Kaurva Kunda is an immensely beautiful but less known trekking destination from Bangalore. It is located around 70 kms from Bangalore in Chikkaballapur district.
Riders: Me(Vinay BM), Nithesh, Pavan Kalsur, Vignesh, Chandrakanth
Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/cS46GgWDd4bRwBNR8
Here's the Part1 Video- (Onward Ride):
Part2 Video- (Trekking):
The Twin hills are named after the Pandavas and the Kauravas from Mahabaratha. This place is more popular for night Treks.
Though this grassy hilltop has an altitude of only 250 meters, it offers mesmerizing views of the surroundings. This place is best visited during the Winter months. During december, you can get a view with clouds beneath you similar to Skandagiri.
The Trail starts from Hariharapura Village and there are some sandy steps which lead you to the Shiva Temple midway up the Hill and Its an easy trek. Since the climb is not so steep, the trek can be a pleasant experience.
Once you reach the Temple, you can rest for a while and explore the area. This is a Shiva temple where many devotees and localities would gather for a meditation session in the morning. The place is very peaceful and you can sit by the rocks and spend some time. Strangely, we did not find any other monkeys on this hill. We were the only Monkeys :)
Being away from the hustle bustle of the city, and also being less known to travelers, this place still holds the tranquility unlike other well known places these days.
If you see any localites near the Temple, they would tell you that it is not safe to trek further up the Hill. They might scare you saying there are leopards etc. or that whoever has gone there do not come back. This is just to prevent any adverse incidents causing risk and injury to travelers and also to preserve the place as it is. They will not encourage you to trek to the top for the same reason. If you tell them that you are nature lovers and you do not drink/smoke and litter the place and are experienced trekkers, they will tell you to be careful and guide you in the right path.
From the temple we can go either right or left. But if you go right, its an easier route to reach the top. All the way up, there will be stones, thorns, bushes, shrubs and trees. So you need to trek carefully.
As usual, it was a last min decision to visit this place. Me and my friends wanted to go on a Ride and decided to go to Kaurava Kunda. 5 Guys confirmed for the trip and couple others dropped out. But we all five, were from the same college(RV college) which made this trek special and we named this the "RV Bikers Ride". The meeting point was fixed as Hebbal flyover.
I left home on time around 5:30a.m and reached the meeting point in no time. It was still dark when I reached there. As usual, my friends were late and all through this time, I was listening to music and watching all other Bike and Car groups meeting at the same place and heading towards Nandi Hills one by one. And there I was sitting alone on my Bike, watching them and waiting for my friends to arrive.
Finally my friends turned up at 6:20am and started blaming each other for the delay :D Anyways we had some chit chat and then started towards Chikballapur.
As usual, we overtook some groups and many other groups overtook us :p on the Highway. It was a smooth Ride. Because of the popularity of Nandi Hills and also being the route to the International Airport, the traffic is more on weekends and some of the Bike Riders and car guys(specially taxi drivers) are reckless. So you need to Ride/drive this stretch carefully.
Within no time, we reached the Toll and took a break there. Once we crossed Nandi Hills and neared Chikballapur, we started checking our maps. Took a left turn somewhere near Chikballapur and entered the city. From here we lost the route due to some wrong turns. But somehow we navigated back and reached the HariHaripura Village. There is a big pond near this village. I took some video there and we parked our Bikes beneath some trees.
We were not sure from where to start the Trek and there was no one to guide. But looking at the Hill and after asking some locals, we started moving towards the fields and after crossing the fields we reached the base of the Hill and the hike began.
We trekked for some time and reached a place from where we got a good view of surroundings. So stopped for some pictures. Also I was carrying some rusk, biscuits and cake. So we finished all that. All through the trek we were chit chatting and relived our college days.
My friend was carrying a Nikon 5300 DSLR with a zoom lens (55-200mm). So we took some portrait images with background blur.
Because we were chatting and taking lots of pictures, I did not record much in my Gopro. The trek invoked hiking on some granite rocks which were quite slippery with sand. Once we climbed to a certain height, there were steps which led to a Shiva temple.
When we reached there we did not know it was a temple. We were chatting and talking loudly but we heard a strange noise and as we moved closer, we heard the "Om.... Om..." sound.
They also told drinking and all is prohibited. So we told them we are just nature lovers. We've come here only to enjoy the nature, trek and take some pictures. Thats about it. They said you can go at your on risk. This was not very encouraging.
Anyways after exploring the place, we continued the hike from the left side of the temple. But I guess the correct route is from the right side.
After hiking for some time, we got stuck and to hike further we had to climb over some rocks through the dense bushes and shrubs. We tried as much as possible to find a route but we did not find a proper one.
Our 3 lazy friends decided to return back but me and one another friend were persistent to climb further. Our logic was simple, if we visit any hill, we should climb till the top and get the 360deg view. Its like conquering the hill :p Else whats the point in coming so far from our home and trekking.
The other guys refused to join and said you two take the camera and go if you want. We'll rest and wait for you down here :D
The hike was quite difficult since we had to carve our own way through the shrubs and thorns. But we finally made it to the top.
There was this plateau from where you get a 360deg view. The view was mesmerizing. Wind was blowing with full force. We took some pictures. We were carrying the Dslr with only the zoom lens and being inexperienced with that lens we could not capture the landscape well. But we tried our best.
Wanted to explore around but since our friends were waiting down, we did not want to take any risk of exploring more and getting lost.
But it was like a paradise, we just didn't want to leave that place. We started descending down and again we were stuck :p There was no proper route. We somehow descended down and reached our friends who asked us "how was the experience?". We said-"it was mind blowing. Batte harililla aste, but it was worth It" :D
We soon reached the base of the hill and started riding back towards Bangalore. On the way our Perfect Rider was randomly giving hand signals to move ahead and then asking us to stop. It was hilarious. We were overtaking each other. Once we reached the highway our pace somewhat increased. But still it was a boring Ride. Each of us was Riding at his own pace.
We took break near a bus stop and sat there waiting for others to catch up. Our water bottles were empty. We took a group photo by asking some guy to click our pic with our bikes, just for the memory.
We thought of having lunch somewhere near Nandi Hills. As we neared Nandi hills, we saw a new Restaurant on the left. There are lot of new, big Restaurants that have come up now. Earlier there was hardly any on this stretch.
We all were damn hungry and had stomach full. I ordered Veg Biryani which was yum. I asked them to make it a bit spicy and it was just perfect. Tipped the waiter and left for Bangalore. The return ride was uneventful. Police were stopping and catching all other Bikers and two wheelers. But we were within speed limits and with our helmets. So we were not caught. We soon reached Hebbal and then parted ways.
All in all it was a Good Ride! Enjoy the video. Do subscribe and share if you like the content.
As always- "Its not about the destination, but the journey.. :)"
Bye bye Until next time.. Cu soon.
