They say all good things happen, when you least expect them & thats what happened on this year's long weekend of Dasara festival , as we planned to do the Karnataka's toughest trek.. Trek to Kumar Parvata... This peak is situated about 1712m from sea level & is the 3rd highest peak in Karnataka .
There are two paths to reach the top:
1. Via Somwarpet (From coorg side) .
Somwarpet-- 5km --> Beedhalli Forest check post --7km-->K.P. (Relatively easier route).
2. Via Kukke Subramanya(sullia Taluk) . This is very tough . (approx 13 kms).
Famous "Kukke Subramanya " temple town is starting point for this trek.
We had planned to trek adventuorous route i.e. from "Kukke Subramanya" side. Myself , alongwith two of my friends Nikhil & Raken, started our journey by cozy KSRTC Airavat ** volvo bus at around 10:30pm from Banaglore & reached Subhramnian town at 6am. After having hot cup of tea , we looked around for temporary lodge to get just freshen up. After some negotiations with one guy , we got small room at 300/-. After spending some time in hotel & finishing the breakfast we started the trek at 8:30. The starting place for the trek is near to the temple & about 1 km from bus stand.
Trail here enters into the dense forest , with mysterious surroundings of green nature & with most of the part its 45/55 degree climb , its quite strenuous too. The route is quite promnient one & there is no chance of losing the track.
Though climate was cloudy with intermittent drizzling, the climb was making us sweat a lot.. each one of us was carrrying bags of 6/7kgs. Raken was carrying the tent (though we were not sure where to put it up initially) so he was carrying little more weight. But one thing to mention this guy has amazing staminna...& why not he was state level football player. After around 4km of climb , the route gets opened in open sky . Here we took a very short break & had some dry snacks to keep up our energy level.
After this point "Bhhattru Manne" (Bhatt's house in Kannada) is about 1km. We spotted only couple of water streams from start to bhatt's house , that too in post-monsoon. So if you are going in Nov/dec or afterwards be sure carry 2litrs water per person.
Bhatt's house is the only place in whole trek where you can expect some meal/water & place for sleeping/ rest/overnight saty. He is local guy , & arranges the food for trekker (But be sure to contact him in advance & let him know about your plan , so that he can make the arrangement accordingly. His numbers are:9448647947 / 9480230191.)
We reached the Bhatts house at 10:45AM ..so that was quite a achievement as usually people takes around 4 hrs to reach this place.
We stopped here for food. After sweating in & out , indulging with cool natural water .....feeling was just awesome. We had simple food like rice, upma, buttermilk... Please do not expect anything more than this at this place. After taking some rest here & we started to head further at 1PM . Kumar parvat is around 6/7km from this place.
Just as you leave Bhatt house , you will see man-made sit-out points , from where you can enjoy sunset. & nearby only you can see Forest check-post. From here the offcial pushpagiri wildlife sanctuary starts & you need take permission from here to proceed further. You will be charged 200/- per person. From here you can see two peaks - & KumarParvat is behind these peaks.
We were now trekking in open sky. There are no tall trees , all you have is grass, around you. And bad thing is the climb becomes more incling & more strenuous ..so naturally our speed was slowed down.
We reached "Kallu Mantap" (In Kannada : "Mandap" like structure made of stone ) the last place to camp before Kumar parvat. , as there is water source nearby. This is approx. mid-way between Bhatt's house & Kumar Parvata Peak .
I was now completely tired here & insisted on camping here. But Raken was firm on reaching the peak on that day itself. So after some discussion & exchanging some luggage, we decided to proceed ahead. We were going at slow & steady speed & often stopping to get rejunavated ourself with Glucose & salt.
And just when we were thinking its enough for the day, we reached peak having dangerous cliff. It was around 4PM & it had already become dark because of light rains & clouds. With fog around cliff was looking very scenic.
This peak is also knows as Shesh parvata. (since the cliff looks like snake's hood) . But the bad news was that we need to again descend from here on the other side of this peak & again ascend to reach your final destination i.e K.P. Peak. We were already feeling very hungry & so we decided to have "Puran Poli" :)... At this high peak & with fog around eating "Puran Poli" ...it was great combination. As we satiated our hunger , we headed towards K.P..
This next patch of route is perfect for shooting horror films. Its tall trees , rain, dense fog , water stream flowing nearby & mysterious sounds coming from trees.
As we started to climb final patch we encountered 80 degree rock patch with water flowing on it, but thankfully we found there was relatively easier route nearby . After this there was not clear path to proceed & with dense fog it was more difficult. Somehow we made the path through bushes . & after walking for some more time , finally we were there at what we call Trekker's paradasie aka K.P. Peak. @4:45PM . We hi-fi'ed & hugged each other..The feeling was awesome..
No its not over , we needed to still put up the tent :).. & worst thing none of us had prior experience of putting it. We tried to setup it by going through its Manual , but with wind flowig at superspeed , it was difficult to manage & set the tent. Fortunately there was already one group who has come there & set the tent. So with help of them we could put up the tent.
Above stanza from Marathi song was perfect to describe our situation.. It roughly translates as ::-->
""In this Greenery & some drizzling around , with twinkling stars in the sky , let us take off the heavy backpacks and put up the tent here to enjoy the true happiness , for a while.""
By now it was 6 PM. With fog & high speed wind it was very cold. We had delicious Chappti & Mango chatteny as dinner, sitting inside the cozy tent & went to sleep by around 7:30 PM , hoping tent will remain intact till the morning in this wind. :) .
6AM next day, I heard some sound outside the tent- the other group guys were already woke up. Nikhil woke up & reminded me off sunrise view.......yes how can we miss that. We came out of tent & there was still some time to sunrise. The view of surrounding forest , fog , clouds playing hide&seek in valley ,all these things can not be described in words -you need to experience it.
At around 6:17AM the Red fireball started to come from the other side of clouds & we erupted in joy. Imagine you are one side & sun at other side & below you have is clouds & clouds... thats what we experienced. The color changes in sky was a treat to our eyes. Experiencing this awesome sunrise , we returned to tent.
Having some dry snacks & packing the tent we started to descend at 7:30AM. It was very cold. Crossing the Shesh Parvata , we were descending at steady speed. You need to have good concentration at such steep descend as there are chances of twisting the leg. We reached at Kallu Mantap & had "rava-poli" as our breakfast. And by 10:30AM we were at Bhatt's house. We fresehened up ourselfs & had food. At 12noon we started to desend to base town & by 2PM we had finished our trek & landed up in Kukke Subramanya. :)
Since we had return bus booking of 10:30PM , we had all the time in world. We went to one homestay for getting freshned up & took rest till evening. In evening leaving our luggage at homestay, we went to visit temple.
Subramanya is god of snakes. So all Snake related worships & remedies for "Sarpsanskar /Kalsarpyog" are some of routine things in this small but famous town.
After taking dinner we returned to home stay & since we had still some time left for boarding the bus , we enjoyed playing cards ..I learnt new game of 21...Nikhil made his own rules of game while playing ... but still hardly won any game :).
Generally people do overnight stay on 1st day at Bhatt house & reach K.P.peak on 2nd day. So feeling of satisfaction of reaching the K.P. top in one day was awesome.. The whole experience was simply great ..! ..I would definitely trek the K.P. once again...
Thanks for reading!
Rahul
P.S.
** Do you know you can travel free in non-AC city buses for 2hrs , before the departure of your Airavat KSRTC bus.? ..yes, you just need to show the printout of KSRTC ticket... JFYI :)
**
Enjoy my travel reports on below links ...
Nandi Hills ...Weekend heaven for Bangloreans...
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1. Via Somwarpet (From coorg side) .
Somwarpet-- 5km --> Beedhalli Forest check post --7km-->K.P. (Relatively easier route).
2. Via Kukke Subramanya(sullia Taluk) . This is very tough . (approx 13 kms).
Famous "Kukke Subramanya " temple town is starting point for this trek.
We had planned to trek adventuorous route i.e. from "Kukke Subramanya" side. Myself , alongwith two of my friends Nikhil & Raken, started our journey by cozy KSRTC Airavat ** volvo bus at around 10:30pm from Banaglore & reached Subhramnian town at 6am. After having hot cup of tea , we looked around for temporary lodge to get just freshen up. After some negotiations with one guy , we got small room at 300/-. After spending some time in hotel & finishing the breakfast we started the trek at 8:30. The starting place for the trek is near to the temple & about 1 km from bus stand.
 |
| Fun begins here... |
 |
After this point "Bhhattru Manne" (Bhatt's house in Kannada) is about 1km. We spotted only couple of water streams from start to bhatt's house , that too in post-monsoon. So if you are going in Nov/dec or afterwards be sure carry 2litrs water per person.
Bhatt's house is the only place in whole trek where you can expect some meal/water & place for sleeping/ rest/overnight saty. He is local guy , & arranges the food for trekker (But be sure to contact him in advance & let him know about your plan , so that he can make the arrangement accordingly. His numbers are:9448647947 / 9480230191.)
We reached the Bhatts house at 10:45AM ..so that was quite a achievement as usually people takes around 4 hrs to reach this place.
 |
| Bhatt's House |
 |
| With Mr. Bhatt.. |
We stopped here for food. After sweating in & out , indulging with cool natural water .....feeling was just awesome. We had simple food like rice, upma, buttermilk... Please do not expect anything more than this at this place. After taking some rest here & we started to head further at 1PM . Kumar parvat is around 6/7km from this place.
Just as you leave Bhatt house , you will see man-made sit-out points , from where you can enjoy sunset. & nearby only you can see Forest check-post. From here the offcial pushpagiri wildlife sanctuary starts & you need take permission from here to proceed further. You will be charged 200/- per person. From here you can see two peaks - & KumarParvat is behind these peaks.
 |
| K.P. Peak is Behind these twin peaks (not seen completely due to clouds) |
We were now trekking in open sky. There are no tall trees , all you have is grass, around you. And bad thing is the climb becomes more incling & more strenuous ..so naturally our speed was slowed down.
 |
| Blue Beauty |
We reached "Kallu Mantap" (In Kannada : "Mandap" like structure made of stone ) the last place to camp before Kumar parvat. , as there is water source nearby. This is approx. mid-way between Bhatt's house & Kumar Parvata Peak .
 |
| @Kallu Mantap |
I was now completely tired here & insisted on camping here. But Raken was firm on reaching the peak on that day itself. So after some discussion & exchanging some luggage, we decided to proceed ahead. We were going at slow & steady speed & often stopping to get rejunavated ourself with Glucose & salt.
And just when we were thinking its enough for the day, we reached peak having dangerous cliff. It was around 4PM & it had already become dark because of light rains & clouds. With fog around cliff was looking very scenic.
 |
| Shesh Parvat |
This peak is also knows as Shesh parvata. (since the cliff looks like snake's hood) . But the bad news was that we need to again descend from here on the other side of this peak & again ascend to reach your final destination i.e K.P. Peak. We were already feeling very hungry & so we decided to have "Puran Poli" :)... At this high peak & with fog around eating "Puran Poli" ...it was great combination. As we satiated our hunger , we headed towards K.P..
This next patch of route is perfect for shooting horror films. Its tall trees , rain, dense fog , water stream flowing nearby & mysterious sounds coming from trees.
No its not over , we needed to still put up the tent :).. & worst thing none of us had prior experience of putting it. We tried to setup it by going through its Manual , but with wind flowig at superspeed , it was difficult to manage & set the tent. Fortunately there was already one group who has come there & set the tent. So with help of them we could put up the tent.
 |
| thodi hiraval, thode pani masta tyat hi raat chandani utara ozi, visara thakava sukhas palabhar chumbu ! ithech taka tambu.. |
""In this Greenery & some drizzling around , with twinkling stars in the sky , let us take off the heavy backpacks and put up the tent here to enjoy the true happiness , for a while.""
 |
| cozy tent |
6AM next day, I heard some sound outside the tent- the other group guys were already woke up. Nikhil woke up & reminded me off sunrise view.......yes how can we miss that. We came out of tent & there was still some time to sunrise. The view of surrounding forest , fog , clouds playing hide&seek in valley ,all these things can not be described in words -you need to experience it.
 |
| Clouds & clouds everywhere |
 |
| Don't have words to describe this... Because 1) My vocabulary is not that much rich 2) vocabulary itself does not have words.. :-) |
 |
| You need to experience it..No photo can give you that feeling.. |
Having some dry snacks & packing the tent we started to descend at 7:30AM. It was very cold. Crossing the Shesh Parvata , we were descending at steady speed. You need to have good concentration at such steep descend as there are chances of twisting the leg. We reached at Kallu Mantap & had "rava-poli" as our breakfast. And by 10:30AM we were at Bhatt's house. We fresehened up ourselfs & had food. At 12noon we started to desend to base town & by 2PM we had finished our trek & landed up in Kukke Subramanya. :)
 |
| Subramanya temple |
Subramanya is god of snakes. So all Snake related worships & remedies for "Sarpsanskar /Kalsarpyog" are some of routine things in this small but famous town.
After taking dinner we returned to home stay & since we had still some time left for boarding the bus , we enjoyed playing cards ..I learnt new game of 21...Nikhil made his own rules of game while playing ... but still hardly won any game :).
Generally people do overnight stay on 1st day at Bhatt house & reach K.P.peak on 2nd day. So feeling of satisfaction of reaching the K.P. top in one day was awesome.. The whole experience was simply great ..! ..I would definitely trek the K.P. once again...
Thanks for reading!
Rahul
P.S.
** Do you know you can travel free in non-AC city buses for 2hrs , before the departure of your Airavat KSRTC bus.? ..yes, you just need to show the printout of KSRTC ticket... JFYI :)
**
Enjoy my travel reports on below links ...
Nandi Hills ...Weekend heaven for Bangloreans...
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