Usual friday afternoon. Everyone in office getting ready to leave and head to one of them pubs or the concert featuring "Parikrama, Saif Ali Khan, etc".
My friends ask me to get them passes to the concert. I am unable to arrange for the passes and instead suggest we execute a plan we guys have been hatching for quite some time now. How about a trek to the now quite famous Kalavarahalli Betta a.k.a Skandagiri. Calls to our core group of friends and the entourage is set.
5 of us friends head out of S' room at around 1 am. Thank god my dad insisted I take the car instead of my bike as initially planned. It was really really cold. Off towards Mekhri circle and then towards Hebbal flyover, getting on to the Hyderabad road. Now the road is super fine, 3 laned pleasure. But this only lasts for a few kilometres and then we hit the marathon construction of the Bangalore International Airport, Devanahalli. A quick stop to recharge ourselves with some hot steaming tea.
We head to Chickballapur situated 55 kms from Bangalore. Take a left turn from the Chickballapur bus stand and then one more left just after some market. From here on the road really narrows down. Travelling in this direction for another 5-6 kms we reach the foothills of Kalavarahalli Betta. Make this trip on a full moon day as it offers beautiful sights of the moon lighting up a rather placid lake, making it look out of a romantic movie or the moon hiding partially behing the clouds and in between two hills which in turn are nothing but dark silhouttes against a pitch black sky.
At the base of the hill you find a temple called Papagni Mutt. Plenty of parking space around. There is a forest office adjacent to the temple where one needs to provide details such as names, addresses of all people in that group. Also a fee of Rs. 15 is levied per person. If you are a first timer to this place it is advisable to get the services of a guide. One can find many guides who quarrel between themselves to get the contract, so to speak, to guide people up the hill.
We started the trek at around 3.30 am. We took the path adjacent to the temple towards the hill. The sheer size of the hill(not huge compared to the Western Ghats or Himalayas, but big in their own right) does not reflect on the trekker as one can only see a dim silhoutte of the hill in the darkness. Almost half a kilometre towards the hill we hit the base of the hill. A steady uphill incline starts which leaves us "Software Engineers(read lack of excercise for most)" gasping for breath. And all this while we have completed just a few metres of the trek. We tread along following the guide who keeps telling us that the top is just another 30 minutes away. Dont know for how long he maintained the 30 mins story. We took ample breaks on the way up. Let me tell you, if you are not physically fit, you will find this hill very difficult to climb.
The low temperature because of which we were all decked in jackets, gloves and caps gave way to really high temperatures of our bodies. We were all sweating profusely even in that low temperature. Loved it cos it had been a while since we had sweat. Every break that we took was like a relief from a concentration camp(PHEW!!). The cold wind causing the sweat to cool making us feel very fresh. We had hoped to find a lot of clouds when the sun rose because many of our friends who had gone there previously had come back without having seen any. And here we were with a clear sky above us. The climb really started to take a toll on us as the hill got steeper with every step. Each step felt like torture meted out to hard-core criminals(people with regular excercise and non-smokers might disagree with me here). It was a hard climb upto the top. Mind you, we were trekking in the middle of the night with only Nokia 1100 phones as our sources of light. Now we realise this phone is really made for India.
Finally we reach the top of the hill where we rest for a while. Locals have put up miniature tents in which they cook hot Bajjis and serve hot Tea. After a much diserved break we head to the place on the hill from where the sunrise can be viewed the best. We notice that the previously clear sky was slowly but surely giving way to immense clouds. We were overjoyed to see this happen. Finally seated at the top most part of the hill, camera ready to go click-click, we wait. The cold and fresh air was very refreshing, specially for all the people there who were coming from the capital's polluted atmoshpere.
After quite a while the sun started to sire. The light cast by the Sun from under the clouds stated to make the sky look like a canvas painted with beautiful colours. It was a sight to cherish. As the Sun rose higher the colours got even more vibrant. Everyone was clicking away.
We could not see anything other than clouds as far as we could see. Only the tips of few hills popping out of the clouds. It was like a carpet of really soft cotton strewn along the land. The sight was magical. Gradually the clouds started to percolate into the valleys ajoining the hills.
As eagerly as everyone was waiting for the sun to rise, everyomne started to hide from the sun as it really started to prick the eyes with the intense rays.
After clicking a lot of pics, we started our climb down around 8.30. Everyone was tired because of the lack of sleep, sudden exertion and hunger. The climb was not as difficult as we had imagined. It was pleasant and we climbed down before the sun really started to get perpendicular with the land. We saw a lot of people start the trek at arnd 9 am. Let me tell u not only is that tiring but also fruitless as one will not find any clouds of the magnitude which we found at 6 am.
We got back to the congested traffic laden roads of Bangalore. I must tell you that this trek eventhough physically draining was mentally refreshing. The simple pleasure of watching the sunrise from underneath the clouds making a canvas of the sky is really to lust for. I highly recommend people do this trek before the temperatures start to climb even during the nights.
Here are a few pictures from this Beautiful place..........
My friends ask me to get them passes to the concert. I am unable to arrange for the passes and instead suggest we execute a plan we guys have been hatching for quite some time now. How about a trek to the now quite famous Kalavarahalli Betta a.k.a Skandagiri. Calls to our core group of friends and the entourage is set.
5 of us friends head out of S' room at around 1 am. Thank god my dad insisted I take the car instead of my bike as initially planned. It was really really cold. Off towards Mekhri circle and then towards Hebbal flyover, getting on to the Hyderabad road. Now the road is super fine, 3 laned pleasure. But this only lasts for a few kilometres and then we hit the marathon construction of the Bangalore International Airport, Devanahalli. A quick stop to recharge ourselves with some hot steaming tea.
We head to Chickballapur situated 55 kms from Bangalore. Take a left turn from the Chickballapur bus stand and then one more left just after some market. From here on the road really narrows down. Travelling in this direction for another 5-6 kms we reach the foothills of Kalavarahalli Betta. Make this trip on a full moon day as it offers beautiful sights of the moon lighting up a rather placid lake, making it look out of a romantic movie or the moon hiding partially behing the clouds and in between two hills which in turn are nothing but dark silhouttes against a pitch black sky.
At the base of the hill you find a temple called Papagni Mutt. Plenty of parking space around. There is a forest office adjacent to the temple where one needs to provide details such as names, addresses of all people in that group. Also a fee of Rs. 15 is levied per person. If you are a first timer to this place it is advisable to get the services of a guide. One can find many guides who quarrel between themselves to get the contract, so to speak, to guide people up the hill.
We started the trek at around 3.30 am. We took the path adjacent to the temple towards the hill. The sheer size of the hill(not huge compared to the Western Ghats or Himalayas, but big in their own right) does not reflect on the trekker as one can only see a dim silhoutte of the hill in the darkness. Almost half a kilometre towards the hill we hit the base of the hill. A steady uphill incline starts which leaves us "Software Engineers(read lack of excercise for most)" gasping for breath. And all this while we have completed just a few metres of the trek. We tread along following the guide who keeps telling us that the top is just another 30 minutes away. Dont know for how long he maintained the 30 mins story. We took ample breaks on the way up. Let me tell you, if you are not physically fit, you will find this hill very difficult to climb.
The low temperature because of which we were all decked in jackets, gloves and caps gave way to really high temperatures of our bodies. We were all sweating profusely even in that low temperature. Loved it cos it had been a while since we had sweat. Every break that we took was like a relief from a concentration camp(PHEW!!). The cold wind causing the sweat to cool making us feel very fresh. We had hoped to find a lot of clouds when the sun rose because many of our friends who had gone there previously had come back without having seen any. And here we were with a clear sky above us. The climb really started to take a toll on us as the hill got steeper with every step. Each step felt like torture meted out to hard-core criminals(people with regular excercise and non-smokers might disagree with me here). It was a hard climb upto the top. Mind you, we were trekking in the middle of the night with only Nokia 1100 phones as our sources of light. Now we realise this phone is really made for India.
Finally we reach the top of the hill where we rest for a while. Locals have put up miniature tents in which they cook hot Bajjis and serve hot Tea. After a much diserved break we head to the place on the hill from where the sunrise can be viewed the best. We notice that the previously clear sky was slowly but surely giving way to immense clouds. We were overjoyed to see this happen. Finally seated at the top most part of the hill, camera ready to go click-click, we wait. The cold and fresh air was very refreshing, specially for all the people there who were coming from the capital's polluted atmoshpere.
After quite a while the sun started to sire. The light cast by the Sun from under the clouds stated to make the sky look like a canvas painted with beautiful colours. It was a sight to cherish. As the Sun rose higher the colours got even more vibrant. Everyone was clicking away.
We could not see anything other than clouds as far as we could see. Only the tips of few hills popping out of the clouds. It was like a carpet of really soft cotton strewn along the land. The sight was magical. Gradually the clouds started to percolate into the valleys ajoining the hills.
As eagerly as everyone was waiting for the sun to rise, everyomne started to hide from the sun as it really started to prick the eyes with the intense rays.
After clicking a lot of pics, we started our climb down around 8.30. Everyone was tired because of the lack of sleep, sudden exertion and hunger. The climb was not as difficult as we had imagined. It was pleasant and we climbed down before the sun really started to get perpendicular with the land. We saw a lot of people start the trek at arnd 9 am. Let me tell u not only is that tiring but also fruitless as one will not find any clouds of the magnitude which we found at 6 am.
We got back to the congested traffic laden roads of Bangalore. I must tell you that this trek eventhough physically draining was mentally refreshing. The simple pleasure of watching the sunrise from underneath the clouds making a canvas of the sky is really to lust for. I highly recommend people do this trek before the temperatures start to climb even during the nights.
Here are a few pictures from this Beautiful place..........
