The top seems to be my favourite destination....

One day trip to Savandurga......

There was some random e-mail in my inbox from some website featuring flash deals regarding a conducted tour to a place called Savandurga, Asia's largest monolithic hill..... Largest, tallest, fattest and fastest.... These superlatives always have a deep impact on my mind.... And immediately I decided to visit the place.... I told Debanjan regarding the plan and my ever ready travelling partner gave me the responsibility to plan the entire trip.... I informed Joydeep, my friend form my undergraduate days, who currently lives in Bangalore, and he too answered in affirmative.... And I jumped on the task in hand..... Initially we planned to go by car but our budget was so tight that the car seemed to be a distant dream.... And immediately I looked for the bus routes... And to my surprise there were numerous buses plying from Majestic to the destination..... I noted down the bus numbers... And we were all geared up for an eventful climb to the top... Myself, Debanjan, Joydeep, and Jayanta, a friend from Bangalore......

On 18th of august we started from Kundalahalli at 7.30 am (I and Debanjan are the late birds and we always do a great deal to shift the starting time by some 30 to 40 minutes… but this time the early bird Jayanta had equal contribution to add delay). We reached Majestic at 8.30 am. We lightened ourselves (Debanjan gave me this idea to cover up the very basic and daily urge with nice words... ;)), had tea, bought dry food and got up in a bus whose number matched with my bus number list, at around 9.10 am. And then started all the problems. The over-friendly conductor and an equally friendly girl warned us regarding the place….. They said that the place is not very safe for girls ….. And my over-protective friends decided to go back to Majestic and make fresh plans to go somewhere else in spite of my repeated request to stick to plan A….. We alighted from the bus and waited for a bus back to Majestic…. And on our way back Jayanta’s brand new digital camera got stolen (priced 15k I must mention). That is why wise men say, “Listen to a lady. They have better intuitions.”

Once in Majestic, we could not decide where to go and how…. Some erratic ideas and a whole lot of chaos followed…. Finally we decided to book a car….. We nailed the deal at Rs 1400…. All thanks to Debanjan and Joydeep…… The drive was a pleasant one with mesmerizing views from the window….. Nature at its best…..

We finally reached Savandurga at 12.30 am….. I was happy that we finally reached where we wanted to in the first place…..  The first sight of Savandurga filled me with a joy so inexplicable……

.

There was a dilapidated temple at the foothill …. The architecture of the temple-top fascinated me …. Incredible India as they rightly say…. But without conservation acts I am doubtful how long it would remain that way……

The first view of Savandurg

The dilapidated temple

The fascinating temple top

Joydeep and Jayanta (from left to right)....

We started our way to the top….. We tried to take a short-cut which seemed to be stiffer….. But as we were on our way Joydeep received a call from our driver saying that the route we are taking may turn out to be dangerous …. He instructed us to follow the electric poles put up at regular intervals…. And then we decided to switch path…. While switching we had food that we bought in Majestic, sitting on a rock….  

Overjoyed Joydeep atop a rock on our way

The rocky overview .... This is the path that we followed...

We followed the electric poles and we found stones marked with yellow arrows indicating the route to the top…. 

The flora and fauna of Savandurga..... 

                               

After a climb of almost 1 hour we saw the most fascinating glimpse of a fort like structure …. And going nearer to the structure we found out that it was indeed a fort standing with all its glory….. The idea of a fort perched on the lap of a hill captivated us….. We rested for a while and then started all over again to reach the top…..

The first fort

Jayanta Debanjan and an exhausted Joydeep in between

Myself

The captain and his comrades..... Anti leftist Debanjan may not like the caption...... ;) 

We climbed up some precariously placed stones and after a while reached a second fort similar to the first one….. 

A view of Arkavati river from the top or you can say almost the top.

Sitting here we discussed about warfare and what would have been our battle strategies if we were the king..... And finally we crowned Debanjan with an imaginary crown and followed him to the T….. We rose and fell to the captain's call.... ;) 

The second fort

Inside of the fort

And we still had to make our way to the top….. We saw a temple nested cozily atop the hill and it seemed unreachable…. I wanted to take a snap-shot but my camera betrayed me big time….. The battery was down…..
Our captain ordered us to think positively and follow him…. And so we did…. We made our way through rocks and crawled out from under caves and finally conquered the top….. The temple was right there in front of our eyes…. I was filled with a sense of victory so strong…. There was a bell in the temple and I rang it over and over again to validate my triumph….  It started raining after a while and we decided to climb down as fast as we could before the rocks became slippery…… We made our way down and we reached the foothill by 4 pm…..

We had some soft drinks and started our way back to Majestic…. On our way we had tea ….. And after the tea session I had a good sleep in the car…..  Another eventful outing….. And  of course looking forward to the next one …….