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Thadiyendamol(Kudagu : I am the tallest) : Op "I am taller"

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Friday, 26 September 2008 13:26
Thadiyendamol which means "I am the tallest" in local kudagu language at 1746 meters above sea level is the highest peak in Coorg district of Karnataka, and the second highest in Karnataka, first being the Mullayanagiri in Chickamaglur district. From the sea this peak is supposed to provide a landmark to sea travelers towering majestically over the lesser peaks This is the first trek I took after silent valley this year. Yeah long break!! September is not the most ideal time to try trekking to Thadiyendamol. The reason being the hills can get all misty and the visiblity drops to 5-10 meters. making triangulation of your position v v difficult. I left from my office at 6:30 PM Friday 5/9/08 and took my bike to sid's startup disco. We didn't buy tickets in advance this time. Sandy my long time trek buddy bought them at the last moment and told me the bus was at 10:45 PM. I took off to visit sid's startup disco party carrying my backpack with me. I hanged around there for a while and discussed my ideas with the other entrepreneurs and took off to majestic at 9 pm. Sandy was already there with his backpack. Bummer!! our bus got canceled. We talked to an incharge and he was helpful enough to get us on to another bus to Virajpet at 11. This bus took us to this town of Virajpet which is around 30 KM from Kakabe, the next stop. We waited for the next bus to Kakabe and took a short nap on the bus stand's cement chairs till around 6 AM Saturday. The auto guy ripped us by another 250 bucks since the next bus to Kakabe was quiet some time away. From Kakabe its a muddy jeep track all the way up to one of the estates. We started walking. After some time we saw two boards for honey valley estate(3Km and 3.5 Km). We took the 3.5 KM route and reached a crossing near a huge waterfall. There we took a left to a upwards track and continued walking till we reached honey valley. Honey valley estate here seems to be one of the more popular estates here( Others being King's, a little more expensive and a Home Stay) and it is usually full. It was full when we reach there too, full of firangs and yuppies. It seems they were all here since some time as they all seemed to know each other. We had some nice Coorgi coffee at the estate and a decent breakfast. I met the estate owner and asked him for directions to Thadiyendamol. He told us about the two ways to reach there. First way is supposed to be an easy way where the jeep leaves u almost at the base of the peak and u climb up. The other way is a trek through the jungles and peaks. We chose the second way. He was concerned about us taking the trek through the jungles in that weather as it is not supposed to be a usual trekker route. We asked him to draw a map for us but he said it wouldn't help much(It turned out he was wrong bout that). Then I asked him to lend us a compass, but he didn't have that either.(I broke my compass on the silent valley trek). So we decided to risk it and try just remembering the directions. Please note that for those going further I won't be able to give actual NEWS directions to Thadiyendamol since we never carried a compass. First we hiked through the tea estate up to reach a jeep track. A short distance from there we reached a sort of U-turn where we see mud paths marked a,b,c,d,e,f. Here we took the f path. This path takes us all the way up to the first hill. At this hill we see a beautiful waterfall in the distance. It had rained the night before so the whole path was full of small puddles and was v slippery. After around 2 hours we reached the first summit, took a few pics and moved on. Soon we saw a ridge and walked all the way to the end of the ridge.at this point we saw the stream deep down in the valley. We took a left and descended into the valley( note that the path disappears at this point) and looked for a place to cross it. after some looking around we found a crossing point and went up this other hill. This is here our first problems started. We had made good time and it was a quick walk but soon the mist started to envelop the whole area, combine that with no compass or a map of any kind and u r truly lost. You see, even if u don't have a compass you can figure out the directions by looking at the hills and topography around, but in a mist that is not possible. So we lay on the hills hoping the mist would pass, but no luck. We thought we were as screwed as screwed could get, but in a moment it started raining. there was one four letter word that formed in our minds FUCK!!. No rain-jackets or tent. So we do the best thing (or worst) we could do. We decide to carry on. since it was misty and we could only see the peak we were on, we tried to figure out a direction of some sort. Me and Sandy disagreed on directions totally, since we always go by my way in treks, we decided to trek by Sandy's direction. half an hour later we had trekked a near vertical surface sideways just beyond the hill we were on, hanging on to grass and small trees with our hands and resting our feet on the smallest rock edges to reach a point where this huge bad ass rock stared us in our face. FUCKed again!! hanging on for dear life we go all the way sideways back to the last hill. Sandy wondered how his sense of direction could screw him so badly. He joked how he had a feminine sense of direction, and how his last GF was better than him. So it was time to try my way. Well not exactly my way cuz I had changed my mind about what could be the correct path hehe. Yeah, we were that badly screwed up!! Mist was still holding and it didn't look like it was gonna subside, so we went back the ridge we came on or at least tried to, till we came across this cattle path. This was a signal that we were wrong again(In tracing our path back) and also a signal that . . well, we found a path. So off we go on the cattle path. Thing to be noted here is that all those path cattle can travel, men can't go all those places. We got into a dense forest with thick mud with our boots sinking allmost half length deep in. But at this point we didn't care. At two points we had to go on our hands and knees, crawling to move under the dense forest foilage. soon we came across open land, and saw a peak. mist was holding but this looked like a tall peak, in reality we didn't have a stinking clue since we could neither see the surrounding hills nor the plains/valleys below. We took a path down further from there to realize that we were on the hill we started at!!! yeah we had walked all through the forest just to find a cattle path that took us full circle. Looks like I have a feminine sense of direction too . . . :\| We removed the ton of small leeches and a few big ones sticking to our legs, hands and bodies,(courtsey crawling in the mud). By now it was 3 PM and still raining, we knew how to get back from here, so we decided to call it a day and trekked back to the estate from where we came from. We talked to the owner of the estate on the way going around in his jeep and told him our story. He said we had actually made it very close to the peak but just didn't touch it, he was impressed by our courage, daring and such and even offered to make arrangements for us saying again how dangerous it was to trek there in a weather like this. He let us stay in a 5 bed cottage and we dined with some firang chicks. Back here at the estate there were some yuppies playing cricket and stupid games. In the evening over some food and fluids at the estate we talked about how this was the first trek where we weren't able to make it to the destination. We had ordered Coorgi pork at the estate and some nice stuff. Promising to ourselves to return soon. We retired for night, woke up, had some nice Coorgi coffee and took a bus to virajpet and from there back home :) all in all a very exciting trek, i would rate it just below OG, and counting the weather in I might even rate it higher. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Shantanu Bhadoria-thandiyendamol-coorg-bangalore-trek
Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 October 2009 11:28

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Gokarna Kumta : Op Deep Splash 2

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Monday, 08 September 2008 17:22
Ok I somehow missed writing the travelogue for this trip here so today while browsing oneiro's site i came across this one written by him. He is still a great writer, so I am burying the copyright act and pasting the entire thing in its entirety or whatever :) Plagiarism Karne wale, tera mooh kaala "The first project in 2007.Have a very abstract plan,go to a couple of beaches,look for some stuff and come back. Team of 4.Shaggy joins me and i take 2 souls who have no idea of whats coming up. We take the 9pm bus to Gokarna,get the last 4 seats.Bus guru robs us 400 rs each.A long long journey.Stops in between,plenty of breaks.Kumta by 8ish and Gokarna by 9.15am on Saturday morning.We start the 9km hike from the bus stand to Om Beach. We are on the lookout for charitable signs for talcum powder.We spot green 5 kms into the trekk,bags reward in return of 200 rs and march along.11:30 and we are at the Om Beach. Its not the modest beach you hear in blogspot.KF cans littered everywhere,groups doing booze party every 70m.Saving grace is a European looking restaurant who rapes us with a 140 rs bill for breakfast.We walk past a [V] channel crew ad'ing,a bar filled with indian youth grazing the boundaries of [V] VJ's and a very active booze session of youngsters discussing Karnataka politics.Tired,hungry,we jump into the sea and relax.Come out,smoke,get back into the water,come out,chat,water,come out...2ish,we enter the now deserted bar.3 KF's are consumed,we play with a friendly cat and say goodbye to Om Beach. A hard part of the trekk,only firang's and trekkers seem to come out of Om Beach.A majestic hill starting from Om Beach takes you along the shores and into the next beach.A very deserted one,cleaner sand and clean waters.Its very hot and we move along.A couple more hills and we reach Paradise.Again,quite unlike blogspot comments.A very small beach,2 huts.We take naps which turn into full blooded sleep.4pmish,we wake up and take the forgotten lunch.Sea beckons,some jump in,some sleep.Another big hill and a cargo ride will take us to Kagal,the next one in target.Kind owner of one of the huts convince us of flagging down one of the village boats and earn us a ride.We sleep in celebration.6pmish,and one boat passes by and we successfully offshore it.Bye bye to the owner,a french guy who looks puzzled all the time with our attire,his wife or the kid who looks puzzled with indian 6-packs and jump into the boat.A Yuva'ian ride in a sea which suddenly looks raging. 20-min ride and we are in Kagal.200 rs and bye bye to the boat.Sun is setting down and we land in time for some more light.Kagal is close to 7km and you can see both the ends.Its a fishing village with a few huts,but huts are concentrated,so you get a still virgin beach. We walk a couple of kms and decide to call the day off.Early dinner.Shots of whiskey.We jump into the sea,skinny dip by the time its absolute dark.Come back,drink and little,roll a joint singing happy birthday to Shaggie.Rare night,a different one,unique.A nice sleep,tired,stoned and puzzled,in sand,overlooking the sea,noone in the near 5km sq rad. We wake up early,pack up and start the jounry to the other end of Kagal.The village is slowly waking up and we exchange hi's with innocent shitters lining up for morning prayers.A long walk right away in the morning.9ish,we reach the other end,take a dip in celebration.Seas are very violent here,we get 15 ft waves.Comes back,walk along and get the first of our hills.This one is high,long.Terrific panorama,we walk briskly.Next beach by 9ish.Another hill,a small one and the sun is up,smiling,heating up.The other end by 10.30ish and its the end.We wind up with a long long bath.Seas are violent again,we get 18 ft waves.Most of us are thrown back to the beach,different experience.We dress back in total sadness and catch the 11.45 bus from the village to Kumta.A long wait for the Shimoga bus at 2.Comes late,Shimoga by 8.Bus to Bangalore by 9 which breaks down in between.Another bus takes us to Bangalore and touchdown by 4am.#2 to JP Nagar and project gets a successful closure at 5pm. Fantastic trekk to start off the year." Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Gokarna-Kumta-India-Karnataka-Beach-Trek-Bangalore-Shantanu
Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 September 2008 14:42

OG Trek Part 2 (solo) : Op Proof of Life

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Wednesday, 17 January 2007 00:00
Before starting off I picked up the topographic map of Ombattu Gudde Map number# 48 P/9/NW from the Survey of India Office at St. John's Hospital road. The map was to a scale of 1:25,000. It was also larger than I expected at around 1.5 Meters in height. I had already bought all other essentials except torch and food. I finished the Toefl Paper I had to give by 7 PM and took off to Sandeep's place where he told me about his condition. I finally decided to do the trek alone as I had originally planned so i took the torch from his place and went to big bazaar to buy two cans of tuna.( Tuna may not smell nice but it is rich in protein and is supposed to be nutritious and stuff). I expected it to last for atleast two days as this time it came with a seal cap to seal the tin if you can't finish it in one go. Wanting to make good time I decided to leave the tent and the sleeping bag which I was gonna get from Sudeep. I took the bus from majestic at 10:45 PM which was way earlier then the last time. Around 5 o'clock in the morning i reached Gundiya check post. I slung my bag over the shoulder and took off along the road. After crossing the a bridge I took a right turn into the forest path this point is supposed to be at the eastern tip of Shiradi Shisla Reserved Forest in(Map section B3). the forest is light initially but soon enough it started to increase in density. The path was easy to follow as i remembered most of it from the last trek. Took my first 15 minute break at 10:00 AM across the stream. Decided to take a look at the Map. This crossing is apparently called Kabbi nale Hole( Map section B3 latitude: 75°34'15'' and longitude: 12°53'45'').I checked my position on my map and took down notes. After refilling two of my water bottles(total of 3 Litres)I started to move along the trail. After sometime walking ahead and after crossing some small brooks i came to a fork( Map Position B3 Latitude : 75°36'15'' Longitude : 12°56'10'')the right one went ahead to the river and left one went to OG. This is the near the point where the general direction of walk changes from around 15° N-E-N to 15° W-N-W. I again checked the Map and compass and moved ahead. the incline had steadily increased to around 30°. This is also the point when I realized for the first time that I was alone for miles in the forest . The adrenaline rush made me push ahead and I walked a 2 hours further till the point where i could see a steep incline . This was the same hill I had climbed on the previous trip however the point of approach was more towards the east. I had three options 1. Climb straight up the incline at a little less then 90° angle but cover a greater distance on the incline.( Longer Climb But Quicker due to less total distance) 2. Move in western direction where I could reach a higher portion of the hill to start the climb.( an indirect approach where I could walk up to a point where the climb starts at a higher altitude and is shorter then the climb from the current position. This would have put me in the same position where I climbed on my last trip and hence slightly familiar territory. 3. Me going along the lower path to the base of OG peak directly and making that climb. I never considered the third option as I had no idea what the base of OG would be like and if it was surmountable from that angle at all. The second option involved more walking but involved lesser climbing. But being safe is not what we trek for and last time I did this trek it was the climb that I found the most thrilling and enjoyable part. So as you can guess that I took the first option. The lower part of the hill was barren and had lesser trees and rocks so I had to be more careful initially but after some distance the cover increased and I was able to hold on to the small trees growing up from the incline. The small trees were growing almost horizontally here from the incline, The peak was not visible from here and my first worry when climbing was that I might find a rock formation or an Steep and Barren Incline near the top that would make it impossible to reach the peak, but since i was already on my way I pushed the doubts in mind away. Near half way up I rested my revolting ass taking support against a tree and took out my notepad to take notes. This was the crazy part when my pen fell down and rolled some 10 meters before stopping against a old termite infested tree trunk. I cursed myself and wondered what to do next. I decided to get the pen back as it was the only one I had and I wanted to write down more notes. Now climbing up a near 90° incline is one thing, But climbing down even 10 meters is a totally different game. Holding on to the tree i lowered myself to get hold of a lower rock and somehow I dragged the pen up with my leg. Once I had the pen safely in my pocket i went back on the tree and completed my notes.Tucking the pen back into my waist band I continued the ascent. My legs had started to pain slightly at the calf but it was nothing close to the excruciating pain i had in my hamstrings last time and was definetly bearable. still not wanting to take chances I moved carefully. Few slight slips and I reached close to the peak which thankfully still had elephant grass and a few rocks to hold on to while climbing. Elephant grass grows in clusters like shrubs, and the cluster is a good thing to hold on to while climbing if you are wearing gloves like me but you can cut your fingers if you don't wear gloves here. They hardly provide a reliable foot hold for your legs which I realized after slipping a few times.After reaching the peak I checked my watch It was still 4:30. Starting early from bangalore and Gundia had paid off here. The old place where we had camped was just little before this hill, hardly 100 meters away. I went over the peak to take a look at the old campsite and found that the grass had already recovered at places where we had cut it to make campsite three weeks ago. I relaxed uptil 6:00 and decided to push on since I had no sleeping Bag or tent to protect me at night. It started getting dark very soon and since I have read somewhere that animals don't usually come to peaks but prefer to stay in the valley where there is more vegetation, I decided to make the next stop at the almost barren OG peak. By now I was tired and started taking continuous rest breaks after each fifteen minutes of walk to avoid any muscle pains. By around 8:00 PM I reached the Base of the OG peak where there is another climb up. I switched on the torch as it was close to pitch dark now and checked my spare batteries( two sets of energizer alkaline batteries including the one set in the torch). This climb should have otherwise been an easier climb but it became difficult as I had to hold the torch with one of my hands and periodically flash it to look for a way up. After almost as much time as it took me for a longer and steeper previous climb I finally reached the OG Peak. I was feeling drained by now and drank a good lot of water when there. however I still had atleast a litre left. I realized I also had 180 ML of neat "shark tooth" Vodka in my bag. I took a couple of swags to feel warm and sat down totally winded opened the half can of tuna i finished it clean and put the can in the dump pocket of my bag. I couldn't see the Jeep track which is visble from this point in the darkness but I knew exactly where it was. I decided to try lighting a small fire and warm myself up a little so i collected dry grass and twigs together and lit it after some trials.I didn't look for logs as I was not looking to stay very long at this point and didn't care for a sustaining fire. It was also interesting to note that a fire grown at this point would be visible for miles and some people somewhere must be looking at it. If there were other trekkers in the jungle at that time they might have noticed the fire on their destination peak. My hamstrings which I thought might not have recovered from the Injury during the previous trek were still doing surprisingly well except for the regular stress that I would have anyway felt after all this walking. I lied down there for a while and slept for a short while. When I woke up the fire was already dead and the time was 11:50. I looked for my flashlight and took notes again. I dropped my pen in the grass again but i found it easily this time. Taking cue from the previous trek experience I popped in a pain killer in advance and decided to walk further. Continuing in pitch dark conditions where I was unable to see my feet without a torch I crossed a few small peaks along the ridge line and reached close to the forest. This was where I decided to wait till morning since it is known that wild elephants and bears roam the area at night. I checked my watch and it was exactly 1:00AM. I had made real good time at the expense of doing more walking hours in the day. I was tired but I surprisingly found it difficult to sleep again. Fact that I was beating the earlier trek time encouraged me to go further and I decided to move into the forest. Checking alternately for snakes on the ground and other animals in the forest around me, I moved up inside the forest It was tough seeing the stars and as it happened it was a moonless night so there was no moon. By 4:00 I was at the estate where i offered some vodka to the others there and had some myselfThis made those people very happyI got to hitch a ride straight to mudigere. At around 5:00 I found the first bus to Hassan(I Wonder why do people need a bus in this remote area that early in the morning Tongue out) two hours later at Hassan. and Bangalore by 12:30. Shantanu Bhadoria Reporting to Bangalore at 12:30 hours (21/1/2007) : Mission Accomplished Legs in bad shape and body tired but a victory smile on the face . . . Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Ombattu-Gudde-Sakleshpur-Bangalore-Gundiya
Last Updated on Monday, 08 September 2008 12:56

Ombattu Gudde (Nine Peaks) : Project OG

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Friday, 22 December 2006 00:00
Distance 45 KM Terrain : Hilly (not Rocky) Team : 4 (though I intend to try this alone again this month recommended is a team of more than 3 people) Started this trip on 22nd December. Equipment(Essentials): 1)Compass 2)Hand drawn map(ask me for one) or Google Maps for general directions 3)Food rations for two days( i would suggest filing food(two cans of tuna should be safe. I managed with one but then i didn't get lost) 4)PainKillers(this is imperative. I used five of those when i pulled my ham string they can really help) 5)Torch 6)Sleeping bag. 7)Small tent. 8)Matchsticks or cigarrete lighter For the bonfire. 9)A 2 litre water bottle per person.(this usually does it for the time after the last water source though you may choose to take more) 10)Neosporin Powder for cuts and gashes(Get it at the Chemists dont take antiseptic creams cuz they dont hold your bleeding) 11)Cotton 12)tooth Brush and paste. 13)small bottle of liquid soap(you might have whacked one of those from a hotel)/soap bar. 14)Toilet Paper 15)Leather Gloves) 16)Booze( as much as deemed appropriate) Day1: Bus from Majestic to Gundiya checkpost. Cost us 250 bucks per head cause of the last minute thing but the usual rate is 150. After gundiya checkpost you have to walk some distance on foot along the road till you reach a bridge over stream of clear water. After Crossing the bridge we took a right and walked along the stream for some distance following a rocky trail after some time(2 hours for us) we have to cross the stream to get to the other side.After the attack of the leeches (fill up ur bottles) after around 20 KM of the walk along the trail(headin a general direction of 20 degrees North-west of north). after some time the trail reaches upto a waterfall. ther may or maynot be any water in the fall but you will see a section of rocks(most probably wet) Warning: Dont try to climb those they are wet and slip like Hell and thats where I had one of my falls and cracked my hams inspite of wearing good mountaineering boots. Nyway you will have to find a way to get above from the right side where there is a small trace of a trail. nyway dont look for the trail and just get up there. thats when i ran across the snake. Most of these wont be poisonous but don't take the risk. here you will have to head up in a north direction for around an hour when you get to a point where the hill climb becomes close to 90 degrees for around two KMs. Guess what?? Start Climbing and don't look down if you are scared of heights. If you slip once here you die. No two ways about it. however it is not in the least like rock climbing as most of the time there are trees growing out of the surface and you can take a few seconds of rest with the trees and the terrain is muddy between the rocks. Be careful as with this as some of the trees are not well rooted and if you are heavy like me you they might come off. you can hardly call them trees as they are just a few inches in diameter at trunk. once you reach closer to the top you will find trees get replaced with around 2 feet long elephant grass(Yes that is real short for elephant grass) but if you wear your gloves you can use the grass for grip. with no gloves it might cut your hand.once you reach the top the worst is over. Warnings for the climb : - If somebody falls from above and is coming towards you . Be sorry and get out of the way unless you want to increase KIA count. - you may however form close groups of two to hold push and then pull. - check trees and rocks for stability before you use them. - Don't leave a margin to slip. wear rubber soled boots not slippers or cheap joggers. One guy wore just that and I had to pull him up throughout the climb. - and again don't slip cuz nothing will stop you from a long fall. - wear your gloves and avoid thorny trees. Pitch your tent and camp here. Ideally you should be there by 5:00-5:30PM. Light a bonfire. here is how you go about it: Light a paper then use it to light dry elephant grass then use it to light the small dry twigs. then use them to light the logs. once the logs are on fire your bonfire is safe. collect a stash of dry logs before you light the fire.an average of three logs at a time will keep your bonfire up. now start sleeping taking turns for guard. Warning :Cut the grass around the area of bonfire to avoid starting a forest fire day 2: nothing much left now except an easy climb to the 10 degrees E-N-E two small connected hills later you see a steep climb of around 75 degrees. This one is a piece of cake compared to the last one as its full of elephant grass and the terrain is easy and its only a kilometer or so. save water here though. once you reach the top take a pic of your self cuz you are there. around 25 degrees N-E-N you will see a jeep track on another hill. walk towards the jeep track the way you want to. once there take a right or a left either way you reach one of the two estates and Congratulations you are still alive. Note : Please dont litter and get your empty packs of foods or tins back with you like everyone else. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Ombattu-Gudde-Sakleshpur-Bangalore-Gundiya
Last Updated on Monday, 08 September 2008 12:56

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