A beautiful weekend getaway from Bangalore

Since it rained bombs in Bangalore on Friday, we friends decided to beat the terror fear by heading towards a village called Kaiwara.
Kaiwara is a nature-blessed, picturesque village near Chinthamani town in Kolar district and 60+ Kms away from Bangalore. Six of us spent our Sunday there and we enjoyed every bit of it. On Sunday morning, when we wanted a place that is within an hour’s drive, I suggested Kaiwara and few of us made calls and surfed a bit to find the route and other details of this little-known village.
How to reach: Bangalore -> Hoskote->Kaiwara. Go towards Old Madras road till Hoskote and take the left at the arch where the road forks into 3. (If you go straight, you’ll reach Kolar). Kaiwara or Kaivara (as the tourism name plate reads) is 29 Kms from this arch. On reaching the village centre which is symbolized by an auto stand and few shops, continue straight for 9 Kms. To reach the cave temple, take right where there is a Kannada board directing towards Narasimha temple.
Initially, we did not take this right turn, but proceeded ahead. You get to see lush green trees (being July end, rain gods have been blessing), boulders and hillocks of small, medium and large sizes.
We parked our car in one of the plains nearby a hillock and started our trek towards the boulders. It was a calm, quiet and very silent place – cold winds blew and soothed the body and spirit. The soil was red and the boulders were thrown all over the place. It seemed as if it was a school playground only that the game was to roll the boulders to any desired spot. There were a few trees and lot of thorns all over the ground. After a 10 minute trek, the place turned dark (it was 12.30 noon) and before we could look up to the sky, the clouds started coming down and they came down heavily. There was no time to think and all six of us started running back to the car, as there was no tree nearby. But the rain bet us and we all got drenched from top to bottom before reaching the car. Our clothes and shoes turned red with mud and still we got into the car and colored its interiors with red.
Within a few minutes, the sky cleared and after a bit of musing, we re-started the trek. By the time we reached the boulders, the clothes had partly dried thanks to the winds and we felt better though the shoes were spoiled. Dor removed her slippery wet slippers and braved trekking on bare feet and Muku had to carry them back- he was happy to play Bharatan for his wife’s padukas. We conquered few boulders, climbed those with step-like stones and had a good time. It is a very scenic place and all you can see around are hillocks and boulders. It is a visual treat for the human eyes and camera lens. Ram was engrossed in clicking snaps. No other humans were around till we spotted a shepherd with his 65 goats grazing. After moving a bit forward, there was a woman collecting wood and a boy, probably her son sat on a boulder and was staring at the rocks for a long time. Two of them were tired by now and enjoyed a smoke from the hillock. Some of the rocks were big enough for rappelling. On the rock that we stood, there was enough space for spreading the picnic basket. Since the rock was wet, we decided to return to the car for lunch!
Again, the clouds overtook us and the sky opened up once more with full force. Mahesh took us to a six-foot rock behind which 3 of us took shelter. From there, we could see the beauty of the big ground that lay ahead of us, the hillocks etc. Soon, visibility was reduced to few meters and a white smoke replaced all the big objects. It was a good 15-minute rain that paved way for a clear sky. The drizzle continued and since the rock that sheltered us started getting wet on our side, we started our return journey. The rocks looked cleaner and I keep wondering why there were yellow patches on them. A stream from the rainy waters started gushing and it was a nice sight with sun turning bright again.
It was 3.30 pm when we had the aloo and mooli parathas that Mahesh& Satish had picked up for lunch. The tiring trek, rains and the beauty of the place made the parathas tastier. Dor’s Lindt chocolates turned into desserts. Since it was wet, we could not spread the picnic blanket and used the boot of the car as the table counter. Well, it started drizzling again as expected and we rushed indoors and further soiled the car. We could not avoid it this time as we had to drive to the cave which was shut by the legendary Bheema.
We took the same road down and proceeded to the Kannada board and took a left (Remember to go right if you are on the way from village). After a few hundreds of meters, the white temple building can be seen at the basement of a big hillock. As you can expect, monkeys ruled this area and they still are. Some of them stayed back to dry themselves and the rest proceeded towards the Narasimha temple. You have to climb around 100 steps to go up and this temple is different from the usual structures. Wondering how? It has a terrace from which you get wonderful views. There is a Yagna mantapa which has lot of small idols including the Dasavataram series of Lord Vishnu. A 8-foot statue of Lord Narasimha and Lakshmi(my guess) can be seen against one of the walls. Next to the mantapa is a very small entrance which is formed by the edge of the cave rock. One has to sit down or kneel to see a small idol of Narasimha inside the cave rock. Probably, it is a symbolic representation that mankind has to kneel in front of the super power. Well, aarthi and pooja was being done by a priest who was also accepting donations and giving receipt bills. We spent some more time and hurried back to the car when the rains came down again.
We were told that the road ahead has a picturesque view and a big solo rock and so drove up the cliff. The views on both sides were awesome. After a while, we returned in the same route and there was a spot with a raised single track with small pond in red color on one side and lush green bushes on the other side. Ram went down to click some pictures with Satish protecting the camera with the umbrella. Once inside, the camera was wiped clean and dry and waited for the next click which happened a few times on our way back.
The return journey was equally wet and I was continuously reminding Ram to reduce the speed, who was enjoying the good road inspite of the waters. Temperature has reduced drastically and the AC did not help either. It was 6.30 pm when we reached the Marthahalli Coffee day to warm ourselves.
It was a memorable day full of exotic views and wet experiences and would recommend Kaiwara for those souls who want a weekend away from the maddening crowd.
Food : We carried our lunch and except for the small shops at the village centre, did not find any restaurant.
Road: 60 Kms from Bangalore. Very good road. It is NH is our guess.
Best time to visit : Monsoon and post-monsoons, winter too. Expect it to be hot in summer.
Ideal for: Mild treks, picnics.
Request: It is a very beautiful place and help it to remain so. Please do not litter and carry back all your carry-bags and plastic containers