Happiness is hiking with friends to The Ettina Bhuja Peak

Ettina Bujha – Ox’s shoulder / Hump.

An easy trek which any age group can do (except the final climb). Trek distance 2.5 kms / 2300 steps one side. Trek time – 45mins (personal experience). No prior permission required as of now, just parking charges for the vehicle to be paid.

We reached the base at around 9.30am. Google maps are accurate. Just search for Nanya Byraveshwara temple as said at homestay and drive. The homestay provides guide but we wanted to go ourselves to explore our own. The final 2 kms, the roads are bit bad as it’s a wildlife area, so drive / ride carefully. We parked our two cars, spoke to shop vendor nearby and took some information on the forest area and the peak and started our trek.

I’ll divide this trek into 3 phase.

Phase 1 – The wide trail with birds chirping

The trail which starts from the left side of the parking lot which is wide enough to know it. You can hear a lot of birds chirping if started early morning. After a distance of about 1 km, you come to an open land where the peak can be seen even clearer as shown in the picture.

Phase 2 – Darker or serene

This trail is narrow and the trees have grown huge enough to make the path go dark but not completely. You can hear water gushing through the forest too. The good thing about this trek is that there isn’t any other paths which might be confusing to find the correct route. It’s just one single way.

After walking through little ascend and descend about 1 km you reach a point where you need to turn about 75° to right and that’s where the final stretch starts.

You have almost completed the trek if you aren’t hiking the last bit of it. This stretch is far more beautiful than the summit. The small flowers with grass all over the place and that huge rock standing tall, energizes everything.

Phase 3 – Rock climbing

Good hiking shoes are recommended for final climb. Few boulders are big enough and need proper grip to climb. When you climb the summit, you can see water falling through the mountains at several places, only if the valley is clear from fog.

Spent about good 45 mins on the peak, emersed into the clouds and the sound of the water and mild sunlight hitting the face whenever the Fog cleared. Thankfully there wasn’t anyone around on the peak.

Started our descend, took 30 mins to reach the base. That was easy-peasy to get down.

Now, we had already decided that we can go to Bettada Bhairaveshwara Temple if it doesn’t rain. We were lucky that there wasn’t any indication of rain and we started to our next destination which is 2 kms away from Mekanagadde Homestay and 8.5 kms from Ettina Bujha our current destination.

The drive was amazing as the roads were quite narrow and through the forest. And since it’s a village and forest area, the roads leading to Bettada Bhairaveshwara Temple has concrete road from the base and final some 500 meter there isn’t any tar, it’s just gravel so we decided to park our vehicles next to temple. So the path leading to Pandavar Betta is kinda off-roading experience if taking the bike or the jeep.

Reached the place, a small trek leads to the step 1 of Pandavar Betta and went around strolling a bit and left the place with peace at mind. One can go to next step if there is no dense fog around

We could see a wild boar while we were heading back to homestay. Wasn’t quick enough to capture a picture of it.

Overall, our trip from Saturday to Monday was good. Thankful to the hospitality provided at Mekanagadde Chikmagalur homestay. This place is amazing for its location in the midest of village and surrounding forests. This is the best homestay to experience trekking to Ettina Bhuja and looking for a comfortable and relaxed stay.

Hoping to spend as many days I can on the mountains.

Stay safe travel safe.

Uday Shankar
Guest Blogger