We did this trek on may 19th 2018, it was a group of 6 friends. We started from Bangalore in KSRTC bus on 18th evening and reached Virajpet by around 5AM in the morning. I was traveling in a KSRTC after a very very long time and i cant tell it was comfortable. The excitement of the trek actually masked the disturbed sleep sitting in the bus. At Virajpet, we walked towards the private bus stand where we had to catch the private bus towards kakkabe which was scheduled 6:45AM. After walking around a bit we found one restaurant for breakfast as most of them were closed that time.
The private bus to Kakkabe took around an hour. The trek started where the bus dropped us!! The initial stretch of the trek is a jeep trail which is also the Nalknad palace road. There were coffee plantation on both sides of the trail initially.
By around 9AM we reached the first view point.
There is a fork immediately after this and we had to take the left side which we decided after a brief confusion.
The trail continued till we reached the forest check-post. We had to enter the name and details at the forest office. The guard was quite good and nice young man. We dropped few excess baggage with him to pick it on the way back!!
The scenic trail continued all the way till the peak.
 |
| Scenic beauty on the way |
 |
| Misty Mountain as we approach the peak |
There were few flowers as well which were small and nice.
After a long walk without much break, we reached the peak by ~11:30AM. The trail was slight slope with small patches where it was steep. The situation was completely different at the peak!! it was really misty, cloudy and bit chill!!! It was just beautiful.
The best sight here was the western ghats monsoon winds!! The peak was bit higher than the neighboring peaks. The south-westerly monsoon winds being blocked by the western ghats mountains was quite evident in this location.
 |
| This is a great sight!! The mountain in front completely blocking the mist from going to the right. The right side visibility is very good and clear!!! |
Here is a timelap from Satish.
We stayed at the peak till 2PM. The weather was perfect and great for the trek. We had some packed lunch at the peak.
The decent was much faster and we did not stop anywhere. We reached the forest guard and spend sometime there. The we proceed to the home-stay which was not very far from the check-post.
The place where we stayed was an old fashioned house which gave a real feel to this trek. It started to rain after we reached the house and that was really nice to watch the rain with the cup of soup.
We had carries groceries as the owner was not available on that day. So we were on our Own for dinner!! There was not much facilities but this was perfectly what the group wanted. Most of us had the sleeping bags but the home-stay owner had provided some blankets as well!!
It had a kitchen with few vessels and firewood.
The group really enjoyed the stay here, the food we prepared here, the morning tea and the breakfast which the owner provided.
We started back from the homestay ~10am the next day. Initially we had some plan to go to nearby places but finally we dropped the plan. We headed back in the same route to reach Bangalore by night.
Overall it was a great experience and thanks to Satish for organizing this trek in short notice :)
