Tuesday, August 18, 2009

63rd Independence day celebration at kudremukha peak

The rain and thunderstorm were under cover for a while, few days of dry spell the team gathered and set a new challenge to expedite Kudremukh. A similar kind of monsoon adventure last year in kudremukh had created enough tremor for all of us and this time it looked more exciting with expectation and horizon been set aside and along with an idea of celebrating the 63nd independence at the peak.

A team of 8 members, alphabetically named "Agni akka Yajneshwar", "Basavaraju akka bashya", "Chetan akka chets", "Shaik akka Shaik mai","Vishnu akka bhagvan" "Yeshraj akka yesh","new entry JC", and myself zoomed into a Tempo trax, and left bangalore on Aug 14 night. The roads were pretty bad in shape near ghat stretch and the overnight journey gave us enough bumps with little sleep. We finally reached Samse around 6.00 AM. Agni had already spoken to Satheesh, our guide who had made the necessary arrangement for us in the morning. The tempo trax was parked in mullodi and we all got into a Mahindra Jeep driven by Jagadish a localite in mullodi. The mud road to Mullodi was in a pretty bad shape, the heavy downpour and the soft soil made the jeep drive quite tiring and exhaustive. It took nearly 45 min to cover 6 KM. We reached Satheesh house at 7.30 AM and had a quick introduction with satheesh's family. The slurping of hot jaggery coffee in the cloudy weather, surrounded by lusty greenry and the aroma of the local coffee mesmerized us completely.

We unpacked our bags and freshened up quickly and after having a good breakfast we were all geared up in our local trek suite ( a tee-shirt,trouser, camera, snacks,salt powder and lemon ) and posed for a group photo. We started off at 8.50 AM from satheesh's place. It was cloudy morning, as we looked into the nearby streams the sign of monsoon failure was clearly visible. In monsoon the streams would gush out with roaring sound and would create mild tremors for trekkers crossing them, however this time it was different scenarios altogether.

We reached Onti mara (solitary tree) after trekking for an hour, we took a small break for snacks and photo sessions. The Onti Mara, as the name signifies in kannada is a solitary tree situated on the way to the peak. The calmness and steady breeze from its branches surrounded by lusty greenery provides a positive vibration and soothes one's tiredness. Certainly a place to energize the body on the way to the peak. As we moved further, we were welcomed by the mountain ranges engulfed in the creamy mist. After crossing the streams with very less effort we reached Lobo's house.

A glimpse of Kudremukh peak can be seen from lobos house, the mighty hillock is covered by the creamy mist and hides from the viewer. The solitude mountain is a home for rich vegetation and variety of species. For a surprise we spotted two deers at the peak and agni's newly bought high resolution camera was able to catch it. The treasure of karnataka lies in this region. Through out the trail, the greenery would mesmerizes anyone. Few routes were slippery enough to slide from the top. The leaches were ready for a quick bite on the wet trails. Footmarks of bison, sambar were the common sights.
Blame the monsoon failure, the streams were not worth mentioning. After ascending the cliff, It was worth the effort finally. The weather was good, and the view from the peak was magnificent with soothing breeze. The Mist had started to engulf and team went for a quick break. Then we readied for hoisting the flag. We had few other friends at the peak who had come from bangalore. We Hoisted the flag and sang the national anthem and took the video of the same. Finally it was time for quick photo session, and with tricolor in hand, one by one took their turn to pose for the camera.

It was a moment for me, when holding our national flag at the peak of kudremukh. After photo session, we distributed cakes among ourselves (thanks to vishnu) and celebrated independence day. We started to descend at 3.00 PM, and finally reached satheesh house at 6.45pm. The evening was more darker, we took quick hot water shower and relaxed ourselves. The night was spent with fun filled stories, humors and delicious dinner. Finally, everyone was lost in the deep sleep under the cool breeze of the midnight and soothing lullaby from the nearby streams.