Kudajadri - The Spiritual Trekking.

A Spiritual Trekking Trip to Kollur Mookambika Temple and Kudajadri Hills..!

Kollur Mookambika Temple,Karnataka - Mookambika temple is an ancient temple located at Kollur in Karnataka. Kollur is about 135 away from Mangalore. And is easily accessed from Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka by train and road.

We have traveled to Kollur by Bus (Kollur is well connect by road) and have reached Kollur by morning 8.00am. Rooms/ Hotels are plenty and we had our stay at Shri Ram Krishna Madham ( Near to Private Bus stand).

We had our bath at holy River Souparnika. The source of this river Souparnika is from the Kodachadri hills lying near the temple as a backdrop. This river is said to be not only holy but also to contain rich extracts of valuable herbs as it passes through many mountains that has abundant herbs and rare plants.

We had our 'Darshan' around 9am. It was a special feeling which cannot be expressed by the darshan of Mookambika Bhagawati.

We returned to room n took rest for few hours and planned about the journey to Kudajadri. 

There are Jeep services available to Kudajadri from Kollur as well as Karaghatta ( the place where the trekking starts). We have decided to reach Kudajadri by walking and we have started our journey around 2.00pm from Kollur. We've reached Karaghatta by Bus ( Karaghatta is on the way to Shimoga from Kollur - well connected by Bus service) at 2.45pm

and the 'Team Kudajadi'

we have started our trekking. It was dense forest from the starting onwards, but the way was good at the starting of the journey. Since our travel was not in monsoon we have not fight with the leaches.. Otherwise trekking people need to keep salt with them to fight with the leaches..

We moved on... As the time passes, we found the way is becoming narrow and after the journey of 1 hour we have reached the 'Bhakti Vedanta' Eco village. The tea shop near to that was really really a relief for the trekking people. We just relaxed for sometime and continued the journey..

 

By 4.30 we have reached top of a hill and the view from there was amazing.. the breeze took away all the tiredness of the journey till that.. :)

 

 

we continued and we've reached the Kudajadri hills around 6.30pm. Thats the place till the point the jeep service comes. The 'moola mookambika' temple is there also some houses.

We talked at one house and arranged the stay at there ( you wont find any hotel/ lodge there. The stay can be arranged at the houses there at very reasonable rate, inclusive of food.)

after a very long time we had our dinner at Petro-max light. ( Electricity is yet to reach Kudajadri hills) is a good thing, we believe.

Next day early morning (around 6'o clock) we have started to 'Sarvajna Peedha'. We enjoyed the beauty of Sunrise like we ever enjoyed it..

We continued to Sarvajna peedha and we could see the real beauty of Kudajadri Hills. Kudajadri/ Kodachadri is a mountain peak with dense forests (altitude - 1343 meters above sea level) in the Western Ghats in South India (Karnataka State). It is also called "Kutachadri" and "Kodashi Parvatha". Kodachadri forms a background to the famous temple of Mookambika in Kollur. Situated in the middle of the Mookambika National Park, it is home to several endemic and endangered species of flora and fauna.

On the way to Sarvajna Peedha you can see the Ganesh Cave. 

and we have reached Sarvajna Peedha around 9.30am

We spent some time there and decided to move to 'Chithra moola' cave, the real adventurous place at Kudajadri hills. That was the real stamina testing climbing down from Sarvajna Peedha and we reached Chithra moola

there was a 'Shiva linga' there but the place was not as holy as we thought of ( see the plastic bottles..)

After spending sometime there we started the return.. 

We returned to the house where we stayed and settled amounts and started the return journey to Kollur ( via the same forest route by which reached Kudajadri).

We climbed down the hills fast since we need to catch the bus to Kollur @ Karaghatta at 2.30pm. and we were tired and exhausted too..

We have reached back at Kollur around 4.00am and got freshen up from the Shri Ram Krishna Madham itself. And returned after the satisfaction of a divine darshan of Kollur Mookambika Bhagwati and the sweet memory of the holy Trekking to Kudajadri Hills..

By

Santhosh Mankulam