Trekking is one of the adventurous things that I take part in. The word ‘Trekking’ may sound incredible, but it requires more than just making a decision to go trekking. Kumara Parvatha Trek is the most challenging trek in Karnataka. It may not be the highest peak but it is the toughest because of its way to the top.
I don’t recommend this trek if you are a beginner, or have no experience in trekking. We had a few beginner trekkers in the group who have successfully climbed to the top, but the pressure on them was much higher. And climbing something without experiencing it is a waste of time.
It was Friday night, and a group of around 50 people started towards Kumara Parvatha or Pushpagiri. I booked the ticket all alone, considering it a solo trip. I wasn’t knowing any of them at the start but made a lot of friends at the end of the trek.
We reached Kukke subramanya around 6:30 AM Saturday(December 31, 2022). For another hour or two, we refreshed ourselves. We made a group of 7. I met all of them for the first time and knew little about them. But, found people with a like mindset. We started from the base camp around 9:30 AM. But the checkpost in the base camp took 3 hours to finish all the procedures. Usually, it may not be the case but as it was year-end, many people came to the trek and the forest officers were taking time to check the bags of each individual. You are not allowed to carry any plastic material to the top, if you want to carry it, it will be counted and kept a record of. While returning you need to have the same number of plastics with you else you will be fined.
One thing you need to appreciate is, throughout the trek, we didn’t find any plastic. This type of checking and fines must be implemented in all places. So that, we can keep our natural resources clean.
We started to trek at 12:30 PM. Our first halt was Bhattaru mane. Which is around 4 to 5 km from the base camp. It looks simple, but, believe me, the 4/5 km feels like 10 km on a straight road. We need more energy to go uphill than on a straight road. We had lunch together near a waterfall. The water in the mountains is so fresh and cold. It is the only source that makes us not carry a large amount of stored water from the base camp, you don’t get a continuous water supply, but you do get in between.
We reached Bhattaru mane around 5:00 PM and had a great view of sunset around 6:30 PM. Then later around 7:30 PM, we had dinner, frankly, it was so crowded that we could not eat properly. But, this chaos is something we need to experience while traveling. If everything goes as planned then there is no fun. After dinner, we slept in the tents that were allotted to us. The tents were far better than the bus we came in. Not long, we woke up around 2:30 AM to brush our teeth and freshen up.
There were millions of stars in the sky. It was the new year, and on the first day itself, we woke up at 2:30 AM. We started towards the top around 4:30 AM. I know it’s too early, but you won’t be able to climb the mountain after the sun reaches the horizon as you get drained up quickly. So, it’s better to start early before the sunrise.
Soon, I and Pavan went ahead of the entire team and reached the Shesha Parvatha which comes before Kumara Parvatha. I was so hungry that I couldn’t climb even Shesha Parvatha without Pavan. Because going alone will drain your mental energy. But somehow we both climbed to the top of Shesha Parvatha. There a person named Kumesh gave us chikkis made of groundnut and jaggery which gave me the energy to move ahead. Without him, we would be starving as all our eatables were with our friends who were a lot behind us.
Somehow we climbed to the top of Kumara Parvatha around 8:00 AM. So it took us nearly three and a half hours to reach our destination. Soon we both started descending and reached our tents around 11:00 AM. It took nearly 3 hours to reach our tents and 6:00 PM to the base camp. To keep it short, we had our dinner and left for Bangalore around 10:00 PM.
It was one of the toughest treks. It is not easy to make a decision and complete it. At last we made it. On Jan 1, 2023, we were at the top of the mountain experiencing the rarest views on this planet. On the way to the top, we have experienced a lot of things that will definitely help in one or the other way in our day-to-day life.