Horagina Betta Trek - 11th October, 2015
First trek to Horagina Betta
I first saw this event created by
Bangalore Trekking Club (BTC) in Facebook on Friday (9th Oct, 2015). I
registered for the event on that spot itself because they've limited
registrations and all those will get filled within couple of hours.
It is Oct 11th, 2015. We all, a
team of 15 enthusiastic trekkers gathered at Majestic bus stand around 7: 30 AM
and nobody got introduced. Very soon we got the bus to reach Horagina betta
(also called as Brahmagiri) and this one and half hour journey to reach the
destination made all of us to know each other with a couple of dumb charades
acts. We reached our destination around 9 AM and got down at a hotel where we
charged ourselves with the South Indian breakfast and packed our lunch in boxes
to have at the peak of Horagina betta.
Then, what next, we started our
trek. Among the 15 trekkers, there were 7 first timers who are trekking with
BTC including myself. By the way, this is our team. Gaurav Kamath(Our lead, and
organizer), Rakshit(trailing the team), Mr & Mrs Phani, Anu priya,
Viswanadh, Naveen, Gaurav Upadhyay(GU), Shaifali, Saurabh, Madhu, Manjunath,
Keerthi, Sindhu and myself Manikanta. It was around 10:30 AM, we started. We
could see Nandi and brahmagiri hills side by side from our starting point.
Nandi hill, being a famous tourist place the path to go the top of nandi is
very clear and is not a suitable place for trekking. But Horagina betta is best
to trek for the first timers and silent place for peace loving people. The peak
of horagina betta is visible, yet far.
During our way, we took so many
snaps, we have silly chit chats, most of us are non Kannadigas and we try to
speak our own Kannada and had loads of fun. After 1 hour, We reached a point
where we have 2 ways to go to the destination. Route 1: A bit long path, but
you may find tender coconut and cucumber to eat. Route 2: A bit shorter way to
go, but you won't find anything. Finally, we decided to go in the Route 1 and
Yes! We found Coconut water and cucumber, to quench our thirst.
In short time, we started our
real trekking. The path was slippery due to sand, later it was bit slant, huge
grey rocky path. At this point we have wonderful view of 3 other hills Nandi,
skandhagiri and chennagiri. We reached saneshwara temple on the hill and were
few meters away from the peak. The path became very narrow here and it was
almost covered by the plants and we somehow managed to go through it. At the
end of this path, we finally reached our destination. It was 2 PM then. We saw
the clouds adjacent and bit far from us, it was raining over that place and it
seems like the cloud is filling the gap between itself and land. we have a
breathe taking view from the top. We had our sumptuous lunch, which we got
packed from the hotel and shared parata, fruits brought by our trekkers. Our
Gaurav decided to play a game, which brought fun and boosted our energy levels
and we're enjoying the moment. We took so many photos locking our moments
exploring there.
We started our way down at 3 PM
to reach our starting point. We need to go down by 4 30, because there's only
one bus and we need to catch it. This time, we came down by Route 2, the
shorter way. During our way down, we're sharing our previous trekking
experiences and our challenges. Listening to their experiences, we also want to
explore those places. Around 4 30, we reached our starting point before the
bus. We had the snacks at the same hotel, where we have breakfast. In no time
the bus came and we all got into it.
Finally a beautiful trek came to
an end and we have to leave. We all have one feeling in common, we're not
stopping with this trek. Slowly one by one got down and bus reached majestic at
6 15 PM where we all dispersed with loads of memories at Horagina betta with
our wonderful co-trekkers.
By: Manikanta
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Horagina Betta
Horaginabetta
is a small beautiful hill in the Nandhi hills range. The team was requested to
arrive at the Majestic bus stand around 7.10 am on this beautiful Sunday
morning of 11 Oct 2015. The team arrived before time and boarded the bus around
7.20am. it was a one and half to two hours journey, but the time flew by as the
commute was filled with fun, jokes and games.
Gaurav was
leading us, a small group of 15 people, mostly novice to the trekking world.
Most of them joined the trek with their friends or because of their friends,
and there was one couple in the group as well. On the arrival of the
destination, we all enjoyed idlis, masala dosas, bread omelettes for break-fast
and got parcels for our lunch. Gaurav was playing wonderful host ensuring all
of us were stomach happy by asking each and every one for their preference for
breakfast, coffee/tea/badam milk and their choice of rice.
After
breakfast we formed our circle of introductions and commenced our climb around
10.15am. The initial stretch is gradual ascend and was like a warm up for the
group. During this time, the team exchanged lot of past experiences about their
previous treks and travels. Rakshith agreed to take pictures for this trek and
also was leading from the end, while Gaurav was leading from the front. It was
fun ascending up, with many enthusiasts for taking pictures, selfies as there
were many viewpoints.
We took a slow
and a steady pace to move upwards hills, with enough breaks to take breaths or
snacks or photos. We eventually reached a fork where we had to choose a path to
go in a path that may have tender coconuts or a path about 20-30 minutes
shorter but no tender coconut. The team unanimously (of course!!) chose to take
the path with tender coconuts. The team happily gobbled the tender coconuts.
The team spirit showed up then, as there was one tender coconut short, but so
many were happy to share with their friends.
After the
lovely break, we started the steeper part of our climb. This was little tough for some of us, mostly
the new bees. But Rakshit, Gaurav and the team were so supportive ensuring that
every last person was motivated to climb up and have fun. Once again the team
had several stop overs to take pictures much to Gaurav’s anguish (hehe!) and
little time delay. The last part of the ascend was very interesting with dense
thorny shrubs on either side of the path, such that we could not see more than
one person ahead of us. The team ensured that all of us stayed together as a
group by calling out and whistling for the last person. Finally we all reached
the top and the team was thrilled and ecstatic to reach the top and to see the
view.
As many of us
were hungry (once again, we all had bottomless pits as stomach) and we opened
our lunch parcel and enjoyed our delicious meals chatting with each other.
After food, we posed for more pictures and guess what, we all dozed off
following Saurav’s lead. After the lovely break, Gaurav assembled all of us in
a circle and we started playing ice breaker games. Suarav fresh from taking a
lovely nap topped the game.
We started our
descend as we saw black clouds breaking on top of other hills. The descend was
fairly quick and eventless with just couple of quick short breaks. We all
reached the foothill by evening around 4.30 and hit the small eatery again.
Much to our surprise hot bajjis were already ready, thanks to Gaurav. Gaurav
also surprised by remembering our preferences for tea or coffee and
individually asked each of us and made sure we were all satiated and well fed
after our hike. After snacks we all boarded the same bus that brought us to
foot hills in the morning. The team happily dispersed at their stops after
making new friends and eager to stay in touch with each other by meeting in
upcoming treks.
By: Anu Priya
Written By :
Manikanta & Anu Priya
Original Blog : Love the life you live (Manikanta)
Organized By : Gaurav Kamath
Date of event : 11th October, 2015
Place : Horagina Betta
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