kodachadri

kodachadri is around 180kms from our college. we (myself , nikhil, preetham, sumit, shravan) left our college at around 1 just after a tight lunch. by changing 3 bus we reached kollur (surathkal to udupi, then to kundapur, from thr to kollur) at around 5pm. the last time i had been here it was looking like a deserted place, with hardly a couple of guys. but this time we were here at a wrong
time. it was the dusshera season n kollur was jampacked with devotees. we had thought of staying in kollur overnight n then start trekking the next day morning. to our vain we dint get any room n finally ended up sleeping on the terrace of bus stand. it was a new experience all-together. one thing about kollur is that you dont get good food. my hostel mess food is way too better than kollur hotel food.

the next day mornin we took a bus to karakatta gate, the trial to kodachadri starts from here. the first bus to this place is a ksrtc bus enroute to bangalore which is at 6 , thrs one at 6:30 also if in case u miss this one. the first pitstop in this trek is bhattara mane which is at the base of the hill, its abt 1 hour of plain track walk from karakatte gate. food here is really good; it took us around 2 and half hours to reach the peak, it was a moderate trek, but the scenary was unmatchable. i had heard people praise kodachadri, but i experienced it in person, its really a beautiful place. on the way up hill theirs this guy who sells butter milk , lemonaide n cucumber which makes this trek even more good. on reaching the travellers bunglow we trekked on the range till we reached the galipata point. its some 1 hour walk from the bungalow. after spending some time. we were back on track to the bhattas house in the base, had lunch thr n left to college. within a day we were back in room having conquered kodachadri. it would have been a wonderful experience if we could have stayed on the peak overnight but having exams just 2 days ahead we had no other option.

mullayangiri, baba budangiri n kemmangundu

2008 summer holidays, i was hitting flies at dubas where i had gone for industrial training (http://bluethroat-bluethroat.blogspot.com/2008/05/objective-to-work-in-industrial.html ). i badly wanted to runaway from this place, thats when i planned this outing, in just an hour my gang was all ok with the plans and the next day i was out of dubas. thank god..!!









may 20th evening we all landed in deepak's home in chikmagalur. we all refering to me n nikhil from mysore, pavan from bangalore, manu nair from mangalore. after a short shopping session in the MG road of chikmaglur we were all set to kick off. we had booked a vehicle to drop us in kemmangundi via mullayangiri and baba budangiri. just an hour drive from dp's house took us to the highest peak in karnataka, standing at 6317 feet. another hours drive we wer in baba budangiri, and by 3 pm we were at kemmangundi.





the next day we set off to hebbe falls by walk. its around 9 kms from kallatti (the guest house we stayed in) it took around 3 hours to reach the place, on the way we had passed through the now abandoned mines, and tea estates. hebbe falls is a two stage fall, the approach to first stage is really steep n dangerous, which we dint even bother to climb. on the way back to room we were totally drenched by rain.









second day we took a bus to kallati tats the actual place, not our guest house :) its around 10kms from the guest house. its a religious place. where in the temple is attached to a small falls. we walked back from here to our room. donno wat grudge the rain god had on us, even today we were drenched totally.
back in room all of us had run out of dry clothes. but we had this great plan of camping out in the night. with pavan toally backing off from even going out of the room. we four brave friends took the blankets of the guest house n left for Z-point. till this day we dint encounter with any leach. but the day we plan to create a milestone in our life, all forces of nature tried to keep us away. leaches started apearing from no where, the clear sky started turning cloudy, no wonder by the time we had almost reached Z-point it started to drizzle. it would have been the worst nightmare if we hadnt fled from tat place. we ran back from Z-point to our rooms. with no other dry cloth left we spent the rest of the night with the half wet clothes. pavan who was sleepin happily in room was all beaming seeing us and our situation. next day morning we were on our way back to our houses.



tips :

- food in kemmangundi hotel sucks big time, believe it or not we dint pay food bill for 3 meals, guess y?? 1st meal -cockroach found in sambhar, 2nd meal-some fly in rice, 3rd meal - fly in rice again.
-carry biscuits tats the only way u can survive thr.
-no matter in which season you go carry your rain coat. it rains here every day afternoon.
-thrs just one bus which comes here twice once in the morning at around 9 n again in the evening at around 6.

honey valley

It all started in the summer holidays after 2nd sem, having hardly nothing to do for 3 whole months, of which we were just half way through we started planning for an outing somewhere in w.ghats, manu came up with options like backwaters in kerala or waynad which we ditched on the spot; we wer basically searching for a new destination which less people would have heard off, so that we can boast about it later on :P after lot of plans we finalised our outing to honey valley(suggested by my dad). even though a lot of people were involved in planning the outing, finally it was just 5 of us who went on with it. manu nair, adithya mohan, nikhil , prashanth and myself.






Honey valley gets its name from its glorious years in past when the owner chengappa had made news by harnessing a record 6.5 tonnes honey per year. this estate has been open for wildlife enthusiasts since a long time, where in any one could have stayed free of cost; nowadays the system has changed here too. the very concept of home stay, started at this place. they charge nominal cost for the rooms n food, which are of star quality. it was on june 5th morning we all started towards kakabbe a village of two houses , me nik n praz from mysore ; manu n adithya from mangalore. the same day evening we left for a open jeep ride to a peak (whose name i dont remember now ) which was mist covered at 3..!!! on the way back we had been to chaluvara falls. the days highlight was the open jeep ride down the slppe of the hill. man it was rocking...!!






with lot of enquiries we planned to go to raja seat the next day which is a days trek. the good thing here in honey valley is that they have documented all the possible trekking trials. we took hold of one such copy n started our days trek. half way through the trek we had conqured one mountain and were on a trial to the next through a water fall, on the way we had to cross the native forest. this is where all the drama started. native forests are leach heaven, seeing the native forest me nik n manu started running thru it so that we could lessen our encounter with the leaches, but adi n praz were a bit hesitant. thats when we both split up. we three on the other end of the forest , praz n adi still on the first hill. they neither knew the way to come on our side cos we had run helter skelter in our own path, as thr was no proper path. this was not all, after plucking out all the leaches from our legs we realised that we were left with just 2 boiled eggs n a water bottle, all the packed food we got from honey valley and the path map was with the other two. so there we were in a no-mans land with no idea were to go. after traversing the second peak, we reached a place which we strongly believed to be the raja seat. it fitted all the description given by the residents of honey valley, a big boulder perpendicular to the slope of the mountain. by then time was running out, tks to our geographical sense we knew towards which side honey valley was. we walked on a straight path traversing two peaks n a deep gorge finally at around 4pm the mist started covering up the peak n we were tryin to spot our home, thats when we spotted the light from honey valley. the feeling then is just inexpressible, even today we keep sighting this drama which was our first real adventure. back in house the kind ms. chengappa cooked us delicious bonda's n arranged hot water for bath. on the other side adi n praz roamed the same first peak which we conqured for some 3 times n some how got back to honey valley before us thanks to them ms.chengappa had everything prepared by the time we reached back.







the third day was total chill out. we played bingo the whole morning. manu n nik went through the small collection of books which they had while we wer busy playing few silly games. the same night we had a photo shoot session n the next day morning we all left to our respective places.

contacts of honey valley
mr.chengapa
Yavakapady Post
Coorg
Karnataka - 571212
Tele:08272–238339

getting there:
Bangalore- 230 Kms
Mangalore- 165 Kms
Mysore 112 kms

alight at virajpet call up the above no. they will inform you the proper bus timing to kakabbe. its an hour journey from virajpet

why a new blog..??

u might wonder y this new blog.. when i already have one..!!
everything in the other blog was going good until i realized that the very name of my blog was wrong..!!
well the bird which i ringed was a ruby-throat and not a blue-throat, after idiotically creating a new blog in an urgency with a name which had no trueness in it, it made no sense in writing blogs under it, also holls had got over by then and i lost interest in blogging.. :P
but here i come again to share my thoughts and experience under a new banner..!! I hope to continue for a long time, so far so good.