Whims published... It's not an expert's opinion, It's not an online diary, It's not a web journal... It is just my whims published

‘Hay!’ We are coming.. [bhattara mane to Mantap]
Just few meters away from the toll gate we decided to rest for some time there. This was to compensate for leaving Bhattara Mane in hush after the lunch. We rested under the shadow of a tree. We sat there almost for half an Hr and started trekking after Ethapay and I reminded the rest it might get dark before we reach the peak otherwise.

The evening sun provided our cameras just-perfect light. Kumara Parvatha started revealing its beauty as we kept ascending. There were hillocks covered with hay every where. We blindly followed the trail that was penetrating through the hay. We were taking pit stops more often than ever now. Kumara Parvatha was testing our stamina. The guys who had left just before us from Bhattara Mane were visible now at least a km ahead of us. The long pit stop we had taken near Girigadde had clearly widened the gap between us.

After trekking nearly for three hours we sighted another mile stone, Kallina Mantapa [Stone Mantap]. I remembered Mantap’s mention in many of the blogs and websites when I was gathering info about Kumara Parvatha. Sun was calling it a day and it looked impossible to reach the peak before the Sun sets. After taking few snaps of setting Sun we ascended ahead. We were searching for a plain land to set up our tent. We got down from another mile stone called Shesha Parvatha and found a plain land there.

Men vs Wilderness [night in the tent]
While setting up the tent I observed a drastic change in the weather. What was Sunny and humid had suddenly turned to windy and chilling. The tent was easy to set up. It was dark by that time. There were three torches with us. But we decided to set up a camp fire. Byre showed he is better equipped to leave in jungle by breaking few dry twigs from the bushes around. Byre even cut a bundle of hay. We tried lighting the twigs with a lighter I had carried. Even the camphor did not help. Just the hay burnt bright, but a single twig. It was so windy we gave up the idea of camp fire.

We crouched into the tent. Spread our sleeping bags and circled around the three torches that were serving as artificial camp fire inside the tent. We soon realized the tent would be a bit congested for 4 of us. But sleeping in a congested tent was lot better than dying in the cold out side. Few apples, biscuits and some other snacks were in the menu list for the dinner. While having our food Ethapay and I were alerted by a sudden scary noise out side the tent as if some animal is trying to tear the tents with its paws! It sent chill down my spine. We did not speak for a moment. The sound vanished; Byre took his knife in hand and said, “come lets all go out, if it is any wolf or some thing it will run away seeing people”. I agreed hesitantly. We all peeped out of the tent to see no animal around. Later we realized it was flap of our tent which made that noise. We all sighed in relief. We sat out side the tent for a long time discussing crappy topics. I shared some tips by Bear Grylls to others which I had learned from his TV Series Man vs Wild. I adore that guy for his guts, Im a great fan of Bear Grylls. Pujar and Byre added their share of info in the conversations.

We screamed at the top of our voices when the clock ticked 12 AM. Wished every mountain around and billions of stars above in the sky. There were no echoes for our screams, I think it got frozen in the cold. We all thought a New Year celebration can not get better than this. After chatting this and that for some more time we crouched back in our tent.



Foot on peak
I set the alarm to wake up @ 5:45 in the morning. I was expecting to see some clouds around. The plan was to trek to the peak getting up ASAP in the morning. The congested tent helped in a way to keep the warmth inside. We all zipped ourselves into our sleeping bags. Our bags served as pillows. The tired bodies caught sleep in fraction of a second.

I woke up before the alarm rang. It was few minutes to 5:45. I woke the guys up and told it was time to resume our trek. Byre unzipped the zip of the tent door and noticed it was still dark outside. So we decided to sleep for 15 more minutes. I did not get sleep. I woke them up again @ 6:00. Ethapay was hesitant to wake up and trek further. He said he will continue sleeping in the tent and did not wanna join us for trek further. We did not pester him much; as he had already been to this place once and he looked liked he needs some rest.

Sun had not yet shown up. Byre, Pujar and I were trekking in the direction of the peak. After trekking for about half an hour, the magnificent peak of Kumara Parvatha was visible, at last after a whole day of trek… I sighed. But to reach it, we had to cross a patch of a Shola forest. In the Shola forest we met the guys who were trekking ahead of us the previous evening. It was evident seeing the half burnt logs that the guys had successfully lighted the camp fire the previous night. I think that place mustn’t have been as windy as our place. We uttered New Year wishes to them and they did it in return. That was much of a gesture of solidarity. We met another group of 4 further down in the forest. After crossing the forest, we were challenged by a steep boulder-y climb in front of us. That hinted us that we were now climbing the ultimate tip of Kumara Parvatha.

After few minutes of trekking we were more than happy to land our feet on the second highest peak of Karnataka. We felt we were on top of the world. We gave hi-fives to each other. The view from the top was mind boggling. Sun was casting his bright rays on our elated faces. We clicked few snaps. All the three of us found a slope-y rock on one of the edges of the peak and rested there for a while. The view from there was worth the total ten hours of trekking.

Painful descent
We returned to the spot where we had set up our tent last night. Ethapay had woken up and folded all our sleeping bags and kept it ready to carry. Ethapay turned out to be less lazy than we had thought about him ;) We munched few apples and folded the tent back in a bag meant for it. It was 10 AM, by the time we started trekking down from that place. Trekking down did not turn out to be as easy as expected. It needed constant care not to step on a rolling stone and firmly gripping on each of the stones our foot was kept on. We took far less pit stops. Reached Bhattara Mane around 12:30. Bhat said it will take few more minutes to prepare lunch. We lied down on the mats and polythene bags laid out on the floor of verandah.

After finishing the lunch [menu was same, Malabar Spinach sambar, white rice, pickle and buttermilk] we decided to take a good siesta again. This time we were woken up by the commotion around by the new group of guys who had stopped for lunch on the way up to Kumara Parvatha. In fact there were more people that day to trek than the previous day. We carried our backpacks and headed back on the path to Kukke.

At last the whining calf muscles and thigh muscles got the much needed rest in the lodge when we reached the lodge @ 5:30. We all had a sense of accomplishment of trekking the 2nd highest peak in Karnataka.