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.

Cave exploration in Antargange

College life came to an end and landed in a job in Bangalore. Life was running smoothly, but something was missing. Life was monotonous. Despite having everything, it lacked something and it took some time to find that ‘something’. I came back to Bangalore in July 2015 after my internship break and I decided to not to waste my time or life. Everyone knew that Karnataka is famous for treks and adventures, but I didn’t get the right set of friends with similar interests. I can’t blame them, but my best friend Vj ditched me and went to Antargange when I was on a holiday. 

That triggered my conscious and I decided to go on my own without waiting for any support. While I was looking for trekking groups in the internet, Neha also joined me and we registered in Thrillophilia for a night trek to

Antargange on July 10, 2015. Yes, our first trek in Bangalore happened to be a night trek.

Well, I have always had difficulties in convincing my family about these treks and trips and this time was no exception. So, I called my Dad on Friday before leaving for the trek and politely told that I was going on a trek with Neha. As usual, he became scared, but didn’t have an option and let me enjoy the fun. Me and Neha packed our stuffs and got ready for our first adventure. We got a bus to Marathahalli as it was one of the meeting points. Unknowing about the trekking group and our co-trekkers, we were having typical girls conversations at 10PM in Marathahalli. 

Finally, the van came around 10.30PM and we met our organizer. Our first step into the vehicle and we were happy to notice that there were girls in the group. There were few school kids lined up at the last row and four colleagues from the same office were also in the group. Throwing away the fear, we rested for a while as an adventurous night was ahead of us. As we passed Kolar, we could witness few mountains and the van started to ascend. We were asked to not to shout and disturb the localites as we might get into trouble if anything happened.

The van came to a halt and we were asked to take a stick and sleeping bag along with us. Since it was our first night trek, the torch lights were out and the adventure began. We walked across few boulders and reached the main cave. Gathered our bags and other items in a small area and stepped inside the cave. It was completely dark (that’s implicit as it was a cave) and the path was very narrow. There were times when we had to crawl or glide between the rocks. We walked inside the silent space and halted at one point, where we started to hear mild sound of water somewhere far away. That’s when our guide told us that this place got its name as ‘Anthargange’ because it is believed to be the source of Ganges, but reaching that point is a difficult stretch as the place was inhabited by wild animals. So, we clicked few pictures and planned to get out of the caves. 

After few struggles, we got out and looked at the bright stars. We were lying under the moonlight and looked at the lighted city in a distance. Being away from the city and the polluted environment gave a relief that made us to stay back in the place for a very long time. Once everyone were out of the cave, we walked across a flat land and found a place to sleep until dawn. But it was time for campfire and people were narrating their stories till the fire went off. Since my friend Neha wrapped herself inside the sleeping bag, I also tried to sleep for some time but it was of no use. I woke up around 5 AM and thought about what I was doing. Everyone woke up around 6 AM and we learnt to roll our sleeping bags and headed back to the van. 

Halted in a restaurant for breakfast and slept nicely on our return travel to Bangalore. With lots of memories for the future, we got dropped in Marathahalli around 10 AM and thus came an end to my first night trek. Thanks again, Neha!