KP Conquered on debut!!!

Certain things can’t be appreciated until its experienced. I found this to be very true this weekend when I trekked to KumaraParvatha (Western Ghats) more famously known as KP…Standing at 1714m (abt 5700 feet) it’s not only the second tallest peak (the first being Mullyangiri) in Karnataka, but also supposed to be one of the toughest to trek!!! What a debut!!!

For a first timer you couldn’t have asked for more…Not only you are trekking one of the toughest peaks but you really don’t know what to expect!!! But being in the age of “web 2.0” there is nothing you can’t know beforehand…I read a few blogs trying to understand what to expect from a trek like this…But everything that I read came short of the actual experience…It just cannot be put in words even though I am trying to do the same impossible thing here!! ;)
For a guy who usually said no to such things it was a real revelation!!! Thanks to my friend Sunil who arranged everything and providing us with a list of things we would need, we didn’t face any major problem other than of-course climbing the peak..:)
We were 8 of us…An amazing group to hang out with…There was always laughter with jokes/PJs being cracked with amazing frequency…Sometimes it would be so hilarious that u will cry laughing (oxymoron!!!?).

We left on Friday night to Somvarpet on a Rajahamsa and reached there by 6.00 in the morning…After having a hot cup of coffee, we left to our staring point which is about 45 min bus drive from Somvarpet. The forest check post is about couple of km from this point. We had to pass “Hegde mane” and “Mallikarjuna Devasthana” before reaching the check post…We tried getting breakfast at both the places but to no avail…So we decided to have two and a half chapattis per head…We had to ration everything from food to water because there would be no food available anywhere and the pizza delivery guys wouldn’t come!!! Since the luggage was unevenly distributed we had to redistribute everything. Further as there were two tents we took turns carrying them every half an hour…

At around 10.30 we reached the forest check post. The forest officials there were not ready to give us permission as there was some herd of elephants which were apparently going on a rampage in the area and they didn’t want to take any risks. Half an hour of reasoning and convincing them that we were “grown-ups” and “responsible”, we got the required receipts. We had to pay 75 bucks per head and had to declare that we were responsible for our safety!!!

The trek from Somvarpet side to KP is as arduous as it can get…The distance is about 8-10 km but its very steep. The only advantage being there was forest cover throughout. Actually the entire trail is trough forests. The experience was just amazing and we met a couple of streams in between which helped us to replenish our bottles. The first stream had a lot of water and we had to remove our shoes to cross it. The water was freezing cold and it took a lot of time for the numbness to go…There is only one trail, so there is no question of getting lost unless you want to..;) and there are some helpful signboards too…We had to cross a few steep rocky hills to reach the top. We had the same chapattis for lunch but this time we had three of them…The chapattis were too good and we ate it with pickle which tasted like heaven. After a gruelling uphill climb like that, maybe everything would taste good…

We reached the peak at 4.30 P.M and the view from there was worth all the effort…There is a Shiva temple made of rocks at the top of KP which marks the distinction between KP and other peaks around…A lot of people find it very difficult in recognizing the peak and this is the only landmark available to distinguish between the numerous peaks around…

We were one of the first groups to reach the top. After some photo session, we pitched the tent. The experience of pitching the tent and living in it was just amazing…Three of us went down again, along the Subramanya route to get some water while the rest of them collected firewood for the campfire. We were all ready by 5.30 and had a cup of tea!!! One of my friends had bought mobile stove with camphor which could be used to heat the container…Neat, compact and the tea tasted awesome…

The sunset was really beautiful, but the night was even better. We had a very good time with the campfire which was used to cook our dinner too. We had MTR ready to eat and chapattis again…The night was really cold and the wind had started to pick up speed. We spent an hour gazing at the zillion stars above, the milky way and wishing for shooting stars, so that we can wish after watching one!! We could see them at amazing frequency almost one every 15 min…I am sure all of us would have run out of our wishes…

By 11.00 P.M we were too tired to even gaze at the stars and we bundled ourselves inside the sleeping bags and slept in the tent. It was getting very windy and the tent was making a lot of noise. It gave me the feeling as if it was trying to break free…Even though we had firmly tied the tents, the wind speed was too much…I don’t remember whose brain wave was it to tie both the tents together because it was the only saving grace when the first tent blew away at 2.00 A.M in the night…After this I couldn’t sleep for another hour worried that our tent would also get blown away and that we might have to pay Rs14,000 for it!!! As luck would have it I could suddenly see the stars above and I immediately knew that the tent had broken free…It was too cold outside to search alone and hence had to wake up my friend in the other tent to search for it (People in my tent were in deep sleep and the lazy guys wouldn’t get up in spite of my efforts in waking them!!) …Thankfully since the other tent was firmly tied the last time, our tent which was attached to it was lying nearby…We maid it a point to tie extra stones to the tent for safety!!! God only knows what would have happened if both the tents had blown away simultaneously!!!

The sunrise again was amazing!! I got up at 5.30 and started waking others…The view was breathtaking!!! As the sun rose amidst the mountain peaks the mist started to dissipate… It was as if the mountain peaks were being reborn…An awesome view which made the entire trek worth the effort…We packed our bags and tent by 8.00 A.M and started downhill…We had breakfast at the stream where we collected water the previous night…Had cup noodles and it tasted like heaven!! After this we continued towards Kukke Subhramanya!!! The trek down is about 14 Km in this direction and doesn’t have much of forest cover but has amazing viewing points…There is this one place where the wind gets redirected towards you because of a mountain blocking its path…The wind speed here is so much that you feel like you are getting blown away!! It’s very difficult to maintain balance and get rooted to the ground!!!

By 12.30 P.M we reached “Bhattara Mane”…It’s the only house that you will see throughout the entire trek…Its exactly midway between KP and Subramanya…We had lunch there and he has a unique system of charging people. He charges 30 bucks per head and that excludes the packet of rice that we give him…Apparently its very difficult for him to get rice so people who want to have lunch at his place needs to carry sufficient rice with them…We had carried 2 Kgs of rice for this purpose…The food was awesome and all of us ate like gluttons…We were all so tired and hungry that anything would have tasted good then…:)

After some well deserved rest we continued towards Subramanya at around 2.00 P.M…On our way back we took frequent breaks to reach our “Final Destination” at 5.00 P.M. On reaching kukke we hogged ice creams and milkshakes. The thought of having ice creams on reaching Kukke was what was motivating us to carry on…

We took a room in a nearby hotel, had a cold water bath and visited the Subhramanya temple there…After having a heavy dinner we left in our very own KSRTC Rajahamsa bus to reach for Bangalore @ 6.00 A.M the next day…

The entire trip was well planned and executed with absolutely no problems faced. Had a great time and looking forward to more…But, right now trying the enjoy the pain prevailing all over the body…:)