Rejuventaing trek to the Horse's face - Kudremukh! & Kurinjal Peaks

            

  

          
           There are some treks which tests your stamina to fullest like KP (Kumar Parvata), but there are also treks which rejuvenates you to the fullest! , which gives opportunity to imagine how the heaven might be &  yes thats what I felt about Kudremukh trek - the forest of vast grasslands &  thick Shola vegetation.

            Set inside the Kudremukh national Park , Kudremukh (1894m) is 2nd highest peak in  karnataka  located in Chikmagalur district.  There are around around 13  trek routes inside the Kudremukh national Park which takes different peaks.  Kudremukh literally translate to Horse's face in Kannada & it is called so because the peak looks like Horse's face.

           Our group of 'Bangalore ascenders' started the journey to this paradise on friday night from Bangalore. Around 7 AM, we reached the  Bhagawati nature camp ( Set by KARNATAKA ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT BOARD (KEDB) , a unit karnataka forest department) , the  starting point for our 1st day's trek to Kurinjal Peak.  Bhagawati nature camp is about 10km from hillstation-cum-mining town of Kudremukh.  You need to take permission from forest department to trek anywhere inside the  Kudremukh  national park & also need to take their guide - irrespective you need it or not .. I guess that is innovative idea for rural job creation:-) ..  

            There are tents & dormitory accommodation available inside the camp.  We enjoyed a very scenic water stream, which flows besides this camp - its kind of trailer of what kind of beautiful nature  we will be experiencing in next two days.. 

The guys at this nature camp, arranged the breakfast of rice for us & same was packed for lunch.  We took just the necessary stuff & put all extra things in our bus & then we were set to conquer Kurinjal Peak. At around 10AM we started to trek.. 
                                                      
                  It was quite sunny. After walking on tar road for few meters, we took left to enter the forest region. The pathway is quite wide & clear. The landscape of mountains was just too good, which we were seeing after every few meters of trek.  

As we enjoyed the trail through the forest, after about 4/5kms of trek, the  path becomes quite steep.   & by then  we were walking in open sky. The last patch is really steep. We reached the peak around 12:45pm. 

The vast panoromic view of greenary & mountains from the top, took away all our tiredness owning to the climb.  

We replenished our stomach with the lemon rice &  spicy pickle to satiate our taste buds. We started to descend around 1:30 & comfortably reached the base i.e. Bhagawati nature camp around 3:45 pm  & yes off course everyone did some blood donation - thanks to the leech bites during the trek ..  :-)

        Our bus then headed towards the 'Balegal' village , the place to start Kudremukh peak trek, is about 20km towards 'kalasa' town. Balegal is small village between Kalasa and Kudremukh village.  From  Balegal we hired private 4x4 jeeps to go to 'Mullodi' - place from where actual trek starts. Though we had option of trekking to 'Mullodi', most of us were quite tired. But jeeps could not accommodate all people, hence few guys volunteered to walk.   About 5km of adventurous jeep ride through muddy road, was definitely memorable.. Fortunately my internal body organs remained intact.. or at least I hoped so :-)

              We landed in the Rajappa's home stay- the de-facto place for most of Kudremukh goers - around 6:30pm & relished on the hot onion pakoda & tea..!  Home stay has basic facilities , but with arrangements like hot water , for trekkers it was nothing less than luxury resort . There is also small waterfall nearby. As some members had brought the tents , they pitched the same on terrace of home stay.  

             Meanwhile as it started to get dark , we experienced the most  beautiful scene in the sky. In the forest region , with very few electric lights around, our eyes were treated with the rare mesmerising sight of sky filled with billions of twinkling stars... It was really a one of the high point of trek.  It inspired me to experiment with some night photography... & thanks to Madhav, expert photographer in our group, who gave some tips to compose the click of star filled sky.  

It was really a soothing feeling to gaze at these billions of stars.  

By the time it was dinner time.  After which we sat in the open space in front of home-stay , & had a introduction around, where everyone shared their trekking experience  , future trek plans etc...  at around 10pm we decided to go to sleep , so that we can have enough rest for next day.

           As I got wake up around 5:15am , I could observe the  'venus' star , which was seen prominently due to its brightness & big shape. Delicious hot idali's were served for the breakfast & we got packed rice for the lunch , as we get set to trek kudremukh peak.  Considering yesterday's experience of leech attack, I decided to put some salt & snuff powder(a variant of tobacco product) inside the shoes to keep leeches away.  We completed few formalities in nearby forest department's check-post cum office & around 7:45 we started to walk. 

         The trail was interesting with where we were crossing some part through deep forest  & some part in open sky with moutains of lush greenery alternatively & in between crossing the cool crystal clear water streams. 

The landscapes here are just awesome.. straight out if picture frames. Weather too was playing hide & seek , though it was cloudy sky with little drizzle ; in between it was getting clear.  

Wherever till your eyes can see , you will get to see lush green carpet spread on cluster of mountains.. I felt if there is paradise somewhere on earth , then- it is this! it is this! it is this!  Nevertheless I had ample opportunity to capture these great landscapes in my camera.  

            Towards the end of trail , you need to climb couple of hills. As we were getting closer to the peak, it started to rain heavily, adding more excitement to the trek.  Finally around 12 noon we were at the Kudremukh peak.  Initially it was too windy & also raining.. so difficult to see the surroundings. But after some time it got clear .. & we got immersed in the beauty of the nature..  The clouds coming out from valley below, the green mountains ..all this is difficult to describe in words. 

     
                Meanwhile we had the lunch at the top & started to descend around 1pm. En route we could see some peacocks.  The long distance descend was taking toll on my  knees.   Finally around 5pm, we reached back at the home stay.  With total of 20kms of distance trekked - to&fro - we were quite exhausted.  
             We got freshened up , once again enjoyed hot onion pakodas & had light early dinner. After that we left the home stay & now it was time to re-experience the adventurous jeep ride to reach 'Balegal'.   Around 8pm we started the return journey to Bangalore from 'Balegal'  by our bus & we also had some fun time playing "Antakshari"... &  thus completed a very Rejuventaing two days trek in lush green mountains.
  
Thanks to Achintya/Pratap of 'Banagalore ascenders' to organise such a fantastic trek & allowing my last day registration :-) 


PS- One need to take forest department's permission & pay the entry/trekking fee (200/- + 225/- ) to trek anywhere in the Kudremukh national park.  So if you plan to trek two peaks then you need to pay 425*2=850/- per person. You can contact Rajappa's home stay to get complete these formalities.

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