The nose of the horse: Kudremukh
Let me tell you initially that entering kudremukh protected forest after 6:00 p.m is not allowed for the tourists.
we trekked on 20th march 2011, the night of the super moon.
the house owner of the house we stayed in guaranteed us that he wouldn't inform the forest dept.
we had enough food with us with dwindling water supplies in the middle when we couldn't find any streams.
only bsnl network is available up-to the base point and along some places in the hills with momentary idea and vodafone networks (correct me if I'm wrong).
the place hasn't heard of airtel. the path is clear of obstructions and is easy to follow.
we trekked at the initiation of summer, with lower chances of rains and leeches and slipping (can't guarantee that, though).
And last, and the most important thing of all, we trekked while the moon was still high above our heads, yes, the night trek. children stay away from it, its not for the weak hearted (that wasn't a fact).
You can also go to kalasa instead, and start from there. The home stay people ( the likes of Mr. Gowda, mentioned later) will give you the permission letter on your paying the required fees.
sorry, if there are grammatical mistakes, but please tell me about any factual errors. forget editing the beginning of each sentences!
we started from mangalore, or surathkal, and took a bus to karkala. the place to go to is kudremukh town, in case you want some forest department help (at the cost of some money). if you are starting from mangalore, you may get a bus every two hours or so directly to kudremukh. there is a bus every hour from karkala, though. this was at around 10 am on saturday, 19th march. we reached km (kudremukh) town by around 2 in the afternoon. we had a chat with the forest clerk and it lead us eventually to start finding an ATM in the dead city. well there isn't one, at least in the open. it's inside a bank and it was a Saturday afternoon! So after having lunch and roaming the city for over two hours, we took a bus to the next living city, kalasa, about 20k from km town at around 4.45. we en cashed some money and filled the purse that was left empty by the forest clerk. next we took a bus back the same route at around 5.30 and reached a place called balagal (bALagal). a board welcoming us to km reserved forest: way to km peak, also warned us about no permission without authorization.
we started walking along the road but were confused at the first turn. our destination was a Mr. rajappa gowda's house, about 6k along the road to the peak. this destination was given to us by the forest clerk as part of his arrangements to trek enthusiasts. coming back to the turn, we asked a person about the destination. this person was none other than the guide, the person who led us for the next 5 ks. pity i didn't ask his name. he knew a lot of things about the place. no wonder, he's a loco, to that place. he fussed about the Forest dept. taking so much money from the trekkers, without any benefits to the locos. also he told us about a failing power project, which can be seen along the road to the peak. he congratulated us on not asking for a jeep to Mr. gowda's house as it would have deprived us of another 500 bucks.
after meandering along hills after hills at a super pace, Mr. guide finally left our path to meet his beloved ones at around 7 in the evening. the next k or so that could have been completed within another 15 minutes at Mr. guide's pace took us 30 minutes! so at 7.30 pm Mr. Gowda heard loud knocks on his door. when he came to investigate it it was a miracle that he didn't run away, or his child didn't scream to see yash's smile greeting him. we were all looking inside with extended necks with varun's almost reaching the floor of the hall. sach had to prevent himself from testing the strength of the walls that made the house. aka and i took the lead and asked if we had reached the right place and a counter smile greeted us. (there, the intro's done. couldn't find suitable words to describe aka or myself).
even though his hospitality was good enough, our estimates of his charges increased with his increasing hospitality. since we already knew about the falls that was "directly below" his house, we asked about it. it was already dark by then and the moon was yet to reach its glory. he showed us the direction and we went back from the last house for about a 100m and stood in front of the falls. his "warm" waterfalls turned out to be freezing and we needed preparations before entering the waters. after aka's involuntary entry, no one wanted to enter it for quite some time. with the cold blooded yash taking the first dip, he made some initial checking in the pool and found spots for others to enter. after some derogatory remarks at each other, some pics which we wouldn't want to see to ourselves again, and some water games we were out of it at around 9. by this time the moon light was like a tube light, giving enough light to see even yash! we were back inside the warmth of the Last House within another 10 minutes. after checking the scores of the match between aus and pak, and having a pretty delicious dinner of rice and jack fruit, drum sticks, green gram, tomato, and other stuff sambar, out of which yash couldn't find anything eatable, we retired for the day. varun mumbled something about chickens in his sleep, while sach tried to prerform some sleep-ups. my dream songs gave aka fits and he was complaining about it to me till i woke up after some 5 hours. yash must have flown off to check on things from a tree because no one seemed to know anything about him. he must have returned by about 2.30 in the morning of 20th march as he was the one to wake us all up. the previous night we had a long discussion as to how we'd go and our timing plans. that weekend was a very heavy weekend for the 2nd year mechanical engineering students with 4 assignments for our section and 2 assignments to yash. varun and aka were never bothered about stuff like assignments, tests, and other nonsense. here our means sachin and me. so i wanted to return pretty early from km. no one exactly knows as to whose idea it was about night trek. yash claims he was thinking of it even before i introduced it to him. well i got the idea from some seniors! anyways varun had liked the idea very much. the owner tried to divert us from this plan. according to Mr. gowda, snakes and other animals would be our main concern. he wasn't worried about path missing and all. also he was a bit concerned about forest dept, but later said he'd vouch for us.
so as decided we left for the peak from The Last House of Mr. Rajappa Gowda. his directions were simple:right at the first turn, reach the first tree visible, reach the second tree visible, left at the first rivulet and then single path (mistake? correct it please). yash and varun memorized the route only to start fighting at the first rivulet. since we found only a single available route we kept walking. as had been advised by mr. gowda, we avoided the smaller paths created by grazing cattle. after about a half k, there were no more diversions and stuff and we were all by our self in the km jungle. we had a 10k long trek ahead of us. this wasn't a small thing as the previous day we had found out how much the 6k meant just in plain road that was accessible by jeeps. the path was very clear under the moonlight and after crossing many rivulets, streams and passing of animals, along the hills and jungle we reached the peak. i won't explain the route because then you'll have no suspense left. In short, it's the best thing I've ever done in my life! all along the way the km peak keeps calling you, smiling at you and attracting you. (these are some cheap metaphors, because the original feelings can't be put to words). Since I've already told that this is a trekker's guide, a trekker will surely understand what i mean. we reached a flat area about 50m below the top and we watched the sun rise through the... this sounds so meagre. Just visit the place. we reached the peak at around 7. we felt at the top of the world, and,... forget.
our tiredness had dropped by around 8.30 and we started trekking down back to the last, now the first, house. we found a stream on our way back to replenish our water supplies we had finished on the peak after having bombs, or kadubus, or undes. we reached back at around 10.30. we missed our path only at about 100m from the house. yash and i soon learnt our mistakes and took back the original route, while sach, aka, and varun who were leading us, took the wrong route and ended up walking another k. we had coffee (only me) and lime juice to recharge ourselves with chitranna. we paid Mrs. Gowda Rs 1000, after asking for some student concession, for their help and allowing us to stay and giving us food. It wasn't much after knowing that they charge around 500 per head for seasonal trekkers. in all we had taken about 3 hour 15 minutes to climb up and about 2 and a half hours to climb down. we were back at balagal by 1.30. in all we had walked 34 to 35 k within 24 hours with less than 4 hours of sleep. not a big achievement but, a good one! we took the bus going to karkala and were all back in our nest within 6.00 pm. I'm not going to write down our personal climax, that would be left for the 5 of us.
I hope someone finds this useful. contact us if you got queries about this trek. and night trek might not be easy without full moon help. but sunrise from the peak isn't something that you can watch daily!
we trekked on 20th march 2011, the night of the super moon.
the house owner of the house we stayed in guaranteed us that he wouldn't inform the forest dept.
we had enough food with us with dwindling water supplies in the middle when we couldn't find any streams.
only bsnl network is available up-to the base point and along some places in the hills with momentary idea and vodafone networks (correct me if I'm wrong).
the place hasn't heard of airtel. the path is clear of obstructions and is easy to follow.
we trekked at the initiation of summer, with lower chances of rains and leeches and slipping (can't guarantee that, though).
And last, and the most important thing of all, we trekked while the moon was still high above our heads, yes, the night trek. children stay away from it, its not for the weak hearted (that wasn't a fact).
You can also go to kalasa instead, and start from there. The home stay people ( the likes of Mr. Gowda, mentioned later) will give you the permission letter on your paying the required fees.
sorry, if there are grammatical mistakes, but please tell me about any factual errors. forget editing the beginning of each sentences!
we started from mangalore, or surathkal, and took a bus to karkala. the place to go to is kudremukh town, in case you want some forest department help (at the cost of some money). if you are starting from mangalore, you may get a bus every two hours or so directly to kudremukh. there is a bus every hour from karkala, though. this was at around 10 am on saturday, 19th march. we reached km (kudremukh) town by around 2 in the afternoon. we had a chat with the forest clerk and it lead us eventually to start finding an ATM in the dead city. well there isn't one, at least in the open. it's inside a bank and it was a Saturday afternoon! So after having lunch and roaming the city for over two hours, we took a bus to the next living city, kalasa, about 20k from km town at around 4.45. we en cashed some money and filled the purse that was left empty by the forest clerk. next we took a bus back the same route at around 5.30 and reached a place called balagal (bALagal). a board welcoming us to km reserved forest: way to km peak, also warned us about no permission without authorization.
we started walking along the road but were confused at the first turn. our destination was a Mr. rajappa gowda's house, about 6k along the road to the peak. this destination was given to us by the forest clerk as part of his arrangements to trek enthusiasts. coming back to the turn, we asked a person about the destination. this person was none other than the guide, the person who led us for the next 5 ks. pity i didn't ask his name. he knew a lot of things about the place. no wonder, he's a loco, to that place. he fussed about the Forest dept. taking so much money from the trekkers, without any benefits to the locos. also he told us about a failing power project, which can be seen along the road to the peak. he congratulated us on not asking for a jeep to Mr. gowda's house as it would have deprived us of another 500 bucks.
after meandering along hills after hills at a super pace, Mr. guide finally left our path to meet his beloved ones at around 7 in the evening. the next k or so that could have been completed within another 15 minutes at Mr. guide's pace took us 30 minutes! so at 7.30 pm Mr. Gowda heard loud knocks on his door. when he came to investigate it it was a miracle that he didn't run away, or his child didn't scream to see yash's smile greeting him. we were all looking inside with extended necks with varun's almost reaching the floor of the hall. sach had to prevent himself from testing the strength of the walls that made the house. aka and i took the lead and asked if we had reached the right place and a counter smile greeted us. (there, the intro's done. couldn't find suitable words to describe aka or myself).
even though his hospitality was good enough, our estimates of his charges increased with his increasing hospitality. since we already knew about the falls that was "directly below" his house, we asked about it. it was already dark by then and the moon was yet to reach its glory. he showed us the direction and we went back from the last house for about a 100m and stood in front of the falls. his "warm" waterfalls turned out to be freezing and we needed preparations before entering the waters. after aka's involuntary entry, no one wanted to enter it for quite some time. with the cold blooded yash taking the first dip, he made some initial checking in the pool and found spots for others to enter. after some derogatory remarks at each other, some pics which we wouldn't want to see to ourselves again, and some water games we were out of it at around 9. by this time the moon light was like a tube light, giving enough light to see even yash! we were back inside the warmth of the Last House within another 10 minutes. after checking the scores of the match between aus and pak, and having a pretty delicious dinner of rice and jack fruit, drum sticks, green gram, tomato, and other stuff sambar, out of which yash couldn't find anything eatable, we retired for the day. varun mumbled something about chickens in his sleep, while sach tried to prerform some sleep-ups. my dream songs gave aka fits and he was complaining about it to me till i woke up after some 5 hours. yash must have flown off to check on things from a tree because no one seemed to know anything about him. he must have returned by about 2.30 in the morning of 20th march as he was the one to wake us all up. the previous night we had a long discussion as to how we'd go and our timing plans. that weekend was a very heavy weekend for the 2nd year mechanical engineering students with 4 assignments for our section and 2 assignments to yash. varun and aka were never bothered about stuff like assignments, tests, and other nonsense. here our means sachin and me. so i wanted to return pretty early from km. no one exactly knows as to whose idea it was about night trek. yash claims he was thinking of it even before i introduced it to him. well i got the idea from some seniors! anyways varun had liked the idea very much. the owner tried to divert us from this plan. according to Mr. gowda, snakes and other animals would be our main concern. he wasn't worried about path missing and all. also he was a bit concerned about forest dept, but later said he'd vouch for us.
so as decided we left for the peak from The Last House of Mr. Rajappa Gowda. his directions were simple:right at the first turn, reach the first tree visible, reach the second tree visible, left at the first rivulet and then single path (mistake? correct it please). yash and varun memorized the route only to start fighting at the first rivulet. since we found only a single available route we kept walking. as had been advised by mr. gowda, we avoided the smaller paths created by grazing cattle. after about a half k, there were no more diversions and stuff and we were all by our self in the km jungle. we had a 10k long trek ahead of us. this wasn't a small thing as the previous day we had found out how much the 6k meant just in plain road that was accessible by jeeps. the path was very clear under the moonlight and after crossing many rivulets, streams and passing of animals, along the hills and jungle we reached the peak. i won't explain the route because then you'll have no suspense left. In short, it's the best thing I've ever done in my life! all along the way the km peak keeps calling you, smiling at you and attracting you. (these are some cheap metaphors, because the original feelings can't be put to words). Since I've already told that this is a trekker's guide, a trekker will surely understand what i mean. we reached a flat area about 50m below the top and we watched the sun rise through the... this sounds so meagre. Just visit the place. we reached the peak at around 7. we felt at the top of the world, and,... forget.
our tiredness had dropped by around 8.30 and we started trekking down back to the last, now the first, house. we found a stream on our way back to replenish our water supplies we had finished on the peak after having bombs, or kadubus, or undes. we reached back at around 10.30. we missed our path only at about 100m from the house. yash and i soon learnt our mistakes and took back the original route, while sach, aka, and varun who were leading us, took the wrong route and ended up walking another k. we had coffee (only me) and lime juice to recharge ourselves with chitranna. we paid Mrs. Gowda Rs 1000, after asking for some student concession, for their help and allowing us to stay and giving us food. It wasn't much after knowing that they charge around 500 per head for seasonal trekkers. in all we had taken about 3 hour 15 minutes to climb up and about 2 and a half hours to climb down. we were back at balagal by 1.30. in all we had walked 34 to 35 k within 24 hours with less than 4 hours of sleep. not a big achievement but, a good one! we took the bus going to karkala and were all back in our nest within 6.00 pm. I'm not going to write down our personal climax, that would be left for the 5 of us.
I hope someone finds this useful. contact us if you got queries about this trek. and night trek might not be easy without full moon help. but sunrise from the peak isn't something that you can watch daily!
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