Kumara Parvatha a.k.a Pushpagiri Trek

The Journey:

So, which is the toughest mountain to climb in Karnataka? If you ask any regular trekkers, the answer would be Kumaraparvatha. And we planned a trek finally to go there.

Kumara Parvatha is a mountain located in  Subramanya village of Sullia taluk, Karnataka. It is 290 kms away from Bangalore. The village is known for the Hindu Kukke Subramanya Temple. In spite of being a small village, it is a well-known shrine, and draws large number of devotees throughout the year. The peak is at a height of about 1712m, and is about 13-14 km from the temple. This mountain is on the border between Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts, so the lights of Somwarpet town in Kodagu can be seen from the peak.

Kukke-Subramanya, a small town on the Bangalore - Mangalore national highway about 230 km from Bangalore is the starting point for this trek. This place is well known for a huge temple dedicated to the Snake God. Snakes, especially King Cobras, are abundant in the dense forests covering this region of western ghats.

There is one more route from which you can start the trek. Its from Somwarpet. It is the easiest route to reach the peak directly.

October - January would be the best season to trek KP.

The 7 of us (Me, Shashank, Rohith, Ranjit, Karthik, Karthikeya and Divya) left Bangalore on Friday night in a KSRTC Rajahamsa bus. There are many buses to Kukke Subramanya. But if you want to go there, better book the tickets atleast 3 days before itself since many trekkers go from Bangalore every weekend and it will be hard to get seats.

Day 1:

We reached Kukke Subramanya at around 5 in the morning and took 2 rooms to get freshed up. At around 6.30 we went to the famous temple over there and then had breakfast at the Neo Mysore Cafe situated at the temple street. And with our luggage and a mattress, we started the trek at around 8.30.

In the first stage of this trek, you need to go in a flat road for half a kilometer. Then there is a board and you need to take a left over there to go to KP. So we entered this dense forest at around 8.30, which always looks inclined at 40-50 degrees. Its pretty hard to climb the entire peak in a day. So our plan was to trek till BHATRU MANE, which is 6km from Kukke Subramanya, stay there overnight and then trek to the peak the next day.

Accordingly, we trekked in the forest meeting many fellow trekkers. Some of them gave us Glucose and also Pineapples! The first water source we got was a stream after 2-3 kms. Here you can rest for sometime, play in water (only in rainy season). Since we went in December, water was getting dried up.

 

 From this stream, we continued our trek again. Carrying the luggage and checking for leeches at the same time was tiring. But after trekking continuously, taking breaks every 15 mins, we could finally see the mountains we were about to trek!

The twin peaks, Marigundi and Shesha Parvatha were looking beautiful. We came to know that after crossing these two peaks, we can reach the Kumara Parvatha. And from this point, Bhatru mane was just 5-10 mins away. It took us around 3-4 hours to reach Bhatru mane, since we rested much and chatted more during the trekking, enjoying it and taking too many snaps. It was around 12.30 by the time we reached Bhatru mane. We had called up before, so the lunch was ready. After lunch we realized the importance of Bhatru mane in the middle of nowhere. If it wasn't there, we'd have to carry our luggage all the time and also we'd have to carry more food and water with us.

Finally we rested there, taking a well deserved nap after lunch till 5. Then we left to the sunset point to see the beautiful sunset. Clicked numerous snaps and sat there itself till 7.30 or so, enjoying the weekend getaway.

By the time we went back to Bhatru mane, the dinner was almost ready. We ate like predators and slept off, planning for the next day. Even if you plan to stay at Bhatru mane, you need to carry mattress, blankets by yourself, since he doesn't provide any of it.

Day 2:

Breakfast will be ready exactly at 7.30 in Bhatru mane. So, we woke up at 6 itself and went again to sunset point once before the breakfast just to see the scenery over there. We could see the clouds below us and knew it was going to be a great day.

. After breakfast, we now had to trek for 7-8 more kms to reach the peak. But we didn't have to carry the luggage this time, thanks to Mr.Bhat! We then came across a forest office, where we had to pay Rs.115 per head as a trekking fee to the Pushpagiri Wild Life Sanctuary. But since it is India, we paid Rs.400 overall for 7 of us, and went on, without the receipt. We then entered the breezy grasslands. Wind was blowing continuously, which made it a pleasant trekking experience.  

After trekking for 2 more kms, we reached the Kallu Mantapa. This is the place where many trekkers camp overnight since it also has a water source nearby.

From here, the route got steeper and steeper. Just follow the arrow marks everywhere in this grassland and you will never get lost.

After trekking for another hour, we reached the twin peaks, Marigundi and Shesha Parvatha. The view from there was breathtaking. We even felt like sitting there itself enjoying the view forever.

From Shesha Parvatha, we had to enter one more forest and trek downhill for sometime. We were enjoying every moment of the trek taking photos of every blade of grass we came across. Then we had to go uphill once again to reach Kumara Parvatha. The best part being there were no leeches in this forest. We came across a very small stream which was all dried up since it was already December.

People usually camp overnight in this forest also since it has a water source. But people. if you plan to camp over there, please throw the plastic bottles and all other wastes only in the dustbins. Else carry it back with you. Don't spoil the beauty of the nature.

Finally, after 3.5 hours of trekking and resting, we reached the peak at around 11.45. Make sure to carry enough water and food with you, since nothing will be available after Bhatru mane. We spent some time at the peak exploring it, taking snaps and finishing off the biscuit packets.

We then started the downhill trek at around 12.15, at a faster pace and rarely resting. It took us around 2- 2.5 hours to go back till Bhatru mane and had a timely lunch, again thanks to Mr.Bhat! We finally packed up all our bags and started to trek towards Kukke Subramanya. We trekked down the 6 kms from Bhatru mane to Kukke Subramanya in 2 hours.

Our bus was at 8.45. So we then went to the Kumara Krupa hotel and had dinner. What we felt was, Kumara Krupa was the best hotel in Kukke Subramanya. We then got into the bus and reached Bangalore at 4.30 in the morning, all tired!

Some more snaps from the trip :

Guidelines :

- If you want to go trekking to Kumara Parvatha and camp on the peak, trekking from Somwarpet would be the nearer and easier route. The distance is only 6-7 kms from there to the peak.

- However, if you want to trek in the toughest route and want to cherish it, trek from Kukke Subramanya.

- There're frequent buses to Kukke Subramanya from the major cities. So transportation is not a problem.

- There will be leeches, snakes and mosquitos in the forests. So come prepared.

- Carry a 2 ltr water bottle with you, per head since water sources are pretty less and all gets dried up after November.

- If you want to have food or to stay at Bhatru mane, you can do so by calling him in advance. His phone numbers are +919448647947 and +919480230191.

- The major camping sites are, The Kallu Mantapa, The forest after Shesha Parvatha and The Kumara Parvatha Peak.

- Follow the arrow marks everywhere not to get lost.

Routes :

Bangalore - Kukke Subramanya - Bhatru Mane - Sunset Point - Forest Office - Kallu Mantapa - Shesha Parvatha - Kumara Parvatha.

Final Review :

Kumara Parvatha is also known as Pushpagiri, is a home for snakes and scenic beauty. This is supposed to be the toughest trek in Karnataka. Those who don't like to trek also will get transformed, once they successfully trek this one. And this peak must be trekked atleast once in your life, which is far from pollution and full of greenery.