Kuringal Gudda : Kudremukh

It was the second week of May, and two months since the debacle at Kumarparvatha, that the hills beckoned me once again. While looking for trek options, I came across the BMC post on the trek to Kuringal Gudda. I did not need to think twice before registering for this trek.

Kuringal Gudda is a trekking route in Kudremukh national park. The route is something like
Bhagavathi Nature Camp - Kuringal Gudda - Bhagavathi Nature Camp . The trek distance
is 14 kms with the difficulty level being moderate.

So, on friday night after having a quick dinner at Imperial, I was waiting outside Symphony theatre along with 15 other strangers, when the BMC bus came. Soon, all people got in and at around 10.45 PM, we started off, manouvering through the halogen lit empty streets of Bangalore. The exit from Bangalore was delayed by the customary traffic jam at Jalahalli cross, and the bus gained momentum only from Neelamangala. A brief stopover happened around 12.30 for people to have their dinner. After dinner, the people boarded the bus and as the bus started, a quick round of intoductions followed after waking up the sleepy folks. Mayuresh, in typical style, literally put the 'spotlight' on the tired folks :P

We reached Kalasa around 8 A.M. and had a brief stopover for tea & pee :D. At 9 A.M , we reached Kudremukh and we were waiting outside the DFO office. We had our breakast and after finishing the formalities at the forest office, we set off for Bhagavathi nature camp. The river "Bhadra" flows behind the camp.

After putting our rucksacks in the large dormitory, the guys rushed to the river to take a bath. The water was crystal clear. After an hour of frollicking around and pulling each other's legs, we had our lunch at around 12.30. The lunch was prepared by the local guard who doubles up as a cook. It tasted delicious for sure. Around 1.30 we set off for Hanuman Gundi falls, about 7 kms away for the Bhagavati nature camp. Around 2.30, we were at the falls and walking down the steps to the base. There most of the folks went down and enjoyed the cold water flowing from above. This went for quite sometime and by 4.30 almost everybody was tired and after drying themselves, they walked up the stairs and boarded the bus waiting outside. Now, Kudremukh seems to be full of forests and there was only one tea shop near KIOCL. So, again we went there for our cup of tea. This place also has a small marketplace, where once can buy local groceries and meat etc. The small, quaint market was located in the backdrop of the famed western ghats which added its own aura to that place.

Anyways, we started back towards Bhagavati nature camp and reached there by 6.00 PM. A few of us got down at the gate itself, from there it was another kilometre to the base camp. With the sun beating down and all eyes wide open looking our for wild-life, we did manage to come across some spotted dear.

But that was just about it. The rest of the evening was spent discussing about office, IT industry,
managers etc. A couple of guys stood out during these interactions. One was Roy, the guy from
Shillong, Anshul(who came from Chennai to join this trek) and Vaibhav.

Around 9 PM, we gathered around the fireplace thinking that dinner was ready, but truth was that dinner was still an hour away. To pass the time, jokes were cracked, attempts were made to sing some songs and finally everybody settled down on some light-hearted banter. Around 10, dinner came and everybody ate to their hearts' felt. There were quite a few dishes, veg and non-veg.

After dinner around midnight, everybody went for a walk to the front gate hoping to catch sight of some animals. But still no-luck, rather ill-luck as a forest department jeep came at that time and sternly asked us to move back to our dormitory , warning us about the dangers of the forest at night.

So everybody was back and people dozed off by 1 AM. I had a sound-sleep, but was awakened a couple of times briefly by the sound of water falling on the ground. At around 6.30 when I got up, I again heard the sound and thought that it was raining and was wondering how the famed Kudremukh leeches might be expecting a feast. But when I actually woke up and went outside, it was just the water tank leaking near the window :D .

Anyways by 8 AM, everybody was ready and set to go. We had a quick breakfast and then divided the supplies between us. Around 8.30 AM we started off by crossing the Bhadra river behind the camp. After 5 minutes of walk, there was the first cry of leeches. Thereafter everybody stated discovering leeches. Me being a past experience-holder of leeches continued moving forward. It was like rumble in the jungle as people started running uphill in the forests. I could barely manage a photo or two in the melee.

After 2 hours of running, pushing and shoving, we came out into the open from where we could see the peak of Kuringal Gudda. Now this was a steep climb and needed a good 45 minutes to over come it. Once at the peak, we spent the better part of 2 hours eating, clicking and just relaxing. Once can see the Kudremukh-mangalore road from this viewpoint. All were busy with something or the other. I just dozed off on a rock near the edge of the cliff after exhausting my hunger for photos.

Around 2 hours past noon, we finally got down from cliff and made our way to the Bhagavati nature camp via a seperate route which was almost fully a jeep track, devoid of any leeches. Had a few breaks in between and admired the Kudremukh grasslands. Also posed for quite a few photographs.

We were back at the base camp by 3.30 and after a quick dip in the Bhadra river, we had our much delayed lunch. The bus started off around 5.00 PM and we zipped past Kudremukh. In between we had a stopover at Kalasa for some quick coffee.

We stopped for dinner at Hassan and after finishing our dinner in half-an-hour, we started off for Bangalore and reached my home finally at around 3.30 AM.