Kodaikanal to Munnar

The art of getting lost, as my friend rightly called http://lostinthewinds.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html, this trek was truly unique. We did take few wild choices and luckily none turned out to be life threatening! :)

We started our base camp in a forest rest house next to Berijam lake.

Quoting from "The Art of Getting Lost",

"In the morning we went to the lake, and 'went around' the forest. The lake was peaceful and serene with a large herd of blossomed water lilies on one side. Mani had mentioned there would be an old boat tied somewhere and that we can try it but to be very careful. Nothing on the lakeshore looked like a boat landing. We walked along the shore a bit. Only me, roop, jomy and shanti were there when we found the boat. It looked pretty shaken down, with no oars visible anywhere! But we figured the couple of wooden planks lying inside the boat were supposed to be serving the purpose. I don't think any of us were on anything like this on our own and we were skeptical about whether we should try it or not. We were no rowing experts! But there we were eventually, untying the boat, stepping in hesitantly and pushing ourselves off the shore! roop and jomy were the rowers or oarers, I was the control and shanti was the observer - she was to keep observing if the water level inside the boat was rising enough to cause alarm!"

The important aspect he missed to mention is that none of us can swim in such deep waters and we had no life jackets and no one else other than us knew that we were rowing the boat. Now I think, it was a rouge choice that we made! Nevertheless, the experience out of it was truly unique.

Roop, another dear friend of mine has jotted down his trip thoughts  too - http://blog.knurd.in/2008/01/ex-road-trip.html#more

Roopkund & Kuari Pass trek

In 2009, we a group of 6 guys and as usual, me the lone girl attempted couple of weeks long trek in Himalayas. Typically, Roopkund and Kuari pass trek are not done together as the trekking period lasts to 2 weeks. We attempted to do at one shot and were successful. However, success didn't come easy and we had to push our limits. The memory of the surreal surroundings and the painstaking attempts to reach every day destination still energizes me.

It is been few years since I trekked in Himalayas. But, those memories still brings me chill & thrill. So, once in a while, I keep going back to my friends words at
http://lostinthewinds.blogspot.in/2009/07/roopkund-and-kuari-pass-walking-over.html and relive those moments.

On this trek, we experienced various terrains and passed by many villages filled with fun loving kids and helpful mountain people. We trekked few days on lovely high altitude green grasslands at 11,000 feet. Oh, I still remember the cool winds brushing through me and help me forget all the pain!

From one of our camps, we did a hard climb to the glacial lake, Roopkund at 16,500 feet. The route to the lake was very steep covered with snow and loose rocks. We had to take every step with great caution bearing in mind that with a small mistake, we may roll over at great speed into the valley below. But, this got easier as we kept walking, the fear went off and we started enjoying the breath taking devilish foggy surroundings.

This emerald lake http://lostinthewinds.blogspot.in/2009/07/roop-kund-emerald-lake.html tested my endurance the most and it brought out my true character. The incident gave me more insight into myself.

Quoting the incident from Kumar G's blog

"It was almost 1 O'clock now. Shanti and the rest of the group have not reached yet. I doubted if she will be able to make it. But we waited. At about 1.30 we heard some shouts and Shanti and group emerged from the fog. She had made it finally! In spite of low hemoglobin, and an affliction of altitude sickness, puking and almost running out of steam she had ploughed on and did reach the top, Kudos! And as soon as she reached, she uncontrollably broke down in tears putting us photographers who were ready with flashes in a dilemma of whether to take snaps or not! :-D "

The true self comes out when we get pushed beyond our limits and without fail each of the trek brings out some!

Kotebetta Trek

Over the May 1st long weekend, six of us (Jomy, Roop, Girish, KumarG, Abhi & Me) planned for a trek and decided to climb Kotebetta in Coorg. Kotebette is the third highest peak in Coorg standing at 5451 ft. The grade of this trek is easy and I was fine with it since I hadn't trekked in a long while. KumarG took care of organizing vehicle for travel from Bangalore.

Enroute to Coorg

We started from my place around 12 a.m and then picked up Abhi. As soon as Abhi took his seat in the taxi, he wanted a stop over in one of the CCD on Mysore highway. We stopped at CCD in Maddur at 2 a.m and the place was too crowded! After going through the menu card, each of us came up with cool names like Mochachillo,Tropical Iceberg, Cafe Frappe, Cold Sparkle except for Jomy. He ordered Cafe Mocha. After a long wait in the queue, KumarG found out that only Cafe Frappe is available. We all sincerely agreed to take it. After another long wait, we got our Frappes and found that they were warm! So, we got it exchanged it cold frappes; rather not warm frappes. Even they were pathetic; the worst cold coffee we all ever had. Only Jomy had good experience with his hot Mocha. Rest of us felt it would have been better off having Chai on the road side shop.

Along the way, most of us didn't sleep till 5 a.m. We were yapping on many things and one of the most interesting topic was the places we all wanted to travel in the world. After some time, we realized that we wanted to travel most part of the world! :)

We reached Coorg about 6 in the morning and then we rented a hotel room to sleep for couple of hours and refresh ourselves. We had our late breakfast in Coorg and then started towards Madepura village, about 16Km from Madikeri. From Madapura, we caught the jeep trail to Kotebetta at 12:45 p.m and our trek started from that point.

Climb to the top

On the jeep trail, we walked for about 2-2.5 hours through the coffee plantations and the forests. Along the way, there were lots of jack fruit trees with plenty of fruits. Yummy! We couldn't even attempt having one as the riped fruits were on the top! The route to peak has steep gradients along most of the path; the hot weather made the climb difficult. We walked at a slow pace with good number of breaks. While walking along the trail, we could see Kotebetta standing tall amongst the other small hills. It then seemed very far from the point we were looking at it.


From the jeep trail ending point, we needed to take the forest trail and cross about 3-4 hills to reach Kotebetta. At this point of time, we had run out of most of the water we had carried and was not sure if we would find water at the peak. We didn't find any water source along the way. All we saw were dried out streams. So, we were debating whether to camp at the top for the night. We all then agreed that we would leave our bags at this point and start our climb to the peak. Without our luggage, it would be faster and would be able to be back from the peak, the same evening. We had started our trek only in the afternoon as we had planned to camp on the top!

Meeting our decider

On our way to the top, we spotted movement of some cows; then we looked for some human presence there and could spot a man at far. We knew he is going to be our decider; help to decide whether we can stay at the top or not. We checked with him about the water availability on the top and he mentioned that there are two small ponds. One of it is drinkable and the other is not. We were very thankful to meet him and we decided to climb down to get our bags and then trek again through the hills to reach the top.

Rain Showers

On top of a small hill, we stopped for 5 mins to take a break from the summer heat. It was raining in some parts of the forest which we had already crossed and there were some dark clouds above one of the hills which we had crossed. What we saw then was truly amazing. The huge dark cloud above the other hill started rushing towards us and stopped right above us. We were suddenly encircled by it and it started raining immediately. We all ran towards one of the nearby bush to protect ourselves from getting drenched. The bush couldn't protect all six of us. So Jomy , Roop and me proceeded walking in the rain and started progressing forward. But, as soon as we saw another bush to hide, we three hid there. The other three guys didn't know that and they thought we had already left. So, they came out of the bush and started walking in our direction, only to find we were hiding under some other bush :) They obviously cursed at us! Then we all started walking in the rain. It didn't shower for long; but we all got drenched and it helped us to cool down from the summer heat. We reached the top around 5:45 p.m and it was completely covered with mist. The visibility was too low and we really didn't have any view from the top.


At the top of Kotebetta

On the top, there is a small Shiva temple with short stone wall boundary and a small tree within its boundary. The temple is still under worship and we could see the coins offered to Lord Shiva and his Nandi. But, obviously as soon as we reached the top, before exploring the temple, the boys went in search of water and found two small pond like water source next to a small white building. After a short analysis, they found which one could be used for drinking; but, it is drinkable only after it is boiled. Anyway, Abhi had carried a small gas stove.

We then pitched tents and then went in search of some dry woods for the camp fire. Since it had rained for sometime, it was difficult to find dry wood. After some search, we managed to find some wooden boards. KumarG broke them into right sizes for the camp fire.

Out of 6, we made 2 groups of 3 each, one for cooking and the other for setting up the camp fire! KumarG, Abhi & Me took charge of cooking dinner and Jomy, Roop & Girish started working on setting up the camp fire. Due to heavy winds, they couldn't set up the fire. So, they wanted to use the gas stove for getting started. We then found out that, gas stove is malfunctioning and we can't use it :( We hoped that we can somehow setup camp fire and use that for boiling water. But, then it started raining with heavy thundering & lightening and we couldn't do anything. We only had 1.5 litres of water for all 6 of us and we used it meagerly. After couple of slices of bread, we all went to sleep with rain pouring heavily outside.


Refreshing morning at the top

In the morning, the guys managed to find some dry woods and could make fire. We used that for boiling about 5 litres of water for our use while climbing down from the hill. We also cooked MTR 'Ready To Eat' Bisi bele bath and Khara bath and made some tea for us. I must say it was luxury! We then relaxed for a while there walking around the place. The sky was clear and the view from the top was vivid. We could see few villages around and obviously quite some hills. It was a good view, but not stunning in any way. I really loved this place when it was misty and when I could only see the clouds and mist from the top. With this, I could imagine whatever the view I wanted it to be! :)

We then started to trek back around 9:30 a.m. Before we left, we offered coins to the temple. It took us about 2.5 hrs to reach back the point at which our taxi was waiting and it was a easy walk except for the scorching sun's heat.

On the rocks, in the water

We then reached Hattihole. We all were hungry and ate stomach full of good food at a small hotel in Hattihole. After our heavy lunch, we relaxed for a while in the front porch of the hotel and then went to the river in Hattihole. The river didn't have much water, but it was sufficient for us to calmly lie down under the shades, on the rocks, in the water. We were playing stone throwing! Fixing a rock as target and throwing stones at it! :) We then moved to about 5feet deep water point where Abhi, KumarG & Jomy were trying to swim. It was lot of fun staying in the water for so long. The place was very calm and soothing. After spending more than couple of hours at this place, we started back to Bangalore.

Trek Planner
Route :
Bangalore - Madikeri - Madapura - Hattihole - Jeep trail which leads to Kotebetta (Jeep) - ~20Km
From Hattihole, you can check for the Jeep trial which leads to Kotebetta
To reach top : 4 to 4.5 hrs for slow to normal pace trekkers to reach the top
Return : 2 to 2.5 hrs for slow to normal pace

In summer, carry lot of water. Based on information from other trekkers, I have heard that the water might not be always available on the top. However, we could find water on the top.