Creepy, crawlies in Kottebetta
Author: Santhosh & Raghu
Participants: Santhosh (Mr QQ), Madhu (Mrs QQ), Raghu (Djinn), Dany
Preface
Dany, having missed our earlier K2M trek was enthusiastic of going on a trek. He wanted to show us his penchant for trekking and prove a point or two to the d_men gang about how fit he was. Having booked accommodation thru Coorg Trails, based out of Madikeri, we were ready and raring to go.
Day 0, Friday 13 May 2005
Dany had booked tickets to Madikeri from
The road to
Day 1, Saturday 14 May 2005
We landed in Madikeri early in the morning. Karumbiah from Coorg Trails picked us up in a rickety old Contessa and took us to his office. Adjoining the office is an “Authentic Chinese” restaurant where we finished our morning duties. As usual, Raghu took around 25 minutes to finish his karya, much to our “pressured” wait. Dany was aghast when Karumbiah charged him 500/- per person per day for the trek. We had hoped it to cost a lot lesser.
We boarded a bus to Hattihole, about 15 kms from Madikeri at
Hattihole is on the banks of a stream (“hole” is stream in Kannada). From Hattihole we had to go to Mukkodlu (8 kms) where we had our home-stay. From Mukkodlu we would trek to Kottebetta. We boarded an auto from Hattihole. This ride to Mukkodlu was one of the most fantastic rides in our lives. Imagine driving thru a valley, with mountains on either side, the road meandering thru the valley. The road follows the bends and the twists in the stream, both of them coiling through the countryside. You have a lot of wooden bridges, spiked across the stream; trees bent low over the water, kissing it. Grass having grown on the road covers the road like spurs. We decided that a walk on the road would itself be such a beautiful hike. It had not rained for quite sometime now and monsoon should have onset; so informed our rickshaw driver. The auto zipped across ginger plantations back dropped by the beautiful “mighty” mountains. The plantations had sprinklers sourcing water from the mountain stream. After a long ride we reached Mukkodlu, our home for this trek.
The house where we were staying belongs to Karumbiah. Even though most of Coorg has been explored by many, Mukkodlu is one of those rare places which haven’t had much exposure. The place is laidback, there is not much coffee plantation as the yield is low. Karumbiah taking advantage of the situation has converted his house into a home-stay, and earns a lot! Everyone who has been to this place is a pleased lot, because they experience nature in its virginity. Karumbiah benefits a lot, and is one of the people contributing to raping of this beautiful place. We could see the sneaky bit of plastic, and the usual tourist dirt in this place. Over time it will become as bad as central Coorg.
We dumped our bags in verandah of the house. We were not called into the house and had to make ourselves comfortable in the verandah. Change of clothes, a quick wash was all in the verandah. In fact much to our chagrin we were not invited into the house, during our whole weekend stay there; So much for home-stay!
A guide had been arranged and he would take us atop Kottebetta. Kottebetta is a mountain behind Mukkodlu; it’s the third tallest peak in Coorg, next only to Thadiandamol and Brahmagiri. Surprisingly Kottebetta consists of two peaks, one a sharp pyramid and the other a rocky plateau. The rocky plateau is the higher of the two peaks. There is a tank atop the rocky peak and a shrine dedicated to Shiva. The past month, some Tantris had come over from Kerala and consecrated the temple. Owing to this no visitors were allowed atop the peak. Our destination was the pyramid peak. Getting ready, the guide named Gappa told us that the last batch had chickened out midway and had completed only half the mountain. We had to be back at Mukkodlu by lunch time, and having started at
We started our climb thru the estate at the back of the house. The initial climb as in any trek was what took our maximum energy. With our feet crunching on dried leaves and twigs on the forest floor; we passed thru a canopied jungle with a lot of trees bearing “bay” leaves. Madhu was all agog wanting to collect the leaves for making curry at home. The forest is humid like an evergreen forest. We reached a clearing with some huge rocks. Climbing on top of the rocks we could see the foliage around. The guide compared this to places described by Kannada’s state poet Kuvempu in Kavishaila!! We felt that this is a rather nice place for a tiger to lurch in the foliage. Proceeding further we broke thru the forest and reached a clearing. The view was beautiful with a panorama being presented to us in one direction. Far away about 20 kms as the crow flies we could see Madikeri, marked out as a white line on a mountain. It was beautiful.
(how about the barks of trees that were covered with a thin layer of mud? The effect of elephants rubbing their itchy backs)
Our flanks during the trek consisted of the guide and Raghu in the front; Dany in the middle, followed by Madhu. I covered the rear making sure that Madhu kept her pace. For someone who was sick, Madhu kept her pace rather amazingly. Many a times the guide would get tired and stop. To hide his fatigue he would tell Raghu that Madhu cannot keep up as she is a girl. Raghu would reply otherwise and say that she is sick, but as strong as they come and egg the guide on. The guide’s fatigue was not lost on Raghu and we chuckled at the portly guide. (Raghu the real Kodagu, portly guide’s verdict!!)
Our first stop was a rocky ledge midway up the mountain. We could see the whole valley from up here. On all sides were hills, with grassy tops, beautiful butterflies hovering over exotic flowers of crimson and purple hues and forest covered foothills. (please please don’t forget to mention the golden flying bug, disc shaped, and completely golden, and the bright red beatles with black spots – supposedly they sting, and locally called chappli hula or some such thing) Far away we could just make out the road to Hattihole. We took a lot of photos. It was
We trekked on, encountering cows and cowherds. The guide warned us that cows were our sign of safety; if they run then we need to run coz it indicates that a tiger is nearby. At one place the soil was dug out. The guide told us that this was made by “Oddas”, the community from Tamil nadu employed to break stones in the temple. They had dug the soil in search of rats to eat. Madhu with her NatGeo intelligence corrected him and said that they were “Irulas”. Further on, rocks were piled on in a circle, with another pile of rocks at the center. It reminded us of the scary scene in “Blair Witch Project”. They were made by the boys grazing the cows as their private temple!! We rested midway at the peak at a clump of trees. The last climb was about 100 meters at a rather 30-45 degree gradient. As decided earlier I started running up the hill. I could feel my heart and lungs pounding, but the run up was worth it. At the end I was on the verge of collapse and the view was beautiful!!!!
Our view was blocked only where the other
Our climb down would be thru a different route; so informed Gappanna. We would reach a stream to catch water and then climb down thru Tiger territory. On the way down Madhu found a lot of Orchids and was happy to tuck them into her hair. Sadly we lost the Orchids while climbing down a treacherous and slippery patch of trees. Nestled in between the trees, in cool splendour was a minor stream. Water dripped down ever so slowly and there was a puddle. We filtered the water using Dany’s handkerchief. Dany gives all his clothes for wash at IFB washcare, but we wondered whether the washcare center would use IFB or would pack it off to the usual dhobi ghat for that vigorous mucky scrubbing. The water soothed us. The stream was perfect for a Tiger to cool down.
The next part of the climb was the most treacherous. It was downhill at an impossible gradient and slippery as hell. On one side the mountain gave way to a semi-steep ravine. Raghu with his worn out shoes fell more than once and his bum was sore as hell. The guide pointed out a cave where Tigers came by when they had cubs. The climb down exhausted us more than the climb up.
Long back when the guide was young a Tiger roamed this place and ate all the cows. The guide’s neighbor wanted to catch the Tiger and laid a trap with a heifer. However the neighbor being deaf could not hear the Tiger killing the heifer; but he heard it when the Tiger cracked one of the bones. He fired injuring the Tiger’s rear. The tiger dragged itself out and hid behind some rocks. People searched for the Tiger but could not find it. The guide’s brother saw the Tiger’s tail in the rock and fired at it. The Tiger getting angry jumped out, but another shot got him and he fell in the ravine. The guide pointed us to exact spot where it fell.
Madhu said that it was surprising that she had not slipped even once in this climb down. The next moment there was a skid and she fell!! Raghu warned her of being so confident and had a hearty laugh. Before reaching the house, the guide pointed us to a place where they had spotted a 13 foot long Python some days back. It was around
There is a table in the verandah of the house. We sat down in the chairs and our hosts served us lunch. Lunch was average fare; rice idli pellets, brinjal curry and some sambar served with rice. Madhu petted the cat at the house for quite some time after which the cat got bored and went off inside the house to its owner.
Gapanna led us across to our next destination – the Waterfalls. It is half a km walk from the home base. Amazing is the word to describe the falls. Although not in its full glory owing to the delayed monsoon it was still a sight to behold. We sat down on the rocks near the base of the water falls and took snaps. It was a relaxing experience; soothing for our eyes and music to our ears as the water gushed down to a short fall creating froth. We headed to the top of the falls. There were tadpoles galore for Madhu to play around with. She raced across the small boulders on the water and dipped in the cool waters. She also caught a tiny frog which we mistook for the poisonous dart frog. She held it out on her palms for all of us to see and the little guy livid with anger seemed to glare at us. (it had beautiful red rimmed eyes)
The rocks had been cut into shapes of bath tubs by the waters. Gapanna didn’t seem to know the difference between a fish and a tadpole; so much for a guide! We then walked across to the edge of the waterfalls to see a shoal of fish swimming across in gay abandon. The fish are available in different shapes and sizes and are considered holy by the local populace. The waterfalls is also holy for the local populace, you can play above the waterfalls but you cannot play under the waterfall!!!
We followed Gopanna for a mini trek across the green fields to a small water hole which he said is a great place to swim and frolic about. On the way, Madhu vent her spleen at me for not helping her cross the stream. I gave her my hand, but to no avail, as she plunked into the water losing control. Raghu had a hearty laugh again. We stripped down to our basics and lowered ourselves in the cool muddy river. It was rocky at the bottom and the water was chest high. Madhu was in full josh as she showed her newly acquired swimming prowess. She seemed to look like cine comedian mehmood as her hair fell across her face. Djinn Raghu banged his leg against a rock and seemed reluctant to swim. Django Dany had a severe cramp hitting his leg and was in considerable agony for some time before returning to normalcy. Out of nowhere a fellow (with his dog) appeared and watched us swimming for quite some time and seemed to give us some tips on swimming. He was apparently drunk and blabbered in the local language. Then he suddenly leaped into the waters and started showing us how to swim. Veins on his legs were curled and in knots as it became clear that he was suffering from varicose veins. His swimming was pathetic but he was all enthusiastic in showing his prowess.
Circa
With torch lights and our food supplies and not to forget our usual yenne hot drinks stuff; we headed towards our tent. A blazing fire was set up in the vicinity of the tent. Starting off with MCB along with some hot mixture and uppinakayi we had dinner comprising of akki rottis, coconut chutney. Don’t understand why chutney has to be served in such small quantities always everywhere. It was our experience in Thanjavur,
It started drizzling as we concluded our dinner and headed into the safety of the tent. We arranged the foam beds and hit the sack. It became hot inside as we had closed off the tent to prevent any kinds of creepy crawlies. Thankfully no one farted that night or else the consequence would have been disastrous. It was a night of snoring as Dany snored and so did the quintessential Raghu. It irritated Mrs. QQ Madhu no less; she made me wake up and shake up everyone much to their chagrin. Think it was
Day 2, Saturday 15 May 2005
Morning
In the verandah there are 4 love birds housed inside a small cage. There is a small earthen pot at the corner of the cage. One bird out of the lot seemed to have a fetish to go and squeeze itself against the walls of the cage and the pot and wriggle out; it seemed to simulate yoga asanas like sheersaana and chakraasaana. There is also a groove in the compound wall wherein nests a kingfisher family. We took a look inside the nest with a torch light and found 3 baby KFs gorging on their staple diet of lots of creepy crawly worms, maggots and the like. Our enthusiasm to snap photos of the KF irritated Madhu as the KF flew away instead of feeding its babies.
Our guide Gopanna was supposed to take us trekking in the opposite direction today. But he didn’t turn up till very late. Later we found that Karumbiah had sent a new retinue of tourists today. We smelt the commercial desire of Karumbiah in making money; we had already paid for the day. We were given a book to note our experiences and feedback; I praised the surroundings and also vent my scorn at the commercialization.
We decided to hit the road and walk back to Hattihole instead of waiting for Gopanna. The road to Mukkodlu had been enticing yesterday, and we found that a walk on that road would be better than waiting and getting irritated. Packing all our stuff we started on the hike back.
Madhu as usual stopped at all the clearings in the stream. Gopanna caught up with us, but we bade him goodbye not needing him anymore. The walk back was interesting encountering wooden bridges across the streamer. The bridge creaked and looked like it would give way. We had fun on the bridge, while Madhu jumped into the water to cross the stream beneath. Finding that carrying the tent was tiring us, we shared the different parts of it. Sharing with Madhu was a strict no-no cos she was the sick-baby amongst us. We had a few more stops on the road, and reached Hattihole. Raghu leading us stopped a bus to Madikeri; we sprinted the last 50 mtrs to board the bus.
We reached Madikeri at
