Last trek that I had been to was to Nagalapuram in 2013 and it been sort of long hiatus. Back then when I was young and free I used to figure out some time and indulge in nature’s bounty.
Its been more that three and half years I got married and to make matters a little complicated my wife does not share similar interests as mine. I think this feeling as mutual as she would also say the same thing. Anyways friends in office were planning for Kudremukh trek for sometime and I decided to join them. I was skeptical of my fitness levels and everyone else were younger and fitter than me. I read a couple of places that Kudremukh trek was medium difficulty level which I would agree after I did that. Physical activity that I did was some walking before going on the trek and I did manage to complete the trek.
So it was quite well planned and we started from Bangalore after office around 6:30 PM and idea was to reach Mullodi, the camping village before 12 AM, the distance was about 330KM. We did quite well until the roads were good, the last lap to Mullodi of about 5KM is muddy roads and in night it was little difficult to find out Raje Gowda’s Home Stay which is last stop before the start of the trek. There were 3 drivers out of 5 people but I did 0 KM driving as other two people didn’t need my skills at driving. It was about after 1 AM when we reached the muddy roads to Mullodi and carefully and slowly were proceeded on that route. Beware that phone signals and maps don’t work that well, Idea and BSNL are the ones that have some presence there. We stopped by a place just to check if that was Raje Gowda’s place but unfortunately in that ungodly hour there was nobody to be found. We just checked rooms and there was one without lock which was good enough for all of us. I guess they leave few rooms open for people like us. With Google Map location still little further away (GPS works, not the maps) we thought of walking up to the Google Map location. We did reach a place where there was another gang of guys partying. Didn’t really disturb those people and just knocked at the door. Raje Gowda opened and apologized “profusely” (not really :-)) for not picking our phone calls which we made on our way. At last Raje Gowda gave us a room which was naturally conditioned with chill from the outside into that room. We settled for the night with alarms set for 6 AM in the morning. It was a short night for us and there was a kid probably Raje Gowda’s son who woke us all while he was shouting the time for his Dad.
Everyone got up and we were all ready by 7:30 AM. Had a Idli Sambhar for the breakfast and a small pack of tomato rice for lunch. All this for 250 per head. We also had some food and water that got divided between. The forest check post is hardly 500 meters from the Homestay where you need to put down the names and address and pay up for the trek and a guide (must for the trek and Raje Gowda arranged for one). We started trekking at 8:40 AM and initially the trek is like a nice walk with good views and streams that you will cross. As we cross two streams the first steep climb waits for you. This part in steepest part in the trek and the only other steep portion in right at the end just before reaching the peak. Apart from these two steeps there isn’t much on trek which is very difficult. In the gang of our five I was laggard almost always and was at any time almost half an hour behind after the first steep climb.
With others in the group actually running on the trek I kind of maintained my snail pace without giving. I did reach the peak about 45 mins later than the group. The trek has breathtaking view and every once in a while you fall into dense forest which will last for half a kilometer and then all grasslands.
We were able to reach back to Raja Mane including me by 3:30PM. We could complete the trek in about 7 hours with rests while going up. Started from Mullodi around 4 PM and reached Bangalore at 12AM
Travel Time in a personal car
Start – 29th Dec 2017 – 6:30PM
End – 30th Dec 2017 – 12AM
Trek Time
22KM in 7 hours
Expenses @ Mullodi + Trek
Raje Gowda Homestay + Food – 250 per head (one room for 5 – 1250)
Forest Checkpost fees – 425 per head ( 2125)
Guide fees – 500
Raje Gowda Contact – 94811 79008
“Atleast one trek in a year will make you humble and well grounded” – Unknown
So it is my wish to atleast do one trek every year until I can