ಚಹಾ ಚೂಡಾ ಕೆ ಸಾಥ್ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಮಾತು....: 2013

Thursday, 19 December 2013

BTC - Trekking/Island Camping/Water Sports in Sharavathi Back Water

Like the desert misses the rain! (not my line)

The rest of the following lines are fully mine and copyrights protected :-P

Like the men miss the cup of coffee & newspaper in the morning

Like the women miss the year’s half price sales at the malls

Like the Bollywood misses the ‘SRK Kajol’ Jodi

I have missed BTC more than anything!

Yea yea! Those lines were really crappy, but no trekking with BTC for a month had really driven me insane and this was a way for my vent out. Do you now get the intensity of how much I missed BTC? J

So here I am after a long break; the much wanted, two days to Sharavati back waters trekking, my 'sweet escape' after a hectic month of academics.

Shantala house (The legendary place where the fun begins J) 13^th Dec: People say life is so unpredictable, so is Bangalore traffic! To spare myself from being stuck in the traffic jam I reached our meet point Shantala house at 9pm, an hr before the said time. After few mins, Divya was there, it was her first BTC trek. We went on chatting till others reached. By 10.30 all of us were there and had a short introduction session and we started our journey to Sharavati in our hired TT. The night was uneventful, except for some delay due to a KSTRC bus being toppled up on the road.

Day full of surprises 14^th Dec:

@ Jog Falls

We reached Sagara by 6am. Am sure all the people of Karnataka have grown up reading/listening to this Kannada poem/song -

“Manavanagi huttidha mele enen kandi

Sayo thanaka samsardholage ganda gundi

Herikondu hogodhila satthag bandi

Irodhraloge nodu omme jogadha gundi”

This little poem says, what have all you seen after being born as a human? Till the death, you go through up's and downs of life and not that you can carry everything when you die, so make sure you visit Joga at least once in your lifetime!

Though Jog Falls was not on our plan, we decided to visit Jog waterfalls! That was such a nice surprise! And one item less on my "to do" list :)
The Jog Falls didn't have much water but still it was a pleasant sight, all of us got busy identifying which is Raja, Rani, Roarer or Rocket! and our Channa as usual working his magic!(with his camera)
Without wasting much time we headed to our homestay which was "Muppane" ( Old Elephant in kannada) , and everyone had a story how this place would have got this name, though non seemed believable!
Dharma and Lakshmi were the guys who received us, and lead our way to the dormitories to get freshen up. So our trek started there, even to reach dormitories we had to trek inside the jungle. After a ten mins walk we were let open to an absolute bliss, we were on the banks of the backwaters, even a blink of an eye then, seemed to be a sin. We were totally lost in this beauty, that we decided to freshen up right there itself instead of using the dormitory! We then trekked back to have our breakfast, which was rice poori, chutney and avalakki.

It was one hr journey to Gudanagundi waterfalls, I was in deep sleep so I really don’t know what was going on in the TT during the journey!
The day was pretty hot, we started walking, passed many grasslands and also the trail continued into thick forest.

@Muppane Nature Camp

@ Trekking to Gudanagundi Water Falls

A beautiful stream ran through, couple of them (Kaushik, Divya, Ashwin ) crossed the stream, without taking off their shoes and rest of us crossed the stream barefoot! ( Those guys who got their shoes wet appreciated us so much, as we had given them some take home trekking tips :-P )
And I think it’s never complete without leech bites! These creatures didn't spare us here either.

While BTC guys in Bangalore were generously donating blood at the blood camp the next day, we were donating blood to the leeches:-P

@ Gudanagundi Water Falls

After a good amount of trek and crossing many streams we reached the falls! It was just beautiful. We again had to climb a bit to play in the waterfalls. In few mins all were under the waterfalls! What an awesome natural Jacuzzi bath it was, and then there was Sharan trying to click pics with his phone! We were first shocked to see him risk his phone to capture us but then we were like, we first want photos and later lets think if the phone is fine :-P so we were all back posing to Sharan! This guy was also washing his phone in the waters! We thought he must be total nuts, then realised it was a water proof camera, as soon as we got to know it was waterproof we played water volleyball with his camera!

@ Gudanagundi Water Falls

It was noon by then, Dharma and Lakshmi called us for lunch. We couldn’t believe our eyes, they actually cooked us lunch with firewood while we were busy playing in the falls. Nothing like food cooked with firewood! Simple rice sambhar papad with pickles was heavenly. All of us ate till our stomach could no longer stuff more! Some took short naps under the tree and some became dhobis! Washing and drying their wet clothes.

Dharma took us to another waterfalls “Belligundi” so we had to start trekking again, which took us almost an hr to reach there. We could only see this falls from a distance, Dharma also opined that the sunset view from here was not to be missed. So we decided to wait till sunset, it was 3ish then. We had more than an hr to kill. Sharan introduced us to a new game, the game goes like this; you name a place and with the last letter of that place we continue naming places. We were giving the other team tough time by giving them places ending with E, A & R while Channa, Prakash, Ashwin, Harisha and Santosh of that team took us on a ‘Bangalore area tour’, without missing any nagars or circles! The game then continued with movie names. We laughed till tears ran down.

It was time for the sunset! We could see the sun set into the sea (Yes! Into the sea, we could see the western coast J), the sun was down and no light! Now we had to rush as we had left our torches back at the dormitory, staying back to see the sunset was not on our plans earlier.

BTCians @ Belligundi Water Falls

Unplanned Night Trek

So what if sun didn’t keep us company, we had the moon J and our day trek had just become night trek ;) we were walking in the moonlight and our additional phone torches helping in some way.

With a feel of satisfaction we reached our TT and left to homestay. The dinner was ready. Even though it was night, the day was only getting better. The dinner was just amazing. Chapathi with Bindi, Bisi bele bath, curd rice, mirchi bajji and ofcourse the dessert- Payasam!

After super batting (I’m sure everyone agrees that I was the top scorer :-P), we had to trek with our heavy stomachs to pick up our luggage and go to the camping site. So trek again!

While Dharma and his guys were busy pitching tents for us, we were collecting more woods to keep our campfire burning entire night. Yes! we had a campfire and tents on an island, And no other sole out here, except for us. It was like our OWN PRIVATE ISLAND !!

Deepak had got his own tent and I didn’t miss this opportunity to learn how to put up a tent. The night was getting cold, we were all sitting around the campfire and warming ourselves!

Setting Up Tent

BTCians Enjoying Campire

Dumb charades was the choice of the game. The game didn’t seem like ending! Santosh and Deepak turned into stars with their performances :-P while Sundeep gave the weirdest movie names to enact. Nobody had the heart to end this wonderful day but we had to catch some sleep. All of us crawled inside our tents and went to sleep.

Day full of action-15^th Dec:
Wake up wake up! Sun is gonna rise soon! Was the wakeup call from Channa. I was still rubbing my eyes when I walked out of my tent and to see everybody all set to welcome the sun with their cameras! With no sneak peeks, the sun slowly rose high up, and it was up there shining with its full might! Marking the beginning of another bright day ahead!

SunRise

Haage Summane Ondu Stunt

@ Its Sunrise Time

Click! Click! Click! It was just that for next few hrs till our stomachs rumbled. We were trying all our martial arts skills, yoga poses and not to forget the kung fu panda pose!

Dharma insisted us to come for breakfast; we got freshened up and left our camping site. We are ‘Bangalore Trekking Club’ guys so we had to trek to get breakfast :-P. Hot idli vadas with sambhar gave us the morning boost of energy. We made sure we ate enough as we had a whole day for water activities. Breakfast done and now we were trekking back to the backwaters, carried lifejackets along. Everyone made sure that Sharan didn’t go missing for a sec! (For his waterproof camera :-P)

BTCians Getting Ready for Water Games

We all wore lifejackets (Santosh and Saravana wore double jackets J) and plunged into the water. The cold water was so refreshing on a hot day. All the self proclaimed swimmers began to swim to the other side of the backwaters; Channa didn’t let us, the non swimmers to go far. We were splashing at each other and trying some swim strokes in the shallow waters. After a while we spotted few monkeys on the tree branches somewhere in the middle of the waters, so we decided to take the coracle and started rowing to reach that tree.

BTCans Enjoying Swimming

Ashwin and Divya took the responsibility of throwing water out, which seeped inside the coracle, he got so exhausted and he shouted that he hates this job domain and it was much tiring than swimming! Channa and Harish had mastered the skills of rowing by then, and the monkeys turned out to be none other than our BTC guys who had swam earlier! Sharan’s camera was in demand throughout.

The guys in the coracle rowed back to the bank to start with other activities like Kayaking and Canoeing. While I stayed back there, to try my swimming skills. Thanks a ton to Kaushik and Saravana for having great patience, they kept me company till I swam to the banks. Yes I did swim! (BTC founders- Viru and Chaits may laugh reading that ‘I can swim’ but guys I really swam 7.5kmJ). Apparently the backwater is 15km wide, so I have swum 7.5km!

@ Sharavathi Back Water

We then went Kayaking and canoeing by taking turns one after the other. The feel of it was like; I was living a life from Nicholas Spark’s novel! The serene water with different shades of blue in the water, green forest anywhere you look beyond the bank and absolutely nobody’s presence around! The best part was, we had no restrictions or dos and don’ts. We could swim or row any distance with no boundaries!

@ Sharavathi Back Water

It was past afternoon, we couldn’t believe that we were in the waters for so long! We then packed our luggage and went for lunch. Lunch was as good as the day, pulav with curd raita and rice sambhar. After a superb lunch we got into the TT, we were going to another viewpoint for sunset! What seemed like just one km trek (As told by Channa) it was almost 2 km trek just one side. After a heavy lunch we were trekking uphill! But the trek was worth it. Another beautiful sunset, what a visual delight it was. Oh yet again, it got dark so we began to descend down in the moonlight, which accounts for second day of our night trek J

@ Sunset

We met Mr. Sampath, the owner of the home stay where we stayed, thanked him for his and his men’s hospitality. We also had our feedback session there. The two day experience of all the guys were as good as our last two days, which makes me feel proud for being one among the BTC organizers!

We had our dinner at Sagara and our journey back to Bangalore began.

Last but not the least; this was my tenth trek with BTC!! And which had ten surprises for me!

Surprise 1: Jog falls visit (which was not a part of our initial plan)

Surprise 2: No packed lunch, but lunch cooked with firewood right beside the waterfalls

Surprise 3: Gorgeous sunset, watching the sun slip into the sea in the west coast, from miles away!

Surprise 4: First night trek of mine with BTC on two consecutive days!

Surprise 5: First campfire ever! Besides the bank of the river.

Surprise 6: Got a chance to pitch tent and that too besides the river.

Surprise 7: The best sunrise I have ever seen (even the sunrise at Kanyakumari had disappointed me)

Surprise 8: Yes! Swimming that long stretch, and which wasn’t in a pool.

Surprise 9: Unplanned trek, to view sunset before we end our day.

Surprise 10: Is that you guys have reached till here without dozing off :-P

Channa thanks so much for organizing this event and all the guys who were simply fun to be with! It only gets better and better with BTC, BTC just rocks!!!!

Written By : Deepthy J

Organized By : Channa & Deepthy

Date of event : 14th & 15th December, 2013

Members Count: 12 (10M, 2F)

Place : Sagara/Shimoga/Talaguppa

Trekking Group: Bangalore Trekking Club

Monday, 16 September 2013

One Day Trek to Rayakottai Fort - BTC - 10th Aug, 2013

The organisers and big brothers of the trip, Channa and Santosh along with some folks started from Bangalore Cantonment Railway Station, few joined at Baiyyappanahalli Railway Station and few more at Karmelarem Railway Station. We were 29 in total. As we settled down, organisers served the best Akki Rottis that I have ever had for breakfast. I just loved them. The Train was on time and in no time, we reached Raikottai at 9.50am (well I know it quite surprising :p).

After packing Lemon rice for the lunch, from a small hotel near the Rayakottai bus stand, we started walking towards the hill. In not more than 15 mins we were at foot of the hill. This fort has a rich history and is one of the protected monuments by the Archeological Survey of India. Check on the Wikipedia for all the historic info of the place. It took 2 hours to climb up to the top of the hill with Channa leading the group and Santosh sweeping from back and also clicking some pics for us through out.

It really does not take more than an hour, but when enjoying the wind, the sun, the beautiful nature along with posing for some pictures to show off on FB, yes it does take 2 hrs.

There were some slightly damaged structures of the fort rooms and boundary wall all along the way. As we reached the top of the fort, we saw a small, flat and round place. In the centre of the place are the remains of a two stepped flagpole on which the Mighty Tippu Sultan and the British hoisted their flags on once upon a time. This is the highest point of the hill and you can see a beautiful breath-taking view of the town with many other small hills, a railway track, a big lake and the sky touching the earth. There is neither a wall nor a fence around the place. One can enjoy the complete view of the town and surrounding at its best from here. Some call it's unsafe, some say it's risky, but that is the true form of the nature. It lets us go till the tip to feel the joy and lets one choose the limit. We cross the limit and later blame it. :)

As we were all enjoying the scenic beauty of the place, Santosh unfolded us a surprise. It was a bright and beautiful Indian flag. With four days to go for the 66th Indian Independence day, we jumped in joy with spirits of Mother Nation. After taking a group pic with the Indian flag, we started descending. Kudos to the organisers for the idea!! What an idea Sirjis. :) A day away from the polluted air, honks, horns & traffic of the Bangalore roads, it's a pleasant experience to feel the nature and it's an independence day for us. And this is much better than being a lazy bum sitting on a couch.

Now settled and camped in a nice place near this big room there for lunch. The packed lemon rice is no less than a Biryani for us here now. It's so authentic taste, my next time here, I would go for it without a second thought. Thanks to organisers for his perfect pre trail arrangements.

After having the lunch, now it's the time for some dance. As we were dancing, not exaggerating, but, we have some surprise visitors, a group of bees loved our music and joined our party and asked,” How could you guys not invite us?” We were not comfortable with dancing with the bees, so we offered them the entire place and quietly walked away. (Literally ran away :P). It was 2:00pm already and so we started descending and reached down in less than half an hour and soon reached the market centre of the town. With the banners of Thala(Ajith) and Illaya Thalapathi(Vijay) , the poster boys of the Tamil Cinema of the times, one can feel the presence of the Tamil Nadu now. No doubt, they are the Demi-Gods and Superheroes of the folks here. After having slight refreshments here, we started walking to Railway station.

This time we have our Train late by half hour (so no surprise !! :P ). After posing for some pics, the tired folks retired for a little rest now.

Despite being a community group, Organisers charged us exorbitantly. They did not give any discount for the first timers, they did not accept cards and they said no to Sodexo Coupons too. We were left with no choice but to pay the full amount of Rs. 110 !! :P

As soon as the train arrived, we jumped into and did not find place to sit down. So we sat on the upper ones and find ourselves a comfortable place. While few passed the time on jokes and some on Antakshari, others had taken a little rest. With fresh Vadas, Idlies, Bhel Puri and Keera, it was a treat for the people who love the country side foods. We reached Bangalore and soon people starting bidding byes for the new friends.

This was one of the best fun treks that I have been to. And my first one with BTC. The efforts that Channa and Santosh have put in are visible through out. Sending e-mails, SMSes and informing people of the every minute details well in advance, a pre trail on the day before and arranging for food, they did everything to ensure a smooth experience for us, and it's only possible with a tremendous effort. A bbbbbiiiiiiigggggg 'THANKQ' Channa, Santosh and BTC :)

Written By        : Nikhilesh Alapati
Organized By     : Channabasappa Nad and Santosh Kumar Gupta
Members Count : 29 (25M, 4F)
Date of event     : 10th Aug, 2013
Place                  : Rayakottai Fort Trek

Trek To Nijagal Betta - BTC - 14th September 2013

About Nijagal Betta:-

History lies behind this fort in later half of the 18th Century saw a war between the Marathas, Hyder Ali and the British for power.

The Maratha empire, which was till then torn by internal strife suddenly reasserted itself under Madhava Rao I. The Maratha army under his leadership began an unstoppable, whirlwind expedition to wipe out Hyder Ali. Beginning with Adoni, Madhava Rao took Bellary, Kurnool, Devadurga, Rayadurga, Kolar, Bhairavgad (near Bangalore), Devarayanadurga (near Tumkur), and reached Nijagal, en route to his final destination, Srirangapatana, Hyder Ali’s capital.

The Nijagal fort was built at the tip of the rocky mountain. Nijagal resembled an enormous, rocky semicircle placed atop a mountain decked on all directions with gigantic, steep, slippery boulders, effectively sealing it off from any sort of assault. The altitude of the fort was beyond the reach of cannonfire. Physical scaling of the fort was scorched by pouring enormous amounts of boiling oil and water, and excreta from specially-constructed holes (typically) near the top of the fort to make ascent impossible. A Burj/Bateri (an oval-shaped construction made of stone, sand and mortar and served as a watch tower) had guards patrolling round the clock. A large, deep and wide fosse circumvented the base of the mountain and was sprinkled with thorns. Crocodiles were bred in the moat to add yet another layer of security. Besides, Nijagal was never in the danger of running out of water. Three fresh-water mountain streams–Rasa Siddara Done (Done=stream/pond), Kanchina Done, and Akka-Tangira Done –provided ample water supply. It was tough for enemies to conquer this fort..

Trip Outline:-

BTC trek has become my weekly ritual now :-) My friends outside BTC don't even count me on their Saturday plans, they have realised that I would be definitely with BTC.. Their conversation with me has changed from "What plans for the weekend" to "Which hill you trekking this Saturday?" :-) So this time it was Nijagal Betta near Tumkur organised by Channa. I didn't wanted to fumble with my hasty decisions like my previous treks so like a good girl I waited for the registration to open and I signed up for the trek. As usual i was happy to be shortlisted :) 7.15 was our meetup time at Bangalore railway station platform 10, coach 15. The information looks so precise but it took hell lot of time to figure out the coach no as it reads different from the engine side and the rear side of the train. Myself and Abhishek had to call up Channa to figure out, he told us they were near the AC coaches. "AC coaches to travel?!!" wow! BTC has surprises everytime, I thought and after about twenty mins we found them. Now am an old member of BTC ( Ain't blowing my own trumpet :-P ) I greeted all my old friends and could see many new members. ( Realised after a while that AC coach was just a landmark :( )

Tumkur express arrived at 7.45 and we didn't delay a moment, got into the train and reserved places for our members. We occupied two compartments. Within ten mins the train left the platform. Though journey was for about 90 mins it didn't seem that long, thanks to Aditya who claims that he doesn't talk much ( OMG he talks non stop!!) and loud clappers (The super tall ones with super long limbs whom you encounter often in trains asking for few bucks and inturn shower you with blessings ) kept us entertained throughout the journey. With help of Santosh and Uday's online maps we did not miss our stop, got down at Dobbaspet. From the station we had to go to the hotel for breakfast and to take lunch parcel. It was a km distance. We took two autorickshaws. We were 23 in number. The share auto in a second had transformed into "stuff autos"! We were 13 in one and 10 in the other. I wished I sat in the other auto, coz it had dolby stereo music system.

We reached the hotel in five mins, Veerabhadraswamy Veg hotel on Madhugiri main road. We all barged into the place, some had idly vada and some lemon rice/vangibath. Took lunch parcels, back into the autos and headed towards Nijjgal Betta. After 5-6km ride we reached the place. The hill was on the other side of the railway track, we crossed the track and walked some distance to reach the foothills. It was our introduction round. The youngest trekker for the day was Nikhil (3rd std). Two rules for the day as told by Channa : Leave no trace (plastics), take only pictures, leave only footprints and Unity in strength so stay in a group! By 10 we began our trek. The mood of the day had just changed from cloudy to bright sunny day. Weather was scorching hot, sunrays piercing into the eyes so after a long time I could use my sunglasses! ( Everybody were wondering did they check Channa's mail right which read carry winter clothing and rain clothes :-P ). Vaibhav had such high hopes that he trekked throughout anticipating rain and thunderstorms so that he can happily use his brought heavy winter clothes! It was just 2% of the trek, we found few boulders resembling a cave with cool shade. All of us squeezed into that region to rest for a while.

Since there was no rain we got ourselves drenched with our own sweat! ( no exaggeration! ) No matter how tired or exhausted we got, we were ready to smile and pose for the clicks!

After some rest we began to ascend. We entered the fort through a stone bricked entrance. The hot day was draining us out. We took another break, I must say Sangamesh has a creative eye, he described the hills at a distance as kissing faces, (true that eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend :-P, we only saw the face like hill and simply nodded yes to him to cause no offence!!) After some bantering we proceeded, found a small pond. We walked beside the pond and climbed a steep boulder, it was our third break! We waited for everyone to arrive and then took group pics. It was cute to see Nikhil and his parents trek with us, that shows passion has no age limits! After a quick climb we reached an ancient temple which was almost in ruins. (Lot of history associated with this place which you can Google :-P)

The temple was a nice place for us to relax and for photography. Abhishek so wanted to take a mushy pic with the woman carved on the stone, Sangamesh and I intruded their privacy by making it a group snap :-P I wonder why Channa feels am violent, he made me pose as Kaali and whoa! I had more than 5 pairs of hands in secs! After capturing loads of photos we rushed up. Climbed few steps and reached a small landing which had stone benches to sit. Some of us waited there till others caught up with us. There was a huge tamarind tree, Sangamesh and Prakash sat under the tree shade. As a kid I've heard stories from my grand parents that tamarind trees are possessed with bad spirits! ( Lets just pray these guys were not possessed by Ghosts :-P)

On the way we also found a Dargah and lot of voodoo stuff which was so creepy. The next challenge was a steep boulder leading to the fort, after some pulling and pushing all of us were now. standing on the other side of the fort. We all sat on the fort wall imbibing the scenic beauty around us. The Shivgange hill stood so tall amidst the clouds. I locked this place on my trek list. The sun did show some mercy on us and disappeared into the clouds, replaced with cool breeze wiping off our sweat from our foreheads. For those who are bored off watching SRK's lungi dance on all music channels the monkeys shake dance on the tree branches was a sight not to be missed!

After some more climbing we reached the top of the hill. We sat there and got soaked up with the beautiful nature around. The only person who was heartbroken for the day was Geo! ( The she monkey turned down his proposal when he got down to his knees with a bunch of so called flowers in his hand :-P ) Later we consoled him he can always find somebody better :-P Our rumbling stomach reminded us that we were hungry. We descended down to avoid monkeys and began to eat our lunch. One by one the monkeys encircled us. We tried to scare them with sticks and our screams but we were in turn scared by them, so offered our food thanking them for their dance and hospitality, quietly left the place! My treks cannot go complete without lemon grass shopping! Many many thanks to Santosh and Abhishek for cutting more lemon grass for me!

Santosh gave us a big surprise, he had got us a big grape fruit from his last Ooty trek, we were literally fighting for a big chunk of the fruit. We started to descend by 1. The Cowboy Surya (coz of his cowboy hats!) kept collecting plastic wastes on the way down, we took just 30mins to reach the base of the hill.

Our return train to Bangalore was at 4.20 so we decided to trek till the Dobbaspet station on the railway track as we had loads of time left to kill. Ruwise and I had a race over the railway track, obviously I won :-P ( My previous experience during Makalidurga trek came into help!)

Vignesh and Aditya marked the distant flyover bridge as their destination but they kept complaining as they walked, the bridge seemed like a Mirage to them and they could never touch that point. Soon enough we came across a train on the parallel track, Uday and Aditya like kids placed one rupee coins on the track, after the train passed by we checked the coins. The coins were totally deformed with no traces of anything on them. Pavithra was amazed to see those coins and got carried away with the 'magnetism theory' of Raja, Surya and Uday. Almost everyone's water reserve had got over, Naresh was kind enough to give few sips.

By 3.30 we reached the station, found a small tea shop, ordered for a strong cup of tea. Meanwhile we had the feed back session (The treks are just perfect every time, is there really a need for a feedback session?? :-))

We still had half an hr time. We spotted a tamarind tree near the platform, Ruwise, Nikilesh and Uday climbed over the fence walls and plucked tamarind for all of us. The train arrived at the right time, we got into the train and sat wherever seats were vacant.

So our journey back to home continued, I had missed on Guru's hypnotism and super natural stories in the day, the members who had heard him filled me on that! By 5.30 we reached Bangalore, bid au revoir to each other and went home. I don't have to say that it was another amazing trek with BTC, if it wasn't I wouldn't be taking off my time out and penning down about this trek :-) Thanks a ton to Channa for a brilliant trek and all the members (my new friends) for making it a wonderful day :-)

Travel Guide:-

By Train;

# Train facility is available from Bangalore Centrail Railway station to Dabaspet and vice versa (Monday to Saturday)

Onwards Journey;

Train No: 56515

Train Name: Bengaluru City – Hubli Passanger

Return Journey;

Train No: 56226

Train Name: Tumkur Bangaluru Passanger

By Bike;
# Drive on Tumkur Road till Dabbaspet (50kms).
# After Kammat Uppahar (On left), you will see small entrance below railway track.
# Pass underneath it which goes to base of Nijagal betta
# Follow the trail through the electric poles which takes you to top

Written By : Deepthy Jagadish

Organized By : Channaabasappa Nad (Channa)

Date of event : 14th Setember, 2013
Members Count : 23 ( 20M, 3F)

Place : Dabbaspet

Monday, 22 July 2013

Trek to Skandagiri - A Masti Within Clouds- 21st July 2013

Skandagiri

About Skandagiri:-

Skandagiri, also known as Kalavara Durga, is an ancient mountain fortress located approximately 70 km from Bangalore city. The peak is at an altitude of about 1350 meters. Skandagiri is one of the hill forts in the Nandi Hill ranges. The dilapidated walls of Tipu Sultan's fort can be seen even today . This was built to be a sturdy, self sufficient fortress. It was built several centuries ago by a local king. As the story goes,
the king along with his soldiers defended the fort from Tipu Sultan for many days. After getting tired of taking the fort in this way, Tipu's generals bribed a couple of milk women who used to carry milk to the fort everyday. For several days after this, the milk women started carrying some seeds which they used to spread in the way so that Tipu's army will know the way in which to go up. On the day of the planned attack, the women added poison to the milk. Lot of the king's soldiers died after consuming the poisoned milk and the rest were killed by Tipu's invading troops. Tippu used the fort as a military base in his fierce fight against the British. It surrendered to British troops on 19 October 1791 and was later dismantled. It
remained in British hands until the peace treaty of 1792, which concluded the third Anglo- Mysore war. There are 2 caves on the mountain. One starts from the base and as per locals, leads to the temple and fort at peak and another one is somewhere midway which is about 30 feet only. Both are yet unexplored, especially the first one. Locals say that there are pythons in the caves and have swallowed their goats who wander in the carves. Supposedly, there are 6 Samadhis in that cave and thus the area is considered holy

Trip Outline:-

Early morning 4 am all gathered at esteem mall stop near Hebbal flyover. After a short intro we started towards the skandagiri, reached the base around 6am.

Intro Session

On the Way to Skandagiri

Parking vehicles

Started trek with a random snap at 6:15am. Initially it was 28-30 degree inclination. As we climbed half the way the climate started changing and we were feeling the sense of coldness. we had a break after climbing for half an hour, had bread jam to fuel up the bodies to get ready for the next adventure in cold cloud breeze. After a short break was the initializing of the breakfast. Again started climbing the hill with clicking lots of pics all around the guys mingled in cold mist of nature. Reached the top around 8 am, the peak was fully covered with cold clouds moving at around a speed of 55-60Kmph…!!! Due to which we were unable to control our movements. The clouds were moving in high speed with giving competition to the trekkers. We sat on the wall which was in a position such that all the lovely clouds were passing through it. Some of us removed the shirts and started dancing in the GANGNUM style. Had breakfast with mixing all varieties of foods carried by individual, to name few bread omlet, chapatti sabji, bread jam, the paper avalakki etc. after finishing the breakfast we went again on the mantap, sat on the roof and felt the sense of cold clouds. Met other group members and spent 2-3 hours of time on top. Enjoyed the cool breeze with full of masti.

@ Skandagiri

@ Nandi Hills View from Skandagiri Top

@ Skandagiri

BTC organizing Team

@ Skandagiri

Gangnum Style

@ Skandagiri

Finally started descending to base at around 11am with smile on everyone’s face and reached the base at 12:15pm. Took a group pic in front of the Skandagiri hill and started the journey towards Bangalore. Had lunch in North and South Indian style at chikkaballapur and the feedback from all of us was one and only word was Trek was “CloudRocking”.