Kumara Parvatha

Intro:

KumarParvatha trek was alwayz on my mind since I started trekking. It is often referred as one of the most challenging, adventures and beautiful trek... In all "A Trekker's Paradise". Kumara Parvatha is a mountain located in Subramanya (village) of Sullia taluka, Karnataka. The village is known for the Hindu Kukke Subramanya Temple.

Preparation:

When Girish (Organizer with Naveen & Prabhakar) called me on 7th Aug, I said "YES" without any hesitation. Soon, the mails where exchanged and a total of 11 Member gang was finalized to go the paradise. It was raining so we needed "Poncho". I thank Prabhakar who personally went to bring 5 Poncho for the team members including me. In addition, since we had to put up @Top we needed Tent. Naveen took the responsibility and rented only two tents for 8People at Rs150/- per day since organizers had their own tent. Prabhakar brought the "walkie talkie" for the communication within the team.

Day - 0:

I had been a member of BASC and my other best friends where going for Green Route trek with them. I started with them and reached Majectic by 2100hrs. Chatted with other known BASC members like Abhi, Shiva etc and soon by 2145hrs received a call from Prabhakar that he has reached. Soon, others reached and we boarded the bus by 2300hrs to reach...

Team: Girish, Naveen, Prabhakar, Sandeep, Navneet, Kanta, Tanoy, Rohan, Lokesh, Shivpraksah and Pratap

Day - 1:

We reached the Somvarapete by 0500hrs in the morning. Our next task was to board the bus @0720hrs to reach 3km from Pushpagiri forest office. We used the time available to fresh up and have breakfast. The bus took about 0100hrs to reach the point mentioned before. Here, a mini trek through road starts... and goes on for 3Km. Not an easy one with some down and lots of UPs!!.

This the place where bus dropped us and hence, starting point of the trek to reach the forest office.

On the way to Forest Guest House..
Girish & Prabhakar in front with their Tent... Rohan and Pratap with other Tent.

Butterfly captured on the way

Thts me stretching my arms..

At the entry of Trek from Somvarapete

Anywayz, we took the permission from the forest authorities and started for the trek by 0930hrs. The first step was to cross a slippery bridge due to heavy rains. We were warned that more than one person cannot go.. In addition, heavy weights should avoid. Who cares!!

We crossed it smoothly except Rohan whose right leg got struck on the side-fences.

Here, the trek starts.. 

The road to dense forest starts...

The dense jungle, leeches waiting for sweet bloods and un-known animals roaming around. The plan was to reach the top by 4.00pm max.

We started well with leeches plunging onto our shoes/legs.. There are sign board after every 1-1.25km about the more distance to be traveled. Navneet & Naveen were leading and Myself, Prabhakar and Girish (Sweeper) were at the end. After crossing few streams, the ascend started. Soon, it was come to known that Pratap has hurt himself via cramp. He was moving slowly... We were moving smoothly when suddenly rain started and leeches became more. The poncho activity started  here. We also had Glucose and other stuffs here.

Girish crossing one of the Stream..

At around 1300hrs we stopped for our lunch near one of the stream. It was still raining. Here, we had query on going ahead as we saw a large monolith in front of us from which water was flowing down vigorously. We were not able to see any other path. Also, due to passing cloud the visibility was at minimum. Anywayz, we started climbing from left side of the BIG ROCK by holding the small trees nearby, struggling to get in place our feet.. And somehow, everyone with few challenges was able to reach the top of the rock.

We started again with Naveen, Prabhakar in front, (as I can recall). In order to go fast Prabhakar slipped and hurt himself in his leg. But, as TIGER he roared again and started with same pace. From here the actual ascend to the peak starts. After a half-n-hour, again a big monolith arrives with lots of water flowing down making it slippery and challenging.

One more monolith followed, but we were there to accomplish the task with gr8 excitement. After finishing the 3rd BIG Rock, we can see the a notice stating "Pushpagiri" is a kilometer away. But, we were amused to the fact that we are still trekking upwards and there are no grasslands. We rested for half-n-hr just 500mts away from the peak, working on leeches and eating the stuffs. After charged up, we started again and reached the peak by 1545hrs therby achieving by time bound. It felt awesome to be at top of one of the tallest peak in western ghats. We were able to view NOTHING!!! Thts because we were in the Heaven. The cloud were kissing our body and removing the tiredness literary speaking.

Then, we started assembling our tents.

Myself, Navneet and Kantha organizing the Tent

We are at top of KP!!!!

Soon, we went into our tents after washing ourselves from greedy leeches. Soon, we had our dinner and went for sleep. There were 3 Tents.
Tent 1:-  Girish, Prabhakar, Naveen - Discussing about future plans and to go back successfully to Bangalore

Tent 2:-  Myself, Naveent and Kanta - Myself & Naveent were buzy in listening to songs whereas Kanta was in Tent 3 discussing.

Tent 3:-  Rest people - They shared crazy stories before going for sleep.

Day 2:

I woke up around 0500hrs just to realize its still dark outside and visibility down to 10mts literally. I woke up again by 0630Hrs to find improved visibility. Soon, others joined and we packed to move to Base i.e. Kukke Subramanya. Well, here was the challenge.. we didn't knew where to head!! Prahakar as usual spotted the route by seeing the arrow markings on the rock. We had to go back in the same route for about 500mts before taking the diversion for reaching Kukke Subramanya base.

Now, while going down we were at the top of the waterfall and with cloud/mist we didn’t knew how to proceed. We were even un-certain about the route. We were at the top of cliff and a wrong step would have send anyone of us directly to Heaven. I thought of taking that route but restricted myself as others may envy of me for reaching the Heaven so early. Anywayz, there was a point when Sandeep, Lokesh shouting while standing on edge to go back the Day 1 trek route while taking conformation from Girish & others. But... then all of sudden Navneet shouted "I got the route, we have the route here..." But where... he was Invisible to us. He came back and took us to that path. In the mean time, Prabhakar was wandering for search of route. We soon proceeded with the route and found a dustbin, proofing ourselves that we are in right path.:) I felt so happy.

We were @Top of this BIG ROCK and our view was covered with Clouds. We are in Cloud Nine but a wrong step anyone of us would had been Heaven/Hell. This pic was taken exactly after 1week by other trekkers.

This is the Base of that BIG ROCK when we trekked. You can see the path forward is covered with fog.  It was worse at top

The next few Kms were through thick forest and then through open grassland. The view from the top of other mountains was majectic to say the least. Though, the cloud was blocking the view again & again.. we could get the glimpse of the beauty of KP.

  The Three Muskerters of KP; Girish, Pratap and Myself

Check the Fog and Greenary...

While going down we met few members of other group who were ascending. We shove them away by stating the TRUTH that the there is simply no view from the Top of KP. They went upwards for few Kms before coming back again and meeting us while we were having our breakfast. Girish was telling "The First Aid never comes to use". Well, soon it came .. but not for our team. One of the person from the other team had a cut on his back due to a loose knife coming out from his bag and scrapping his back. It was dreadful. Anywayz, He got well soon and he started our descend.

Team having Breakfast.. Myself missing :)

In the meanwhile, during breakfast one of our member (Name Hidden to Protect Identity) had went for doing "shit" in the leech infected zone. Well, the result he had leech bites near his private parts. He was in real pain when we saw him in next pit-stop, which is at the view point.

The view from the breakfast point... The bridge is @Kukke Subramanya Temple

At view point, we met some local person who was in search of a missing person. It was a team of two people with one of them missing. The searching person went to  forest checkpost where we took the permission (on day 1) and sent a message to the other forest check post near Bhatra Mane. We didn't heard further on this issue. We hope the person was traced in good health.

Navneet @Viewpoint

Anywayz, after shots at this place we packed ourselves. And here the Indra god opened his arm and it rained cats & dogs for next 20min. We waited at the same place like statue!! Then, we decided to start by measuring at the probability of rain stopping very soon. I thought it would be tough.. but literally speaking it was a smooth ride. We next reach forest guest house where we act fresh guava before starting again. After 1Km, we could see "Bhattara Mane". We moved on...

As we started to descend into the forest, pace slowed down. Few peoples without the tents went ahead. In between while coming down Sandeep lost his cool for only the person to carry the tent for his team. With Rohan down and myself also in carrying the tent & walking. it left with last bunch of peoples. I here thank Kanta & Navneet who carried the tent whole way. I carried only for few kms only.

Nothing special here after for me.. Just kept moving and I & Kanta reached the Base by 4.00pm to find other members. Soon, others including Girish reached by 4.30pm. Later we visited "Kukke Subramanya" temple, had our dinner and boarded the bus to reach home.

Here is the view which we missed, captured by one of the BASC team members.:

Leech Bite counts:

Myself : 28

Girish : 35

Naveen : 3

Katha  : 10

Sandeep : 15

All I can say.. its truly a TREKKERS PARADISE.... 
Love to visit you again.

Pic Gallery:

Girish: KP Conquered
Tanoy: KP Tour
Naveen: Pushpagiri Trek
Rohan: KumarParvatha Trek


Summary:

- Bangalore to Somvarapete via KSRTC. 

- Camping at the Top

- Get Down to Kukke Subramanya

- Kukke Subramanya to Bangalore via KSRTC. 

Munnar Treknic

Munnar is an incredibly beautiful hill town positioned at a height of 6000ft in the Idukki district, Kerala. With an extensive stretch of tea plantations amidst the high mountains and unspoiled valleys, Munnar gives a very pleasant feeling. The scented cool air is filled with the aroma of spices. The rising and falling terrain of Munnar is covered with forests and grasslands. 

Day 0 - Preparation & Meet Up 

Munnar has alwayz there in my visiting list. All friends occupied themselves for Rakhi & Independence Day weekend and I was going through my options. However, nothing seems to be finalized until I received a mail from BASC regarding Munnar Trip. After few dropouts, I was accommodated. 

We met on 12th Aug @7.30pm. A total of 20 BASC Members few known, many unknown started for the Journey.

DAY 1 - 13th Aug

When I woke up in the morning, we were in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. After some time we saw many windmills across the road... we were in Pollachi. A few hours later, the dry forest started with monkeys around :) and later we reached "Cinnar Wildlife Sanctuary". 

Pic 1: Cinnar Wildlife Sanctuary 

After sorting, the permissions and taking pics of few monkey families around, a forest guide took us for a trek inside the sanctuary. 

Pic: Start of Trek inside Cinnar Wildlife Sanctuary

During the initial 150mts, we spotted some animal “pichvada”. I can only remember "yellow tail" :). The forest was full dry and we spotted nothing after day. The guide took us to a small river flowing down from Thoovanam waterfalls with a caution. We relaxed ourselves @river, doing eating / brushing / extra...  (The other way around literally speaking). I also see "Tiger" (Nickname of My friend), doing monk eying around. Anywayz, it soon ended and we started back. In the mean time, we visited a watchtower, took some snaps and went back to sanctuary base. We finished our lunch and started forward to Munnar our main destination.

View During the Trek

View from the Watch Tower

Watch Tower

Group Pic at the Top of Watch Tower

On the way to Munnar, we visited Lokkam waterfall. Chk the pic to read its story :) Here few of us had "teetar" bird egg bhurji. It was OK, a litter bitter to my taste. Soon we started and we were presented with majestic tea garden across. A road in the middle, surrounded by Tea Garden.... It was beautiful to say the least. On the way, Jinu enquired about the timing of "Ernakulam National Park". He mentioned it as 7.00am. Anywayz, through the scenic beauty of tea garden we reached our accommodation at AIDA by 5.30pm. We accommodated in three room. Few of the members opted to stay back and relax, few took their cameras and headed north/south/east/west.. I don't know the direction as I was buzy sleeping. :)

Hang ON!!! Day 1 is still to be closed. My roommates and I started around 7.30pm for the dinner. In the market, we can see only Tea Shops... not for drinking but fresh tea for taking home. Infect, there are hardly any tea stalls. Ok.. Moving on.. we had our lunch in the outside dhaba (others No idea) and came back move to play cards. We played cards for 2-3hrs ... having blanket maar for winning/forcing others to loose. Thts it.. we retired for the day after spending not so amazing time outside as most of time we were in the bus :P

DAY 2 - Munnar Visit

The day started with the visit to "Ernakulam National Park". It opened @8.00am and we were the first batch to reach there. We were taken to the park base and left there to enjoy the scenic. We already knew there were no Animal sightings. Hence, we wandered through and came back with good pics.. thts it. It is told that blue blooms happens once in 12yrs and is worth a visit. During this visit, few of the members started proposing there places to visit but they themselves delayed and hence more places were not explored.

           Nilgiri Thar Spotted by Me :)

Hmm.. we then spend half-n-hour roaming around the market near the national park until Jinu figured the bus. In the mean time, we had fresh carrot, green mangoes, buttas to name a few. There were truly delicious :) Tht contributed to good breakfast since we were further delayed due too traffic jam. Anywayz we reached Munnar by 11.00am, had our breakfast/lunch, and headed to Mattupetty Dam. The dam was crowded. We parked our vehicle after few knots and headed for the river. Few clicks and again the journey started. This time to 'Kundala Dam'. Here, three of the gates were open however, there was hardly any water flowing through it. We thought of boating but being a Sunday, it was too rush.

Then, through "Lock Heart Gap" we traveled to the "echo point" and "Top Station". The trip through "Lock Heart Gap" unveiled the breathtaking panorama of evergreen tea estates, undulating valleys, a spine of hills in the horizon and streaks of cloud drifting over tea gardens. We traveled to "echo point" and then headed to "Top Station" for the final visit of the day. Some of the members decided not to visit the "Top Station" viewpoint because of Fog (better to say passing cloud), Rain and Crowd. For others those things contributed to disappointment especially there was hardly any view and they decided to stay back.

At View Point 

We came back and struck in traffic in crossing ourselves not bus (it was far ahead). On the way we stopped near Kekan Deva tea plantation and posted for pics :). Soubrab was left when we started from this place. In addition, here we saw Mandir, Majid and church location within 5KM giving the prospects of communal harmony.

Thts the end of Day 2 with more visits but for less time :( since the traffic was eating up the time. Similar to Day1, we had our dinner, cards playing and rest.

DAY 3 - Kolukkumalai Tea Estate

The initial plan was to keep our language at the hotel and come back for lunch & vacate it. However, Team decided to check out the hotel @morning only since checkout was possible within 12.00pm.

Anywayz, we started for Chinnakkanal by 7.30am. On the way we halted near periyakanal waterfalls. It was one of source of drinking water for Munnar. He had our photo sessions before proceeding further. Here again Sourab and other person was left behind. Jinu had to go back around 500mts to get them... They didn't knew & were still buzy photographing. Crazy guys!!!.

Next, we suddenly stopped somewhere and Jinu went and came back with three Jeeps.

Well.. It was to take us to 'Kolukkumalai Tea Estate', the highest organic tea garden. The ride to the estate about an Hour was one of the memorable experience to say the least. I definitely recommend a ride here for those think they are the best drivers. The road to/from this tea estate is unpaved and very uncomfortable... It like getting free massage for your leg, body, silence mind. It was a horrible drive. I guessed I would have trekked in less time. Anywayz, the view from the top of the estate was zero  for the fact that huge cloud cover. We later went to estate tea estate company for a demo of the tea preparation. The tea factory is about 70+ old and still uses traditional method for tea preparation. Later after purchasing tea we came back to base where our bus was parked, again via un-describe road. My mind was roaming like anything once we came back. I had to take instant food & water to get going.

Thts Western Ghats Highest Peak

View from Top of the Tea Plantation

Anywayz, we started back to Bangalore via Body-Theni-dindigal route.

Summary:

Day 1 - Cinnar Wild life Sanctuary

Day 2 - Ernakulam National Park, Few Dams, Top Station

Day 3 - Kolukkumalai Tea Estate

Pics  Courteousy: Tanoy, Girish, Deb, Pratab