An Ascent to Solitude Part 2 : Mangalore and Sutta Mutta

Starting from where I left off,

We came back to Kukke at around 10am. We headed to the bathed in the Kumara Dhara, the river that flows by the town and R in all religious zeal performed his morning rituals in the river itself.

We visited the temples in the town and having payed our obeisance to the Lord we had a huge discussion as to where we would lunch. R was insistent upon having lunch at the temple itself while the rest of us were not too keen on the idea. In the end R had his way and we begrudgingly followed him in the queue that led to the dining area.

We were later forced to chew our words when we finally entered the dining area. Having lunch the way we did was an experience by itself. The dining area easily seated 500 people. Our meal was a simple one consisting of rice , sambar, paayasam and buttermilk. It was fascinating to watch the caterers handle such big a crowd. Rice was loaded onto small trolleys and served to those seated. This certainly gave me a whole new meaning to the term “Meals on Wheels”. I patted R on the back and told him that this in fact was actually a good idea.

We then caught a bus that took us a part of the way to Mangalore. We were then toying with the idea of hitchhiking on a truck to the coast when we flagged down a bus headed to Mangalore and subsequently boarded it. The drive to Mangalore offers some of the most picturesque scenes ever imagined. Calmly flowing rivers, thick hardwood trees with creepers clinging on to them , they all whizzed past us as we headed towards the coast. Those were some unforgettable scenes.

We were welcomed in Mangalore by the rain and we headed to drop our bags off in the room that S had booked for us. We quickly freshened up and by 8pm ,went to Pabbas, an ice cream parlour to fulfil all our (especially my) craving for some superb ice cream. Rich chocolate, thick syrup and some mouth watering ice creams made our senses oblivious to everthing around us. We went back to our rooms satisfied, but not yet contented with what we had had. We all had a good night’s rest and trooped off to the beach the next morning. Time was well spent on the beach announcing S’ love life on the sands of time, arbitly posing for photos and just plainl looking at the majesty of the rolling ocean. R,K and I built a sand castle fully equipped with a moat and marvelled at our own sense of design, but this was only after we sculpted a true work of art that sadly, cannot be further described in this post.

We then had lunch and spent an hour or so idling. We then proceeded to splurge on some heavenly ice creams, only this time we walked out after eating to our hearts’ content. The train back home was fun, R bought a couple of loaves of bread and K a pack of cards. K taught us the nuances of poker and we didn’t realise time fly by as we involved ourselves in games of hold 'em. R turned out to be a decent chef as he whipped up sandwiches that earned our approval. I for one had a good night’s sleep and woke up when we were an hour from Bangalore. We then resumed from where we left off the previous night and played more poker. At 7am, we looked outside to those familiar concrete platforms that make up the City Railway Station and heaved a collective sigh as a memorable trip finally came to an end.

We were back home.

An Ascent to Solitude

Hello,

It’s been long since I blogged. So here is a double whammy- A two post blog on our trek to Kumara Parvata and trip to Mangalore.

We were well into our holidays (17 days to be precise) and boredom was already setting in; and so we decided to spend some time in doing what has been a tried and tested method of getting it all behind us, we decided to go on a trek. Where better, than to venture into the virgin forests that seem to cloak the Ghats like a green carpet when seen from afar?

We went into overdrive as we entered the planning mode, looking through various blogs, poring over maps, the usual hullabaloo. Tickets were booked, the stay organised, and we were ready to head out.

We left Namma Bengalooru on Saturday night. S woke himself up at 4:30am the next morning and woke us up at 5 am to share his enthusiasm of tunnels with us. It was pitch dark outside and so, no matter what, we weren’t able to say when we entered a tunnel. After a lot of grumbling we reasoned that we might as well stay awake till we reached Subrahmanya Road. We reached there at 6:15am. We rented a jeep to take us to Kukke. S having the honour of sitting in the front never stopped talking about what he felt was the ride of his life.

We were dropped in front of the Subrahmanya temple and after having a light breakfast packed, and praying for a safe return we started off our trek. It was surprising that it hadn’t rained much and that it seemed improbable that we would have any of the torrential rain that the Ghats are so well known for. The backdrop provided by the mountains to the temple spurred us on. We had to walk about a kilometre to reach the base of the mountain. There was a huge signboard giving us information about the “pit-stops” that we could take.

This trek threw us right in the middle of a lush canopy from the beginning itself. The climb was steep right from the start. We trudged along the well beaten but narrow trail wary of snakes that so famously inhabit this area. We were armed with salt and tobacco to battle the leeches that clung to us with every step that we took. We took about an hour and a half to reach Girigadde which was about 3 km from the base. We met a lot of people along the way who were on their way back after having reached the peak the previous day. We rested for a while and then made our way to “Bhattara Mane “ , a house in the middle of nowhere that is a godsend to the people who look to undertake this trek. We needed another hour and a half to make our way there. K and Sh were too tired to carry on and decided to stay back.

R, S and I broke our fast (R and S on packed idlies and I, purely on some delicious, freshly peeled jackfruit) and continued our trek. We had to pay an entry fee of Rs 115 per head at the forest department. Everyone had told us that we would need at least 4 hours to reach the peak. We started from the forest department at 11:30am and set off at a brisk pace. The trek began to become tougher as we got higher. We saw elephant tracks all along the way which sort of quickened our pulse. Most of the path was narrow and along a cliff-like trail. As we trekked the view all around left us speechless. We reached “ Hale Mantapa “ in 2 hours when the weather gods decided it was time to give us what I was expectant of; it began pouring. I was filled with glee and looking around, all we could see was a thick white blanket. Visibility was less than 10ft. That’s when I realised that nothingness itself was a sight to behold. We were running short of time and we didn’t want to risk trekking in the dark as we weren’t prepared for it. We decided that we would trek till 2:30 pm and then head back. As we began our climb from the “Hale Mantapa” the Gods had another treat in store for us. The clouds cleared as fast as it began to rain and the Sun was shining right on us. The colours around us filled us with ecstasy, where the sun shone it was light golden green and in area with rainclouds looming there was dark grey-green look. The gradation of colour was just beautiful.

The trek to the peak is very rocky and is nearly vertical. A lot of care is needed while making this climb because it is really easy to slip in this climb. Sadly for us, time wasn’t on our side and we weren’t able to conquer the peak. Nevertheless it was very satisfying, but there will always be pangs of “If only…” As we rested near the top, I needed a refresher and opened a curd packet and made buttermilk by adding water (and salt and some Glucon-D) much to the amusement of R and S.

We made our way back to “Bhattara Mane” by 6. We had dinner and indulged in more jackfruit. After a nice long game of rummy with our hosts, we went to bed. We woke early the next morning and left for Kukke, the descent took us two and a half hours. Once we were back to base a sense joy enveloped us all. We then we went about executing the remaining part of our plan in visiting the temple and subsequently going to Mangalore.

More on that in the next post.

Till then, Happy Trekking