Was Excited when i heard that BASC is planning 4 the trek  2 Siddarabetta and registered for the trek with my better half.    Reached Shantala Silks in Majestic with Niranjan 

( trek organizer) and joined fellow trekkers .     Our TT left Bangalore with 13 trekkers @ 7 AM to reach Dobbespet for breakfast @ 8.30AM.    Our team was waiting to hog Tatte Idli and Palav.

We left for Siddarabetta @ 9.30 AM and reached  the base at 10.15 AM .   We started the trek @ 10.30 AM and were joined by 2 more trekkers at the base of the peak.

Our trek team encountered the Sadhu's waiting to  receive alms from visitors and i activated to capture the moments from my camera.

We found the steps getting steeper and reduced the pace of our trek a bit.    Tulasi was just hopping to the peak with enthusiasm .    Our little trekker Kushi was enjoying every bit of the trek and was inspiring us to climb fast.

We could rejoice the nature and it made us soothing from getting tired and encouraged us to trek more.

        

                                                        It was an awesome weather and the team could trek easily than the other seasons.     It was warm in the initial stages and getting hotter by the day as the mercury kept raising.     

We encountered different people on our path from very young to aged people trekking to get darshan of Lord Eshwara.  One interesting  person posed for the camera like this. He was climbing down carrying kadai used for food preparation .

Niranjan was keeping an eye on every one and allowing us to take  rest at regular intervals and ensured that all the trekkers were safe. He shared the Nimbu Paani which was instantly prepared with 2 liter bottles of  sealed water purchased at the base.     Nimbu paani was yummy and we were relaxed after taking couple of sips.

Finally we were welcomed by our vanara sainya ( army of monkeys) at the entrance to the cave temple.  

It was amazing to see them  balancing on the steel pipes.   They were not deterred by the humans walking across their path, but were not allowing any one to go if they are spotted carrying any plastic bags.    May be they were ensuring its Plastic Free zone......

After parking our footwear, we entered the cave temple to be greeted by serene weather and it felt very cool inside.     We were immersed with holy water and after getting immersed with holy water which is believed to have medicinal qualities, took the darshan of Lord Eshwara  .  The diety was well decorated by the priests  and it was music for ears as they recited the shlokas very clearly.   

We embarked to our next step - cave exploration.   Torches were lit and we started following our guide who has been into this profession for the last 3 decades.    We first came to the broad platform where people use it for meditation.  We had our first group photo session there.          

Next stop was at the Basdi of Sadhus.  We came across a sadhvi ( sanyasin) who had come down from Bidar , Karnataka for meditation and seek solace.          

Proceeding further we encountered rocks and boulders and crossed over on them to go to the next destination.   Our path was so narrow we had to literally crawl over.     Ashutosh was our official photographer and silently he captured each and every moment of the trek.    Guess he had taken  around 300+ photos.               
                                                                                                                                      Finally we reached  the middle of the cave exploration point and  we were excited to see the natures beauty.   We were surrounded by boulders and had  there were huge shoots of a wild tree which was used for swinging and our friends climbed the same with ease to pose for camera.         


On joining the entrance of the temple and had our lunch at the canteen there.   We regained some strength and trekked to the peak which was a 45 mts trek.   


It was time for churmuri break.    Niranjan and Deepak  got down to preprare churmuri ( mandakki + mixture)  Tulasi, Soumya , Chaya and  Hemanth joined them and helped them in cutting onions, preparing paper packets and cutting cocunut pieces .     Pavan had brought the Onions and Lemons, Hemanth the vegetable cutter,  Sampath the cocunut scrapper.   Finally Niranjan got into mixing of all the ingredients and was helped by Tulsi and Soumya  with paper covers.    It was time for 2nd dose of Nimbu Paani which was prepared by Niranjan and Hemanth and circulated the bottle to every one in the team.    It was once again yummy before we hogged on the churmuri.    Team sat under the shadow of a big boulder and we feasted on it.      Myself and Ashutosh were busy capturing the moments.     

We went for couple of photoshoots where ever we saw good scenary.   Final Parting shot was near the temple.  

We left for Bangalore after skipping Goravanahalli as it was already late.  We shared our experiences and Niranjan did the Vote of thanks in the moving TT.

We started with Antakshari and made Ashutosh to sing his 'Ek to Teen' number followed by me - 'Nindale'.  Niranjan, Pavan, Kushi,  Deepak and Balaji sang peppy numbers and it was dinner time as it was getting late to reach Bangalore.    We had dinner at a resort hotel on Tumkur Road and finally reached Bangalore at 09.50 PM .   Bid  adios to every one and we departed to our destinations.  

Overall It was an amazing trek and Kudos to Niranjan for organizing it in a efficient manner and awesome help from each one of trek team.  

take care every one..........

look forward to see you in the next trek.