28/02 Kumara Parvata Trek

On 27th Night, I and a handful of my office friends boarded a bus to Kukke Subramanya temple, reached there by 28th. Took a cheap basic lodge, freshened up and started on our way to the base of KP.

This was a two day trek with camping on top of Kumara Parvatha being the agenda. The end result was a sense of achievement that I can never forget. You can say one place ticked off my bucket list.

The trail is approximately 14 kms one way from the base and traverses through the forest, grasslands and shola forests. You can add another 1.2 kms from the temple town Kukke Subramanya.

This was the base of KP. We entered the small gate behind us and started trekking through the forest. Since it was early morning, there wasn't any sun and we were trekking fast to beat the sun as much as we could. 

After trekking through the forest which took about 2-3 hours on medium pace and decent rest, sun was out and we were on top of some hills. In open fields under the sun and lots of water in the bag, we walked. There was nothing else to do, so we walked and rested and that's all we did. There was a visible trail, so it wasn't about the difficulty, it was about stamina. We stopped for sometime at Battara maane, where a local family serves you food. 

 The first 6 kms is an uphill path going through the forest till Bhattara Mane where the forest starts thinning. It took about 4-4.5 hours to reach the first way point. This is where we took a lunch break .

After having basic (rice, rasam, ginger pickle, butter milk) but very delicious food (all of us were very hungry), we embarked on the next arduous stretch of 2 kms where the trail is almost on a constant incline of 40-50 degrees and a path that goes through the grasslands with very little shade here and there until you reach another way point called Kallu Mantapa. I reached there first. The next source of water or probably the only source of water during summer time. Beyond this one will not find any drinkable source of water. I wasn't very tired, smoked up a joint, waited for all my friends there, because it wasn't a difficult trek but lengthy. I enjoyed looking at all the tired faces climbing four steps, looking up the distance, climbing four more steps and looking up the distance and so on till eveyrone reached Kalumantapa, enjoying and mocking them !! 

When everyone made it till Kallumantapa, I, Ritesh and Rishabh started the trek to Sheshaparvatha. Aahhhh, the trek from Kallumantapa to Sheshaparvatha was a bliss. I enjoyed it more than ever. I again took the lead and wasn't in sight. I waited at Seshaparvatha for Ritesh and Rishabh to catch up who weren't far behind. The trail leading to Sesha Parvatha tricks you with many false peaks giving you a false sense of hope and making it appear much closer than you think. Sesha Parvatha itself provides some wonderful views. One can spend some time here before you begin the last stretch. Then we started trekking from there till KP which was the most difficult part, only because I was tired and could watch KP from Seshaparvatha and didn't expect it to be that far. The last stretch of the trek involved another 2 kms of going downhill and then uphill through the forest to reach the summit. The top of Kumara Parvatha offers some flat ground for people to pitch their tents and camp overnight. We took wood, camped there, put up the sleeping bag, cooked dinner, drank old monk, smoked up some joints, had a lot of laughs and everyone went to sleep. I didnot have a sound sleep because we pitched the tent at a very little slopy surface, which I realised at night was slopy enough to slip me to the other side of tent every half an hour. Amongst all the gang, I was the only one who could not get up to view the amazing sunrise. 

After I got up and everyone had breakfast and packed up the tents, we were ready to trek down with a very good feel and an amazing sense of accomplishment. But, If you ever thought that getting down is easier, yes its marginally easier, but takes a tremendous toll on your feet.

The journey began on day 1 at 6.45 am and ended at around 6.30 pm when we reached the summit. On day 2, being downhill, we started at around 10 and reached the base at around 6.45 pm.

The KP now allures me to do a trek post monsoons to capture the wonderful vistas.

There are somethings that can only be experienced no matter how much ever is written about it. KP is one such thing. You can only experience it in person.

 

Please read through : http://www.kotresh.com/index.php/kumara-parvatha-trek

Battarmaane : 

water refill: Available

Toilet facility: Available
Distance: ~6km from base point
Time Taken: ~3 hours (7:15 am to 10:20 am)
Accommodation: Available
Food: Available
Contact: 9448647947 / 9480230191 ( phone signal is weak here, you might have to try multiple times)

Post(s) from my fellow trekkers :

http://travelzofalifetime.blogspot.in/2015/03/trek-to-kumaraparvatha.html

24/1 Dudhsagar Gokarna

Rahul and I  boarded an overnight train from Bangalore to Dharwad on 23rd night. The plan was to visit Dandeli and Dudhsagar. Moku was coming from Mumbai and met us at Dharwad station on 24th from where we boarded train to Dudhsagar. On the train, it was decided that we will get down at Dudhsagar instead of CastleRock. Moku and Rahul obviously didn't want to trek 14kms. The train journey was good and passed through a lot of tunnels. I wanna visit the place again in monsoons. So, we reached Dudhsagar station and walked a km to reach the falls. Falls did not have a lot of water but it was still a very good sight. We sat there for a while and then wanted to go down where there was comparatively still water. So, we started trekking down the rail trek which I knew led towards Kulem (pronounced Kolam). I was enjoying the trek after we crossed two tunnels, so did not say a word. There was not much sun as it was there near Dudhsagar on this side. We saw a small waterfall where a group of sm guys and girls were hanging out. So, we trekked further down, rolled and smoked a joint and encountered two trains. Trains passed by us while we laid still on stony structures and felt the vibrations. After a while, we asked a couple of Guys coming from that side and they told us that this is not the way to go down and that they also went that way thinking the same. So, I enjoyed my trek back towards Dudhsagar where the last train leaves at 5:30 towards Castle Rock / Londa. On the way back, we enjoyed the same small waterfall and had a lot of fun there. 

We boarded the train, got down at Londa coz someone said so, which was not a good decision as it turned out. Should have gone to Dharwad instead. From Londa, we took an auto to Ramnagar . from where we got nothing as it was late (about 8/9). So we tried to hitch hike a truck which did not stop and the taxi guys were asking too much (3500 for Gokarna and 2000 for Madgaon). After about 90 minutes of discussions regd where to go, when to go, how to go, we decided to take a Lodge in Ramnagar (Londa) , where we stayed for the night, had some whiskey and dinner. We were to get up at 6:30 to board a bus from Ramnagar to Karwal which leaves at 7:20. No one got up and we reached the bus stand at 10, and the next bus was at 1:30. So, we took an overcrowded tempo till Joida. On the way we saw the diversion to Sykes point and Syntheri Rocks.

View at Virje

The tempo dropped us at Karwar from where the bus to Karwar was at 2:30. LoL but true. We smoked up a joint and relaxed on the straight sitting structures at the deserted station. After waiting for about 2 hours totally high, we got in the bus and the way to Karwar was amazing. It was a snake shaped route til Karwa and I couldn't sleep in the bus. There were amazing view points on the way near Virje (Kali river) and sunset sea points just before Karwar also. We sat in the same bus when we reached Karwar as it was going further towards Ankola. We reached Ankola at about 5 and took a bus to Gokarna. The next time I plan to take a bike or a car and drive the same way. 

In Gokarna, we had an amazing time. We met some more friends there. We smoked all the time and enjoyed the delicious food as we did on our last two trips to Gokarna. We put up the tent at night just in front of the Parvati Cafe and took a bus back the next evening back to Bangalore. Moku stayed for one more day with his friends. I do not remember anything from Gokarna. Everything was heavenly and should not even be tried to be explained in words.