Objective: Set foot upon the Peak
Agents : Vinod, Imran, Rama and yours truly
Strategy: Climb from Kukke, Reach Peak and get down to Girigadde the same evening.
Attempt: second time for me after an unsuccessful attempt last December.
Okay. Now that the plan is chalked out and we are all set, let’s begin the journey which turned out to be an affair to remember! It was a sudden plan and we were off to Kukke on Friday night. It was an uneventful ride until we were somewhere around Gundiya Check post after which the ride was pretty bumpy and by 6.30 in the morning we were at Kukke. Last time I saw this place, we reached around the same time and I found Kukke to be a sleepy little town. However the town was teeming with activity this morning. After freshening up at the public restrooms and having breakfast, off we go by 7.30. Oh, but before I start I wanted to check my weight and so I did! Wait and watch to know by how much it came down.
We hit the trail by 8 AM. This being monsoon season, we were apprehensive about the leech infested first 5 kms of the trek. Salt, tobacco, pain relief sprays (more for leeches than pain ;) ) were duly packed. Well as expected, there were lots of leeches but constant vigilance and the salt/spray worked like a charm. It was not as tiring as the last time partly due to the pleasant weather and partly maybe due to my trekking experience since then.2 hours of trekking takes you above the forest canopy and it is now that one can get a good view of all the mountain range surrounding and the clouds if lucky! A couple of shots and an hour later we reached Bhattaru Mane. We had lunch at 11 and by 12 we started to reach the peak and return back to Bhatta’s place.
