Bangalore - Sakleshpur - Gundya - Subramanya - Somwarpet - Madikeri - Kushalnagar - Bangalore.
The Holy Trinity in a man's life: Beer, Gaming and Action movies????. Hell no!!!!!. Traveling beats it all; and traveling to exotic places is a grandslam home run of an experience.
Landscapes from a fairytale, muse lands for literature, sceneries from movies sets, sunsets borrowed from a daydream and lands amongst clouds. All these are here and very real. And they are even closer than we thought. All we need to do is just answer their call.
26th of December 2014 (Day 2).
Kumara parvatha one of the greenest trekking places in the country, covered by 99.95% of trees and mountains, awaited us. After having felt no less than Michael Phelps by swimming in kumaradhara (The river which flows enroute Subramanya), we started our trek at 8 am. The bottom of the mountain is probably a kilometer from the temple.
The total distance to be covered until 6 pm was 15 bliss filled kilometers. With our backpacks packed with processed food A.K.A "Junk food" (there's no provision to cook here and all our Gordon Ramsay's culinary skills takes a back seat) and all the required camping and trekking equipment, we started our trek with a new trekmate "Aravind - The Acute Trekker".
We couldn't keep up with him (Thanks to our previous day's "Illegal Sakleshpur Railway Trek"); after two miles he disappeared. With unpredictable terrain, the trek goes from moderate to difficult here. The climbing angle varies from 10 degrees to 70 degrees and the water depletes before you know it.
There only only 3 water replenishment spots until you reach the top. One being a stream (half way between the bottom and Bhattru Mane), two being Bhattru Mane and the third being kallu mantapa (Half way between Bhattru Mane and the top).
Bhattru Mane - A small hut (Chef's House in Kannada) is the only place where food is available. They cost you INR 100 per person - All You Can Eat. We ate like monsters, filled our bottles and headed for the view point 1.
There
are two view points, and the view of the Western Ghats from these points are
.......... (There are no words for it). Some may call it breathtakingly
beautiful, amazingly gorgeous, surreally scenic, but no words are apt. A
photographer's paradise, once you get indulged in the panoramic view, you
forget everything and just feel blessed.
Permissions have to be obtained from Karnataka Forest
Department Wildlife Division, Madikeri (The Ranger Office is on the way), Trek
permission costs INR 200 for Indians and INR 1000 for Foreigners and Aliens.
From this point on, there
were miles and miles of grasslands, probably 2 feet thick grass until the top.
The trek to the top from here is marginally easier to reach than the Mars
itself. And the elevation was probably 50 degrees (takes up every last ounce of
energy left of you).
Kallu
Mantapa (Stone Platform in kannada) greets you midway and there's nothing there
except for a Zillion Dollar View of the Virgin Forest all around. Hour and a
half Trek and there stood Marigundi and Shesha Parvatha. The sight was so
elegant and ecstatic we literally dropped our bags and boots and just sat there
for a solid 15 minutes looking at the majestic hills.
Camped in the forest with bonfire to assist us. Ate junk
food, indulged ourselves in white rum. Does it get cold here ??. No; its gets
bloody freezing here. Gets so God Damn cold, it gives the Delhi's coldest
nights a run for its money. Slept like a baby (Dint care for any of the world's
problems) because may be we were tired as shit.
27th of December 2014 (Day 3).
Woke up early to watch the
Sunrise and the sight was unimaginably glorious. One of the best sunrises I've
ever seen in my life (probably among the top ten). Started ascending and the
last stretch to head to the peak (Kumara Parvatha) was literally professional
mountain climbing and the moment we reached the top, we were AWESTRUCK. If
Heavenly Pleasure exists, this must be it. There are 2 flags at the top and a
small temple where the holy lord Shiva resides which marks the end of the
climb. The sight from the peak is Surreal and if you smoke weed, this must be
the best place on planet earth to do it.
I
felt like Zeus himself (that must be exaggerating), anyway a few pics at the
top and with a heavy heart, we started descending and two trekkers named
"Ranjith" and "siddhu" asked us the way to get down to
Bidalli. They (13 chaps) were to get down the same route which we were to. So
it was us 15 guys with feelings of have achieved something Awesome started
trekking down until we reached Kothi Bande (Monkey Rock in Kannada).
Remember those slides in the kindergarten ??. Well this rock was more steeper than that. Getting down was taxing and tiring. One false move and we would have rolled like marbles for some 40 odd feet. We had to unleash the spiderman within us to get down this rock and just have gotten down alive felt relieved.
This trek down was
relatively less (max of 8 kilometers), but was no less treacherous. We 15 chaps
sat down to bread and jam. Topped it off with a few packaged cherries while
wide eyedly starring at the iconic view.
The
getting down part was more fun and having company proved to be great. These
chaps were hell of a company, kept us occupied until the end. There are enough
water spots along this route and before we knew it, we were at the Bidalli
ranger's office by 12:20 pm. This marked the end of our EPIC trek.
Mr. Nayan was waiting for us and in a few meters stood Zroya
just looking beautiful. We were to reach Somwarpet and it took us around an
hour to reach the place. Filled our bellies with "Real Food", paid
Mr.Nayan's fee and started cruising towards Madikeri which was a mere 40
kilometers from Somwarpet.
If you like riding/driving,
this stretch of land feels like you have hit a Jackpot. With hectares and
hectares of coffee plantations, spice estates with trees entwined with pepper
vines and endless view of the green mountains keeps you mesmerized for the
whole ride. Just as we reached Madikeri, our next place to visit was
"Abbey Falls" (a no brainer).
I
never had seen so many people in Abbey Falls before, it was like half of the
world's entire population had come down to see the spectacular sight of the
waterfalls. Then I realized, it was a damn weekend and after trying to sink in
the beauty of the falls, we headed back to the main town.
Staying
in Madikeri was ruled out (remember the shoestring budget??), so to Kushalnagar
we rode. Kushalnagar has Namdroling Buddhist Monastry - (The Second Largest
Tibetan Settlement in the World). My cousin's first time to the monastery; and
boy!!! Was he grateful. It's an entirely different feeling once you get in. The
sight itself leaves you wondering. The Copper statues coated with Gold leaves a
stamped image in your brain. Well, I guess I can never understand religion, but
places like these gets you cleansed of your "SINS".
We left the place right after they literally pushed us out
(we were the last few to exit the Monastery) and cranked up to ride towards
Mysore. The ride until we reached the Mysore ring road was great, then it
started raining speed breakers. There are more speed breakers in this God
forsaken road (Mysore-Bangalore highway) than the actual distance itself. I
lost count after speed breaker number 119. With a few stops, we finally reached
Bangalore at 1:00 am on 28th of December 2014.
I sat back and took a while to sink in the memories. I
missed those places; it was like missing a new girlfriend. I guess I was
cheerful to have completed the ride. I just felt super happy and overwhelmed
!!!!!..
ridesntreks - THE WESTERN GHATS RIDE PART 2: The
awe-freaking-some ride of Zroya to the tracts of serene beauty. "Day 0 and
... - http://ridesntreks3.blogspot.in/2015/01/the-awe-freaking-some-ride-of-zroya-to.html?m=1
Next ride - Alaganallur
(The place which hosts the World Famous JALLI KATTU). Until then, Ride hard
ride safe. Peace !!!!!.
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