Kalawara Betta

Kalwara Betta – It all started with an Email from Kallesh who had forwarded some photos of the Betta which his friend had taken during his visit. Amazing photos. Just couldn’t believe that such a place exist so close to Bangalore

Where is it? None of us had heard of Kalawara Betta. All we could gather was that this was in the Nandi hills range, closer to Chikballapur. We had no idea. Enquires were made to our friends. All I got was a mail from Ravee to check the blog of Pradeep Jayaraman. It wasn’t sufficient. They had not reached the top. We decided to give it a try.

Our plan was to be there before the sunrise to have a good view. Kallesh, Deepak, Nagaraj and me planned to meet near the petro bunk after getting down the Hebbal flyover. I was there at the meeting point at 4.00am. No sign of others. It was very chill and visibility was very poor.

At 4.30 am we all assembled and started our move to the hills. We decided to take the nandi hills, ask for the route and then proceed. But that didn’t happen. On widening the roads the nandi statue at the entrance of the cross was missing. We had crossed over and had reached Chikballapur. It was 5.30 am. We found one much wanted tea shop. Stopped for tea and made enquiries at the shop. In a hurry to reach the place I had forgotten to take my camera. Later I was cursing myself at missing my camera. It requires another visit.

The route There are 2 routes to kalawara betta. One is take a turn towards Nandi Hills and go further to kalawara Village crossing Muddenahalli. This is shorter route than the one from Chikaballapur. Second one is to go to chikaballapur and then to kalawara Village. From Kalawara Village ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt which is 2000 years old. There is a shiva temple and vehicles can be parked. This is at the base of the Hills.

Nandi to Kalawara to Papagni Mutt is 6 kms

Chikaballapur to papagni Mutt is 3 kms.

The tea shop owner guided us the route towards muddenahalli and asked us to enquire from there. We were 5 kms before Chikkaballapur. Initially we were on the tar road up to Muddenahalli and then we took a detour to a muddy track. Enquiries were made with every person on sight. Finally we were guided to the starting point of the trek. We parked our vehicles and started trekking. We had no idea!!! We headed towards south on the boulders and dense shrub. Our plans of seeing sunrise didn’t happen. It was a cloudy day. Nagaraj and I took a different route and Kallesh and Deepak were ahead of us. I was using my mobile camera to take some snaps. After 1 hr Deepak called me over phone and said they have found a mantapa. We joined them and had much needed rest. The route up to the mantapa is not very clear. Further ahead there is a clear steps cut on the rocks till the top. Here sleep took us away from the actual route and we went towards north west direction. After half an hour of trekking in dense shrubs I decided to go back to the mantapa and look for the route. We returned to the mantapa again. Clouds had cleared and there was a clear blue sky. Wow!!! What an amazing sight!!! The ridges on the north were awesome. Again and again I was cursing myself for not bringing my camera. My mobile camera was not sufficient, but anyway I couldn’t stop myself from clicking.

Once on to the path the trek became easy. We were on the top of the hill in about 1 hr. There are remains of the fort wall and a temple / mantapa on top. We couldn’t find any info about the fort. From the top of the hill we could see Nandi Hill on the south and Papagni Mutt on the east. In between Nandi Hills and Kalawara there is another hill, the name of which is not clear to me. Road cut across each hills. May be if we camp there for 2 days we can try reaching Nandi from Kalawara Betta criss crossing the roads in between.

We stayed there on the top for nearly 1 hour going around the hill discussing the possible routes that can be taken. It easily is a one day outing. But the best way is to reach the top before sunset, camp there for the night to watch both sunset and sunrise. Our route for the next moonlit trek was planned. We decided to visit the Mutt and make enquiries for the moonlit trek.

The Papagni Mutt is 1 km from the base of the hill. We met the priest Gangadarachar and told him about our moonlit trek. He assured to help us in providing a guide for us and also to prepare food for us.

Having noted all the details about the place we headed towards Chikkaballapur. It was 12.30 when we reached Chikkaballapur. We were very hungry. We had not taken anything for breakfast. After Lunch at chikkaballapur we went into a Grapes field. Purchased 2 kgs of grapes each and happily left for Bangalore.

Waiting for the moonlit trek to happen in March, but this time with my camera without fail.

Kalavara betta

Moonlight trek to B M Betta

Moonlight trek

A visit to Bananti Maramma Betta, popularly known as B M Betta was pending for a long time. After my Himalayan Trek to Dodital in December 2006 there was some snaps left over to be completed, hence decided to visit B M Betta.

Deepak and I planned for the visit to B M Betta and started off in my bike on 06.01.2007 morning having only a vague idea about the place. We reached Kanakapura and had breakfast. The owner of the hotel to whom we enquired about the place had not heard of this place, surprising, though he was born and brought up in kanakapura. Such is our importance of tourism here. We came out of the hotel and made enquiries at the fruit stall who gave us a clear picture of the place.

How to reach B M Betta

After Kanakpura start going towards sathnur for 2 kms till you reach the end of a tank bund where you can see a yellow colour board on a tree on the right side of the road. Take a turn and continue the path for nearly 10 kms till you reach the village. Take a left on the mud road for 2 kms to reach the base of the hills. At the base of the hill is the Bananti Maramma temple. Vehicles go up to this point and can be parked here before you start climbing the hill.

There are two hills opposite each other. One hill has bolted route and requires climbing gears to go on top. The same hill has an alternate route to go on top without the use of climbing gear also. The other hill is a normal climb. In between these two hills there is a trail which goes inside the forest and comes out of the hills. The hills stretch up to 3 kms and the trail is a neat descent and a good trek for the beginners. Coming out of the trail you reach a lake Sidde Gowadara kere.

Alternate route to B M Betta.

From Kanakapura take the road leading to Ramanagaram and reach B M betta from the other side of the temple. This is a shorter route to B M Betta, but not much frequented. On enquiry with a local villager, there seems to be roughly 25 routes that can be done in these hills. One can easily engage themselves for trekking for 3 to 4 hrs going around both the hills.

There are number of trees near the temple. River crossing technique, Jummaring, ladder climbing are the other activities that can be undertaken in this place.

After spending nearly 3 hrs in this place, we thought of doing a night trek on full moon day. The villagers and other friends who had been to this place earlier cautioned me about the bears in the hills and told me that it is not advisable to do trekking in the night.

We decided to trek on a full moon day on 02.02.2007 which is also our first trek from Bakpackers group. Preparations for the trek were done and till 30^th there seemed to be no response. But from 31^st morning enquiries started pouring and by 1^st morning it had crossed 25 members. Prasanna and I decided to visit the place and make arrangements for a local guide and also for food. We spoke with Mr.Borashetty and made enquiries about the safety who assured me not to worry about the bears since there is a huge group. He also agreed to prepare tea and chitranna for us in the night. By afternoon I lost count of the number of participants. Had I expected such a huge response we could have chartered a bus to take us to the place safely. But it was too late to change our plans.

Almost everyone had agreed to come on their own vehicle. We decided to assemble at 9.00 pm near Khodays gate (Opp Metro), but by the time the whole team assembled it was 10.00pm. It was getting late. I had to call Mr. Bora Shetty and tell him that we will be coming at around 12.00. He was kind enough to wait for us till that time and served us Chitranna and Tea. He even made arrangements for a local guide also. After food we started trekking up to the temple. Temple is 3 kms from the village. Reaching the temple we assemble for a self introduction and have a count of the number of participants. The total number of participants was exactly 50. It was nice to have such a good response. After a small briefing we started to climb the hill. The weather was very good and there was no wind at all. This made it very warm. The trail up to the top was a gradual ascent and since the team was huge we trekked at a leisure pace ensuring safety of all the trekkers.

After resting for a while at the top of the hill we started the descent to the other side of the hill. The route is full of thorny plants, hence one had to be extremely careful not to hurt themselves. We reached the lake at 3.30 am. Some of the first time trekkers were a bit tired. We relaxed near the lake having some snacks and biscuits.

At 4.00 am we started our return trek to the village. This circles the hill and the route is on a level land, cutting across the forest into the village. This takes a clear 1 hour to the village. We reached Mr Bora shetty’s house at 5.00 am, where we had parked our vehicles. We thanked him for the kind gesture and left the place at 5.30. Reached kanakapura and had tea, from where every one disbursed to their place.