southern skyline

Photos posted here are the ones from the first few shots with my camera.Here they are,

First one is a collage of three photos processed individually.The light source used is my phone.

Shutter speed is 4 sec, aperture f/6.3 and iso100. This was first attempt at light photography and was pretty content i could achieve it in the first try.

15 sec,f/9.0,iso 800

This was taken on the same night,this was a shadow of my camera on the wall. Later cropped and added a color tint to get this effect.

1/2 sec,f/5.6,iso 100

Shot on the same day i bought the camera.Was lacking ideas and it was a bad light day.Tried some shots around the glass,the effect wasn’t as desired but liked it after post-processing.

Ok this photograph was spontaneous and the caption, ’time management’ , was thought after taking the shot. This wasn’t supposed to be on internet but anyways i did it.The quote suited very well for the picture. Thanks to vicky and his multi-tasking skills, he’ll probably kill me for posting it online .

Photos- Picasa

From Bangalore-

Travel time – 10 to 13 hours

How to reach/route/fare – Bus, Train, Air

1. Bangalore-Mysore-mangalore-udupi-coondapur-kollur-kodchadri.

2. via shimoga (preferred route)

KSRTC Rajahamsa – Rs.340 rupees

KSRTC Sarige – Rs.260

Auto from kollur to kodchadri – Rs.180

Stay- Kollur- Plenty hotels available starting from Rs.100.

kodchadri- PWD guest house, book atleast 3 to 4 days prior to departure to secure a decent room.

Contact Rajendra for everything. Mail me for the contact details.

Rs.50 per person in the hall(common bathroom).

Rs.100 per person in the room(separate bathroom).

Dinner- Rs.40

Breakfast- Rs.30

Eggs,pakoda,tea,coffee available.

Jeep for return journey- Rs.1000 /trip. Can accommodate 8 people.

Recommendations- Carry dettol and salt to avoid leaches. Apply till your knee.

Carry less,start before 12 ‘o clock if you are trekking,carry water,wear shorts or track pants,charge you camera cells,protection from rain for cameras,phones etc.

Bsnl and reliance networks available,rarely airtel.

Below is a detailed account of our trip. Read to have an idea of what you can expect.

I was looking forward to go out on a trek or any place out of Bangalore from a long time and finally this weekend I and my friend, Deepak, decided to go out. We had no idea where we were to go but we were travelling on a budget. And it settled fine between us, neither of us crave for opulent journeys.

I started searching for the weekend getaways where we can trek to and spend the weekend. Finally I came across some informative blogs and pictures on flickr which further elevated my enthusiasm. Me and Deepak rounded upon a place. Kodchadri it was. Some 500 kms from Bangalore near kollur in udupi district. It was a Thursday and I left early from work to book the tickets. Lucky enough I was on time and booked the 2 tickets from the remaining 3 tickets.

Deepak being the more experienced among us suggested we take fruits since was a 10 kms, 5 hour trek.

He was right, but 3kgs of fruits!! Bananas, apples, oranges, cucumber, sufficient for a kindergarten picnic. And note that Deepak had also brought food from home,2 kgs. We ended up draining most of our energy carrying comestibles to the top.

I had seen some wonderfull pictures and was hoping to capture few myself esp. the golden dust like light on the grass during sunrise, that many had quoted in their blogs. So I borrowed a wonderful Nikon PS from my cousin. I must say the trek would be incomplete without these pictures. All set.

Next day, Friday evening, we met at majestic. We started at 9.15 and reached coondapur at 9 in the morning. We got fresh, booked our return bus tickets and proceeded further to kollur, 2 ½ hours from coondapur. We missed the 12 ‘o clock bus to kodchadri, because I was starving and had to eat. You won’t get the variety or the taste in any restaurants here. We had dosas in Hotel Ambika near the temple. Paid for the dosas and the water bottles and proceeded back to bus stand to find out that the next bus was at 2 p.m. We decided not to wait and waste time, so after a little haggling, which more often turns up in the drivers favour, we hired an auto to the hill base. It was a good decision. The driver, laxmikanth was a nice chap; actually people in this part of Karnataka are really amicable.

After 45 mins of uphill driving we reached the hill base. We bid adieu to the driver and started at 1:15. First break came soon after at 1:30. We couldn’t help laughing over a round of fruits. Anyways after this first round of fruits we resumed. We were an hour in the trek and it started pouring heavily, we proceeded hoping to find a hutment and then we saw cattle grazing and then we came across ‘Bhakivedanta Eco Village’ .This place seems out of place but still belongs very much there. I had not read of this place anywhere in the internet. It’s an ISKON run centre for something I dint find out. It had some paddy fields, temple and a gho shaala (cow shelter). We enquired if we could stay for the night just in case we dint find any accommodation on reaching the peak. ‘gotilla saar’ was all the workers could tell us. We proceeded further and we found a tea shop after an hours trek. Took some beautiful landscape pictures here. Santosh tea shop is run by a malayali couple. We set out once again after satisfying the leaches and sipping hot tea. It was a relief.

Until here I was more than happy to walk on the road that led us to ‘somewhere’. After ten mins walk from this tea shop is the place from where the actual trek starts. Never seek the shortest route if you don’t know for sure where it leads to. The path from here on is faint and the forest grows dense and hence swarming with blood thirsty leaches. I couldn’t stand in a place for the fear of these leaches. That day I couldn’t change in to tracks and was trekking in jeans, very uncomfortable and more so after drenching in rain. It took some time before we found a dry space to take a much deserved break and lay our ‘pichwada’ to rest. We were surprised to see another bunch of friends taking this route and they joined us. They were from kerala, working in Bangalore. The trek from third hour onwards grilled us. After some time we came across this really beautifull stretch of the mountains and that’s the picture I still see when I remember this place. The valley here was steeply V shaped, on the trek side it was lush green grass with zigzag path and the other side has short thick trees densely sprawling across the entire valley side. It was impulsively splendid. We could see the guest house from a particular point on this stretch. I was happy that we at least found we were in the right track and we knew how far we had to trek further, and that was really far. We huffed and puffed and dragged ourselves for the major part of the fourth hour. As I passed that beautiful stretch and neared the peak I felt the trek to be totally worth it.

Since it was a weekend the PWD guest house was already full. Many had taken the jeep to the top from a place called nitoor. As per the plan we hadn’t planned anything, not even our stay. So finally we joined the other group and found ourselves squeeze in one of the two huge halls that the PWD has. We had some hot bajjis and eggs after getting fresh. As dawn fell upon us the fog got dense and visibility very low. I was happy we reached the top on time and dint wait for the 2 ‘o clock bus. Had we waited chances were more that we took shelter under a huge tree trunk for the night. The idea occurred to me half way through the trek. Finally at 8 we had delicious masala chapatti and chutney that deepak’s mom had sent. Slept off.

We got up at 5.30 the next day to be on time at the hill top to see the sunrise. Hill top was 20 mins from the guest house. There was another reason we got up early, since the two halls had only one bathroom to share, we had to queue up. Luckily I was the first to get in. Anyways, soon after we got to the top but couldn’t see a thing. It was fogged densely and upon that dint know which was east. Dew drops formed at the tip of our hair and eyebrows Took pictures and waited for a glimpse of sunrise, but no, we couldn’t. I and Deepak decided to stay back for more time while the rest of the group got down. After 15 mins the clouds cleared and for a brief moment there it was all, the sun with his rays and the endless stretch of mountains with clouds covered just below their peaks. It was an unforgettable sight. We stood still looking at the mountains until the clouds dominated back the mountains. We came back making ourselves content with whatever little we saw. Had there been thinner clouds we could have got a far memorable view.

We got down, packed our bags, had uppit and rice for breakfast, hired a jeep to take us back to the tar roads. The way back was no less than a donkey ride. I bet no other vehicle or driver can tackle these roads other than the native drivers. Not once did I loose my grip from the handle bar for fear of falling off the jeep. It was steep, spoilt, muddy, narrow, hair pen bends and a rash driver to add to it. A highly confident driver and a spoilt road is a dangerous combination for the passengers.

Finally we got down after 45 mins and we took a bus to kollur. An hour later we were in a luggage room in kollur. After depositing our bags we went to temple, had lunch there. We still had six hours for our bus to arrive. We loafed around taking pictures. We had not spared anything more to see or do so we took our luggage and went to the bus stand. 2 more hours gone by and our bus arrived at sharp 7 ‘o clock. We got in and that was the end to our trip. We decided to make more such trips.

Greatly satisfied we were back to the melancholy of the city the next day. It was worth every step and every leach bite we took. This trip definitely instigated me to make more trips more often.