On the last moonlight weekend (31/03/07) we had a wonderful night - trek to Bilikal Betta its small but beautiful hill just near Bangalore with hidden treasure of greenery and picturesque landscapes..

Reporting:

we around 50 participants, assembled in front of Banashankari temple near the main Banashankari Bus depot..

I arrived there around 9.30 pm, the private Bus which would take us to the base , not yet arrived .. anyway, I parked my bike , and started chatting with my friends n known faces its great to see Vishal and Prashant whom I met in our 2 days Beach Trek just previous weekend.

Blissful Bus-Journey:

The Bus came around 10 .30 and immediately we took our seat and the bus started moving through the Kanakpura road as the bus came out of the city limit zooming fast through the highway, we started our favorite past time on such journey --- playing Antakshari .. were divided into two groups front side and back side of the bus it was really great fun and nice time pass though I,like other fellow north Indians, was feeling little bit out-of-place whenever people started singing south Indian numbers .

Anyway, with in a hour, our Bus reached its destination: the base of our trek route !!!!.

Its a small village: we had simple dinner there which were brought by the organizers already prepared

Trek journey through woods :

After having dinner we moved little bit to come out of the village limit --it seemed to be a open paddy field there , Laccchi gave us his usual small briefing we also introduced ourselves one by one ..

After that, around 12.30 our moonlit trek began . Weather was perfect with clear skyand enough full moon light to watch our steps. .after crossing the paddy field we got a clear visible muddy road going through small jungles and after around 10 mins of walk over that we came across a small mantapa

That's a land mark where we took right turn to climb up the hill through a thin footpath -- both side therere shrubs/ jungles .after some time the path was getting little bit stiffAnd Jungle also getting denserHalf an hour or so gone -- we came across a bit plane rocky surface over which we all sit down and took some rest

its almost half way to the top ---anyway, after taking some rest, we again started moving . Now the Path was really bit stiff and we're like panting for breaths and also sweating heavily ....

My colleague Koustabh and his roommate were in fore front as well as Vishal, Prashant theres a kid of 4^th standard whos also walking ahead with full enthu leaving his parents far behind and really , there was a big gap with others who were moving really very slow (later we came to know theres a girl who even vomited on the way - seems to be a first timer because this trekking path was not so tough!!! ) -- So, Deepak, One of the organiser who's leading us in front, asked us to wait and we readily agreed to wait for some time for the slow movers to catch up with us .

and also to catch up our own breath and took some rest..

then, we started moving again and I reached the top with Deepak, and the kid at around 2 pm saw : Vishal , Prashant , Koustabhand his roomy already reached there ..

Another Organiser Anand also joined us next We took some snaps

then , Deepak n Anand went back to help others to come up to the top

And we , on the top started preparing the Campfire

Gala time at the top:

theres small locked room on the top seems somebody stay there . We sit there for some time -- others all came one by one . We started the Camp-fire and also started playing the Dumb shards we divided into two groups gyz versus girls as usual.

After having great time for around 2 hrs at the top, we started our return journeytime was around around 4 .30 -- I wanted to stay back to experience the sunrise view but Lachhi told its not that worth

We took the opposite way (Kanakpura side) to come down it was a Jeep track and quite smooth compared to the one through which we climbed up.

We took hardly 45 mins to climb down the hill through that way ..in the base we saw a temple we waited there for an hour for our Bus its already quite clear and we had some photo session for the last time of this trek trip:

boarded the Bus and we could watch the picturesque view of the hills through the window in the morning light anyway by 7.30 we were back to Bangalore ..

Over all, to me its a easy kind of trek an easily accessible spot and nice place for camping also .

Fact File

The mountain is called Bilikal Betta.It is located in Kanakapura Dist. Its on the Left deviation on the Bangalore-Kananpura Road.

Distance .. . From Bangalore 60 kms

Height : approx. 1500 Ft

Level of Trekking: Easy

Trek-Path: around 5+5 kms (to n fro)

Getting there (from Bangalore ):

Drive on Kanakapura Road to Harohalli, turn left & drive further to Konal Doddi .

Its around 60 Kms from Bangalore, with little deviation on the Bangalore-Kananpura Road .

One can reach the top of the hill climbing through shrub forest. There is a visible walking path through which the participants can reach the top.

Theres a jeep track also, to reach the top from kanakpura side but that route wont give you the thrills of trekking.

** must carry Water, Snacks or light foods, first aid box ..also carry tents if you like to camp there overnight..