Hey folks, good to see you back and reading my yet another blog.
Today, I am going to make
you experience an ‘Exotic Adventure Trip’ in the Western Ghats. This amazing trek
was to Thadiyandamol followed by kayaking, dinging, and swimming in Cauvery backwaters
(Chikli Dam).
Facts about the trek:
Total trek distance: 14 KM (ascend
& descend)
Level: Easy/Moderate
Route: Bangalore – Mysore –
Hunsur – Virajpet – Brahmagiri Base Camp
Oh, man! This time the summer in Bangalore was intolerable, it was getting so hard to say as we for the first time saw 2013 temperature reach 38o C. ‘Namma Bengaluru’ was so much clean, cool, and soothing earlier; increased population, vehicles and industrialization has ruined its beauty.
THADIYANDAMOL PEAK
I seriously wanted to get out
of city life and feel the nature and its charm once again. That was when I
researched and found about this amazing place Thadiyandamol - believe me, folks,
this is the only peak where can see fog even during the peak summers. So, I
zeroed down my two-day plan to trek this peak and organized it; trek to the
peak on the first day followed by some water activities in Cauvery backwaters on
the second day.
I started by posting my plan
on meetup; where I had organized the earlier 2 treks to the Sharavati. I got my
trek team in place within no time, we were 13 people who were about to make
this adventure take place on May 04, 2013. My adventures are never like the other treks
organized by people, they are always unique and exploratory.
We hired a Tempo Traveller
and started our journey from Bangalore at 10:00 PM on May 03, 2013 taking the
Mysore highway. Since we all caught up for the trek on meetup, we were all
strangers and started making formal introductions. Fun-filled antakshari
followed by sharing individual experiences each one of us had were part of our night
journey. We reached Virajpet at about 6:00 AM, oh god! it was so cold down
there (imagine the feeling of experiencing the cold weather amidst summer,
wow!!!). Our guide, Mr. Ram was waiting to take us to the base camp, it around about
30 KM and we reached the place at roughly 7:00 AM. We had rooms to freshen up
while amazing tea and breakfast were being arranged by Ram for us.
We were all very hungry and
what else can one ask when there is a table fully arranged with Idli, wada,
bisibelebath, we did not waste time and hogged over it, it was yummy. There was
also lunch being prepared for us, we packed our boxes with some chapatis and
cabbage curry before we boarded the tempo traveller to reach the trekking start
point, it was about 9:30 AM when we reached there.
It was not the usual trek
trail we followed, anybody hardly knew about it, Our plan included a stopover
at a small waterfall before we reached
the peak. On our way was a lot of vegetation making the place cooler even in
peak summer, the very existence of “Leechs” that we found on one for the lady
companion was a clear indication of this. Oh, wait!!! we also saw a Rat Snake that
had just passed our way, it was pretty fast and wavy, we hardly could get a
quick glimpse of that black beauty.
As we reached the waterfall,
there was no water, it was a little disappointing but what else can you expect
in summer. It was a nice spot to click some snaps and continued trekking to the
peak. Further as we climbed, we found some fresh berries, it was like mind-blowing.
We stopped by, ate some berries, and then started our trek again.
This time we came across
some wild guava trees, they were as sweet as sugar, since there was no human
intervention in the growth of the tree made the taste of the fruit so good. we
also found a water stream, it was fresh, and medicated, nothing can make you feel
as good as pure water can.
During summers, the
vegetation on the mountains starts to dry making it look golden, but here the
freshness in the vegetation made the mountain look greener. As we moved
further, our path was covered with fog and it was still afternoon. We trekked
for about 3 hours and made to the peak by 1:00 PM, though the mountain was
steep, we never felt exhausted. The peak was pretty cold; covered with fog, it
was time we relaxed a bit and enjoyed the serenity. It was also lunch time, so
we enjoyed the food and started our descend at about 2:30 PM. As, the mountain was
steep, we slipped quite a lot of times but luckily no one had any injuries. We
stopped again at the water stream to quench our thirst.
On our way back to the camp,
to our surprise the guide stopped us for a rock climbing session. Ooooooo now that's
new experience for me, it was a 15 ft rock almost fully inclined, only a few of
us could make it. After our rock climbing session, we started our descend and
reached our base camp by 5:00 PM. We located a shop nearby and had few sips of
aerated drinks, it's not healthy though but we had no choice, only that drink
would make us feel better. We got into our tempo traveller and continued our
adventure to our camping place which was about 70 KM from the base camp. It’s a
place near Dubare (Elephant Camp), but untouched by humans.
We reached at 8:00 PM, what
we saw was pretty amazing and mind-boggling, a Lonely House, Backwaters, and
Thick Dark Jungle, wow! what else can we ask for on such a trip? Our high tea (Shunti
Kashaya) was also ready; an energetic herbal hot drink served with spicy and hot
mirchi bajjis. While we were having them,the guide was cautioning us to be very
careful as there were lots of wild animals around the place. He also told us his
experience the previous week where he found two tigers roaring near the backwaters,
scary it was.
We set up our campfires and
then the guide started again his experience with the wild and started scaring
us more. The tigers, elephants, and bears were a part of his story. As we were
listening to him, we saw fireflies all over the place, what an amazing scene it
was (completely cinematographic), no less than a fantasy for many of us. After the
stories, it was time for our dinner, ahhhhhh such yummy food it was, they had
prepared chapatis, curry, veg biriyani, and kheer. This is why I love the guides
who help me organize things in the jungle as you cannot do them all by yourself.
Guys were feeling sleepy
already as it was a long day. We had a separate room for the girls while the boys
had to sleep in the verandas. Tents were arranged, a few ppl dozed off too
early but I along with 6 other people started chatting; we all didn’t like
sleeping on such treks and enjoy every moment. Our discussions went on and on
around topics like love marriage vs. arranged, life in metros, animals etc.,
and finally at around 2:00 PM we all fell asleep.
The next morning, it was 6:00 AM
when we all woke up to get ready for the bird watching session that was planned
for 7:00 AM. We finished our routines
and sipped a cup of tea as we walked on the dam, wow! my mornings were never
such amazing. We went for the bird watching
and luckily we saw a few birds which we never see in our lives.
After the session, we had our
breakfast, it was upma with curd. We quickly finished it and geared to feel the
beautiful Cauvery backwaters with our Kayak and Dinghy.
We stepped into our
respective boats and started travelling towards the Dive Points, it was less
than 10 minutes from the mainland. We parked our Dinghy and Kayak, and to our
surprise, what we found on the land was footprints of wild tusker elephant. We
could see the bamboo forest all around the backwaters, which was also a sign of
elephants' existence close by. The prints looked pretty fresh and took our
breath away as it was scary. But, our guide told us that they were 15 days old
and there was no threat as such. We then
got into the water without life jackets on, cold and fresh and wow I felt blessed.
But, I must confess that the Sharavati water was much more amazing compared to
this. .JPG)
We had a great time in the waters
as we spent almost 3 hours relaxing. There was a branch of tree middle of the waters, each one of us dived from it into the waters and
believe me it was tough as the branch was so slippery and weak, but we made
it.
We continued enjoying with
our Kayak until it was time to get back
to the mainland. We relaxed a bit, freshened
up, and got ready for lunch. It was about 1:00 PM and yet another amazing
treat, pulao, curd rice, papads, pickles, and sambar rice. Yummy isn’t it? We
quickly jumped on it and ate to the brim.
Finally, it was time for us
to leave this beautiful place, none of us wanted to leave though. With a heavy
heart, we got into our tempo traveller and headed towards Kushal Nagar to drop
our guide, we bid them goodbye, such good people they were. We stopped over the
Golden Temple / Bailukuppe (A Tibetan Temple), spent some time there
and left for Bangalore. We reached the city at about 10:00 PM and it was the
time for all of us to bid goodbye.
We all departed rejoicing
our two days adventure, which had given us a lifetime experience...
But, my journey of adventure
never stops and continues... 😊 😊 😊
See you again reading my yet
another adventure experience. Until then for any information write to me on
shravan9886@gmail.com.
Yours Truly
Shravan
No comments:
Post a Comment