[kittigadu]

well,
If you have those things of steel to go rock climbing, then we bangaloreans are blessed with options. One among them is savandurga.
60Kms from Bangalore. Its an amazing place to go rapelling and rockclimbing.
The specialty is, its one of the largest monolithic rocks in the world. monolithic means, the whole hill is one single piece of rock. And one glance at it makes you feel like an giant elephants back. It looks smooth and bald.
There are no steps to go to the top. Just have to follow the arrows painted by some good Samaritans.
you have to walk, climb, roll, crawl over to get to the top. Once on the top... i promise you its a breathtaking view. Its not a climb where you joke around and can keep going. It needs a lot of tactics. at least in some places. Some places are really steep and dangerous. Not as dangerous as the Himalayas, but yes to an extent. Its 1900 Odd feet high from the sea level.

The whole climb up to the top is a once in a life time experience. On the top is a small structure with a nandi. There are caves, marshy patches, high growing grass, weirdly grown trees which makes you fell that you have reached the amazon for a second.

If you want to take a team for that initial ice breaking thingy, there can be no place better than this. It needs coordination, patience, enery, encouragement and above all determination. It takes 1.5 hrs for a really fit guy and almost twice that for an average joe. I have seen many a big aunties going up and down the hill. Some are grasping while the others are just running all over the place. People carrying infants too are visible along the way.

Route : bangalore - nice road - mysore road - just at about 10 odd kms when you turn onto mysore road from nice road you get to see this board. Take a right to the BigBanyan tree.

Big banyan tree
Its supposed to be almost 400 years old tree. Its biologically a single tree covering almost 2 acres. Its a nice place to check out. This is the only place where you can find some decent food, chips and other refreshments.

Manchinabele
15 odd kms from big banyan is this reservoir. take a right into the village that takes you to the waters. Its a nice place to laze around and play in the waters. The breeze is cool and the air is pure.

Enroute Savandurga
Come up to the village and keep going. on the right is the reservoir gates. a few kms further, u see a board on your right to savandurga. This road takes you thru a dense and thick vegetation. Its almost like you have entered a forest. Its very picturesque and beautiful. This road is deserted with only a few bikes and some tractors occasionally.

Once you reach the main road, turn towards Magadi and ask for directions. A bad patch of road for about 2Kms or so will take you to this sleeping elephant's back.

ok ... see for yourselves.















See the village and the breathtaking view of the reservoir


The TOP


Been there @ banyan tree by 10:00 am. 11 am @ manchinebele, had lunch and @ 2:oo pm went up the hill, lazed around and came down by 6:00 pm, reached bangalore by 7:30pm

Mjothi, this is what i was refering to the other day in the bangy meet.
The other way is to go via Magadi. But you will miss the banyan tree and the dam.

Krishna.

[maddy42]

O well well this brings back memories of college days. This area is supposed to have a huge Bear population and once we were crazy enough to actually climb the hill at night. Started off nicely with a beer and nice tomato chicken at punjabi rasoi in Rt ngr BDA cmplx.
When we reached this place it was mid night. Started climbing as one big group of 15 guys and 4 torches. Our only guide was a electric line which we followed all the way to the top. The winds were powerful and scaring us with weird noises. We reached a point which has a small room kinda thing where we tok a halt and tried setting a campfire but to no avail. Ended up burning some dried grass to keep us warm.
We slept for like 2 hrs and were up to watch a brilliant sun rise. Wow the view is magnifiecient. Brilliant plce to go to for a night drive and a climb

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by kittigadu

.... The other way is to go via Magadi. But you will miss the banyan tree and the dam....

Nice pictures & report Kittu.

You know, we go via Magdi for OTR and come out near manchinbelle dam. That is one of the most difficult terrains for OTR.

[ravibhat]

Nice report Kittagadu, Savandurga is very challenging to climb it. I climbed Shivagange betta and sent my office troop to Savandurga 2 years back for 1 day site seeing office trip (since I was on rest couldnot make it to savandurga :( ). I heard its very steep in few palces.

Via Maninbele Dam road to Savandurga is not good I guess. Via Magadi roads are relaid. And even some stretch between big banyan tree and Manchinbele dam is not relaid yet ? or are they erady now? Few months back when I visited work was still going on from last 2 years.

Its nice to see ISRO is coming in that area and huge residential layout (may be 20,000+ sites) is coming.

Regards,

Ravi.

[HappyWheels]

Good one Kittugadu.

The dam is a good place to just sit and enjoy the breeze and watch the water!

Did you try any 'off-roading' there?

[kittigadu]

happywheels,
yes, we did go off the road a bit but i wouldn't classify it as offroading. jeep was on 2 wheel drive only. If you have to take your car upto the water, you have to get off the road into a tractor trail. else, go for about 5 more kms around the lake and take an easy road.

Krishna.

[Nutty Nair]

Hi Kittigadu,
Nice report. Liked the photo of the jeep with water in the background. I had been to Big Banyan Tree & Manchinbele some time back, but didn't know that Savandurga was on the same route. Missed out on that, it seems. Savandurga along with the other two would make a nice one day trip from B'lore. Anyway, thanks for the information.
One

[sreenivass]

the photos are pretty good. I went there rock climbing in 1995, I remember we went via Magadi. The rock is so steep we had to go up sitting in some places. I remember having trouble getting out of a little cave kind of a thing atop the hill. This place was good for a one day outing, we had a long long wait for a return bus trip to Bangalore.