Full Moon Night Trek - Kaurava Kunda Hill

Kaurava Kunda is the 2-joined peaks visible where views of the valley and adjoining peaks can be seen. There is Shiva temple on the hill. There is a way for steps to hill from Hariharpura village.

Trip Outline:-
As per plan, everyone need to meet at Vaju Vajra Bus Stop, Majestic by 5pm. So I started in bus by 4pm & reached Majestic by 4:50pm. Called Viru who is struck up in the traffic. Ruwise already waiting at bus stop from 4:30pm. We started speaking with each other. One after other started coming in & headcount finally moved to 12 people. It was good headcount for trek. So we went to KBS Terminal 2 & came to know that Chikballapur buses will be in Terminal 3 @ platform 10, 11. We sat in bus which was completely free. Bus started @ 6pm with only 4-5 more passengers. Driver is driving so fast & we thought we will go in 90mins. Everyone sat, relaxing in the bus. @ Hebbal, Aniruddha Gupte boarded & made it 13 group. We are moving towards Chikballapur. Around 7:15pm, bus stopped suddenly on highway. We thought drive dashed someone on road. Later, we came to know that villages stopped bus. They started quarelling with driver & conductor as why bus isnt going through their village, going through flyover. We need to turn back, go through the village & come back. We went to village & only 1 passenger boarded the bus. We reached Chikballapur by 8pm.

We need to have dinner & found "New Sankranti Hotel". Everyone ordered food & ate. Fried Rice, Gobi Rice are very good & yummy (beisde Indian Oil petrol bunk - near Chikballapur bus stand). After having dinner, spoke with few villages in Telugu about the place. They said that, it is 5kms from there. As it is already 8:50pm, we thought we will walk for 5kms & reach Hariharpura village. On the way spoke with villages & made sure we are going in right direction. Even we are following Google Maps "Kaurava Kunda Shiva Temple". We reached the village & I showed the direction for base of hill as I went there few months back. As usual all the way dogs welcomed us barking.

We reached Kaurava Kunda Hill base by 10pm. Started moving from base & towards top of the hill. Initially, we didn't find the stairs. So went straight to top, crossed the rocks. Later, found the stairs & we followed till we reached Shiva temple. There we have one person saying that, it is not safe to go to top & no one returned after going there. I explained him Telugu that we go frequently to top & everyone returned safe. He has no words to say, just said GO. We started from hill & stopped little ahead for Members Introduction.

After introduction, we started again & reached top by 11:10pm. Everyone dispersed & got wood for campfire. Setup stones in such a way that, air will not blow off the fire. Arranged campfire & everyone sat around it. Started speaking with each other. Prithayan started telling about the stars, planets in the sky. He tol around 10-15 stars names by seeing their positions in the sky which turned out to be correct ones (after seeing Google Sky App in mobile).

First started with Trekking experiences - First, Best & Worst. Everyone of us 13 shared their experiences. Also spoke about the trekking locations which are banned & toughest ones. Later, discussions moved onto Marriage - Arranged & Love. It was pretty funny listening to lot of views on marriage. Next topic is on issues which we will face if we have Lover. LOL it was best one in the discussion. Lot of sensor dialogues are there which cant be disclosed (Dialogue delivery: Ankit Singh) Had lot of laughs with jokes cracked. Breeze on top of the hill is so chilled & couldn't roam around the hill for longer time. So we stick to campfire place only. Everyone ate Dil-pasand which I got from bakery in Chikballapur which is so soft & tasty. Prabhakar forgot to bring Jacket & feeling very cold. So, I gave my S15 sleeping bag & told him to sleep. He slept in it & one after other started sleeping. Rest of us sitting @ campfire.

We moved around the hill & got lot of fire wood to run the campfire till morning. We cant stay without campfire as breezes are too cold & temperature is less than 15 degrees temp. We sat at fire till 5am morning (so long 6hrs). Now it is time for sun rise. Sky in east is turning red & hills on that side are looking awesome. Mist is adding up more beauty for it. We told everyone to get up & start enjoying the nature early morning. Cameraman's started doing their job taking pictures around the hill & individual pictures. Sun started coming up by 6:42am.

It was excellent view of sun rise & long we have slight mist. However, we didnt see full mist covered the place which was there last 2 weekends when our frnds went there. Still it was good. We took lot of pictures for nearly 1hr.

Once we are done with pictures, few of us decided to trek joined hill of Kaurava Kunda. Few of team went down to Shiva temple & rest of us moved towards other hill by 8am. It took 15mins for us to climb 2nd hill. We can see Nandi Hill (left most) & Skandagiri Hill (2nd left one) very clearly from Kaurava Kunda hills.

Took few more pictures there & started descending back to Shiva temple. We reached Shiva temple by 8:35am. Everyone started descending back to base. We reached base by 9:00am. See how Kaurava Kunda hill looks from base of it.

There was small pond with water @ Hariharpura village. We went there, sat for sometime. Later, moved towards main road for any vehicle to go to Chikballapur. While we are walking, got DCM van & everyone sat in it. It took us to Chikballapur by 9:30am. Went to hotel in Chikballapur bus stand, had stomach full breakfast. Once done, we boarded bus to Bangalore @ 10am. Everyone slept in the bus & reached bangalore by 12pm. Everyone wishes each other & dispersed to their places.

Thansk to Virander Sirohi for organizing the trek to cool place where our Jackets, sleeping bags didnt stop the chillness. Everyone shivered alot due to less temperatures.

Travel Guide:-

Bus:

1. We can go in KSRTC buses from KBS Terminal 3 - Platform 10, 11 till Chikballapur.

2. Take left before Chikballapur bus stand.Go ahead & take 2nd right (which leads to Govt hospital).

3. From there, it is straight road of 5kms.

4. At Sign board which shows "Harihapura" village 1km, take left & go to village.

5. From the village only, way leads to hill base (any villager can tell you base steps way).

Bike/Car:

1. We can on bike till Chikballapur following Hyderabad highway. Rest of the directions are same from above point 2 (we can speak with villages & park vehicles at their homes).

It was so chilled trekking experience which I had till date. Thanks to all 12 other members who made this trekking so wonderful. Lets meet up in future treks. Have fun & continue trekking, enjoy mother nature :)

Written By     : Chaitanya Kumar Adusumilli

Main Blog      : Kaurava Kunda Full Moon Night Trek

2nd Blog           : Full Moon Trek by Prabhakar

Organized By : Virander Sirohi

Date of Event : 26th-Jan, 2013

Place             : Hariharpura, Chikballapur.

Pictures         : Chaitanya, Rahul