From my early school time I was interested in going to the hills and explore the less known spots whenever possible. When I joined Jadavpur University I got a golden chance to let my dreams come true by joining the JUMHC ( Jadavpur University Mountaineering and Hiking Club). With them I went to sandakphu phalut trek near Darjeeling, and a small recce expedition in Deo-tibba near Manali. After I passed out from the University, some of my friends joined their hands to form a new club JUNIPERS - an association of nature lovers.
After I came to bangalore I have visited some places near by, but mostly in travelling mode. The only one place I tried to do a trek so far is AVALANCE near Ooty. But as we didn't have any permission from the Tamilnadu Forest Department , we were not able to do the things as we had planned. Instead we did a night out near EMARALDA, a small village nearby that forest. On the next day we walked a little around to find a beautiful lake, Avalance lake.
In between I went for two pinics. One in Devendurg, another in Nandi hills. DevenDurg is around 3 hours journey from Bangalore. There is a hill and a small temple at its base. The hill is a massive rock, having a temple on its top, along with some trees ( specialy tamarine trees ) and grasses. There is a walkable route following the electricity line to the top of the hills. On the way you will find the beautifu reserver, the MANCHINBELA reserver. ( You will need permission to enter in the vicinity of the reserver. )
It is fairly known to all of the bangalore people. There are regular bus service from Majestic to Nandi hills. The place is 1479 meter high place amidst of a moreorless plain lands. It took around 15 minutes to go to the top from the base of the hill by vehicle. Water is also available at top. There is a small water source ( other than the usual water tank ) and that is reported as the source of arkavati river. This place was a fort in tipu sultans time. Now also you can find the ruins of the fort wall. There are some beautiful flowers around also. I think there is a foot trail also from the base to top, though I didn't explore it.
This is a 19km one way trek in the western ghats. The trek starts at a small village called SAMSE, en route to Kudremukm town ship ( Malleswara ). There are busses to Malleswara from Bangalore ( overnight, Hi tech, fare ... ). You will get there by early morning if you take the last bus at 11pm. Initially you have to go along the tar road for 1 km, towards kudremukh township ( actually these buses go to that place also, but does not stop there :( ). Take a right turn from the road to cross the small river. This junction is marked by the forest department, so you donot have to ask any body there. Now you should be on jeep road.
I have been to this place, but I have to put my experience in writing.
Yet to be visited, though I have some plan on this.
This is a mild trek of 7-9km one way in north Karnataka near Kollur. Though there
are jeepable route from Kollur or Sampikatte ( 15 km ) to Kodachadri PWD bunglow /
rest house, the trek route is also very good.
How to get there Take any bus to Kollur. This is a religious place where
mookambika temple is situated. ( I never enquired about it, so forgive me if I am wrong. )
From there take any Nagar bound bus or tell them that you want to go to kodachadri by trek.
So they will drop you in front of a jeep road on the way. This road leads to vallur
( most probably it is pronounced as "wollur". )
The route Take the jeep road from the drop off point. It should be on your
right side when you got down. This road leads to the village vollur. I did not see the
village but one can see the little shop on the road side and a vast ground with
marked cricket pitch near the road. After leaving the village the road divides into two,
take the right one. ( I do not know where the left one leads. ) From here the road becomes
narrow and steep. It goes via jungle, grass land and open areas. From vollur you will be
able to see the rest house. After reaching the rest house ( It is a PWD bunglow and you may get
it if it is vacant and you are ready to pay some money to the caretaker. There are rooms with
bed and rags also. ) you can continue to walk along the ridge to reach the Kodachadri peak.
The peak is known for its sunset view.
Distances and time The distance from road head to vollur is around 4 Km and it
took one and half hour for us. From vollur to rest house is another three which we covered in
two and half hours. From the rest house to Kodachadri peak should be less than 2 Km. We took
another route to see a stream which took little more time. The main road should not take 1 hour also.
Food and shelter If you are planning to stay at kodachadri, you need not carry
tent as other than rest houses there are other small shelters also, where people do stay.
There is a small hotel also which can give you basic food. Other than this point it may not be
wise to stay, as it is a reserve forest and water points are not on the road.
NOTE : From kodachadri, we went to Jog falls. As we got all the busses without
waiting at any of the middle points, we could see the falls and come back to shimmoga just
in time to catch the train to bangalore. Here is the timings and distances ( roughly ).
Do not expect to be as lucky as we were.
Road head near vollur to Hosnagar 50 Km. ( from kollur, 63 Km.) There are busses from
kollur at 9:30 and 10:45 am.
Hosnagar to Sagar : 32 Km. We got a direct bus to Jog at 12:15. Jumped from one bus to the other :)
Sagar to Jog : around 25 Km.
Jog to Sagar : Got a bus at 6:00 pm. Reached Sagar around 7:15pm
Sagar to Simogga : Again jumped from one bus to another. 72 Km. Reached shimogga at 9:10pm.
For going down we took around 25 minutes. Coming up somehow we managed in 35 minutes. BTW, we have the rucksacks on our back.
Yet to be visited.
Yet to be visited.
We had a small outing to a lake side near ooty. The place was good
but we faced a lot of problem in the trip. So I am keeping some information
about that place which can help you if you ever happen to go.
Always keep one person in the team who can speak tamil
If you have to go to the reserved forest get permission from the forest
office in Ooty.
