"Celebrate a monsoon trek with some leech bites!"
Written on : 18-September-2016
Visted During : August 2016
Some more Information
Carrying some sort of prevention against leeches is a must if you are doing this trek during rainy season or when the soil is damp. There is an option for stay in a few kilometers from the peak in a forest office/a building where guards stay - here you can stay overnight. The facility is a basic one and do not expect any luxury. This building is opposite to Bhagamandala route during trek and if you prefer to stay, you might have to descend towards the other side of the mountain unless you want to trek the same route again. You need to inform in advance for the same to the guide. There are 3 guides available and hence contact them before hand. Pack your lunch from Bhagamandala itself because you don’t find anything once you start the trek.
The base of the trek is around 6 kms from Bhagamandala city and one needs to hire a guide beforehand as it is a restriction by forest department. Also, you need to pay INR 200 as a fee to Range officer in Bhagamandala to trek in the forest area.(In our case it was a government holiday and we had to pay the amount to the guide itself. I doubt the amount reaching the forest office by any chance.)
My Experience and Opinion
Nishani Motte peak was in my bucket list for at least a couple of years now. Whenever I feel that I have seen Madikeri/Coorg enough number of times, Brahmagiri and Nishani Motte used to poke me and say “You have not seen me yet!” and now, I have only Brahmagiri left to poke me the next time I think so.
After seeing a couple of facebook posts siting Nishani Motte trek, felt that it is getting famous and decided to trek before it gets crowded every weekend. But, post trek I felt it will take time to get crowded. It takes some effort to trek Nishani peak during rainy season. Leeches will keep the hill safe from people who trek just for the sake of posting photos or just because there is a long weekend and need a place to go.
For true trekking enthusiasts, mark this place as a must visit in your places to trek.
The Trek
40+ Medals in whole body when we boarded our Scorpio to travel back from trek base. (Read further to know more)
The trek difficulty level is medium if you are trekking during Monsoon and I believe it is an easy trek during summer. During monsoon, the leeches make the trek experience a little frustrating because most of the time you would be engaged in removing the leeches. But, believe me it is one fantastic experience to get lost in the mountains covered by mist even in the noon. One of my friend who is not so trek freak told these words at the end and I felt so contented of deciding to trek here in a group. The exact words were “Niranjan, I am tired, leeches bit me, but I have never enjoyed any other trek like this. This is the first time I am not regretting of trekking.” After reading this, if there is a trek freak in you and if you have not yet visited Nishani Motte yet, then am sure you heart would be saying – “I wanted this trek to be done yesterday (sic) but that’s ok. I am getting ready for the coming weekend.”
The trek can be done well within 4-5 hours during monsoon since you do not get a chance to take your camera out, or even mobile to click some selfies. I took some chance as I risked my camera getting moist to click some photos and record some videos. I could hardly spend a couple of minutes with camera in this trek. Videos do more justice than photos since it gives you a feel of how mist travels with the wind, how people walking get disappeared within a minute into the mist etc.
Medals I mentioned above were the leech bites we had in our legs. At some point, each one of us had given up cleaning our legs from leeches. Sometimes when I saw my shoes, I found at least 30-40 leeches moving as calm as a wave while I was trying all sort of ways to get rid of them. The sight was close to disgusting. But, if each one of us will remember the trek for a life time, then those leeches will be the reason! Sometimes filthy is beautiful provided its part of nature and you enjoy it. We took at least 20-30 minutes to clean our legs from the blood oozing out of each leech bite. I am writing this post after over a month of the visit and I still scratch my legs when I think of leeches. (Leech bites will be itchy for 10-15 days but is manageable one.) Also, the breeze - rather I would call it wind in the peak is something to experience. During monsoon, you can hardly stand there for a couple of minutes.
If you are trekking to Nishani Motte, then make it during monsoon to get the feel of rain in Madikeri. If you are trekking during monsoon, do carry some protection like rain coat without which it will be very difficult to withstand the rain for hours together - especially in the peak.
Photos
The scenic grassland area of Nishani Peak
Trees on the way the the peak. Mist makes the scene perfect.
The group pic in between the drizzle
Group Pic
The Trek!!!
The Obvious - Selfie
Videos
The Most Important asset while travelling - Google Maps
