Ride to Kaivara, Kailasgiri and an unfinished trek to kaivara fort

It had been more than a month since my trek to Chandrashila peak and the daily routine was getting monotonous. To break the boredom few of us from our office decided to go for a ride to kaivara and kailasgiri. Checking for places to visit apart from these two I chanced upon a fort built by tippu long time ago. One needs to trek to the fort and this would allow me to get some trekking done along with the ride.

With the places confirmed, myself shashank and 2 others met at Indiranagar on sat and started towards hoskote.

Group Snap

Kaivara is around 70 kms from bangalore and with the smooth tarmac on the chintamani- kaivara road we had a good time riding. We reached kaivara town in an hour and half and headed to yoginarayana mutt. The mutt is famous as the saint narayanappa had attained everlasting bliss here. The mutt has several photos depicting the life of the saint.

Yoginarayana mutt

We took few photos and after a quick breakfast we headed to kaivara zoo. The zoo was locked when we got there so we proceeded towards kailasagiri which is 5 kms from the zoo. We stopped briefly at tapovana which has the statues of several prominent saints. Inside one can see the statue of narasimha.

From the top of tapovana, we can see kaivara betta. We could also see fort remains on the top. Upon inquiring on the route to the top we were told we will have to obtain forest dept permission for the trek. I was suprised to hear this as a permission is required to climb this unknown hill. We decided to check regarding the permission on our way back from kailasgiri.

Kaivara Betta

Our next stop was kailasgiri, which was reached after zipping through the empty roads. Kailasgiri is famous for its cave temples which was closed when we got there. We were told the place would open in another half hour but we decided to leave the place as dark clouds began to gather and we didnt want to get caught in the rain. Couple of snaps of the rock formation and the scenary surrounding the place we headed back. There is also a board at kailsagiri which prohibits people from trekking and wandering alone at ambajidurga hill.

Scenary near kailsagiri

Kailsagiri

When returning back we found the zoo open and went in. The zoo is run by the Karnataka forest dept. We inquired about the possibility of trekking to fort and surprisingly we were given the permission. Upon asking for the route we were told to take the left at gangothri marg and proceed. There is a well marked path which takes us all the way to top. The path is hidden in between however its well defined and one can follow the same to reach the top.

As we climbed higher, we encountered more rocks which made the progress little slow. We were about to reach the top when shashank said he would like to turn back as he was finding it difficult to climb. We climbed little further and decided to head back.

An hour later after descending we were back to the zoo. At the entrance we informed the ticketing guy we would come back shortly to complete the climb. When asked about trekking in ambajidurga hills we were asked to take permission in kailasgiri. Bidding goodbye to the forest gaurd we headed back to bangalore thus completing an eventful half a day outing

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