KP

Brimming with confidence, as our last expedition was a grand success (see scaling skandagiri), we turned our feet towards Kumara Parvata(KP).KP is situated near Kukke, Dakshin Kannada. We had somehow timed the trip to coincide with the heaviest rains to hit Karnataka in 25 years. So, the rains became our companion (not very much liked though) for the rest of the trek.
Seven of us, i.e, Sushanth, Yograj, Shivprasad, Rachith, Nikhil, Vijay and me reached Kukke by bus while Vaibhav came via train. We visited the temple and started our trek. Ten minutes into the climb, we got our first taste of the leeches (in truth, the other way around). This led to a lot of delay during the initial climb, as we tried to get rid of them. It started raining, which along with the humidity, made us sweat.
We reached our first destination, Bhatt's house, which was some 6 kms from the base, after two and a half hours of strenous climbing. After all that rain, the warmth of the house felt like godsend. We also discovered to our horror that all our clothes were soaked. This made us spend the evening trying to dry them, the rains did not help either. Cramps paid a visit too and left Vijay and Nikhil in pain. This left us debating whether to proceed further. Finally, we decided to not to decide anything till the next day. Dinner felt like manna from heaven, and we devoured the food like a pack of wolves. There was very limited cellular connectivity, which caused some concern among our friends in Bangalore. We hit the bed (floor) by 10.
When we woke up the next morning, the rain had lessened to a drizzle and we decided to attempt the next part of the climb. We left our luggage and started climbing a lot quicker. We then convinced the guards at the checkpoint to let us in (money helped). The rain started to pour and with most of the climb being on grassland, we were soaked to the bone and also started shivering. We braved the weather, and reached the next checkpoint (mantap) in an hour. From there on, it was more of the same till we reached the forest patch which seperated us from the summit. This patch was slippery due to the rain and it took a lot out of us to cross it. We were hoping that the climb to the summit would be easier. It was not to be, as the rains had turned the path into a roaring waterfall. Our attempts to find an alternate path were hampered by the mist. So we had to turn back, after being very close to the summit.
Hunger, fatigue and grumbling were our companions during the descent. We had lunch in Bhatt's house and continued to descend. We got seperated into 3 groups but managed to get down unharmed. Vaibhav had a leech attached to his belly button,though.
We returned to the town by Five p.m, changed into whatever dry clothes we had, or could buy, stuffed ourselves at the nearest restaurant and booked tickets for the journey back home. While waiting for the bus, Rachith did something, of which, we all will have very fond memories of. The journey itself was a tiresome one, with roads, radio and crying children all keeping me awake.
It was a different kind of a trip, and I hope to have some normal ones soon.