The Hills in Kudremukh National Park
In 2007 on my way to Kemmangundi, I happened to glance upon an oddly shaped peak. The peak resembled a horse’s face from afar and thats what it was called – Kudremukha (literally meaning “horse-face”). Sometime this year, I learned that it was possible to trek up to this peak passing through the wildlife sanctuary that the peak was situated in. So I added this peak to my list of treks to do this year and patiently waited for one of the many trekking groups to announce a trip to this peak.
Soon enough, Bangalore Ascenders announced a trek to this peak. After some confusion (and help from Girish) I finally managed to register for the trek. The meeting point this time round was Majestic, and roughly 12-13 of us gathered at the meeting spot on time. As per the plan we left Bangalore on Friday night and traveled to Kudremukh over the night.
The night journey was bit tiresome, thanks mainly to the bad roads and I barely managed to sleep even a bit after 04:00 AM.
At about 07:00 in the morning we reached a small coffee shop by the road. The plan was to spend some time at the shop, freshen up, have some coffee and then move on. However, the shop was yet to open for the day. Some locals told us that there was a small river nearby and so we went off in search of the river after a quick round of introductions. Finding the river seemed to be a bit of a task and we backtracked a number of times until we found the right trail. After a quick short walk we arrived at the river. We spent some time clicking photographs at the river and then went on to freshen up by the river.
The River
Hanumana Gundi Waterfalls
After this we then proceeded on to a small eatery for a quick breakfast. Post breakfast we started on a short tour of sorts of the Kudremukh region. First up was quick trip to the Hanumana Gundi Waterfalls. On the way we stopped to have a quick look at a now defunct dam. The view of the empty dam was quite surreal.
After a short drive we reached the waterfall. To reach the falls we had to walk downhill for about 1 km or so. The falls were formed by natural rock formations and had water falling down a height of about 100 odd feet. After clicking a few photographs of the fall, most of our group went into the water. Having recently had a severe cold, I decided against going into the inviting waters.
After having a great time at the falls, we hiked back up to our transport and moved on to the next spot in our list. Next up was a visit to Gangamoola, which is said to be the origin of three rivers viz. Tunga, Bhadra and Netravathi. Getting to the point of origin involved a short trek into the jungle. After trekking for a very short while we quickly reached some stairs which many of us had seen in photographs of the trail. However after this point we kind of lost the trail. And then we noticed the dreaded leeches !!!
We quickly back tracked and found the right trail which actually lead to a cave like structure which is the origin point. After seeing this cave, we then proceeded on to meet our host and guide for the trek.
We had booked a homestay at Mullodi village for the trek, and this would serve as our base camp for the trip. We met our host and then transferred on to jeeps and moved on to the homestay. After about 6km of driving on a rough dirt track and passing through some picturesque countryside we reached the homestay.
We quickly unloaded our bags and then sat for some late lunch. Lunch was a simple affair of steamed rice, rasam and sambhar (though the sambhar was a tad watery for my tastes, nevertheless quite good). After lunch, and the mandatory weeding out of leeches, we went to a small waterfall nearby and spent the evening there.
Later in the evening, we came back to the homestay and talk moved on the leech menace that we would face the next day. Each member of our group had their own unique brand of “anti-leech” medicine, with Dettol soaked shoes and socks being the most popular. Soon dinner was served and I feasted on the most delicious chicken curry and neer dosa that I have eaten in some time. After dinner we sat down and watched some TV for a bit. As the evening drew on and changed to night, the temperature dropped and I began to worry how my new fangled sleeping bag would hold up.
We soon decided to call it a day as we had to wake up quite early the next day to be able to start trekking at about 6:00 am. In spite of my apprehensions, the sleeping bag was quite warm and I actually had a fairly good night’s rest.
The next morning we woke up early and were all set to leave by about 6:00 am. I had carried a smaller day pack into which I put some fruits, energy bars, a rain jacket etc. along with water in a 2L water bag. It seemed perfect for use on the trek except that I had missed out one tiny detail, which would come to haunt me a bit later.
As planned we set out about 6:15 am on the trail which started near the homestay. The trail initially climbed a bit before going downhill. In fact the trail pretty much followed this up-down pattern till we reached the foot of Kudremukh. The trail would go up a grassy hill and then move downhill into some forest and then cross a stream before going up-hill again. The terrain was quite varied and we passed through some clumps of bamboo, grasslands, shola forests, dense jungle and grassy slopes.
About half an hour in to the trek, I was a tad thirsty and tried to take a sip from new fangled water pouch. But alas I had neglected to figure out how to work the bite valve on the device before starting on the trek. Net Result – All I got was a few sips of water before I finally figured out how to use the damn thing (with some help from my fellow trekkers). Thanks to this little thing, I was slightly dehydrated and losing energy.
We stopped for some breakfast, and I ate some sweet lime that I had carried along with some energy bars. After breakfast, we soldiered on the remaining trail. The remaining trail moved up and down some small hills before finally ascending to a small waterfall. From here the trail began to zig-zag up the mountainside before finally reaching the top. From thereon the trail was kind of a ridge walk before the final steep ascent.
I kept moving steadily upwards, stopping here and there to catch my breath and weed out the crawling leeches. I distinctly felt some leeches in my shoes, but for the sake on convenience I figured I’d only address that problem once I made it to the top. By about 10:00 am we were within sight of the final ridge walk. Quite a number of our group had already made it to the top by then and we lumbered on to catch up with them.
Finally we reached the summit and threw down our bags and removed our shoes to enjoy prancing on the green grass of the summit. At 1894 m (6214 ft), Kudremukh was definitely one the tallest peaks that I have climbed up to date. On a clear day, it is said that you can see all the way to the coast from here. Sadly, due to the heavy cloud cover we could not get a good view from the top. Occasionally the clouds would part to show us tantalizing glimpse of the landscapes spread ahead of us.
Glimpes of the landscape
Finally after some group photographs on top, we began climbing down. The trip down would have been a lot faster, but we had to tread carefully as the moss covered trail turned out to be treacherous. By about 2:00 pm all of us had returned to homestay. Most of the group went to the waterfalls for a quick dip, while some of us elected to stay on at the homestay and freshen up there. A quick look at my feet showed that I had suffered only about three small leech bites and the damage was nothing like that on the Kumara Parvatha Trek. Seems my idea of tucking my cargoes in my socks and spraying the shoes and socks with Moov kind of payed off.
After a quick lunch, we packed up and took the Jeep transport back to our Tempo Traveler. From there we moved on to a Temple in Kalasa for dinner and then took the Tempo Traveler back to Bangalore. We finally reached Bangalore in the wee hours of the morning ending a glorious and awesome trekking adventure to Kudremukh.
