Hulukadi Betta Trek – The lesser known hill 14/02/2016

Best of the beast: Hulukaddi betta

Hulukaddi betta: There’s plenty of safe parking space for bike and car at the base of the hills. There is a shop at the entrance arch where you can get snacks, cold drinks and water. Please carry supplies as you won’t be getting water and food atop. As we started trekking we observed that there were very few people at the place, I knew there was a night trek event by Getbeyond limits, so I was expecting to see them. The entire stretch is well routed with stairs to help the devotees scale the hill with ease. There’s another route exactly to the opposite of the hills used by people long back, the trail on the other side is tough without stairs. It can add extra essence to the trek as long as you are accompanied by the guide or locals. Getbeyond limt takes you from that route.

Parking area at the base of the hills

Arch at the entance marks the start of the trail. There are shops to the left of it.

Well constructed stairs at the beginning. Painted white to help devotees climb during peak hours.

And then there are some roughly placed stairs.

As you go to the top there are steps carved into the hills with supporting railings

As we gained altitude we had enchanting view of dozens of lakes surrounded by green paddy fields stretched across the the horizon. The misty weather and scenic view was a treat to the eyes. The trek is easy but its tiring, thank fully sun wasn’t too harsh on us yet. Half way through the trek we crossed getbeyond limits group, couldn’t get a chance to talk with them though 🙁 After repeated breaks at every 5 minutes we finally reached the flat ground, where there is a pond to the left and to the right there’s a path to the temple. The pond is created naturally between shallow dept of the rocks. One can take a dip in the water here but since its stagnant water the cleanliness of the water was put to the test. We proceeded towards the temple but it was closed. Well most of the people think this is the dead end and return from this point. The real fun begins behind the temple. There is a small path behind the temple which leads to the other side of the hill, the path is short but be careful while crossing this stretch as it goes through rough grasses and you don’t wanna step on any reptiles.

First view of the Lingapura lake. There are numerous other lakes visible but they are blurred in this photo

Honeybees

And there getbeyond limits group descending while we were ascending

Taking rest every five minutes but we always look fresh for the photo 😛

You reach flat ground. Pond to the left

Path to the summit to the right. You are almost there

Pond atop. One can take a dip in this water (dont know how clean it will be)

Took us an hour to reach the summit of the hills from the base. The backyard of the temple is most amazing as you can have a clear view of the surrounding hills, if you are here early you can even witness sunrise from this point. It was already sunny by the time we reached summit but the cold breeze kept our soul cool. We had snacks and some photos, we tried exploring the other path which getbeyond limits take. We tried descending from the other side but we ended up with dead end everytime. Even Jayaraj and Abhi didn’t have any idea about this route so we decided to descend from the same route. 

The backyard of the temple.

Another scenic view of the surroundings. Its not clearly visible in the photos though

There we pose

Temple was open by the time we were returning (around 9 am). We had darshana of lord Veerabhadra and Shiva. We spent couple of minutes there before we left.

Near the Veerabhadra temple entrance.

The bell

Lord Ganesha and nandi idols are seen as soon as you enter the temple

3 feet door to reach the core of the temple where lord Veerabhadra’s idol is installed and worshipped

4 feet magnificent statue of lord Veerabhadreshwara at the core of the temple

Shiva temple

Shiva Lingam at the core of the temple

Descend: As expected descend was easy and quick. We saw a lot of families climbing, also there were some kids who were taking dip in the pond at the top I mentioned earlier. We returned back to the base, we wanted to visit one of the lakes which we saw from the hills. we proceeded to the lake which was hardly half kilometers from the hills.

Yep!! we are just posing intentionally

Lingapura lake

We stopped by the Lingapura lake to have a good look at it. There was no one who could tell us about the lake which left us clueless about the depth of the water. We didn’t dare to go close to water as the dept seemed high. The sun was upon our head and we were dying out of hunger. We quickly rode back to Jayaraj’s house. We were greeted by tasty food. After breakfast Jay’s father took us to their mango and coconut farm. Had two fresh tender coconut water and talked with uncle for most of the time. I have no words to describe about the hospitality and care he offered, I liked him for his generosity and simplicity. He made us feel like we were one of his own son. That’s the beauty of village tradition which we could never learn living in big cities.

Jayraj with new born cattle

That’s how decently we posed in front of Jay’s father 😛

Riding back: Vinay and myself headed back to Bangalore, we faced hard time riding under the burning sun. As took around one and hour hour to reach back home. We returned back to home by 3 pm.

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