Winters in Bangalore are the best time to go trekking on hills close to him. We had done the trek to the Sri Shiva Nanjundeshwera Temple on a winter morning (read about here). And now it was time to do another one. This time it was to the Bala Kondarayana Swamy Temple. This too was located atop a hill.
The hill is around 70 kms from our home. It took us around 1 hour to reach the place during early morning. This time we reached the place around 6:30am. And this time too, we could see only a couple of motorcycles parked in the parking area.
Ah! We were getting lucky with the number of visitors 😀 . We took our ritualistic photo of us before starting the climb up.
And off we went! We could see that the climb was to be on stone steps.
Soon we reached the mid section of the climb. We saw a small temple at this section along with an archway indicating which way we had to head on to the top.
Here some views that we got as we headed on upwards through the archway.
Near the top, we struggled a bit to find the exact path up to the temple. But we finally managed to find it. Here are the views from the top of the hill and around the temple.
This time too, we had got lucky with the crowd. There were just three other people around. What way to experience the place!
After spending around 45 minutes on the top, we headed back down.
Recommendations
Based on our experience, here are some tips if you are considering visiting the place:
- Go early in the morning. Though there is shade in some patches along the way, it can still get hot.
- Carry water and may be a small snack. That is what we did. You can enjoy the snack on the top. Make sure you get back any waste 🙂
- There were a few monkeys around at the top. So be careful, if you decide to eat a snack at the top.
- Though much of the walk is on stone steps, I would recommend wearing decent walking shoes. In some patches you may have to go through grassy patches
- You have a lot of steps to go up. So anyone with knee or back issues can be find it challenging.
- Parking is not an issue at the bottom.
- It is a religious place. So please be mindful and respectful of it.
Directions
Here is the point where you can park your vehicle and start the hike up the hill
