Kodachadri and St. Mary's island...

My christmas vacation were about to start and I was supposed to go home for those 11 days. But when Moch called me for a 'walk' to Kodachadri and a trip to St. Mary's island I couldn't resist the temptation.. mmmmm.... It didnt take much of a task for my brain to chalk out a plan to accomodate both. I would go with these fellas to Kodachadri and St. Mary's and then head home! Simple! I am sure your brain also didn't have much of a problem in figuring this out. So we started from Bangalore on the 21st of December. Since I had to spend more than a week at home, I decided to 'take off' on my bike.

The team: Moch, Jitha, Badri, Naveen-1, Naveen-2, Navya, Pratima, Akshata, Praveen, Murali, Maddy and yours truly.

I was asked to meet these people, who were all cosy in the TT, at 9 near Nelamangala. But the bloody %$^#&^#&s made me wait for more than an hour! Finally when they did arrive, I realized they all had had their dinners too, which I hadn't! Again...... #^%$#%&^s. (Please notice that this swear word is different from the previous one). But with someone like Jitha around, dinner plans are never out, never mind the time and place. Also, when I was riding the whole night, these #$%$#%$$#s (another swear word) were happily dozing off in the TT. None of them even offered to give me company. Grrrr. We reached Akshu's place in Shimoga at 5 the next morning, and I rested my eyes for about 2 hours. It took the aroma of Masala Dosas and the sounds of Jithu munching them next to me to wake me up from my sleep! The MDs were lip-smacking yum.

After a customary group photo with Uncle and Aunt, we started off towards Kodachadri, this time Moch giving me company. On our way, we stopped for sometime at Nagara fort, which has a decent view to offer from its top. A lake at some distance, a river nearby and a few hills scattered here and there... u get the picture. We were soon reminded that the MDs are being digested and we started hurrying towards our destination. There are a number of routes to Kodachadri, the most prominent two being through Hidlumane falls and the one that starts from exactly 11 kms before Kollur. We took the second one. I parked my bike at a check post about 2 kms before the left turn we had to take and started walking. The first part of the trek is a casual walk for about 4 kms on a level jeep track after which we reached Kaka's angaDi (Hotel Santoshi) which served Mallu delicacies (don't have too much expectations though :) ). Loads of puTTus and iDlis and butter-milks later me, Moch and Jitha decided to give others a head start and took a brief nap for about 20 mins. Another two hours of lazy walk uphill and even Murali was at the top!

Just before the top there is a temple and an Inspection Bungalow where we camped. The IB chap charges around 200 per person which includes a dinner and a breakfast, which is pretty reasonable and he offers non-veg food at extra cost, for which you have to order in advance. After a good dinner, we got down to playing DumbC. Badri enacting "The chronicles of Narnia" is worth mentioning. After letting us know that the movie in question was an English one, he expected us to guess the name, without doing anything!!

Next morning got up at 5:45 and, anxious not to miss the famous "Kodachadri sunrise", we sprinted to the top, only for the sun to turn up 30 minutes after we reached the top. Damn the late comer. After breakfast, heavy as usual, we hired a jeep to come back to the main road. The jeep cost was 125 per head. Me and Moch reached Kollur much earlier than others, courtesy my bike. Happy, we walked more than a km just to get some chicken! As we were pushed for time, others who came late made do with some biscuits and we skipped Maravanthe and headed straight to St. Mary's island. Reached St. Mary's island just in time for the last ferry. The ferry made us poorer by 70 bucks. The last ferry to the island is at about 1530 (although depending on the crowd, they sometimes have a ferry at 1600 also).

The island is small and beautiful but gets crowded on weekends. After finding a suitable spot, we got into the water where Jitha and Badri managed to get pricked by a weird looking thingy and Jitha ended up limping for another week. Took the last ferry back and it was already dark when we reached the mainland and as is customary, we decided to get some "tandoori chicken" (you need to bring your two hands, fists clenched, closer to your face and crouch a little when saying this), at Dollops in Manipal. But on the way, we stopped at Akshu's cousin's place to munch on something before the dinner. But even before that, me and Badri squeezed in some time to get some sea food at some arbit restaurant (Anjal Masal fry was good!).

When at Dollops, I suggest you order curds... Amazing quantity you get. Me, a curdaholic, after a heavy dinner, ordered two cups and was quite taken aback when I saw the size of the cups! Post dinner, we saw off Prathima, cooled our eyes (kaNNu thampu, translated from Kannada) at the Manipal junction and hit the road again. Me on my bike, Badri for company, and others getting horizontal (not literally) in the TT, reached Mangalore and I headed home. Others, with plans for the next day, continued and spent some time in Coorg the next day before heading back to Bangalore...

Starting from Badri (with the towel), clockwise: Badri, Naveen, Murali, Kid, Jitha, Naveen, Maddy, Mochi and me

The route: Bangalore - Tumkur - Arsikere - Bhadravati - Shimoga - Kollur - Udupi - Mangalore.

The contact numbers of the IB chap (Rajendra) in Kodachadri:
Mobile: 9480205657,
Residence: 08185-290368.

Thus continues the quest...