Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Kudremukha

Imagine sitting in a cubicle, writing crappy code and dreaming of a place. Jainism, Tulunad, jungle, mountains, camping, treks, animal acoustics, bats, leech bites! The weekend was well spent in the Kudremukha National Forest.

Spider's web, Bhagavathi.
Kuringal trail.
Atop Kuringal Gudda
lots of colors in Kudremukha
shola vegetation
state highway
Gomateshwara, Karkala
Gomateshwara, Karkala
Itinerary:

1. Bus to Karkala and thence to Kadari village.
2. Left Kadari in the afternoon. Checked out a falls on the way.
3. Reached Kudremukha village in the evening to buy provisions.
4. Camped at Bhagavati Nature Camp.
5. Sunday, hiked the Kuringal trail. 12 kms round trip with the peak at 1753 meters.
6. Gomateshwara temple in Karkala before heading home.

9 comments:

FlyingHigh said...

Nice. 12km trek...impressive!

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

hehe! but this is probably the easiest trek I have done. its just flat ground with a climb at the end.

there are, i think 13 trails in Kudremukha. i wud like to do them all. esp. the Kudremukha peak.

Madhu said...

Nice pics and why don't you buy a good Digital SLR?

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

OMG!! This is highly insulting! My photography sucks that bad, huh?

These were indeed shot with a DSLR :) Canon XTi Rebel.

In defence, I have the default 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens which struggles at dim light. And almost all my trips in the recent past have been under cloudy conditions.

Anyway, I have already selected Canon 50mm f/1.8 Prime lens for my next buy. And once my photography improves, I'll probably go for a wide-angle in the 10-28mm range and telephoto in the 70-300mm range.

Madhu said...

My dad is an avid photographer and he has an Olympus SLR. Last year, I got him a Nikon D80 digital SLR and its amazing. And don't forget a light-weight tripod too. My next trip would be sometime in August. Let me if you can wait that long for it.

You really don't need a telephoto lens unless you want to be a photo journalist. I'm sure it might help to burn your 'thoppai' during hikes :-)

Vijay said...

The pictures are nice...How high is the highest point in this range?

Vijay said...

I mean, is 1753 the highest point? Also did you see the peak which is shaped like a horse's nose...I am guessing there should have been one?

Balaji Chitra Ganesan said...

the Kudremukha peak is about 1850 meters. and, no i couldn't see the peak. couple of friends took us everywhere. even they didn't know the place from where the shape would be visible.

altered egos said...

you know we lost the memory card on the way back :(
send me a link to the pictures. And you are right it was indeed an easy trek specially since most of the road was being laid! also the forest patches that we trekked through were mostly boring mono dominant patches. try Kudremukha next time. BTW if you want to see the real beauty of evergreen forest you must go silent valley in kerala and Varagiliar in TN