That is how I felt when I
was standing atop the Kumara Parvata. Said to be one of the toughest treks in
Karnataka, Kumara Parvata seemed like an imposing challenge that we were eager
to conquer. All we had to do to earn victory was to scale the mountain along a
tough terrain of nearly 14 km.
For the ignorant folks,
Kumara Parvata stands at 1712mts from the sea level. This mountain is a group
of three peaks – the Kumara Parvata (also called Pushpagiri), the Siddha
Parvata and theSeshaparvata. There are two ways to reach the summit: One via
Somvarpet near Madikeri and the other via KukkeSubramanya.
We started from Mangalore
towards Madikeri at midnight looking forward to a couple of days filled with
adventure.We were 14 of us. Each one of us was excited and only too pleased to
leave the urbanites behind. Considering the hot and humid climate of Mangalore,
only a few of us had anticipated the acute chill that would greet us once we
reach Madikeri… At 4 a.m. we were at Madikeri coming to terms with a season
called winter. The worst part being most of us were ill equipped to handle it.
We had to travel light and we never thought that we would require many warm
clothes. We soon got to know that we were mistaken!
Another hour of bus
journey took us to Somvarpet where we met our folks from Bangalore. After a
quick breakfast and another hour of journey, we were in a village called
Bedahalli. A 4-k.m walk took us to the ShanthiMalleshwara
temple at the base of the Pushpagiri hill ranges. Another one kilometer walk to
the forest checkpoint and we were ready to start our 7 k.m strenuous trek to
the summit. It was 11a.m on a sunny winter day. The direction board read:
“Pushpagiri peak: 6.75 kms” Kumara Parvata was awaiting our arrival…!
The trek trail to the
summit from the Somvarpet side goes through thick forests. What surprised me
was the presence of dustbins at regular intervals along the trek route-A very
good initiative to ensure that the mountain slopes stay clean. As we climbed
higher and higher, the mountains offered breathtaking views of the
surroundings!
The next four hours, we
were climbing up the mountain along a trail that was getting steeper with each
step. The climb was tough. We were moving ahead slowly but surely pushed with
encouraging words to each other, some packets of glucose, lots of water and
juicy oranges!
At some places the earth
stared into our face at a 70-degree incline… We went ahead, resilient, not to be
perturbed by the difficult terrain. As we approached the summit, these steep
inclines only became longer and more difficult. The slopes were barren…It was
mid-noon now and the sun was blazing down fiercely. There was nowhere to take
shelter. We had to drag ourselves to complete the last few kilometers… The
direction board read: “Pushpagiri peak: 1.25 kms”.The summit seemed so near yet
so far!
…to be continued
An incline staring at us.
The steep slope on the way to KP.
The Shanti Malleswaram temple
Forest Checkpoint
Start of the trek to KP from Bedahalli
(Photographs courtesy Anindya Das)
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