Coorg Trek

On last Saturday [Nov 11, 2006] we, a group of 21, trekked to “Tadiyandamol ” peak in Coorg hills. It is the second highest peak in Karnataka which is 1751 meters above the sea level. We started our journey from Kembagowda bus station Bangalore. Journey to Madikkeri was a 6 hour over night experience. We reached there by 5’o clock morning. After doing refreshments, took bus to Napoklu.. bus passed Kekkebe and we had to get down at palace bus stop, its around 5 minutes after Kekkebe. We couldn’t see any shops in this bus stop, we knew this earlier and we had stocked enough food.

We started walking at 8.45 morning… out first base station was palace; history says that it was built in 17’s. We resumed our journey after spending some time near that palace. Some of us were fast in climbing, they lead us. Arvind was the main attraction of the trek; this was his tenth trek to Tadiyandamol. He has a fare amount of experience that he shared with us and sometimes he was silent. He is very much supporting and encouraging the group.

Our second resting point was a rock, it’s around half way I seems. There is a water stream near by, we filled our bottles. It was really amazing to jump over the rocks and to up the stream with Jene John. The shape and various colours of rocks with small trees and shrubs grown on both sides gave spectacular scenery to that stream. Water was really cold and the rocks are slippery too. After thirty minutes of rest, we resumed our walk. The remaining part was hard and at the same time most beautiful… we felt steepness slowly increased that we couldn’t step easily from one leg to another. I was trying to enjoy jumping from one stone to another… the pack moved steadily and in a rhythm.., half way, when we reached a fence made of stones, we had some biscuits and chocolates… quantity was more than enough. With in five minutes, we entered the jungle, it looks to be rain forest and the path was narrow… We couldn’t see any animals there, but Aravind said we could see elephants in summer (April, May) as they come down in search of water.

With in one hour, we conquered the peak.. time was 12.20 pm. The peak is approximately 7Km from the palace bus stopWe could see all around, Arvind was naming the near by peaks..sorry I don’t remember their names. He explained his terrible experiences he had in one his three days trek in 1980’s. One major attraction of the peak was the 360 degree view since it is the tallest among the near by peaks. One main scene was a bird, which kept balancing in air for minutes. I don’t remember its name though. We had full fledged lunch there; every one shared their own packs among all of us. Food was surplus but we managed to complete it and it was interesting to see every one caring to keep plastic and other wastes in a separate cover.

We started moving down by 2pm. I felt it was more difficult to move down and is hard to balance. We found time to spend some time in the stream near that rock. We reached bus stop by 5.15pm. Every thing went fine as scheduled till now. Reached Madikkeri by 7.30 pm. We had our dinner there, visited one temple there. We returned Bangalore by 11pm.

It was really a wonderful experience to spent one day in this trek. There is lot more to conquer in nature.