“Have you been To Kumara Parvatha?” was the usual question I was asked when ever I spoke about my treks. It was a pain to say “no, not yet”. But now I can boast that I too have been to KP. It was an urge from a long time. The team had four members. My trek buddy Anirudh, his friend Pruthvi who has been to a few treks and Shashi who is also his friend who happens to be a first timer.Anirudh took the trouble to find out the possible routes and finalize the plan. My intentions were to go completely unprepared so that I could enjoy to the fullest.
There are two possible routes.1. From Kukke Subramanya(Kind of well connected from Bangalore). This is a circuitous route and it would take a longer while than the second route.2. From Hegde Mane side (A village 25 kms away from Somwarpet). This village is not well connected, infact hardly. There are 2 bus services one in the morning and one in the late noon from Somwarpet.We normally choose the route which is either tough or a long one. Naturally route 1 happened to be our choice. We reached Kukke at 0500 hrs. After that we freshened up in the bus terminal and we proceeded towards the temple. There were 2 hotels dead opposite to each other. A debate started as to which one would be better. Upon deciding, we moved in to have our breakfast. Breakfast at 530 in the morning! Which hotel would have prepared it so early? We ended up having idli in one hotel and vada in the other. The idea of visiting the temple had to be dropped as we didn’t want to spend much time here.
Without wasting a minute we started our ascent. Oh! By the way the trek starts immediately from the front of the temple. A perpendicular road (towards Anuradha lodge) from the Main road leads you to the foot trail. We almost walked close to a kilometer on asphalted road to reach the trail. The forest Department has been kind enough to erect a board which gives you directions to the foot trail. The canopy starts right from there. We had just done a100 meters and we had a few leaches on our legs already. Quickly we all poured loads of salt into our shoes and socks so that our legs would be spared by the leaches. The ascent was very strenuous. For the record we started our ascent at around 340 feet altitude. The peak has an altitude of 5615 feet. So, one can imagine how it would be to gain a height of 5300 feet in a few hours.
None of us were in a good shape. All of us had one thing in mind, we used to feel so nice to see a flat patch where there was no climbing. While we were dragging our feet and climbing up, a local happened to pass by. We quickly checked with him, how far the Battara mane was(that’s the second check point)? He said a 60 or 90 minute walk. “Then what about the water point?” one of us asked him. He said take a right here. We met him exactly at the junction where one had to take a deviation to go to the 1st check point Bhimana Kallu(water point)(remember to return back to the same junction to proceed to the next checkpoint). The water was so refreshing. It was cold and tasted good, probably very rich in minerals. We took a break for a while.Our assault began again of course after removing those tiny creatures on our legs(leaches). It had rained 3 days ago, so we were spared by the nature with less leaches around. “How far?” was the usual question which was raised every now and then. We had walked for more than 2 hours but the Battara mane was no where in sight. We finished the forest patch and entered the grasslands. The sun’s smile lasted forever looking us sweat. It was so hot. We walked for some more distance and then we spotted the plantations of Areka nut.
Pruthvi was smart enough to guess that was the house. We made it at 1030. We checked with the house owner for lunch. He said he would prepare it by 1200. We had a very good time advantage, wasting more than 2 hours over here would not make any sense. We decided to have the packed food which we had carried. Anirudh requested for some butter milk. The person was very glad enough to give us. He also was kind enough to give us tobacco powder which we could use to stop the leaches from getting on our legs. We thanked him for hosting us and continued our journey upwards.After walking for a while we reached our 3rd Checkpoint, which was the Forest checkpost. Jairaj was the officer who was on duty. He charged Rs. 115/- as entry and trekking fee per head.
Mind you, cameras cost extra. We had to pay. He showed a map which had the route marked and gave us some directions. There was no cover anywhere as we were walking on grasslands. Our next checkpoint was a Rock Mantap which is also a water point(checkpoint 4). The Forest dept has created an artificial water collection point here. Proceeding further from here, we took a long time to reach sheshaparvatha which was checkpoint 5. Enroute we found some directions written on a rock by the dept. I was shocked when I read it. It said “Bypass to Hegde mane(take left)”. Who on earth would make a bypass on a foot trail? Though it struck me late, I realized that it was for the locals.
The Dept has marked the entire route. Every 100 meters you would find a red or a yellow marking showing directions. A good trekker would not lose his way.Clouds had begun to take their position which was not a good sign.
We had one last patch of forest land to cross to reach the top of KP. The guard had warned us to look out for more leaches here. Stopping in this patch would be a suicide. We all decided to finish the stretch at one go.I took the lead. The environ here was entirely different. I had never seen such a forest patch. It was lush green everywhere. All the trees had the green fungus on their trunks which gave an entirely different look. The rocks had almost turned green. After a long walk we finally reached on top. The temperature dropped suddenly once we reached the south side of the hill. The wind speed was mild. We couldn’t find any flat patch on the west or the north side. We decided to pitch the tent on the south side which was a grave mistake.
Without wasting any time we started unpacking the tent and pitching it. There were all signs of rain. Time was short and it was getting dark as well. We finished pitching the tent just in time. Our packed food was out and we started to have our dinner at 7PM. Then the inevitable happened. It started raining. It rained and rained. We could feel the rain hit the tent as the roof was touching our head. The chill sent a shiver down the back bone. Sleep is a luxury when it rains like that. I was more worried about the tent giving away. If the roof falls we would not have good ventilation inside. Finally the rains stopped by 1:30AM. None of us slept till then. We thought we could sleep well now. But our beloved Mother Nature had something else in store for us. The wind speed gradually increased. It went upto almost 60 to 70KMPH(that’s my guess). They were blowing from South and South West. We had our tent exactly in that path. We were hardly spared. It blew non stop through out the night. Our souls were dead tired, one by one we stopped bothering about the tent and dozed off.
Early morning the wind hadn’t slowed down yet. It was very misty and cold. Visibility was barely 15 metres. Unpitching the tent took a while. We bid good bye to KP and started our descent. Since we had seen the route 1 from Kukke, we had decided to get down from the other route. So, we headed towards Hegde Mane.
To go to hedge mane one has to reach a junction which is around 500 meters from the top in the north direction. The Northwest route takes you to Kukke from where we had come. The Northeast takes you to Hegde Mane. The forest patch had to be crossed. We applied tobacco and salt powder on our legs and shoes and started our descent. The fresh air from the woods makes you feel so good. We had to cross atleast 2 long rock patches.
As it had rained in the night, the ground was wet and very slippery. We had to move very slowly.I heard some growling sound faintly. It was too low to make out anything. The sound became more and more loud as we descended. It was easy to make out that it was 2 bears which were growling. We were dead silent and moved very slowly. Wild life is good in photographs but not at all good when you have a 10 kilo weight on your back. We were contemplating whether to move ahead or stay for a while. Wasting time wasn’t a good idea as we had an early bus to catch. We decided to talk loudly which would distract the bears and they would go away from us. We were talking with loud speakers on, that is how it sounded. After crossing a distance we could no more hear the bears. We relaxed a bit.
To go to hedge mane one has to reach a junction which is around 500 meters from the top in the north direction. The Northwest route takes you to Kukke from where we had come. The Northeast takes you to Hegde Mane. The forest patch had to be crossed. We applied tobacco and salt powder on our legs and shoes and started our descent. The fresh air from the woods makes you feel so good. We had to cross atleast 2 long rock patches.
As it had rained in the night, the ground was wet and very slippery. We had to move very slowly.I heard some growling sound faintly. It was too low to make out anything. The sound became more and more loud as we descended. It was easy to make out that it was 2 bears which were growling. We were dead silent and moved very slowly. Wild life is good in photographs but not at all good when you have a 10 kilo weight on your back. We were contemplating whether to move ahead or stay for a while. Wasting time wasn’t a good idea as we had an early bus to catch. We decided to talk loudly which would distract the bears and they would go away from us. We were talking with loud speakers on, that is how it sounded. After crossing a distance we could no more hear the bears. We relaxed a bit.We spotted another team of four which was climbing up. We greeted each other and we proceeded towards the checkpoint. We took a break here. Anirudh sensed a movement in his shoes. On removing them he found some 5 or 6 leaches which had sucked a good amount of blood. We all had leach bites. We met Lala Prasad who hosts the trekkers in Hegde Mane in the checkpost itself. He took us to his home in a shortcut. We freshened up. A hot water bath is so relaxing. He served us delicious food which we relished. From there we proceeded to a junction where we had to catch the evening bus at 330PM which is the last one for the day. We had made no reservations, so we had to change almost 4 buses to reach Bangalore.
Route:
From Kukke –
Trail Starting point - N12 39.610 E75 37.277 486ft
1. Checkpoint 1 – Bhimanakallu(Water Point) N12 39.638 E75 38.259 1495ft
2. Checkpoint 2 – BattaraMane N12 40.157 E75 39.141 2751ft
3. Checkpoint 3 – Forest Checkpost N12 40.123 E75 39.258 2800ft
4. Checkpoint 4 – Rock Mantap(Water Point) N12 39.815 E75 40.132 3937ft
5. Checkpoint 5 – Seshcparvatha N12 39.896 E75 40.738 5165ft
6. Checkpoint 6 – Kumara Parvatha N12 39.684 E75 41.192 5590ft
Descending to Hegde mane village
1. Junction to take deviation to the route N12 39.782 E75 41.098 5416ft
2. Bypass Junction N12 40.093 E75 40.982 4681ft
3. Checkpost N12 39.669 E75 42.285 3564ft
4. Hegde Mane Village N12 39.963 E75 42.683 3181ft
Note: Altitude may not be accurate
Last bus from Hegde Mane village is at 330PM.
