KumaraParvatha February 27th – 28th 2010
What would have been a routine Friday, was lit up by Nachus invitation to Kumaraparvatha this weekend to the Bangalore Ctc gang. Wanted to spend an exciting weekend in the wild, was game for it. All set and a gang of 4 guys is set to trek the Kumaraparvatha.
Ravi Gaja, Nachu, Aravind, Harish are to travel in Aravinds car (Ford Fusion) to kukke on the Friday night, reach Kukke by 6AM. Trek the KumaraParvatha reach BatreMane by lunch, and reach the peak before it gets dark and pitch a tent. Trek back the same path have lunch at Batremane and reach Kukke early in the evening. Drive back to Bangalore by Sunday midnight.
Route Map
Schedule
Day Place Kms hrs Difficulty Plan
0 Bangalore - Kukke Subramanya 323 7 Start from office, take a car to kukke.
1 Kukke - BatreMane - Pushpagiri 16 8 medium Reach the kumaraparvatha before it gets dark, pitch a tent, campfire.
2 pushpagiri - BatreMane - Kukke 16 8 medium Trek down the same path, reach batremane for lunch and kukke by 1600
Kukke - Bangalore 323 7 Make the ghat section before dark and reach bangalore before midnight.
Day 1
All excited for the kumaraparvatha trek. Nachu finished his II shift at office by midnight, called us and Aravind picked Ravi, Nachu and Harish to kick start the journey. We took the nice road to Magadi to avoid the Nelmangla road which is under construction, and then to Hassan, sakaleshpur and Kukke subrahmanya. Night drive was fun especially after the office hours, Ravi and Aravind were the two drivers that night.
Day 2
Reached Kukke by 8:30AM, parked the car at some hotel, packed the bags, had breakfast , last minute shopping for a utensil, lighter, maggi, and took an auto to the trek starting point. It was 9:30 AM, a trek group snap, and started rolling, the first 5km was a dense humid forest, with various birds chirping, until we reach the shola forest at the BatreMane. (Batre = Poojari, Mane = House). A few minutes in to the trek , forest floor was lit up with heavy panting, with faster heart beat . Aravind was slow and steady with his heavy backpack, stopped occasionally but kept on rolling. Ravi, Nachu and harish had to take quite a few stops to gasp the breath back to refuel with the electoral and water. Crossing a few other trekking gangs, Sun was hitting up on us by the time we reached BatreMane by 12:30, had a much needed lunch break. Rice, Sambhar and Majjige never ever so tasty, took a power nap. With still a long distance to trek , started by around 1500 to trek up the parvatha, reached Mantapa at around 16:30. This stretch was really challenging, with Sun hitting down on us, and no shade to hide our heads under. Life saviour was the water oozing out from the hills at mantapa, cooled or heels, heads filled our bottles to restart the trek. This being the last spot for pure drinking water, each of us carried 4 litres of water, necessary to drink that day and cook Maggi the next morning. Gradually we were ascending the parvatha, to reach the seshadri parvatha by 18:00, this point is often visible from the kukke subrahmanya temple and often mistaken to be the kumaraparvatha. Temparature started pluging to our happiness, and we still had some 2-3 kms of trek to the parvatha. Nachu was confident that we should make to the peak before it gets dark. We then hit some a green forest patch for about 1 hr and finally came a steep climb up. This was the gateway to kumaraparvatha and the peak is a kilometre from here. Though water was available here, did not look so clean, people were coming down from the peak to carry water for cooking and stuff. After we took the gateway, we reached the peak to see so many people who have already pitched the tents and have started cooking.
Nachu knew a place which was seclude and scenic, pitched a tent there. Kumaraparvatha is a very scenic place, the altitude gave a peek of all the landscape around, we could even see the clouds below us. Joining the party was the full moon, Woow was the single apt word to describe the excitement. Started a camp fire with the quickly collected fire wood around, Warmed our bodies with some scotch, and fire roasted cashews and bread. Yummy yummy Puliogere for dinner and said goodnight.
Day 3
Moon was peeking in to our tent all through the night, though could regain senses only after it getting too cold in the tent. Eagerly waiting for the Sunrise, the clock wasn’t moving at all. One by one, Ravi , Aravind went out to check if the sun had come out, but later decided to click snaps from inside the tent only . Finally got to see some sunrise, some clicks and some stunts started our day. Meanwhile Nachu, Harish had started cooking Maggi, improvising a stick as the spoon, Maggi was getting ready. One sip at the Maggi, “God, Maggi never tasted so good ” After one more round of Maggi, cleaned the place, rolled the tents and the bags are packed and ready. All the overnight crowd had alredy packed up and moved down the parvatha, except for a few. Came down to the stagnant water, Nachu, Ravi finished the daily chores, and soon Aravind too downloaded some data . Ravi was very happy getting down, since all the food had been eaten, and the water to be carried is calculated as 2ltrs till BatreMane. Lazily getting down the peak, Happy that we had done the trek and at the same time sad that its completing so fast. Had nice company with Aravind with all the wisdom he has gained by getting married. Clicked many snaps on the way back, drank nice cool water at the mantap and hit Batremane at 12. Thought getting down was easier than trekking up , but Alas….. getting down put all the body weight on the knees which started paining. Had “Uppittu ” at Batremane, saw a huge s/w crowd waiting for the food to get ready. Nachu, Ravi , Aravind then decided to push off to kukke at travel back to Bangalore at the earliest. Nachu met his friend Om after some 6 years, and were exchanging all the enquiries and all. Aravind was the first to reach Kukke and Ravi second, Nachu blabbering along with his friend reached late at 3:30. Soon highfives all around “We did it !! ” “ yeh , Gimme more …..” Amazing experience, with a heavy day 1 and a relaxed day 2. Took a auto to the hotel where car is parked, dumped the luggage and hit a hotel to eat . Pakoda, Slice, Poori , coffe … were absorbed in no time, Fusion hit the road way back to Bangalore, with loads of memories and cramps, pains and sweat we left Kukke to Bangalore.
Fighting Fusion through the Shiradi ghats, reached Sakaleshpur to have a early dinner at around 6pm. Harish was out from the word Go and Aravind had to sleep for a while to be able to drive again. Ravi is the Man behind the steering tonight and Nachu the co-driver, picked up conversation and the destination Bangalore arrived in notime. Nachu is one interesting character, and Ravi tooo, talked ant the Painting stories, love stories….. dance interests, and Nachus Frog, skull , XXX stories…… Reached Bangalore in notime, said goodbyes to Nachu and Aravind, took nice hot bath and hit the Bed.