Kumaraparvatha Trek

After so many bike trips, I thought of trying something different, first thing came in my mind was trekking. Mostly I go alone for Bike trips, whatever the distance is, the fact is nobody was interested to join with me !! But this time I decided to get some guys from my team, I lured them as much as possible. We drafted a plan to trek in Mukurthi peak. I called up the DFO office in Ooty and asked the trek permission process, he said I need to go there by person to get it. So I though I can go there by Friday and make arrangements, Thursday I called them again, one good soul in DFO office gave me some more details, it is nothing but to trek inside Mukurthi I need to get a permission from "Niligiri Wildlife Society", this actually for the Fishing hut which is located near the lake. Luckily(!) that was booked until December 7th, so our plans went burst. I had created lots of expectations and at-least don't want to stay in Bangalore over that weekend. So final day we met and googled for places, all of a sudden we remembered one of our friends suggestion to go to Kumaraparvatha. But Govind in our group had already visited this place, and seems not interested going second time there. So opted to toss a coin(just to make Govind agree), head for yes, fortunately (!) it was a head !!!!

So planned and made all purchases, rented sleeping bags and started from JP Nagar at 9.30 PM Saturday. We are four, me, Govind, Juan and Vikram. Our car driver knows the route better, we are in a better mode that we won't get lost in the middle. Around 5AM Saturday we reached Somwarpet town, searched for a lodge. It is a small town with 2 to 3 lodges, some film shooting was going on, so all the rooms were occupied. Finally we made a deal with the lodge guy for 2Hrs 200 bucks :-) Started towards the trek point around 7AM after pushing 7 idlies !! At exactly 7.45 we were at trek starting point, we were exited a lot.

Generally people try from Kukke side to reach peak and they return back towards the same route. For them other side is unknown. Around 8AM we started climbing up, after few hundred meters there is a forest office out post, where we got our permission for trekking. We are packed with energy in mind as well as in body, a fresh start towards the peak....

We could see trees everywhere, no sign of animals. We were talking crap and kept moving up. Red color arrow marks everywhere to show the trek route, Thanks for whoever done that !! After 1 Hour we reached a view point, where you will get awesome view of the place where you have started. We had some rest and had some oranges, then started climbing up further, slowly Juan's engine started giving problems, he got muscle cramp in his leg. So the speed reduced, and we had frequent rests. We encountered three big steep rocks, negotiating them was really challenging with all luggage we had. There was a funny incident when we approached the second such rock, Vikram said he won't climb further, he said "Are you asking me to go hell?" :-) We pushed him to his limits. We saw some guys in one of the peak opposite to us, Govind said that is the second highest peak in that place. I read it in many blogs people saying that, by mistake they thought that is Pushpagiri and returned back. On the way I spotted a Porcupine quill, and put that behind my ears. Unfortunately I lost that when I was climbing down !!


Voila !!! At 12PM we are are at peak, all in our group felt like achieved something great in life, like climbed Himalayas (I don't know what else to say here, don't know how I feel if I climb Himalayas). The view was awesome, we could see the place where we had started our trek. I had a Sony DSLR, shot some good pics !! We met a group of doctors, and wipro guys !! We sat near to the edge of the peak for about half an hour, then started climbing down other side. Our plan is to reach the mantapa and stay there over night.

Trekking down is a difficult task, the whole body weight is on your knees, they beg you to stop every 5 mins if you are not physically good or had some injuries in the past. Better carry a wooden stick, use as a third leg. I had some injuries in the past, so my left leg was not in a good condition when we started climbing down, so I stopped bending left leg and was climbing down using my right leg heavily. We could see only peaks, peaks everywhere !! Don't know how much distance is for our destination. Govind was simply running in the rocks, rocking :-) After crossing a peak we saw a rocky peak nearby which seems to made of a single boulder. We had some snaps. After 2 more peaks we reached Mantapa, there is a small stream nearby, we refreshed ourselves, it was quite a difficult time climbing down. I was not in a position to walk further, so asked Juan and Govind to check for firewood, luckily somebody put up the fire in a big firewood and left near the mantapa. One group was moving from mantapa to climb further, so we rushed to occupy it. Our ultimate plan is to sleep in the mantapa !! There were two school guys, missed their friends and about to stay near the mantapa with out food, we asked them to join with us, and prepared rice, used MTR ready-made currys. No spoons, we used Nippets to serve the rice(Don't know the english name, I suspect there will be one). Around 8PM we went to sleep. It was cloudy, no wind at all. We were tired but not feeling sleepy, had some talk about a-z. Around 3AM we could see stars all over the sky, it was clear and it was 1 day after the full moon. I remember the days when I was a kid, used to go to the field and sleep under the bullock cart only with jute bags, I felt the same warmth !! I don't think I have exited this extent when I got my first month hefty salary :-)

Morning 6.50 we started climbing down, both of my knees started giving trouble now. So in the middle I went inside the bushes, and broke one guava stick from the tree, now the 3rd leg is ready, it was really great !! We got Bhatter mane within 1hr 30 mins. It looked like a simple country side house, don't bother about the hygiene, under the nature nothing is inhygiene. We had a great breakfast Chittranna and Wheat uppuma, with Bhatter's special Pickle :-) Govind was always talking about Bhatta's pickle, I got a chance to taste it !! Food is prepared by a Grandma who seems to be Bhatta's mother or in-law, I am not sure. I saw her photo in Govind's album. Hearty thanks for Grandma and Bhatta for sumptuous food. Don't come without talking food from that home, then it is very similar to "Going to kasi and not talking bath in Ganga", in Vikram's style "Going to Tirupathi returning with hairs". You need to call and inform Bhatta to prepare food prior you reach his place, otherwise you may have to wait for an hour or so, his number is 9448647947.

After Bhatter mane, it is almost steep down path. We were like snails except Govind and Juan, they were moderately doing good. I compared the photos taken at starting and now, no glow in the faces :-) we are very eager to see the grounds of Kukke !! Atlast we saw some fence around, like columbus did see the birds !! Reached down at around 11.50 PM. There was a stream on the road side, we dipped our bodies inside, called car driver to pick us up there. After the bath we were rocking again, (Really, believe me, I can't compare this with what I do daily in my Bangalore bathroom). Govind went for dharshan, I was too interested in the free lunch, but the hanuman tail like line had dissolved my dreams :-) . Totally we had an unmemorable experience, thanks a lot to my Ooty friend(who spoiled the Mukurhi trek plan) and Govind(who guided us in every step in this trekking).

We reached Bangalore at around 9.30PM. I could see dust and smoke everywhere, every single molucule of air is polluted. Remembered an old tamil song "ponal pogattm poda ..... intha boomil nilayai valnthavar yarada"....