Cow boys of Kumara Parvatha

Kumara mountain


The town: Kukke is a small town in the district of Dhakshina Kannada in Karnataka. What draws people to this place is the temple of Lord Subramanya, the serpent God. The localities depend upon agriculture and pilgrims of the temple for their livelihood. We reached Kukke at 5:30am the next day. All we knew was about Kumara parvata was that it can be seen from the temple. We visited the temple after getting fresh and were blessed to get a good dharshan. We left Kukke town at 9:30 am after purchasing the necessary items for our trek.
The temple

The base: The base of the mountain is a kilometer and a half from the town amidst Adekke mara plantations. We took the help from the localities to get there. It’s a dusty road.

The forest: The first part of the trek (approx 4.5 kms) is harsh densely forested. There is a narrow road that winds through this thick jungle. The path is very steep and is one of the hardest stretches of the trek. It was almost summer time when we were here, so we dint have to face the leeches and get tagged by them. This was a big relief. Also, this route can become slippery even if it doesn’t rain.

 

A giant spider web - it was 5 feet broad

All of us were energy drained and took frequent breaks. Since it was a jungle we dint have the sharp rays of the sun to face. You may see a few animals if you are lucky. We were able to see a snake. We had realized by then that there is no surprise as to why people call this place KING COBRA COUNTRY.

thick jungle

The grasslands: Soon after we come out of the woods, the narrow route started winding through dense tall grass. The first form of scenery was about to get visible. The town of Kukke was visible from here.

Kukke town seen from the grasslands

This stretch is of 2 kms. Though this stretch is not steep and tiring, the challenge was something different. The Sun was beating on us mercilessly.

 

Battera Mane: The next stage of the trek was Bhat’s house. Bhat’s family has been living here for centuries. He was a farm land for this livelihood. He provides food for the trekkers and pilgrims who go to Kumara parvata. He is very kind, hospitable and provides delicious food for a nominal amount. We had a good lunch and took some rest at his Addakke farm.

The forest check post: There is a Forest department office here. We are suppose to pay some fee to enter this restricted wildlife reserve. The forest ranger warned us of snakes, wild elephants, jackals and bison.
 

 

A nominal fee of less than Rs 150/- per head had to be paid and the office was prompt enough to give us the bill receipt.

Adakke mara plantation

We left Bhat’s house at 2pm and started our trek. The first glimpse of the mountain was visible. The sight of which was horrendous and claustrophobic.

 

 

The view point: There are 2 view points on the way to the mountain from Bhat’s house. The route winds through hills and tall grass. The view from each of the view point is mind blowing. The merciless sun was still beating on us. The place was brilliant to say the least.

 

The Mantapa: The next stage of the trek led us to a camping area called Mantapa. There is a small mantap at this place. I was wondering how difficult it would have been to construct a mantap like this some centuries ago.

 

This is a safe camping area considering the fact that there was a small Holle (stream) close by. We took break here. It was 3pm then. We filled our water cans and started our upward journey.
 

Mantapa

Sheshagiri ( Peak 1): There are three peaks in Kumara parvata. Each peak has a flag on top of it. They are sheshagiri, pushpagiri and kumara parvata. The first peak is Sheshagiri. The mantapa is at its base.

 

We took a lot of time to reach here. This route to the top was scary and energy draining. As soon as we got to this peak, we thought that we had completed the trek. We were unaware that we have completed just half of the trek. I was surprised to see the route continue further. I was down with a muscle pull and did not have the mental energy to go ahead. We thought of calling it a day and go back.
 

 

View from our camp

It was 5:30 pm and I was skeptical whether we could find a safe flat place (we did not get it eventually) for us to sleep as the route was getting steeper with every turn. All we wanted was a flat area. Thanks to Srini’s motivational dialogues we moved ahead and took it as a challenge. I soon realized that I had underestimated Kumara parvata. Kumara parvata was actually stretching our physical and mental limits.

We started of towards the next peak – Pushpagiri. This stretch was even more difficult. There was no tree to provide shed.
Peak 1 - Sheshagiri

 

Peak 1 to peak 2: The route from peak 1 to peak 2 is the scariest part of the entire trek. It is a cliff and route winds along it. The route stood close to 4500 feet above sea level here. It was not a safe place to camp. The route was getting narrower with every single turn. We knew that it was not a safe place to camp but we dint have a choice.

The sunset:We reached the peak 2 to witness the grand sunset. It was the moment to rejoice. We were watching a sun set above 4500 feet above sea level for the first time in our lives. We were surrounded by mountains from all directions. The sun had started to go down the horizon. It appeared as thought the sun is sinking under the sea. The land at that distance was appearing like sea. We said good bye to the majestic sun which was beating on our faces mercilessly since morning. It was getting cooler now.
The sunsetPushpagiri ( Peak 2): There were close to 150 people who had started the trek along with us. Half of them backed off after reaching Bhattara mane. Some 50 people camped at mantapa and went back later. The rest 25 or so continued to the first peak. This differentiated the men with the boys. 10-15 of them camped on the first peak. The rest went ahead to the second peak Pushpagiri. We camped at Pushpagiri. A handful of them continued to the peak kumara parvata. It was 6:30pm then and it was getting dark. We dint want to miss the sun set. We dint want to take a chance as the next part of the stretch was amidst thick jungle.

The camp: As soon as we enjoyed the scenery and the sun set, we realized that it had got dark and we dint have sufficient fire wood for the camp fire. We usually are ill-prepared for any treks but this time there was a twist in the story. We had a torch, parachute hair oil sachet to lit the fire, some waste cloth and of course the match box.

After some initial hiccups we were able to light the fire. I had got some 32 meethi chappati and sauce. We started chatting about our incredible day, the trek route, our strategy for tomorrow and pulling each other’s leg. We listened to music. It was pitch dark by then. There were 3 trekking gangs camping on each of the 3 peaks. We were in the second peak. The camp fires of the other 2 gangs were visible to us. In fact that was the only thing that was visible to us on the ground. There were a lot of stars in the sky. It was a new moon and the moon was missing in the skies. I was wondering how come there are so many stars here. The same stars are not visible in Bangalore. I soon realized that the culprit was pollution.
Mantapa
Our camp site was not a safe place to camp. It was a steep rocky land. There was a cliff of 4500 feet just 10 feet from where we slept (we couldn’t sleep eventually). It was getting chill at every hour. All I had got was a mat and a thin bed sheet to fight the bitter cold. I wore all the shirts and trousers I have with me. We slept at 8:30pm itself with the open sky above us. I got up early and looked at my watch. It was just 10:30pm the same night. I soon realized that none of us were able to sleep because of the bitter cold. All day we were fighting the sun’s heat and now we were fighting the bitter cold. I was not able to see the sparkling stars now. They had all vanished suddenly. This was surprising. Soon we realized that we were inside a big cloud!!!!!

All though we were pretending to be sleeping we couldn’t sleep. We were giving rest to our legs. It was a very long night. I was looking at the watch for every half hour. I heard jackals howling at a distant. We had all kinds of hallucinations. It was a scary cold night.
The cliff
The decision: It was morning finally. It was time to climb the last peak – Kumara parvata. We wanted to see the sun rise. It was 6am. But we had a problem. The peak was blocking our view of the sun rise. The only way we can see the sun rise is to climb the third and final peak. This was a big challenge. We had to complete the entire stretch within half hour. Soon the campers from the first peak joined us. They said that they had come to this place twice before, but were unable to climb the final peak. This time they wanted to reach the peak at any cost. This motivated us. We wanted to reach the peak at our first attempt itself and wanted have a look at the sun rise as well. As I said before we were stretching our physical and mental limits.

Kumara Parvata (Peak 3): This was the last peak to climb. This route was through dense jungle. We were walking along this jungle all alone until we encountered a small stream. This stream was dry as it was summer. This was actually a water falls during the rainy season. But now the falls had gone dry and just the steep rocks were remaining. We were supposed to climb the steep rocks to reach the final peak.

 

It was 70 degrees steep and for continues half a kilometer. This stream would have been half kilometer water falls if we had come during rainy season. One slip would have landed to heaven. It was the most deadly part of the trek. It was growling for my knees. It was 6:45 already. We were just one kilometer from the peak. We ran towards the cliff such that we do not miss the sun rise.
Rock Climbing!!!!
The sunrise: After all the hard work, we were able to see the sun rise. This was the best moment of our entire trek. We had taken this as a challenge to reach the peak. We succeed in it. The peak had a RSS flag on top like the other 3 peaks. There was a Lord Shiva temple there.
The sunrise
5000 feet under: This was the first time in my life I had got a chance to see the sun rise over 5000 feet above sea level. We knew that we won’t be getting a chance like this in the near future. The scenic beauty was absolutely mystical. We felt that we were on top of the world. We could see clouds 3000 feet below from where we stood. We cheered and were jubilated of our grand success.
'Kumara dhare' river
Conclusion: I have been to a lot of treks all my life but Kumara Parvata took me into a different level all together. I was able to see both sun rise and sun set above 5000 feet above sea level for the first in my life. This trek certainly stretched my physical and mental limits. The memories of Kumara parvata will haunt me for ever. I salute nature for her grand display of beauty.