''Kudremukh'' – A Stairway To Heaven

Tripoto
24th Oct 2015
Photo of ''Kudremukh'' – A Stairway To Heaven 1/5 by Vivek Bhat
Photo of ''Kudremukh'' – A Stairway To Heaven 2/5 by Vivek Bhat
Photo of ''Kudremukh'' – A Stairway To Heaven 3/5 by Vivek Bhat
Photo of ''Kudremukh'' – A Stairway To Heaven 4/5 by Vivek Bhat
Photo of ''Kudremukh'' – A Stairway To Heaven 5/5 by Vivek Bhat

 Kudremukh TREK:

The whole trip was planned in advance,our bus was at around 9:30 in the night from Bangalore to Kalasa. The K.S.R.T.C bus was very clean and comfortable than what I thought it to be. The journey was not very tiring,we reached kalasa at around 5:45 in the morning. Raje gowda the owner of Mullodi mane had arranged a jeep for us from kalasa to Kudremukh which was around 20 km. Tea estates were something to look out for on the way to kudremukh. For the 1st 10 to 15 kilometers the road was pretty good then the last 5-6 km's were not even imagined,the mud road was slippery and rocky,all credits to the driver. We reached the home stay at around 6:45,we planned to trek that day itself so we quickly freshened up.We helped ourselves with some rice balls for breakfast and as soon as we finished,we got ready for our trek,the host himself had  arranged us a guide to the  peak.                                                                                                                                                                                                               We started our trek from mullodi mane and raje gowda had given some packed tamarind rice for lunch and  we took the forest permission at around 8 and headed towards the peak.It was a sunny day and as we walked through the sholas until we found the first water stream it was fresh and very sweet and gave us a boost to walk ahead,we reached the first pitstop and we knew we finished 3 kilometers,the first 3 km wasn't a difficult task and then the guide showed us the peak,all we knew was we had a long way to go. We started walking after a 10 minutes break, we walked ahead boosted ourselves with some fresh water and after sometime we halted for a while and the guide tells we have reached the 5 km mark,we were a bit happy because we had reached half way to the peak but the guide shows us a peak which was very steep and the energy we had was too little to climb up the peak,we did not give up we pushed ourselves to complete the trek,the flora and fauna of kudremukh was truly fantastic,we were totally amazed by this beauty. After a 5 minute halt we started walking on the most difficult peak,our energy started to drain out just like the water in our bottles,we had no water to drink and after countless halts we somehow managed to go up and there we found a water stream filled our bottles up and we were just 15 mins away to reach the destination,and yes we were on top of the world once we reached the kudremukh peak, was really amazed by the view,we reached there at around 12:30,had our lunch clicked some beautiful pictures and headed back at around at 2:00. The descent was much more challenging as it was slippery and very less space to walk,we walked and walked and walked,the flowing water  was not enough this time to boost ourselves up,so we halted where ever we could,walked down slowly we slipped here and there a few times but managed to get through at 5:00 in the evening we reached mullodi mane and the host had made some pakodas and gave us at that moment we were ready to eat whatever we found,we were that tired but we felt proud of ourselves,because walking 20 km is not at all an easy task. For us it was like we were in heaven for that 8 hours of trek,really an amazing trek.We stayed there till next morning and vacated the place.The care taken by the host was really good we couldn't ask for much more. I would recommend every one to trek this beautiful place and I assure you there will be no regrets.

THANK YOU.