Date: 27th Jan, 2024.
On the way to Kudremukh:
This travel is bit different from the rest as in I generally travel on my motorcycle however, this time I went with a friend from Bangalore. The trip has been very exhaustive for almost for 4 days with because of the Bangalore traffic.
I started from warangal around 3:30PM by taking bus to Hyderabad. Because of the long weekend it was very difficult to get a sleeper bus however, luckily got one but the guy beside me was a snoring person, so couldn't sleep properly and I had very bumpy ride. Reached Bangalore on 26th morning around 9AM which was already late. I highly suggest people to take trains instead of buses for cheaper and more restful travel.
My friend picked me up from Bangalore in the car and we drove to the Kudremukh homestay around 5:30PM because of the heavy traffic. It would have been better we just took the bus instead of driving again. Anyway the homestay was not that good as we could hear our adjacent folks talking and also bunch of guys were drinking and making loud noise. It is getting very difficult to stay in hiking spots with Indians as they really lack common civic sense to keep things clean and less noisy. Anyway the only good part of bit better food and lying on the bed.
The hike costs around 600Rs for the park fee and another 1000Rs for the guide. Both seems useless however, its better not to book the guide and reach the forest base camp ask for the guide with the larger group as the guide is per group. Also there are some tents where you can rent.
Hike
Kudremukh means horse face, apparently the top section of the trek is like the horse face. The total round trip of the hike is around 20 kms, mostly easy to moderate difficulty level. Going to the peak is mostly uphill and back down is downhill. There are lot of people who are hiking this peak so better reserve the trek couple of days in advance.
Also I would suggest to start the hike around 6AM instead of 8:30AM as some of these homestays are forcing hikers to start late for their own convenience.
There are couple of first things happened in this trip
this is the first hike ever of my friend Ram Gopal (my friend from 10th grade) however, being the first time he has very good pace as he is a fast walker and I am a slow walker.
Tried the Insta360 Go action camera which came out to be decent, here is the reel of it.
first hiking trip on my Decathlon shoes, again worked out decent.
Uphill for us took around 2:30Hrs however coming down came out to be 4Hrs which was. very weird, may be we took lot of rest.
Photos:
Return
We started around 7AM on 28th and driving back to Bangalore is hell again. So much tired of driving and reached around 8PM at the Majestic bus station. And took non sleeper bus back to Hyderabad which again was a very cold journey as the buses dont provide blanket for the non-sleeper buses :(. Took yet another bus from Hyderabad to Warangal and finally took some rest.
Tips:
Here are some of the tips for both travellers and hikers
Use trains as they are better service and peaceful. So one has to plan way in advance.
Majority of the services like hotels etc in India are expensive with little quality so better research much in advance and lay down what you want with the homestays.
Always carry ear buds to block noise from fellow travellers as most of them dont have common sense nor decency to stop making noise even when told. And also eye blinders.
Dont travel around weekends or long weekends if you can do that.