Never before trekking experience at Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta!

Crew Members: Arun, Geo, Karthik, Shravan, Deepesh, Manoj and myself.
Duration: 2 hours hike, 2 hours of climb down and one night stay.
Expense: ~600 (Per head)
Date: 1st March 2014.
Terrain Info: Mostly forest.
Abstract: A never before trekking experience!

First things first. Let me make this clear to you. Biligiri Rangaswamy Betta and BR Hills are different. The one described below is in Kanakpura and the BR Hills which stands for Biligiriranga Hills is situated in Chamarajanagar beyond Mysore.

It all began when Geo put up a post asking weekend plans in our trekkers group in FB. Arun was of the opinion to head for Mullayangiri. I had a small trek around Bangalore in my mind and so was Geo and Deepesh. Mullayangiri is a pretty big trek and it requires quite a big plan the way we did for Kumaraparvatha and this is not just the right climate to go for such a trek. So we decided to take up a trek within Bangalore. We never run out of options! :D Options Geo put forward contained Kuntibetta, Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta, Brahmagiri, Savana Durga and Makali Durga. Apart from we four, my roomie Karthik wanted to join us this time. He told me, where ever you guys are planning for this weekend, count him and his friend Shravan also in. So we already had 6 members. Geo wanted to bring his friend Manoj as well. More the trekkers, better it is! Among the options Geo came up with, Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta was the most dangerous one and is recommended only if you are in a big group.

Bilikal literally means white rock and stands tall at 3780 feet as per what Wikipedia says. Hill is infested with elephants. Lot of blogs said about encounter with elephants while hiking and such stuff about which I had read long back. Seeing the strength of our group, I decided to pick Bilikal Betta as of our destination and we started planning accordingly. 3 days passed with great difficulty and finally God bestowed us with the anticipated Saturday. We decided to meet up at Banashankari Bus stand as Kanakpura Buses pass start from K.R. Market and cross Banashankari Bus stand to exit Bangalore city. Because of the rumors about elephants, we decided to do an evening trek and stay at the peak for the night. As per our plan, we were supposed to meet up at Banashanakri bus depot by 12 PM and this time, it was me and my roomie who delayed and by the time we reached it was 1 hour late and soon we got into a KSRTC bus plying to Kanakpura. I quoted this trek as a never before kind of experience because of three reasons and you'll encounter those as you proceed with blog.

We all got down at Harohalli Bus stand at 2 PM, the major bus stand that come just before Kanakpura. We were hungry as none of us expect me had breakfast! :D We spotted three 'Militry' Hotels and none of us wanted to get into one. I asked around for a veg hotel and found some Upahara and we went and had tummy full of meals. Meals costed just 30 bucks there!

As per our plan, we were suppose to take a bus to Dodda Maralavadi and from there, a rick to Konal Doddi and from there walk till the Anjaneya Temple, where the trail starts. I asked a rick driver about the bus boarding point and he asked of our complete plan. Once described, he said he can take all 7 us and our bags in the same rick till the destination for 450 bucks. I used my Kannada skills and bargained it down to 350 bucks and we had a deal there. Our rick driver consulted another one of his team and that guy made him clear of our destination which appeared farther from what he thought! :D Now that we have a deal he just drove and at every turn he asked for directions. We started seeing hills around and spotted one big beautiful hill and Geo told, if this is one, its gonna be awesome. But the rick just went past it and he kept driving and finally reached one village where the people convinced him of the wrong route he took and directed of the right one, Roads where pathetic and we were jam packed! Finally, he dropped us at the right spot near the Anjaneya Swamy temple just to learn that the hill we were commenting earlier is our actual destination! There was this electric fence saying the land belongs to Bannerghatta National Park reserve forest.

Auto driver was all curious asking us about what we'll do in the night. He told us, 'Sir you should be coming during the festival, only then there will people at the peak.' and I replied 'That's exactly why we came now. We want the peak to be deserted' and gave him a wink! ;)

We tied our sleeping bags on our back pack and took our cameras out and started our walk straight through the vehicle trail we saw and in another 10 mins we crossed a drained river and some beautiful looking trees.

Just to be sure, we consulted the construction workers about the route we took and realized it is a wrong route. We should have taken the immediate right turn after entering the fence it seems and we walked back and then noticed the trail there. There was man picking tamarind and he gave us a go with this new route and 5 minutes of walk took us to the hiking point.

It was pretty hot and all us started sweating profusely. Deepesh and Karthik wanted to switch to their shorts. Mean while I switched to my full sleeve t-shirt. We started our hike at 4 PM. Myself and Deepesh walked ahead and we walked non-stop till a wide boulder showed up and we decided to take our first halt there. Deepesh dropped his phone, Galaxy core there and shattered its display. In another 5 mins Arun showed up and so did Karthik. We had our red bull shots there and by the time remaining crew showed up it was 25 minuted past. I took some shots of the clouds there.

When we started feeling like we got our wings (Redbull gives you wings! Their ad tagline! :P), myself and Deepesh started off. We pretty much didn't take any halts since then expect for a very short one just to catch some breath. We saw a wild rabbit running across our trail and that's the first reason I quoted this a never before experience. I was like, jumping with joy inside spotting a wild animal! :P

We walked as fast as we could sucking in as much oxygen as possible. Climb was pretty much steep and tiring. Just minutes before sunset, myself and Deepesh reached the peak, it was 6 PM by then and we rushed to the west side of the peak to take pictures of the sunset. That sanctity, that silence, that ambiance after all that tiring effort is all a trekker seeks. Nothing can replace the satisfaction you earn. I just sat there admiring the beauty and hearing nothing but my own heart beating!

In another 10 minute Arun came up, it took 30 minutes for Karthik to show up and by 6:45 PM, all of were at the peak. Karthik and Manoj were very new to trekking in Bangalore, Shravan had been to couple of treks and it is second trek for Deepesh. Every one thoroughly enjoyed! The peak of this hill, unlike other hills is very broad one.There is this temple, a shelter, lot of lamps around, one artificial pond with lot of monkeys around. There is a roadway which will take vehicles directly up the peak. We knew of that earlier and we opted to use our feet. We found a corner near the pond decided to settle down there for the time being. There were 3 water tank with water available there! In fact, we had all possible luxury we could imagine at a peak. We fetched wood for bon fire and water for washing purpose. It was slightly drizzling and in a while, an old lady and a kid showed up and they switched on the lights. I asked them what to do in case if it rains. They told us to get into the shelter opposite to the temple. We sat in round and started off with our snacks and namkeens and infinite talks. I just love that. After a while, we decided to light up fire and we tried that we a lighter. Lighter broke off in 5-6 clicks and we were all doomed! We had nothing but the lighter. But then with great difficulty, Geo and Arun lighted up wood with just the bit of fire coming from the lighter. We cooked maggi noodles in the fire and placed it in a plastic box.

I could see my friends' messages in whatsapp saying its drizzling in Bangalore and we could see lighting at very long distance. We literally mocked at Bangalore from there - Traffic plus rain! Majja Madi Bangaloreans! :D

We had sound of tiny frogs in the pond and we were playing music. Awesome time spent there and suddenly torrential wind started blowing at us! Our sixth sense told us about the rain that's imminent. We packed up our stuff and were ready to run to the shelter in case it rains. We could see the lighting and clouds approaching us and clouds were all rumbling. We started our run and in no time heavy downpour started. We got ourselves into the shelter just in time and the power was completely off in the area! We could see lighting flashing so severely and violent showers outside. We were all thinking what would have happened if this shelter was't there. What if this happened if we were in Kauran Kunta or Kumaraparvatha! It was beyond what we could imagine! This is the second reason why the trek was quoted never before experience. Even the shelter had couple of deities inside and we removed our shoes and payed our respect.

We had our share of maggi and decided to spread our sleeping bags. It was pretty cozy inside the shelter and it was 11 PM by then. Deepesh and Manoj dozed off the moment their back touched ground. Myself, Geo and Arun were discussing on various trek experiences and watch struck 12 AM and I was waiting for it. It was Karthik's birthday and I had managed to carry a trekking friendly cake (small one with out cream inside a plastic case). Unfortunately, we didn't have lighter or matches to light up candles.

So we all wished the birthday boy who was all surprised seeing the cake, played birthday songs and had a nice time. This being the third and last one making the trek experience a never before one, we decided to call it a day and every one went back to their sleeping bags.

I didn't see sleep coming. Mean while Arun and Geo were having quite a discussion on Atheism, communism, their previous trek and such stuff which I was listening to. In some time, they also went to sleep. I laid awake till our alarms rang at 6 AM. That's right! Not a minute of sleep and no chance of going out because of rain. By 6, rains had stopped and we packed our bags and went for the sunrise view. Sun took its time rendering the beautiful scene and we took as much pictures we wanted. There were two cars parked in front of the temple. Two groups had come to view sunrise in the morning driving all the way.

I walked around the place with my camera.

Finally, at 8 AM, we decided to start our walk back. You know we never run out of crazy ideas. We decided to take up the route that vehicles take up to reach the peak. Roads were wide and better in a sense than the route we took to hike. But the road was very lengthy.

We walked 3 Kms and at last reached a village named Sunghatta. There was this temple at the very entrance of the village.

As usual, myself and Deepesh reached first and we asked the first house for water and they gave us warm water. I fetched information from the guy that there is no chance we'll get a rick from there and next bus to Kanakpura from there was at 11AM. It was only 9 by then and he suggested us to walk till next village named Chakkanahalli and its 3 Kms from there. We started our walk by 9:30 AM when our remaining crew joined us. We walked and walked and walked. In the red hot sun over the tar roads we walked endlessly. Myself and Deepesh moved ahead recollecting all our school memories as classmates. We plucked tamarind from the road side and ate with all the childhood memories rewinding in mind. We finally reached a junction with a small tuck shop in last two hours. We took couple of cool drinks and suddenly Arun showed up in a rick. He got a share auto enroute and we sent a rick to pick the others. In another 20 mins rick returned with them and we boarded the same and told the driver to head for Kanakpura. I was talking casually with the rick driver and he told many people come for the Bilikal betta but not many go on foot. He dropped us in another 20 minutes and he walked like zombies to the nearest hotel. I knew of a hotel named Ratna Upahar from where I had breakfast and lunch during my ride to Muthathi couple of months ago. We quenched our hunger with Masala Dosa and Chitranna(Lemon Rice) and boarded bus to Bangalore. Next thing I remember is Deepesh waking me up at Banashankari. We all boarded a 500C bus and got down at our respective stops. Reached room by 2 PM and took a cold shower! Cold long shower - the second thing I love about the treks!

Our group pic:

Do's:

1. Take up the trekking route if you are planning to hike and keep watch on the route to Anjaneya temple as it is pretty confusing.

2. You can carry charger for you phones as there is plug point available in the shelter. I am not sure if it will work though! We didn't have a charger to try it out! :P

3. We didn't encounter any elephants because of the climate. If you are planning for September-December better watch out for elephants.

Don'ts:

1. Place is already polluted enough with festival happening every year. Pick you plastic belongings and drop it some where else.

2. Don't dare walk on the driving route unless you are as crazy as us! :D

3. If you are planning to set up campfire, never rely on lighters. Always carry match box with you.

Things to remember:

1. If you are going by walk take the route: Harohalli -> Dodda Maralavadi -> Konal Doddi -> Anjaneya Temple -> Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta.

2. If you are opting for driving route: Kanakpura -> Chakanahalli -> Sunghatta -> Bilikal Rangaswamy Betta.