“The forest is not merely an
expression or representation of sacredness, nor a place to invoke the sacred;
the forest is sacredness itself...” - Richard Nelson, The Island Within
The
Kudremukh (1892 m peak) National Park is the second largest Wildlife Protected
Area belonging to a tropical wet evergreen type of forest in the Western Ghats. Beauty, grace, power, nobility and freedom! The horse face
mountain gives it all and brings you back to your elements!
And yet again, I asked our trek lead, how
you keep coming to the same place at your own expenses for so many times! “The
hill is different each time you come and you meet new people” answered
Chaitanya, the cool n composed trek lead from BTC who visited Kudremukh 4 times
before.
The tempo stopped, 12 of us woke up an
early morning for a 7 km walk uphill. Filling our lungs with dew soaked clean air
at the wee hours of dawn dawn and listening to a variety of birds. We reached our home stay, abode of Rajappa, along with the sun. Sipping hot tea/kaffee and basking in the mild sun some tried to
capture the dews; some were looking for birds and some ran for an instant
relief from previous days load!
Yummy desi idly, “Kadubu” it’s called; we
stuffed our stomach and set out for a touristy day. We visited the Lakya dam,
the Sutanabbe/Hanumanagundi falls (where we found no hanuman and had a peaceful
lunch w packed puliyogare n pickle) n headed back to our home stay. We stopped
near a wooden hanging bridge over Bhadra river channel and had a photo session
that may help some of us trying a career in Bollywood. We had two awesome
photographers in the group, Sekhar ji n Chaitanya himself.
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Reaching home stay
(in a jeep for a change) we set out for a lazy time by the nearby fall, where
most of the guys took a dip, two photographers kept clicking, Shree got lost in
the sky and I found a reason to sing! As the darkness was setting in, we
hurried back home and had a feast over bhajjis n tea/kaffee. Soon the camp fire
was set and the BTC patent game, dumb charades began! “Khoon me tale hue samose”
to “Reshma ka janaza” Vikram had a killer stock! After a lot of creative acting
we broke for dinner and retired early for a long day ahead.
And the day arrived and it came with a
complete palate as we headed towards the peak; through open green grass,
patches of evergreen forests with flowing streams, bamboo arcades and falling
trees, with different degrees of slopes all along amidst cloud and sun. Kudremukh
is definitely the prettiest of all hills in the Western Ghats. As we reached
the peak the clouds embraced us with chill; we got lost for a while, then chatted
about this and that finished our lunch and finally decided to descend down. Fearing
the possibility of rain, the second coat of leech (repellent) oil was applied
and we were set to start. It was just before sunset we made it to our home stay
and rushed for a hot water bath!
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We got at least one leech bite to keep the
record! After having bhajjis with tea/kaffee, we took a snap with the lovely
family we stayed, bid good bye and headed downhill for 7 km walk to reach the
main road. And the best part was still waiting for us! The sun disappeared,
rain set in with citation of two deadly scorpions and snakes on the way and
sometimes strange animal smell! It was the fastest that I ever walked and we
finally reached the road to see the electric lights! With a glass of lemon
water/tea we concluded our chapter and boarded the tempo towards the din and
bustles.
Team: Chaitanya,
Hemanth, Mahesh, Prateek, Premal, Sekhar, Shakti, Shree, Sumita, Vaibhav, Vikram and Vivek Anand.
Written By : Sumita
Organized By : Chaitanya Kumar Adusumilli
Date of event : 22nd & 23rd Nov 2014
Place : Kalasa
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