Second highest peak in Karnataka was still pending on my list, and I decided to finish this one by making it the first one among the series of monsoon treks that I have planned for the year. With help of Niranjan, I organized this trek through Bangalore Adventurers, and a total of 20 of us were all set to leave on Friday night.
The most special thing about our group was that we were 13 women among 20 - something that happened for the first time with me in these 2 years of travel saga! There were also 3 kids among us, (under 18 I mean) and it was a kind of family group. After introduction and some briefing, we settled down on our seats in the minibus for sleep, while the bus moved towards our destination - Virajpete.
Day 1, June 3rd: (Trek to Tadiyandamolu peak and back)
We reached Virajpete at 4:20 AM. We had to pack breakfast and lunch from a hotel, and we had to wait till the hotel opened. We thus slept in bus till 6 AM. W then got the food packed, and we continued the journey in our minibus to Nalkunaadu Palace. We hired a jeep for all our backpacks and cooking items, and a couple of girls went in the jeep, while the rest of us walked till Thammayya's house, which was about 3 km from palace. We reached his house around 10 AM.
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| Virajpete to Kaakabbe road |
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| Nalkunadu palace from where trek started |
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| A small water stream while walking to Thammayya's house |
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| Road to Thammayya's house |
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| On the way |
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| On the way |
We got freshened up quickly, had breakfast and got ready to leave. At 11 AM sharp, we started our trek. It was cloudy and cool, but it wasn't raining. Initially for about half km, it's jeep trail, and then it was open grassland. It started drizzling, and the visibility was too low because of fog all around. We kept trekking up, and it was not steep or difficult, and thus the group was fast enough.
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| Group pic before start of trek |
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| Initial smooth road |
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| Amidst grasslands |
With a couple of rest times in between, we reached the forest trial, which lasted for about 500 mts, and this stretch was the steepest one. It wasn't that difficult, but it did provide us some protection to the non-stopping rain. We finally made it to peak at 1:10 PM. (Could not take any pics on peak since it was raining continuously)
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| On the way to peak |
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| Almost neat the peak |
Weather was too good, and it was very cold, but the fog was so thick that we couldn't even see 50 mt beyond where we stood. We thus didn't get slightest chance of the seeing view form the peak. Kind of disappointed, we had our lunch, and since it was raining still, we decided to start the trek down, though we had enough time in hand.
There was water now flowing on the trek path, and we had no choice but walk along with the water. It was now slippery almost all along the route, and thus our progress was a little slow. Anyway, we all came back to Thammayya's house at 4:30 PM. We changed into fresh clothes, and settled in the kitchen for a chat and a round of snacks. We then got things ready for cooking. Most of the girls involved in cooking, while the rest of them started playing cards. It was 8 PM when the bisibelebath got ready. By the time we finished dinner with a lot of laugh and chat, the rain had finally given a break, and the weather was clear and cool. We thus went out for the campfire set up by Thammayya. Our junior most members - Kumar's daughters danced and sang for us, and we spent some time chatting. No stars were seen, since it was too much cloudy. Everyone started to get inside the house to sleep, while few of us decided to go for a short walk, and we went not more than 100 mts from house (it was pitch dark, and the jungle around was also thick) We spent some 20 minutes, and came back near the house, and finally when it was 10 PM, we went to sleep.
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| Thammayya's house |
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| Kitchen on Thammayya's house |
Day 2, June 4th: (Visit to Talacauvery temple and back to Bangalore)
We woke up at 6 AM, freshened up and got things ready to cook Maggi. We were ready by 9 AM, and after putting our backpacks in jeep, we walked to the palace. After 30 minutes of walk, we reached our bus, and started our short journey towards Talacauvery temple. We reached there at 11 AM.
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| Thammayya's garden's flowers |
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| On the way back to minibus |
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| On the way back to Minibus |
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| Talacauvery temple |
The location of this temple is just too good, with amazing view around and hills right behind. Though it was cloudy, it wasn't raining .The temple was decently crowded, and we came out after darshan in 30 minutes. We then had a few road side stuffs like cucumber, mango, chips, bajji etc since the cold weather had made us hungry, and also the weather was too tempting for hot and spicy items. We then started towards Madikeri at 12 PM.
We reached Hotel Atithi in Madikeri city at 1:30 PM and had lunch. Then a few people went to shop for some spices, while we had ice cream and waited for them all to return. It was 2:45 PM when we were all back to bus and we started. We then had a feedback session, asking everyone to share their experience of the trek. Many of them were first timers and all of them had enjoyed it very much. With that, we all settled down for a round of nap, while a few of them were chatting. We gave a short break at Adigas in Maddur at around 6 in the evening, and then we reached Bengaluru at 9:45 PM.
Another destination in western ghats was thus accomplished, with a bunch of awesome people!
