Ah, the joys of cycling!! For some reason this term brings to mind J K Jerome and his ‘Three men on the Bummel.’ But while he took his characters through a ride in Germany, my adventure was rather limited to the Horse-shaped hills in Karnataka.
Kudremukh, anyway you look at it is mesmerizing. High in the verdant Western Ghats in Karnataka surrounded by thick forests and pleasant nature walks that singular cycling trip continues to haunt me.
It had a lot to do with the journey itself. Cycling, though not the best option to visit this place, began from Mangalore, a bustling city on the Arabian coast about 120 km away. I later learnt that Kudremukh had various entry points, being a home for some famous temples secure in the valleys. Not many encouraged my mode of transport, but little did they know that I had no intention of actually cycling all the way!! I pushed my cycle more than I rode it and also sneaked a ride, cycle and all on tractors and lorries! After all, one had to save the energy for better things!
To begin with, cycling was fun. The breeze does help the senses to remain focused although the helmet, (recommended) makes your head hurt a bit. Outside of Mangalore, nearly forty kilometers away (Padubidri) is where you branch off towards Kudremukh. (The other road leading to a temple town named Udupi). The traffic is heavy up to this point and if you intend to cheat on the cycle, here is where you should hitch a ride. I did.
(In fact, just after leaving Mangalore and approaching Panambur, the port area, a tempo-walla kindly allowed my cycle to ride!)
Once you leave Padubidri, it is a lot easy to cycle, though the roads suddenly turn ferocious.
Mother Nature had been partial to this state and this observation becomes more acute as you reach Bajagoli, a roguish town, where I stopped for refreshment. Try the ‘golibaje’ here. The chutney is fabulous! People stare and want to know why you are enquiring about tractors when you have a cycle! But whoever has heard of cycling uphill?
(After all, there is only one thing a person can reasonably do. Enjoy the mountains, rich flora and fauna, abundant mists and waterfalls…and that requires energy!)
A tractor deposited me at a check post and rattled away to Sringeri, another temple town on the left. There is a small tea-stall run by a Malayalee who makes the most amazing tea and serves it with ‘buns’. The ‘buns’ are really not many in number but for some odd reason have been named that way. From hereon towards the mining town of Kudremukh is a mere distance. But enroute there are distractions aplenty.
From here I cycled. Well, there was not much choice.
About eight kilometers from the checkpoint is Hanumnagundi, a waterfall to die for. But to reach there, one must climb down many steps. The forest provides dense cover but it is hot under the thick canopy of trees. Do not walk through the forests, stick to the roughly laid out steps. Avoid this place in the rains and when it is damp. There are leeches aplenty here. The bloodsuckers have a nose or whatever to smell blood some distance away. And they can stick! (If you do get bitten by leeches, apply salt or lime. It burns like hell but stops the blood flow.) If you really intend to hike in these forests, wear boots, thick socks and carry salt or tobacco and sprinkle them on the clingers) You can try and pull them but they fall off by themselves once they have had their fill.
But a visit to the waterfall is refreshing. The water is very cold, the stones slippery and try not to climb up the face of the wall. People have lost life and limb after falling from the heights. Head the warning signs.
From here it took me three hours to cover 16 kilometers to Kudremukh town! The cold can get to the calf muscles and if unprepared it can be quite disturbing to stop and massage one’s muscles under the pretence of taking pictures! In the bargain I missed the more picturesque spots such as the Gangamoola.
I reached Kudremukh very late. A small mining town, it does have few lodging options, but if you want the better ones, it is better to arrive early. A night at Kudremukh was refreshing. The town retired early. If you are lucky you can get non-vegetarian food here. The vegetarian food is great nevertheless a cyclist needs something more than cabbage and potatoes mixed with beans and lentils so few, you could count them on your fingers.
The nights are cold. The hotels provide blankets though and you can ask for an extra. Lock the cycle; if possible keep it in your room itself. One never knows. In this mining town, there are plenty of cycles and you don’t want yours to mix with the other!
Breakfast is a delight. High in the hills, 1900 mts above sea-level, the coffee served in tiny steel cups tastes delicious. The coarsely pounded coffee, I discovered, is put into a specially designed perforated container into which a measured quantity of hot water is poured. It is allowed to stay overnight to let the water work on the coffee. The thick coffee filter (decoction) is collected in another container. That ‘decoction’ is then added to a cup of hot milk to make coffee that can beat Starbucks!
Back on the roads! I found it hard to follow a definite plan of action and took the local transport to visit the famous 100 mts high Lakya Dam which has seen many film stars dance away on it. I did not miss the cycle really, because walking was more fun. The mist was rising above the stagnant waters of the dam and the hills looked a pale shade of green. It was cold.
A word of caution here. Never drink from the river. This being an area flush with iron ore, there is high iron content in the water which could be bad for the well being of your stomach.
A van carrying mine workers brought me back to Kudremukh in the evening. Twenty two kilometers outside of this mining town is Kalasa, a coffee and tea growing area, and has plentiful temples. Only it is not very easy to be cycling around in these parts. The roads dip and rise frequently, sometimes to great heights and there are not many eager truck drivers around to give you a ride. So unless you do not mind pushing the cycle through lonely, unfriendly roads leave it behind in Kudremukh and hope to find it when you return.
