Kumara Parvata Trek

Date: somewhere towards the end of September 2006.

The excitement started when Prasad sent an email to us informing that KMA would be conducting a trek to Kumara Parvata from 30th September 2nd October. Well, a three day weekend. So 5 guys agreed. And then 2 guys dropped out, including Prasad.But by then Prasad had taken us (Ramesh and me) to KMA office and got us trekking backpack,a sleeping bag and a mat.So we gathered at Majestic at 9.30 PM on Saturday night (30th). Well, Ramesh was there an hour earlier. I, struggling in the BMTC route 171 from Koramangala, arrived in shape exactly at 9.30 PM. Raghu joined us there.Altogether we were 21 people, including 3 ladies. We left Bangalore by 10.30 PM inside a tinbox (that is, a 3+2 seater bus) of KSTRC. We reached Kukke Subramanya at around 7 AM, stopping twice for tea and bonda on the way (hmmm... The food at first pitstop was awesome!!)..After breakfast and a brief introduction, we started the great expedition of 5 km through the forest, with leeches all around. For me, it took about 3 hours and a half I think. By then, most of the guys, including Ramesh and Raghu had reached to BHATTA's house. Yeah, I forgot to mention about this house before. This house is at half way to Kumara Parvata peak. So, you have to trek for 5 km to reach this house. This place is called GIRIGADDE (meaning mountain field in Kannada). If you don’t expect any facility here, then this place is damn good. You have toilets (Indian style, of course!!!), a bathroom, and some place to rest your head.And yes, they serve food as well; breakfast, lunch and dinner. It costs them a lot, so they charge you. They have to carry all the ingedients for food all the way from the bottom (Kukke Subramanya) in the same path that we trek on. Since I know the Tulu language (the local language around there), I spoke to them. Apparently, the demand for food is so much that, during peak seasons they have to carry 25 kg rice every morning from Kukke to their house!!!! And they do it in 1 hour!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we struggled with our "less than 10 kg" backpacks!!!! Beat that now....Though they serve just rice and sambar, when you have trekked for 5 km, that food is manna for you (for those who don’t know: manna means the food that God gave the Israelites during the exodus). Yessssss.... You are closer to heaven at this point. At about 800 to 900 meters altitude, you are really almost a km closer to your maker!!!!After food, we stayed there itself. Most guys used "pakistan", as I found all of them occupied for long times. Unfortunately, there is no water in the bathroom. You'll have to bring from the toilet taps and fill in the buckets. Still more unfortunate, there is only one mug for all the toilets. So, if you are using one toilet, others will have to wait for you, even if the other toilets are free!!!!And at this evening, Ramesh decide to smuggle out the two quarters of DSP Black he got from Bangalore. So Raghu, Ramesh and I crept to a nearby hillock and finished off the two bottles in about half an hour. We drank directly from the bottle as we had to glasses. Nope, I had no problem, I am used to it (though it was always a malt whiskey I consumed this way before). Usually I put ice, but here it was cold enough and so ice wasn’t required!!! Raghu and Ramesh would have found this a bit uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the trio enjoyed it, I must say.It was evening by this time, and I took cold water bath immediately (to get rid of the smell of this grain whiskey with additives). Water was chilling, and I was shivering all the while during my bath. Then all the guys (and the 3 ladies) sat inside the BHAT's house and had some chats (=take the English meaning of CHAT here). Before this, other blokes were playing anthakshari all the while. I think some of the blokes were sitting elsewhere and chatting.Then came the part where the BHAT's family's male members sang some hymns for Hindu Gods (as this was the festive season). Then dinner, and then sleep!!!Oh man, what a sleep we had. Well, I could not get sleep quickly because we guys really had to squeeze in to accommodate all the blokes and so I was "compressed" between two guys. Also, a few guys had fallen asleep already and where snoring so loudly that our man Ramesh lost his mind, and turned to sleep upside down, with his face at the feet of Raghu!!! Here, some of the guys were unlucky, they had not gone to KMA office in Bangalore before the trek, and so they had no sleeping bags and sleeping mats. We somehow adjusted our sleeping mats, but they had to sleep without sleeping bags.And then I fell asleep somehow, thanks to the tiredness. Then I heard some noise around. I woke up and saw the clock: 5.45 AM. Duh, I wish I could sleep longer, but no, we had to trek another 5 km to reach peak. So got up and had CHITRANNA (which our BHAT's family prepared for us, so early in the morning!!), and then started our trek to the peak. Neither I nor did Raghu or Ramesh carry any water, as we did not want to carry any burden.The initial part of this trek was easy, going through not-so-steep path. Then as the path started getting steeper, my mouth started to get dry. And some guys mentioned that I might because of previous day's DSP Black. How the hell did they know??? Obviously, they all had got the smell from my mouth. My bath hadn't helped me :-((Then most of the guys left to come slowly and went on. Well, I had no water, I was accomponied by only one person and I was thirsty. I had a brilliant idea, I started sucking the dew from the plants!!! It really helped me. I also should mention that some guys gave me water.And so after climbing for hours, we reached a place where there was a small MANTAPA. A couple of ladies decided to stay there itself and not climb up. We somehow managed to convince younger lady (who is a student) to come. The other lady had problems with her foot and decided to stay back. By this time, I had gained full energy and I started off with Ramesh and Raghu. All this while, the path was surrounded just by grass, and so there were no leeches. And now we had to enter the forest again. We did, and got "leeched". In between, found a stream, drank plenty of water from it, got rid of the leeches and climbed up the stream for some time (mind you, this was dangerous!!!), and reached THE PEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MAN, WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT!!!!!!!!!!Here we had some more food, which some good guys had generously carried all the way for all of us. And me the great, took off my shirt in that cold cold misty mountain peak while many others were still shivering!!!!We could not spend much time there, as we had to rush back to BHAT's house, lunch and return to Kukke to board the night bus to Bangalore. So we left from there. In between it was just Ramesh and myself together, and most of the other guys had disappeared. Some had gone ahead and most were lagging much behind. Ramesh and I were just looking for that MANTAPA we had found while climbing up, and expecting that once we find the MANTAPA, it will be just another hours journey. And then........... We reached near BHAT's house!!! HOLY SMOKE!!! WE NEVER GOT THE MANTAPA!!!!!! WE HAD LOST OUR WAY IN BETWEEN WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT UNTIL WE REACHED THE DESTINATION!!!!!!!!!!! THANK HEAVENS, WE WERE SAFE!!!And then we had our lunch, packed our bags and started the next journey: 5 km downward trek to Kukke. Before leaving, I went for a long long TAPASYA to PAKISTAN and spent a lot of time there. Only after I returned, Ramesh went for his TAPASYA. He too took a long time. So by the time we were ready, most of the guys had already left. The time was 4 PM, and the darkness would crawl into the forest by 5 PM. So finally 5 of us left: Reshma, Sujan, Raghu, Ramesh and myself. In between, Raghu and I picked up speed and even overtook some guys who had left from GIRIGADDE some 20 minutes before!!! We two reached Kukke and got to know that in one particular lodge, they let us bathe for 25 Rs. We sat in a small hotel and had tea. By this time we were in full range of mobiles, and could call up home. By this time Ramesh too arrived and we went to Anugraha lodge for bath. We also bought slippers and it we knew we could not wear those wet shoes any longer.After bath, Ramesh and Raghu went to the temple, and then we 3 guys had dinner separately (as other guys were still waiting for a few more people to return). And then we joined the crowd, boarded the KSRTC RAJAHAMSA bus to Bangalore. I fell asleep soon, and got up once in Sakleshpur to visit the pakistan there. The next time I got up, we were near Majestic. And finally I reached home at 8 AM, and slept for two hours. Then I left from home at 11, and due to the non-availability of buses, reached office at 12.30, and did some work, and started typing this travelogue. And I finish it now.