Kudremukh

What?: Kudremukh is a peak in the Western Ghats. The peak, when seen from one direction, resembles a horse's face. Hence the name.

Where?: Kudremukh peak is close to Kudremukh township. The route is Bangalore - Hassan - Belur - Mudigere - Kottigehara - Kalasa - Kudremukh. The approx. distance is 375 kms.

When?: 7th - 8th February 2009.

Who?: Subbu, Mahesha, Shenoy, Jagga, Sand, Tej, Tough Bala, Ramya, Shilpa and yours truly!

Why?: Is that a trick question?

The trek was originally intended to be an IISc affair. Some 8-10 people from IISc were planning it and me and Subbu were to just tag along. But how we tookover! Jitha broke his leg (again) and had to drop out. So did a few others from IISc. A few more additions/drop outs and we were 10 of us. Hiring a TT, we reached Kudremukh late on Saturday morning, with the driver taking umpteen breaks because of drowsiness. We managed to keep ourselves busy by playing DumbC. The highlight of the morning was the 100 'neer dosas' we had atKottigehara. It has become a custom sort of thing to have neer dosas at Kottigehara.

Day 1:
Reaching Kudremukh at 1100 hours, we obtained permission from the forest department to visit the peak. As camping inside the reserve forest is not allowed, permissions could be given only for one day. As we couldn't have reached the peak and come back on Saturday itself, we obtained permissions for Sunday. Realizing we didn't have much to do that day, we decided to go to Hanumangundi falls. The falls is about 20 kms from Kudremukh township on Moodbidre road. The entry fee is 20 Rupees and is well maintained but "touristy".

HanumangunDi falls

Getting right under the falls, we wallowed in the shallow water for quite some time. Having breakfast at the falls (Rotis and MTR curries), we got back to Kudremukh to start the trek.

Since we weren't reaching the peak on that day, we decided to go half way to the peak and camp at one Rajappa Gowda's place. We took the TT to the starting point of the trek which is about 15 kms from Kudremukh on Kalasa road. (About 3 kms after crossing a check post at Basrikatte, you can see a white coloured bridge on the right side. This is where the trek starts and the place is called Balegal.) Some fat-asses in the group got too lazy and insisted on taking a service jeep to Rajappa Gowda's place. Packing the jeep with the 10of us, we reached Gowda's place which is about 7-8 kms from Balegal. Since we had reached earlier than expected (thanks to the jeep), we decided to go for a walk to catch a good sunset. Although nowhere near any peak, we weren't disappointed.

Kudremukh from a distance...

After a good spicy dinner at Gowda's, we had camp fire going (this time everyone of us had a match box, unlike Ombattugudda :-). Sipping hot tea, we generally had a gala time, indulging in general trash talk :-)

Day 2:
Having had breakfast at Gowda's, we set off towards the peak. The path to the peak from RajeGowda's place is quite well defined and there are three houses you get on the way (landmarks). The first one is the well known 'Lobo House', the second one is pretty close to it (hardly 50 meters) and the third, last one, just before starting the climb. All the three are abandoned houses. (Note: You are not allowed to camp at any of these places)

The famous Lobo house...

Although the place was drier than it was the last time I had been there, it was a nice trek to the top. We also got to see some sambars from a pretty close range.

:-)

Ambling along, we reached the peak at 1400 hours. Such was our pace that another group, consisting of Mallu aunties and uncles wearing sareesand lungis, were faster than us! We were quite ashamed, honestly.

Now, the popular perception is that from the top of Kudremukh, the peak next to it looks like a horse's face. This is not true. To see the horse's face, go to the edge of the next peak (15 minutes walk) and look at Kudremukh from there. If you haven't seen this face of the peak, you haven't seen Kudremukh!

The Kudremukh face from the other side...

Abandoning plans of visiting the nearest waterfall (about 30 minutes from the peak) since we were running late, we had a quick lunch and started back and reached Gowda's place at 1900 hours. Asking the jeep guy to come back to Gowda's place, we reached Balegal, from where we got into our TT. The journey back was made all the more memorable by my stinking socks. The stink was seriously unbearable and I had to throw the socks out! (This supreme sacrifice I made needs to be paid back).

Photos of the trek are here, here, here and here!

Contact details:

Kudremukh RFO: 08263-255998 (the one provided in their website is invalid).

Raje Gowda: 08263-249333(R), 9481179008(M)

Trek charges:

Entry fee: Rs. 40 per head.

Trekking fee: Rs. 75 per head.

Guide fee: Rs. 150 per day, but if you know the route, you need not get aguide.

Thus continues the quest...