A very happy new year to you all!
What better way to welcome the new year than going for a drive along with a trek and visit to a wildlife reserve.
03 - Jan -14
As always we have an early start. By 04.30 AM we start from Marathahalli, Bangalore. Taking ORR - KR Puram - Hebbal we take NH 7 towards Chikkaballapura. Roads are mostly empty apart from the airport cabs driven by sleepy drivers and we reach toll booth near Devanahalli by 05: 15 AM.
From Chikkaballapura, we take the left and hit NH 234 towards Gauribidanur; this is a two laned highway with good road condition. However traffic is very thin and road passes through empty country side which was a bit unnerving.
Gauribidanur is a larger town which was just coming out of sleep around 06.00 AM. There is road widening work ongoing at this place. Since it was early in morning, we did not face any issue due to the same. However on our return journey, we had to take a deviation due to road blockage due to this.
Road is a beauty on crossing Gauribidanur and mostly devoid of any traffic.
However our happiness was short-lived, there is a big section of road which is in bad shape due to widening. This ordeal continues till few KM's before Madhugiri.
Madhugiri
View of the hill from parking area
We reach Madhugiri around 07.30 AM, there is ample parking space near court complex located inside the fort complex. Since we wanted to beat the sun we start our climb immediately.
Initial climb is easy with proper steps -
View is already breathtaking -
However soon steps disappear and you have to climb with help of railings and footholds cut out in the rock.
For an off beat place like Madhugiri, should appreciate the way administration has done a good job in making the climb more tourist friendly. Though the climb is bit difficult, I guess it is the best that could have been done.
The fort is multi-layered and due to each layer located on top of one another in smaller concentric circles, it is not possible to view the inner layers from down. We walk climb towards each fort gate, to discover another fort inside the same.
There is a particular section of the climb, which was bit steep. The steps are bit spaced apart and also the angle is very steep. The dangerous thing about this part is that if you slip and loose the holding, you can fall through the space between railing and roll down all the way down the hill.
Once you cross this fort gate, you reach the final circle, which has to be reached by taking another steep climb. There are no railings or steps here, however the rock surface is less steeper than earlier.
View from top
The final fort gate is however located on edge of a cliff. We reach till the gate, however we were not sure how easy or tough it will be to climb down from the same. Hence we decided not to try the same.
Entry to the top level of fort
After a small rest, we start our climb down. It is around 10.20 AM by the time we reach back to parking, 3 hours after we started.
We have the packed breakfast we got from Bangalore and then start towards Jayamangali sanctuary.