We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.
But the hills that we climbed
were just seasons out of time.
But the hills that we climbed
were just seasons out of time.
It was a friday afternoon and a call from Bishu changed my plans for the weekend. All the plans of sticking to my planned schedule were thrown out of the window when he wanted to do a trek, after I jokingly suggested so. Since we were open to trekking anywhere in western ghats, we decided to do the Mullayanagiri-BabaBudangiri leg after havin already done Kemmanagundi-BabaBudangiri two years earlier. So, cancelled everything and booked the overnight tickets. But fate and Mallya's creation scripted a different story and we ended up instead catching the Rajhamsa bus at 11.00 AM next day to Chikmagalur. After a brief stopover for lunch at a place after Channayarapatna, we reached Chikmagalur at 5.00 PM sharp.
Mullayanagiri (Kannada: ಮುಳ್ಳಯ್ಯನಗಿರಿ) (also spelt Mullayangiri or Mullainagiri), is the highest peak in Karnataka, India. Mullayanagiri is located at 13°23′26″N 75°43′18″E in the Baba Budan Giri Range of the Western Ghats. With a height of 1,930 metres (6,330 ft), it is the highest peak between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris
There are two routes to go to Mullayanagiri. One is a tar road that ends in a clutter of 500 steps that leads to the temple. And the other non-obvious one is to get down at Sarpadhari and take the route snaking up the hills. Its a quick ascent with a fast rate of elevation. Since tar roads are not what you want to walk on after travelling 280 kms, we asked the auto guy to drop us off near the metal arc at Sarpadhari.
It was 5.45 PM and a light drizzle started just as we were about to start. Lack of fitness showed on both as we panted throughout our initial climb till the body warmed up. Once that was done, we took minimal breaks to survey the elevation as well as the approaching darkness. I had accounted for trekking in total darkness in the plan. But we bettered ourselves in the latter bit and reached the summit by 7.05 PM, a decent speed on the slippery slopes at this time of the year.
We looked around the compound to find 3 houses and a temple at the top of the mountain. After asking the permission from the priest of the temple, we began to setup the tent. The priest offered us a room inside but it is no fun sleeping inside a house on a trek. So, we decided to set camp and it took us almost similar time as it took to climb the peak. The heavy winds had already started and we had to use huge stones to protect the pegs. Finally done by 8.30 PM, we decided to go for some socializing and went inside the house to have some black coffee(not due to choice but due to lack of milk). Met a cop there, who is stationed on a rotating basis for 4 days. He was on this shift and used to stay in the same house.
The next hour was a fun conversation with the two of them. When people don't know each other's languages, its mostly the signs and common sounding words that come to the rescue. Moreover, due to DD being the only channel on the TV, they used to watch Hindi tv soaps as well, which helped us here. Ultimately, its the language of humanism that binds us all together and we made a decent conversation before they went for dinner. We refused dinner as we were already carrying our stuff.
It was a spectacle with below 10 degree temperatures, heavy winds and mist engulfing the entire mountain. Food was cold but nevertheless attacked with glee by both of us till the last bhindi. Made some necessary calls and then indulged in bakaar till Bishu went asleep and I was left wondering how to pass the time.
Like all bad times, the night turned out to be very long. With rains, the ground had become wet. The winds never abated. The cold became worse.The tent door flapped entire night. But, finally lights came out albeit full surrounded by fog. The fog and the winds never abated till 8.00 AM. We decided to leave the place at 9 after breakfast.
The initial route to BabaBudangiri from behind the temple is a little confusing. But the right way is to go parallel y to the road and then get onto the mountain ridge. From then on, its a hike up and hike down. Except a few dangerous climbs on big wet rocks right at the edge of 30-40 feet drops, the route is not that tough. The walking trail ends near a check-post where it crosses the tar road. From there on the second leg starts towards BabaBudangiri.
It did not take us long to reach the check-post, within an hour. After some clicks and monkeying around the post, we decided to move ahead further. This latter part was a little tiring with climbs and mist reducing visibility to less than 10 meters, we just decided to follow the trail and could not make out our position in the overall route as the transmission towers(which serve as landmarks) were blocked by the mist. After more monkeying around, more snaps and more rests, we made it to BabaBudangiri by 12.30 PM, a neat time of 3.30 hours since start. On the way down, we came across a few people asking about the duration/toughness of the trek.
A few snaps across this trek:
Our plan was to take the 2300 hours bus from Chikmagalur, but due to our pace we reached BabaBudangiri early and hence decided to hitch hike on a Maruti omni and reached Chikmagalur bus stand at 2.45 PM right in time for the Rajhamsa bus 15 minutes later. Soon, we were on our way back and enjoying the coziness of our homes by 9.00 PM.
A weekend well spent.
Things to carry during monsoon:
1. Backpack rain cover
2. Poncho
3. A sturdy tent
The route to BabaBudangiri is a well laid out single trail. On top of the peaks, the trail sometimes disappears but try going to the other side of the top and one will find the single trail reappearing again. No leeches and quite doable even in peak monsoons. Off course the trade off would be some awesome views whitened out due to mist. More importantly don't take the wrong left from Mullayanagiri. We almost did that and came across a carcass and was about to enter a big forest till we decided to go the other way parallel y to the tar road.
