Kumaraparvata- an eventful trek (KP-1)

“Mountains make me believe that nothing can be bigger than nature, not even human ego.”

― Jay Kumar Singh

Our experiences with Kodachadri (May 2007, http://balutreks-balachandra.blogspot.com/2011/05/memorable-trek-to-kodachadri.html) and Mullayyanagiri (May 2008, http://balutreks-balachandra.blogspot.com/2013/09/mullayyanagiri-tallest-peak-in-karnataka.html) made us feel like we are professional trekkers and we wanted something bigger now.

We decided to trek Kumara parvata, the mother of all treks. First choice of date was May 2009, but eventually we planned to go during the weekend of November 7th and 8th, 2009. After going through internet for information, we came up with a plan. According to that, we booked train tickets to Subramanya Road from Bangalore for 6th November, Friday evening.

For those who are not familiar, Kumara Parvata is a part of Western Ghats situated at the border of Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts Shimoga districts, between the famous pilgrimage Kukke Subramanya and Somavarapet. The peak is about 1712 meters high and arguably the most popular as well as most strenuous trekking spot in Karnataka.


Twelve of us (Sheshagiri, Vinay, Samit, Vishwas, Naveen, Rajkumar, Manish, Manikanth, Sandesh, Vijaykamal, Sandeep (Jubilant) and I) trekked Kumara Parvata on that weekend. 

At Kukke Subramanya

Start of the trek

Posing happily

Break time

Naveen and Raju were very enthusiastic and found a place that provided nice large tents that were light, at the same time could hold four people. We reached Subramanya road station by train and reached the town by jeep. We freshened up at a hotel outside the town, had typical Dakshina kannada breakfast ‘kalthappa’ a thick rice cake that was filling. Then we reached the starting point near forest office and started our trek at 8 am. It was nice and cool, and there were not many leeches. But in about an hour time, one of us had issues moving forward and we lost good two hours deciding whether to go forward or not.

Anti poaching camp, Giri gadde

After several hours of strenuous trek that had become tougher with the luggage we had, we reached Bhatra mane (Bhat’s house) at Giri gadde by 12 pm. Bhatra mane is a quintessential thing in Kumraparvata trek. This person is doing a yeoman service to the thousands of KP trekkers by providing food and shelter when they need it most. Bhatru is a very unique human being. He is a 53 years old man whose family resides in Kukke Subtramanya town. He lives in this house with an old ‘ajji’ and his cattle. Bhatru is highly hospitable and has a great sense of humor. It really requires guts to stay in a place like Giri gadde where you cannot reach by any other means than climbing the hill for 6kms! He has many varieties of fruits and flowers in his farm. 

The lunch at Bhatra mane was one of the best I had tasted ever. Rice, Mangaluru Southekai sambar, herlekai pickle and butter milk constituted the lunch, but the taste was irresistible. He has two sources of cool water that flows from the hills and the taste of the water is heavenly!

Clouds ready to pour!

We proceeded further towards the peak and found a place to rest on the way where we took lots of pictures. We reached the ‘kallu mantapa’ by around 5 pm and it was getting darker already and we could see a huge cloud assembly on the Kumaraparvata peak. We spent some time wondering if we need to go forward, or settle there, and start the trek in the morning again. Somehow, we were losing lot of time in debates during this trek. We then decided to go further and trekked towards shesha parvata, the major hill you get before the main peak, kumara parvata in the pushpagiri hills. As we were on shesha parvata, the clouds burst in such a way that it rained like we had never seen before for about half an hour. We opened one tent and stood in a circular form holding the tent in order to protect us from rain. Few other trekkers who were returning from the peak told us not to venture further as it was slippery. Here we were, caught between a deep desire within us to reach the peak, and a sudden nature’s fury!

Once the rain stopped, we decided to come down to mantapa again so that we can set up our tents. It was really tough reaching the mantapa in the darkness with the help of our torches, taking care not to slip in the wet trail. It was very windy and dark, thus setting up the tents was also tough. We fixed one tent in the mantapa and three others round it, using the stone pillars to secure the tents. The floor, however, was very uneven, and wet. We had carried some rice from bhatra mane in aluminum foils, to which we added gojju that Raju had brought, and made yummy chitranna. Three of us stayed in each tent, but couldn’t sleep the whole night as it was raining and windy, thus giving the impression that the tents were not secure! In fact, some other people who had tented in a bit lower level near the water source lost their tent as it uprooted and took off like a kite! 

Tent in a wet, wild weather

The night was nightmarish and we were just hoping to escape unhurt. In the morning, we packed up and slowly descended to bhatra mane, freshened up, had sumptuous and delicious uppittu, filled up the water bottles with the lovely spring water and started descending. As it had rained the previous night, the path was wet and several leeches had appeared. We got quite a few bites, but it was not all that bad. We reached the forest office at the base in 2-3 hours time in three groups depending on the pace of the trekkers, went to the temple, and roamed around the town. Evening, those who had liking for sea food got to try lovely bangude and bootai, in a decent enough place. We then caught the jeep to Subramanya road station and returned to Bangalore by train.

Bhatra mane, a blessing for KP trekkers

The team with 'Bhatru'

In front of Kukke Subramanya temple

It was a really a memorable trek, something like we had never done before in terms of difficulty as well as beauty of nature. We were so close to the peak, but couldn’t make it to the top due to extreme nature’s fury, and consider ourselves lucky to have returned safely. But Kumaraparvata has this enchantment that I am sure it will make us go there again and summit the peak.