Kudremukha Hike: 23 - 24 July 2016

It all started when my exams got over last month. Being an adventure and nature freak,I wanted to go on a trek in the western ghats.After much research I decided on Tadiyandamol trek in Coorg district. I immediately started collecting more details on this and informed my friends. However the trek kept on postponing and I felt some of them weren’t interested at all. Weeks went to months and my patience grew weaker. By this time 2 of my friends Nithin and Lokesh went off to Mullayanagiri and other places. I too badly wanted to go somewhere soon. I came across a post for Kudremukh trek organized by Bangalore Hikers for the upcoming weekend and immediately decided to go for it. I told it to others on Thursday night and they were quite surprised.

We had to gather in Majestic at 10.30pm on 22nd July(Friday). At 10.15pm I saw the group standing. I was fully nervous as this was the first time I was going on a trek with total strangers. I met the trek organizer Ahmed and introduced myself to the group. We left for Kudremukh at 10.45pm. We made a quick stop at the petrol bunk for refueling and we all(thirteen of us) gathered in a circle and introduced ourselves. I was the youngest among them and others were all working people. We continued our journey after this intro.

I woke up at 4.30am and after seeing the way the driver was driving our TT, I couldn’t sleep back again. I opened up the windows and the cold, pollution-free air hit upon my face and it was quite refreshing to feel and inhale it. We reached a village called Balgal from which we had to take a half hour jeep ride to Aruna’s homestay at Mullodi. The ride was full of small streams and after 15 minutes it was entirely muddy road. It was a roller coaster ride till the homestay.

Imagine waking up and the first thing you see in the morning is this ~

Yes, this was the view from the door of Aruna’s home. Pretty cool right!

We freshed up and had a breakfast of hot, small round rice idlis and started our trek at 7.30am.

Our organizer was Ahmed Kidiya. He was fun and chilled out organizer and was also one of the photographers. This was the first trek which he organized and it was a blockbuster. Here’s a beautiful pic of him with a leech-

yuck!!!!

There was a forest department office at the beginning of the trek. We had to pay trekking fee and a guide had to accompany us. Aruna’s father was our guide.

So the trek begins... We encounter a lone tree amidst the grasslands which is the start of the trek

let the trek begin!!

Kudremukha Hike Map

The trek route is as shown in the picture above. As you can see we had to go through many forests and grasslands. Initial trek was going in and out of many forests and in each of the forest there was a stream which we tried to cross without getting our shoes wet, but it was impossible. In fact, we had to survive with wet shoes for about 9 hours. It was either that or getting bit by leeches, if we wear sandals. We had crossed about 6-7 streams and the last one being the largest with knee deep water level. The blood sucking leeches began their appearances and were drawn to us. Almost all of us donated blood to them and I had about 10 leech bites.

After crossing all of these streams and forests in an hour, there was a view point of the Kudremukh peak. Even though it looked close by,it was a 3 hour trek till the peak. The clouds passed through the peak and we couldn’t wait for experience of ‘being in the clouds’ moment at the peak.

Kudremukha peak visible atop

The rest of the trek was through grasslands only. But still, leeches were constantly crawling up our shoes to get a taste of our blood.

exit of forest and entry of grasslands!!!

green, green everywhere!!

photographer’s paradise!!

It then started drizzling which made the weather even more beautiful. But it was short lived as the rain grew worse and we had to wear our raincoats. It became too misty and we couldn’t enjoy the view too. Luckily it stopped after 20 minutes and we witnessed one of the most beautiful things-rising of the clouds to reveal us the beautiful majestic mountains and the lush grasslands.

As we continued our journey, there came across a view point which was the best view I had ever seen in my entire life. It will probably stay in my top favourite sceneries list. It made the photography loving part of me (which I never thought it existed) to take a pic from my Moto E 5mp camera. It was at this point I missed two of my friends Nivi and Prithvi who were nature freaks like me.

Isn’t nature amazing?!

This view was soul satisfying, it made me realize that my actual passion was this. My mind became clear, thoughts stopped. I just stood there with tears filling my eyes admiring the real beauty of nature.

We continued on our journey after 15 minutes. This was the longest break we ever took because the more time you stand in a place, more the leeches crawling up you. There was a constant sound of a waterfall since an hour. The steepness increased drastically and it was almost at an inclination of 60-70%. But the difficulty was reduced by the zig-zag path. At this point, I witnessed the second most beautiful view in this trek. It was that of the waterfall in an adjacent mountain. It was indeed a spectacular view.

Mist covering up the rest of the waterfall

We reached the top of the mountain(not the peak) and there was a stream passing downwards. This was the start of the small streams witnessed at the beginning of the trek. We all drank water from it and filled up our bottles. The water was freezing cold and it was the purest and most refreshing water I had ever drunk in my life. We sat down next to it and had our lunch. It was puliogare(tamarind rice) which was packed by Aruna. We regained our energy and resumed the trek which was just a few hundred meters to the peak.

After 15 minutes of steep trek(12.15pm), we could see the pile of rocks which indicated the peak. No words could describe it. We were literally standing in the clouds.

The ‘conquered Kudremukh’ feel!!

Enjoying the milky way

Yup... That’s me... Lost in solitude!

We started our return trek at 12.50pm. This time we explored an untouched forest and waterfall nearby.

explore the unexplored!

As we were trekking down, it seemed to be more difficult than climbing up and it started pouring heavily which made it more slippery and dangerous. We had to climb down slowly and the trek path basically became a stream. We all slipped and fell and the leeches took advantage of this.

Even though it took us almost the same time to trek back to the homestay, we all felt it took longer than trekking up. Being a beginner, I could barely walk the last 2kms of the trek. In total, we did almost 20kms in 9 hours which was quite an achievement for me!

We reached at 5pm and were welcomed into the homestay with hot bajjis. We just grabbed as many as we could, like barbarians. We had a refreshing hot water bath and played food anthakshari. Dinner was delicious with chappathi and rice. After dinner, we played cards(bluff) and finally at 10.30pm we all dozed off.

Next day, we woke up at 6.30am and went to Somavathi falls which was a 10 minute walk from the homestay. Four of us(including me) went into the water. It was freezing cold and adrenaline was pumped in our bodies which eased our leg pain for a while. We all were shivering for a while after coming out of it.

We left the homestay at 9.30am. There was jeep ride to Bansal. We all had a cup of Tea and left at 10.30am. We went to Annapurna temple and had lunch there. On the way to Bangalore, we took a detour to Belur as we had ample time left. The architecture of the temple was simply amazing and we took lot of photos there.

We had a coffee break at 5.30pm and Ahmed asked for the reviews of this trip. We reached Bangalore at 8.30pm. We all expressed our goodbyes and departed. Even though we all were strangers at the start of this trek, we grew closer at the end and shared our past experiences with each other.

Overall, this trek made me to realize that trekking is my actual passion. Kudremukh is truly a exotic adventure and will stay in my memories forever. It’s lush greenlands,mesmerizing views, ’in the cloud’ moments, blood-sucking leeches will be memorable for a really long, long time. As they always say-

Adventure is an addiction, be addicted.

Written by: Jagan Raajan
Event date: 23rd & 24th July, 2016
Place: Kudremukha Peak, Karnataka
No. of hikers: 13 (12 M, 01 F)
Event Organizer: Ahmed Kidiya
Photos of the event: Coming soon...
Photo Courtesy: