Ramnath Kamat

Bilkal Rangaswamy Betta also known as Bilkal Ranganatha Swamy Betta is a small hill nearby Kanakapura town. The hillock is located around 75 Kms from south of Bangalore. On the summit lies a huge granite stone and a carved Ranganatha Swamy temple inside it. The summit is at 1180 m height  (as shown by my Casio).

The summit can be accessed by two approaches, one via trekking through a shrub forest and the other is a 4 wheel drive.

On the way to the summit

I came across this place on some blogs and found it interesting for a weekend off road riding. Joined with me were Sandesh and Mahesh on Royal Enfield along with Vishwa on his Yamaha. We started early in the morning at 6:30 from Banashankari bus stand. Everyone was on time at the starting spot. Just a few kms away at Adigas we stopped for breakfast. Filled our tummy with Masala dosa and tea. Our estimated time to destination was 9'o clock. We starting riding in a group keeping line of sight at all the time. By the time it felt like we were riding we reached Kanakapura. You have to take left from the Arkavathi theatre in the town which takes you to the country roads. From here the best way of getting to the betta is asking locals the way to 'Bilkal betta'. We road through the curves, ups and down before we finally reached the base village Sundaghatta from where we had to take offroad to the hill. At the village, the forest guard warned us that there are elephants in the forest and told us to be careful.

Ranganatha Swamy temple

From the base village to the top is a 4 km off road which is a rock filled mud road. It did not seem difficult for the bullets. By the time we reached the summit there was mist surrounding us. We spent some time there, went to the cliff and it was time for photography. After an hour we started heading back to Bangalore. Reached home by noon.

Sandesh riding down  to the cliff

Google Map. Stands accurate Picture courtesy: Mahesh