Coorg in monsoon...The Scotland of India
It was coorg calling this monsoon. We planned our first monsoon trek-trip outside Sharavathi on 30/31st July weekend. Coorg or Kodagu (originally called Kodaimalenadu) means 'dense forest on steep hill'. Dubbed as the Scotland of India, this place has a lot to offer to the tourist. Misty hills, lush forest, acres and acres of tea and coffee p
lantation, orange groves, undulating streets and breathtaking views are what make coorg an unforgettable nature lovers destination.Coorg is on the Western Ghats. Set amidst verdant valleys, imposing mountains and teak wood forests, this is one of the most beautiful hill stations you can visit. It lies on Karnataka's southwestern end, covering an area of 4,102 sq km.The river Cauvery originates here at
Talacauvery and is worshipped by the locals.Our group policy is to explore new nature trails and experience it rather than going to regular trails. This motto leads us to explore new trails now and then. So we explored this particular trail about an year back. Heroor cave hill is an amazing hillock.
Nature is at its best. What makes interesting is it has all hues of nature. It has beautiful lakes, awesome green grass lands, rocking rock formation and a cave in this rock formation. The 360 degree view of western ghat is just awesome. This time we added bit of excitement to the trek experience by adding rafting activity in river cavery o
n day 2. As usual floating on brimming cavery gives us a amazing experience.
As planned we hired a
vehicle and started off on friday (29th July 2011) late night. After introducing each other, we slipped in to deep sleep. NH 48 road is awesome till CR pattana. Later the SH is too good till Arakalagud. But later its nightmare till Shanivarsante. We reached earlier than we planned. As it has rained heavily, local roads are worst condition. But our driver never complained. We reached our friends house where planned to stay for the night. Our cook, Dharma had arrived on previous day and had prepared the nice breakfast. It was masala idli and masala vada. It was apt combination for the chill weather!! :). We just got freshen up quickly and finished breakfast. Got ready quickly and started off.
Traveled till trek starting point and sent off the vehicle. Initially the trail was inside an coffee estate.
As we progressed, the trail was infested by leeches. But it was not as bad as sharavathi. But my formula of amruthanjan as leech repellent worked wonderfully. But some who had not applied had the music. Later they too were forced to apply it and escape the leech wrath :). On the trails we came across the first lake of many lakes in the are
a. It was so beautiful to see the brimming lake. Had a photo session and continued the trek.After we crossed the estate, we came across a small hillock. The hillock had a great black rock formation. But some greedy people and politicians had started the granite mining and now hillock looks so bruised. This is where we had a protesting rally way back in 2006 against mining. It was a great successful and mining had to be stopped. But by then damage was done. The view of hill range is picturistic from this place. We just stopped there for a while and started off towards cave hill.
The trail was so slippery after bounty full rain.
Many slipped and had a great fall!. On the way we came across couple of beautiful streams and it was time for refreshing with spring water. We found another beautiful lake on the trail. This was mother of all lakes in terms of beauty. We spent lot of time seeing the beauty of lake and surrounding nature. Continued the trek towards the peak. The trail was awesome with lots of green grassland. So uphill trail did not strain us.
After a steep climb, we could see the green grass land surrounded peak. All of us reached the peak and we were spellbound by the beauty. It was green grassland, with heavy mist covered. We just sat down for a while and had some photo session. In monsoon, it always rains there in the peak. It just started raining, so we trekked towards the cave. We could not see the full view of the valley from peak as it was covered with mist.
It was difficult for me to locate the way down to the cave coz weed had covered the way. Finally i was successful and we started going down. It was so slippery. Entry to the cave is so narrow, most of us had difficulty to pass through. Everyone managed to sneak through the narrow entry. People from villages have installed a god in this cave. So they com
e once a while to do pooja. These people have littered the cave. I decided to plan for a clean up drive sometime in summer. Spent some time in the cave and decided trek back as we were so hungry. We trekked up the peak and started coming down the hill. There is a huge lake on the peak. Its so picturistic. This is where our cook dharma was preparing lunch. It started raining like hell broke. But dharma had made a temp shelter with a tarpaulin. We were not ready to wait till rain to stop for having lunch. So we just pulled out our plates and went inside temp shelter and had stomach full..It was a nice hot hot sambar and rice!. Drumstick sambar was yummy!!.
After the lunch we did not wait as it was still raining with less intensity. So we started trek down the hill. On the way we found another lake which i have nick names as "spatica sarovar" I called this is so coz the water is so clear even when its raining. Normally when it rains, water will be muddy with rain water. We spent couple of moments there and trekked down the hill to reach the waiting vehicle. We reached the pickup point and traveled back to the house where we planned to stay. Got freshen up, by then our snacks, hot chilly bajji and tea was ready. We had some chatter time by then dinner was ready. We had dinner. As usual it was tasty dinner. As we were tired to the core, decided to have a sound sleep.
Woke up early morning, freshened up quickly. By then dharma had prepared "akki rotti and badane kaayi chutni !!". It was again mouth watering breakfast. Our host Raji offered us orange which were from his estate. Oranges were so fresh. We lost no time and packed off. We traveled to Dubare straight. Some wanted to go to elephant camp, so we fixed our rafting later.By then dharma went to a house and was preparing lunch.Everyone came back from elephant camp and we started the rafting. Every one were so excited. It was more exciting when our instructor said we can have dip in over flowing cauvery!!. I just lost no time and dived. I almost swam for a KM or so. Though there were very few rapids, it was nice experience floating on brimming cauvery river. It was drizzling all along the rafting. So it was shivery cold. We packed off from there and reached a house where dharma was preparing lunch. Changed the dress and had lunch. As we wanted to reach bangalore bit early, we started off from dubare. Reached bangalore by 10PM. It was an another enchanting monsoon experience in western ghat.
Full photo album from Murali Camera can be found in the fallowing link,
NOTE:- This weekend trek route is Veegi falls ---> Melnur --> Kanoor Fort ---> Hebbayana keri --> kanoor. For the itinerary pls check the fallowing link. http://sharavathi.blogspot.com/2011/01/trek-on-2223rd-janurary-2011.html
Please let me know if anybody wants join us for this trek ASAP
