My Journal

Herez the Famous" Girigaddhe Bhattaru "whoz living in this part of the hills for the past 32 years !!! He has about four huts neatly maintained . Bhattaru owns a 5 acre farm on the hill and has about 10 cows to manage his daily living. His Brother owns a hotel in Kukke.We reached Bhattara mane at around 9.30 - 9.45 totally tired.. I knew the job was just half done. Bhattaru fed us with Rice and Rasam with lovely Mango Pickles which bought us some energy to think about whats next ??We enquired with him and got to know that we can try and reach Kallu Mantapa ( Stone Mantapam ) which is about 2 1/2 hrs hike from Bhattara mane.. We set out at 2 pm with the determination to conquer the peak. It was a hotttt Saturday afternoon and the sun was scrotching right upon our heads.. The tent gear along with our usual belongings was weighing about 20 kgs.. We were warned by Bhattaru about King Cobras on the way and the only water point near Kallu Mantapa. We were getting dehydrated in the burning sun and the water we had carried from Bhattara mane was close to empty and still there were no signs of any such mantapa.. The last thing we were not expecting to happen was GETTING LOST !!!

I reached the Kallu Mantaapa by about 4.25 pm and waited for others to come.. I could not find the water source near the mantapa.. I was left with half litre of water with my heavy Luggage and Tent package under burning sun. I waited for 15 mins there before three of my partners came to me and there was no sign of other two.

We were confused what to do next ?? Wait for the other two to come or abandon the expedition and go in search of them .. We were sure that they had a tent pack to secure themselves that night but we were really not sure if they had any food with them.. We hoped for the best and continued our journey to the summit as we had to reach there before dark which was about 2 hrs away. The sun was literally taking out all the energy left and silently we hiked towards the sidda Parvata through the dry paddy fields ,before we lose out any more stamina.

We managed to cross the Bhattada Rashi ( Dry Paddy Fields ) and passed the Sidda Parvata after which we had almost lost all hopes of reaching the summit where we saw a thick jungle ahead of us.. And the time was not waiting for us.. we dint talk to each other and looked around to find a place to camp when we saw 3 hikers climbing the cliff at a km away.. we decided to push a bit harder so we may have some company and entered the Jungle. We felt a bit of life in us as we passed through lush green filled canopy with fresh air to breath. It was not really difficult to clear the jungle though it had steep cliffs about 2000 ft on our way which was really risky and dangerous too!

we cleared the forest and then we were forced to leave a gush of breath where we hit a 70 Deg altitude rock which was about 30 ft .. we never knew where we were heading.. It was almost dark. I decided to check on whats beyond that rock.. and climed on. soon all the three were on their way.. I climbed the rock and halted without much hope of seeing the summit..
It was then my friend Anil chandra moved ahead about 300 mtrs and told " GUYS THIS IS IT ... WE'VE DONE IT !!! " It was hard for me to believe and followed him and there was a dead End .. Few other people were there who had made it to the top the previous day.
We confirmed that we were on the Summit of Kumara Parvata and slowly ungeared ourself ...
Shivu Started the Celebration noise and was soon accompanied by everyone :) .. We had a feeling of conquering the Mt.Everest ... We had made it.. It was a fabuous view everywhere from the top! Everlasting strech of Western Ghats on all four sides till the horizon! Mountains and nothing else !!! One sentence came into my mind immedietely " Who said World is a Small Place ??? !!! :) "

Before it got too dark , we were quick enough to pitch the tent and collect some firewood to sustain the Chilly night Ahead. The night was really cold , less than 5 deg we must say! The tent provided us some shelter though none of us were really prepared to face that climate.. I saw a clear sky above us as all clouds were sailing below us !! Myself and Anil enjoyed the Skywatch and the shooting stars for sometime before wrapping ourselves in..
The tent could not withstand the windstorm somewhere during the midnight and took off! We had to struggle to fix it again in the tough situations.. somehow we were successful in passing the night !

The Next day morning, we could hardly see anything !! Fully covered by Fog, A small peice of wood helped us to feel a little better and soon without wasting any time, we set out in search of our missed two partners.. we shared two slices of left out bread at 6.30 Am on sunday morning.
We thought they would have made it till the Mantapa and would have camped there.. If the luck is on their side, they would have managed some food somehow ! we were really worried..
We struggled a bit to find the way as the way was steep and with very litle visibility

I thought for a while and decided to move on hoping that the fog would clear off after sometime and I was guaranteed about 10 Mtrs of Visibility around. We were very careful during this part of journey ! Moving through the jungle we could witness the marvelous beauty of nature which had cheated us while going up ! we captured lots of breath taking views on the way. We came across a couple of young adventurists going up after spending the night at Kallu mantapa. I enquired with them about our partners.. but got a negative reply.. They were no where to be found near Mantapa. I rushed to the mantapa and found no trace of our men. Our next hope was Bhattara mane ! As I prepared to leave towards Bhattara Mane, I turned back once and had a look at Kumara Parvata ( Pushpagiri ) where we had camped that night . It looked almost impossible for us .. With a smile of success on our faces, We moved on ! Mt KP looked like this !!!