I had come across advertisements of Bangalore Mountaineering Club, showcasing their overnight treks and weekend treks in and around Karnataka, and I always thought to myself, I enjoy hiking and I should give this a try; but you know how weekends get “busy” and you tend to prioritize drinking a warm mug of coffee while reading a magazine over anything else. However, as the saying goes, everything comes to you at the right time; yes, I finally decided to scale Kumaraparvata, considered among the toughest treks in South India; less than 3 weeks before getting married; totally unaware of what was in store for me!
We were a group of 8 people, 3 of whom Pradeep had met on his Hampta Pass Trek; TK, Sumaiya and Bhavna; and an overall group of 20 people being lead by Venolia and 2 other trek leads. Our journey began from Bangalore at around 10PM, after a tempo ride we reached the base camp at Kukke Subramanya Swamy temple at around 4AM; a small lodge was arranged for all of us to freshen up and get into our trekking gear, grabbed light breakfast at one of the small restaurants and set out.
Early mornings at Kukke Subramanya temple
KP trek is a perfect mix of physical challenge and natural beauty passing through the Pushpagiri Wildlife sanctuary. Our initial journey began with walking through the mild ascent in the forest, we enjoyed our walk thoroughly; the course suddenly got a little steep at an inclination of 40 degrees, dotted with small rocky boulders with a different kind of vegetation populating the area; we stopped for quick water breaks and tried to keep up with one another as much as possible. We kept climbing for the next 3 kms at a continuous pace while Venolia (our trek lead) kept motivating us to pace up as we were yet to start the actual ascend. The track got very mushy and I was on all fours to climb some areas; the view got considerably better; but Venolia allowed only 3 mins per head to admire and move on. We were crossing tall green grasslands, most of which were taller than me, therefore keeping a quick check on others while walking was my need of the hour.
The land got relatively flatter; I felt a weird whiff, quite unlikely for cows to climb up here, I thought to myself; and Venolia pointed towards a huge cottage at a distance, Bhattara Mane, that was our base camp. Bhattara equals Brahmin and Mane translates to Home in Kannada, it is essentially a very old traditional household of a local Brahmin family; they arrange for day and night meals for such trekking groups and also allow to use the land around their house as base camps.
That house quickly took me back to my 2nd std social science syllabus on Kutcha house and Pakka house; urn-burnt red tiles strongly held by bamboo and coconut rope made the slanting roof stand out distinctively, the dung-washed walls had a generous doze of local tribal art and of course the cow-shed. We had rice and sambhar with pickle for lunch and prepped to head out soon; it was close to 11 AM and we were given a target to reach the peak by 3:30 max or return from wherever we were; it would be difficult to walk in the dark and also staying back in the forest was not permitted. We were briefed about the Sesha Parvatha, which is the false peak before being able to see our destination and all of this was only an 14 km walk!
TK and few others had taken the lead from our group while the rest of us still perfected the walking technique. It was November and the scorching winter sun had started to get bold as we commenced our walk through the mediocre sparse landscape; we climbed up and down on the boulders and soon felt the parch in our throats. By now our group had formed smaller groupings and felt the sun right above our heads; however, we kept moving. Soon we found TK waving to us from a distance, “Macha, you guys go, I am going to rest here only”, pointing towards a half-broken rocky shed; “It is just too hot for me to walk with a stomach full of rice and sambhar!”; we giggled and continued. By now the terrain got a little steeper with taller grasses and a considerable increase in the size and number of the boulders; Bhai and I had started huffing n puffing within the first hour itself and Pradeep kept pumping us both; the terrain was apparently been really kind till now. We continued walking for another hour and I had almost given up hope of making it as the sun had reached its peak.
Somewhere on the trail to Shesha Parvata
TK and few others had taken the lead from our group while the rest of us still perfected the walking technique. It was November and the scorching winter sun had started to get bold as we commenced our walk through the mediocre sparse landscape; we climbed up and down on the boulders and soon felt the parch in our throats. By now our group had formed smaller groupings and felt the sun right above our heads; however, we kept moving. Soon we found TK waving to us from a distance, “Macha, you guys go, I am going to rest here only”, pointing towards a half-broken rocky shed; “It is just too hot for me to walk with a stomach full of rice and sambhar!”; we giggled and continued. By now the terrain got a little steeper with taller grasses and a considerable increase in the size and number of the boulders; Bhai and I had started huffing n puffing within the first hour itself and Pradeep kept pumping us both; the terrain was apparently been really kind till now. We continued walking for another hour and I had almost given up hope of making it as the sun had reached its peA trail towards Shesha Parvatha
We picked up pace after a small pit stop; waddling our way through the rocky path, which took an almost right turn and there it was; “Guys, I can see the peak! Man, we are not all that bad huh?” I exclaimed. The boys walked ahead in excitement and I followed shortly; the distance did not seem much and moreover the joy of nearing our destination had quickened our pace to a great extent. We checked the time; it was 2:30 PM and we had made it before time, I gloated thinking to myself; we clicked some pictures and rested. More people reached as we were relaxing, including the trailing trek lead; only to burst my bubble saying, “You guys are a little behind time, you should have crossed the forest by now.” “What??? Is he nuts?”, I thought to myself as he pointed down saying, “start climbing down off Shesha Parvatha immediately to make it on time”. Oooooooo….. that is what this peak is!
Shesha Parvatha
I dreaded looking towards the actual peak; in fact, I could not even see it; all I could see was a steep climb down into a thick patch of tall dark green trees. I started the descent half-heartedly as I could feel my legs tremble, it was a rough patch with huge blocks of tree trunk strewn all over, humongous sized boulderstone and narrow thread-like streams crisscrossing the path. We were racing against time and I didn’t want to give up after coming so close to our target; I ran with all my strength and finally we were just a steep climb away. So, the forest ended at a waterfall, which thankfully, barely had any water running, however that meant we had to climb up the cliff, which was almost smooth and shiny black, at an inclination of 70-75 degrees. The crest of the fall was easy, which was closely followed by the steep gradient; I was on all fours, moving sideways clutching onto every crevasse and wild grass and finally tip-toed to the peak.
Geez, we finally made it to the top; I literally pinched myself to believe it; never could I have imagined putting myself to such discomfort and emerging victorious; I felt on top of the world! However, by then all 3 of us fell flat on the ground out of exhaustion; yes, we did overdo a tad bit as few people came running towards us with food and water; thinking we passed out.
At Kumara Parvata Peak
After a few mandatory clicks at the summit, we had to start descending, it was almost dusk, and we had 7 Km to climb down before it got pitch black. My major misconception on “Descent is easy-peasy” was primarily challenged and heavily discredited; climbing down is super painful, period!
We stopped at every opportunity we got, drank water from the nearby water streams and finally dragged ourselves to the base camp just in time. We found all our buddies who got estranged during the walk and sat to catch up; each one described their experience of the day. TK had a tight sleep, most of us attempted and enjoyed the view from some of the cliffs while some of us completed. We had completed 21 Km in just one day, more so, at that heavy inclination; I could genuinely feel the muscles of my leg stiffen the more I rested. We quickly pitched our tents before heading for dinner; food was arranged at the porch outside Bhattare Mane, another hearty sambhar rice meal.
Camping uphill near Bhattara Mane
One of the groups gathered some dry wood and started a bonfire, soon many of us gathered around it to chill for a while; mosquitoes were waiting for us too. We all crashed super early that night given that we were heavily drained and woke up early to a bright sunny morning.
I was dreading the last stretch of 7 Km descent to Kukke Subramanaya, now that I knew what was in store. We started descending at around 7 AM; targeting to leave the temple area by 11 AM so that we could reach Bangalore by evening. This terrain as mentioned earlier was the easier one, but our mind and bodies were still recovering from the callous 14 Km to the final summit. We figured out few techniques of walking which would allow lesser pressure on knees and got down to the starting point well before time.
We grabbed lunch at a local eatery on our way back to Bangalore, played games all the way and headed to a medical store as soon as we got back, remembering the age-old Moov ad.
KP Summit-ed
All is well, that’s ends all, so, the journey was painful, but left us with a major sense of accomplishment!
Expense Summary Trek duration - 2 days
Total distance covered - 28 km
Total altitude gained - 3,012 mtr
Trek organizer - Bangalore Mountaineering Club Trek cost - INR 3,000 per head Stay - Camping cost is included in trek cost Food - Basic veg food cost is included in trek cost Basic expense total - INR 3,000 per head
Additional Expense Any personal medicine or food that one might want to carry
Recommendations
Please carry dry energy-loaded food for the walk, eg. nuts, biscuits, and dark chocolates
Good trekking/hiking shoes are a must
At least 2 litres of water/ glucose water per head during the walk
BMC provides the tent, sleeping bags, so you just need to carry your change of clothes, dry food and water