Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Trek to Kuduremukh Peak

Date: 15-12-2013

It was my dream to stand on the top of Kuduremukh and see Ujire, because when I was studying in SDM, Ujire, we used to see the Kuderemukh peak almost daily. So I was planning to go to the peak since my days at Ujire, but dream was dream till december, 2013.
View of Kuduremukh Peak from Belthangady
As usual I advertised with my friends and relatives those who are interested in trekking. Finally, everybody turned towards trekking after repeated advertise. Also, I finalized the date i.e. on 20th Dec. 2014. Prepared the list of trekkers and it was almost equal to 20 and I was very happy. Just before one week for the trek, everybody started searching for the reasons to skip the trek, still I was in a hope that all will join at the end. With this illusion I called Satish Mallodi, who provides accommodation at the base camp. Actually, the peak is under National Park, so it is not allowed to stay inside the forest region.

We started with preparation of listing the things to take and sharing the responsibilities. One of us took the responsibility of  purchasing the fruits, as he is from Mysore, who was about start 2 days before the trek, he wanted clear picture of number of participants, so repeatedly used call and confirm the number. I was telling that the number will cross 15, so he calculated and bought 20Kg of orange. He took packed it nicely and came to Manipal. As he left from Mysore, the number dropped 5, now the comedy part is 20Kg of orange!!!!!!!

Finally, the day of trek came, i.e. Saturday 14th Dec. 2014. We five started from manipal, took long way reach Balugallu i.e. located in between SK Boarder and Samse. Here, we have to park our vehicles, because only jeep can go in Balugallu to Mallodi Road.

Balugallu - Mallodi Road
We reached Satish's at around 7:00PM, there was a team of 30-40 trekkers. So we could not get space in his and arranged a tent for us.

There will be rush on base camp on fridays and satudays. It will be cool and calm on Sunday.  We had planned to start trek early in the morning, but we started at 7:00AM Sunday, Dec. 15, 2014. The trek route is not so tough. The total distance base camp to base camp is around 20km.
 This is a small water fall near to base camp.

This is one of the peak in western ghat series, which I took from base camp.

There are two houses, which provides accommodation and guidance for trekking. One is Sathish's house and another one is Rajappa. We stayed at Sathish's house.
 This is the starting point of trekking, initially we felt it is very tough to walk in such path.
I was waiting to see the peak. The first view is really nice one.


This is the first view of series of hills. By seeing this series, we felt like planning to our next trek, but our guide (Sathish's Father) told that trek to those series banned. He told his experiences to those peaks.





This is the first paddy field from base camp, which 15 min walk from Sathish's house.
The Kuduremukh Peak looks like a lizard waiting for it food.






This is our team except me in this photo.



The Lobo's paddy field, now it is part of forest.


Once we cross Lobo's field, we need to cross a small hill which is little bit steep.











This is our route, we started from the valley and reached the base of Kuduremukh Peak. From here, it is very steep and will take atleast 45 min to cover 500 meters.













Once we reach the back side of the Peak, we will get Church and British Baglow.


Finally, we reached the peak at 12:30 PM, and ran to see the view of Lakhy Dam and also Bhagavati Rain Forest, which is 1km form the Peak.









This is the view of Dam and Mining Area. By seeing this we will feel very bad, it shows how will it be if there is no forest.









We spent around 1 hour and started getting from the peak at 1:40 PM, later had lunch.










We reached base camp (Sathish's House) at 4:40 PM, took rest for some time. The jeep we hired was waiting for us, we got into jeep and reached Balugallu at 6:30 PM.
This is Sathish's House.
Mr. Sathish is chatting with us (red colored shirt).

Sathish's Contact No.: 08263249595, 9481074530, 8722847688