I had been an admirer of Neelima ever since I landed on her blog. Reading through her travelogue will not only make you jealous but inspires to take up travel more seriously. One such post talked about how she managed to do so many treks, traveling with various travel groups and thats how I got introduced BASC - Bangalore ASCendars. With no second thoughts I liked their FB page and registered in their group ( free registration ofcourse ) , just to realize later that unlike other groups, they are one of the most active and passionate group which travels every weekend. If you are looking for luxury and comfort BASC is not the place to be. I kept on ignoring the travel updates from BASC. Kudremukh was one such mail which I would have ignored on any normal day. It came on a day where I was too pumped up reading many travel blogs and I had no second thought whatsoever and registered. The difficulty level was Medium to Hard and as a prerequisite you are expected to have done similar treks to be considered eligible. Luckily we had Kumaraparvatha and Kodachadri on our conquered list.

Picturesque grasslands of Kudremukh

There was the confirmation mail with our names and a list of todo items. We gathered at majestic by 10 PM and exchanged smiles and hand shakes. It took sometime for us to get comfortable with new faces as we two were the odd ones in the group not knowing kannada. The next day started with sight seeing of Kudremukh iron ores followed by Hanumangunde falls and a quick stop at Ganga moola which I decided to skip and rest in bus as I drained out completely during the ascend from falls. It was almost by lunch we had breakfast ( yummy puliogere and neer dosa ) and headed back to the home stay. The roller coaster experience of 11 km ride on complete mud road in a fully packed jeep brought us to home stay. Rice, Sambhar, Papad and Pickle lunch at homestay filled our stomachs. With half of day to spend, the plan was to trek to Durga dibba / Devara dibba hills which the organizer claimed to be a trial version of the larger trek to come tomorrow. This was my first experience of trekking with rains on and off. Sometimes there were occasional drizzles, sometimes heavy downpour. Truly an experience.

There is beauty all around us. You just need to look.

 Passing through the slippery terrains and slopes, finally we reached the peak and found ourselves in the natures lap with the passing clouds and greenery all around. BLISS is the word. Later in the evening we had a dip in the cold stream removing away all the weariness in the limbs. The evening was well spent with introductions, card games and seniors ragging the first timers. Dinner was served and we hit the bed by 12.

It feels good to be lost in the right direction

With packed lunch boxes, GPS gadgets to track the route, wireless devices to communicate, ropes to cross the streams, we set out at 6.30 Am to the most awaited 22Kms trek of Kudremukha. I was excited  to beat my previous best record of 15 Kms. The first milestone was to trek to Gomukha peak (1625 m) followed by Kudremukha. It was tough, sloppy and slippery at places. The monsoon wasn't that kind at times. But the inspiration to proceed further was right there, whenever we took a moment and looked around. And being one of the slowest and photography enthusiast didn't go well together. Every time I stop to shoot Girish will be right behind poking me to move forward.  Unlike experienced trekkers we didn't pack much of eatables and the group which moved fast had plenty of reserves which would get over by the time we reach them.

Say NO to littering

This is when my tastebuds realized left over particles of Krack jack can be so delicious. People were gracious to offer some eatables while others became close enough to pluck it and eat.  The atmosphere was very friendly and never like we had just met. People were sharing their previous trek experiences and striking poses and the mood was lively. You can never stop being amazed at such a serene landscape and breath taking sceneries. Finally we made it to the peak ( 1850 m ) and after the usual group photo shoot, we had the much awaited lunch by the stream and we returned back.

Leeches. Ahh, how did I not mention about them. During this entire episode, they had a great time finding, and sneaking into our shoes. There was heavy blood shed all along the trials. I too had few bad bites which still remains as a souvenir.

Tired and Worn out

We made it back to the homestay with sore legs and tired body, but a happy heart. Met new people who shared similar interest, made friends, pushed the body limits both mentally and physically , Kudremukh is definitely a trek to remember.

"In the end

my shoes tore,

feet became sore,

but heart said

lets do it

once more."

Contact - Arun ( 08263214235 ) is the local guide who arranges weekend treks in Kudremukh.

Couple of months passed in 2014 and thanks to my laziness & procrastination I still have a backlog of travel posts to update. Channapatna was the first among them which happened way back in August 2013. It has been in the todo list for quiet some time. After going thru the usual workflow of reading blogs, browsing photos, gathering friends the date got finalized. As usual it was a delayed start around 8 AM but the weather was very kind on us. Bangalore weather when at its best can even make the office ride enjoyable. It was one such day and that combined with the awesomeness of the NICE road, the experience was pure bliss. No one was in a mood to rush and even the fastest bike was clocking at 20 Km/h.

NICE road has always been nice

We stopped at for breakfast around 10 somewhere past NICE road and had idly vada sambar. One of the spiciest sambars I ve ever had, ending the course with a cup of coffee. Finally sun woke up around 11 and we had no choice but to speed up the ride and reached the temple around 11.30.

Navaneetha Krishna Temple

The Navneetha Krishna temple features the childhood version of krishna in his crawling posture. The belief associated with Navaneetha Krishna Temple is that worshipping here will eliminate "Putra dosham". We also happened to witness the ritual of people donating coconuts/rice and other stuffs in weights equal to their kids. There is a huge weight balance, and they donations are weighted equalled to the weight of the kid.

Navaneetha Krishna a.k.a Kulanthai Krishna

Soon before the thought of where to have lunch arose, the iyer announced that there will be a anna thaanam today. Lucky indeed. We happily ate the served Besi bellabath and curd rice accompanied by potato chips.

We were done by 2 and since Channapatna is famous for handmade toys, we set out to buy some souvenirs. Since I wanted to shoot some landscape, myself and few others rode to kanva reservoir while others were busy exploring the toy shops. The cloud play at the Kanva reservoir was quiet dramatic and I managed to click few HDR shots and as usual failed portrait attempts of Jai & Puhal.

Surreal dreams at Kanva Reservoir

While we were busy shooting, the other group managed to find a wholesale manufacturer who built toys in his house. It was a kind gesture from him to greet them with coffee and also explained his business. The bulk purchase was complete and meanwhile we too were done with kanva reservoir, as planned we met at the Kengal Anjeneya temple which is on the junction of Kanva reservoir entry. It was a festival day and the temple was obviously over crowded. We had a quick glimpse of Anjaneya and set out on the final lap of our ride.

Kengal Anjenaya Temple

The return journey was equally pleasant till we reached bangalore by 5.30 at Banngerghetta road. Crossing Banngerghetta road during peak hours is a challenge in itself. Adding to the challenge is an bus breakdown which made traffic move like a tortoise. After putting all the driving skills to test, performing matrix stunts in the non moving traffic we managed to reach home by 7.30. A day well spent.