Kumara-parvatha trek

Saturday, December 27, 2008 5 Comments »
I am back from an amazing weekend trek (Dec 20-21) to Kumara parvatha. Kumara parvatha is on the border between Dakshina kannada and Kodagu districts, standing 1712 meters above sea level (also known as Pushpagiri). It is a well-known trekking spot and every serious trekker from South India aspires to scale its heights. We ascended from the Somwarpet side on saturday, stayed overnight on top of KP and descended the following day from the Kukke side (13 km of a heck of a descent that almost ripped my legs off ;-). Overall, it was an unforgettable and an exhilarating experience. The beauty of the Western ghat ranges is just beyond words. Though I wanted to blog about this trek, my friend and a fellow trekker Srikanth has already taken care of it. Click here to read his post.

Here is a photo chronology of this incredible adventure (Click the pics to see enlarged versions):


The gang of 10: From left - Shreyas, Shreyas-2, Karthik, Goutham, Avinash, Rajesh, Srikanth, Balu, Kiran and photographer Srivatsan. This is on way to the Malalli falls at around 7:00 in the morning on Saturday.


Malalli falls as seen from the bottom. We had bath here and did quite a bit of (mis)adventure.


At Ponappa's house. This is after we got back from the falls, had breakfast and now ready to leave for the trek.


Near the check post. We walked 5 km here from Ponappa's house and we were exhausted even before we started trekking!


The hanging bridge just after the checkpost. We filled all our water bottles in the stream below.


Finally, we started on our way to scale the mighty Kumara parvatha.


View from the spot known as "view point" midway in our trek.


One of the three steep 60 degree inclined rocks we climbed.




We reached the top at around 4 in the evening and started building our nests!



The campfire we lit. Wasn't that powerful but did sustain us until 8:30 by which time we decided to sleep.


Around 6:00 in the morning. Sunrise as viewed from the top of KP. An awe inspiring sight.


Sunday morning: we started descending from the Kukke side. You can see the foot-path in the background disappear beyond the mountain.


At Bhattra mane. We had lunch here. I liked the simple foods and especially the butter milk.


After a grueling 13 km hike down, we reached Kukke!




The Kukke Subhramanya temple.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice trek.. and also nice pics..

Srikanth said...

Good one maga..Nice choice of pics..

Balu R said...

Maga just realised that putting only pics with one or two captions conveys the same thing as 2000 words composition i think ..except few facts of course

Srivatsan said...

Super maga.... It was a great experience

Rahul said...

it is indeed a very special place... absolute wilderness and awe-inspiring landscape...loved reading it...