A trip to Hullumudi and Korathikallu Bare Mountain

Last weekend YHA-Udupi Unit organized two days trekking expedition all arrangements made by K S Adiga Sir, a well experienced member in our unit so we had no need to worry about anything, He did lot of preparations to run and things to get ready before do expedition and it was a disciplined and well set program by him. A small thirteen member’s team which is full of enthused and well experienced trekkers with mixed of men and women.

The first half of the day was simply we spent for journey by Saturday noon all we joined together at small town in Udupi and we would pick up Rajendra a local village member as guide and then head to his village. After a bumpy ride we ended our Jeep drive in small hamlet where our trek would be starts. It was a small village composed by only a few houses, in the village we would see the village life and we met Rajendr’s family members. We did finally start to hike it around 2PM all thirteen of us were then to hike Hullumudi Mountain.

It had been sunny all the day and we started to hike, but thunder clouds began rolling in, the hike was technically and physically difficult with steep, dry and thick tropical forest terrain hence devoid of harsh sun rays. The whole trek was made tricky, the fact that scarcity of water and most awful humidity. These jungles seemed to be fairly untouched by trekkers. There were also several large fallen trees to pass through.  It would be similar to whole hike for next 3 hours.

The terrain is spectacular with steep ridges covered in thickening forest in all directions.  This however brings me to the word of the day: uphill.  We began to climb, and climb, and climb in total the way was about 6kms of ascent we managed to hold long enough for us to make it to the Hullumudi top so all-in-all not a bad day of hiking though we were exhausted it was worth the effort after 4 hours of nonstop mounting.

We dropped our stuffs off and had some impressive views before it get dark. As we continued hiking to the end of the trail we were heading towards some ominous looking clouds. They offer some nice hiking and a relaxing setting.  Later we collected water from nearest small stream, Pitched tents in a safe place and grabbed some warm tuckers and relaxed for some better than expected food and a warm fire.  As night set in we gathered around the fire and swapped some thrilling ghost stories.

After a camp-fire we went to bed preparing for an early wake-up. I couldn’t  sleep properly on whole night because of some insect bite I suffered whole night from ruthless skin allergy. At one point I couldn’t also breathe  somehow I managed whole stuff absence of sleep.

After a horrible experience at night I woke up at early in the morning it’s an early morning in steamy we were able to catch the sunrise and we were greeted by brilliant colorful skies. We took a group photo and then were on our way for more photography with few expert colleagues. I figured I had to seize the opportunity and head back up the valley to get some pictures before breakfast. In the light we could see the stunning panorama of mountains we had walked down from the day before.

The morning light was sensational and the fine mist gave the morning a special glow.  I headed towards an eastern side valley view and got a good view of the Waterfalls in the light. The light continued to be amazing.  I hiked back up about 10 minutes through mix of Grassland and wild-dates (Eichala) forest the sun cast its stunning rays over the Wild Dates trees and dandelions making for fantastic photos. It was definitely a nice start to the day and really was worth waking up for.

We had special treat as Bisibelebath, made by Adiga Sir as lunch was wrapping up and freshened our souls with special Lemon Tea which done by  Gurudath Sir and we were readying our-self for next destiny point with new spirit. The sun created wonderful light on the diverse Wild-Dates forest flora with mist still fresh in the air somewhat cheerfully we headed from the camp, having to move the migration out of Korathikallu Bare.

We had some stunning views out over the valley we were heading towards southern valley.  We gathered ourselves and enjoyed the views out but acutely aware it was still quite a long way to go. After an hour walk we reached top of the Korathikallu Bare Mountain.

A couple of stunning views back down the valley we were headed to next level and spent on top for while and returned back to base through different route. We packed up and got a ride back to home we hiked down from Hullumudi towards the same downer route. We pressed on down the valley and were rewarded with stunning views of the steep walled canyons and ridges flaking off the sides of the large peaks nearby.

Overall there is no denying the beauty of the Hullumudi.  The grassland forests are incredible, and the rolling hills never seem to end. It made for some incredible scenery with the swirling cloud. The bus ride to home was much less comfortable but across the journey the incredible beauty of Hullumudi was swirling on my mind.