173) Kabbaldurga trek - Turtle awakening: (11/6/2019)

Place: Kabbaladurga trek

Distance: 100kms x 2 = 200kms

Directions: Bangalore > Bidadi > Channpatna > Kabbaladurga > Kanakpura > Bangalore

Krew: Karthik (Sp)

Bikes: Pulsar                                                                                  

Previous Visit: Bali pass trek

Budget: Rs 360/head

IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:

Alright, after a super Bali pass trek my birthday was around the corner, hence I decided to perform my annual ritual by visiting this hillock and hitting the reset button in my life. But this time lot of small things tried to stop me, but ah yeah pulled it off.

INTRO & PLAN:

Every birthday I have made it a point not to miss visiting this place, so after returning from the Himalayas I was very eager to test my endurance levels. So having continued the physical training I was all set to visit her again and alone as always.

TIME: 22:00 (10/6/2019)

ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:

Yeah I was up at 04:30 heard water flowing on the road. Though it must have rained last night and was about to skip. Then I realised that a water pipe had broke and water was flowing from it.  Then I realised my mind is trying to play games on me trying to pull me back. Hence hit the shutdown button, dusted my bike and took off without brushing my teeth :P

TIME: 06:00

RIDE 1: (Bangalore– Ramngara – Channpatna - Kabbaldurga)

This was a 100km one way ride on Mysore road and country roads. I cruised along at the early hours without much hassle. It had been a while since I visited Mysore road, the road where we began fooling around on bikes. Lot of things had changed, but one thing remained same, me trying to still fool around. Cruising at a decent pace I reached Bidadi, and pulled over our regular hotel for some tasty breakfast.

TIME: 06:30

After some good idly and vada, I checked my phone to see the birthday messages, then hopping onto the saddle took off from Bidadi. Cruising past Ramnagar reached Channpatna. Taking a left turn here, the roads turned pleasant and a sense of calmness flooded the air and the more or less the bike was taking me effortlessly. Reaching the base, I parked my bike near the cow stand and was all set for the hike.

TIME: 07:45

KABBALDURGA TREK:

Well it took me only 45min this time to ascend the hillock. But guess what with zero breaks, then why did it take 45mins? Well after the Bali pass trek one thing I realised and learnt was maintaining a slow steady pace is much better than having outbursts and taking breaks at regular intervals.. As before I have divided the trek into the following sections:

i) Initial stretch

ii) 3 point stretch

iii) Viper stretch

iv) Final Stretch

So ready? Yeah this was a calm yet crazy trek, keep up with me here!

i) Initial stretch:

This trust me is never a straightforward part of the trek. No matter how many times I climb this hillock, I always miss a turn here or there and end up searching for the route. This time it was no different. I Lost my route couple of times, but made it through the initial gateway to reach the challenging stretch.

ii) 3 point stretch:

This was tester, it always gives me a sense of where I stand in terms of stamina, reading the rocks, balancing, ability to stop thinking and much more. So yeah as I began to ascend the rocks, the usual outbursts of energy like before wasn’t there, calmly I was taking step by step, not minding one bit of just chilling in middle of a the steep stretch for a few seconds. So without breaking much sweat I made it past this stretch, felt great!

iii) Viper stretch:

This stretch is something you can really experience when you trek alone or when in a group you shut and climb. This stretch is filled with a good length grass and as you make your way through it, you can always head some animal crawl amidst the grass, yes it was scared the shit out of me first time, then you get used to it. And that feeling is something you have to hold onto it and get comfortable with. Just an incredible feeling.

iv) Final stretch:

The final stretch now consists of steps which is quite draining, but this stretch always reminds me of first time I had ascended the hillock solo back in 2010 – Kabbaladurga trek. But keeping a slow and steady pace making sure my breathing is at normal rate I made it to the top without any tiredness. Guess all the workout for the Bali pass was worth it!

TIME: 08:30

TOP:

As I reached the top, searched for monitor lizard I had spotted once a few years back. But these natural things, when you seek for you shall never find, they have a tendency to appear out of nowhere, well that’s there thing! I visited the main temple on top, paid my respects to the place and headed to the Shiva temple to crash. One of my toe nails was still recovering from the frost-bite. So rested well in the temple for about 30mins and woke up afresh and decided to head back down. It had already started drizzling very lightly.

TIME: 09:15

   

TREK DOWN:

Trek down was again a tester of my knee strength. As I began my descend, I was moving at a descent pace. Then I met the priest of the place, speaking to him for a while moved on to meet a family. They had travelled from Kollegala to visit this place, not bad. They seemed tired so gave off the remaining water and asked if they wanted some chocolates. One aunty felt very happy, so I handed over the bag of around 60-70 chocolates, she took out 5 and gave it to me. I was angry and at the same time wanted to burst into laughter, I smiled and was about to move on when her husband spoke some sense into her and she returned the bag keeping another 10-15. Haha! Reaching back to the base, I played around with a baby bullock as it was thinking I had come to take over the place. Filling up my bottle in the town of Kabblu I took off!

TIME: 10:00

RIDE 2: (Kabbaldurga – Channpatna – Bidadi-Bangalore)

This was 100kms ride back, but took the Kanakpura road this time completing a small good circuit. As the road was being widened lot of construction work and it turned out to be a tiring ride back home. Anyway reaching back home, had a light meal and called back people and thanked them for the birthday wishes drifted into slumber!

TIME: 11:45

CONCLUSION:

" when you go solo treks i realized, the mindset you would require during the climb is something you would require right from the moment you set off. The art of shutting up and executing without much thoughts! haha! :) "

Until next time, Cia \m/

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