Trek to Kunti Betta, Karnataka

There is something about trekking that enlivens your senses, releases the tensions within; both physical and mental. It’s an ordeal into achieving nothing. Many of my friends find it hard to follow the reasons why I trek. I hardly care about the summit or the destination. For me the journey itself holds the charm above all else. Okay so all philosophy apart, I write this blog post to share my experiences of travelling to a place called Kunti Betta 100 km away from Bangalore.

Woke up at 0445 hours on the sunday, 26th July 15. Being the organizer had to call 7 more people to make sure they were awake. We were suppose to leave the hostel by 0530 hours, but somehow someone will always find some excuse to get you late. 🙂 So we started 20 minutes late. Reached Hosa Road Junction by 0600 Hours and reached the Majestic Bus station at 0640 hours. We had to hurry to the adjacent railway station almost running en route. Got the tickets and boarded the train bound for Mysore at 0700 hours. Our destination was Pandavpura, the place is believed to have been the stay of the Pandav from Mahabharata during their exile.

Train to Pandavpura

The morning train journey was surreal, the smoky train engine kept me interested until the end. We reached the place around 0930 hours. Walked out of the railway station and searched for a place to have breakfast. Pandavpura town is about 4 km away from the railway station. If you wish to have your breakfast at a neat and clean place then area near the station is not a place for you. We looked out for a place to eat but no eating joint matched our idea of a good place. Finally we settled for one less shady looking joint and asked for breakfast options. The place served Rice(Pulav), idly, udid-vada and puri. The prices of the menu-items were way to cheap. We ordered 3 rice plates, 2 idli-vada plates and started eating. The food was so freaking awesome and tasty we ended up eating like 6 rice plates, 4 idli-vada plates, 1 Puri-sabji. And to add to our delight we paid only 220 rupees for all that food. Sometimes unfamiliar and not so good looking places have the best things to offer. :D.

We negotiated with an ambassador taxi driver to take us to Kunti betta, 8 of us squeezed ourselves in the royal ambassador and drove off for Kunti Betta. The photos below will describe the beauty of the place and I would let you imagine the words. Just to mention, the place might get tricky to climb if it rains, that’s all.

After climbing down we started off for Tonnur lake some 15km away. The lake is super clean, we reached from the point where people enter the lake for a swim. Had lots of photos taken; diving, jumping and shouting. We met with another travelling group from Karnataka at the lake. The guys spoke broken Hindi and English, but somehow we got along very well. They offered us delicious chicken and rice to eat. They really liked the fact that 8 of us came from 7 different states in India. After a final photograph with them we headed back to Pandavpura railway station. We just made it in time for 1350 hours train back to Bangalore. There were no seats available so had to squeeze ourselves onto the upper birth where one couldn’t sit with his head and spine erect. After one and half hour of acrobatics on the upper birth where I also managed to get some decent amount sleep, I got down and spent the rest of the time at the train door – my most favorite spot in any train.

Watched the railway track side ghettos of Bangalore while getting back felt a bit sad as to why people are forced to abandon clean environments of the villages to settle in such stinking, sunlight deprived places and to what avail? Below is the map of the place, tracing the route from Pandavpura railway station.