Scanda Giri Night trek - Aka Kalawarahalli betta

It was just a casual kickoff trek after a long gap that mani has planned, skandagiri is typically a night trek and very mild of around 4 hrs of trek. We all started at 11pm in the night in two cars to scandagiri, it is 70km from bangalore city at the foot hills of chikkaballapura. We reached the place at around 12:30am, there were couple of guides readily availiable to help and also one of the guys approached us. We booked him for 400bugs and started to trek. It was a day of half moon and haldly any moonlight due to cloudy atmosphere, but we had with us torches and headlights with us which helped usway thru the trees and rought terrain of the mountain. The next 2 hrs was climbing on the rocks, steps, grassland and we reached the summit by 6am in the morning. It was mistly early morning and we could see the mountains covered with mist all over, we have plently of photo sessions and rested for a while. Already there were some folks tented last night and present there when we reached.

At 8am in the morning we said good bye to the summit and started decending down the mountain, it was not that tough to get down as we took the other route which was supposed to be formal route the the kalvaralli betta, yes it was much more easier than climbing and we realised we took the tougher one while climbing but still had couple of pitstop to just chit chat and pull each others legs :) all well that end well. We reached parking place at around 11am in the morning and had couple of tender coconuts and drove back home. It was exact 12hrs of express trek I ever had!!

Fact file:

Skandagiri is a hill, located approximately 70km from Bangalore city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is off Bellary Road (NH-7 Hyderabad-Bangalore Highway), and is very close to Nandi Hills and Chikkaballapura. The peak is at an altitude of about 1350 meters, it is every adventurer’s paradise with beautiful night trek, altitude camping, stunning sunrise, and serene and swimming clouds that sometimes limits visibility to just a few meters.

Getting there
There are two routes to Skandagiri:
From NH-7, turn towards Nandi Hills. At the base of Nandi Hills turn right and proceed to Kalawara village via Muddenahalli (birth place of Bharath Rathna Sir.M.Visweswaraih).
From Chikkaballapura proceed directly to Kalawara village.
Directions:
Follow the Bangalore International Airport , better known as Bellary Road. After crossing the BIA , you shall be on Chikkaballapura road. Follow the same road until you find a Visweswaraih statue on to your Left.
Take a left at this place and a right turn at the City Municipal Council a little further down. Later this shall directly lead to papagni Mutt, which is the basement of Skandagiri.
At Kalawara village ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt(13°25′26.6″N 77°41′28″E). There is a Shiva temple near the base of the hill, where vehicles can be parked.
Nandi to Kalawara to Papagni Mutt is 6 km.
Chikaballapur to papagni Mutt is 3 km.