Trek to Pushpagiri & Kumarparvatha with KMA

Kumarparvatha(KP) was on my mind from a long time….
Because I had read a lot abt it…had seen the pics…also because it is in Dakshin Kannda District where I hail from….
But when the trek was planned it was supposed to be to “Bisale Ghat” which is in Hasan, but got cancelled at the last moment because of increased elephant activity in that hill region.
So there was more of happiness than disappointment when I was told that v wud be going to KP instead.
All of us collected our gears(backpack, sleeping bag and mattress) before the D-day.
We left Bangalore on 24th(Friday night) for Somvarpet in Coorg district.It was 15 of us(including two very friendly leads from KMA).
Anand : 28 yrs old CA, who has also done Mountaineering course and has been to Himalaya.
Deepak: 32 yrs, working with DRDO, our guide for the trek; has been to KP 15+ times, KP being his favorite.
We reached Somvarpet at 5:30 in the morning...the bus to Beedalli from where our trek was supposed to start was at 7:30am.
So finished the morning rituals, had a good idli-sambar breakfast….and boarded the bus….
The 12 km journey through the cloudy hills, green fields and snaky roads was cool…
Finally reached Beedally at 9:00, all of us gave a brief intro and started marching towards the first destination…Malvalli falls.
On our way to the waterfally v got the glimpse of Pushpagiri !!!












Half an hour of walk brought us to Malvalli falls…the water was bit less…but the view was spectacular.
Did some rock climbing, and got a more thrilling view of the valley and the surrounding dense jungles. Then v moved to the top of the waterfalls for breakfast…ate bread-jam, filled our bottles with water, the view from this point was very good. The next part of the trek was bit treacherous, followed by jeep road. Finally v reached Mallikarjun temple around noon and got the much needed break from the scorching sun, also got the treat of cold water from the hills.

This place had this huge Sampige Tree…




v took rest for some time and went inside the temple.
The priest told us that it was time for “Mangalarathi”, after the 15 minute long pooja v got delicious prasad as well :-D.

V started from there around 12:45, trekked for another 45 minutes and had our lunch of Chapathis with Aloo palak and chutney sitting in the holay( I forgot the name :-D).
The next part of the trek was awesome, through the thick woods, with dry leaves on our way and absolute silence.
Here sun was not permitted to touch Mother earth.
We were at the base of Pushpagiri around 3:30 pm, the next part of the trek was going to be tough, because we were already exhausted and also because it was really tough.
Then v got this huge rocky slope…v climbed it to realize that v really haven’t really climbed it, lot of it left to be conquered.
V got two more such rocky slopes; it was real fun to climb those.















V were almost at the top of Pushpagiri and realized that v were not alone their, and some kids from the other side of the hill (Subramanya) were already there, and were in the process of preparing their dinner.At this time we were running short of water; and were bit disappointed to hear that the next source of water was about 45 mins away from the top. The clouds were slowly getting thick, which were rushing onto us from everywhere, and we were happy that they did. It was another 20 minutes to the top of Pushpagiri. We(actually Anand and Deepak) had lots of things to do after going there.V got this beautiful view wherein two thick white clouds were in the process of forming a big one, v stood for a moment mesmerized to see the miracle from such a close distance, where v were not looking up to see the clouds but were looking at our hieght(and sometimes even down). I was delighted(Indeed all were) to be on the top.

Within minutes the climate changed and everything was cloudy with cool wet air blowing.
Finally our tents were setup…and five of us(Ram, Harsha, amol, Naga and me) got one tent.
The tent was cozy, with one door and one little window.

V spent some time there before being invited for dinner.
Had our share of chapathis and Chutney(amlya preferred to skip dinner).
Then v made desperate attempts to sleep, initially it was difficult to adjust for all of us. But finally fatigue made us surrender to sleep.
Had a good sleep(with some 5 breaks inbetween) before finally waking up at 6 in the morning for viewing sun rise.
After many years I saw a sunrise without concrete building to block my view, the hills and clouds made that moment much more desired.

Went to some surrounding view points before finally leaving the peak around 9:30, after climbing down some rocky slopes reached one spot with water and decided to take our breakfast. After slices of breads and Chapthis all were ready to embark on the next stretch which led to KP.
The view from the top was very nice(pic here).
Downhill was very slippery and steep, one wrong step and u will definitely regret for long.
Then v started for our next destination, “Kallina Mantapa”, this was built by the king “Lingaraj”

“Bhattare mane”, it was much desired because our lunch was waiting for us there; v had glimpses of it on our way down and that kept us moving.
It was close to 1pm when v reached there, freshened up and had a great lunch(the timing made it great)
Anna, sambar, mavinakai uppinkai and Majjige…..mouthwatering rt?
After lunch took rest for some time and around 2 pm started for Subramanya which is about 4 kms from Bhattare mane.
You would not believe if I tell u that bhattru climbs down and up on this hill twice a day with Milk cans and that too without Reebok or Woodland shoes.
After 2 hrs of trek we were supposed to get a Jeep track; after every corner our eyes were looking desperately for the jeep tracks…and the frustration used to rise when there was none.
We could here sounds of drum while getting down, and thought it was close, only to get disappointed.
Finally at 4 o clock v were on Jeep track.
V left that place around 4:30 to reach Subramanya temple around 4:45.
Had some juice and then visited the beautiful temple of Lord Subramanya.
Left Kukke Subramanya at 6:30 pm and reached Dharmasthal, I was disappointed on hearing that v wont be getting darshan of Lord Manjunath.
After refreshing our selves at Vaishali Chatra we had our dinner which was server near the temple.
In two days v covered 23 kms(13 uphill and 10 downhill).

Got into 10:26pm Rajahamsa bus which dropped us at Bangalore at 6 am, thus marking the end of a wonderful trek.

-Pakya

ShivanaSamudra-Talakadu

Trip time again!!!
But not whole of SRG again!!!
Mr, JPD(urf DJ) missed citing some personal reasons.

Our agenda :to visit shivanasamudra, Talakadu and somnathpura.
Reddy and Othla were successful(as usual) to cover this event with all possible hype, thanks to them for those cute SMSes.

We had booked a hitech Qualis(thanks to assid anna), it arrived at Mysore Circle at 7:45 due to some schedule slippage by Kaddi and Buss.
Not much I think, considering that our grup had 8. Except Assid and Nakli all were in the planned dress code(white T-Shirt and blue jeans)
We(our driver) decided to go via Kanapura despite we warning him that the road on that route was not good.We stopped at Kanakapura for breakfast and some shopping.
Our first major stop at ShivanaSamudra, water at the falls was bit less, but the view was good. The falls must be looking damn good when the water is full.
Spent some time there and started for Bharachukki falls abt 2 kms from Gaganachukki.Bharachukki falls was cool with lots of trees and a great view.
We reached the base of one of the falls for playing in the water, the force of the water was high, water sprinkling from the surrounding stones. Our guys(small kids shall I say?) were delighted to see the Rainbows.
We had a good lunch(chapattis-thanks to me and Puliyogore and curd rice-thanks to assid).We climbed back to our qualis and after some pegs of Tender coconut got into the oven-Our qualis again.
After some debate over the next place, it was decided to go to Somnathpur first, but we changed our plan on the way because of terrible roads and decided to go to Talakadu instead.
Talakadu is a nice place, the place is full of sand.The water in the river(don’t know the name :-D) was bit less.Me, Buss and Late played for some time in the water while others preferred to stick to Badminton and cricket.
The time was made memorable our recalling of some old memorable events from our engineering days.
We then decided to go to Temples in Talakadu, Pathaleshwara temple is about 10 ft below the ground level.
Some excavation was being carried out close to Pathaleshwara temple, the view of the excavation site during the sunset and with moon looking just out of bed was nice one.
The photo session on the sands was very funny.
Amolya programmed his cam to take 6 pics in a succession with 30 secs gap, we were running around giving different poses…..:-) :-).
After cursing the bad roads for another two hours we finally arrived on the fantastic mysore road.Stopped for “dinner in traditional style” at Kamath Upahara.
One more attraction of the night was the historic match between Aus and SA, we were listening to the Live! Commentary by Late’s friend.Qualis was full of shouts after the last boundary by Boucher.

Thus one more memorable day became history….But at SRG history repeats itself………..very fast…………….
Pics coming soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Pakya

A poem in memory of Ms.Love!!

Dedicated to all the girls i am/was in love with :-D

Aaj kal khudse jyada tumhe sochta hoon!!
Kya yahee pyar hain?
Main mudta hoon koi jab tumhe pukarta hain!!!
Kya aey pyar hain?
Suraj mera khilta hain jab tumhe saamne pata hoon
Jab tum ankhonse door hoti ho toh shyam dhal jaati hain
Kya yahee pyar hain?
Jabse tumhe jaana hain meri zindagi mein tumho, tumho bus tumhi ho
Haan aey pyaar hee hai!!!