Hi guys...
This is my first trip outside Bangalore city. I and my friend Balaji went to this hill named Siddara Betta which is near Bangalore. Its about 100 kms from here. For those who know about Bangalore and nearby places this is hill is near Tumkur area. As we stay in BTM layout we reached the NICE Expressway road and went straight till the NH4. We went on a bike and once we touched the expressway we drove at the speed of 100. Sometimes touching 120 also. Now that the climate is winter the wind was blowing like anything. It was shivering while riding. We continued our way till Tumkur. On the way we had our breakfast at the Kamat hotel at Dobbaspet. With the help of my GPS enabled maps we reached the hill quite easily without asking anybody as we both don't know to read Kannada. We reached the base point at about 10.30 AM.
This hill is attractive for both trekkers as well as religious people. For religious people there is a shrine of Lord Shiva which is inside a cave. This unique hill was home for numerous Hindu Saints for their sacred meditation and to obtain Nirvana.
For reaching the shrine itself one has to climb a flight of steps, go through some huge rocks etc. This is just the starting for the trekkers more is yet to come once you enter the shrine. I will come to that afterwards but let me first finish giving information about the hill for the religious people. So as I was saying one has to climb for about 45 min to reach the shrine. The shrine is not a big one but just a shivlingam is there.(See the pic) Before entering the shrine usually people will wash their hands and legs but here in this hill where is the water to wash your hands???? So the local people bring water from a nearby source which is believed to be natural water. They fill it up in big drums and they pour the water on the people's body. One cannot go inside the shrine without being drenched and shelling out Rs10 for one bucket of water. You can perform puja's etc inside the shrine. That's all is there for the religious people, now comes the part of the adventurous peoples, trekkers etc.
The first part is same for you people also. Climb the steps, get drenched and go inside the shrine. Now you have to hire a local person to take you inside the caves. The caves starts from inside the shrine itself. Taking a torch is recommended as the boulders are big. From starting itself you have to crawl a few meters and get inside the cave before you can stand fully. Inside there are few places which looks like small rooms where the Saints used to medidate to attain Nirvana. There were some places where you will be literally struck between the two big boulders. But that's the interesting part where you don't know how to cross these big boulders and go ahead. The pictures will explain this point clearly where Balaji is literally struck between the rocks(See the pic). Some places you have to do some gymnastics to go beyond the boulders.
Though the cave is not so long it will take about one to one and a half hours to get out of the cave and see the broad daylight. Though some places inside also you can see rays of light.
Once we came outside we rested for a few minutes. The local guide told us there is another place from where you can view all the nearby hills. The hill-top is just 1 km away. So we thought we not we try that place also. Till this time the trip was adventurous and there might be more in that hill-top and true to its words the place was awesome. One can just stare at the sky and low down on the rocks. Even the route to the hill-top was also adventurous. We passed through grasses, some boulders and after trekking for about half an hour we reached the hill-top. The top offered us a good view of the surroundings and Siddar Betta certainly looked much taller and any other hills around it.
We came down to the base point where we had left our bike and started our return journey at about 4.30 PM. The return route was a different route via Koratagere- Tumkur and NH4. Finally we reached Bangalore at about 8.00 PM via the same NICE road which we hit in the morning.
This trip was awesome and I am looking ahead for some similar type of trips near Mysore area. Will keep posting about my trips whenever I go . Tilll then enjoying reading this post.
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