Madhugiri (3rd May 2009)
It was a long weekend. Nearly everyone had May 1st off. The desparation to go somewhere was extremely high in me.
It just did not happen. I have changed plan so many times before this one day trip that it makes my head spin.
Here's a brief summary of everything that I had to ditch due to some reason or the other:
1. Plan to Dandeli due to lack of water.
2. Plan to amedikallu, deepadakallu due to lack of people.
3. Plan to Kudremukh due to lack of people.
4. Plan to Dabbe falls with Shilpa and her friends because I just couldn't make up my mind.
5. Plan to Aramane GuDDa due to not finding bus tickets, people dropping out and not finding a guide.
All these plans were intertwined in a very complex manner with some people available on friday and saturday only and some other people available on saturday and sunday only. I also did not have trekking shoes since I tore my old pair on the trek to Ettina Bhuja. I went shopping for it on friday night only to find out that the plan to aramane guDDa got canceled when we were supposed to leave only in a couple of hours.
So, after all these frustrations and plan changes, I really had to go somewhere. A one-day trip was the only available option. Thankfully, I could find three people for it.. So, Harshu, Maddy, Param and me decided to go to Madhugiri.
I had been planning this one for quite sometime but it just kept getting postponed.
Madhugiri lies around 100 - 110 kms from Bangalore. One way to get there is to take a deviation at DabaspeTe on Tumkur road and that road goes straight to KoraTagere. Madhugiri is around 15 kms from there. Not sure as to how that road was going to be, we decided to go to Tumkur and then go to KoraTagere and Madhugiri from there. The roads we took were in good condition.
Harsha was supposed to meet us in Tumkur as he had gone to Gubbi on the previous day to visit his cousin.
Me, Param and Maddy set off at 7:30 - 8 in the morning from Bangalore. We made quick time on tumkur road and reached Khyatasandra for breakfast by 9. A taTTe idly and a masala dosa later, we visited Param's cousin in tumkur to finish off some morning duties.
We were soon joined by Harsha and we left Tumkur by 10:30. Harsha was unable to bear the heat and got sunburnt even before we reached Madhugiri. Boy, is he sensitive or what! Maybe he should have brought on some sunscreen of SPF greater than 30.
We got the first sighting of Madhugiri some five kms before we reached the place itself.
It is a large monolith with a fort on top of it. It is the second large monolith in asia or something like that. I'm not sure.
We reached the fort by 11:30 maybe.. Can't recall. We had carried four litres of water. But no food whatsoever.
Madhugiri fort consists of 7 layers. You can see some sort of a bifurcation by the fort walls.
The lower layers have a few things to see like the guard tower, the dried up pushkaraNi and so on.
As you go to the higher layers, there are nothing but these walls and only at the top will you find some sort of a temple complex and some other structures. I wonder what sort of a fort it was.
We started well enough, visiting all the places to visit in the lower layers and slowly making our way up to the higher layers. But soon I started feeling queezy and the water we were carrying got really hot that it made no difference on drinking. It was peak afternoon and we were getting really tired due to lack of food and water.
The climb is similar to that of the Chembra peak. You can see a peak in front of you. As soon as u reach that peak, you realise that its not the final peak at all and you can see another peak ahead of you. And this process repeats multiple times. It is kinda frustrating!
By the time I reached the half way mark, I was exhausted partly because of the energy sapping sun and partly because I wasn't keeping all that well. All of us regrouped at this point and Harsha took out some Melody chocolates. (No, this is not a joke). I have no idea how that much chocolate can provide us energy, but it did. I decided to make a dash (a slow nonstop walk) to the top from here. It took me a little less than thirty mins to reach the top.
I was joined by the rest of the gang in another 20 mins.
We rested here for a while, ate a few oranges that we had carried (two of which were rotten) and then I set about taking a few photographs around this place. There is a small water hole on the top but the water is not very clean. You can drink from it if you are really desperate. A 360 degree view and a group snap later, we were ready to go. The descent is steep (just like the ascent :P) and puts a decent amount of pressure on the ankles. It can be a real problem if it rains when you have gone there. The whole place will turn into a death trap! (as with any rocky terrain). We were down by 3:30ish.
We then set about to find a place where we could find something cool to drink. Having found one such shop all of us drank upto 1.5 litres of liquids at one go with ease. Since I could not find Slice there, we stopped again at KoraTagere on the way back so that I could drink two more bottles of Slice. We then made our way to Tumkur to Param's cousin's place. We reached there at around 5 and decided to take rest till 6 before we took off. But, we got involved in watching an IPL match and their hospitality and good food there :D. So, it was close to 7:30 when we left.
Driving on Tumkur road in the night was a pain and we made slow but steady progress on the way back.
We were however greeted by a monstrous traffic jam after we passed nelamangala. I moved on in the jam for a while before I lost my patience and made an arbitrary left turn. I drove into god knows what area and took some bylanes but when I came back onto Tumkur road, I was at the DasarahaLLi junction. Thank Heavens!
After this, there was no jam and I made it back to my hostel by 10:00 PM! Totally Tired!
More photos can be found here.
It just did not happen. I have changed plan so many times before this one day trip that it makes my head spin.
Here's a brief summary of everything that I had to ditch due to some reason or the other:
1. Plan to Dandeli due to lack of water.
2. Plan to amedikallu, deepadakallu due to lack of people.
3. Plan to Kudremukh due to lack of people.
4. Plan to Dabbe falls with Shilpa and her friends because I just couldn't make up my mind.
5. Plan to Aramane GuDDa due to not finding bus tickets, people dropping out and not finding a guide.
All these plans were intertwined in a very complex manner with some people available on friday and saturday only and some other people available on saturday and sunday only. I also did not have trekking shoes since I tore my old pair on the trek to Ettina Bhuja. I went shopping for it on friday night only to find out that the plan to aramane guDDa got canceled when we were supposed to leave only in a couple of hours.
So, after all these frustrations and plan changes, I really had to go somewhere. A one-day trip was the only available option. Thankfully, I could find three people for it.. So, Harshu, Maddy, Param and me decided to go to Madhugiri.
I had been planning this one for quite sometime but it just kept getting postponed.
Madhugiri lies around 100 - 110 kms from Bangalore. One way to get there is to take a deviation at DabaspeTe on Tumkur road and that road goes straight to KoraTagere. Madhugiri is around 15 kms from there. Not sure as to how that road was going to be, we decided to go to Tumkur and then go to KoraTagere and Madhugiri from there. The roads we took were in good condition.
Harsha was supposed to meet us in Tumkur as he had gone to Gubbi on the previous day to visit his cousin.
Me, Param and Maddy set off at 7:30 - 8 in the morning from Bangalore. We made quick time on tumkur road and reached Khyatasandra for breakfast by 9. A taTTe idly and a masala dosa later, we visited Param's cousin in tumkur to finish off some morning duties.
We were soon joined by Harsha and we left Tumkur by 10:30. Harsha was unable to bear the heat and got sunburnt even before we reached Madhugiri. Boy, is he sensitive or what! Maybe he should have brought on some sunscreen of SPF greater than 30.
We got the first sighting of Madhugiri some five kms before we reached the place itself.
It is a large monolith with a fort on top of it. It is the second large monolith in asia or something like that. I'm not sure.
We reached the fort by 11:30 maybe.. Can't recall. We had carried four litres of water. But no food whatsoever.
Madhugiri fort consists of 7 layers. You can see some sort of a bifurcation by the fort walls.
The lower layers have a few things to see like the guard tower, the dried up pushkaraNi and so on.
As you go to the higher layers, there are nothing but these walls and only at the top will you find some sort of a temple complex and some other structures. I wonder what sort of a fort it was.
We started well enough, visiting all the places to visit in the lower layers and slowly making our way up to the higher layers. But soon I started feeling queezy and the water we were carrying got really hot that it made no difference on drinking. It was peak afternoon and we were getting really tired due to lack of food and water.
The climb is similar to that of the Chembra peak. You can see a peak in front of you. As soon as u reach that peak, you realise that its not the final peak at all and you can see another peak ahead of you. And this process repeats multiple times. It is kinda frustrating!
By the time I reached the half way mark, I was exhausted partly because of the energy sapping sun and partly because I wasn't keeping all that well. All of us regrouped at this point and Harsha took out some Melody chocolates. (No, this is not a joke). I have no idea how that much chocolate can provide us energy, but it did. I decided to make a dash (a slow nonstop walk) to the top from here. It took me a little less than thirty mins to reach the top.
I was joined by the rest of the gang in another 20 mins.
We rested here for a while, ate a few oranges that we had carried (two of which were rotten) and then I set about taking a few photographs around this place. There is a small water hole on the top but the water is not very clean. You can drink from it if you are really desperate. A 360 degree view and a group snap later, we were ready to go. The descent is steep (just like the ascent :P) and puts a decent amount of pressure on the ankles. It can be a real problem if it rains when you have gone there. The whole place will turn into a death trap! (as with any rocky terrain). We were down by 3:30ish.
We then set about to find a place where we could find something cool to drink. Having found one such shop all of us drank upto 1.5 litres of liquids at one go with ease. Since I could not find Slice there, we stopped again at KoraTagere on the way back so that I could drink two more bottles of Slice. We then made our way to Tumkur to Param's cousin's place. We reached there at around 5 and decided to take rest till 6 before we took off. But, we got involved in watching an IPL match and their hospitality and good food there :D. So, it was close to 7:30 when we left.
Driving on Tumkur road in the night was a pain and we made slow but steady progress on the way back.
We were however greeted by a monstrous traffic jam after we passed nelamangala. I moved on in the jam for a while before I lost my patience and made an arbitrary left turn. I drove into god knows what area and took some bylanes but when I came back onto Tumkur road, I was at the DasarahaLLi junction. Thank Heavens!
After this, there was no jam and I made it back to my hostel by 10:00 PM! Totally Tired!
More photos can be found here.