Kodachadri

Date of visit: 09 Aug 2008
Country: India
Major Places visited: Kodachadri, Kollur
Photos: HikeUpToKodachadri

Have you though of a trek where you need to climb green mountains get drenched in pouring rain cross streams and walk past waterfalls? And have you wondered where you would get this thrill to set your heart to thump with every step you take. If you dont know the answer, let me enlighten you. Its Kodachadri.

Kodachadri is a mountain peak (altitude - 1343 m above sea level) in the Western Ghats in South India (Karnataka State). The name is a corruption of the Sanskrit word "Kutakachalam." Kodachadri forms a picturesque background to the famous temple of Mookambika in Kollur. Situated in the middle of the Mookambika National Park, it is home to several endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna. Tha rain forests loom in a perpetual layer of mist around the peak.

This peak is where 'Shankaracharya' did meditation. You will find a Sarvajna Peetha of Sri Shankaracharya at the top.

Adi-Mookambika temple at Kodachadri village is believed to be the moola sthana (the origin) of Sri Mookambika Devi.

Four of us set out on Friday night to Kollur from Bangalore Majestic bus stop. If you want to enjoy one of the joyrides without having to go to Wonderla, sit on the last seat of the KSRTC Rajhamsa bus. You will never ever want to go to Wonderla again. Thankfully we were seated in the middle of the bus, but could feel the 'fun' of the back seaters.

The bus reached Kollur at 6:30 am on Sat. We checked in a hotel, refreshed and headed for the Mookambika Devi temple. It is believed that Adi Shankara perceived the idea of having a Mookambika Devi temple at Kollur and himself installed the idol of deity in the temple some 1200 years ago.

We were done with the temple visit by 11 and we took an auto to go to Nittur. The distance from Kollur to Nittur is about 15 - 18 kms. The route is laced with beautiful waterfalls and enchanting scenery. We stopped by at one of the waterfalls and the water there is very refreshing. All the tiredness and the discomfort from the night trip just about disappears.

We reach Nittur by 12:15. Akshay, had already found out a guide and he met us at the busstop. He took us thru a trail we will never forget in our entire lifetime.


We started at 1:00 and started moving towards the mountain. The weather was dull but pleasant. We were hoping for some light rains. Just as we crossed a small stream it started raining incessantly. With no shelter close by we just trudged along. The greenery around hits your your eyes. I had seen these many shades of green only on the Asian paint pamphlets. We walked thru green fields, with slush all over over legs, thru the waterfalls that had so much water, it made us wonder why the government does not channelize it in better way to reach the thirsty Bangalore, thru the sparkling streams, thru the ever green grass we marched on for 5 hours. This place has a ton of leaches and you will not even know when one bites you. When one of us got bitten we were excited, because not all of us had seen a leach before. But by the time we took our first halt after climbing for 2 hours, we noticed that we had at least 15- 20 leaches stuck on each our legs. The only way to get rid of them is to put some rock salt on them, or if you have fire light set it on fire and kill it. With the rains, there is no fire. We had salt. And it was getting over fast. The only thing to do was to walk on and don't see what on your leg and where it has reached.

The guide I think was a goat in his previous life, a mountain goat that too. He could climb the mountain with an umbrella in one hand and packet in the other. He is a Kannada speaking guy and really knows his way up. It was a good thing he was there. There are two routes to reach the top of the mountain. The easier route is a well laid out one, which Satheesh had already gone thru and he says it possible to do in 2 hours. 2 hours is reason we said ok for this trip. But it turned out that the guide had some other plans. He took us thru a route which was much more difficult and dangerous. This route has streams, waterfalls, paddy fields, step slopes, over the edge climbing and rapid water flows, all the adventure which a true hiker will want in any trip he does. And our guide gave it to us all in just 5 hours.

We reached the peak at 6. There is a PWD guest house there. There were some other hikers there already who had come thru the easier way and were saying its tough. We were imagining what tough was and smiling. They had not experienced tough. The guest house was damp all over the place with no electricity. They had solar heater for the water, but with wet weather and no sun no hot water. We were soaking and all our spare clothes we carried were all wet. Thank fully we got cots to sleep on with blankets. And we happy to get those for Rs. 150/- per person. But our happiness didnt last too long when we noticed that the cots were also damp and the cots were broken with the base of the cots not being there. So we had to sleep on the the edges. Thankfully the house keeper of the guest house had another set of warm blankets.

HOT Rice Sambar pickel and rasam....have you ever had anything better? climb for 5 hours with very little food and this is like best meal you have had. And eat did we. Like hungry animals gorging on the food, we ate and ate. Ravi had packed a lot of energy biscuits and energy drink. we had already finished this on our way up. We needed the energy to climb.

Ravi had also got some candles, and it was pretty funny to see him try to dry his clothes over the heat of the candles. But he didnt give up and did manage to dry up a t-shirt. The rest of us used the damp clothes and went to sleep, too tired to even think of drying over the candles.

Next morning we had upit, and rice dish for breakfast. Tea and coffee thankfully was flowing. we went to a small temple near the guest house. It was unfortunate we could not go to the place where Adi Shankar had meditated. It was about 2 kms away and there was no way we could go there with the rains still pounding.

The trip downhill was another adventure in the Mahindra jeep we hired. With approximately no road, the driver was able to take us down in one piece and in an hours time. The bumpy ride really shock the insides and took my stomach for a roll. The driver charged us 1000/- and I know it was worth it.

We went back to Kollur, and boy were we glad to have the nice bed to sleep on. 5 pm we went to the Mookambika temple and at 7:00 pm we were in the bus bound for Namma Bangaloru. Amazing trip.

Things to remember
1) Take rock salt - put some salt in a cloth and take. You can run this on the leeches and it will fall off.
2) Take plenty of water and food.
3) Make sure you have your spare clothes in a plastic bag.