Kumara Parvatha

I had been to Kumara Parvatha (KP) twice during my college days .
This is the travelouge of our second trek to KP and we experienced the best there.

Information:

Kukke is accessible only by bus for the time being. You have to catch a bus to Kukke/Subrahmanya form Bangalore or Mangalore. There are a lot of buses from Bangalore. But you need to book the tickets in advance if you are traveling on the weekends. The journey to Kukke takes nearly 10 hours from Bangalore and around 3.5 to 4 hours from Mangalore.
Ideal time for the trekking would be January to March. Its a good decision to carry a tent/large plastic sheet if you are planning to camp. [Now a days you need to obtain permission form range forest office if you are planning to camp on the peak. Please note that alcohol is prohibited and the gurds check the baggage sometimes.]

Dress: A pair of jeans, shorts, cotton t shirt, a warm pull-over and comfortable old walking shoes.
Food: Ready to eat/dry rotis/chapathis for two days, some chocolates, snacks, glucose/electral, and a lot of water.
List: A torch, camphor, 10 mts of strong rope , a strong knife, some old news papers, match box / lighter, plastic sheet / tent and misc items which you need.


Travelogue:
We decided to go for a weekend trekking to Kumara Parvatha. All of us were studying at Mangalore University then. But one week before the fixed date we came to know that the same Saturday would be our convocation day for graduation. So we started to think what to do, and which is important...finally the trekking won over Convocation...!
[This is one of the toughest Peaks in Western Ghats.]

Day One:
Friday afternoon 2.30, Five of us (Myself, Murali, Shyama, Anil,Ramesh,Harsha and Hari) were waiting for a bus to Puttur, in the waiting shed out side the campus. Had a fear that any of the profs might catch us...nothing happened. We boarded the private bus to Puttur.
Evening 5.15 we were at Puttur Bus Stand, form here we had to go to Subrahmanya (Also called as Kukke or Kukke Subrahmanya). Last bus was at 5.45. It started at 6 PM and we reached the destination at 8 in the night. On the way we observed that its drizzling outside.. some of us were tensed because if it rains we cant camp at night on the peak. Finally we reached Subrahmanya and took two rooms at Mayura Residency . Its a fairly good hotel. Had food and said good night to Subrahmanya.

Day Two:
Got up at 5.30 in the morning. It took an hour for all of us to get ready. At 6.30 we were in front of the hotel where we had ordered for 40 chapathis and solid chutney ('gatti chutney'). We also packed idlis for the breakfast on the way. We shared the load among ourselves.
Flash Back: For myself, Murali, Ramesh and Shyama this is a second time experience. When we came here for the fist time we had food at Girigadde Bhatta's house. This time we decided that we will carry food ourselves.
Girigadde Bhatta's house is situated around 6~8 kms from Subrahmanya town. His house is the only house in approximate 20~30 sq kms. There is no road approach to his house. You can reach there only by walking. He comes to Subrahmanys town everyday morning to sell milk to the co. operative milk society. If told in advance at Hotel Kumara Krupa in Subrahmanya, he cooks food for trekkers. But if you are planning to have food at his house, please carry some rice and vegetables and grocery along with you, because it will be helpful for him. Just remember that he has to carry all the grocery on his head up-hills, where its difficult for us to even walk. Off course he will charge for food but he will deduct whatever the amount of grocery you carry along with you.
At 7 we were on the way to Kumara Parvatha. [You can ask the direction with any shop keepers around. They will never misguide you.] You have to walk around 2 kms to reach the base. There is a small 'bus shelter' kind of thing and as I remember there was a small board indicating direction to Bhatta's House. Just catch that path and start walking up-hills. On the way you will meet a lot of leaches and I will assure you that at least 3-4 leaches will bite you if you do not cover yourself fully and rub tobacco on your shoes, pants and wherever possible ;)]
We finished all idlis we had brought for breakfast on the way. With a lot of breaks and lot of sweating and sighs, we reached Bhatta's house at around 11.30. [Near his house there is a forest check post and the guard over there will check your baggage and advice you with a lot of do's and dont's. Please cooperate with him] Had a long break of half an hour at his house, drank the natural mineral water. And we started off at 12.15. It took around an hour and a half to reach the stone shelter (called as 'Kallu Mantapa'). By 2 in the afternoon we were opening the packed chapathis and chutney ..and within no time we finished 15-16 chapathis and buckets of water. [Before the stone structure, there is a small pond from which you can re-fill your water resources]
Again after some rest and we were back on the path. After the stone structure there is a beautiful hill which is called 'Bhattada Raashi' which literally means a huge pile of rice grain. After this hill, we walked 2~3 kms on hilly area. Suddenly forest area starts...I don't know how there is a sharp line of differentiation between the grass lands and forests. It is so thick that you cant even see the sunlight. We reached here around 3.30 PM. From here the path/trail is little steep and sometimes you may need to crawl using both hands. Also its an edgy trail, a slip would end up in your end.
We reached the peak at around 5.30. Quickly we set up the tent. [Our tent was nothing but a huge 12X12 sheet of plastic sheet]. Before the tent was complete it started raining cats and dogs. Myself and Hari set it up and slipped inside and waited for the rain to stop. There was heavy lightning and thunder outside. Whenever there was a heavy lightning our tent used to get charged and all of us could feel it. Rain stopped after half an hour we started collecting fire wood. We were able to collect a few wet small logs and cut branches. We had a few old news papers and with the help of that a a little petrol which Murali carried we were able to lit a small fire.
It was a lovely experience sitting out and eating food in that cold whether. One of us was always awaken and we changed the duty of guard one by one.

Day Three:
I got up by 5 in the morning and saw that all were sleeping and also I remembered that I was the person who was supposed to do the guard duty. ;). Every one woke up and finished the daily chorus in a 'natural way'. Our journey back towards Subrahmanys took around 7 hours. That was a plain simple walk.
Had lunch at a hotel and took a bus back to Mangalore.

PHOTOS:

All Photos are taken by Murali on his Olympus OM2000 film SLR: