Siddara Betta, Tumkur - Solo Ride on Lovers Day

Route : Bellandur - Tumkur -  Siddara Betta - Tumkur  -Bellandur 

Round Trip :  284 KM  

Time : Feb 14th  2016; 6:15 AM - 4:00 PM

Places to Visit:

              Shiva temple
              Caves

         I wanted to do a small trip on lovers days with my love, ya I mean my bike. So we  both went to Siddara betta for a jolly ride. Though it is still Feb, SUN feels like March, so though of finishing before afternoon. Started at ~6 AM with a medical kit and some snacks, not carrying any gear or camera as any additional luggage will add more pain due to the heat on NH. After crossing the Tollgate, I felt so hungry, stopped at roadside stalls. there are continuous stalls in that stretch and food was good.

          Reached NH-4 Off road turn just before 9 AM, but since I am not using continuous navigation, missed the turn and went 4 KM ahead. There are no sign board by tourism also.  Returned back and entered into Koratagere highway, now we need to take another off road immediately. Again missed the turn and went ahead, but this time just a few meters.  Now the route is 25 KM and mostly straight except one right turn followed by a left turn, and that was easy to remember from map.

       Road condition for this entire 25 KM stretch is not good, at least 10 KM stretch is very very bad.  There is nothing scenic on the road side also..very boring part of ride..took 45 mins total to cover 25 KM and finally reached the Temple hill base.  We can park the bike on hill base, but the hawkers  will be after you to keep the bike with them to keep safe from monkeys for a few bucks. That's true, there are too many monkey's in that place, but I parked at a free place in front of a closed shop, luckily no monkey touched my bike. cars need to be parked beginning of the temple road as the road is very narrow, I see some buses parked on a huge open place at the beginning of the temple road.

Route map which I followed:

        At 10 AM, started climbing, there is a sign board saying foot ware not allowed and all villagers going on bare foot. But I went ahead with shoes after inquiring one hawker, he said we can drop the shoes over the hill. I need to ride back alone afternoon, so don't want to take risk by walking on barefoot and also mainly we cant explore caves if we go by barefoot. 

                  Hill Entrance:

History of the place:

        It is Sacred Place where many siddaru (Holy spritual men) made meditation in naturally farmed caves and worship of Lord Shiva, They got Mooksha Freedom) from this Eternal world. 

        Hill trek contains nearly 1000 steps and trek difficulty is medium, took nearly 50 mins to reach the temple with 5 halts. There is a snack stall and few hawkers selling pooja items and devotional related items.  Dropped shoes at one corner and went inside the temple.  Actually here temple means, its not like a man made construction, it just natually farmed cave and inside shivalinga is there. There is not much lighting also, for a few mins we will feel blind due to sudden darkness. Priest pours 3 mugs of hill water on our head for 20/- if required. there is changing room kind of facility for gents and ladies. Hill water is so cold, I saw few villagers were not able to stand after 2nd mug itself...ohh.. I can feel that cold. I just touched the water from the drums and sprinkled few drops on head as a holy practice. Next to bath only Shivalinga and priest doing poojas, took the blessings and came out. 

Trek path:

Temple cave entrance:

      Cave's located opposite of temple entrance. (after reaching Hill top, left side is temple entrance and right side is path for caves exploration). Back into shoe mode, and left towards caves, Not many people going towards caves, as they don't have foot ware or are they regular to temple ? Actually, all of them are villagers and I am the only look like from city. Beginning of the cave path is seems waste dump, smells little bad. 

Small Cave:

       With selfie stick, taking continuous photos and moving ahead. As long as we are under cave, feels so cold. Went ahead deep into the open land and not understand where to go next, followed some paths on the grass and reached beautiful rocky structure and hill edge. There are small rooms surrounded by a many yellow threads, don't understand whats those. nearby workers said its temple and few days back some one tried dig inside for treasure. Time is 12 PM and slowly I can feel the hill heating up so decided to left quickly after covering surrounding place.

 

Spooky path to hill edge/Other end of hill:

Some ruins on the hill:

Selfie:

Small hallow (2 feet): 

       While coming down, now I see many citizens coming up and most of them are with shoes like me. Within 30 mins reached down and started back at 12:45 PM. This time instead of going on same bad route went towards Koratagere side, but this road is 13 KM extra. My bad, this route also same horrible for nearly 7 KM, but after reaching the Koratagere highway, remaining 28 KM road is excellent and scenic too. Enjoyed by slowly riding till joining the NH-4 and then constantly going @80. Stopped at Kamat hotel for lunch. Finally escaped the city traffic and reached the home by 4 PM.

Random clicks:

Next trip may take time as I am trying to avoid summer ride. cu till then.