Wow trek with wow people to Siddarabetta

It was a rainy Sunday morning and who would wish to wake at 5 am, instead of wrapping yourself inside the blanket in that amazing weather. 17 girls had a tough fight with their beds and made it to the Shanthala silk house meeting point to enjoy their day at Siddarabetta. I took the 6.35 metro from Indiranagar, where I met Sandeep geared up for his run in Cubbon park. Reached Majestic at 6.50 and hurried to the meeting point.

The entire group was new to me other than the organiser Raksha whom I've met in a prior trek. Introducing myself to the entire group, I was excited to be in my first women only trek and waited eagerly for the next mission. Boarded our TT at 7.15 and started our journey. Tejaswini joined us in yeshvantpur and the van was filled with pretty women.

After a quick round of introduction, the ice was broken because we are surrounded by women and just women! The noise level increased as everyone started to chat with their fellow seatmates. That's when I started my conversation with an amazing woman Lakshmi, from whom I learnt how to lead my life confidently and follow what you love the most. At the first sight, she looked very smart and I was sure that she was married, but little did I expect that she would be a mother of 12 year old girl. Then we stopped at a restaurant near dabbaspet where we had idly, dosa and the best akki roti that I've ever had in my life.

Finished our breakfast and headed towards Siddarabetta from dabbaspet town. Since the journey time was going to take an another hour, Raksha initiated the food antaksharie game. Different varieties of dishes started to fly around from the entire nation, especially the south Indian items as the van was filled with majority of south Indians. For once, Hindi didn't dominate the group!

We reached Siddarabetta around 10.30am and started our ascend. There was a small temple at the base and all we saw later were multiple steep steps to the hill top. Started off with my prayer and managed to stay in the front of the group as always. It started to drizzle and we couldn't ask for a better weather. While local people were walking in barefoot including the little ones, we tried so hard to move forward despite wearing the expensive shoes. The only creature which disturbed us on our way were the monkeys. Indeed they pounced on a lady's bag but thank God it ran away.

The climb became even more interesting when we had to climb small steps carved in the rocks. Reached the peak and waited for the entire group in a clifftop to join us. With the monkeys entertaining us now and then, the view from the top was truly mesmerising. Meanwhile everyone completed their mission and we went to visit the cave temple in two groups as someone should be there to safeguard our shoes and bags from the monkeys.

The temple was completely different from what we expected. Lord Shiva was inside a cave with Nandi in front of him. Also we saw lot of people, including few girls from our group, who got themselves drenched completely in the water that started from the cave. It is a belief that this water would help ail your body pains and keep you healthy. After visiting the temple, we explored the mountain even further that we started to climb up. The weather started to change slowly and we didn't know if we should be happy or sad about it. It started to get dark and a heavy downpour was waiting for us. Even though we enjoyed the climate, we were worried about the descend after the rains.

After clicking lots and lots of pictures, we started our way back as it started to pour heavily. We were searching for a place to hide from the rains. Once the rain slowed down, the real adventure began. With few drops and crawls and jumps, we managed to finish our mission completely. Barefoot walk indeed really worked out in finishing our mission without slipping on the rocks.

It was 3pm when we reached the base and hunger panic began. We heard it from the local people that the temple arranges annadhanam everyday and we headed there to have dal rice and buttermilk. Got into the van and headed to Mahalakshmi  temple near dabbaspet. Flew back to Bengaluru as we were getting too late. With a quick round of feedback, our trek came to an end and became memories to be added to the future. Kudos to the organisers Raja Lakshmi and Raksha for organising it so well!

Inspring Hutridurga

Its end of summer and the monsoon had already set. I was eagerly waiting for the monsoon treks to pop out of the list of BTC events and this trek happened. Since it was a 1-day trek, I expected it to be a night trek, but ooohh! It was a day trek after a long gap. Didn't think for even a minute and asked my friends but they gave multiple reasons as usual and ditched me. My next question was if I should go alone. After a long struggle with my mind, I went and hit the register button.

The shortlists were released and my name was in the list! I didn't know if I should be happy or sad. With mixed emotions, I made up my mind to go and have fun. I had no clue about the organisers - Hiren and Gaurav and I couldn't recognise any other names in the list as well.

It was Saturday morning and I went for the jog in Cubbon Park organised by the same guys. Uff! Now I know two people in tomorrow's day trek   Got up at 5AM on Sunday and got ready proactively for my first solo mission. As usual, I didn't inform my parents (sorry dad and mom!) because I knew they will be super scared and now i am going alone as well. Reached the metro at 6.15 and met Hiren. It was very cloudy and we knew that we were going to have difficult times in the trek. We arrived at the Shanthala silk house too early and I met a familiar face - Divya. Now I know 3 people  Boarded into our van and waited for everyone to join us.

We started at 7.15AM and had the typical BTC style introduction. Fun and laughter started to kick in as Sailesh brought beach inside the van and Divya became dhaniya. Following the intro session, we continued with dumbsie and halted in Magadi town for breakfast. We were given a variety of options - idly & vada, masala dosa, Puri and anything in the menu followed by coffee, tea and badam milk. With loaded boxes of pulao for lunch, we got back into the van and set to explore the hutridurga hill. Continued with dumbsie and halted at the starting point of our trek.

The weather was amazing. It was neither sunny nor raining. Hoping that we would get back safely, we started our climb. Initially we walked in the roads and took a left turn into the mud road. The real trek began and we climbed across boulders to reach a steep rocky surface. Even though there were steps carved in the rocks, ascend was very difficult. It drained out our energy, yet the group was amazing that we took lesser breaks and reached the peak easily. We halted at multiple points and took pictures. Thanks Sandeep, for clicking those candid shots! We blindly trusted the organisers who assured us of a small swimming area next to the temple, which was a big mistake. All we found was the dirtiest pit!

Somehow I became the silent person in the group (thank you Vikram for that name!) To my besties who didn't turn up for the trek - calm down people, they don't know the real me.  The main reason for the silence was that I didn't know the common language "Hindi". Everyone but me, in the group knew it   yet, the group pulled my leg and made me sing. Yeeah! They tolerated my bad singing as well. Unlike me, the group had amazing singers. Gaurav went into his love mood and brought out the singer in him. While the Hindi songs were flying in open air at the top of the hill, the monkeys which were wandering around during our lunch time disappeared into nowhere. Sorry guys, that was something I observed and I don't intend to hurt anyone. Just kidding   Also, we had a mini birthday celebration for Nikila as well.

It was 3PM and we started our descent. Gaurav was not able to stop his musical raagas and he kept singing all the way down, which inspired everyone and all started to sing. Even though I was not able to join them in singing, I had fun listening to them. Reached the base super quickly in 45 mins approximately and boarded our van. I hardly felt tired because of the enthusiastic people.

Bidding goodbye to the peak, we headed back to Bengaluru. While Gaurav explained the most useless trick to identify fake currency note, Parth was making weird jokes. We halted for sugarcane juice and snacks in the middle. As I keep writing this blog, the guys in the van are singing songs crazily at the top of their voice. Definitely I was sitting in the middle of mad people, but loved every bit of enthusiasm that they showered to everyone.

Another amazing trek by BTC. Thanks to the entire group for not letting me alone and lending your helping hand when I needed one. Special thanks to Hiren and Gaurav for taking the extra pain in organising it and giving us another memory to save for the future. Oops! I forgot to mention – thanks to the weather! The weather was good. Thanks Sandeep for the pics!