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| Presenting Ramanahalli Betta Trek in Kanakapura. |
- Place: Ramanahalli Betta Trek (Kanakapura)
- Difficulty: Easy - with a few tricky stretches.
- Distance: 50 km x 2 = 100 km.
- Directions: Bangalore > Kanakapura > Ramanahalli Betta
- Krew: Datta (Dattu), Karthik (Sp).
- Bikes: Pulsar.
- Previous Visit: Siddle Kallu Betta Trek.
- Budget: Rs 192/head (Petrol = 264/2; Breakfast = 120/2)
IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:
Ramanahalli Betta is a totally offbeat place with stunning views of the Kanakapura hillocks. This is situated amidst a lot of resorts that use them as trekking trails. So yeah, had to sneak in and out. The climb itself is short, but a true grind.
And this marked 340 days, 53 treks, 11.5 months, non-stop, since Oct 12th, 2025. This was our 41st trek in 39 weeks for 2026, with 38 first-time ascents and zero repeats :)
INTRO & PLAN:
Well, the Grand TN expedition was in full roar (Rayakottai, Anchetty Durgam, Ratnagiri Malaikottai, Udedurgam, Mallapadi, Jagadevi Fort, Thattakal Fort, Ankushagiri, Periyamalai, Virabhadra Fort, Maharajakadai Fort Trek, Musattu Malai Trek, Saanarappan Malai Trek, Sanjeevarayan Malai Trek, Arulagiri Fort, Mookankur Malai Trek).
Well, as far as the planning goes, we wanted to keep it simple for Phase 2 after the 52nd trek. Dattu quickly confirmed that either Friday/Saturday would be okay. So, Friday it was. Since there is very little to no info on the place, we needed to scout it on a weekday.
TIME: 18:00 (17 Sep, 2026)
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| Offroading to the base :) |
ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:
Yeah, was up at 3 AM sharp, the usual time. Stretched a little, got ready, had a sip of coffee and went down, wiped down the bike gently, gave a gentle kiss on her dome and asked if she was ready for the ride. Then took off by 4:30am from my house, listening to slow doom metal 15km in the opposite direction to pick up the "endurance monster"- dattu- from his place at Mahalakshmi Layout. After formal greetings, we left Bangalore.
TIME: 05:00
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| Worth the sneak peak :) |
RIDE 1: (Bangalore > Kanakapura > Ramanahalli Betta)
Well, with the strict NO GOOGLE MAPS rule in place, we cruised comfortably in the dark, discussing deeply about various topics as we glided amidst the city traffic and joined the Kanakapura road at Banashankari. There is a flower market here, and the amalgamation of these scents always gets me slightly high. So slowed down a little bit :)
Post Banashankari, we cruised at a decent pace, still in the dark. We took a call to skip breakfast, finish the trek and then eat dosas at the famous Vasu Hotel in Kanakapura.
We pulled over for a small tea stop to stretch our legs, where a super friendly dog with an unusually squishy face came right up to me. I couldn't help myself but play with it for a few minutes. After feeding it biscuits, we took off.
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| View from Ramanahalli Betta from the base. |
Now, after taking the deviation from the Kanakapura main road, things got interesting. There are a lot of resorts on these country roads, each one bigger than the other, trying to leverage the beautiful nature Kanakapura is surrounded by.
Upon deeper entry into the rural roads, we entered a resort; a few of the workers stopped us and asked if we were from the camp. We said "no". They said the trails are allowed only for people staying at the camp. I laughed out loud, sending them into confusion. Then I asked, "Who does the mountain belong to?" This sent them into a serious thought spiral. Then we said, "We are climbing it and coming back; tell me where we should park our bikes, ashte!" They showed us the route, and we parked the bikes on the trail and awoke the lizard's spirit and were all set for the trek :)
TIME: 07:15
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| Gauging and marking routes before we begin. |
RAMANAHALLI BETTA TREK
ASCENT:
Well, this hillock is a small one, but requires some amount of gauging before the actual climb. It took us about 30minutes to ascend the hillock, with a good 10mins spent only on studying it and planning the route up. As we initially went through the resort, we could spot a lot play area - for slush volley ball, swimming pools, dhabas, small beautifully constructed stays.
Like always, have divided the trek into phases, so LET'S GO \m/
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| The Initial Trails |
Phase 1: The Initial Trails
The Initial trails were pleasant, and silence descended upon us fast. Going past the resort's perimeter, we went around the hill and studied the macro. Marking routes mentally, we fixed one. The base of the hillock is covered with foliage. So we had ensure that we penetrated it perfectly, as when you get into it, the view of the hillock would be obstructed. SO, this is crucial.
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| The Grind begins :) |
Phase 2: The Grind
Pushing past the foliage, we made it to the rock face and felt at home. The incline was steep, with super grip. So, taking it step by step, reading the terrain well, we made it to flat ground. The views simply were uplifting. We could spot a lot of neighbouring hillocks like Acchalu Betta. So again mentally marked a rough direction and distance of each, which would help us in our research further.
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| Summit Push through the forest :) |
Phase 3: Summit Push
Now, it is not uncommon for the hillocks of this region to house a forest at the top. So, yeah, now with the summit still afar, we pushed through a tricky forest looking for a rock face opening. A rock face with sky above us is much simpler to gauge than being in the forest with shrubs and trees all around you. So, we made it to the rock face, mentally leaving breadcrumbs all over the place and hit the summit.
TIME: 07:45
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| Ramanahalli Betta Summit :) |
TOP:
The skies were gloomy. But the sun was lighting up the faraway mountains. It was surreal and beautiful. We could feel our nostrils flare up with the fresh air all around us. The silence was heavy all around us. So, we just sat amidst it, just taking it all in and hydrating ourselves. We sat and discussed a lot of things: TV shows that we were watching, books we were reading, music that we were listening to. It was just a very peaceful conversation. We spent about 30 minutes at the summit and then decided to head back down.
TIME: 08:15
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| The descent |
DESCENT:
The descent took us another 30 minutes. But this was done very cleanly and surgically. Meaning, we retraced our steps to perfection. This always feels good on a free-style climb. Leaving all the mental breadcrumbs had paid off. And we scouted the surroundings well to retrace our trail back to perfection. Felt real, real good!
Upon reaching the base, we smiled back the people who tried resisting us from going, for reasons other than our safety. If it was a genuine concern (say, animal activity, other risks), we would have actually listened to them. Telling the hill belongs to them, haha, not a chance at all :) And before we left, we looked back at the hillock and thanked her for the experience and, more importantly, "LETTING US GO". It was time for breakfast :)
TIME: 09:00
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| The best dosa ever - The original Vasu Hotel :) |
RIDE 2: (Ramanahalli > Kanakapura > Bangalore)
This was a 50km simple formality ride. Our tummies had started to growl as we descended the mountain. We rode into the town of Kanakapura and totally chowed down on some yummy dosas at Vasu Hotel. One of the oldest establishments in Kanakapura and our regular stop for well over 12 years now. Post-breakfast, we rode nonstop to reach Bangalore and pulled over at our regular bar for some well-deserved beer :)
TIME: 10:30
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| Dattu navigating the loose rocks. |
CONCLUSION:
Well, Ramanahalli proved to be a serene reset that both of us required. After hitting the Hosur and Mysore road repeatedly, this felt fresh. And the climb was intense but short; the summit was just relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered :)
And oh yeah, in case you plan your trek, just go around all the resorts and directly enter the hillock's base. The HILL belongs to NO-ONE.
In the past 340 days, we have pulled off 53 treks, ~10,500 kms in total, 11.5 months, non-stop. The Flame lives on \m/
KREW:
Sippy: Very happy with the peaceful trek. And more importantly fighting for it and pulling it off. We have officially launched phase 2 (until Oct 12, 2026) on the FLYING NIMBUS \m/
Until next time, Ta-da Cia \m/
Oh yeah, if you want to read about the past 52 treks, here is the link: 52 NON STOP TREKS.
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| Sippy signing off, until next time \m/ |
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