Out tryst with KP began with much hype and hoopla. Sandy being very much depressed (I don't blame him) with all his unsuccessful attempts to get our group to trek passed the responsibility of mailing people about our plan to me.
Me being an optimist sent out the grandiose mail about our plan to around 15 people some 15 days in advance. But the software engineers that we are and procrastination being embedded in our genes, the final group of 7 people was finalized the day before we were to leave for KP.
The brave souls (may god bless them) who agreed to the trek were Me, Sandy, Vasanth, Karthik, Arun, Suman and Jugnesh.
Fortunately or unfortunately since it was a long week end (26 Jan being a holiday) we got bookings on a Suvarna Sarige (the semi deluxe) bus to Somvarpet from where we decided to climb KP and climb down to Kukke.
The bus which was supposed to have left at 9:45 PM finally left at 10:45. The bus was filled with mostly trekkers. You can call them Software trekkers as most of them were software engineers. Some of the locals in the bus were so pissed of with the noise that one of them mentioned that (ee call centre jana yella raja anta oorige hogttare) when translated
means (all these call centre employees go out of the city during weekends). Forgive me for not being able to translate their anger. Even the bus conductor was yelling at the top of his voice, making all the good kannada grammar into use. Yelling at the people and the government. He was a sight to behold.The initial boyish enthusiasm, the noise and the excitement in the bus slowly gave way to sleep and drowsiness even as the bus continued to fill with people standing all the way. Karthik even found a fluffy pillow to lean his head on when a beer bellied person stood next to him with the mass of flesh stuffed against his face :D
The bus finally reached Somvarpet at around 5:30 in the morning. The only local coffee shop there was filled with trekkers. We cursed our luck when a mini bus filled with trekkers rolled in to the town. They had their cuppa coffee and started off again. Damn, it would be a fair up at the top.
There was a local bus that we had to catch to Bidalli ,from where the trek was to begin. It was in this bus that we met a guy who continued to haunt us all till the end of the trek. I keep bumping into this guy sometimes in office. To start off the conversation he asked the most dumbest of question. He asked us are you all going for a trek? Boy!!! We all thought to ourselves that we were there to meet an important client!!! The next question he asked further reinforced our belief that even mother nature can make mistakes in creating such a wonderful humanoid. He asked us are you trekking to KP?? Good god!!! No we were trekking the Everest I thought. Vasanth's face was
truly memorable...A rickety bus journey for an hour took us to the place where we had to start our walk. Getting rid of the ammoniacal fluids from our body, grabbing a quick bite to get us going and a pic, we started the climb to KP.
We walked for 2 kms on asphalt, to reach Heggade mane. There is a small temple there and sometimes they do cook food for trekkers for a small amount. From there there is a path to the right that takes us to the trail to KP.
The initial huff and puff slowly gave way to a rhythmic breathing. Walking for around 20 mins took us to the forest check post, where we had to shell out Rs 115 per head. Taking a few snaps of some cute pups we got going trying our best to keep away from that weirdo we met on the bus. From here we entered the forest and for the next 4 hours the forest was where we trekked.
Three-fourths into the trek you will come across a small sign pinned to the tree written in kannada, which even a kannadiga like me found it tough to comprehend. It talked of a view point to the left. Taking a small detour to the left took us to a point where there was a magnificent view of the vista. Mountains all around, with a gentle breeze blowing across, it was heavenly indeed. We then retraced our steps to continue our climb up.
This time nature gave us a rude shock. There was a 70 degree rock wall that we had to climb. What made this even more daunting was that there was no foot holds and the only way for us to climb this was to climb on fours. Thanks to our ancestors from the trees, we were able to climb this one on fours and reach the top. Thinking this would be the last one we continued our upward journey only to find another wall that we had to overcome. With sheer determination and guile we climbed this one as well. From here on it was a gentle if not too steep climb to the peak.
We reached the peak of KP at around 3:30 PM. Immediately we set about finding a suitable spot to pitch our tents. There were already few tents visible in the vicinity. After some scouting and discussion we hinged upon a suitable place for our tents. We then decided to have lunch. The so called lunch comprised of bread (Guys forgive me for bringing that particular variety of bread) The bread that we ate was supposed to be ragi bread, but it turned out that who ever had baked that bread forgot to groun
d the flour. It was like eating whole grains. But we were so hungry that the bread went down silently :-) We had some jam to compensate it though.We then decided to pitch our tents. After putting up a tent sandy and suman went a kilometer downhill to get some water (bless you guys...). The remaining people fixed the final tent and waited for the sun to set.
The sunset was truly memorable. The colour of the sky was so vivid. The images are etched in my mind for ever. With the setting sun, the temperature also gradually started to dip and the chill started creeping up our spine. Snuggling in our tents with our pullovers, we stretched our legs for sometime. Even the hard rock felt so good after the gruelling climb.
We all decided to survey our surroundings and crept out of the tents only to find an amazing star filled night. The enti
re sky was lit up with stars. The ill effects of civilization dawned on us...The thought of eating bread again for dinner made us think about all that we missed at home. Walking along the slopes we came across the group we met at the slopes. They were all at the camp fire they had built preparing maggi :-) Yum yum yum.
We exchanged pleasantries and found out that we shared common interests in trekking and wildlife. Then they invited us to stay on for dinner. After saying no for the first time, hoping they would force us to stay on. I think god was smiling on us that night, they did force us. With no second thoughts we gorged on the food they served us. One plate of maggi and around 10 chappattis.
Even Harry Potter would be amazed by the speed at which they vanished. After a good dinner, we returned to out tents, on the way finding the weirdo and his gang dancing and shouting around the camp fire they built.
I am very sure that the mountain gods would have firmly believed that their creator colleagues had indeed made a mistake in creating people with such profound ape like traits...
After hearing from the fellow trekkers that we had almost 8 hours of descent, we decided to leave early the next morning after the sun rise. Wishing goodnight we settled in the night in our tents zipped up in the sleeping bags.
The next morning we all got up at 5:30 imagine this!!!! It was a chilly morning but the view that we got was out of the world. The sky changed colour like a chameleon. As the dawn started to loom over the horizon, we could make out the silhouettes of the surrounding mountains covered with clouds. The sky turned from black to blue with the horizon painted with orange. Nature is indeed wonderful. After watching a glorious sun rise we packed our tents and started the climb downhill.
We had to cover 13 kms to reach kukke. Our plan was to stop at bhattaramane, for lunch and then continue downhill to kukke. The descent was tricky indeed. It is a continuous downhill. After some time we really began to pray for something to climb. We reached sheshaparvatha, which many people who trek to KP from the kukke side think to be KP. The view from shesha parvatha was something that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
We continued our monotonous descent to reach mantapa for breakfast. This is the second place where there is water. The next stop where there is water is Bhattara mane. For breakfast we finished with the last of our bread and biscuits. We had enough bread to last us for months...
We reached Bhattaramane by 12. Sandy who had reached there earlier told us that it would take an hour for lunch. To tell you about Bhattara mane. It is a small house run by a brahmin family who also owns land. It is the only place on the entire trek where we can hope to get food. For a sum of 50 Rs, bhatta will serve rice, sambhar and butter (unlimited). One can also camp at bhatta's place.
Finally at 12:45, bhatta and his bother placed a cauldron of rice, sambhar and buttermilk. It is self service by the way. We were all famished and rice starved. We hounded on the rice like hungry lions. It was a truly amazing lunch. We filled our huge tummies with humongous quantities of rice, impervious to the fact that we had another 3 hours of rigorous descent ahead of us. But who cares!!! We all had hot rice in front of us and that was all that mattered to us...
Leaving bhattaramane at 1:30 we continued out descent. This time the grasslands that accompanied us all the way to bhattaramane from KP gave way to thick forest. Thankfully that protected us from the scorching midday sun.
The monotonous and challenging descent continued for another 3 hours. This time I was half an hour behind the other guys. Being a slow climber downhill, I had time to talk to many trekkers downhill. The conversations were truly memorable indeed. Suddenly the climb ended and I could see the rest of the gang waiting for me.
Gulping down water in gallons and resting for a few minutes we reached Kukke to catch a bus to Dharmasthala, from where we took a night bus to reach Bangalore at 7:30 in the morning, closing curtains to a memorable, challenging and beautiful trek.
Till the next time it is good bye from me.
