Kabbaladurga Trek - A Hidden Gem for Adventure Seekers

Not many are aware that within a short drive (within 100 km) from Bangalore lie the Nava Durgas —nine majestic hill forts, each with its own tale of valor, heritage, and breathtaking views which makes them a must visit place for adventure seekers. The 9 forts are - Nandi Durga (Nandi Hills), Savanadurga (Asia’s largest Monolith), Channarayana Durga, Huthridurga, Kabbaladurga, Makalidurga, Huliyurdurga, Devarayanadurga (DD Hills), Bhairavadurga.

Out of these I have completed Savanadurga, Huthridurga and yesterday I got a chance to hike Kabbaladurga. Thanks to LetsTrekBangalore team for organizing this and bringing along 11 adventure seekers to scale this peak.

 

Kabbaladurga is located near Kanakapura town, and the drive took us around 2.5 hours to reach at the trek base point with one pit stop for breakfast. After parking our vehicles at the base, we started our hike at 10:30 am.

I will say the difficulty level of this trek is easy to moderate. The trail contains a mix of steps in the initial stage and then followed by steep inclines which you need to navigate carefully. Shoes with good grips are saviors here else best is to climb barefoot which most of the devotees were doing to visit the Kabbalamma temple on the hilltop.

We started walking from parking area to the base of the hill. Here we could see a small temple where it says devotees need to do the first pooja here before starting their climb to the actual Kabbalamma temple on the top.

Now started our first phase of climb which are a set of clearly carved out steps with railings for support on both the sides.

We took a pit stop mid-way to settle our breath and enjoy the panoramic views of the surroundings.

After the last step, now comes the challenging part of uphill climb with no support. This stretch is going to be extremely challenging during rains. So just a suggestion to avoid climbing this peak during rainy season.

Then we came across a stretch where some steps were carved out to guide us.

Finally, we made it to the top. 

We saw the Kabbalamma devi temple on the right side of the peak. Here devotees had lined up to offer prayers. 

So, we walked ahead to explore the peak from top which was totally rewarding with 360-degree views of the surrounding landscapes.

We could see some ruins like cave, abandoned partially destroyed structures and another temple too.

After exploring, we all just sat there embracing the beauty around us and the joy of our accomplishment. 

After relaxing there for a while, we started our descent because strong winds were lashing us along with dark clouds. It started drizzling as well. So, we started continuous descent without a break.  As always, descent was pretty easy still we had to be a bit careful at few stretches.

 

And just like my other treks. we had a Sarathi (God sent messenger – our trek lead) with us in this trek as well who helped us with the route to get down and reach base successfully. 

We reached our parking at 2 PM and looked for some restaurants around Kanakapura since we all were hungry by now. After shortlisting one restaurant, we then hopped onto our vehicles and thanked Goddess Kabbalamma for helping us complete this trek supported by pleasant weather too.