Mythological reference to Mahabharatha indicates that when Pandavas were staying in a village during their exile, Bheema fought & killed a demon named Bakasura to save the village. It is believed that it happened in this hill; Bheema Bakasura Betta.
Leaving home at 7 am, taking the Bangalore-Chintamani road, my friend & I finished breakfast on the way and headed to Kaiwara. We reached Kaiwara to find an arch on the right side with some statues on it. On enquiry we were told that it is the way to the hill. But I knew that our vehicle will not go into that easily. Somehow we took alternate route to park our vehicle near the Bheemalingeshwara Temple. A small walk amidst the populated streets will lead to the foothill.
Finally we reached the initial steps of the hill to see a warning on the wall in Kannada that reads “There is Leopard in the hill, Beware”. First we thought that the message should be an old one and started climbing the steps.
After a while, we crossed a Krishna Temple on the way. Two guys sitting there warned us about the presence of a leopard in the hill and consoled us that it would come out only after dark. Now we took the leopard warning seriously & walked with caution looking out on each branch of the tree & in the bushes. We could see/feel from the surroundings that it had rained last night.
Suddenly to our shock, I saw an animal coming right behind us. We were relaxed to see a local dog which had come to guide us for the trek. As we were cautious in spotting a leopard, we climbed slowly enjoying the nature taking some pictures. Our local guide took the lead & waited for us a few steps ahead, always keeping us in the Line-Of-Sight. As soon as we moved, the guide also started moving forward.
We were confident that our guide will signal us on a leopard’s presence and we followed the old stone-steps. But still we were watching over the branches & the bushes. At almost half-way, the guide showed us the deviation to the first attraction of the hill; Lakshmana Teertha, a water hole between 2 rocks in front of a small temple.
The water was so clear & we could hear the water slowly oozing from the rocks. The notice there reads “This water is for drinking purpose only and not to clean your feet.” Obeying the notice, we spent some time there.
As we planned to move further, we couldn’t find our guide anywhere. Looking around for a while, we started walking along the main path that was clearly seen. From here on, there were no stone-steps, but only stones & muddy path covered with bushes. Again we were on our own to spot a leopard.
We reached the top of the hill to see a modern day painting of Bheema & Bakasura on a rock. We enjoyed the cool breeze on top with some nice views of the surroundings, the adjacent hill and the Kaiwara hill too.
The adjacent hill has some markings which is claimed to be footprints of Bheema & Bakasura, but nowhere it matches. As we sat there, dark clouds were crossing us fast from above.
After spending a lot of time at the top, we climbed down & visited the water-hole to quench our thirst. We continued our walk through the steps to the Krishna Temple. On the way down we could get a panoramic view of the town.
Finally we reached the start point successfully, feeling sad that we couldn’t payback our guide.
Don’t know whether it is good luck or bad luck; we did not come across a leopard.
We then drove to the nearby Amaranarayana Temple and the Thathayya Cave adjacent to it. The location was nice but poorly maintained. Just opposite to that is the Kaiwara National Park, where we enquired about the trek to the Kaiwara Betta. We were told that the booking for the Kaiwara Betta trek is done only through “myecotrip.com”, which we kept pending for our next visit.
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/rPxFn1hQGCbSz5dU8
For my other travel stories, please visit: My Wanderlust Experiences
