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.

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@ Nandi Hills View from Skandagiri Top

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BTC organizing Team

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Gangnum Style

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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”. 

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Our Team of 20 Members/Trekkers

way back to bengaluru

Reached Bangalore at 3pm and with greeting each other all dispersed to homes.


Team Size: 20 BTC members

Travel Guide (No Police Check post):-
1. Drive on NH 7 (Bangalore - Hyderabad Highway).
2. After 45kms or so, you will see Left road (Goes to Chikballapur) & Right is Highway.
3. Take left & drive 1km or so.
4. You will see Temple (Left) & Engineering college (Right).
5. Take left for Sri Satya Sai Grama (Yellow Sign board).
6. Go straight & take left which leads to CBP - Nandi village.
7. At dead end, take Left way (Shows Sign board for Muddenahalli)
8. Take Right for Sri Satya Sai Grama (Yellow Sign board) inside Arch.
9. Drive 2kms, you will reach village, dead end.
Villagers will be there guiding you to park vehicles. From this place, we have trail (5kms - To & Fro).
10. For one more trail, take left @ drive straigh till you reach dead end with Shiva Temple - Papagni Mutt
Here also you can park the vehicles.
11. For the trail, walk to right side of the temple & go staight for 500m till dead end.
12. From there, you can see directions of trail on rocks painted. It will guide you up (7kms - To & Fro)
Note: Bike Petrol might be removed sometimes. Be cautious.
We have another route which leads to Skandagiri. However, there is Police Checkpost. They wont allow to do night trek.

Difficulty Level: Moderate to Difficult

Trekking Distance: Around 5 kms (Up and Down).
Ascending: Hill base to top - 2.5 kms.
Descending: Top to hill base - 2.5 kms.

Best Moments in Trek:-
* Successfully trekking top of hill in fast moving Clouds.
* Awesome scenic from skandagiri Hill - Clouds, Gangnum Style dance, 2-3 hrs of Masti.

Thanks Giving:-
* Thanks to Chaitanya Kumar Adusumilli for organizing the trek
Thanks to everyone who made this trek so memorable.



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