Kodachadri - Travellers Information

About the Place:

• This is mountain located in the state of Karnataka, western ghats region. Famous for it's dense forest, vivid flora and fauna, beautiful waterfalls around.
• It's a quite popular place for bird watching.
• It's around 1343 meters in height.
• On top, one can find ruins of Adi shankracharya temple. It is believed that he meditated at this place
• The sunset and sunrise are considered best in the western ghats. Not to be missed events.
• This place is in the middle of the Mookambika wildlife sanctuary.

How to reach:

• The place is a bit difficult to reach as very transportation is available.(There may be many other ways as well but describing the one I took and the most convenient one)
• Nearest big town is Shimoga(Shivamoga) which is easily commutable to and well connected to Banglore and Mysore through trains and buses.
• From Shimoga, you need to get local transportation to Nagara (Where you can visit historical Nagara fort as well). You can find frequent  KSRTC buses running on this route.
• After visiting Nagara fort, you can opt for jeep ride or take lift in trucks running on the road to Nittur.
• From nittur there is direct jeep track to the peak.
• For trekkers - Ont way from Nittur to Kolluru, there is a left turn leading to narrow path which is the start of trek.
• While returning, you can start with jeep route, take left turn in between to the dense jungle and can enjoy extremely cold water of Hindumane waterfall.
• This route will again meet the jeep route to Nittur.

Best Time To Visit:

• Best time to visit the place would be right after the monsoon as greenery would be at it's best. Which is from October to February.
• Big no in monsoon as the way gets too much slippery and risky. Moreover, the place gets full of leeches.

Where To Stay:

• At the top, PWD guest house is available for stay.
• Priest can let you stay at their place on request.
• There is plenty of space to pitch your tent at the top.

Food Availability:

• On the way to peak, described above, you will get a small keralite dhaba(Santosh Hotel). Here, you will get food cooked in coconut oil which smells horrible. Only item we got here was puttu with coconut oil cooked chana curry.
• Here, I had the worst tea of my life. But, something is better than nothing.
• At top priest will prepare simple indian meal on request with nominal charge.
• Other than this two, no food available.

Other Interesting Places Nearby:

• Kalyani Chowk  - Many water sports are available in the season, although not very famous and difficult to reach place.
• Bidnaur Fort - Also known as nagara fort, belonged to Shivappa Naik
• ArisinaGundi and  Hindumane and waterfalls.
• Kollur Mookambika Temple - This temple is very famous in the region. Famous for it's iron pillar which said to be rust proof.
• Chakra and Varahi dams

Things to Carry( if trekking ) :

• Keep sufficient amount of water with you.
• Torch - pitch dark in the night and no electricity available around.
• Sleeping bag - It gets extremely cold in the night. So, this is must.
• Trekking Bag - one strong trekking bag is needed as you need to carry your food and water supply for around two days.

Precautions To Be Taken:

• If you are visiting near the monsoon, be careful about leaches.
• Land at some place is very loose and slippery. so, take care while walking and use shoes with good grip.
• Plan such that you get to enjoy both, sunset and sunrise, and awesome view of night sky.

Please give your comments if you find this information useful.
Read my trek experience to Kodachadri here. .