Author: Alexander Frater
Publishers: Penguin Books
Pages: 273
‘Chasing the monsoon’ is a book on Alexander Fraters journey through India, along with the monsoon clouds. He starts right at the bottom – Trivendrum when the monsoon clouds arrive in June and travels all the way north to Delhi with the progress of monsoon. He is there in Kovalam beach when people dance and rejoice at the sight of first rains. He moves northwards via Cochin to Goa and sees people welcoming the monsoons all the way. On his way, he does some research by meeting people at the meteorological department, learns the science behind these seasonal clouds that brings rain into India, and all about predicting the monsoons. He learns how important monsoon is for the Indian farmer and also to all those people who are looking for relief from the rains.
Set in the seventies, his journeys and many other experiences of those days feel a little outdated, but the facts and narration on monsoon do not change with time. In those days when he travelled, he had to find someone’s influence even to get an air ticket on board of Indian Airlines. He had to spend several months and go from door to door begging all the bureaucrats just to get permits to visit Cherrapunjee – a place that is open for all to visit now.
Besides being a wonderful narration of monsoons and making a good learning of everything that monsoons is, this is a well written travel story that gives a glimpse of the way of things in India’s the seventies. Sometimes the scientific facts seem overwhelming though. It is a worthy book to read for any one interested in travelling in India, and a must read for the fans of monsoon.
I have climbed Thadiyandamol twice, not yet satisfied and looking to get there again as many times as I can. The first time I was there, it was raining on and off and clouds occasionally gave way to display pretty views of the green hills all around. The second time when I went up, it was early winter and I expected the weather to be clear, but turned out to be a more wet day. I am still hungry for the pretty views with clear skies and wish to try my luck again in the coming winter.
On the way to Thadiyandamol
We left on an overnight bus to Virajpet and changed over to a bus that took us to Kakkabe. A short walk towards Thadiyandamol from the bus-stop took us to King’s Cottage – a home stay where we freshened up and had breakfast. Nearly half the way up Thadiyandamol takes us through habitation. The jeep track passes through coffee estates interspersed with forests, and small streams running across the road. Enabled by the genius brains of some pig headed officers, part of this hardly used road has even been blessed with tarmac. Get higher than the habitation and we are suddenly greeted by bliss – unspoiled hills, thick shola forest and green mountain grass as far as the eyes can see. It is difficult find fault in this world encompassing a few rocks here and there, a few flowers breaking the dominance of the green grass and a stream running down from the sholas. Just how I would like it!
On the way up…
The trek looked easy till we reach a small plateau above the coffee estates. Views are awesome with many a layers of hill after hill forming waves of ridges somewhere in the distance. The stream above the plateau and a few big boulders offered a good place to rest and fill water for rest of the journey. The next two kilometers was not all the simple and it took some time and effort. It gets steep and tiring but the views and the surroundings makes the walk a pleasure. Last stretch goes through a shola that I would call ‘real’ forest. Another quick steep ascent and we are already at the top. It takes no more than three hours to make the journey, give or take an hour based on your fitness levels. And once on top, there is nothing else you would desire in life.
Views of the surroundings…
A lunch, some rest, some sleep and some explorations kept the time moving. We started back around 4pm. The steep descent is as much a pain as the ascent, but is at least faster. We camped for the night near the stream in the wilderness. Weather was much clear next morning and we did get better views of the place.
Clouds raising up the hills in the morning…
When we were back at the bus-stop, it was still morning hours and we had time to kill till evening. We headed to Bylakuppe, the Tibetan settlement near Kushalnagar. It is said to be one of the largest Tibetan settlements in the world. We walked around, explored the Golden Temple and a spent a few hours in the Tibetan village before returning to Bangalore in the night.
Inside the Golden Temple at Bylakuppe
The next time we went up the hill was in late October. We encountered residual rains that dripped now and then. And it was much more cloudy. Leeches on the way were bolder this time and hunted us even on the jeep tracks and grasslands. We returned back the same day and stayed in Madikeri for the night. As before, we had another day to kill before returning to Bangalore.
Rain drops on Bamboo
Aimless and plan less next morning, we toyed around with our options and decided to visit Dubare and Harangi dam. Harangi dam is built against a small stream in the forest. It was quiet, devoid of any people or noise – there were only a handful of tourists wandering in the place. The backwaters looked pretty, with some small islands here and there and thick forest on its banks. We drove to Dubare elephant camp from here, where we crossed the river in a motor boat, watched some elephants walking around freely in the camp, and walked a bit along the Kaveri. We did not stay here for long and drove back Bangalore, reaching late in the evening.
Harangi Dam
River Kaveri near Dubare forest
Our third visit to Kakkabe was in peak rainy days and was equal fun. Though we were determined to climb Thadi again, decided otherwise once we arrived and instead settled down cozily in a coffee estate home stay. Extract from the trip report on this visit:
We reached Kakkabe village at the base of Thadiyandamol at around nine in the morning. One look at the cold and cloudy weather and we decided against climbing the mountain and check-in to the cozy and comfortable home-stay resort run by Poovannas on the way. To tell you the truth, even when we started from Bangalore, I secretly dreamt of sitting and relaxing in the lobby of a warm Coorgi house, though I put up a brave face and made claims of climbing up Thadiyandamol. To my delight, I realized that my fellow travellers were no different and had the same thing in mind! And the fact that I had already climbed up Thadiyandamol twice earlier helped making the decisions. But end of the day, that‘s just an excuse, and we were just being lazy and looking forward to indulge in good things that came with the rains!
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The trek up the Thadiyandamol starts from Kakkabe village, which can be reached from Madikeri or Virajpet by bus or car. It can be done as a day trek though it would be nice to camp for a night. It is probably a hike of an 8km or less one way. The best season to get the views may be winter, though my experience is limited to rainy days. For more information on reaching Kakkabe and nearby places to visit, see my earlier trip report to Kakkabe.
Also see other stories about Coorg on India Travel Blog
* Driving and sightseeing in Coorg
* Climbing up the Brahmagiri
Kushalnagar is the nearest town to Dubare forest and Harangi Dam. You can take ksrtc bus to Kushalnagar and then hire an auto-rickshaw to reach Dubare or Harangi. If you are driving, you need to continue on the road to Madikeri and take a left turn to Dubare after driving for 10 minutes, and right turn to Harangi Dam after similar distance. Ask for directions when you are in Kushalnagar.
+ Also see: Earlier trip to Yedakumeri – trek on the rail tracks
My association with KempuHole is more than a decade old. She flows down from the green mountains in the Sahyadris, boosted by several streams that join her along the way, carrying their cool, pristine and perfectly transparent water. Swimming in Kemphole was an idea I was toying with for a few months now.
Come Friday evening, we boarded a bus to Dharmasthala. The friendly bus conductor was willing to give is an unscheduled stop wherever we wanted, and after much thinking and debate, we decided to take the bus till Gundya cross. We reached there as early as 5.30am and were lucky to find one of the many shacks selling food already open. We barged in, threw our bags down the floor and got busy with a cuppa hot coffee. One of us, it seems was real hungry – he jumped on the bunch of bananas hanging in front of the shop with an eagerness no less than a monkey and helped himself to them one after other. The shop-keeper looked at us, smiled and asked us –
“ivarige ellu oota sikkilva antha..!”
This guy had not had anything eat for sometime?
I settled for just a cup of coffee since it was too early to eat anything. It was soon 6am and light started spreading slowly. Energized by the coffee, I decided to take a short walk on the Subrahmanya road, where I knew I will find Kempu Hole after a short walk.
It took less than five minutes to hit the river. She was flowing wide and clear down the bridge, amidst thick evergreens. I walked down and settled myself comfortably on a stone, with my legs dipped into the mild flow – a pleasure I have always cherished. A few minutes passed with abundance of calmness captivating the surroundings. Fish swam past me and a kingfisher – the early bird – hunted them close by. Egrets occasionally flew past, with their white dazzle reflecting in the calm waters of the river. Many birds were still waking up and murmuring their morning prayers.
Image of the region made three years ago during monsoons. Kempu Hole flows deep inside these jungles, somewhere in its valleys
When I came back, I saw my buddies had surrendered to slumber, tired after the night long bus journey. It did not take them much to find a place to sleep – one had slept off on a bench in the ‘hotel’ and the other had found a clean cement bench on the bus-stop nearby. Both were already fast asleep. I did not want to waste my time just like that; I found another good cement bench in the bus stand.
It was nearly 8am when we were up and ready to go. A quick breakfast later, we stood near the road, ready to flag every vehicle that came on the way. The first truck on the way stopped for us. Depressingly, it carried fat trees that donned the jungles somewhere deep in the Sahayadris. A 10 kilometer journey back towards Bangalore and we were near Kempu Hole, where we intended to spend rest of the day.
We got down from the truck, walked a little to find a nice isolated place in the river and settled down lazily on its bank. Lazing was the only thing in our mind. We found some comfortable place among the boulders on the bank. Listening to the soothing sound of the flow, we spent an hour or so quietly, and dozed of again on the rocks.
It must be a little more than 10am when I woke up. Now I was ready for a dip in the water. The place we had chosen had shallow water, which dropped down through a small waterfall of multiple steps and then formed a deeper and narrow section of the river. The current was not very strong but sufficient to drain the energy if I tried to swim against it. I was not well verse with swimming in the rivers and was worried and hesitant initially. Tense would be the right word. I was very unsure if I should take the plunge, as there was no one who could rescue if I were to be carried away by the flow or got injured by hitting a boulder. After a few minutes of contemplation I took the plunge!
Once I was in the water, it took no more than a few seconds to feel comfortable. I moved into the deeper section and swam freely as I pleased. Sometimes I tried swimming against the river and then would let my body flow down with the water. Occasionally I crossed to the other side, flirting with the current. I found a bounder in the middle of the river, with only its tip raising above the water, that was nearly in the shape of a bath tub. Perfect, I thought, as it served as a place to rest between swims. Lying down on it in the gentle current and listening the whispers of the flow is a pleasure that I don’t know how to describe.
I spent more than two hours in the deep water before I moved towards the waterfall. I lied below the waterfall that served as a jacuzzi, massaging my back and leaving me feeling good.
Nearly drained of all the energy, we eagerly consumed the lunch that we had packed in the morning. We then packed our bags and headed deeper into the forest. Walking upwards for an hour and a half next to a small stream, we arrived at Yedakumeri railway station around 4.30pm.
Image of the region made three years ago during monsoons. Train tracks leading to Yedakumeri
Yedakumeri station lies halfway up a hill, is surrounded by forest all around it and has no habitation or whatsoever except railway workers. We slept on the platform isolated by rest of the world, with stars twinkling high in sky and wind of the mountains soaking our body.
Next morning, we walked back through the forest into Kempu-Hole, crossed it and reached the road, and flagged a bus back to the city.