Anthargange - A Trek

AntharGange - Photos from the Trek

For the past few weeks, i desperately wanted to get out of the city for a weekend and that wouldn't happen with someone or the other being busy or getting lazy over the weekends. Every Friday, Sreeni and I would make plans to go to Bheemeshwari for a day trip on Saturday and i would end up waking on mid day. This Friday, while i was peddling in the gym, Puppy turned up and when i brought up the trip, he seemed interested. But instead of Bheemeshwari, he was more inclined towards 'Anthargange', a trekking spot near Kolar.

Jayanth and Venky were willing to come along and at At 9:30 in the night, we rushed to Spencers to buy the essentials for the trek. Water bottles, nutri bars, bread, jam, bananas, juice and other snacks. All for a two hour trek. Forcing ourselves to sleep before 12, we woke up in the early morning at 5:30 to the call from Puppy and were out on the road by 6:15. After picking up Jayanth and Puppy, we drove out of the city through the traffic just emanating on to the roads. With the sun behind the clouds and the slight drizzle along the way which slowly began to turn heavy, we weren't sure if we chose the right day. During breakfast at Kamat, we were even thinking of turning back but decided to try our luck with the destination being only 20 km away.

The trek started almost from the outskirts of Kolar. Parking our car at the foot of the hill, we filled our backpacks with the necessary stuff. Beginning with cemented road, we quickly veered into the thicks after seeing a path that seemed to have been walked before. Meandering through the slippery rocks and the thick vegetation, frequently doubting the destination, we walked along. After 15 minutes as we approached the temple, the path became more clear. The weather that threatened our trip has become a boon. It was pleasant and the Kolar looked like a spread out google map as we reached half way through the trek. Soon, we reached the village that's on top of the hill. There's a bus route to this village from Kolar but it was advised to trek for a better experience and so we did. From here, it's another hour of trek in search of caves among the hills.

Having known that it would be impossible to find the caves without the help of locals, we approached the local guy working on a farm. He kindly walked with us to the village and pointed us to a kid named MuniRaju who was familiar with the place. He along with another kid Ganesh agreed to guide us and so did they for the rest of our trek. Upon their advice, we bought few candles and matches to make our way through the caves. With another 200 mts of walk and little crawl down the adjacent rocks, we were at the entrance of the cave. As they said, it was pitch dark inside and carrying lights is must. With candles that gave out a feeble light, we carefully walked through it while the kids seem to just sail through it. In the middle of the cave as were fighting for the way, the two kids sat a little ahead on the rock and asked for snacks from our bags.. :) They were nice, a bit eager. Coming out of the cave, we climbed up the rocks and continued to move ahead. As it started drizzling MuniRaju started complaining about his goats and he left leaving us with Ganesh. Ganesh walked us through the rest of the trek. The wet rocks and the algae gathered on some of them made the trek a little risky one but the weather and the view compensated for everything. Instead of feeling tired, i actually felt refreshed as we went on. If i were blindly dropped into the place, i could have taken it granted for any hill station. Such was the atmosphere there with the mist and the occasional drizzles and adding to it, we were the only one there in that serene location. Only when walking down the hill, we saw people making their way up. After going through couple of caves and skipping a couple of risky ones we started down the hill. With careless walk down the hill, i slipped and fell down thrice, luckily making a safe landing every time. After lunch at Kamat, we were back in Bangalore by 4 P.M.

If it was just another sunny day, it would have been a totally different one. We wouldn't know how it would have been, but this one, we totally enjoyed the whole trip. The only complaint is with Jayanth who would either walk well ahead of us or fall far behind us whenever he feels like taking a bite of the nutri bars from his back pack :) Amazing thing about Bangalore is it's presence in the middle of all these beautiful places that can quench the thirst of anyone looking for their perfect weekend trip. This one is just 70 km from Bangalore on the outskirts of Kolar and is a good destination for a day trip when accompanied with cool weather though it is generally preferred for a moon light trek.