May 2007
Planning & Departure
After a long debate lasting over couple of
weeks which also consisted of sending invites to around 10 people for a
proposed weekend trek Kumara Parvata located at Kukke Subramanyam was selected.
As it always happens by the time the date
and location was finalized almost everyone had backed out citing various
reasons. That left my colleague &
friend Niranjan Jadgish & me to undertake the trek.
We were determined to do the trek no matter
what and early morning 6’0 clock saw us at Majestic KSRTC bus stand with our
trekking gear.
We were supposed to catch the 6 o clock bus
to Dharamstala however we got lucky by getting a direct bus to Kukke.
Even though its was an ordinary KSRTC bus
we had a comfortable journey with Nranjan sleeping as if there was no tomorrow.
The Jungle Trek
Everything was going great until we left
the highway and entered the final stretch of dirt road leading to KuKke by this
time the bus was almost empty barring two other passengers, the driver &
the conductor. Couple of kilometers into this road there was
a loud noise the bus shook and then suddenly stopped. I nearly had my heart in
my mouth because I was sitting by the window towards the Ghat section and knew
that if the Front tyre which blew up had happened at my end that would have
most certainly taken the bus over the cliff.
Anyway as luck could have it was front tyre
besides the Driver that went for a toss – resulting for the time being nothing
major other than a sudden and instant traffic jam. It was a small road and with
a full sized bus stopping side ways the entire road was blocked. Due to which
it was funny to see how many people readily came over to help the driver change
the tyre. And when it was found that the bus did not have a jack in it a truck
driver quite willing ran over and got one from his truck.
Forty minutes later we were on our way
again with Niranjan still sleeping through soundly unbothered by these minor
incidents – I believe he was dreaming about his girl friend or else he would have
come down to inspect the damage.
Anyway the joy of being back on road did
not last long and as it usually happens with me 5 min down the road another
tyre went flat. This time with no more Stephanie the bus driver hurdled us into
a private bus which was going towards Kukke.
The last leg of journey which we had to
make standing in a low ceiling bus was not that bad apart from the fact the we
arrived at Kukke 2 hours behind schedule at around 3 pm.
WE had set out with a very strict itinerary
and had to finish our trek within Sat & sun and needed to be back in Bangalore by Monday. So
come what may we had set our self the target of pushing off to base camp 1
(Plantation house on the hill) to reach this place we had to cover an approx
distance of 6 km through dense jungle know to be inhabited by wild elephants
know to attack humans if not more. Hence as per the many advise that we
received by the locals we had to clear the jungle before the night fell or we
would be in a big mess (To compound it we were just a team of two- so no security in numbers ).
This is where we made our first mistake –
unaware of the exact nature of the jungle terrain we decided to go down to take
a dip at the nearby by river so that we could be fresh for our trek as it was
too humid. We were totally confident that even if we start at 4 pm we could
easily cover the 6km stretch within 2 hours beating the night fall.
After a refreshing bath we started our trek
by 4 pm and only once we started the trek did we realize the elementary error
we did by not finding about the jungle terrain. Unlike what we thought instead
of a flat terrain this particular trail was a steep trail right up to the top. It
was very humid and the fact that we both were weighed down by our bags (which
consisted of sleeping bag & other equipment which we planned to dump at the
plantation before the final attempt towards Kumara Parvata ).
It was mother of all treks and by 5pm we
had just covered around a km and were totally drained due to fatigue because of
the steep ascent and the humidity. Niranjan had taken his T shirt off and
trekking with his upper body bare despite the obvious danger of doing so in a
Jungle track full of poisonous insects.
As time wore by doubts started creeping by
as to whether we would be able to clear the jungle in time or not. Soon it was
apparent to me that we won’t make it through and started weighing our options
like letting Niranjan carry on leaving his bag to get assistance from the
plantation (he was the fresher of the two of us at that point), however I knew he
would not agree to that. Alternatively I stared to keep a look out for any
suitable camping spot to spend the night enroute – It didn’t take me long to
realize that the thin trail with a steep slope to one side and thick vegetation on the other won’t be
merciful to us – another option I was considering was to find a decent &
safe spot to dump our bags so that we
could trek faster and come back the next day for the same- The unforgiving
jungle did not offer a respite even for that idea and we had to just carry on .
The most alarming or annoying part was the fact that because the trail was thin
if it grew dark and an elephant or a wild animal did come across we had no way
to run .we would be in the direct firing line of the predator.
The interesting part of the entire trek
through the jungle was we never even once considered turning back or voiced our
real fears to each other – we just encouraged each other (Niranjan doing the
major part) in an effort to clear the trail by night fall which was now fast
catching up on us.
By 6.30 pm we were totally exhausted and
had virtually given up hope when as miracle we came out of the jungle as the
last faint light fell behind us engulfing the jungle in a eerie darkness.
This is where we made our second mistake -
having made out of the jungle we exchanged high fives – sat down relaxed – took
things easy – took few snaps – end result we wasted a bit of time.
We thought the worst was behind us and were
confident of completing the last half an hour trek to the Plantation even in the growing dark.
That was a tactical error since the moment
we started on for the last leg of the trek through the hill top thick clouds
engulfed us and soon it started pouring Cats & dogs giving us no time to
get out our raincoats (anyway we were too tired to pull it out of our bags) I
just manage to walk by covering my precious Sony DSC H2 camera with my raincoat
that seemed more important than keeping me dry. Soon the heavy downpour started
rearing its on ugly head with sudden torrents of water rushing forcefully past
the narrow hill trail making us a bit nervous about sliding down due to
landslide or sudden force of water. The fact that I was wearing my specs
(instead of contacts) made matter worse for me as I couldn’t see where I was
walking through the wet glasses. Looking
back it seems amusing now but it was not
even a bit amusing walking through fast flowing water and heavy rain on a thin
hill top trail half blind due to no specs. And when we though it couldn’t get
worse CRACK a bolt of lightening not even 50 meters away that made us really hurry however we had
hardly gone may be 5 / 10 meters when few meters in front of Niranjan one of
the most awesome lighting bolt UI ever seen struck – unlike the florescent/
white bolts this one was red and engulfed everything thing around us in a thick
red light. We just stood shell shocked half waiting for the next strike to hit
us. Thankfully next strike did not come and after a few minutes of silence we returned
to wards each other and exchanged idiotic smile and then it was back to the mad
rush to reach the plantation if we ever could. We walked through what we though
was the trail all the time hoping the next str5ike wont hit us. Miraculously
just as we had kind of lost all hope of reaching the plantation Niranjan shouted
above the loud din that he could see the house ( I presumed he was
hallucinating) and was a bit worried when he stared going downhill. However heavens
be praised another 50 meter or so saw us in front of the plantation house. I am
wont be lying if I said that was one of the most truly beautiful sights of my
life and the house even though was nothing better than a average mud house
seemed like an angelic house which had appeared there to rescue us.
Assault On Kumara Parvata
I had imagined the Plantation house to be something bigger and
made of concrete like the house I had stayed during my trip to Mulayangiri.
However this one was made of mud having mud floors, needless to say our baggage
got really dirty when we kept our bags inside due to the floor becoming muddy.
After drying our self our first priority was to check our baggage to ascertain
the extent of damage to our equipment. Thankfully all the expensive electronic
equipment like IPODS, Camera, Head Lamp and wallet were dry. So was the
sleeping bags thankfully my clothes were dry because I had packed them in a big
plastic bag however Niranjan was not that lucky apart from his t-shirt and jeans
all his other clothes were wet.
Once we had unpacked our sleeping bag over
the carry mat (which thankfully saved the sleeping bags from getting too muddy)
we sat
down to hot steamy rice with home made
pickles and sambar. I was starving and felt that was the best food I ever
tasted (no pun intended) however couple of trekkers staying at the forest lodge
nearby & had come down for dinner did not agree they thought the food
sucked. However at least I & Niranjan had no complains.
After a fitful night of sleep the morning
saw me awake by 7am with a slight pain in my side. After washing up and putting
the wet clothes to dry we sat down for a truly disgusting breakfast of UPMA
which even Niranjan could not manage to eat despite his hunger – we decided to leave
our bags at the plantation and push of for an attempt to reach the summit. As
per the instruction of the plantation caretaker it would take us 3 hours to
reach the summit ( which I doubted especially having read few accounts of
previous expeditions which told me that 2/3 hours is required to reach an old ruin).
Now here I might be a bit skeptical of the
Plantation Care taker because I really got irritated by him. I have been to
treks in different parts of the country & Karnataka and there have been
instances wherein we were caught in rain but in all the cases I have come
across real good humans who were concerned enough to get you out of the cold
fast. However here we were, that night, drenched in rain and totally cold
desperate to dry ourselves and get into warm clothes and the only thing this
jerk was concerned about was my lack of knowledge of Kanada. It seems funny now
but it can be really irritating when something like that happens when you are
cold & shivering. He found it strange that inspite of living in Bangalore for 2 years I still did not know Kanada and I
found it laughable that inspite of living in India for more than 40 years he did
not know Hindi let alone English. But then I presume that you find these types
of people everywhere.
Coming back to the trek, we set of for the
second leg of our trek by 8.30am carrying few eatables that we had brought along,
a flask of watery Tea & a litre of water.
Our plan was to reach the summit by 11.30
if possible or else return since we had to trek back to KUKKE to catch the 9pm
bus back to Bangalore
– the schedule was tight.
We took the trek in light mood enjoying the
beautiful landscape – the real beauty of the place was visible now. We trekked
through the mist covered hill top trails stopping occasionally to take snaps
and enjoy the atmosphere. The trek up to the small ruin was mild compared to
our previous days Trek and we made good ground. The only thing that bothered us
was the humidity which was real bad even at that mist covered altitude. By the
time we had reached the ruin we had finished our meager water supply and we
disappointed to find no source of water there contrary to what the guy at
plantation had informed us. That was a big set back because having started with
just a litre of water we had run out of it (our mistake). Anyways we still had
the flask of tea so we sat down at the ruin had a good breakfast deciding on
the next course of action , we had made it to this point in pretty good time by
around half past 10. After lazing around for half an hour to forty minutes we
started for the final trek towards Kumara Parvata since we had run out of water
and were hard pushed on time we had decided that we would trek for another 30
min and if the summit was still not insight then we would make a return.
Half an hour later found us still wandering
through the beautiful landscape with the peak still looking ominously close
& yet far. 15 minutes of extended trek brought us near to a patch of
forest. Niranjan and I had a bout of discussion as to whether we should attempt
it or not. During our trek we had passed besides the forest dept. lodge and the
care taker there had informed us that the summit was still around a kilometer’s
trek beyond the forest and if he was correct then that could have taken us at
least another hour to reach. After a brief discussion we made a hard decision
on not to continue since we had no water and without a definite guarantee of
finding water after crossing the forest we did not want to stretch our self in
an unknown terrain. Plus it was nearly 12 pm now and going on would have taken
away any chance of return back to KUKKE through the jungle that day.
So with a heavy heart we said our goodbye
to the majestic hill (which seemed to be calling us on) and started our return
trek. Having spent another 10/15 mins at the ruin we reached the Forest Lodge
by 2pm and spent sometime with the Forest Lodge caretaker. We returned back to
the plantation for lunch. Lunch was same as last night and I being a spicy food
freak had no probs with it, though am not totally certain whether my buddy liked
it that much.
Jungle Trek – The Return
We had
planed to start our return trek by 3.30pm so that we could clear the jungle
before nightfall however due to some unforeseen reasons it got delayed ( one of
the unforeseen circumstance was the discovery of hot water bath at the
plantation which prompted my pal to have
an extended bath ( even yours truly was guilty of the same). So in the end
instead of planned 3.30 we setout an hour late. And we got a bit more delayed
when my floaters started to come apart and I had to do some touch up work using
Tapes to keep it in place ( losing my footwear in the jungle would have been a
disaster).
However
the downward descent through the jungle went peaceful and we made good time.
Even though we started off late we were able to clear the jungle by night fall.
The only hiccup was the humidity& en number of insect bites. Apart from these and two incidents where both
of us nearly had a ankle twist it was a much pleasant trek compared to the one
we had yesterday through the same place.
Once
through the jungle we decided to stop by the Kumara Parvata signboard to take a
departing photo shots that when we realized how tiered we were because the
first couple of photos were totally wasted because our hands couldn’t keep still
getting a steady shot.
We were
laughing about that fact as we went in search of KSRTC booking office to book
our bus tickets – getting no luck there we had to be content with a private
service operator who was using guess what TATA EXLSI bus.
The Return
Once the
return formality was taken care off, on Niranjan’s advice we decided to rent a
room for couple of hours till dept time at 9.30. It was a good advice because
we were all sweaty and could do with a good bath.
As luck
could have it all the hotels were over booked and we were lucky to get a reserved
room for 2 ½ hr because the guest were arriving only by 10pm.
It was as-well
lucky we got the room because only after entering the room and removing our
footwear did we realize the number of leaches that were on our feets. I had 4
on my leg and Niranjan had two (mind you he was wearing a shoe & I had floaters).
I have never seen such a big leach attack; my white socks were literally red
with blood stains. The leaches were having a blast at the expense of our blood
and had grown quite fat by the time we pulled them out and applied medicine.
The Cold
water bath was truly refreshing and having realized that the towels were
forgotten at the plantation, a little bit of innovation was used (wet clothes were
converted to temporary towels).
The hunt
for a good place to have dinner was another adventure since being amavasaya the
temple was not offering dinner resulting in all the restaurants being packed to
capacity with long queues outside, eventually we did manage to find a decent
place and had a good dinner. I thought I wouldn’t be hungry because we had
gulped down few glasses of orange & lemon juice when we chanced upon a
cheap but great juice centre during our search a restaurant.
A hearty
meal later we had just enough time to get back to the hotel pack up and reach
the departure point which incidentally happened to be near our hotel. It seems
Kukke is not short of surprise and we were greeted to the bus driver busy
changing the tyre as it had got punctured. We exchanged amused glance and
Niranjan was of the opinion better now than midway during the journey.
Eventually the tyre was changed and we began our journey about an hour late
which did not go well with couple of drunken passengers in the back seat. They
created few amusing scenes which was more of amusement than nuisance to us. One
of the most interesting bit was when they raised a protest against the bus
driver who was letting in more people like an ordinary bus (its at least 8hrs
journey from Kukke to Bangalore) these people mostly women had to stand near
the front gate and what irked the said fellow passenger was not the
overcrowding but the fact that these standing passengers were blocking their
view of the onboard movie which was playing.
Well as
mentioned after an hours delay the over crowded bus eventually got on its way,
Niranjan soon dozed off thereby saving himself a few scary moments when the
driver decided to take what I presume to be
couple of shortcuts one of which was straight through a shallow river.
We however reached Bangalore
safely by 6 am next morning which included another hour’s stop en route to fix yet
another punctured tyre.
Though I
had a two swollen hands (due to some poisonous Insect bites) both Niranjan
& me agreed that Kumara Parvata trip was really right up there as a great
trekking & memorable trip for various reasons. And at least I can’t wait to
get back to this beautiful & challenging place, this time better equipped so
that we could start the trek from “Bidalli” (Coorg) on
to Kukke. And in the
process scale the eluding summit of KUMARA
PARVATA.
Special
Advise for Trekkers:
It’s not advisable to trek from
Kukke to the Plantation
after 3pm especially if your Bags weigh a lot.
Carry lot of water during this part
of Trek as dehydration levels are high due to high humidity.
Insect repellent like ODOMOS can be
very effective during this part of the trek.
Its better to stay at the Forest
Lodge than the Plantation as there is also a good camping ground near it ( they
provide no equipment)
For food you would still have to
rely on the Plantation
people.
There was talks of a Trekking fee
of Rs115/- to be introduced soon.
It’s advisable to carry adequate
water during your trek from the Forest Lodge to the Ruins or Summit as chances of finding water en route
is not reliable.
Carrying of rainwear is a good idea
and unless you have tents the ruin does not offer any protection from rain.
Last but not the least be wary of
the leaches and enjoy your trek.
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Note: Travel date May 2007, its a very old write up that I accidentally found while cleaning up my hard disk.
