Continued from last Post : Trek to Kodachadri and ArishinaGundi falls : Adventure Ultimatum! (Part 1)

Arishinagundi Water Falls

Getting there

            There are two ways one can trek to arishinagundi. One, once getting to Kaka's hotel hiring a guide (highly recommended) one has to take a deviation just half a KM after Kakas along the path to Karakatte. Trek down in the steep and treacherous path for 6-7 KMS to reach the falls. Regular trekkers can do it cover it easily in 1.5 hours. This is longer and difficult path. Just half Km before you get the falls you would hit upon a jeep track that continues to main road. At that point one has to still descend down further for abt 10-15 mins to reach the falls.
Second path starts from the main road itself. After Karakatte just 2 KMs before Kollur to your right (if coming from Karakatte side) there is a abandoned jeep track that goes into the jungle with a gate and board pointing to 'Arishinagundi falls' The track is no longer motarable and purposefully blocked by Forest department and even trekking is banned (rule is not serious though). From here to the spot on the jeep track which i mentioned in the last previous paragraph (where one has to further go down for some half Km to reach the falls) it is around 4-5 Kms. This is the more easier and safer path since the jeep track is wider and chances of getting lost are rare. One can either reach the falls through the path from Kaka's and return via the jeep track or vice versa.

Off to Arishinagundi

            So after the fun at Kaka's we had to decide what to do next. We had two options, one to go to Karakatte and catch a transport to kollur, may be visit a beach nearby (there are a lot of beaches in and around Kollur like Baindur, Kudle, Marwanthe etc which are at reachable distance) and be back at Kollur by evening for the bus to Bangalore at 7 (we had booked return tickets as well). Second, we could trek again to 'Arishinagundi falls' at the base of the hill. Wanting more adventure, I was inclined on trekking again. Then later we learnt that if we start now at 12, it might be difficult for us to cover beach trip by 7 since availability of buses could have been in question. When we inquired at the kakas about the second option of trekking to the falls, he said he can arrange for a guide and it will take at least 1.5 hrs to trek to reach the falls. The falls is around 6-7 KMs from the Kakas deep inside the jungle and one has to trek down along a steep treacherous and unclear path. It is strongly advised in any case (how brave and experienced you are) to hire a guide to trek to the falls, thats what we found out while trekking there, there is no definite, visible path and it is very very easy to get lost. For most part of the path, it seemed like wandering aimlessly in a dense forests. Since we were all in good enthu and wanting more adventure, we scrapped the beach plan and everyone voted to trek again.

        We hired the guide for 200Rs. Guide's name was Mr.Eeru just like Mr.Bean he dint have a second name:P. He works for the kaka (hotel owner). He looked like a simpleton and was soft spoken. He was short but strong and well built for a hard day's work in harsh forest conditions and walked barefoot all the way till the falls in such trechurous forest terrain (Iam still not able to get how could he do that). So with Mr.Eeru leading from the front we were marching along the trekking trail again! During the walk Eeru would recount many wild experiences he has had over the years. He spoke about his sighting of bears, bisons and even tigers.

Treacherous Jungle trek

            Just 10 mins walk from kaka towards Karakatte and one has to take a deviation to the left into the forest. It looked like Eeru simply took us into woods, there didnt seem to be any specific path into the forests. Path (if there was one) initially looked easier along a smooth trail surrounded by dense growth of trees and bushes, but got more and more treacherous and steeper downwards as we gained more depth into the heart of the forest. Many times the path goes up for sometime and down again. In the middle we had to adventurously cross a small stream with rocks everywhere which some people mistook as the real falls! Silly guys!! Because we had so many first timers in our group progress was very very slow and the group just remained stagnant for long durations at numerous points waiting for first timers to catch up or taking good breaks. Yes! there were traffic jams in the middle of the forests!. We Bangaloreans carry our esteemed culture all the way to the heart of the peaceful virgin jungles!

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Last November we at office decided to trek to Kodachadri. What was expected as a would be moderately good trek later turned out to be an adventure of our lives with a little bit of risk factor added to it.

The place and the legend

Kodachadri (altitude of around 1800 mts) is a beautiful relatively unexplored hill station in the Western Ghats (Sahyadris) in Shimoga dist along the boarder with Dakshina Kannada dist in Karnataka. The hill rests in 'Mookambika Reserve Forest' and in the backdrop is the famous temple town of Kollur of deity Mookambika. Atop the hill theres a temple too and half an hours climb from the temple takes you to the the peak of Kodachadri, which is most famous for sunrises and sunsets.

It is believed, Shankaracharya once meditated at the peak of the the hill at a place now called 'Sarvagna Peeta' and installed the 'Moola Mookambika' statue translating to 'The Original Mookambika' at the temple below. Since some rare herbal and medicinal plants are found abundantly in the hill, mythologically it is believed that Kodachadri was the actual 'Sanjeevini Parvatha' carried by Lord Hanuman as a remedy for Laxman's injuries. Hence Kodachadri is also largely a place of religious and mythological significance too apart being a heaven for trekkers.

Getting there
The base of the hill is around 380 KMs from Bangalore and 20KM from Kollur.The peak of the hill is around 8-10 KM from the base and should on an average take 4-5 hrs to climb (comfortable one day trek even if you start late). Base of the hill called Karakatte gate can reached in two ways. There are buses (KSRTC Rajahamsa) to Kollur from Bangalore via Mangalore and Via Shimoga. If you take the via Mangalore route, once in Kollur you need to hire a jeep or an AutoRiksha to Karakatte. If you take the via Shimoga route (which goes through towns/villages named HosaNagara , Nagara, JayaNagara, Karakatte is on the way (hence you can save time). 20 KMs before Kollur you need to get down (asking the bus to stop). The bus drivers and conductors of KSRTC should be mostly aware of the Karakatte stop. There is no gate as such at Karakatte gate, there is just a mud path to your left (coming from bangalore side) that goes into forests and continues on to Kodachadri.

Karakatte is the place that is exactly the boarder point between Shimoga and South Canara dists. You can find a old broken stone board mentioning this and also theres a board few steps ahead showing this area as 'Mookambika Wild Life Sanctuary'. In the present conditions, via Mangalore route takes longer with terribly bad roads in Shiradi ghat (technically theres actually no road!), hence via Shimoga route is strongly recommended which is largely good.
There are numerous other trekking routes to Kodachadri, but the Karakatte is the most easiest, well known and usually preferred one. For other routes which could be more challenging please read this post. For the Ooty and Kodaikanal trekkers theres even a jeep service that takes you all the way till the temple along a different jeep track (21 KM), (not sure where exactly the jeep track starts but i guess jeeps start from Kollur and the forest check in point must be closer to Kollur). But be ready to spill out thousands of extra bugs into the tummies of those greedy drivers who are ever ready to take good advantage of the fact that you are too fat to trek.

I beg the authorities not to asphalt the jeep track and develop Kodachadri as a popular Hill station though theres big big scope to do it. Otherwise the beautiful Kodachadri would soon loose its chaste and charm and gradually become a waste dumping place for silly people. It is great as it is on now, peaceful and very beautiful never visted and corrupted by Ooty and Kodaikanal trekkers from cities like Bangalore. .............................

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Its time to go back in time!. This is an account of the memorable trekking experience that i had in last March (2005). We trekked from Subrmanya to Yedakumeri on the abandoned railway track. Its also called Green route/valley by nature lovers. It was my first trek in 4-5 yrs. I had travelled in that magical route in a 'forest express' when i was a child. I went there this time on foot much closer. I still have some cherishable memories of that dream rail journey. I was eager to go there again after a long time.

I dont know why iam writing this now suddenly keeping mum about it for almost a year! Somehow missed the mood to write about it. May be i didnt have the photo scans were still using the 'dabba cam' at that time. Now i have mood and the pics, hence writing about it. That’s why the name ‘Forgotten’! I hope my memory is good and i remember everything that happened in those three days. Iam taking this also as a challenge to my memory. Lets see. Wish me and yourself a  good time travel Can my friends gooddevil(Ganaraj) and indianerd(Arun) who might be reading this, who also trekked remember some incident which i have not written about here and forgotten Or point out anything inconsistent with actuals?.. Its up to them.    

Date : March First Week 2005

Team : Six trekkers, Me aka prathapbn,  gooddevil, indianerd , Shashi, Tejasvi and Adarsh (JCE 2005)

This trek was being planned and organized by Shashi, our mech friend with our classmates Tejasvi, Ganaraj and Adrash. Hearing upon it me and arun (classmate) also joined the team. So that makes the team of six (all jceites). It was first week of March midst terribly hot summer. The plan was to go to Subramanya in bus (night).

Start the trek from Subramnya in the morning. Halt at a place called Gundya (first day). Then trek second day to Yedakumeri. (halt there) Then if wiling trek the remaining distance to Donigal on the third day or else return back on the third day itself. Tickets were booked in ultra deluxe Rajahamsa bus till Sulya since we didnt get reservations all the way till Subramanya.

Time : December (11-12) 2005

The weekend of December 11-12 weekend saw the fulfillment of our team's enthusiastic wish to trek along the famed railway track between Sakleshpur and Edakumeri which forms roughly a little more than one-third of the full track length between Sakleshpur and Subramanya also known among nature lovers and trekkers as the 'Great Green Route'.

Team :

We were expecting around 10-12 trekkers to turn up. After some last minute inclusions and omissions 12 were confirmed on wednesday night. Seven boys and five girls.

Team consisted of Venkat, Pratap(me), Saumya, George, Karthik, Sthiti, Pavana, Roopa, Prashant, Piyush, Manju and Manisha.

Plan :

The plan was to reach Donigal ( 9Kms further away from Sakleshpur which would be our starting point) on Saturday(11th) morning, start trekking and reach Edakumeri preferably by evening, halt there and find an exit to highway and somehow reach Sakleshpur or Hassan on Sunday (12th) and be back to Bangalore in any case by max 9 PM.

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