An adventurous trek to Tapteshwara Betta

It was already three months since the Merthi Gudda trek and I started missing trekking. On checking with Hari, I came to know that few of them were planning to do a day trek on Sunday, 27^th March 2022. The plan was to hike Tapteshwara betta, a part of the Kaiwara Kailasagiri hills. While there are regular treks under the Karnataka eco tourism (https://myecotrip.com/trailDetail/13/kaiwarabetta), the Tapteshwara trail is less frequented and seems to be dangerous based on a YouTube video that came about an year ago (https://youtu.be/8Mcyq7wJEec).

The regular Kaiwara betta hosts cave temple that is famous. Kaiwara is a popular name in ancient history starting from Krita yuga (Vritasura story), Treta yuga (Lakshmana created a lake here during Ramayana) Dwapara yuga when the town was known by named Eka chakra nagara and the hills were named as Bheema bakasura hills based on the fight between the two. In recent history, the town was known for Kaiwara Tatayya or Yogi Narayana Yatindra who lived between 1726 and 1836. He wrote devotional poems in Kannada and Telugu.  Further information can be read at https://www.tirthayatra.org/kaiwara/.

There were supposed to be 8 of us, going to Kaiwara by two cars. Pratap, Varada, Varada’s wife and I by Varada’s car and Yatish, Vinayak, Yatish’s friend and Hari by Hari’s car. We decided to meet after Devanahalli toll for breakfast around 7:00. I tried to set alarm for the next morning at saw that there was one at 5:10 which I chose and went to bed. Next morning when Varada called after leaving RR Nagar at 6:10, I got up realizing that the alarm set was for 5:10 pm! I rushed through to reach the ring road at Laggere around 6:25. Varada was waiting near Rajkumar Samadhi and Hema dropped me to the place. Obviously, we were running late and reached the restaurant Srinidhi Vaibhav beyond Devanahalli at 7:30. Hari, Yatish and Vinayak had already finished their breakfast. We had quick breakfast of Idli-Vada and left together. We followed Hari’s car and arrived close to the place. Yatish got down on the main road and went looking for the trail. As he didn’t come back in several minutes, we decided to search for him and start the trek. Due to the hurry in the morning, I had forgotten to carry my water. There was a five litre can in Hari’s car that we left as it was heavy. After some time of searching, we found Yatish who seemed to have discovered a way. It was 9:00 when we started walking up. A guy on motorbike (Murali, whom we met during our return) was telling us not to go there and go further, but we had to catch Yatish.

We walked for half an hour through a stretch that didn’t look like a trail and came to a steep rock that seemed difficult to climb. Varada and his wife were a little behind and decided not to continue further. Despite our requests not to go further, Yatish decided this was the way, as we saw the steel ladder further ahead. With lot of difficulty, he managed to climb and convinced Pratap to follow him. I was thinking that even if we manage to cross this hurdle, there may be a bigger hurdle ahead. Hari, Vinayak and I decided to turn back and look for a route to join the actual trail.

 

Start of Yatish's trail!

Rock climbing

We descended and walked next to a big rock, the path was just not there, and we had to make way through thorny bushes. This led to lots of cuts and bruises. In a short while, I found a trail that was going upwards. It was also steep and slippery due to the dry grass but was clearly the path that was used earlier by people. In about 15 minutes, we reached the spot where we had to take an iron ladder downwards. This was the ladder Yatish had seen earlier. We also realized that Yatish and Pratap were stuck after the first climb as the second climb is too steep.

We were wondering how to pull them up. There was a small temple like place with a flagpole bearing God Maruti. The wooden pole looked ling and string enough to get them through. Yatish was particular the two people help the pole from our side. I stayed on top and Vinayak and Hari tried pulling Yatish using the flagpole. It took several attempts, and with Pratap pushing from below, Yatish could come up. Now was Pratap’s turn. For him there was no help from below. After some effort, it was seen that whole holding one end of the pole, moving clockwise made the climb easier. Varada called from down and we advised him to return to Bangalore. Now all five of us were all on the top and had to cross a steep rock with the help of chain that was fixed to it. Some of them literally crawled even with the help of the chain. Once we crossed the rock, there was a long iron ladder downwards and then with the help of a tree, we could get to another ladder that led to the Shivalingas that were inside a cave. While the larger linga and a big trident (Trishul) looked very divine, the place was a mess due to the trash left over by devotees. We consumed the fruits dry fruits and chikkis that were with us. Unfortunately, we had completely run out of water, and were dehydrated due to the tough climb and scorching heat. We spent some time there, took pictures and carefully retraced our path to reach the trail downwards. It took about half and hour to come down the steep trail.

Pratap, Hari and Yatish were ahead, and it took some time for Vinayak and me to trace them. They were resting at Murali, a local farmer’s place. He was the same person who was trying to guide us to the proper trail in the morning. Murali was kind enough to give us enough water to quench our thirst. He normally bought the RO water from a vending place and kept in the small hut in the middle of his land where he grew tomatoes, capsicum and few other vegetables. He also told how revered the Shivalinga was.

Tapteshwara

Savior Maruti!

A temple at the base

With Murali

Now was the time to quench the hunger. Morning’s idly, vada had melted down long ago. We visited a dhaba called “Nature’s aroma” near the Kaiwara cross. The food was sumptuous and delicious. After lunch, Hari dropped us back. I got down at Laggere and caught and auto to reach home by 18:30.

Though it was a one-day trek, The Tapteshwara Betta hiking had the twists and turns of a thriller, and the adventurous experience is unforgettable. 

Merthi Gudda Trek

 

 

Our Kurinjal trek in September was in a small group of four people and I was keen to go for another western ghat trek in the larger group. It took talking to some members of the WhatsApp group and the number went up to fifteen. We had new members as well as some returning after a long gap.  

 

Hari as usual kept the place a secret and we decided to go for the trek on the weekend of December 18-19. People who joined the group were: Hari, Guruprasad, Gururaj, Sujith, Pramod, Chinmay, Yatish, Vinayak, Renukumar, Vishal, Manish, Pratap, Varadarajan, Rishi and I. Rishi was the youngest, and had replaced his father Raju who couldn’t join.

 

For introduction, Merthi Gudda (Merthikhan Gudda or Meruthi Gudda) is a part of the Kuduremukha mountain range in the western ghats near Kalasa in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka. This is 1,676 m (5,499 ft) tall peak adjacent to Ane Gudda (1346 m, 4,415 ft), Kuduremukha (1,894 m, 6,214 ft) and Kurinjal (1159 m, 3800 ft). The base camp is Basarikatte (ಬಸರಿಕಟ್ಟೆ) village in Koppa Taluk.

 

The list of things to carry and time of pickup were shared. On Friday night starting 22:00, we got picked up from PES college stop to Gurgunte palya stop. I had a long wait at Laggere ring road where I had to bear the strong smell of kababs emanating from a roadside pushcart shop that had a brisk business. The vehicle was a 21-seater spacious bus. The destination was announced as Merthi Gudda while we all were on the bus and Renu circulated a nice drone video of the hill. Around 0:30, we stopped for tea-biscuits and took a group picture. The journey was comfortable though many of us couldn’t sleep well. It was 6:50 when we reached the homestay. It was quite an effort as our bus could go only up to Samse, from where we were picked up in a 4x4 vehicle by Narayananna and taken to “Uttunga’ homestay through a roller coaster drive. The homestay is certainly one of the best we had ever seen, with very comfortable rooms and stunning view of the valley and hills. Unfortunately, the homestay is far away (33 kms) from Basarikatte, thus adding a couple of hours in getting to start the trek. Staying either at homestays in Badanekhan or Jainkhan estates would be ideal for this trek, but Hari couldn’t find a place that could accommodate 15 people on that weekend. Nevertheless, the homestay was indeed excellent, and the hosts were very hospitable.

At a tea stall on the way

View from Uttunga homestay

Breakfast

Team ready

With Narayan anna

Tea estate

Ganesha temple at Samse

On the way to Basarikatte

Start of the trek

Basarikatte

We had breakfast of idli and upma at 8:30 and left the homestay at 9. We were dropped to Samse by the 4x4 vehicle where we took our bus to reach Basarikatte. It was 10:30 when we reached Basarikatte. Here we met out guide Surendra. We started walking on the concrete road and within few minutes had to climb and cross barbed wire fence. It took some time for all of us to cross. Then we started walking uphill next to the fence for some time. The trail was nice through a canopy of trees and reached a grassland from where we could see the views of both the town below and the hill in front. The walk uphill was mostly on the ridge. On the way we had couple of photo opportunities. In the second spot, I and Vinayak waited for about half an hour Pramod, Chinmay and Sujith to catch up. We then proceeded in the last phase of the climb to reach the peak. There is Ganesha idol in a small mantapa. A Karnataka flag also adorns the mantapa. There was another group of trekkers on the peak who offered us some girmit (bhel). They were going to go down, stay and watch Kambala. It was 14:00 by the time we joined our group. We had our packed lunch. As most of us had given big boxes for filling the lunch. We were having too much food with us, that we couldn’t finish. The 360^o view from the peak was breathtaking. We spent some time clicking pictures. On the way down we were to get down to Horanadu. Surendra, our guide was in a hurry to go down as he had to catch the last bus from Horanadu to Basarikatte.

 

Crossing a barbed wire fence in the beginning

First view

Town

Ridge walk

At a stop

At the top

We started coming down around 14:50. Earlier idea was to climb Ane gudda and get down to Horanadu, but looking at the time, it wasn’t feasible. Surendra said walking through the estates was shorter, but sometimes the owners may object. However, we didn’t face any such issue on the way. Once we came down, we realized that we were exactly between Basarikatte and Horanadu. While some of us walked to Horanadu, others took a drop by the jeep that Hari arranged. At Horanadu, we had our vehicle waiting for us. It took half an hour to reach Samse where we were picked up by the 4x4 vehicle and reached the homestay by 19:30. We freshened up and had the usual karaoke session followed by dinner.

 

Sunaset

Next morning Guruprasad, Renukumar, Hari and I went for a trek behind the property to see the sunrise. The trail was steep and slippery in some places. We walked about 2.5 kms to a place called Banikonda where couple of houses were there. The view all around was beautiful and we witnessed sunrise on the hills at 7:30. We met a local farmer who talked about the difficulties of living in these remote places. They grow rice on the slopes of the hills by the way of step farming. The ground was prepared by their forefathers long ago.

 

Morning trek

Rice fields. Kuduremukha in the background

It was almost 9:00 by the time we returned to Uttunga. The breakfast of paddu and shavige baat was ready. We finished the breakfast and got ready to leave. It was 10:30 by the time everyone was ready, and we got a drop by the four-wheel drive to Samse. Next, we decided to go to Abbakudige where Soormane falls was located. It was earlier known as Abbukudige (or Abbugudige) falls created by Bhadra river. It was at a distance of 14 kms covered in 30 minutes. The last bit was through a single road. Private people provide car parking a collect money. The view of the falls was breathtaking and access to the bottom wasn’t very difficult. The time under the heavy shower was very refreshing. We spent about half an hour there and returned to our vehicle. Once again, I feel it is high time our government cares for these places and develops them as good tourist spots. It will be more organized, and the government will earn a revenue.

Breakfast

 

Soormane falls

On the way back, we started looking for a place for lunch, but many restaurants were closed due to Datta Jayanti. Yati felt that Goddess Annapoorneshwari is unhappy as we didn’t do her darshan (!). Finally, we found a place close to Hassan for non-vegetarians, and sometime later a restaurant in Hasan for vegetarians. The traffic back home was heavy, and we reached home late.

 

Sunset on the way back

It was a wonderful trek with nature’s abundance and the pleasant company of friends made it more memorable. The Uttunga home stay, though was not near to the trekking start point, was certainly one of the best on terms of view and comfort.

The GPS tracking of the hiking can be seen here:

Upward:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7977231321

Downward:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7977233151