Western Ghats Trekking and Nature Tour

Clear customs at Kempegowda International Airport and you will find one of our staff by the exit doors with a printed name board; the private car parked outside stays with you all the way to Mangalore. Expect roughly an hour to the hotel when roads are clear, and if your plane touches down before dawn, as plenty of Gulf and European services do, a booking that starts the previous night means you go straight to bed. On the drive we hand over your trek confirmations, the forest department booking references and a printed plan, along with a list of what the guides expect each hiker to carry, such as water, rain shell and snacks.

At around four o'clock your trek coordinator sits down with you in the lobby café to talk through the week ahead. You go through the two main hikes in detail: distances, climbing time, the start times set by the forest department and what happens if rain or mist closes a trail on the day. The coordinator checks your footwear and suggests what to buy locally if anything is missing, such as leech socks, which are useful in the forest sections even outside the monsoon. This is also the moment to mention any knee, back or heart issues, so the guides can set a pace that works for the whole group.

With the formalities done, a short walk in Cubbon Park gives your legs a stretch after the long flight. The park covers around 300 acres of old trees in the center of the city, and in the early evening it fills with joggers, families and birdwatchers looking for barbets and parakeets among the rain trees. On its edges rise the red-painted High Court, built under British rule, and the massive grey stone seat of the Karnataka legislature. Dinner could be a simple South Indian thali or a craft beer and pizza in one of the many brewpubs around Church Street, followed by an early night. Overnight in Bangalore.

An early start avoids the worst of the city traffic as you head south-west on the Mysore expressway. The first stop, about two hours out, is Srirangapatna, an island town on the Kaveri that was once the capital of Tipu Sultan, where you can stretch your legs around the ramparts and the summer palace gardens. From there the road crosses dry farmland of sugarcane, ragi and coconut before climbing gently past Kushalnagar. This lower edge of Coorg is home to a large Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe, and your driver can stop at the Golden Temple monastery if you would like a short break and lunch at a nearby café.

Past Madikeri the road narrows and winds into the hills, and the landscape changes to shade-grown coffee under tall native trees, with pepper vines climbing the trunks and orange trees between the rows. Two nights are booked at a coffee estate homestay outside Kakkabe, a short drive from the base of Tadiandamol. Kodagu, as the district is officially called, belongs above all to the Kodavas, who keep their own tongue, warrior customs and cooking, and plenty of local homestays are run by families still working land their grandparents cleared. Your hosts will explain how the estate works and which birds visit the garden in the late afternoon.

Before dark, take a gentle walk of an hour or so through the estate with your host or a local guide to loosen the legs for tomorrow. Up in the canopy, a loud chattering call usually means a Malabar giant squirrel, an animal the size of a cat with a rust-colored back and a long bushy tail, and look out for Malabar grey hornbills and scarlet minivets moving through the trees. Dinner is home-cooked Kodava food, often pandi curry made with pork and dark kachampuli vinegar, along with rice dumplings called kadambuttu and a vegetarian option on request. Pack your day bag tonight, because the trek begins early. Overnight in Coorg.

After an early breakfast and a short drive, you meet your certified local guide at the forest checkpost near the trailhead, close to the old Nalknad Palace, a small royal hunting lodge from the early 1800s. The forest department sets the opening time, a daily cap on hikers and a cut-off for starting the climb, and our booking reference covers your entry. The first section follows a broad jeep track through coffee and then evergreen forest, where the shade keeps the air cool and the path is often damp. Leeches can be active after rain, so tuck trousers into socks and keep a little salt or repellent handy.

Above the treeline the trail opens onto shola grassland, the high-altitude mix of rolling grass slopes and small, dense pockets of stunted evergreen forest that grows in the folds of the hills. Your guide explains how these shola patches store water and feed the streams that run down to the Kaveri, and why fire and invasive plants threaten them. The final climb to the summit of Tadiandamol, at about 1,748 meters, is short but steep and can be slippery in mist. On a clear day the view takes in the coffee valleys of Coorg to the east and, far to the west, the haze over the coastal plain.

Lunch is a packed meal eaten near the top, with time to rest before the descent, which is harder on the knees than the climb. Walking poles help, and the guide will set a steady pace rather than a race. Back at the trailhead, your driver is waiting with cold drinks and takes you to the homestay for a hot shower. Once you have cleaned up, an evening brew from the estate's own beans tastes very good after a long climb. Your hosts can also show you how coffee cherries are pulped, dried and roasted, depending on the season, since harvest runs roughly from November to February. Overnight in Coorg.

Today is a rest day for the legs and a working day for the car. After a slow breakfast you leave Kakkabe and drive north through Madikeri, Somwarpet and Sakleshpur, a route of quiet roads, small market towns and long stretches of coffee and cardamom plantation. If anyone feels stiff after the climb, the drive allows stops every hour or so for a walk and a tea. Near Sakleshpur the hills rise again, and on clear mornings you can see the outline of the Bisle forest ranges to the west. Your driver will plan lunch at a simple local restaurant serving Malnad cooking, which is the food of the Karnataka hill districts.

Around mid-afternoon the car rolls into Chikmagalur, where India's coffee story is said to have begun. Local tradition says a Sufi saint, Baba Budan, smuggled seven coffee beans from Yemen in the 1600s and planted them in the hills that now carry his name. After settling in at a plantation stay a few kilometers from town, you head out on foot with the estate manager or a resident naturalist to wander among the shade trees. Many estates here keep large native trees for shade, which makes them good habitat for birds, butterflies and small mammals, and your walk might turn up a flameback woodpecker, a Malabar whistling thrush or a family of bonnet macaques.

Before dinner, your guide joins you for a short briefing on the next two days in Kudremukh National Park. The park protects one of the largest remaining blocks of shola grassland and wet evergreen forest in the Western Ghats, and it was saved from iron ore mining in the early 2000s after a long campaign by conservation groups. You go over the trail rules again, check gear and confirm the timing of tomorrow's drive. The evening is quiet, with the call of nightjars around the estate and, if the sky is clear, a good view of the stars away from city lights. Overnight in Chikmagalur.

The road west from Chikmagalur soon climbs into wild country, passing tea gardens at Kalasa and dense forest as you approach the edge of the national park. Along the way the Bhadra river runs through steep valleys, and at the temple town of Kalasa you can stop at the Kalaseshwara temple, set on a small rocky hill above the river. Every bend seems a shade greener than the last, and it ranks among the loveliest roads in the state. By lunchtime you reach your homestay near the Kudremukh trailhead, a simple but comfortable place where the hosts serve home-cooked Malnad meals and know the forest well.

Once lunch has settled, a guide from the village takes you on an easy two-hour stroll beside a forest stream close to the homestay, a good way to wake the legs after yesterday in the car. The forest here is wet evergreen, with tall trees, strangler figs, tree ferns and thick moss, and the variety of life on a short walk is remarkable. Look out for forest frogs on wet rocks, colorful millipedes, bright fungi and butterflies, among them the southern birdwing, whose black and gold wings make it India's biggest. Your guide will point out signs of wildlife too, including gaur droppings, wild boar diggings and sambar tracks on the muddy edges of the path.

Back at the homestay, your hosts serve tea with snacks such as akki rotti, a rice flatbread, and a spicy chutney. Over dinner the guide outlines the climb ahead: the start time, the stream crossings, where to refill water, and the turn-back point if the weather changes. The forest department sets a strict cut-off for starting the trek, so breakfast will be early. Take time to rest, stretch and pack your day bag with a rain shell, sunscreen, a hat, at least two to three liters of water and some high-energy snacks. Lights out early tonight: the longest hike of the week starts at first light. Overnight in Kudremukh.

An early breakfast and a short jeep ride bring you to the forest checkpost, where your certified guide checks your permits and gear. The trail first passes through coffee plantations and patches of forest, then crosses several streams on rocks and logs, which can be slippery. Soon the path climbs onto open grassland, and the views start to unfold over a sea of rolling green hills. The trek to Kudremukh peak, at about 1,894 meters one of the highest in Karnataka, is long rather than technical, but the sun on the open slopes and the steady gradient make it tiring, so a good pace and plenty of water are important.

The landscape is classic shola grassland, with smooth hills covered in grass and dark, dense forest patches hidden in every fold and valley. These sholas are a mix of evergreen trees that grow slowly in the cool, misty climate and shelter rare plants, frogs and birds, many of them found only in the Western Ghats. Your guide may point out the Nilgiri pipit, a small bird of high grasslands, or the black-and-orange flycatcher in the shola edges. The name Kudremukh means horse face in Kannada, after the shape of the peak when seen from a certain angle, and the summit gives wide views of the ranges and the coastal plain.

After a packed lunch at the top, you return the same way, taking care on the steep descent and stream crossings. Most hikers are back at the trailhead by late afternoon, tired but happy, and the jeep takes you back to the homestay for a hot bucket bath and a big dinner. Note that the forest department may close the trail or change the route because of rain, fire risk or conservation work, and in that case your guide will offer a shorter alternative walk in the area. In the evening, relax by the fire with your hosts, who often share stories of the area's history and wildlife. Overnight in Kudremukh.

After a slower morning to let your legs recover, the car winds south through forest and small farming hamlets to Sringeri, a temple town on the banks of the Tunga. It is the site of one of the four main mathas, or monasteries, said to have been founded by the philosopher Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century. The stone Vidyashankara Temple has twelve pillars carved with signs of the zodiac, and local tradition holds that the morning sun falls on each pillar in the matching month. At the river ghat, pilgrims feed the large mahseer fish that gather in the shallows, a practice protected by the temple for centuries.

From Sringeri it is a short drive to Agumbe, a small village on the crest of the Western Ghats that receives some of the heaviest rainfall in South India, often over 7,000 millimeters a year. The rain and the evergreen forest make it one of the richest places in the range for reptiles and amphibians, and Agumbe is known in conservation circles as king cobra country. A rainforest research station in the area studies the snake and its forest, and it occasionally runs outreach activities, but visits are only by prior arrangement and are not guaranteed. Sightings of a king cobra are rare and cannot be promised.

In the late afternoon you head to the Agumbe sunset point, a viewpoint at the edge of the escarpment where the land drops sharply toward the coastal plain. When the air is clean, the sun sinks toward a thin silver line of sea far to the west, though during the rainy months clouds usually hide the show. Back in the village, you will stay at a simple guesthouse or homestay, where the evening meal is usually a hearty vegetarian thali. Agumbe is also famous in India as the setting of the old TV series Malgudi Days, and your hosts can point out a few spots linked to the show. Overnight in Agumbe.

Early morning is the best time for wildlife in the forest, so you set out with a local nature guide for a walk on one of the rainforest trails around Agumbe. Depending on the season and trail access, this might lead to the Jogigundi or Onake Abbi waterfalls, or along a stream where frogs call from the rocks. Keep an eye on the ground and the low branches for lizards, such as the green forest lizard or the flying lizard that glides between trees, and on the canopy for the Malabar grey hornbill and the brightly colored Malabar trogon. Leeches are common in wet weather, so tuck in your trousers and check your shoes when you stop.

After a late breakfast, the car descends the Agumbe ghat, a road of fourteen sharp hairpin bends that drops several hundred meters in a short distance. The air quickly turns warm and humid, the forest gives way to areca palm, coconut and paddy, and within two hours you reach Udupi, a temple town on the Karnataka coast. The Sri Krishna Matha is the heart of town, and devotees view the deity through a small window called the Kanakana Kindi, carved with nine openings. Udupi is also the home of the famous Udupi cuisine, and lunch at a traditional restaurant serving masala dosa and banana-leaf meals is part of the visit.

Later, the car covers the short hop west to Malpe Beach, a working fishing port where long wooden trawlers land their catch as the day ends. Walk along the sand at sunset and watch the sky turn orange over the sea, a fitting end to days spent in the hills. Between roughly October and May, when the sea is calm, boats run from Malpe to St. Mary's Island, known for unusual columns of volcanic basalt rock, and we can try to arrange a morning trip tomorrow if your flight time allows. Dinner tonight could be fresh seafood such as kane, the local ladyfish, cooked in a coastal masala. Overnight in Udupi.

With an afternoon flight and a flat sea, a dawn boat to St. Mary's Island lets you walk among its hexagonal basalt columns before breakfast, while gulls and terns fly over the rocks. Otherwise, use the morning for a final coffee and a stroll around the temple streets. Afterwards the car follows the coast road north for about ninety minutes to Mangalore International Airport, crossing several wide river mouths along the way. The airport sits on a plateau above the city, so allow extra time for traffic and the steep approach road.

Nonstop services from Mangalore reach several Gulf hubs, and domestic hops via Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi link up with long-haul flights to the West and Australia. Your boots will need a good clean, and you may find a leech bite or two to remember the forest by. Over nine days you have climbed through coffee, shola and rainforest, crossed the Ghats and finished on the sea. Plenty more ridges wait further south, around Munnar, Valparai and Silent Valley, should the hills call you back for another round of hiking. Safe travels home.