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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

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