Kudremukh Trip:
Participants: Advay(myself), Shrirang(Balli), Kapil, Vijay (Jhako),Nilesh (Gattu), Amit (bajaj), Shilpa….
Date : 9th and 10th Dec, Kalasa and Kudremukh.
Thanks to the initiative taken by Amit to arrange such a trip but it was the presence of all of the other members to make it a memorable trip to Kudremukh and kalasa. The story from horse'e mouth goes like this.... Well Kudremukh means Horse's Mouth .. :)
We all started from the garden city on friday night by KSRTC bus. The bus was not so comfortable kinds. The driver was crazy and he drove like a madman. I guess he knew the exact map of the road while driving. Its rare to see right-hand-driving in night but this guy made it so easily. Few of the hairpins and u-turns were dealt with perfection. Me and balli slept like dogs while others were gossiping all the way. Finally when they caught some sleep early morning, we were almost near to the Silent Valley resort.
It was 6:30 am and I was relieved when i got off the bus. The air was chill and filled with mist all over. It was foggy and we were so excited to see all that. Kapil said he got reminded of pilani. We were given a nice big room to get afresh. We took bed tea and got ready for the breakfast which was normal south indian including bread and butter. We were told to go to the nearby place called "Hanging Bridge" by walk. The place was around a km from the resort. The place was a silent beauty. Such a small but wonderful place. The bridge was made to cross the river. It was man made. The bridge was 100m in length and had only 2 parallel metal wires as the support while walking. The pathway of the bridge was so natural. It was like 3 parallel metal wires and few small sticks placed perpendicular to those 3 wires. And at some places there was alomst a foots gap which made it difficult to walk. Also at a given time only 3 or 4 could walk on the bridge. Jhako when crossed started to shake the bridge to scare us. It was real fun on the bridge. After crossing the bridge we went to riverside to spend some time. It was nice, cool and pleasant place. Rather the most romantic place of the whole trip.
We came back to the resort and had our lunch. Lunch was not so good. We had given a jeep and we started towards Kalasa to see some temples and riverside places. The 1st spot was really pathetic. Its called as Kallubhavi, small quantity of water is surrounded by few stones. A small pipe is the only source of water and the water level is always constant. We didnt explore the place much. Everyone ran off from the place as quickly as possible. The next place was Amba Tirtha, it was again the riverside place with high water current. We walked down to the river bank and jumped into the river.... it was a nice place and we all enjoyed a lot. We saw few temples after that and they were build with the same interior... though temples bore me to earth but those places were really quiet and calm. We went to one more picnic spot... again a riverside place with a very nice view of hills all aorund. Just before the sunset we went to Duggappana Katte, a hill top from where whole Kalasa is seen. We all were had a nice chat on top of the mountain. The sun set in no time and we couldnt take many pics.. :(. All the way on our way we played small games in our jeep and they were all fun.
After visiting the places we were back to resort by 7pm. We again had bath with warm water. Just before the dinner we sat around the bon-fire and had vodka. We danced a little bit and then headed for dinner. We all had light dinner and were ready for the most exciting part of the whole trip, "Night trek". We were so enthusiastic about it and we started off with a nice snap. We were provided 2 guides to make our journey easier. The trek was 3km long and we had to climb a steep hill. The night was dark and to add spice to the sitiation i started off with the ghost stories. Jhako and shilpa were scared like hell and everyone else were participating in the discussion. After a kms trek everyone was down to their knees and said they cant go any further. One of the guide told us to continue and asked us to go further. Kapil was so irritated and he kept on shouting all the way to uphill. One of his dialog i am quoting here.. " Saloon, kyon uski baat sun rahe ho, woh tumko jahar pine ko dega to tum log pi loge kya ??" After reaching the peak all of us were almost on the verge of fainting. But once we all reached on top we could feel the triumphant emotion. We all were so relieved, speacially kapil who forgot everything when he got the airtel signal on top the hill. He was so happy that he made few phone calls as well. We all sat there for around looking at the sky. We saw few dying stars we well and i did wish in my heart when i saw the dying star... (can't quote is here... let me see whether its true or not). We all started downhill after taking rest. Unfortunately the torch battery was weak and we were short of light. Still we kept on walking downhill just with the help of moonlight. Finally we reached resort at 1am and we were too tired to do anything. This was one of the memorable treks i ever did. And at the end of the trek everyone said "sala G*** phat gayi". Still hats off to Shilpa who didnt crib much in the whole trek. Me and balli jumped into one of the tents and slept like kumbhakarna. In the night i woke, to wear my sweater and jacket coz it was ice cold outside.
Next day while people were still sleeping me and Amit went for a small walk. We tried to explore some good area nearby but ended up in finding a stable.. :). But the morning walk was nice and i still felt the pain in my leg coz of nights trek. Others woke up till the time we came back and started getting ready for the next adventure. After having our breakfast we started for towards the Kudremukh side. In jeep we all played Concentration - a syncronization game told by Shilpa. We made total fun of it. We all loved it like anything. We reached Hanumangundi waterfalls after an hour. As usual being the most enthusiastic amongst all, me and balli jumped into the ice cold water. We went straight below the waterfall and could feel someone literally smashing our back. We enjoyed a lot in water and took some cool snaps. We spent around an hour in there and then headed backwards. On our way to the next spot we spotted a bison on the way. It was medium size bison whom we didnt disturb much. Took some snaps and he vanished into the bushes. We reached the Lakya Dam where the photography was prohibited, probably just to make sure that people dont take pictures of a dam which doesnt contain any water. Yeah, it was shameful, dam without water. I dont know why they build a dam just for the heck of it. But still we kept our talks, bakar, tripping to make sure we dont get bored at any moment.
We saw another waterfall on the way but we didnt really got down the jeep. No one was so enthu to see this place. We headed for Kudremukh park where we sat down and played Mafia for about an hour and half. It was fun playing the game and we all enjoyed it a lot. Took some snap at this place. But just sitting there and playing refreshed us. We came back to resort at 4pm and we had our lunch. After lunch it was almost 5pm. Me kapil and shilpa decided to go to the bridge again. We had nice walk and we talked for a long time near the river bank. The place was so pleasant and so calm. I am just in love with that place. We spent some time there and came back walking to the resort by 6:30pm.
After having tea we went to our room and started discussing on general issues which were quite interesting. Finally we started packing our stuff and had light dinner. We caught a drop van from the resort to the main bus stop. Got into the bus by 10:30pm and back to bangalore by 6am the next day.
The trip was overall good and could have been better if were allowed to go to Kudremukh peak, which was closed for tourist due to some construction work on the way. But still we all enjoyed time to fullest. Thanks to timely jokes by kapil and jhako which made our trip more colorful.
To sum up in the end i will say, the night trek was hell of an experience and we literally enjoyed it a lot. Good that we didnt end up with a bison or so. It was a peaceful trip in the end !!!
