The Expeditious Trek to Tadiandamol

No I mean it literally!! It all started when Shwetha told me about BTC, this quickly started a spark in me to again go back to my trekking roots. I silently downloaded the BTC app on my phone and was figuring out on which place to go, which is when she told me about the Superfast trek to Tadiandamol. And what a better way to start, as I am again going for a trek after a brief break in between. This trek made perfect sense!

So we reached Shatala Silk House on Friday, ready to be greeted by Virandar and Sreemoyee and few casual intros with the other group who were ready for their massive Kumara Parvata trek. As we were waiting for our TT, there were a lot friendly folks meeting each other. Finally at around 10:30PM we departed from Bangalore leaving behind another person who was supposed to join us (don’t recall the name, who was apparently lost near majestic in order to reach us).

Now comes the knowing each other part. We were told to introduce our names using dumb charades; it was very funny to do that! Finally got to know my new friends abode, Virandar, Sreemoyee, Ashwin, Vaibhav, Mayank, Dinesh, Sushmita, Shwetha, Syed and Poornima (another newbee to  BTC), and our journey to Virajpet began accompanied by our superfast TT driver.

As we flew past others on the road thanks to our over courageous TT driver, most of us sank in their seats for a slumber. I was awake to make small talks with the driver so that he didn’t doze off, finally near Mysore I gave up, and fell asleep only to be intermittently woken by the sudden jerks given by our enthused TT driver to cross the super large speed breakers and potholes that we are greeted with on the Mysore road, and coincidently that’s when Virandar kept asking me why I didn’t sleep on the journey.

As we were 65 kms away from Virajpet, the driver soon gave up and dozed off for 2 hours straight and it was 2:30 am, I was way surprised to see him reach so soon, that’s 4 hours! Kept thinking as I sunk into slumber again, this is great head start for a superfast trek, honestly! Then soon the driver woke up and by 4:30am we were at Virajpet bus stand again to sleep for some more time as we were too early compared to our ETA at Virajpet. So as we were waiting for our ticking clocks, finally began to freshen up at 6:00 am and all of us were ready for a fresh morning tea… err… or Dosa!!! That was Swetha’s response for whether she wanted tea or coffee… no she wanted Dosa… We were like… huh!!! :P some giggles aside, Sreemoyee started pulling my leg to do some pre- workouts before the long climb, I agreed but nobody joined, so no pre-workouts :D

Right after chai, we headed for hotels which were ready to be open for breakfast. Finally someone opened a hotel at sharp 7:00 am, only to be greeted with freshly made heaps of idly’s, vada’s, Mangalore buns and Rice bath. Straight away all of us ordered idly-vada’s, sadly Shwetha couldn’t get her dosa, so she settled down with idly’s. we quickly gobbled up, packed rice bath and rice purls for lunch and hurtled our way towards the TT. As we settled in, Virandar and Mayank starting asking science related questions. ;) but there was one response which really puzzled us off, question was what does ‘O’ stands for in H2O(chemical symbol of water, for someone who don’t know ;P), our madam Sreemoyee, told that is “Ozone”!! we were like…. What!?!... and giggled off!! While Virandar calling her Alia Bhat, Part 2… LOL!!  we continued discussing some general topics, and we finally reached at the base of Tadiandmol, parked the TT near the palace (more on that later). Took our bags cobbled up things we could pack and off we started.

(The trekkers pack)

As we set foot along, we were joined in by a bunch of college students, with no trekking gear, heck no water bottles too!!! As we headed towards the peak like uncles and aunties… LOL! We were greeted with the best view of the Coorg.

Soon the climb began amidst the greenery, small waterfalls, fresh coffee berries, the fast trekkers hurtled ahead, and we were going at a reasonably slow pace, sipping in water. All the shutterbugs began to work along.

(The beautiful scenary at Coorg)

As we moved ahead, Sreemoyee pointed out the peak. I told to myself, this is not going to be easy. It seemed far away looming over us. We made it to the half point, to meet Virandar and the others, took ample rest and some quick snack and off we started. With the peak locked on to our targets, the adrenaline rush was enough to propel us through accompanied by the greenery around. To reach the peak we had to cross dry slippery rocks, forest part, where the roots of the trees formed steps. I asked myself wonder how those kids made it with their non-trekking gear, astonishing!!! And soon we made it to the peak by noon, which was pretty much a feat in itself, carrying our pot bellies, and bags : P

Took some rest and started posing for our shutterbugs, we started making some fun slo-mo videos, laughed our hearts out. Some got pretty spiritual and got lost in the openness the peak presented us with. Soon we started our descent towards the halfway point to have our lunch, made it to the halfway point to be surprised. That rice bath we packed we packed was lip smacking delicious!!! With jokes and fun abound, we soon reached the base by 4:30pm, and decided to visit the Nalknad Palace built in 1792. The palace had two levels with low doorways, dark rooms and ceilings decorated with paintings, much different from the idea that a palace usually evokes. After a small de-tour, we headed towards Bangalore, playing an interesting game called Mafia, moderated by Sreemoyee. Soon the game ended with a bang, played really well by Ashwin and Sushmita. Soon Ashwin got off at Virjapet and Syed near Mysore, and we stopped for dinner at Adigas. Soon after a heavy dinner we set foot to Bangalore, this is where things got interesting. We started discussing about paranormal experiences between each of us. With goose bumps on, slowly the discussion hurried towards spirituality and finally with atoms, solar systems and science!! 

Made it to Bangalore, as we bid adieu to our new found friends. Our memories remained where it stood. The destination (Tadiandamol) had remained the same but the journey was far from what we had imagined it to be. All the surprises had made the trip even more memorable, all this in a day. This indeed was a superfast trek! A nice start with BTC.

Really grateful for Virandar and Sreemoyee for arranging such a fun and memorable trip. Hope to have such an eventful trip once again!

Written By        : Yagnik Kumble

Organized By    : Sreemoyee & Virander
Date of event    : 23rd Jan, 2016
Members Count : 11
Place               : Tadiandamol
Pictures           : BTC FB Album