Kalavara Betta (Saturday 27th December 2008) -- My last outing of the year

Kalavara Betta (Saturday 27th December 2008) -- My last outing of the year

I was planning for a weekend outing for the new year and was feeling a bit bored sitting at home on a weekend when i received a phone call at 5.00 pm from one Mr siddarth, a resident of New Delhi who had come to Bangalore 4 days back to his friends place. He wanted to visit Kalavara Betta before going to Mysore and was insisting me to take them to Kalavara Betta and come back on sunday morning.

I was not very much keen on taking them to Kalavara Betta since my last visit to the place had a bad experience of huge crowd gathering there and making a lot of noise besides turning the place into a open dust bin. Besides trekking had been prohibited for some time due to the problems with the local villagers and I was not sure if the problems has been resolved. Also finding a vehicle posed a problem. It was then decided that they will arrange for the vehicle and my job is only to take the team of members to place and guide them for the trek.

As planned i met the team at their residence in Jeeven Bheema Nagar and left the place by 10.00 pm reaching the base of the hill at 12.30 am. Surprisingly, there were not many vehicles parked. There were hardly around 75 people on the top compared to the now usual crowd of over 200 on an weekend. The ban on trekking has really worked reducing the maddening crowd who has littered the whole place, not a good scene compared to the one I had seen 2 years back.

Forest department who use to collect entrance fee were not there. I came to know from the so called guides (local villagers) that there exists some differences between the forest officials and the local trust as to who has to get the collection. We set off for the trek as the last team for the day. Weather was pleasant and not very windy. We reached the top of the hill at 3.00 am. Usual chaiwallahs were moving around with flasks and fire woods for camp fire. Surprisingly it was less noisy on the top with most of the team huddling together around the camp fire. It wasn't that cold. We slept for some time till morning. Sunrise wasn't spectacular with cloud covering it was not worth the wait.

We left for the base at 6.30 am and reached the base of the hill at 8.00 am. We were in for a different kind of an experience. Our driver had slept inside the car and had not noticed the air of the one of the front wheel removed. Later it was noticed that all the vehicles had the same condition. A localite who had collected 30/- as parking fee told that the police had come in the night and beat a few local people who were waiting for some clients to guide them to the top had removed air in all the vehicles and had even torn in the seats on some of two wheelers. I came to know that the police are not interested in allowing any trekkers around.

Actual problem is not known, but such an act by the police department needs to be condemned as nobody is interested in going against the prohibition. For the last 2 months or so when the trek was prohibited there has been no trekkers in that area and it started only when we came to know that they allow. There was no police men available at the area to speak with us. It is not known whether it is the act of some of the locals who now a days don't get any body asking them to take them as guides or the policemen who had done this job.

We tried to speak with the incharge of the trustee who pleaded ignorance and was not of any help to us. Chikkaballapur being 4 kms away, it was a difficult job of getting any help to get air pump. Luckily for us they had removed air in only one tyre , we could change the tyre and leave the place. There were quite a few vehicle were both the front wheels air had been removed and the plight of the two wheelers, it was a bad scene which needs to be looked at.

Any how for those who wish to visit the place need to be cautious about this kind of problem and make sure you clarify the permission part before venturing into the trek.

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