Trek Stats:
Horagina betta height (as per my GPS recording) : 1459 meters
Horagina betta Total distance (from Karahalli cross bus stop to peak and back): ~7 KM. This is along the established trail directly to the peak. A full exploration of the hill would be at least 18 KM.
Difficulty: Depends on route. There is a established trail that is fairly easy barring a short patch of steep rock face on the way.
It might be possible to go away from the normal trail and reach the peak by going through boulders and on the steep face of the hill. This is most likely dangerous.
Permissions: No permissions required at least for now, but with the Government’s eco trails initiative who knows…
Timings: There don’t seem to be any official timings.
How to reach Horagina betta:
Public transport: This is how I did it. The nearest bus stop is Karahalli cross (marked in the map below) . The Horagina betta trail begins immediately from here. Bus 298-MH from Majestic (Platform 23) goes directly to Karahalli cross and takes around 2 hours. But this is a low frequency bus. The more convenient alternative would be to take a bus to Devanhalli and board a different bus to Karahalli cross from there.
Vehicle: Point A, in the map below, could serve as an alternative starting point reducing the trail length by quite a bit. Point A is on the Nandi hill road.
Also, it might be possible to cover the trail between A and B by two wheeler. I didn’t go along that route but I did see bikes parked at point B.
A few notes:
Horagina betta is also known as Nandi One apparently. The nearby giants of the Nandi range – Skandagiri, Nandi Hills, Channagiri are visible from the peak.
This hill is one of the cleanest I’ve seen around Bangalore. Very few bottles and wrappers tossed about. Please don’t ruin it.
Google Maps indicates a trail (dashed lines) but the route to the temple isn’t indicated.
Maps shows a trail along AB in the map above. This trail isn’t clearly visible. I couldn’t go past point B and had to turn back to go around the longer but clearer trail. I went back to point A and took the path labelled as “Nandi downhill”.
At the 4th hairpin bend there’s a trail that connects to the main trail to the peak (the thick orange line). This isn’t marked in the map.
At the point labeled “two trails”, there’s a clear trail that veers off to the right and a less prominent one straight ahead. The trail on the right takes you to one face of the peak. It’s very scenic here but this isn’t the highest point. Also the point marked as Horagina betta in Google maps seems unreachable because of a dense formation of trees and thorny shrubs (the thick green line). I was able to find what looked like a trail going through this wall of foliage to the other side. This trail appeared unused for a long time and therefore had overgrown thorny plants on either side making it inaccessible. I gave up and turned back after venturing a few meters into the thorny mess.
At “two trails” there is a less prominent trail (the red line) along the face of the hill. This is steep near the start and does require some effort to climb, but this is the route to the Shanishwara temple at the peak. The temple is the highest point on the hill. This route is not marked in Google Maps.
See the GPS trail and photos from my Horagina betta trek on Ramblr
Untrodden Paths 