Sunrise @Matunga Hills, Hampi.

Colleagues at Yahoo! Bangalore and I decided to make a trip to Hampi which is about 350 kms away from Bangalore. Took Airawata bus run by KSRTC and reached Hospet at 4 am. Had no idea what to do there till the first bus to Hampi was to leave at 7.30 am. Bargained with the Rick driver a bit and had him take us to Hampi for a fair price. Reached at around 4.30 am. Had heard so much about view of the sunrise from Matunga hill, that we decided to trek up in the beautiful moonlight although we were terribly sleepy in the wee hours of the morning. Reached the top at around 5.15 and waited for the sun to rise. The sight of all the humongous, glistening, volcanic boulders strewn around, the Tungabhadra river, and the Vittala temple on a full moon night (lucky us!!) was strange, yet beautiful.

Just before sunrise, we were joined by a few cute Russian girls and a young German couple. While I flirted and made small talk with the German girl Harish focussed on one of the Russian girls. The other two of my colleagues were more interested in the sunrise, surprisingly! We got some lovely views from the top of the hill. The sunrise was spectaculor. The panoramic view (and our first) of Hampi in the early morning sunlight was simply breathtaking. I could not bring my camera along this time as my battery recharger exploded unable to stand the voltage fluctuations in India. So, left the photography to other guys. Madhu’s pictures are yet to come, he’s a good photographer. Some of the digital pictures that were taken with Prashant’s camera and Harish’s video-cam are not quite up to the mark. Posting a couple of them here.

Biligiri Ranga Hills and K Gudi

Goti and I decided to go here because this place was supposed to be very scenic. The place was beautiful. We went on Goti’s Thunderbird. The road to this place from Bangalore (distance: 150 kms) is so bad, that our behinds were hurting even two days after we returned. It was a bad idea to to take the NH 209 from Bangalore because this road is a terror! Better option would be to go to Kollegal via Mysore and, from there go to K. Gudi and BR Hills. The views and the greenery here are just fabulous. There’s a Jungle Lodges resort in K. Gudi if you prefer to stay there. There’s also a lodge run by the forest department. You need to book these in advance if you don’t want to be stuck without accomodation there, and believe me, the nights will be cold and wet. These are protected forests. Ask around if a tribal boy is willing to take you into the jungle for a couple of hours of trek. We did, and we just loved the trek in the thickets. We saw the dung of elephants, and even that of tiger with the crunched bones in it. There’s a temple of “Ranganatha” on BR Hills. The name “Bili Giri” means “White Mountain” probably because it is always covered in fog. You may encounter elephants and other wild animals here. Even if you don’t, this is a great weekend getaway for people living in Bangalore.

Kumara Parvata trek. Part 7 – Final word, and a different option up to KP.

Looking back

This is not a trek for the weak hearted. The trouble is worth it – it’s one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. It took my mind away from all the usual things that occupied my mind and came back with some kind of clarity of mind that I can’t express in words.

If you want to still enjoy the beauty of this place minus some of the hard ships, you must try ascending the peak from “Somawara Pete” instead of Kukke Subrahmanya. The climb is still difficult, but very much easier than the climb from Kukke Subhrahmanya. You can descend to Kukke Subrahmanya, and that way you would have seen the slopes either side of Kumara Parvata. But, beware!, I have been told that one can easily lose the trail while climbing from Somawara Pete side. An IISc scientist, lost his way in the dense forests, wandered around for seven days before someone found him unconscious. And, a couple of others who went missing and never found.

If you are trying this trek, good luck, take care, and have fun!

Goti and I were so enamored by this place that we have vowed to go back; next time, to camp up on KP! Keep watching this space…

Kumara Parvata trek. Part 6 – The descent.

 

 

The descent from KP to Bhattara Mane and the ankle twist: Nov 2, 14:30 to Nov 2 18:45

This should not have taken us so long. We stopped at many places again to enjoy the views, but what really hampered us was my ankle twist. We were three-fourths of our way down by about 16:00. I had, by now, thrown caution to wind and in spite of losing my foothold a few times, I kept climbing down at pace. At one point, I stepped on some slippery grass and the next moment I was clutching my right angle and wincing in pain like a baby. Ankle twists are not new to me, and I have suffered a number of them on the same right ankle when I played soccer long back. I knew this was not too bad, but it was bad enough to shake my right leg wildly when I put my weight down on it. It was quite painful and a slight slope one way or the other, of which there were many, caused great discomfort during the descent thereafter. Mr. Bhat gave me some ayurvedic oil to rub on the ankle and, may be the massage, or the oil, or both helped relieve some swelling and pain.

 

 

The descent from Bhattara Mane to KS: Nov 3, 14:30 to 19:00

This, again, should not have taken so much time. Goti, I and two others, Venkatesh, and his wife were to trek down together. But, I felt, Goti and I might want to leave a bit earlier just in case, my weak ankle should slow down the progress. So, we left ahead. We stopped every once in a while to soak in the beautiful views and capture some of them on the camera. By the time we covered about 2 kms, it was 15:30. Not bad, for a weak ankle with almost 25 minutes of rest in between. But, I was putting too much weight on my left leg and my left thigh and hamstring were starting to get taught on me a bit. But, we were concerned about Venkatesh and his wife who we thought should have caught up with us by now. We had stopped twice, once for 10 minutes and again for 15 minutes till then. We thought we should just wait once more till they caught up with us. It was almost 16:45 by the time they reached us. Venkatesh’s wife looked in very bad shape. Sweating profusely, she was barely moving. We asked them to sit down. We offered the raisins and almonds we were carrying. We all sat for half hour more. Finally, by about 17:15 we started again. We slowly made headway down the steep trail full of rocks and roots of trees criss-crossing the trail. To Venkatesh’s wife, ever step seemed very painful. She started running temperature and got very weak. I took her bag from her hung it in front of me, which partly blocked my view ahead, but my back was already carrying about 15 kgs. I was too proud to hand over her bag to Goti, even though he offered to carry it. It soon got very dark, I was moving ahead because I wanted to reach KS and get a rickshaw to the base of the mountain from where Venky and his wife could ride to KS. Barely able to see what’s ahead of me in the dark and with the bag blocking my view, feeling my way with a stick, I moved on. At one point of time, I stepped on a round stone, which I thought was flat because of the darkness, and my ankle twisted again. This time, it felt like needles were being shot up my ankle. I was way ahead of the other three now. I just breathed deeply a few times and limped ahead, and I was relieved upon reaching the base of the mountain finally. The ankle was completely swollen and painful. I decided to wait for them now, because I thought I would be too slow to go and get the rickshaw. The three of them came down, and Goti and I left together to get the rickshaw. Goti walked fast ahead, he did not know about the second twist, and I limped behind him. Finally he disappeared and I was walking in the dark again. I was very slow and after what seemed like an endless walk I reached just about reached the road when I saw Goti coming the other way in a rickshaw. He got down, took my bag, and I rode the rickshaw back to the base of the mountain where Venkatesh and his wife were resting. We were just glad that we all made it back that evening without much damage.

The first thing Goti and I did upon coming back to KS was down two huge glasses of orange and tangerine juices. We did not feel like eating much. We could barely sit in the hotel. Finally, we took the 10:30 Rajahamsa bus, which was way more comfortable than the red bus back to Bangalore.

Kumara Parvata trek. Part 5 – From Bhattara Mane to the peak of Kumara Parvata.

Second phase of the trek – From Bhattara Mane to the peak of Kumara Parvata, 6 kms: Nov 2, 8:00 to 12:30

We woke up early next day, watched the sunrise from the view point, had sumptuous breakfast and started our trek with two others (Sooraj, an employee at Juniper Networks and Sumant, and M.Tech. candidate at IISc, Bangalore.) We found out soon that these two, especially Sumant, were supremely fit and we could not keep up with them. They had to constantly wait for Goti and I. We were trying hard, but we probably held them up with the number of breaks we were taking. Despite this, Sumant and Sooraj waited for us to catch up every once in a while. We wanted to enjoy the entire trek and take plenty of pictures back. We climbed atop every peak and mini-peak we found and enjoyed the views from there. I must say, time-wise, we were doing pretty well, and most of all, we really enjoyed the journey itself. I want to urge all to enjoy the trek as much as the destination, or you may find that the destination is rather a bland affair compared to the gorgeous views that the trek itself affords. It would be wise to keep enough time on hand without worrying just about reaching the top.

Most of the trek passes through mountain slopes densely covered in grass. On one of the mountain slopes about 2 kms from Mr. Bhat’s house an old dilapidated Mantap stands. We rested for a bit here and then continued again after about 15 minutes. The trail sometimes takes you along the ledges of the mountains, and interestingly right face of the mountain is covered in grass and the left face is covered in trees. The face covered in grass is exposed to mist and clouds constantly, and it is a beautiful experience to sit on one of the peaks (especially Shesha Parvatha, meaning cobra mountain because of its likeness to the mythical five-hooded snake this mountain resembles), and watch the mist raising out of the gorge and on one side. The fall is very steep. We rarely ever got to see the bottom because of the clouds / mist that rose up from the gorge below. The adventurous ones among us, including me, went to the very tip and looked below. Only on one occasion did the mist clear away to afford us a glimpse of the bottom, and it was terrifyingly far below.

• After Shesha Parvatha, there is a stretch of wet forests full of leeches. These forests are very beautiful. The light-play, as the golden sun rays pierce through the forest cover and form brilliant patterns, is seen to be believed. All trees and plants are covered with orchids, which add to the aura of this place. Past this forest is a steep climb full of huge boulders for about 30 meters. By now, we were truly exhausted. It had taken every ounce of energy to come till this point. And up ahead, we saw a rock-face about 80 degrees to the horizontal, with water falling down the middle of its face. Was it ever going to end? We had been trekking almost 4 hours now. Now, we had to climb a vertical face of rock almost 200 feet tall. As usual Sumant took the lead and crawled up the face of the rock finding footholds and we followed one by one. After about 10 minutes, we were all up on the top of the rock face, and we trekked further up through some bushes, then some grass cover and finally, there it was! The temple made of some assembled boulders. Not much of a temple really! But we were sure we were on top of Kumara Parvata. We screamed in jubilation. Explored the place a bit and by then, were joined by two others (Savan, and Guru) who had started about half hour later. Two of their group had returned from Mantap after finding it too difficult to carry on. So, the six of us found a beautiful place on the plateau over-looking the gorge and Shesha Parvata from where we had panoramic views of the surrounding mountains. We opened our bags, had the food we had carried up and just sat there for about an hour and a half, taking pictures.

Kumara Parvata trek. Part 4 – The wild bison encounter.

The mini adventure with wild bison?: Nov 1, 21:30

After arriving at Mr. Bhat’s house, we took refreshing baths in the little stream that flows nearby; made some small talk with Bhat brothers, and other trekkers like us who were halting that night there; and had a very welcome dinner. The members of one of the trekking-groups were very worried for four of their friends who had gone up, but still had not retuned. It was utterly dark and raining heavily. Two of them decided to go looking for them, which was a bad idea in the first place, but it was made worse by our (Goti and I) brave decision to accompany them. So, off the four of us went with torches in hand, barely able to make out the trail. We reached the “view point” which is barely 3 minutes away from Mr. Bhat’s house after almost 20 minutes of going this way and that in thick mist. We wanted to reach the forest guard’s camp from the view point, where the trail begins again to the top of KP. But, after many futile attempts to find the trail in dead dark which leads us to forest guard’s camp, we finally aborted the search mission and decided to return back to Mr. Bhat’s place. Goti was leading the pack confidently, Vinayak Kini and Dushyant whose group members were lost, were behind him; all with torches in hand; and I was trailing them all with no torch. We were carefully stepping ahead through grass and stones, in the direction we thought was right one when, after two-three minutes, we heard a rather wild, loud snort. We could barely make out the form of a huge animal in front of us. While we were barely feeling our way ahead up till then, we jolted for lives, deftly avoiding all rocks in complete darkness until we reached the view point again. The snorts and grunts grew louder, and we took cover behind the chairs there fearing for dear life. We were sure it was a wild – bison and pretty huge one. Its grunts ran shivers down our spines as the beast got closer. One of us theorized it must be with its calf and that was the reason for its aggression. In that darkness and mist, we just could not see it although we threw our torch beams in the direction of the wicked sounds the beast was making. To our great relief, the grunts slowly faded away. We had almost choked ourselves to death, afraid to breathe; finally we spoke, and convinced each other that the danger was past. One by one, we slowly got up, and again started looking for the trail which would lead us back to Mr. Bhat’s place, and thankfully we found one. We followed it, and miraculously, we ended up at the forest guard’s camp instead, which was completely in the opposite direction. But, we were so glad we managed to find some men there and asked them to lead us back to Mr. Bhat’s place and related to them our terrifying encounter with the wild bison. The forest guards started laughing their behinds apart and told us that it was just the overly aggressive bull which Mr. Bhat owns. So much for our wild bison encounter, we were at least glad we were still alive. And, by the way, the lost members finally returned back to Mr. Bhat’s house late at about 12:15 am after quite an adventure of their own. They were fortunate to have among them a guy who had gone to the top no less than 6 times, because I later found out that the trail is non-existent at many a grassy face of the mountains there. We roundly blasted them for putting our lives in danger, of course.

Kumara Parvata trek. Part 3 – Bhattara Mane & Bhat brothers.

The Bhat brothers and “Bhattara Mane” (Mr. Bhat’s house)

“We came empty-handed, and we leave empty-handed. So, always I laugh” – Mr. Mahalingeshwara Bhat.

This travelogue would not be complete if I did not devote a few lines to the two hearty, courageous, and excruciatingly self-reliant brothers; Mr. Mahalingeshwara Bhat and Mr. Narayana Bhat; who have devoted their lives to a hard life up in the mountains and in service of the trekkers. They are saintly, humorous, and very popular in K.S. as well as with any body who has ever trekked up Kumara Parvatha.

Adept at small talk, the elder of the two brothers, puts the tired visitors at ease from the word ‘go’. They serve simple, although delicious food for a nominal price, that you deem fit. Their father enticed by this place up in the mountains far away from civilization, call it crazy if you like, decided to move his family of wife, three sons, and two daughters to this rugged country. With the help of his sons he built a little house, and a cattle-shed bigger than the house; cleared a small part of the forest, planted areca-nut, coconut and cultivated his own vegetables. He brought some cattle up for milk. The father and mother passed away, and siblings moved out of this place, but the two brothers bravely stuck on. The elder of the brothers raised his own family and got his three daughters married. His wife passed away recently. The younger one never married. And now, it’s just the two brothers and elder brother’s mother-in-law at this place. They need to trek back and forth to KS to get even a match-box. You can not help but admire the spirit with which these two men live here. Of course, having lived their entire lives in the mountains, they are supremely fit. They barely take 40 minutes to get down, and 1 hour to return from KS whereas we ordinary mortals take about 3.30 hrs to trek up from and 2 hrs to get down to KS. Mr. Narayana Bhat carries about 20 litres of milk and vegetables grown in the gardens down to KS and sells them to hotel “Kumara Kripa”, and returns with provisions every day. He does the round trip in flat 2 and half hours!!

On the day we went there, Mr. Narayan Bhat, was up on the coconut tree 50-60 feet tall. This was dead for almost three years, and having found no one to come and help cut down the tree which would fall on the house if left un-cut, he had decided to do it himself. So, there he was cutting it foot by foot balancing himself precariously as he did. Goti tried to climb up and see how it feels and most of the time, he hung on for dear life, let alone help Mr. Narayana Bhat with any chopping. In spite of all the hardships, they always seem to have time for trekkers. They love playing chess and card games with trekkers. And yes, they are happy the way they are. Their lives give all the trekkers a different perspective of life and happiness.

Kumara Parvata trek. Part 2 – Kukke Subrahmanya and onwards.

Kukke Subrahmanya: Nov 1, 05.30 – Nov 1, 14.30

We managed to survive the bus ride and landed in Kukke Subrahmanya. We booked a lodge and Goti dozed off peacefully and did not awake till about noon. Meantime, I took a cold shower, visited the temple of Subrahmanya – the presiding deity of the place. For a temple town, Subrahmanya is quite clean and organized. At least, we did not find big crowds on the day we visited the picturesque little town. I hung around till Goti woke up from his slumber, and even managed a dip in the river, Kumara Dhara, that flows in the town. At about 1 pm, we vacated the lodge, had our lunch, and started our trek.

 

 

 

 

First phase of the trek, 6.5 kms: Nov 1, 14:45 – Nov 1, 18:00

The first phase of the trek begins at the foot of one of the mountains surrounding K.S. and ends at “Bhattara Mane” (Mr. Bhat’s house). It’s about 6.5 kms in all starting from the temple road of KS, 5 kms of which is steep, hard trekking.

 

The hard trek is visually rewarding with spectacular and sweeping views of the landscape, dense rain forests thick with foliage; and when you sit down to rest, all you hear is the sounds of the forest – the chirping of birds, your own breathing, and the sound of the distant waters falling.

 

 

Have you ever experienced the sound of silence? When everything goes quiet in the forest, it’s an overwhelmingly delightful feeling. The trek itself was exhausting. We had to take several breaks to catch our breaths. Some slopes were so steep, may be 70-75 degrees, that we had to rest every 20 meters – of course, neither Goti nor I are terribly fit. We were afraid that it would get dark before we made it to Mr. Bhat’s house, and these parts are hard to navigate in the dark, what with the trail sometimes vanishing in the thick grass and reappearing after a distance again. Moreover, this is an area where leopards, elephants and wild bison roam freely; we saw many places on the trail where elephants and bison had decided to answer nature’s call. The mountain trail itself begins through thick forests and gradually winds its way through grasslands before we reach a view point near Mr. Bhat’s house. We gasped and panted our way up the rugged trail smattered, generously with boulders and rocks of various sizes, and occasionally an odd fallen tree blocked the way. We might have stopped to rest for about a dozen times before we finally made it to Bhat’s place in relief just as it was getting dark.

Kumara Parvata trekking expedition. Part 1 – Where heavens meet earth.

This is the hardest trek I have been on, not that I have trekked a lot, and the hardest in the state of Karnataka. The total duration of the trek from Kukke Subrahmanya to the peak of Kumara Parvata may last anywhere between 8-10 hours depending on your fitness levels. The incline is steep, the trek is rugged, and the distance is 13 kms to the top. If you like a challenge, and physical exhaustion, you will love this trek.

 

Preparations for the trek

After the eventful and high-spirited weekend at BR Hills, I suggested a trekking expedition to Kumara Parvata, which Goti eagerly agreed to. Only, he wanted to get there on his much loved motor-bike, the fabulous Enfield Thunderbird! That’s a magnificent, rugged bike alright – just built for the long ride, but those of you who have not traveled on the roads of Karnataka do not probably know that the definition of a road here is quite generous. The last time Goti and I traveled by “road” to BR Hills, another forest area, our behinds felt like they had been torched and beaten at the same time. So sore were they that we had trouble sitting through the next day at work without constantly shifting our weight about as though we were seated on smoldering embers. This time, the distance, from Bangalore to Kukke Subrahmanya being 290 kms, was a little more than one-and-half times the distance to BR Hills. Moreover, from the little research that I had done about the trek, it was going to be one hell of a hard trek. Somehow, I convinced Goti to take one of the many KSRTC buses that ply between Bangalore and Kukke Subrahmanya, and even managed to reserve tickets for to-and-fro travel. We then went about buying sleeping bags, leech-proof-socks, trekking bags, dry fruits and nuts to eat during the trek, and a torch, just in case we had to find our way in the dark.

 

 

Bangalore to Subrahmanya by KSRTC’s notorious “Red Bus:” Oct 31, 21.03 – Nov 1, 5.30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KSRTC is acronym for Karnataka State Road Travel Corporation. The dreaded “red bus”, as locals refer to KSRTC’s not so deluxe service, is used mainly for economy travel, or if other more comfortable services offered by KSRTC such as the Rajahamsa (lean-back seating, no A/C), and the superior Airawatha (the luxury coach with A/C) are overbooked. The latter was the case with us, and we had to make do with the red bus. In the rush to catch the bus, I forgot to get my jacket. So, Goti and I had to turn the rickshaw around to Goti’s accommodation so that I could borrow his jacket for the trip. We barely made it on time and just had a couple of minutes to grab some not so appetizing dinner at a restaurant in Bangalore’s bus-stand. The bus journey was uneventful except that we could feel the parts of our body whose existence we were unaware of till then vibrating as the driver of the bus tried to push on the gas just a bit more. I was made acutely aware of not only the existence of my brain, which several people have doubted till now, but also got an estimate of its size and shape as it vibrated against my skull. And, we had a complicated choice to make – open the windows and freeze or close the windows and get stuffed in the heat and humidity. We opted for the latter, and could not wait to get out of the bus at every stop it made to get some fresh air.

Read on, because it gets more interesting….

 

 

Motivation

Hello all!

I have usually spent time with my friend, I will refer to as “Goti”, hanging out in Bangalore’s pubs, dance clubs, and coffee houses during the weekends, if I did not travel to Mysore to visit my folks. There’s only so much a stag can handle of being treated like an untouchable even after having paid through the nose for drinks that he did not want to guzzle in the first place at Bangalore’s favorite watering holes. Being married and away on work is not a very bright thing to do, especially if your attraction quotient to girls is equivalent to that of a donkey waddling in a pool of muck (apologies to my former girl friend and now, wife for undermining her choice). One of those fortunate weekend evenings during our aimless banter, Goti and I discovered we had a shared passion for travel and adventure. Getting out of Bangalore seemed like a great idea, at least, it was money well spent. Thus, our adventures, and subsequently, my desire to share the experiences we had during our getaways with my friends, acquainted or otherwise, started.

– CK