Kurbooru Fort Trek: The Boulder Training Begins | Chap 243 (June 6, 2026)

Kurbooru Fort Trek

 

• Place: Kurbooru Fort Trek (Chintamani)
• Difficulty: Easy
• Distance: 100 km x 2 = 200 km.
• Directions: Bangalore > KR Puram > Hoskote > Kaiwara > Kurbooru
• Krew: Gundachar (Gunda), Karthik (Sp).
• Bikes: Pulsar.
• Previous Visit: Amabaji Durga Trek.
• Budget: Rs 260/head (Petrol = 400/2; Breakfast+Tea = 120/2) 

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IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:

Alright, this was the OMR (Old Madras Road, not old monk rum) expansion ride. Kurbooru Fort offers a peaceful, easy climb, but on boulders. The view from the place is out of the world. We peacefully slept like babies on top of the summit, and the best part of this trip - some mango heist and finding books (unwrapped) on the roadside ;)

And this marked 36 weeks, 35 treks, 8 months, non-stop, since Oct 12th, 2025. This was our 23rd trek in 24 weeks for 2026, with 21 first ascents. :)

INTRO & PLAN:

We decided to pause the Grand TN expedition (Rayakottai Fort Trek, Anchetty Durgam, Ratnagiri trek, Udedurgam Trek. Mallapadi Fort, Jagadevi Fort Trek, Thattakal Fort Trek, Ankushagiri Trek) and open up a OMR route.

With last week's totally off-beat path trek on Ambaji Durga and the chaotic ride back home, we decided to tap this state artery again.  So, the text on June-3-2026 (06:44am) Wednesday, goes something like this:

Sippy - "Hey, Gunda, up for another one this weekend, or need a break?"

Gunda - "It is Wednesday, this is BREAK, LET US GO 👍!"

Love these people :)

TIME: 20:00 (5 June, 2026)

Presenting Kurbooru Fort Trek :)

ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:

Yeah, I was up by 3am sharp. Stretched out a little, got ready in a jiffy and trust me, I was actually excited to head out into what was "unknown" (Mahadevapura, ITPL, KR Puram, etc) this time.  Texted Gunda and he was up too. Fueled up and cruised through the city, with slow heavy doom metal blasting, and oh yeah, nothing was stopping me from singing all along the way as well. And yes, you know the drill - NO GMAPS throughout; we ask and only then reach. 

Reached KR Puram in about 45 minutes; the fragrance of the flower from the market always gets me slightly high. Stood there, took all the fragrance I could, and met Gunda. Gunda asked if I had trouble finding the route, like a kid boasting about his school activities, - I boasted how I had made it without trouble at all :) 

TIME: 05:15

Kaiwara and her crown :)

RIDE 1: (KR Puram > Hoskote > Kaiwara > Kurbooru)

Now, we rode seamlessly, chatting all the way and made it to Hoskote. The roads were flooded with traffic - the usual at this place, but we jibbed here and there and got past it. The sun was trying to rise, but the thick blanket of clouds was suppressing it, making the horizon look extra orange. It was like the sun trying to squeeze through the blanket and help people get out of their beds. 

We pulled over at another eatery for breakfast this time. Even though the breakfast was good last week, we wanted to tap into two or three eateries and fix the final breakfast stop on this route. 

Post Kaiwara, there were about 4-5 turns that had to be executed to perfection; with the hand-drawn map in my pocket and tapping into the memory of the place names, we executed each route to perfection to reach Kurbooru :)

TIME: 08:15

KURBOORU FORT TREK

ASCENT:

The fort-hill looked bigger than what we had imagined. The ascent took us about 30-45 minutes. As we entered the town of Kurbooru, we flagged down a milkman and enquired about the ascent path. He explained, and then as he left, he pulled over and took us to the mud road deviation before the town and showed us the direction :) 

Post which, another person was filling up water in his cans, we again enquired. He said this side of the route to the summit is a tough climb on a rock face, but he looked confused. The reason being, we started getting goosebumps and had begun to tap our feet with joy and excitement. He laughed at us and showed us a few more viewpoints and pointed at the vertical rock ascent route. We thanked him and started running towards the base of the climb; he stood there confused and scratching his head.  I have divided the climb into two phases.

Boulder and mud route :)

Phase 1: The Rock face

Ok, as we ran past canals, cemeteries and bunds, we could finally spot the start point. As we dashed up towards it, two dogs started barking at us and blocked our way. We dashed past it, locking our eyes on climbing the vertical rock face. The poor dogs whined for not getting any respect for their barks :)

Then, the vertical grind began. As the rock was being chipped off, we moved away from the places where it was being chipped off, as it left a lot of flaky, loose chips and made it unpredictable. We circumnavigated the hill until we found the original skin of the hill and started climbing. The climb was steep and fun :)

The outlands and view of the final summit of Kurbooru.

Phase 2: The Outlands and Summit dash

Now, things got interesting; the vertical grind opened up to an outland and terrain similar to other hillocks like Ambaji Durga, Kunti Betta and Skandagiri. The trail had hard green grass with tightly pressed mud. 

Healthily pacing ourselves, we stopped in between to pause and look around and take in the beauty that was being presented before us. Shifting leads, we mentally marked routes and we had the final boulder stretch. We had found 60+ new hillocks and a lot of them had this bouldery terrain, so this was seen as a training day. With zero people around, we could try all foolish tricks and practise moves that would eventually carry to other treks to come :) 

Finally, about 35 minutes later, we pushed hard and reached the top-most part of the fort and realized we had climbed the fort hill alright, but it was completely from the opposite side and not the usual route people take.

TIME: 08:00

The peaceful 1hr deep sleep at the summit

TOP:

At the top, we laughed seeing the neat fort wall below us on the opposite side. The route ran into the town of Kurbooru. The boulders were present at the top, and with the smooth edges and curvy structures were something different and fun. We took of our jackets - weighed a ton like Goku's. And we hydrated ourselves and finally crashed. I mean, it was still 8am, so we slept for an hour imbibing the peaceful wind and natural music that was being played into our ears. 

The sleep felt so therapeutic; trust me, the sleep kept hovering just at the border of deep sleep and just resting. When we woke up, we felt so fresh, looking back at the mountains all around us, we felt really happy. We hydrated and decided to head back down :)

TIME: 09:00

Ancient Pathway between the boulders :)

DESCENT:

The descent again took us about 30 minutes. As we explored the top further, we found an ancient pathway that ran in between the boulders. We really had to squeeze through it and see what was on the other side. With some cave and boulder treks coming up, we really pushed ahead and got used to these claustrophobic stretches. It was fun :) 

Smiley Gunda found the ancient route :)

From here, for the descent, we decided to take the boulder path down. And did I mention, the newest addition to my trek bag is a stitching kit. Oh yes, it is. With my pants ripping open every once, I decided to carry a needle and a thread, so that I could stitch it up wherever I want to haha. Then, navigating the descent to perfection, we reached back our bikes, had one look back at the hillock, thanked her for the rich experience, and finally "LETTING US GO BACK".  As we mounted the bikes and were ready to head back, the two dogs which we had dashed past started barking again haha :)

TIME: 10:00

Introduction to Boulder Based Treks :)

RIDE 2: (Kurbooru > Hoskote > KR Puram > Home)

Ok, as we took off from Kurbooru, we allowed the winds to cool down our faces. To join back the main road, we had to navigate back the 4-5 turns to perfection. But the roads were simply heavenly country routes. 

Now, Gunda had spotted some mango farms on the way. So, on our way back, we pulled over; I was on the look out to see if the coast was clear, and Gunda plucked some 8-10 mangos and stuffed it into our bags, and we went off. A successful mango heist :)

After which the ride seemed straightforward; with the heavy bag we were cruising, just as we completed about 60km, we decided to pull over for a stretch break just before Hoskote, and nature presented her second set of gifts. As we pulled over, hydrated a little and were stretching, Gunda spotted a shiny wrapper barely seen amidst the grass; we thought it was a slab/tile. But when we lifted it up, there were two brand new books discarded on the roadside. We were like, damn, what are the odds of us pulling right at that spot? Haha. Happy with the gifts, we rode back to reach KR Puram. (Books we found - "India that is Bharat" and "We are there for Each other")

TIME: 12:00

Gunda leading the successful mango heist :)

Dropped Gunda and confidently left; as I did, the route I had mugged up was closed. One final curveball eh, I thought, looking up at the skies, but spoke to multiple people (Gmap doesn't even open on my phone hahaa) and found the route without much effort and cruised along singing aloud, head bobbing all the way to reach back home happy and satisfied :)

TIME: 13:00

Gunda squeezing through the boulders

CONCLUSION:

Well, this trek turned out to be something else. An excellent spacer, a fun one. And the mangoes and the books have put us in a thought spiral. The OMR expedition continues with a great trek, we are getting used to this route. Maybe a few more in the coming weeks :)

Past 36 weeks, we have pulled off 35 treks, ~7000 kms in total, 8 months, non-stop. The Flame lives on \m/

KREW:

Gunda: Still in shock finding the books, finding the cave passage at the top. Had to be this guy for these kinda treks. His calmness is something that would be required for all the boulder based expedition in upcoming weeks. 

Sippy: Crazy happy with the second hit on the OMR Route, really good stuff eh. Thankfully didn't get my butt bitten by the two dogs chasing haha :)

Until next time, Ta-da Cia \m/

Wish us luck on OMR expeditions :)