Off the Beaten Track .....and far from the madding crowd: Tadiandamol - a photojourney through the Sholas of Kodagu

The first view of Tadianamol Peak
from the walking path

Tadiandamol? Now where is that? It is only when I was atop this beautiful peak did the beauty of the Kodagu hills strike me. The highest peak in Kodagu (erstwhile Coorg), Tadiandamol stands proud in a cluster of hills near Virajpet. It is not much of a climb, about two and a half hours from the road head, but the views around are breath-taking.

Marsh Crocodile
all eight feet him him

My lightning trip weekend trip started in Bangalore the day prior, three photographer friends and I started by car at about 7 am, by mid-morning we were in Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary.

A bird photographer’s delight as the birds are close and the morning sun is behind one, beautifully illuminating the birds. It is wonderful to see many nesting birds including Open-billed stork, painted stork, herons and the ubiquitious spot-billed pelican. The many marsh crocodiles we saw were huge, 8 to 10 feet by my estimation, and the jaws are quite intimidating.

The intimidating jaws of a
Marsh Crocodile

The pelican is an entertainer, fishing on the fly, its flight looks lazy and slow, till you try to photograph it. I found many blank frames in my sequence of photographs, it is fast, very fast. I suppose here, rather than the early bird getting the worm, the swift pelican gets the fish.

A Pelican lines up for the swift attack

A a swift flurry of water

BANG he has got it

A conclave of storks... Painted and Open-billed

Namdroling monastery

another view of Namdroling Monastery

The sanctum sanctorum of the monastery

colourful beaded bracelets being sold outside the monastery

At Bylakuppe village we had noodles for lunch in one of the many Tibetan restaurants along the road. This is the location of the Namdroling Nyingmapa Monastery, a major learning centre for this branch of Buddhism, replete with the Golden Temple, the university and library. Relatively recently established in 1962, the workmanship is ornate and exquisite. As with all the monasteries I have seen, the work is colourful, detailed and in various media like metal, wood and cloth and stone; a tribute to the deep dedication of the craftsmen. At Madikeri we walked up to Sultan's Seat, a garden from where to see the sunset. Being a weekend there were huge crowds all there to enjoy the solitude of nature in each other's company! Selfies and all. The sunset that day was unremarkable and we took a few photos merely because we were there.

Next morning we left our hotel at 5.30 am but reached the start of our climb at about 9 am, after a breakfast of parathas and a local watery sambhar at a plantation worker's house. Every house in the plantations is very proud of their flowers and at this house there were bright and cheerful yellow flowers. Along the way we drove through vast coffee plantations, the bright red coffee berry was ripening on the plant and at many places the berries had been laid out in the sun to dry.

Bright yellows at the hut
where we had breakfast

more yellows

coffee beans ripening on a tree

We drove a little further to the roadhead, and found a very pretty homestay at the end of the road, West Wind Cottage, their rates were quite modest and I would recommend that anyone wishing to go up Tadiandamol should spend the night there, it enables a very early start. During our walk we found many tented camps by the path, people had spent the night here so as to get to the top to see the sunrise.

The trek to the peak is very scenic, passing mainly through grasslands interspersed with sholas. Sholas are stands of stunted tropical forest found in valleys amid rolling grassland in the higher regions of Kodagu and other South India highlands. The strip of dense vegetation appears to follow the watercourse in the valley coming off a mountain. The last stretch is steep and suddenly I am on top, rewarded by a majestic panorama of ridges and hills around. The serenity of the Kodagu hills is truly spiritual.