It had been a long wait for a trek/trip! I just couldn’t wait to take a break before my Fellowship Program scheduled to begin on the 16th June 2014. It was less that 5 days away and I thought it had to be now!
It did take some serious coaxing for me to get Pangala on board for this bike trip combined with the trek. He had taken a trek along with a few friends a week earlier to Kodachadri and he was evaluating this one! I am so happy he agreed for this one.
I reached Udupi in the morning around 5:30 AM and freshened up, I could see the rain clouds threatening to spoil the whole fun. The sketch for the trek wasn’t really firmed – we were evaluating Kundadri as one of the options. I had heard a bit about the place from one of my cousins – he told it was steep climb to the top and there was a well at there. I didnt collect much information beyond this – I had spotted the board by the side of the road during my earlier trip to Shringeri.
Pangala and me decided to start off the trip on the Pulsar 125 cc bike that was available around 10:30 AM. We decided to take our own time to travel the whole distance – the clouds had just showered and the weather looked great for the drive.
Pangala hadn’t taken the bike on a long drive for over two years and he wondered if there could be any issues that might come along. Letting the worry rest only in our minds, we decided to move on. The journey was something that allowed us to think and discuss a lot about many of things we saw in the distance – the lush green fields, the dense forests, occasional vehicle trying to overtake us, the stream flowing by the side of the road and much more…. It was peaceful enough for us to let our minds just absorb and let out our thoughts, impressions, experience and much more… In fact this is something that look forward in every trek – letting my mind experience the serenity!
We took a couple of breaks on the route to Agumbe. We reached Agumbe around 12:00 noon and thought about the next plan as we sipped the tea in the cool breeze. If we moved towards Kundadri, we possibly would have to skip lunch given that we have no surity of hotels on the route. We instead decided to go to the Shringeri temple were we could have our lunch at the temple before we decided to cover Kundadri on the way back.
An interesting experience; was the struggle that the bike had every time we tried pushing its limits – the climb atop the Agumbe did exhaust the bike and we possibly began relying on the capacity of the bike. May be its how we build our teams all through – we begin with the point of distrust and steadily build the confidence with performance! But, we possibly should learn to trust but expect that there exist a limit for the capacity and we prepare for this.
We reached Shringeri at 1 PM and went right to have our lunch – It was a special lunch (I still recollect the first special dinner at NITK)! Yes – some terminologies picked up early in life doesn’t change right! The new “Gopura” of the temple had been inaugurated a day earlier and it seemed like an optune time for me for us to get the “special” lunch!
We spent another half an hour sitting in the corridor of the temple. The temple dedicated to the Goddess of knowledge – Sharadambe and has a long history. The part I rever about the temple is the constant chants that are so much a part of the ecosystem there. I just can’t describe the peace I feel when in the sanctum of the temple – it is something I would love to just stay with.
We moved back towards Kundadri at 2:30 PM – We could spot the clouds from the west getting denser. These clouds had possibly crossed the tall mountains of the Agumbe range and now looked at getting the remainder of mountains behind the first line drenched. Kundari was in the second line of the hills, and we sensed that the trek to the top would definitely be a climb in the rain.
Traveling 16 Km from Shringeri towards Agumbe we find a board (around 10 Km before Agumbe) indicating that a right turn there would take us to Kundadri. We took the right turn and drove 7 Km along the road to find a right turn. Around 500 meter from this point, we take a left which takes us to the road that could lead us to the top of the hill.
Having already strained our bike, we thought it would be apt to just give it the needed rest at the base of the road leading to the top and begin walking to the top. We still could see some sun when we began the trek upwards – but it wasn’t very long before all that would disappear and we would only have clouds!
The route to the top was possibly 3 Km but our body which was so much out of exercise was indicating that it wasn’t yet ready to take the steep climb. We pushed ourselves steadily before we reached the top – there are many scenic spots we could take detour to and watch the villages and the streams at a distance all around the hill. The chilling wind, the clouds that touched us through, the occasional sun peeps, slight drizzle all made the trek along the road too look extremely exciting.
After a 45 minute climb along the road, we reached the top, were there is a parking space and steps that take us to the Jain temple at the top. The temple is an old one and definitely has some very interesting architecture (Though I dont know much about architecture – it wasnt one of the traiditional styles I had seen of the temples around the area).
At one point in time, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts were major Jain centers and these temple might have played a huge role in the cultural history of the community in the state. The temple has a large well just beside it (I guess this is what my cousin had refereed to earlier).
The Jain temple has 2 idols of possibly the 8th and the 17th Tirthankara outside and Parshwanath Tirthankara inside. The priest of the temple gave us a good brief of the various historic attacks and the excavations of the idols that were thrown into to the well just beside. He says there could be more such idols inside the well – but an excavation of that scale would take a long time.
The hill given its historical significance for the Jains is maintained by the Matha that it is associated to – and so there is a lot of agency issues when it comes to getting to maintaining the road in rainy season when trees fall on the track and the routine route to the top gets disturbed.
We thanked the priest for the detailed explanation and began our trek back to the bike. We were lucky that the drizzle had stopped and we didn’t have much issues till we reached a place called Shivapura – a few kilometers after Hebri.
It as if the rain God had decided it was time to unleash his fury – I don’t remember a single minute when the rains stopped all along our drive from Shivapura to Udupi. We finally reached Udupi around 7 PM – drenched to the core, but still refreshed.
The Kundadri trek would keep me charged for the next few months for sure…
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