Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Misty Mountain Humps
After the last trek from "masanagudi to ooty" which turned out to be more of a pleasure trip, my expectations were low. Little did i know of the (mis)adventure that laid ahead.
Day1:
# Car ride to chikamagalur + a small accident in which 2 villagers had a narrow espace from fatal collision + small amount damage to nili's new car/repair and we make it to chikmagalur
# Bus ride from chikmagalur to mulliangiri base
# Hike - end of day1
Day2:
# Descent from mulliangiri
# bus ride to bababudanagiri
# (exploratory) trek to kemmangundi
# pit stop @ old fort - end of day2
Day3:
# Continue finding a way to kemmangundi
# Short trek in the woods in the valley
# In Kemmangundi by 10.30am
# Drive back to blore (no accidents this time and @ 7pm food after 30+ hours)
Details:
So this was one of the best treks (the trek from baba to kemman i mean. Nothing exicing about mulliangiri trek, it was the 2nd time we did it. It was kind of a warm before the real stuff began) i have done. why?
Wide open spaces: The only place where any kind of vegetation, other than grass can be found here is in the valleys, nothing grows on these mountains. So you could look arround for miles and miles and all you see is miles and miles of F***in mountains - nothing to block your view. Forest and wooded mountains can sometime be confining too. If the whole idea of get aways is to escapce the confines chikmagalur, with its vast grass covered mountains is the place to be. It is the kind of place an ameteur like me can do exploratory trek, coz its very difficult to get lost here, as long as the valleys are avoided and easy to find your way arround even if you do.
Easy on your feet: The terrain, though mountainous was almost flat. We were in the mountains at an altitude of 4500+ feet. We did not have to much of climbing/getting down to move from one mountain to another. These mountain ranges join at their peak. So how easy was it? well i could still use the stairs (and not elevators) to reach my office ,the day after the trek - given that it takes a lot of effort to even walk for couple of days after one of our typical trek.
Away from civilization: This was probably the best part. We did not expect these mountains to be totally isolated and we set out on day two with 6 packs of biscuits, chikkis and some choclates and the four of us ended up managing with just that for over a day in these mountains. We could see some light in the distance in the nights but it looked like the nearest village was atleast 15KM away. It felt good to be away from humans (they seem to be there everywhere you go, all arround you. its a scary thing that i have learned to deal with), littering, pollution, man-made sound/noises (even the voices), man-made structures. We even spotted deers here. It was the first time i was wild animals in wild (Well considering bandipur is a sanctuary...)
others:
# The weather was good - the cool breeze nullified the effect of summer sun. It was very cold during nights. No rains.
# Even the slackers in the group maintained good pace (but then that was because there was no climbing to do)
# reminded me of munnar to kodai trek
# On kalahatgiri to kemmangundi trek we lost our way in the valleys covered with thick forest. The fact us its not fun to get lost in forest, even though i have forced myself to look at it that way numerous times we lost our way in forest. You can end up spending a few days finding your way arround in forest before realizing you have been going arround same set of trees again and agian. Well on this trek we ended up on the same path (thats not a coincidence because the destination of both treks was same) and we avoided the valley and stayed on mountains as much as possible and found the correct route to kemmangundi. It was fun to apply the lessons learned and correct the mistakes.
Well hoping to do this one again probably after rains when everything is green and the streams are not dry.
Photos
Day1:
# Car ride to chikamagalur + a small accident in which 2 villagers had a narrow espace from fatal collision + small amount damage to nili's new car/repair and we make it to chikmagalur
# Bus ride from chikmagalur to mulliangiri base
# Hike - end of day1
Day2:
# Descent from mulliangiri
# bus ride to bababudanagiri
# (exploratory) trek to kemmangundi
# pit stop @ old fort - end of day2
Day3:
# Continue finding a way to kemmangundi
# Short trek in the woods in the valley
# In Kemmangundi by 10.30am
# Drive back to blore (no accidents this time and @ 7pm food after 30+ hours)
Details:
So this was one of the best treks (the trek from baba to kemman i mean. Nothing exicing about mulliangiri trek, it was the 2nd time we did it. It was kind of a warm before the real stuff began) i have done. why?
Wide open spaces: The only place where any kind of vegetation, other than grass can be found here is in the valleys, nothing grows on these mountains. So you could look arround for miles and miles and all you see is miles and miles of F***in mountains - nothing to block your view. Forest and wooded mountains can sometime be confining too. If the whole idea of get aways is to escapce the confines chikmagalur, with its vast grass covered mountains is the place to be. It is the kind of place an ameteur like me can do exploratory trek, coz its very difficult to get lost here, as long as the valleys are avoided and easy to find your way arround even if you do.
Easy on your feet: The terrain, though mountainous was almost flat. We were in the mountains at an altitude of 4500+ feet. We did not have to much of climbing/getting down to move from one mountain to another. These mountain ranges join at their peak. So how easy was it? well i could still use the stairs (and not elevators) to reach my office ,the day after the trek - given that it takes a lot of effort to even walk for couple of days after one of our typical trek.
Away from civilization: This was probably the best part. We did not expect these mountains to be totally isolated and we set out on day two with 6 packs of biscuits, chikkis and some choclates and the four of us ended up managing with just that for over a day in these mountains. We could see some light in the distance in the nights but it looked like the nearest village was atleast 15KM away. It felt good to be away from humans (they seem to be there everywhere you go, all arround you. its a scary thing that i have learned to deal with), littering, pollution, man-made sound/noises (even the voices), man-made structures. We even spotted deers here. It was the first time i was wild animals in wild (Well considering bandipur is a sanctuary...)
others:
# The weather was good - the cool breeze nullified the effect of summer sun. It was very cold during nights. No rains.
# Even the slackers in the group maintained good pace (but then that was because there was no climbing to do)
# reminded me of munnar to kodai trek
# On kalahatgiri to kemmangundi trek we lost our way in the valleys covered with thick forest. The fact us its not fun to get lost in forest, even though i have forced myself to look at it that way numerous times we lost our way in forest. You can end up spending a few days finding your way arround in forest before realizing you have been going arround same set of trees again and agian. Well on this trek we ended up on the same path (thats not a coincidence because the destination of both treks was same) and we avoided the valley and stayed on mountains as much as possible and found the correct route to kemmangundi. It was fun to apply the lessons learned and correct the mistakes.
Well hoping to do this one again probably after rains when everything is green and the streams are not dry.
Photos
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