Tropical Trek to Koodlu Theertha Falls – A Mystical Experience!!
The trek to Koodlu Theertha falls is supposed to take you to one of the most pristine places in Karnataka. I found this out for myself when I trekked through tropical jungles and crossed multiple river streams to reach this mystical place.
It all started when me and my friends, who were stationed at Agumbe rode on our motorcycles through the Someshwar ghats and through pretty countryside to reach the place where we had to park our motorcycles and begin our trek.
We had been informed by the locals that this would be an arduous trek and the opportunities to get lost were plenty. And hence, we came prepared with a lunch pack and headlamps in case we got lost.
We parked our motorcycles at a villager’s house nearby, crossed the narrow bridge over the Sita Nadi to begin our trek. It was a bright, sunny and warm day and the humidity seemed to sap us soon. The first half of the trek was a gradual climb until the mountain stream that we had to cross.
We refreshed ourselves here, crossed the stream and began our steep ascent (about 60 degrees incline). We kept climbing for about thirty minutes when we realized that we had lost our way. We tried finding a way out, but kept getting lost in the dense jungle.
Worse was when we realized that we could not descend the way we came due to the steep and abrasive nature of the terrain. Somehow after struggling for about an hour, we found our way back to the main trail. It was quite late by the time we hit the main trail. This was actually the time for our retreat, but we had not yet seen the Koodlu theertha falls.
We took a collective decision to give it one more try and if unsuccessful we would head back. Here, we found an alternate trail, cut through the dense thicket and came to one of the most pretty forested views in Karnataka. The sight of the Koodlu Theertha falling into the pool below was simply magical. There was not a soul in sight except for the three of us and there was no sound to be heard other than the deafening roar of the waterfall.
We descended to the bottom of the waterfall through extremely slippery and mucky terrain only to realize that it was infested with leeches. Plus, we were running out of time. Hence, we decided to start our return journey back to civilization.
We climbed our way back to the trail, took the sharp descent to the mountain stream that we had crossed earlier. It was here that we took a refreshing dip to cool us from the sultry weather. After a relaxed dip, we had our late lunch, cleaned us of all the leeches, crossed the stream and started our return journey on the jeep track.
The return was quite fast as the group seemed to have rejuvenated itself after the bath and the lunch. We made it back to the narrow bridge and our motorcycles just before sunset making it a great trekking day for us.
We had covered a total of about 14 kilometres through plantations and dense forests and through mountain streams and the fact that we got lost added to the fun and adventure. If you are interested in attempting this trek, do consider hiring the services of a local to guide you on the last stretch where you might get lost.
