Trek date: 14-16 October, 2022
General info:
Thrillophilia says: The trek is 11km (to and fro) but it’s not.
The trek to Kodachadri hill top by road from check post of forest department might be 11km.
The trek by forest, streams, waterfall and vast steep grasslands is 17-18km [ONE SIDE]. We came back by Jeep, which is one more experience, I will be talking below.
ATTENTION TO ALL READERS: DO NOT CARRY ANY PLASTIC COVERED FOOD (CHOCOLATES, PROTEIN BARS, LAYS ETC) DURING THE TREK. FOREST RANGERS CHECK THE BAGS WHILE ENTERING THE TREK AND THEY CHARGE FOR THEM, BASED ON NUMBER OF PLASTIC ITEMS THEY FOUND. ALTHOUGH IT IS REFUNDABLE IF YOU SHOW THEM THOSE PLASTIC WRAPPERS WHILE COMING BACK. BUT WHY TO TAKE THE HEADACHE?
Please have the below:
A light weight milton bottle, a tiffin box in which you can put your food given by homestay people.
Please note: Do not carry use and throw packing tiffins, which we get from Zomato or any other food delivery joints: forest rangers charge for them too.
Starting for the trek from Bangalore.
We got late from Bangalore because of heavy rain and the worst traffic.
We started at approx 7 pm from silk board and after all pickup points, we were still in Goraguntepallya at around 11 pm, then after till some extent, the traffic continued.
The trek guide:
Our trek guide Manoj, a jolly young fellow. Good, enthusiastic and friendly with all the fellow trekkers. His "2km only - 2km only" strategy worked for most of us in the trek and out of 12, 11 reached the top of Kodachadri trek.
The tempo traveller:
Vehicle was good, driver was good fellow. He was driving safely.
The Hallimane Homestay, Kodachadri
The homestay was good, food was awesome, I mean really awesome. Simple and tasty at all times. They gave separate rooms to ladies with washroom facility attached and hot water. Whereas for men, the bathrooms were separate.
About Trek
We reached homestay on 15 Oct, around 8 am. We all freshened up and had breakfast, The homestay people gave tiffin to eat during the trek and we started the trek with a local guide.
The road was good till some km, then we entered the forest and leeches started attacking us as we invaded their territory.
(Please have good shoes and long socks, do carry some salt water spray or Dettol spray. Spray it on your shoes socks, leeches won’t come nearby)
We reached the so called check post. Where forest rangers were sitting. They checked our bags, charged us for PLASTIC ITEMS we were carrying and gave a ticket. While returning we have to show them the plastic and the ticket, they will refund the money.
After that, we resumed our trek again. Till this point, we all were ok, normal trek. Then came the adventurous part. Trek through the waterfall stream. It was good. We climbed a few small rocks and reached the waterfall. It was a little crowded as a lot of trekkers were there. We opted to stand aside (leeches fear in water) and clicked few pics, rested for few minutes and then resumed the trek.
Now comes the hard part. The jungle, leeches again, the humidity and the steep straight walking trail. After walking for an hour or so, we came out of jungle to open grasslands. But the trail was still the same, straight and steep. After a lot of courage and small small breaks of 1-2 minutes we crossed that hurdle too.. but the trek was only half covered.
We started again and this time the trail was normal walk. We came across a small natural water resource, we had our lunch there and after few minutes rest, we resumed again. Half hour or say 1km of straight climbing, and we were on the road towards the main point.
We walked along side of the road and reached the 3rd point. Till this point, only jeeps will go beyond this everyone has to climb up. No vehicles only legs.
We took a break of 10-15 minutes and one of our fellow trekker decided not to walk ahead. Remaining of us, started again and the beauty can’t be described. The clouds, the greenery the valley, but we had to reach the peak.
Manoj was like only 2kms more and we are there...
Anyway, we keep on walking and after approx 7 hours of walking we reached KODACHADRI HILL TOP.
We took rest for a few minutes, took some pics and started back to our homestay. By the time we reached top, it was approx 4:30 pm and it will definitely go dark if we opted to come by walk. So we all decided to come by jeep.
Off Road Driving
I don’t know how to explain the experience we had in the jeep while coming back. The mud roads were like a roller coaster ride of 1hours.
For a while, we all thought the jeep will fall at one of the turn, but the drivers are quite an experience fellows. They were fast, we enjoyed this off road driving.
We reached our homestay at 7 pm. Freshen up, had hot pakode and chai. Heavy downpour started, we had dinner and all slept for the next day.
Next day 16 October
We all freshen up in the morning, had breakfast and started back to Bangalore. On the way back we stopped to see the ruins of Nagara Fort.
The view at the top of the fort was peaceful, calm and nice.
After some time, we resumed our journey towards Bangalore.
We entered Bangalore around 8:30 pm and reached to struggling with traffic we reached to home by 11:30 pm.
To summarise the trek:
It was an achievement for me, that I completed the trek.
Thanks to Thrillophilia for the trek option. Just that please correct the 11km (to and fro) to actually kilometres. All the fellow trekkers in this trip were under impression that its 5km to and 5km back...
But I believe we all enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading through.
Good luck to all for this trek. May the force be with you!