Ramadevara Betta Day Trek

Ramadevara Betta is a hillock located in Tumakuru district of Karnataka dedicated to Lord Rama. I was keeping a close watch on this trek plan on BMC's (Bangalore Mountaineering Club) website from a long time and finally this week I got to know its happening and I signed up for the same. 

A bunch of trekking enthusiasts were picked up from the designated pick up points in Bangalore city early in the morning and started our journey towards Tumakuru. Enroute we took a pit stop for breakfast at Hotel Udupi Grande. Post breakfast, we were given packed lunches and we started our journey towards Ramadevara Betta. 

We reached the base point in 30 minutes time from this hotel.  


Our trail starting point was Sri Gokula Gaushala.  


We took a 5 minutes break here for a quick ice breaking and briefing about the trek by our enthusiastic trek leads. 

We were briefed about the trek length which would be 7 KM in total. Luckily weather was totally supporting our trek today since it was cloudy. We then started off our trek from here. Initially the trail is little tough to find. Hence its good to sign up with reputed trekking groups like BMC where you can be rest assured that you wont miss the trail or get lost. 





This trail is a mix of walking along the tall thorny bushes, then suddenly it opens up to mountain for an uphill climb, some relaxing caving experience and again a climb. It was really a different experience altogether. 




We reached a point where a guard stopped us to check our permit and tickets for this trek. When I checked with our trek leads they told we were charged Rs 350 per person for this trek. 


After our tickets were verified, it was all good to go. We continued on our trek which was up hill climb now. 


After reaching a point, the trek next was an enclosed trail with canopy of dried grass. 


A short walk along this canopy which suddenly opened up its way to the mountain. 


Luckily there are arrows clearly carved out. Thanks to the forest department for going this extra mile and helping the trekkers navigate along the trail. 





We now reached our first stop. There is a temple here hosting a Shiva Linga idol inside. 




After praying to the deity, we took a 5 minutes break and then continued our trek. 


By following the arrows marked along the trail, we reached another cave. We had to literally crawl here, to explore what is inside the cave. To our surprise, we could see a Shiva Linga and a Nandi statue residing inside the cave. 




We then continued our walk along the trail and we could see our goal point now - Summit. 



Now we started walking towards the main summit. Upon reaching the main summit, we were totally mesmerized with the views that unfolded in front of us. 





We then found a spot and relaxed there enjoying the views of the surroundings. 



After a much needed relaxation, we then took a walk to explore the hill top. 



We then walked towards the other side of hill to find a good spot so that we could have our lunch.
 



We sat here relaxed amidst the huge boulders and had our packed lunch peacefully. Tomato bhath was packed in the lunch and it was simply yummy. 

We then got up and noticed that there was another cave around the same premises. We walked up and noticed that there are several idols of Shiva Linga placed there. We also spotted a small well here. 





Finally we started our descend from Ramadevara Betta. As always descend was quicker compared to the climb. We reached the other side of the base point and as we were waiting for our vehicle, we spotted Mandaragiri's Jain Basadi located on the hill-top from here. So may be one can plan to club both these on a single day. 


We then hopped onto our vehicle and started our return journey by bidding adieu to this quaint hillock  which gave us a thrilling and much needed soul satisfying experience today. Needless to day thanks to Bangalore Mountaineering Club (BMC) for planning this trek and helping us explore this with yet anther enthusiastic bunch of trekking enthusiasts. 

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