The misty way to Kodachadri

Kodachadri, I came to know about this place from my bikers group BangaloreBikers. Instead of riding this time, I thought to visit the place and make it more exciting by trekking to the peak. BangaloreAdevturers gave me the wonderful opportunity by organizing a 3 days outing to Kodachadri, Bheemeswara and Jog falls. All of the places was unseen to me so without any hesitation I jumped in.

Day - 0

The planned meeting point was Majestic bus stop, we were total 10 trekkers along with lead Gururaj headed for Kodachadri. The route was Bangalore - Tumkur - Simoga - Sagar - kodachandri.

Day – 1

We reached our first day home stay around 7am, It was a nice place surrounded by greenery. The whole night travelling was a little hectic but that didn’t loosen the excitement of trekking for us. After freshen up and quick breakfast of lemon rice around 9.30 we had a quick brief and stated for Kodachadri peak. It was a 10Km one-way trek with around 1000m elevation. We started our trek following the Jeep trail first and after around a km we switched to a jungle trail.

After some 3 km or trek through the forest we reached a plane land where 1-2 huts where there. It was first break point, refreshing butter milk was served there. After few mins of break we continued. Monsoon trek in forest is incomplete without leech bites. The jungle was full of leeches and they were so happy to see us that they just keep climbing on us. The jungle trail was quite stiff and we kept panting every few steps. After struggling through the narrow forest trail and fighting with the leeches, we reached the bugyal part and the view was worth the pain. The amazing view of hilltops and clouds floating around was a pleasure to eyes. It was a definite place for photo break, all started click! Click! Click! on phone or camera whichever was around.

When we reached the PWD guesthouse, which is the only shelter nearest to the peak, it was way past midday. Our lunch was arranged at the guesthouse only. The simple rice and sumbar tasted too delicious after such a trek. Post lunch we started for the peak, which was not much a distance and reached around 3pm. There was a temple on the top, surrounding view was covered with clouds. After some photo shoots, we sat calmly looking towards the horizon, embracing the beauty of nature.

When we started to come down it was almost 4.30pm. This time we took the jeep trail to avoid Jungle in the evening time and after around 2 hours of exhausted trek we came back to our base.

After dinner we had a small campfire, but we were all too tired for some activity so all went to bed early and sooner than thinking about the day I fell asleep.

Day -2

The next day we had plan to go to visit Sigandur Temple and Bheemeshwara. The curvy roads through the woods were tempting me for bike ride. First we went for streamer ride in the Saravati river backwater. Here people use streamer to go to Sagar, the nearest town as a shortcut way. Later we went to Sigandur temple and had prasadam as lunch there.

For Bheemeshwara, we had option of 8km jungle trek or 3km jeep trail trek. After 20+ km trek on yesterday, no one wished to trak 8km so we followed the jeep trail and reached the home stay for the day. It was the priest’s house where some arrangement was kept for the trekkers. No sooner we reached than we changed and went to the waterfall beside Bheemeshwara temple. The tample looked ancient and as it was just adjacent to the waterfall, it was moistly. The chilled water was refreshing and the view of hills around was magnificent.

Later that night, Gururaj told us stories of wildlife censoring, bird sounds and his own experiences of wildlife.

Day – 3

The last day we had Jog falls visit and headed back to Bangalore and reached within 9pm.