An MoonLight Trekking Trip to Skandagiri Urf Kalavaarahalli Betta

It’s been quite a long time we had gone for a trip after our ‘goa’ trip with engg classmates in December. All my office friends were bored of the office routine and are requesting for nice trip this weekend as we have an ‘Good Friday’ holiday along with the weekend. So I sent out my usual mail to everyone proposing a 3-step trip for the 3-day weekend.

Trip-I: Moonlight trek to Skandagiri (12 people agreed)
Trip-II: Trekking trip to Thadiyandmol (5 people agreed)
Trip-III: Bungee Jumping. (4 people agreed)



How to reach there: From bangalore its around 70 kms on the Bangalore-Hyderabad Highway we have to take left turn near chikballapur.

Participants: Myself, shyam, naren, ranjeet, vamsi, satti, yogi, narappa, bhanu, narayana, naveen, aswij (naveen’s friend), rajashekhar, shashank & nagendra (last minute addition).

All except for nagendra are employees of tata elxsi.
Date: 9th April 2009 at 10:30 pm
After all the mail hustle, we set out for the trip. We booked a tempo traveler accommodating 13 people. As per the plan all have to meet at my flat at 9:30 but as usual, we started to our destination at around 10:30 with a total of 15 people (Had to Adjust in the Tempo Traveler).

Reaching kalawara Footsteps:

Everyone forgot to get the songs CD’s inspie of having discussed before, so we sent shyam to our room to get some movies. We started off playing ‘American Pie’ slowly after a few laughs everyone got bored and we changed to ‘Dostana’.

Our driver did not know the route to ‘Skandagiri’ (he did not even heard it) after many enquiries and efforts, finally his boss explained route upto ‘Nandhi Hills’ (even he does not know about skandagiri).

After enquiring a couple of people on the way, we reached ‘Nandhi Hills’, from there we went staright in search of ‘skandagiri’. After realizing that we were going in the wrong route we took a u-turn and then came back to nandhi hills again.

At that time luckily we found a guy (On his way for a taking a leak) and he explained us the correct route to ‘Kalawara’. Then on his advice we travelled in the same route through which we came finally after 2 more enquires we found ‘Kalwara’.

Initial Wave of Shocking News....:

After reaching there we were shocked to hear that the ‘Night trek’ is banned there. But we were resilient to go back and started the trek hoping that we wont find anybody asking questions. There Lot of guides explaining about the risks involved without taking a guide (That’s what is their job), we said no to all of them and started for the trek.
After a few steps we observed a guide following us, we started climbing at one point he came to us and telling that ‘U will be troubled if u don’t take a guide and your previous batch had troubled the same way!!!’ I was strongly opposite to taking a guide, in my sense it will take away all the fun in trekking and getting lost.

If at all you want a guide here is the number: Nagesh-9972733810

Finally on the pressure from other frineds we decided that we will ask the route from the guide but we will find it on our own. Everyone agreed, he took us to the starting point and from there he explained the route which is merely a simple rule ‘always take left’ that’s all, for that we gave him 100 rs/- and said good bye.

Trek Starts in the misty night...

From that point onwards we started our trek, it was approx. 1 am. We moved at a quick pace resting shortly in between. Slowly the slope increased as well as mist during the climb.

Gradually everyone was feeling the strain even though the trail was not that tough especially, naveen, satti and yogi. With yogi’s punching dialogues and jokes we enjoyed as we stopped for a break.

I was enjoying listening to music on one side and talking to friends and enjoying nature on the other.

It was cool night, with a cool breeze combined with a dense fog coming and going, restricting our total valley view. It was an amazing experience in the full moon day with cool breeze and mist with winds at a good speed.

As we are gaining the altitude and night is traversing, we could observe increase in the fog and also wind speed increasing.

Reaching the Summit: A beautiful Sunrise was the gift for all the effort....

Finally after a few steep climbs we reached the top (summit) at 4 am and everyone was happy to see the top. We could see some tent shops offering Omlette, Maggi and Tea.Immediately we jumped and ordered lots of snacks.

Suddenly Shyam called me and took me to a place on the edge, it was amazing; on the opposite side we can see the nandhi hills covered by mist. We sat on the edge full surroundings covered by mist, I was thoroughly enjoying the site it was simply too good.

All was well until the mist settled, then came the stunning blow, i could clearly see that sport where I was sitting it was huge fall down to hill. After this scene I thought I better move to inside!! :-)
After that we had little snacks again and started searching for ‘Dry Sticks’ for a bonfire. At last we found many sticks most of them wet because of fog.
We searched a suitable place for bonfire and had quite a trouble firing it as the sticks are wet, with the help of petrol finally we made it buring, but it did not last long.

After lurking around the top slowly we could see the hints of sunrise and moon set.

It was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, surrounded fully by fog and sun is rising piercing the fogs. That moment has registered in my mind forever. We have taken quite a lot snaps with the sunrise and nandhi hills as the backdrops.

I went downhill and had some snaps there also. I was thoroughly enjoying the scenic beauty offered by skandagari along with my favourite songs.

After a delay and forcing from other friends (as nagendra has to go to office in the morning) we started the descent.

Deviating from the group...........Adventure Awaiting

After descending for 10 minutes ranjith and myself decided to take a different route for climbing down. (We never though that this decision will have an impact on us and the trip).

We took a route that is straight to the base from top instead of taking the normal less steepy route.

For about a half-an-hour we had no problems. Slowly we were descending the steep portion. At some places we thought we came to a dead end, but luckily somehow found the route.

After an hour we came across a dead end where in front of us there was no clear route but only dense bushes with thorns all around and there is no way of turning back and climbing the entire steep hill. (That too without any water left).

We decided to move on; we started crawling under the trees and bushes with thorny trees above. It was tough on me to crawl compared to ranjith but still we were moving at a good pace ignoring the thorns which are piercing the body.

On the way we were faced with a 10-12 feet wall to descend and there was one small tree acting as a rope to get down, I tested the tree, it was quite strong so I said ranjith to move ahead, he descended easily on his chest.

Next I started descending with the help of the tree and I was doubtful in my mind about that strength to hold me. When I turned so as to descend on my chest I took a great fall to the ground on my back, after a few dizzy moments we were right on the job crawling and finding the way outside.Oops.....what a fall........the thumping sound of my fall alarmed ranjit.

After crawling for an hour or so we were out with scratches from thorns everywhere on the body. Had refreshing coconut water after getting down. After an initial frustration of our friends for waiting an extra hour for us we started back to bangalore.


Overall it was a fantastic experience for all of us especially for the first comers joining our trek group Bhanu, Narappa, Ranjith, and Narayana etc.

Shashank’s funny comments wherever he sees light he says that is our way and naveens laziness etc are some other highlights of the trip.


Unforgettable experience in the end…. thanks Skandagiri!!!!

Bungee Jump Disaster......

After returning from the skandagiri our plan was to go for a bungee jump and then in the night start for a trek to coorg, but everyone was so tired that we slept off the entire Friday so, the remaining 2 trips were canceled.

On Saturday through my friend shashikant, i learned that the bungee jump we planned had become a disaster, as one of the Marine Engineer from chennai fell to ground and died due to negligence of the organizers.

We very sorry for him, it was horrible and scary to imagine that fall. This trip is dedicated to him.

Dying in an adventure is natural and it is a part and parcel of adventures and as a adventurers we understand it quite well but death due to human negligence is un-digestable and no mercy should be shown on the people resresponsible.