Kudremukh!

Western Ghats have always been my most favourite. I have only been to Kumara Parvatha and Kodachari until now, and both of them have been really beautiful and challenging. I certainly have a thing for lush greens - the kind that you see right during and immediately after monsoon. So, when the office colleagues decided to plan a trip, I jumped up with glee suggesting Kudremukh as the destination.

 I have been wanting to go to Kudremukh for a long time now, ever since I finished the other two K's, but the dream couldn't crystallise into a reality. I went all out and convinced everyone about how beautiful Kudremukh would be and how this was exactly the right time to visit that place, showing all the innumerable photos on the internet. But as with every other trip planning and every other office gumbal, we started off with about 10 people showing interest for the trip, but then when we did finalise the actual date, unfortunately most them backed out due to various reasons. Finally, it was just me and one junior fellow who were the last men standing - and we decided to go ahead and do the trek. One, because I was really desperate to go there, and two, I wasn't sure when I would be handed such a perfect opportunity again, I didn't want to miss this. 

We decided to do this trek with a group called "Native Trekking" - who had an itinerary for the whole weekend, covering one / two places enroute after the trek. They pretty much got you covered for everything, transport (from Bangalore), food, stay and the trek. 

The bus started off from Indra Nagar in Bangalore at about 8pm Friday night. I was to board at Yeswanthpur. As I waited for the bus, I was stumped to see so many people around waiting about for a similar bus, for their weekend getaway. How I wished my life is one such. I chance upon a conversation with a bloke thinking he'd be in the same bus as mine, only to find out that he was headed elsewhere. Nevertheless, had a nice chat about the various places you could trek to in the Western Ghats.

My bus arrives an hour later, and mostly full. The junior had boarded earlier and had warned me about this. So, we settle down for the last row seats. It took us nearly an hour to exit the Bangalore city, and the bus is stopped for a quick dinner, for those who wish to grab something. After this, we start again, and the trek organizers give us all a briefing of the itinerary and the plan for the next day. They try their best to get to engage the crowd by playing some music and inviting people to dance. A few do, but most of us are engrossed with our own little group and barely budge. It takes another hour or two for most of the folks to doze off. I manage to get about 3 hours of barely there sleep. 

We reach Mullodi at about 5:30AM. From there, we were escorted to our homestay, which was about 4-5kms from Mullodi, in a jeep. Everybody was excited to go on the open jeep, and hopped on very enthusiastically. But mind you, the excitement died down in flat 5 minutes. Gosh! So much of jostling, and we could literally feel our hands/ribs crushing against the railing. Possibly, one of the most adventurous jeep ride I have ever taken till date. We longingly stare at every homestay that we pass by anticipating that it'd be ours only to be driven past it as though it didn't exist. After an excruciatingly long ride, we finally reach Rajesh Homestay. Phew! Everyone is relieved we've reached in one piece, and quite a few are already rethinking their idea of this whole trek.

We are pointed to our stays - two separate houses - one for men, and another for women. Dumping our bags in the room, we quickly refresh and head out for breakfast. After downing a breakfast of Idli, Chutney-Sambhar with some sugar-overloaded tea, and a packed lunch dabba, we head to the start point - a.k.a the forest checkpost. They have a strict rule of no single-use plastics to the peak, and check your bags thoroughly to ensure the same, before letting you begin the trek. At the forest checkpost, they check your booking details, ID and give you a lanyard with an ID for entry, and assign a local guide for every 15 people or so. 

The instructions were simple - the entire trek distance is 9km one way, you start at 8:30 and get to climb up until 1pm, and where ever you are by 1pm, you start your descent right away - if you manage to reach the peak by then, well and good, if not, it's your loss folks - you better up your fitness game! This is to ensure that everyone is out of the trail before it gets dark. 

We begin the trek with slight incline, and keep moving up. There is so much greenery all around - lush greenery - exactly like the ones that I have written about in the first line - absolute gorgeous eye soothing greens. As we gain more elevation, and see the peaks and mountains that surround us, covered with cluster of clouds, I feel so much peace and happiness, that I can never explain through words. The greenery, the blue sky, the white clouds - a scene that shall forever be etched in my mind, and bring forth the same calmness and peace every time I think of them. 

I'm not sure how many hills we climb and descend, but the valley (?) where the base of each hill meets the next, is usually a dense patch of forest with very minimal sun. After almost an hour into the trek, we started craving for these forest patches as the sun was becoming a little too hot for our liking, and there was no breeze either. And oh, there were streams all through, and every time we crossed one, we made sure to quench our thirst or rather just splash some water on our face with the ice cold water that felt really good. 

We reached the Lone Tree, which had an amazing view and spent a few minutes there. And then we reached a spot, where the clouds just moved into us, enveloping us with misty drops. As we climbed ahead, some inclines were brutally steep and made me wonder how am I even going to make it down in this route. Rightly about 10 minutes before we reached the peak, it started raining, and for the first time since we started climbing, it felt cold. Thankfully, we had raincoats. Wear them and move on. 

And yayyy! We made it - we reached the peak at 12:15. The rain had temporarily stopped. Peak views and I, are never a thing, I believe - especially in treks. Every time I climb up a peak, the surroundings are always covered in clouds and I end up feeling like I'm floating on a cloud, instead of feeling like I'm atop a mountain. Kudremukh peak wasn't an exception either, as it was entirely surrounded by clouds. Definitely not disappointed, but slightly curious to know what lay beneath the clouds. We had our lunch on the peak, strolled around a bit, took a group picture with our entire gang as it started raining all over again.

Spot us!

At 1pm, as advised, we started our descent. I have always strongly believed that ascents take the most time, and descents are usually fast, and haven't been proven otherwise until now. But this trail was hellbent in defying my belief, and it did. The trail was already super steep making us think twice before we took the next step. Add to this, a steady stream of more-than-a-drizzle-but-not-heavy rain, resulting in slippery paths. It literally brought back the memories of my KP trek descent, where I lost count of the number of times I fell face first into the water flowing through the trails. Everyone had their fair share of trips/falls on the trail, and to my credit, I had 3 (junior would want to count it as 3.5, but I disagree. By the way, he had two - which he wouldn't accept either) - thankfully nothing major for anyone.

Three things that kept us moving without too much of a worry was - one, music - me and the juni apparently seem to enjoy similar genre of music, so we kept singing random songs and kept quizzing each other on do you remember this song, do you know that, have you heard this line, did you like that tune, that pretty much kept our minds in bay. Second, the random chats that we had with people who climbed / descended alongside us - we met a paediatrician who had recently taken a liking to trekking and came solo, a boy who interned in Bangalore who was here with his colleagues, a Madurai girl settled in Bangalore who was here on the trek with her friends, two Class XII kids and, last but not the least, a CA (of course, we had to meet one from our clan right - else the trip isn't considered complete) - each sharing tidbits about their life, their experiences and any random stuff. Third, the views - I guess I'll never get tired of describing the views that we had - telling the same thing in different words as I feel I'd never be able to do justice to that with whatever words I use - the simplest way would be to urge people to go visit the place to experience the beauty and the joy.

We reach the checkpost at 5pm and with that the trek ends. I feel both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Self pat on the back for making it to the peak, and finishing it on time before dusk. 

As we enter the homestay we are welcomed with pakodas and tea. We bathe, hog on the snacks, and then gobble up the home cooked dinner of rice, veggies, dal, egg, payasam and decided to call it a night. All the previous night's missed sleep, the exhaustion from the trek caught up with me super quick and I doze off as soon as my head hits the bed.

The next morning, I'm all rejuvenated from a good night's sleep and wake early and watch out the mountains surrounding our stay, as the sun rises. We pack our bags and take the rib-crushing jeep ride one more time and board our bus back to Bangalore. The route is scenic with a winding roads, and tall trees and soon changes to widespread farmlands with raincloud backdrop and cool breezes as we descend from the mountains and enter the flat terrains. 

We make a quick stop at Belur Chennakesava temple before heading straight to Bangalore. 

All in all, this whole trek was one absolute paisa vasool and was exactly like what I wanted it to be. So glad that I was able to make it. And this shall forever remain etched in my mind. Special thanks to junior for his company - without which it wouldn't have been as much fun as it was!