Trekking in the Moon light to kalavaarahalli betta.

A wonderful Moon light trekking experience that is indelible from our hearts. It all started at 4 in the evening on 17th of May. My friends decided to go out for the weekend. Then one of our friends suggested this place kalavaarahalli betta. My friends rang me up and said about this when i was in a party along with my aunty. I got excited when i heard about our trip to kalavaarahalli betta.

Everything was set and my friends had already arranged a vehicle for us to reach there before i reached the room. We planned to start at around 10.30 pm, after our supper as the place was just 70 kilometers away from Bangalore.

All of a sudden it started raining and we thought that it would be dangerous for us to do trekking in the night. It stopped raining after few minutes and we started our journey at 11.00 pm from Hanuman temple in HSR layout praying to the god that it should not rain at the time of trekking and for a safe journey.

Now I would like to introduce all my friends Harish, Suresh, Sharma, Shankar, Swamy, Sudheer, Praveen and myself. The driver was playing some nice Telugu music and we were enjoying it and did not know when we reached Chikballapur. The journey to our destiny was just 15 minutes away as none of us was not aware of the route, we had to take help of local people. And with a couple of right and left turns from Balaji talkies, we reached the Kalavaarahalli village. From here it’s a straight route to the foot of the betta.

We parked our vehicle here and bought the tickets for the entrance. We then hired a local guide to help us to reach the top of the betta. As per discussions with our guide, it would take us 2 to 3 hours to reach the top. Since the full moon day was just a day away there was sufficient light when we started trekking at 1 am.


Initially the route was very smooth as we had to go some way behind the hill to start our trekking. One of my friends was accompanying the guide and we all followed them. We took few snaps at the foot of the hill and moved on. We moved at a faster phase in the initial stage but slowed down as we were climbing to the top. After half an hour of trekking, we all were tired and took a break for a quench of thirst. Though there was cold breeze all around us, we were feeling the heat and sweating as we reached the top.

We took intervals in between and reached the top of the hill at around 3.15 am. At the top there was a small partially demolished Shiva temple. There was a seller at the top who was serving hot omelets and tea for the people. The wind was blowing in such a way that it would carry away us. So we couldn’t stay there for a long time. We came down to some distance and managed to collect some dry grass and small twigs and arranged a campfire and it lasted till 4.30 am. We had nap till 5.30 am, and then we woke up and ran to the top of the hill. We did not want to miss the sunrise which was the central attraction of our journey. When we reached the top there were hundreds of people already waiting for sun to wake up. Every one was ready with there cameras to capture the glimpse of the sun. After waiting for more than half an hour, the sun finally raised like a hot red ball in the blue sky from behind the hills at a long distance. It all finished in a flash before we took some snaps, the sun was now not hiding behind the clouds or hills.


After finishing our photo session, we started our journey way back. The journey down the hill was more difficult, as the mud route was slippery. We tried to get down rapidly, but when couple of my friends slipped and fell down, we slugged down our phase. Finally, after one and half hours journey, we came down and every one of us was exhausted. We got refreshed and started our journey back to home. As every one was tired, we felt asleep as soon as we entered the vehicle.

Height: about 1750m from sea level.
Distance: 80 kms from Bangalore
3 kms from Chikaballapur
Nearest Town/Medical Help: Chikkaballapura
Must carry Water, first aid box, Snacks or light food.