Kumara Parvata Trek - The Descent

We spent two hours at the peak. Both of us meditated for about forty minutes and attained a degree of tranquility. Later we lunched on the packets of pre-cooked pongal packets of MTR FOOD PRODUCTS. We quenched our thirsts with swigs of buttermilk. Later we headed to the Echo Point – a place where the echo is heard after roughly three seconds. I called out to Bhagya (my wife!) and heard someone calling out to her too!(got to be careful!) Later we set about for the search of Kumara Linga and were lucky to find two of them.

We took a few more photographs of the Shiva Linga and at 1:30 p.m. we decided to begin our descent on our way back to Girigadde.

I was aware that there would be tremendous pressure on the ankles, knees, calf and thigh muscles as I had the prior experience in the Himalayas. But here I was fatigued beyond my calculations as perhaps the slopes are steeper and further, the path is strewn with cobbles and rubbles. Quite often the scree on the hill slopes makes the descent quite perilous. I had to descend very slowly taking great care as to where I place my feet. Ascending the slope is tiring in one way – we run out of breath, but descending the slopes puts tremendous strain on the entire legs. I slipped quite frequently and fell down and landed on by bottom once.

The Forest Guard and his assistant had joined us some time back (they had ascended to clean the muck left behind by the trekkers) and greatly assisted me in the descent. Descending the Sesha Parvata and Batta Rasi peaks were quite exhausting to me. Perhaps youngsters who are much surer of their feet wouldn’t feel as much fatigued. Luckily we had kept diluting the buttermilk at the various sources of water that we had encountered both while ascending and descending. The diluted buttermilk refreshed me more than what plain water did. The reserves of buttermilk and water just ran out as we reached Girigadde at precisely 6:15 p.m.

Thrilled to see Bhattara Mane on our return from Kumara Parvata
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The trek of about 10 km (5 km each way) from Girigadde to Kumara Parvata and back had taken us exactly 12 hours. We were truly glad to see Bhattara Mane from above, and on entering it, I felt that one main objective was attained.