Kabbaladurga and Muthathi

Date: 19-Jan-14
Thilak and I had a fight early in the morning for some silly reason. It continued after he met me in Jayanagar at 6.00 AM. We met Sudhir at Hudson circle at 6.30 AM and headed towards Mysore Road. On the way also, we were fighting. I hope Sudhir and the other people on the road did not come to know about our fight :-).

As usual, after fighting for some time, we both cooled down and started enjoying the ride. Weather was very cool in the morning. We stopped at Bidadi for breakfast at 7.30 AM and stopped at Chennapattana at 8.50 AM to pack our lunch as we were doubtful that we would get something to eat in Muthathi.

Kabbala Durga and Muthathi

Kabbaladurga

We started from Chennapattana at 9.10 AM and headed towards Kabbalu. On the way, we got the glimpse of huge rocky hill. The hill was “Kabbaladurga” and we found the famous Kabbalamma temple at the hilltop. I had read about this hill earlier and they had mentioned that climbing this hill is one of the toughest treks. After seeing the hill, I also felt the same, but, the boys felt excited to trek. I told strict “No” to them. They were bit disappointed, but they agreed not to climb. Later, we decided to go near the base of the hill and come back. I guess this was Thilak’s trick to make me get interested in climbing. His trick worked. Once we reached near the hill, we saw few steps near the hill top and suddenly I got the courage to climb and I told “yes” for trekking. I think Thilak and Sudhir were waiting for me to tell that :-). They felt very happy and we parked our bikes in a place where few people were working and started our trek.

There was no proper way; we started climbing wherever we could see a path. Initially, it was easy to climb, but as we were climbing up, the rocky hill became steeper and steeper, weather started to become hotter, and the trekking tougher. Also, we had our bags to carry which increased our difficulties even more. We reached half way of the hill at 11.15 AM and sat there for some time. For a moment, I just looked down the hill, it was dangerously steep. By looking at the inclination of the hill, I just lost hope and decided to quit. It was looking impossible for me to climb. So, I told the boys that I would not be able to join them for further trekking. Thilak wanted to go, but he did not want me to leave me alone there. So, he stayed with me. Near the place where we were sitting, there were steps. I tried my best to get my courage back to reach at least near those steps, but I was so damn scared to get up from the place. Sudhir went a little further and came back in some time as he also thought he would not be able to climb further.

Kabbala Durga

We three sat there and watched localites (devotees of the Goddess Kabbalamma) climbing the hill very easily. There were small children also in the group. We were totally surprised to watch the scene. They were climbing the hill as if they were walking on the road. Also, they were carrying pooja items and small kids with them. We simply sat there and watched the natural beauty, chitchatted and took photos. The view was simply amazing. There were many small hills nearby. We were just half-way of the hill and the view was so beautiful, we wondered how it would be at the top of the hill. When we were sitting there, we shocked to see one couple climbing the hill, because both husband and wife were carrying their small kids on their shoulders and were climbing fearlessly. I still don’t understand how they could climb so easily. May be it was the power of their belief in the Goddess. There were people who were finding it difficult to climb. We saw one boy who was stuck, because his friends took the shortcut and reached the top, this guy simply followed them and got stuck in between. He was neither able to climb up nor able to come down, because the place where he was stuck was insanely steep. After around half-an hour of struggle, with his friends’ help, the boy could reach the top. After such wonderful experiences, we started descending the hill at 12 noon and by 12.30 PM, we reached the base of the hill and headed towards Muthathi via Satanur.

Muthathi

I had a great expectation about this place, but both the ride and place disappointed me. We thought that the road to Muthathi will be in good condition and we would go through the dense forests. But, our journey was not like this. Most of the trees were burnt because of the heat. We did not understand whether the trees were burnt because of hot summer, or the people deliberately burnt it, or whether it was by accident. Whatever the reason, we travelled in a very sad dry road. By the time we reached Muthathi, it was 2 PM. The river Kaveri was flowing silently there. But, our disappointment continued when we saw a huge crowd there. There was some festival at a temple in Muthathi that week. So, people had come from various places and they had spoiled the place completely. There was no proper place to park our bikes. Forget about parking, there was no neat place to sit also. We started getting irritated.

On the way to Muthathi

All of us were tired by the journey itself. On top of that, the crowd there was making us frustrated. It was a highly indecent crowd. We went in bike a little further, but everywhere we found the same crowd. So, we decided to go to the other side of the river. But, since the water level was more, we had to cross the river in coracle. The owners of the coracles told us that, the festival is happening on the other side and we are not supposed to have camps there. Since we did not have any plans of camping, we crossed the river in coracle. Although the other side was not crowded, the place was not at all clean. While searching for a neat place to have lunch, security guards warned us not to have lunch in that area. We felt irritated and came back to the place where we had parked our bikes and started our return journey.

On the way, we found a cleaner place to sit and finished our lunch. At 3.00 PM, we started back from there and headed towards Kanakpura via Satanur road. We had our tea break at Kanakpura at 4.45 PM and headed towards Bangalore and reached Jayanagar at 6.30 PM. If not the indecent crowd at Muthathi, we would have enjoyed the place. However, if I think about the trip now, the breathtaking moment at Kabbaladurga make me forget the disappointment. Thilak and I have already taken inspiration from the localites of Kabbaladurga and have decided to climb the hill one day in future.

• Route Travelled: Onward: HSR Layout > Jayanagar > Hudson Circle > Mysore Road > Bidadi > Chennapattana > Kabbaladurga > Satanur > Muthathi Return: Muthathi > Satanur > Kanakpura > Banashankari > Jayanagar > HSR layout
• Total distance (To & Fro): 238 km
• Mileage (Bike): 60 km/l
• Fuel expense: 315 Rs
• Total expense: 794 Rs
• Photos: Muthathi and Kabbaladurga Photos

Route Map: