A night out in Horaginabetta

Another long weekend was ahead and I was eagerly waiting for some 2-day trek from BTC, but then I realized little late that long treks in summer would drain out the life in you. Expecting at least a night trek, Horaginabetta popped up and registrations were closed overnight. So, it was just not me but many people were interested. 

After doing some extensive food shopping with my friend, we got ready for our first night trek with BTC. Since it was Friday, the roads were jammed and we had to reach Majestic before 5.30pm. We were running to find the platform and finally found the big group. Boarded the sophisticated bus at 5.50pm and bid good bye to Bengaluru for the night. Reached Chikballapur around 7pm and then we had to catch another mode of transportation to Karahalli cross where our trek would start. Our organizers were smart enough to get a van and the entire group travelled together. Reached the base at 8pm and we had our first intro session. Since we were 21 in number, it was getting difficult to keep track of everyone's name. Then people got scattered to hunt for dinner (few lazy ones including the organizers did not get dinner from home despite mentioning in the list 😝), but poor things could only find few packets of lemon rice. While few others had some snacks in the so-called-bakery, I was watching everything silently. Being an early-to-bed person, I was in my own world fighting to get rid of my sleep.

It was 9pm and all were set for their night trek adventure. Nandi hills were right in front of us, but we were not able to spot Horaginabetta in the dark. As we walked across the village, dogs welcomed us and we reached the mountain base. Lokith would walk few extra miles and look for some trail. Ameer was at the tail end to keep track of the entire group. While we had torches to find our path, Vj had an emergency lamp and brought light to the entire group. No wonder people named her as the “lantern girl”! 

The initial path wasn't very difficult, although we had to cross between huge thorny plants which scratched our hands and legs. We walked across boulders and bushes and reached the "main road". It was a proper mud road which lead to the misleading junction. Under mere human assumption, we took a wrong decision of taking the path towards right. Took small chocolate breaks while waiting for the late comers to catch up and our trek progressed with enthusiasm. We started to mingle with the group, but little did we know that we were walking in an incorrect path. At some point of time, there was no trail ahead and few went searching for any. This became the perfect adventure and we were sitting under the almost full moon and chatting. The silence and the moon light made us forget the noisy Bangalore environment.

After an extensive search, the organizers came back with a sad news that we had to walk all the way back. As we had no other option, we followed and quickly reached the junction. Few torches found that people have actually drew arrow marks to help us, but we had happily ignored it. Although we knew that we found the right path, the steep climb made us tiring. There were no flat surfaces and we kept on climbing assuming that this would take us to the hilltop. We came across long bushes and a small temple was visible. Few more steps and there we were under the moonlight with the complete view of the city.

Destination reached! It was 1pm and I didn't know where my sleep went off. Set our campfire and started to open our food items. Few heated the water and used it for their cup noodles. Dinner time done and it was time for some fun. It started with the so-called-ragging session for the first timers with people singing and narrating ghost stories. Then mafia came into the picture. While people were finding it difficult initially to keep track of the rules, the trial game broke the ice. Poor guy Ragothaman was always killed in the initial rounds. Ali was using his brains extensively and made his decisions. Soon the game turned into a big chaos.

Meanwhile few were sleepy and the crowd became lesser. Dumbsie was the next obvious game in the list. All the weirdest movie names came into the limelight. I am sure no one in the group would forget how Vj enacted "40 year old virgin" 😁 While few movies were very difficult, there were easier ones too. It was 4 AM and people started singing songs. It became very cold as the wind was very ferocious. We were surrounding the campfire and didn't let the fire to go down. Then we played food Antaksharie, while it turned to be very hilarious than expected. New innovative dishes from around the globe were invented, best would be the yoghurt varieties and African to American cheese pizzas.

The sun started to rise and it was time to take some of the best profile pictures. We started posing in all the cameras and jumped to the sky for some fancy pictures which turned out to be very funny. Bidding goodbye to the peak, we started to descend quickly as the sun would burn us. As usual, getting down was super quick. Indeed we took the rocky shortcut path and reached the base in an hour. There were few places where we had to be extra careful as the path was very sloppy, but it added to the adventure.

 

At 8am, the night out at Horaginabetta came to an end. We drank tender coconut and had fresh water melon and boarded our return bus to Chikballapur. Took another bus to majestic and reached around 10.30am. Bidding good bye to the group, we parted in our way. Thanks a lot everyone for making this an another amazing trek. The enthusiasm level never went down, which was the best part of the group. Of course, all these wouldn't have been possible without you guys - Ameer & Lokith.