One day WOW trek to Achula Betta - 16th Dec 2017

When my daughter turned 2, I wanted to take time for myself. I wanted to trek and decided to join Bangalore trekking club ( I knew about it earlier from a friend). Was waiting for a one day trek along with right time at home (hubby has to be around that day, to take care of the little one). “DING” that’s when we got the notification for One day WOW trek to Achula Betta. There was another one day trek on the same day from BTC. I had to choose between the two and I chose WOW trek. I am very happy about the decision.

I quickly registered myself with BTC and got my member ID. Registered for the event too. My name was in wait list and later it got confirmed. Bharti and Shilpa were the coordinators and they were very helpful and prompt in responding to all our queries and made us at ease. Shilpa started the trip with few girls from Kallasipalaya by bus, Bharti and the remaining gang joined them at Banshankari. We were 15 totally.

It was around 1 hour and 30 mins of journey. We all shared smiles and few talks. We filled the mandatory forms and ate our breakfast in the bus. We got down at Achula village, co ordinators quickly briefed us the Do’s and Dont’s of BTC. We also introduced ourselves to the gang.

When we quickly started our walk towards the base camp, local villagers started warning us of elephants and safety issues as women traveling alone. We simply brushed them aside and continued our walk. 1.5kms and we reached our base camp. Many first time trekkers, so Bharti and Shilpa told us to climb at our own comfortable speed and not to hurry at all.

Bharti lead the gang and Shilpa trailed. We started our trek at 10.10am and reached the top by 1pm. We had quiet some adventure discovering the correct path. It was a very bushy place. Small thorns pricked everyone all over, but that didn’t stop us from exploring. We took many breaks in between (we pampered ourselves with orange candies, buttermilk, oranges and bananas). During one such break our co-trekker Yashavini collected all the orange peels from us and told us of how Bio-enzymes can be easily prepared at home using the citrus peels. This will help our family and environment by avoiding lot of chemicals and we also save money “double dhamaka”. Before we could reach the peak, two people had their shoe soles coming out (always carry feviquick and cellotape).

When we reached the peak we found a beautiful small pond with lilly flowers , a big Nandhi statue and a small temple. We all rested there. We were able to take a wonderful view of the town and farmlands below. It was extremely windy out there and a picturistic view. We had our potluck ( lunch , variety of wonderful lunch ). After lunch we rested for a while and started clicking snaps and playing games.

After 1 hour of rest we started our way back. We climbed down very quickly (1 hour). After reaching the base camp we had our feedback session with lots of laughs. Then we started walking towards the bus stop, taking lots of memories and experiences with us. We had to change 2 buses to come to the city. Finally at around 8.30 we reached Bhanshankari.

It was great trek with lots of learning, adventure and fun J. Thanks to Shilpa and Bharti for organizing such a wonderful trek.

Written By     : Nandini

Organized By : Shilpa & Bharti

Date of event : 16 Dec, 2017

Place              : Achula Betta

Pictures          : FB Album