WOW trek to Siddara Betta - 12th June, 2016
It was June 12,
2016 - Sunday morning. The sun was already out, scorching bright at 7:30 a.m.
17 wowbies boarded the bus, all set to trek up Siddarabetta. As the journey
started, we had a round of introduction. Glad we had few Yoga and Karate
champs!! Raksha (our organizer and my savior - I will tell you why later :P )
suggested an ice-breaker game related to food names. This game increased our
craving for breakfast more. We had all the names, starting from sugar, salt and
beer to Soan papdi, Navratan Kurma, schezwan varieties, tarts, pulusu and
kozhambu varieties, and what not!! - everyone just dug into their brains to
pull out a food name, the two teams fighting over each other, in case the
opponent team came up with its own recipe with all due creativity.
We stopped by at a
highway side hotel, to have our breakfast and the splendid coffee gave us a
dose of enthusiasm. We reached the destination sooner, just after our hunger
went dead. We reached the spot, and geared up to ascend. Siddarabetta, meaning
“abode of saints”, has mythological significance and is believed that for
several hundreds of years, this hillock was the abode of great seers and thus
the name. There is water spring atop the hill, which is believed to be very
pure and heal the body pain if any, of having been trekked up ( the stories
that I have heard off).
The steps are built to some distance, but wide, little
steeper and greater in height. Our legs started aching on climbing a few
steps. Just after the steps ended, the surface became rocky and steep - one has
to mind their steps very carefully. Although the steps are carved on the rocky
surface, its still not an easy task. Occasionally, we would encounter a local
vendor, who would ask us buy some eatables from them, we just cracked a lighter
joke and moved on. There were many monkeys around, unafraid and undeterred on
showing sticks or shooing them away, who would show up their canny teeth and
make us scared in return. This was when Raksha was screaming loud to everyone
to have sticks, and indeed brought one for me.
With all these
buzzing of monkeys around, finally reached the top, where a temple is situated
inside the caves. The breeze was soothing anyways. We waited until everyone was
up there, and then decided to go inside the temple in groups (somebody had to
be there to guard our bags and shoes from the monkeys!! ). The temple was
inside a cave, felt very cooler. A couple of us took the shower from the spring
water. It was chilling cold yet soothing the body.
We went a little
further, and came across few more peaks and caves-like. The view from there was
breath-taking, I had never thought our next-sibling district Tumkur has such a
beauty in it. We could see the clouds passing, and the showers moving along
with it. I had prayed to Sun-god, to spare us some mercy (jeez..I had turned a
few shades darker with my previous trek ) and he did heed to it luckily, oops!!
but the rains din’t. Just when we were about to take a group snap and wrap up,
the rains mercilessly lashed out showers. Most of us got drenched completely,
except the ones who had ponchos.
And now the real
adventure started. The caves and the rocky surface which made us thrilled while
climbing, made us skip a heart-beat while coming back. It had become more
slippery and our shoes would slid, just like on ice. It just took our trek
experience to a next level. While few decided to go bare-footed, few others
resorted to sliding down. Helping each other cross paths on the narrow edges,
hugging the rocks and descending gave much more thrill. One had to really be
present there, to get it what it was.
Special thanks to RajaLaxmi and Raksha for organizing this trek. And all the
fabulous ladies for joining this trek and making it memorable. Cheers!!
Written By : Tejaswini Mallesh
Organized By : RajaLaxmi & Raksha 12th June 2016
Date of event :12th June 2016
Place : Siddara Betta
Pictures : BTC FB Page
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