Trek to Tadiyandmol...(Part I)

Hmmm....from a long time i was waiting this opportunity to trek with BMC group. But as usual plans never seemed to be worked out. But finally i got the chance to travel with the group. The trek was for Tandiyandmol on 26-27Sep2008. For those who know about it...can skip few line from here onwards. TADIYANDAMOL is the highest mountain in Coorg (Mercara) Dist (1750 Mtrs. MSL).

Tadiyandmol Hill

This place is around 250 Kms from Bangalore - via Virajpet. The climb to this mountain is gradient passing through grassland. If you are the type who likes to mingle with nature, see the snow-like mist romance with mountain slopes, feel the tingle of the cool and gentle breeze, watch the leaves flutter in dance-like movements, hear the sounds of chirping birds fill the air, and then Coorg is the place for you. So as planned we were to told to choose one of the pick-up point from 4 pick-up point list. I opt for the Domlur bus stop pick-up point. After this we had 2 more bus stop n finally we started our journey by 11:00pm. I was travellin alone for the first time ......with this gruop n on any kind of trip....so carrying lots of things in my mind...like how it will be to travel alone with others....wil it be good expirence or bla...bla..bla...will tell u answer to these doubts in last of blog... :). We were around 45 people in total so i think its not a good ides to introduce STAR CAST for this trek :)).

....THE GANG....

We reached at Virajpet in morning around 6AM. BMC had booked a decent hotel for all of us to get frest and for the breakfast. We had earlier planed to go to Tandiyandmol hill directly but our leader (Satish) had alterd plan a bit. He told us about a water-fall which was very near by and on-the-way to tandiyandmol hill. Everyone got excited because no one was having idea that we will be going to any water fall also. So we decied to go to water fall first and then towards Tandiyandmol hill. By the time we all got fresh and had breakfast it was around 8:30. We started from there around 8:45 and bus had dropped us at a point by 9:30 from there a deviation goes to Chilvarra falls.

with yogan n arpan on the way to chilvara falls

arpan n me with villege school kids

It was a 3 KM trek from the point where we left the bus. It was a quite decent and beautifull trek with greenary all around the way. you might fall in love with the nature over there...coz on all over the way the greenary and the sound of the river which originates from the fall only fills the music in enviournment. We reached the fall by 10:30AM and had lots of fun over there.

chilvarra falls

We rested over there for haf an hour n got it captured in our camreas. After that we decided to go the bottom of the fall. At the bottom the scene was quite differnt and beautiful. After spending a good time over there we decieded to go back to the bus. It was 1:00PM by the time everybody was back to bus and we were ready to start our next journey. It was 45 minutes to reach to our next stop. From here onwards the trek to Tandiyandmol Peak starts. It as a quite decent place. There was a villege school and a small Tea-shop and last but not the least "King's Palace". This palace had quite intresting history. It was built in 1795 quite hard to believe but yes it is.

Trek to Tadiyandmol....(Part II)

We were carrying all foods items for our lunch, breakfast, dinner on the way with us. The team was told not to go too far away and we can have a look at the old kings palace and they were preparing lunch for us. Initially were not thinking about that palace too much, but after visiting the palace there were quite many things we were forced to give a thought by the history and architecture of palace.

Temple inside the palace

d gang inside of palace

Now its lunch time....we had our lunch over there...by 3:00PM everybody got finished his lunch and was ready to conquerer Tandiyandmol peak.

Lunch Stall.... :)

It was a total 8KM trek fom our place, which consist of 3KM concereet road trek and rest is mud trek. Our leader divided all of us in a team of 4. The idea was like every team had to carry his sleeping bags,tent and food items to the base camp. BMC team also arranged one jeep for to carry all tents and sleeping bags up to one location(which was about 1-5-2KM from where we start our trek.) on trek from where we have to pick the tents and sleeping bags and move ahead.As tent was quite heavy so each team had to roll tent among its team members after carrying for some time. So we were divided in to total 11 team. Each team had got the items to carry and finally were on the trek once again.

and once again journey starts....!!!

Team no. 2 : Arpan, Vijay, Srivatsa, Me [R-L]

As the initial raod trek was quite steep and was difficult in full sunny day. Everyone was enjoying and was just saying to everyone else just move-on buddy...:). We took one or two breaks and finally reached to the point where jeep was waiting for us. From here we had to carry all things with our-selves. There were many scenery on the way to our base camp. So everyone was quite busy in taking lots of snaps on the way.

On the way to base camp

Finally by 4:10 we reached to a place where we were suppose to made our base camp. The plan to pitch basecamp over their was because there was a water stream flowing very near to that place so we can get water easily for our food and drink. Everyone was still full of energy after travelling so many kilometers on their foots. Every team had pitched their tents and took some rest over there.

Pitching our tent...!!!

Some of the members decided to stay back at the base camp and to do prepration for other things like dinner and all...Thanks to satish, janak, apun, meera, manoj, manasi, syamakshi,vinod n prakruti for their dedication for others. So we left the base camp by 4:45 and started to conquer tandiyandmol peak which was about 2-3KM still away from there. Everyone knows that the sun-set at the hill top is quite beautifull so everyone was curious to reached to the top before sun-set. As it would be dark by the time we will come back to our base camp so some of us carrying torchs also with themselves. This part of trek was bit difficult. On the way we had to cross one jungle also, though there were no animals but it was quite dense and wet. So was need to take a bit extra care for leachs n all. Actually there was a series of hills one after the another so our intial guess for the tandiyandmol peak was wrong. The actual peak was behind the peak of the hill which were seeing from bottom so it was getting tuff n tuff. Few of us had decided to stay back and decided to go back to base camp because it seems to be difficult to reach to the top before sun-set and also we were not carrying enough torchs with us and in night(was amawasya...so a bit extra dark night) it would be very difficult for us to get down from hill. Hmmm....but we had not left the hope to conquer the peak so we just moving on to be on the peak before sun-set. And yes we did it we were on the top
by 5:50PM and it was few minutes before sun-set.

View from top of Tadiyandmol hill

The scene from hill top was very beautiful...sourrounding by clouds and from hill top if we see below there was a thick layer of clouds...n only song that got click in my was..... UP ON CLOUD NO.9 from Bryan adams...:).

Trek to tadiyandmol....(Part III)

It was celebration time so everyone was busy to express his happyness and clicking photographs.

d group on top of hill

vijay enjoying d views from top

Now again its time to leave the peak. As we were carryying only limited torchs so we decided to move in teams caryying equal number of torchs. Our first motive while getting down was to cross the jungle part as soon as possible before sun goes down and the night comes up and we were quite sucessfull in acheiveing our goals..:).

on the way back to base camp

So finally night had come and we were moving towards our base camp but the crap...destiny was waiting to play its part for me. While jumping from one the rock on the way i got my right calf mussle pull. It was so much paining i was not able to move my leg by a inch. Rajesh tried to help me but got no relief. Finally we got one physio amond ourselves n it was gagan. He did some pull techticts and asked me to do some stretch exercise.

gagan who rescued me from my muscle pull injury...

Allthough i was feeling the pain but was able to manage to get back to the base camp. After reaching the base camp we had campfire and then we prepare the soup and dinner. Apun tried to bring-out some singing/etc tallent from the people but everyone was so tired that everyone wants to do relax for a while. So we had our dinner and by 11:00PM everybody was in their tent. It was a wonderfull expirience to stayed their in tent with lots of matatgashti. Next day we woke up by 6:00AM in morning and we found that all of our tent was got wet with mist drops.

sun rise @ hills

morning view from our base camp

Few of us again went up to hill to see sun-rise. Sorrounding by clouds and cold breeze over their made it a perfect n memorable morning. Their was a water stream flowing very near to our base camp and we had to fresh over there only and to fill the water for food afterthat. It was 11:00AM by the time we packed our tents n all and had our energetic breakfast(Upma - stil wonders it was for the first time i ate it in my last 3 years in bangalore:))
we had some group photo session n then started moving back.

on the way vijay n srivatsa

Again on the way back we had to leave our tents and sleeping bags in the jeep and carry on our journey to bus. All of reached the bus by 1:30PM and we started again for one more journey. The plan was to had a lunch in some hotel in MEDIKIRI district and after that we had to visit the GOLDEN TEMPLE(dont get it confused it with one in Amritsar). Actually this temple had got a intresting history.

Golden Temple

This temple belongs to Lord Buddha with its tibetans followers. After the Chinese took over Tibet, the refugees were settled at Bylakuppe Near Kushalnagar and the Buddhist Monastery was re-established here in 1972. It houses over 250 monks today. The monastery not only attracts large number of young Tibetans seeking enlightenment and education, but also draws huge tourists from all over India and abroad. but i got wonder by one thing over there. Their are many pictures consist of devils/murder scenes/human skull etc. which i got clicked from walls of the temple.

one of the painting on the wall of temple

Now its time to leave the golden temple. We started from there around 4:30PM towards bangalore. On the way back to bangalore people got mingled with everyone else had lots of fun via singing songs all the way to bangalore and here i am wrapping my this blog.
Hope you wont get iritated via reading it...:))).Anyways full n final the trip was wonderfull and its real heaven for nature lovers and made lots of friends over there. Now i can say that i was not travelled alone there.
Well some more pics from the trip are here :

Things to carry:
================
- Minimum 2 Ltr water
- Energy food (ie. Chocolates, Flavored Curd, Fruits etc)
- Energy Drink (ie. Flavored milk, Fruit juice etc)
- Cap, sun glasses, rain coat, water bottle,
- Shoes: With minimum grips/studs. preferably canvas or soft sole shoes if not rock climbing shoes.
- Swiss knife
- Torch