Trek to Siddara Betta

It was a long time since I went for an outing. So when on Friday evening Shridhara asked if I am interested to join him for a trekking in Siddara Betta, I just said yes. Without knowing much about the place, I started from my house early morning on Saturday (7th July).  It was a cool start of the day and went to Hope Farm first to receive Shridhara. His friend Rajesh was supposed to join us in Dobbaspet. Sridhara drove the bike and it took one hour to come out of city and hit Tumkur road. Driving on Tumkur road or NH4 was a good time and we reached to Dobbaspet in next half an hour. There we left the NH4 and drove till Koratagere town. In between some patches of roads were not good but it was a good village side road and full of picturesque. In Koratagere we met Rajesh, had tea at one road side shop and moved towards our destination. At eleven thirty we reached to Siddara Betta. It was 120 KMs from Hope Farm and took little more than three hours. We parked our bikes near a shop at the foothill. There we hired one local villager as our guide. He was well aware of the hill and look like a regular guide to the trekkers.

Just after the start of trek, I felt some doziness and got a weird feeling that I can not make it. Same was with Shridhara but we overcame on this and started going up again. The hill was steep in starting. There were steps made on the boulders to help trekker to climb up. Rajesh is a regular trekker and he was going up smoothly. I was following him. From different positions at the hill, we could see the plane below for awesome views. We moved further up and after one hour of trekking we reached up to the Shiva temple which is in a cave. We removed our shoes and entered into the cave. There is a water well inside the cave and the priest said that this is a holy kund. After initial hesitation I had a bath with the cold water and felt relieved of all the tiredness. In fact there are several small wells on the top. One can get water if he will dig five feet only. After a small puja, our guide took us for the cave exploration. Moving in the cave was difficult and sometime you have to crawl under the boulders. It's difficult to go inside without a guide or familiar person. We saw some small den where saints used to stay and do meditation for years. Though I did not find any saint there but I could feel that it is the best place to meditate; before trekker like us started coming here :-). This hill is also famous for its medicinal and curative plants. I could realize that the stories which I heard in childhood; might be true that saints used to meditate for years with some leaves and water.

After the cave exploration we started trekking again and this time it was easy as it was mostly plane. Then we reached to the top of Siddara Betta and feel amazed to see the view of sister hills and surrounding. It was a big plane atop of hill and we thought of having a night trek or night stay on the hill. As it was late after noon so we started our lunch which we got packed in Dobbaspet. Lunch after a long trek will always taste delicious and thats what it was. After spending some time there we started coming down. In end of the coming down, our guide took us to a different and very slippery trek making it more challenging. While coming we could see the cave where people used to organize yoga camp. When we reached back to the foothill we were tired enough but had to drive back. We had a tea, paid the guide and started back. It started raining in between but stopped in a very short time too. After driving for 90 KM in one go I stopped just before city entrance. I always feel difficulty in finding ways in city and get confused in signal chaos. Sridhara drove the bike for rest of the stretch. By eight I reached back to my house with a pleasure of the good trekking and tiredness to get retire in the bed soon.