Vicky's Blog: Ride To Barji Betta (Hill)

Destination: “Barji Betta (Karnataka)”. There is no much information about this place. It’s a small hillock near Chikkanahalli near Nelamangala and a small temple “Ramalingeshwara Temple” situated on the top.

Rider Details:

Vikram (Myself) – Hero Impulse

Bharath (AKA Malnad Rider) – Yamaha FZ

Santosh Athreya – Yamaha FZ

Travel Distance: Approximately 35 KMS from Bangalore

After “Ride To Mydala Kere”, it was time for collecting some memories and adding it to the bucket. And yet again, the place was not decided. While I was hunting the places for ride, I happened to check with Bharath (AKA “Malnad Rider” on Instagram) if he would like to join. Our natives (Sirsi & Yellapur) are in same district and yet we had never met personally. We had been planning to meet since long time, so I thought what else could be a better reason than a ride? Bharath was working on Saturday so we postponed the ride for Sunday as one more friend (Santhosh Athreya) wanted to join.

Bharath decided the location for this ride and shared the google earth image. It was again a small hillock and a lake nearby. So, we fixed to this place called Barji Betta (Hill) which is approximately 35 kms from Bangalore. On the Bangalore Pune Highway, you will see an Arch towards your right after Nelamangala where you need to take a detour to reach this place. It had rained at few places in Bangalore on Saturday followed by a pleasant weather on Sunday early morning.

Our plan was to reach that place as early as possible (pinning the speed between 60-70 kms/hr) so that we can witness the sunrise from the hillock. Hence, we decided to meet up at Goraguntepalya at 5:30 AM. As per the plan, we were all punctual to reach the meet up point. Greeting each other and a small chit chat, we started our ride. We were expecting less traffic at that hour on an early Sunday morning. But we were surprised to see so many vehicles rushing out of Bangalore and experiencing the traffic jam at few places. Swirling between the vehicles, we managed to find the way out for our bikes and zoomed through the traffic. While we crossed Nelamangala Tool Gate, it was time for our first pit stop for chai. It was still dark and cloudy because of the rain on Saturday. So, we decided to spend some time at the chai stall as the destination was not too far from there and moreover, we did not want to scare the villager’s early morning.

After a while, we continued our ride and within few minutes we reached the spot from where we had to take a detour. Bharath was our navigator as he was following Googelathi (Google Map). Santhosh and I were tailing him to the destination. As always, the riding experience is to the next level once you go off the highway. It feels like you have entered a different world which is scenic, peaceful and filled with fresh air. After inhaling all those CO2 on the highway, the village roads feel like a boost of fresh oxygen that gets pumped into the lungs. Enjoying the cold breeze hitting our face and the early morning village scenes made our ride pleasant and those narrow curvy roads were like an icing on the cake.

Well, the fun part during this ride was that the tarmac road was for a short distance. Soon we switched to gravel road and headed towards our destination. From far away, we could see the hillock we were about to ride to. The gravel roads lead us to the top of the hill. We reached the top and we were in for a surprise. We could see a small old temple with lots of bells hanging from a huge tree, small cottages everywhere and 2 horses grazing their breakfast. We rode further to reach the top of the hill where the actual temple is located. We could again see a stage, broad pillars and flags everywhere. It was like we have reached some mythological era. Then we could see someone walking towards us. Curious to know what was happening there, we asked that person and he replied that it was a shooting set up of upcoming Kannada movie. Nobody was seen there as it was early morning and it was a Sunday.

We rode to the other side of the temple where we parked our bikes. It was time to sit and patiently wait for the moment (Sunrise) why we rode to that location. But, looks like the Sun was lazy too to come out of the clouds and spread his shine on us. The hide and seek went on for hours together. But, the Sun never showed up. However, the cold breeze, fog, silence, chirping birds and the view made us to sit and wait there to get that one glimpse. We waited for more than an hour and finally we got to know the intention of Mr. Sun. After waiting for so long, we decided to head towards the lake. I don’t know the name of the lake, but it is seen from the top and also there is a gravel road which leads till the bank of the lake.

We rode towards the lake and were happy to see that it was being developed. Although we couldn’t see any work going on there, but we assumed it looking at the stacked wooden logs lying on the bank and a pedal boat in the lake. We parked our bikes and were enjoying the peace and calmness around it. It slowly started getting humid and that is when we noticed that Mr. Sun was slowly showing up in the sky. Few pictures clicked around the lake and spending some time enjoying the serenity of the place, it was time to ride back to Bangalore. We left the place and rode till we connected the National Highway and stopped for a chai before we ride straight to our homes.

This may sound redundant, but the fact always remains the same. The ride while returning is never peaceful one. The excitement is almost nil. Only thing that keeps running in the mind is how well the day started, how excited we were, how beautiful the location was, how many moments we captured, and the list goes on. By the time I was rewinding these moments and the list could end, we had reached Gorguntepalya signal. Took right from the signal towards Outer Ring Road and just before Kanteerava Studio Flyover, stopped by to say adios to Bharath and Santhosh until we ride once again. One good thing about going on these rides is that you get to meet new people and make new friends. That’s what life is all about isn't it? Make friends, make memories, cherish those wonderful moments spent together. Few years later, when you turn around and look back at life, these are the only good memories that will bring a smile on your face 😊

Enjoy the pictures below while I signoff until the next blog 😊

PS: Pictures are not very clear as it was all captured by phone and the gloomy weather had its share for blur images