Six Men on a Trek (To speak nothing of the Dog) - Trek to Kudremukh

Finally after a long break of more than one year since we had our
last trek to Kumara Parvata, we decided to go for one more trek. This time we didn’t have three of the members from our group of last time but luckily we got three new people who willingly joined us. So finally we had Arun, Ashok, Nidhan, Rahul, Ravi and myself all set for the trek, though Tajamul also joined us initially but backed out for the reasons I will elaborate later. After so much deliberation on where to go, we pinned down to Kudremukh, a place located in Chickmanglur district. So the preparations started for the trek like arrangement of tents, sleeping bags, travel tickets, medicines, food and other miscellaneous items. As a part of preparation, we also thought of seeking some local’s advice on the challenges we faced, considering it was a rainy season and there was a forecast of moderate to heavy rain with 90 percent certainty on the weekend we were to travel. So the main challenges, as told to us, were leeches, slippery surface, land slides and last but not the least Naxals. So here we were with all the tickets booked (including one for Tajamul) and we were bombarded with all kind of threats facing us but we like stubborn kids decided not to step back, though our friend Tajamul found these threats to be too big to ignore and hence decided to walk out of the plan. So we six people with seven tickets started for Kalasa, our base camp, on Friday night 10:15 pm, only to reach our destination at 8:00 am in the morning. We had a quick breakfast, did all the daily routines as fast as we could just to make sure that we could get the permission from forest officials in Kudremukh early enough but as it always happens with govt. offices, we ended up wasting 2 hrs just waiting for the concerned person to come to office and sign on the required documents. It was already 1:00 pm when we started for badgal, the place from where we were to start our trek. We had our lunch there, an amazing meal including chapattis, curry, rice, sambhar and pickle just for Rs 20 per person. The thing, which touched us most, was the hospitality that you can only find in those small places.


Our journey to our first stop, our guide Satish’s house, could have been done on a Jeep but we decided not to go for it. So we walked up 8 km on the jeep track. By the time we reached, Satish’s house it was already evening 4 o’clock and since we were not allowed to stay inside the national park, so there was no point continuing the journey that day. So we decided to stay there only and continue next day. Just in the vicinity there was a beautiful waterfall, where we took bath despite of the chilling water. Here also what appealed to me most was the hospitality offered by Satish at his house. We were offered fresh white honey they got recently and then some much-needed glass of tea. Evening was a nice experience without electricity, mobile phone and any unwanted noise of motor vehicles etc. We spent most of the time trying to lit a bonfire out of water soaked woods but we failed even after using 200 mL petrol. So we decided not to waste time any further and just enjoyed the dawn in the lap of nature. Anyways Ravi was always there for our entertainment and Paa ji (Nidhan) left no stone unturned to get maximum pleasure out Ravi’s misery of being stuck with people like us. There was a perfect climax of the day with a nice dinner, which included home grown rice and traditional Karnataka sambhar with all the vegetables also grown at home only. Post dinner we shared some jokes, planned for next day and crashed. Most remarkable thing about whole ordeal was that we never missed our cell phones or electricity.


Next day we had quick breakfast and started for the peak around 8:00 am. It was raining heavily but not enough to dampen our spirits. Here Satish and his wonderful dog Raju went with us as our guide. Raju was our surprise companion throughout the journey. A very intelligent highly trained dog who guided us to the peak and way back even when Satish was far ahead of us. As we walked a bit further, it was all there, thick forest, waterfall and trees laden with fruits like guava and sweet lime. By the time we reached at Lobos’ house, we realized how potent was the threat regarding leaches. We were heavily using salt and Iodex but still it was not much of rescue as with rain the salt was getting washed off and leeches never missed such an opportunity. After traveling for 4 hrs and overcoming the hurdles of slippery surface and leeches we reached at the peak. It was too cold and windy that we decided to walk back after a short break but this journey till peak had already taught us one thing; if you want to avoid leech don’t stop at any place, especially near the waterfalls and area densely covered with woods. I came down from the peak without even taking a single pause and without being bothered by a single leech. I reached at Satish’s house at 3:00 pm and took a bath followed by a cup of tea. We started for the base location i.e. Kalasa and since our return bus was from Horanadu, we also got an opportunity to visit Annapoorneshwari temple, a pilgrimage popular among Karnataka people. When reached Bangalore next day we were too tired to go to office and hence decided to take a day off. Ashok had the after effect of leech bites even 15-20 days after the trek. The best part of whole thing was that we didn't find any Naxalites on our way.