Savandurga Trek..

Intro:

Not to mention that I was dying to trek Savandurga from a long time but because of some reasons it took this much time that I did it after 6 months after getting in Bangalore. It was my first trek after coming to Bangalore :) .

First a few words about it.. it is said to be second largest monolith in Asia... the word "monolith" was very new to me so I googled it to find out what exactly it is.. But when I came to know that it means a single rock then I was really surprised and wanted to see it very badly that how can a one single rock be this much big that trekking on this is this much difficult.. (as I have already done a lot of trekking).. But it was really giant even much more than my expectation.

This hill goes upto the height of 1226 m or 4022 ft above sea level with the union of two peaks having names Karigudda or black hills and Billigudda or white hills. In older times it was famous with the name "Fort of Death". It is around 60km from Bangalore.. off Magadi Road.. u can go there by KSRTC/BMTC buses if u don’t own any vehicle.. or else ur personal one is always the best..

The entire area is full of greenery and on the way you will find lot of plantation of coconut trees. This region is quite famous for medicinal plants and shrub forest.

Bangalore to Savandurga:

Road to Savandurga

Another road.. m crazy for roads

On Friday night ultimately I was able to find two of my friends to come with me and we decided to leave at 7 in morning the next day.. but we left at 8AM on Saturday morning instead of 7. Then I took tea as usual and also some kinda snacks.. caught bus at around 8:45AM for Majestic.. and then at 10:15AM we reached at MCTC… from there caught bus for Doda Aalada Mara but it was going till TG Reservoir and dropped us there and then got KSRTC bus till Magadi Road.. from there 1 auto finally dropped us at foot of Savandurga.

From TG reservoir we were able to catch a glimpse of Savandurga and again roads and weather.. all were increasing our excitement.. and then slowly we had started feeling like it was pulling us like a magnet towards itself.

Starting of much awaited trek with visit to Temple:

Swamy Narasimha Temple in foot of Savandurga

And then we visited Swamy Narasimha Temple and in between making our mind to how we are going to conquer this monolith as it was really looking slippery and very slippery. In temple they were carrying PALKI of Swamy Narasimha that was really very beautiful.. ultimately we started our much awaiting trekking at Savandurga at around 1:15PM after carrying some water bottles as we were not supposed to get anything after that point…

Savandurga as seen from Narasimha Temple

First desperately needed break:

Taking rest before the first Wall of ruined Fort

Here our trek started

And here we started our trek and it was really very steep much more than expectation. This first part of trek was really very slippery and we had to maintain ourselves so that we didn't slip down and on top of that temperature was also increasing at that point of time. But we were going up continuously.. following yellow arrows as marked by previous trekkers.. cracking jokes in between.. and then we took our much needed first break at First Wall of Fort. This wall was looking like a wall of the ruined fort that would be here but it was really having quaint charm. But this thing was growing my excitement and I wanted to be on top asap as we have started catching amazing views while ascending. We were able to catch the glimpse of TG reservoir.

First Wall of Fort

To 2nd break point:

We continued towards the second point as there is some other wall also.. but instead of normal route we took the unusual one.. and here I have to confess that it was deadly slippery making our feet to go down with each step.. and this thing I realized while coming down that what path we taken was really dangerous.. scary.. but here I won and took some rest while both of my friends were coming up with the help of some folks as they were also going till top…

Try to spot two gals who were almost going to die..

Third Halt:

After that point we started towards our third and final point but it was really very comfortable as were not feeling any trouble now.. also here at this point there were very few people.. but we took a short break as at a point at a big puddle with lots of water in it but please dont try to go into water as nobody knows how deep it is. Beside it there was a ruined structure but good enough to take shelter from scorching sun on the head and then we started towards Nandi statue as we wanted to see it very soon..

Puddle found on the way

Finally behind Nandi statue:

That part was really very exciting as we were going through space created between very big stones.. full of adventure… and as soon we reached to top we have started feeling a hard blow of air and when we reached behind Nandi statue.. wind speed was like.. we were unable to stand on our feet and feeling like we will definitely will go away with this wind today..

Try to imagine wind blow..

Why people go there:

Ultimately we touched feet of Nandi and could not stand without holding the pillar.. standing there we could see like whole bangalore.. TG reservoir on 1 side and Manchanebele Reservoir on another side.. and were in no mood to go down for atleast 3-4 hours… but suddenly it started raining.. so we decided to go down as it would be very difficult if that would turn into heavy rain.. but after some time it was off and now we were like filled of accomplishment feeling.. cheering and all..

Back to foot of it from top.. voww:

While coming down again we went on some wrong direction but this time it was by chance as we were the only girls or shud say only 1 there at that time.. but after sometime we found the right way.. coming down while catching nice views of reservoirs.. our songs jokes were going on.

Way down

Back to namma Bangalore:

Then we visited Veerbhadeshwara Temple.. a very nice temple in foot of Savandurga..  came to Magadi Road by auto..from there caught KSRTC bus that dropped us at Majestic..

We were really very hungry by that time.. had a nice dinner and left for our places…

General Information with Day Plan:

Date of Visiting : 15-Jun-2013 Saturday

Distance from Bangalore : approx 70 Km

Entry Fee : No Entry Fee is there

Mode of travelling : By Bus(BMTC and KSRTC)

Plan for the day : Bangalore->Majestic->Savandurga->Manchanebele->Big Banyan Tree->Bangalore.

Days required : 3 hours to go up and 1 hr on top and theen 1.5 hr to come down.

Kind of place : It is famous for moderate level of trekking but picnic can also be enjoyed in the foot of the hill at temples. Camping can be done at foot of hill.

Some important points:

Have some food items with you as u will not find out any good eating point there.

Can go for enjoying picnic and visiting temples.. very famous amongst locals.

Also can go to Manchanebele Dam and Big Banyan Tree while returning.. u will feel refreshed.

Avoid to go in rainy season for trekking as it is already very slippery and rain will make it worse..

Wear proper footwear having good grip and take proper precautions because trek is nice enough. 

Directions To Savandurga via TG Reservoir:

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