Kuduremukha Trek- A Travel with Unknown Faces

We all know that the default procedure of the trip is plan, postpone and cancel. The same thing happened with our friends circle. So I being fed up of it  decided to go alone. By that time I found an awesome group called ADVENTURE ADDA. They were organizing trekk for Kuduremukha so I straight away registered into it.

My journey started by boarding a bus on the 9^th December night, I felt getting into the bus is like boarding an alien ship, everyone and everything was new to me. I sat on the back seat of the bus with a lot of hesitancy to mingle with new people. But all of them were in deep sleep so not much introduction happened at that time. So I decided to sleep, but unfortunately bus was filled with the musicians who can snore in different tones so I could hardly sleep for 2 hours. We reached a small village near kuduremukha by 6:30am and I got down from bus still in a sleepy mode. Yashwanth(organizer) arranged a jeep for us to reach home stay. Everyone got freshen up; hot coffee and breakfast were served. In the mean time everyone throwing smile at each other without any exchange of words, those smiles making me feel comfortable with them. Yashwanth gathered all of us, our first and small introduction started by knowing the names and then he gave instruction about the trekking and also provided us lunch and water. We started our trek at 8:30am and our first stop was near forest office to take the permission. We did a small photo session and continued our trek.

This is an 11km trek (one way) first 5 km stretch is very easy and flat terrain, Next 6km stretch is moderate and will take an elevation. The trek route is very scenic with grassland, forest and small streams. While crossing the forest we saw bison and deer, these are the most common sightings in Kuduremukha. For every 1 or 2km you will find water streams which are very refreshing for the trek. 4 members from our group (including me) are the first to reach the peak at 12pm. We celebrated and had our delicious puliyogare.

The experience at peak was really awesome. Sometimes clouds surrounded us, sometimes harsh sunrays falling on us. While enjoying this I fell asleep, when I woke up it was 1:30pm many have reached the peak, most of them were sleeping, few of them were listening to music and taking photos, but every one of them were very relaxed and in ecstasy. No one wanted to leave the place, but the forest department won’t let us live in that place!!! :-). So we took our group photo and started our descent at 2:30pm. Though descent is the toughest part of the trek we managed to reach our home stay at 4:30pm.

Hot water was ready by the time we reached the home stay. Manu (organizer) pitched the tent and set the camp fire too. Hot water Bath not only washed our dirty body, but also took our pain with it. After freshning up, it was snack time they prepared mangaluru bajji and coffee. We had lots of bajji and coffee. As it was getting dark temperature was going very low. So the campfire was set up and everyone gathered around it, that’s when our actual introduction started. All of them started to tell about their job, dreams and passion. Every one of them do different job, but their passion is same- Travelling. Then I started to feel more comfortable and friendly with them. Later we played dumbshedards, antyakshari, then we discussed about our future plans and next trekking plans. But Yashwanth insisted us to take rest as we had some other plans for next day. So everyone bid goodnight and went inside their tents. But I sat for a while because I was amused to see so many stars in the sky. It was like the whole sky completely lit by the star lights. I wanted to sit for whole night looking at stars, but freezing cold forced me to get into my tent.

Next day morning everyone woke up early, finished breakfast and move towards our next destination- waterfalls. Though the falls was very small but the water was very cold, still we managed to do the photo session and I am being the photographer captured lots of happy moments. After that we packed everything and moved towards our bus. Though everyone in the bus was talking with each other, our subconscious mind was very calm and recalling all the fun moments we had on the trip. At 11:30pm we reached the Bengaluru and back to normal life…  I never thought a trip would impact so much on my mind, I boarded the bus feeling it as an alien ship but now feeling Bengaluru as an alien place.

Trek Details:

Location                     – Belagal, Kuduremukha.

Distance                     – 350km from Bengaluru.

Trek Starting point     – Mullodi.

Trek distance-            – 11km (one way).

Difficulty level            – moderate.

Time to trek                – 4 to 5 hours.

Peak height                 – 1892mts.

Best time to visit        – October to February.

Permission                   – Required.

Trek fees                      – RS.500/head.

Jeep fees                      – RS.600- 800/ head.