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Fantabulous Trek - Horagina Betta

My journey from West to South was never obvious; I was discerning two zones wind up with tedium phase and felt like a solitary bee. I was now 900 km away from my town (Mumbai); now in ‘Garden City’ (Bangalore). Respite from heat, local train, rickshaws but still…{….} Mumbai. I miss you a lot!!!

Hmmm…!!! I am bengalurean now. So, what next?  Work routine started, aliveness sustained but, still in tedium phase.  It was 7 AM, Jan 01, 2017, neither had resolution nor revolution, but decided to pamper myself and not to go overboard. I opened my netbook and asked Google few questions like trekking near Bangalore?, Trekking groups, I fetched with common search which was more reliable..It was Bangalore Trekking Club (BTC).

It had been some time since the exhilarating Trek to Bhivghad, and was missing those amazing moments with Brandians, It was time for next trek, I quickly enrolled with BTC group and on next day I got a mail for One day trek at Horagina Betta, I registered for a event and got shortlisted for Horagina Betta trek scheduled on 08 Jan, 2017. Horagina Betta also known as Brahmagiri. It is around 65 km away from Bangalore and the major hillocks on route to the Nandi Hill. Horagina Betta is 1440 meters above sea level. It was not well known before, but later trekkers frequently started visiting and now a prime place for trekker. The peak hosts has a very beautiful temple.

Sushma and Chaitanya - organizerd from BTC Team along with other BTCians decided to meet at 6:45 am at Majestic Bus Stand; Platform 12, from where our journey was supposed to start. Majestic Bus Stand was around 21 km from my house, so I started my journey at 5 am, took OLA cab and reached at majestic around 6:30 AM. I was grinning and dopey when I reached, I asked Traffic controller about platform 12, and I protruded my eyes out of way to know that platform 12 was 1 km away, I started running, as if it was warm up for Trek, I reached at a location where we supposed to meet and spotted a group of people standing in a disciplined manner, It was no other than BTCians like me, difference was they reached on time. I took a long breath and said “Chaitanya..Yogesh here”

We started our trek at 7 AM, most of them were first timers who are trekking with BTC including myself. Name of these super awesome people; Star-ing Akshat, Vikas (Vicks), Siddarth (Sid), Abhishek, Manikandan, Darsana, Naveen, Rambabu, Divya, Puneet(ji), Paromita, Pratik, Tatum (Tarun), Chandra, Vineetha, Jaganmohan, Chaitanya (Organiser), and Sushma (Organiser)

We were unknown to each other felt nobody is blabby. We took a local bus, I was lucky to get place beside organizer, we had good conversation and he told me few things about BTC, like how it started, how they manage treks, etx., Bus was till Devenahalli from that we were supposed to take another bus and get down at Karahalli Cross. At Karahalli we had a small introduction session followed by breakfast (Idli, Wada and chai/coffee). This time I sensed all are blabby and was happy to know about it, because this is very much indispensable for such trek. It was fun knowing new people, new friends, and sharing new thoughts and views. We packed veg pulav along with us for lunch and started with trek.


During our way, Chaitanya was leading and taking snaps and Sushma was at the end of the trail. We were informed that, if we feel tired we can take as much as break we want, but all were shinning experts and was walking without freezing themselves. At initial stage, patches were good; it was less stony but lot of ironic grasses which made difficult to find a way. Chaitanya managed well to find the best way out of it, and both organiser was constantly taking care of other people by helping them to take a proper step in those ironic grasses Chit Chats, Intellectual stupid stories, memories of previous trek, office complaints, value of life, work pressure all such conversation started which made our way more easy, Now people were started knowing each other and this trek was now exciting me. Hot topics were Hypnotism, Ghost stories, Bandhavgarh, Life of ITans, and yes mind blowing shayari (Patar bhi pigaltay hay toh dil kya cheez hay).


Going ahead, the climb was still quite good, felicitous; thorny bushes, stony path, caricaturing through rock. We followed a trail and reached at certain points and took break of 15 minutes, suddenly pulpy oranges arrived from bag, enough to satisfy thirst followed by water.
Now we went tramping towards the top region, it was a sloppy, stony path so took intermediate halts and motivating snaps. Everyone was bearing in mind of their steps.  Heart beats were little high, it was manageable, but excitement among all was still same. We were now about to reach at top, I was more excited and started taking quick step even though I was breathing high. And finally we reached at top. It took us 90 mins to reach. We were at the top, I uttered, “Wah,,Kya sahi hay nazara yar” It was just superb, I felt slacked, and same reflected on other BTCians, I touched my knees and relaxed for a while during which I spotted a temple, It was a very old temple, we sat inside for a while and took a deep breath. It was just awesome place.

After, we took few steps more, passing temple and reached at peak point. We relaxed for a while, All eyes were looking at a beautiful nature, those small things like road, barren land, birds, those micro sound of air, mountains, vehicle passing from mountains, it was all noted and witnessed. It was peaceful. I enfeebled all my stress and flip-floped my way for lunch

We started our lunch with Veg Pulav, chutny, and snacks. It was tasty pulav. Dairy milk and Milkybar chocolates was a desert. Later on a super duper game started called MAFIA, I was drooling till, It was announced that MAFIA was winner,, AWWW POOR VILLAGER.
We started descending and reached at the bottom of the hill by 4 pm. We took stony route which was challenging than the previous route. It was quite difficult route but both the organizer took care and guided us were to put the step to make way easy. We reached bottom of the hill we found one water tap, we drank the water and washed our face. At a distance we saw a shop of sugarcane juice at the same time our bus arrived so we took a juice in bottle and drank in bus. People were not tired even after a long journey and we were constantly talking about a fruitful trek. Amazing you guys are!!! Finally our trek came to an end and we were going away from each other, slowly one by one got down from bus carrying only memories of Horagina betta. It was superb experience with BTC and cost effective trek (250 rs) including two way transport, breakfast, and lunch  Thanks again to Sushma and Chaitanya, It was very well organized and hoping to see you again.

Written By        : Dr Yogesh
Main Blog          : Blog Site
Organized By     : Sushma & Chaitanya
Date of event    : 8th Jan 2017
Members Count : 17
Place                : Nandi
Pictures            : BTC FB Page

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