Adventure amidst the woods -Kumar Parvat

Recently I moved to Bangalore, Life in metro is just all about long working hours fulfilling office commitments, sleeping in cabs for power nap, unexpected traffic and so on. Whenever I opened social media like Facebook, Instagram etc.,   I could see people hanging out and trekking through all the nearby places in Bangalore and since I was new to Bangalore city, I was very excited about trekking unlike my friends:)

Finally on one fine day… I decided to go on a trek, but did not know where to go and how to go. Later, my friend Gururaj who is a part of Trekking organization i.e. Charna group suggested to go to Kumar Parvat. At first, I was sceptical about this trekking adventure as I had never done it before.

I was in dilemma whether to go to Kumar Parvat or not because it was my first solo trekking trip. Most of my friends suggested not to experiment with difficult level trek for the first trekking itself.But I did not have any other option and hence I decided to go.

We were 28 trekkers together in this beautiful journey on 24^th&25^thof Nov 2018. In fact, when I boarded the bus or journey started we all were strangers to each other.

We reached Kukke at 8am and started around 9am from the starting point which was behind Kukke Subrahmanya temple.After 2.5kms of trekking through the dense forest,we reached our first water point (small water fall) and we couldn’t wait for a second to get drenched in the waterfall. It was so relaxing and fresh making our bodies alive after a long-It was very beautiful.We rested there for a while and restarted. Finally, we found the zig-zag trail which basically indicates the end of the forest. It was indeed  worth  my pain to climb up and see the view and sunset!

              

It was a very supportive team. All the tents, Food, Energy drinks and Fruits were provided by them.The food was nice throughout the trip, thanks to our cook! The journey was full of surprises and amazing scenes.It was truly refreshing to see the expanse of green grass, coniferous trees whose fresh air purified my lungs. Also, the trek made me use all my muscles in grasping,holding and balancing to steadily make my way through the foliage, slush and thorny shrubs.Climbing continuously for nearly 5 hours we reached the top of the mountain which of course was a flat plateau and then we reached Battara Mane.Our tents were put near the forest check post and  it will be a challenge  for a first timer as it will test our physical and mental fortitude. Yet, the beautiful sunset makes you forget everything for a while. Later in the evening we had a yummy dinner and slept in tents.

Stage-2 trek  was easy and not much to ascend. We took 1.5-2.5 hours to reach Kallu mantap,a place for break. After this break, it was the most difficult part of the whole trek but our trek guide Kiran and Dikshith motivated me to reach the peak point. I felt tired after every 10 steps Yet, our guide Kiran, Srikanth and the fellow trekkers i.e Ravi, Pavan,Sunny,Sunil,Manoj,Vijay, motivated me by taking 1000+ selfie s Jthey were very helpful and they understood my pain.They waited for me and supported me in the complete trek.It’s only because of steepness of the trail.You will gain lot of altitude during this stage.

The most exciting one was SHESHA PARVATHA,relatively easy trek trail if you compare with previous stage. You will descend bit and trek trail goes inside forest.You will find water stream inside this forest...Feels amazing.It was a beautiful experience for me. Finally reached KP peak point with awesome winning feeling.

While coming back It was already Evening. We started descending from battara mane at 5 pm without any break,we tried to cover maximum distance till it was dark ,then we used our torch to find the routes since it was confusing and scared or getting missed out in the mid of forest. All of sudden it started raining,Thanks to Pavan and Shrikanth for helping me but trekking was very difficult and few were fun :) :). Finally reached base point at 8pm completely drenched in the rain. I had the most memorable days of my life in this trek.Trekked in the Scorching sun, fog, rain and at night as well.

No mobile network and no professional life.Moreover realized that I can survive without mobile network and internet for more than 24 hrs. It was only about survival and to focus on what is exactly required in life...we often make our life complicated by thinking about things which actually doesn't matter at all .I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to. I wish I could say that the feeling lasts forever, but it fades pretty quick once you are back to this civilization.This is certainly an enthralling experience. I applaud the team for their vision in making us feel like we are part of a family and make it more of a community than a group of strangers.