Malnad 2023 - A perfect monsoon escapade

 

Monsoon in Western Ghats is meant to be explored. One has to get outside, soak in the rain and walk amidst the clouds. Yes, there are leeches but they only suck the bad blood :) Once you accept the sight of blood coming out, slimy creatures crawling inside your shoe cracks, you realize that it is not painful, then, it is just another part of nature and the whole idea in the first place is to soak yourself in nature. 

This was an Eid long weekend and it was known that everyone from BLR is traveling. There are certain areas in Western Ghats which are insanely crowded that instead of enjoying nature, it sometimes becomes a walk through metro train. So, the place that you choose becomes very important. The irony is not lost on me that I am part of the problem of this man-in-nature and this blog is going to make unknown places more discoverable, but hey, there is a price to pay to travel in India and one has to be selective about it. 

We decided to travel to Kodachadri/Nittur region. Shimoga/Sharavati valley is something that I was meaning to explore for sometime. Kodachadri's views are something that I wanted to see for a long time. This was anyways a plan hatched 10 days before the travel time, so places were sold out. Fortunately, we found a nice Airbnb - Haalkere homes. 

Day 1 - BLR to Sharavati valley

We left BLR at around 4:20 am with all luggage packed in our i10 car (equivalent to Thar for us :) ) Breakfast was at Upadhyay veg Chitradurga which can be avoided. Not a great start food-wise. We were little hungry and this place was rated well on G-maps. But, it was not the case. 

Our first stop was at Tunga Bhadra Sangama Kudli - a place where rivers Tunga and Bhadra join. It is a beautiful place with a 9th century era clean temple next to it. But our experience was marred since the Sangama was littered with idols, trash from Puja etc. This should have been an extreme serene place, it is a serene place but we have kind of destroyed its natural calmness. I did not enjoy this place as much as I would have liked to. 

We stopped for lunch in Hosanagar. The highest recommended place was closed and a Udupi aahara thali had a match stick dipped in the dal. So, we ditched it and our it looked like that this will be a bad-food-trip. Weended up a hole-in-the-wall place called Malnad mess and catering, and it was very a homely authentic Malnad food with thin and soft Akki roti, Jowar roti, hot sambhar and very tasty palaya (sabzi). Our food fate just turned.

For stay, our Airbnb was about 45 mins from Nittur, base town for Kodachadri. Haalkere homes, is right at the banks of Sharavati valley/back-waters and I have been meaning to visit this place for about 10 years now. Get-Beyond-Limits was an outdoor trek organizer (they have shut shop now :( ), they had this trek to Sharavati valley and their cover photo had this back water with dead wooden trees standing erect with black crows sitting on them. This imagery amidst green forest always wanted me to travel here. It is amazing how a photo seen a decade ago can leave such a subconscious impression. 

Sharavati valley was dry - a sign that rainfall has not been enough this year. The good part here was that now we could walk on this valley floor and it was soft, muddy. We did a short 3-4km walk. There were no other people, just the two of us walking with forests on the left and right banks, with slight drizzle, it was surreal. 

Haalkere homes is a rustic no-frills homestay where our warm hosts served authentic local Malnad cuisine. Malnad meal is a two course dinner - first is Roti with paalya (sabzi) and next course is rice, sambhar, rasam. We relished it. Homestay is decent, but we were expecting toileteries, towels etc but we had to buy them. 

Day 2 - Kodachadri

There is no network at Haalkere homes, thankfully they had wifi to make some internet calls. Thankfully our homestay owners had booked us a Jeep to take us to the top of Kodachadri. Day 2 started with a homemade dosas, sambhar, chutney and then a drive to Nittur. 

Nittur is a small town and our driver met us on the road, just guessing that we would arrive at the intended time. I just love it when folks show up on time, old-school coordination - time and place is all that is needed. No calls to further coordinate. 

There are two ways to enjoy western ghats - One for the views (Oct onwards) and one for the weather (monsoon). 

Kodachadri can be trekked to the top with a 8Km long trail but we took the Jeep and walked the last 1.5 kms. It was full misty but the trek was enjoyable. We were walking through the clouds :) There is a temple on top of Kodachadri with decent footfalls, we saw lot of families, old Aunties in Saris, walking this narrow trail to get to the top. With trekking pole, anti-leech socks, we were definitely over dressed :) leading to good stares. 

By the time. we came back to the car, clouds cleared up a bit. Our luck with mist continues to be there . Fortunately, there was a spot (known as Shooting point) where we could get some good views 

After getting down from Kodachadri, we went to have lunch at Annapurna hotel in Nittur. We got company of a stranger who had come solo and was ok to join us. Post lunch, we went to Hidlumane falls. 

Hidlumane falls trail is something, our driver said that falls have multiple steps and after 2nd step, you will have to use rope to climb. It was insanely slippery and Kanishka after seeing the trail decided to return after the first two steps. I was looking for ropes only to realize that these are roots of trees that can be used as ropes. I made the daring call to climb up and go to the main fall. Water flow was not that much, again not much rains. It was a difficult trail, slippery but I managed to do it

Kanishka drove us back to the homestay, from Nittur to Haalkere homes, her first time in ghats and rain. Dinner was same but this time, it was beetroot Sambhar. 

Day 3 - Kaveledurga fort 

Breakfast was homemade Katori idlis. We stopped at Annapurna again to have their Mangalore buns but that was a disappointment. Day 3 plan was to visit Kaveledurga fort and then night stay at Elephant camp, Jungle lodges. 

Drive to Kavaledurga fort was really good, scenic and very few cars. We really loved the fort, it was a perfect mix of hike, awesome views, walking in rain, stony trail, forest trail.  It was a 2k+1km hike one way, 2km to get to the fort and 1Km from there to reach to the top point. We stopped near the fort first to get some good views

After the fort, there is trail that goes to the top of the hill. Very beautiful trail and easily doable. When we started to climb, it was clear sky but by the time we reached the peak, weather gods smiled and gave us a cloudy experience. 

Kavaledurga is a nice excursion and one I would highly recommend. 

Lunch was at Tirthahalli at cafe Mayura. Okay-ish lunch. We drove to Sakrabyle elephant camp and reached there by 4 pm. At this point, I wanted to relax and I decided to skip all the Jungle lodge activities - walk, see elephants etc. Sakrabyle Jungle lodge is neat, well maintained and living within forest. Stay-wise, it is very good. Activity-wise, no way close to River tern :) (Yes, I will compare)

I relaxed on the hammock, read some book and then slept early. Next day morning, we left early to reach BLR by lunch time. We wanted to have Sunday evening to relax and get back to routine. 

This was a perfect monsoon escapade with lot of walks in rain. Ponchos, trekking poles had the highest ROI. So happy to have done it this season and maybe one such trip has to happen every year. Also, Kodachadri deserves one more trip to see the views :)