit apprehensive to get drenched in the rain, so we used to run for shelter. We did find couple of well built desreted houses. So took shelter there whenever the rain got worse. But there was no point in doing so, as we go ahead we were definite that we would not find such shelter and should be prepared for the worse. From then on we got drenched in rain and loved everybit of it. On the way we found misty woods a KSTDC underatking cottages.

Near the base of the hill we met Mr Pooviah, he was really helpful to us in giving us the directions for our trek by giving us some important landmarks. He aslo cautioned us for the loose rocks and the leeches we would encounter on our trek. He told it would take around 5hrs to and fro for a professional group. We then left for our final destination. Initial 1.5 kms is on road after that we encounter a Water fall, after
crossing that we hit the jeep tracks and then finally a foot way which leads into the forest. We encounter a lot of water falls and also lot of leech attacks, each time we pass by a marshy place or a water source each one had to check their shoes for the leeches. Fortunately no one got bit while we were climbing. It was really amazing weather were there was sunshine, mist and drizzle all at the same time. And also heavy
wind were blowing against us. The best part was that we never had any signal on our mobiles while we inside the forests, Once we reached the top of the hill we were surprised to get full signal strength from both(Airtel & Hutch) the providers. We spoke to each of our loved ones we were very excited to be there. It was 14:30 hrs and we decided to have our lunch there. After lunch we decided to walk untill 15:30hrs after that irrespecive of what position we reach the hill point we had to get back to the base, the reason for that was the last bus which we could get to Virajpet would come there at 18:15hrs.

We were not sure how far the peak was as it was totally misty and we could never realize where we stood. It was only when the sun shines for few seconds we would realise where we were. Myself and naveen reached a certain point and we stopped trekking. But matthew and rags went ahead withe their ambition of reaching the peak of the hill. But later on we realised that we were some 48 mts short from the peak. Anyways we enjoyed every bit of our trek and thetime had come for us to descend the hill.

Descending was much easier as always. Again we had to fight those blood suckers, and this time some of us were not so lucky enough. Naveen got the leech bite on his ankle. Then we finally reahed the base of the hill by 1715hrs. Then we went to the palace there which is called Aaramane. It is maintained in a very bad condition, and neither is it open for us to enter inside the palace, as it is looked by ASI. Finally reached the Bus stop by 1750 hrs. All the four of us were completely drenched in rain. I feel we would never again get wet so much in our life time.

We got the bus to virajpet, it took an hour and half to reach Virajpet. Reached the hotel around 19:45hrs. Now when i removed my shoes i was surprised to see a leech inside, and the worst was yet to come. Naveen removed his shirt and all of us were shocked to see that a leech had got all the way to his shoulder and it managed to give him the bite and our naveen never felt it bite him. The leech some how had got squashed
inside and naveen blood was all over. He had lost atleast 100ml of blood i feel. Then everyone of us where anxious to check our body for more leeches clinging. Then we finally had our dinner and good 1hr talk before each one went to their bed.

We enjoyed every drop of rain and the leech bite we had on this amazing trek. It was a completely unique experience for each one of us on this trek. Trek to each place itself is Unique, but what makes this even more distinct is the very fact that i have never experienced such a weather in any of my previous treks. They say the ideal time is early
winter to trek Tadiandamol, but ask any one of us who had been here and we would suggest that you pack u'r bags and head for this place during the month of June/July, it would be one good experience, which i am sure will last as long as you live on this planet.

...........Some more articles are going to follow. Comments are welcome always.
If u want to know anything you can always reach me @ kondur_vivek@yahoo.com.
U can read one more experience of my friend,this




5 comments:

Rags said...

1. Tooooo long
2. too much details about travel/stay
3. not enough detail (when comapred to size of article) about the trek itself

Rags said...

you want critics i give you critics....... the article is too formal. the language is formal (4 me)

Anonymous said...

pawan here :

hi magaa

oooofffff its too long but good description

by the way is there a link somewhere to see the snaps of the same ???

Anonymous said...

pawan here :

hi magaa

oooofffff its too long but good description

by the way is there a link somewhere to see the snaps of the same ???

Anonymous said...

maga....srinivas(LRDE) here
no hard feelings....but r u presenting a thesis or what??
make it more informal and try to add some masala....try to insert some adventure....all said and done...its a trek