Place: Gummanayaka Fort TrekDistance: 135kms x 2 = 270kmsDirections: Bangalore > Devanahalli > Chikballapura >Bagepalli > Gummanayaka FortKrew: Deepak (Deefu) > Madhu (Messi) > Karthik (Sp)Bikes: Enfield > Pulsar Previous Visit: Tadiandamol TrekBudget: Rs 400/head (+Rs 300/-)IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:Another amazing trek to this unknown hillock towards Chikbalapur. This hillock is situated almost at the border of Andhra and Karnataka just like Bhasmangi. Had a great time exploring this ruined fort. The hillock is just 200-300feet high and getting lost sometimes is needed.INTRO & PLAN:As far as the planning goes, 2017 had been going great. And May had started off with the big Tadiandmol trek. Had eased off on the krew and we’ve been chilling out on weekends. But as the end of the month approached I wanted to get this hillock under the belt. A week back we had a night out and had met with a fatal accident (car almost toppling into a 20feet ditch – off the record stories!) So on this trip it was just Deefu and Madhu who gave a go ahead!TIME: 22:30 (26/5/2017)ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:Oh yeah woke up at 04:30, it had rained pretty heavily last night. Had a sip of coffee, did a few push ups and sit ups and was all set to go. The meet up was initially scheduled at 08:00 as I knew the place wouldn’t be crowded. I picked up Madhu from his place and met Deefu on the Outer Ring road and we took off from Bangalore. TIME: 08:30RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Devanahalli – Chikkbalapura – Bagepalli – GN palya)This was a solid 135kms ride mostly on the highway and then on the interior roads. The first 100kms to Bagepalli was smooth and we didn’t face any difficulty. We had one stop in between for breakfast at the same hotel we always pull over on this road – Hotel Pranav. TIME: 10:00After a yummy breakfast, we decided to hit non-stop to Bagepali. Once we reached Bagepalli we asked the locals for directions and proceeded to find ourselves slowly drifting off from civilization. Vast open lands with lot of boulders gave that typical Andhra feel.We could spot the hillock few kilometres away, but we pulled over at a ruined old Kalyani and took a look around. We fooled around this place as it was pretty strange and spooky. Asking another local for the directions to the hillock we made it to the base of the hill.TIME: 12:15 GUMMANAYAKA FORT:As said earlier, this hillock ain’t that big. Hardly 300feet and if one takes the right route the top could be reached in a matter of 20-30mins. But as usual we messed up and got lost and trust me, I felt happy that we did (like always!). This fort dates back to 1300’s and legend has it people found this young kid lying in the sun and the hood of the cobra provided him shade. People thought he would be special and rule the region. The kids name was Vasantha Nayaka and Gummanayaka was his descendant. Alright, coming back to the fort. The fort looked totally crumbly to be frank. It looked as though it could collapse at any point of time. But this gave a strange and beautiful aura. The initial stretch consisted of a lot of ruined buildings and easy walk way. As we continued we found the path split into a Y junction (take right). We saw a beautiful tree straight up ahead and continued towards it to find a lot of hoodoo rituals performed at the place. TIME: 12:30From here on, we were pretty much lost. We crawled this narrow opening in the boulder to reach a steep face on top of which was the final fort wall. We cautiously made our way to top praising Gummu for his incredible deceitfulness in the pathways. But as we reached we hit dead end and could not find a way to get past the fort wall. And trust me it was unusually windy. I had a hard time just standing up. We were confused and taken aback. Then Deefu went ahead a little further and told we would have to go back and re-traverse our path and I went ahead and decided to explore this route. This turned out to be a little tricky but lead us to a place where the fort wall had been breached. Climbing up on what seemed to be crumbly boulders we made it to the top.TIME: 13:00TOP:The wind speeds were off the charts. It was very unusual for a hillock this size to have speeds like that. We explored the fort and found the actual entrance to the top a few meters ahead. Few buildings laid in ruins on the top of the hillock. Finally we crashed under the shade of the tree. Oh yes, we had forgot to get water bottle haha! Resting for about 30mins on top we decided to leave as we were parched.TIME: 13:30 TREK BACK:The trek down was smooth and kind of boring as neat steps lead us straight down and to the deviation point where we had goofed up a turn. But this route took us to a temple, pretty much in ruins as well. We paid respects to the place and danced our way down to the base, where another shocker awaited us!TIME: 14:00RIDE 2: (GN Palya – Bagepalli – Chikbalapur – Devenahalli – Bangalore)As we approached our bikes, we found my bike’s tire punctured. Damn! I thought, had replaced the tube recently and BAM this happens! Then I looked at Madhu and he looked at me and we started fighting (as usual) I was blaming his weight to be the only reason :PThen I sat on the petrol tank and rode for about 4kms trying to smile at every villager who thought I was crazy or didn’t know how to ride a bike. Then finding a compressor, we filled in the required pressure and continued for another 3-4kms to find a puncture shop. Getting the tire fixed we felt revitalized. Then on we ride non-stop to Chikbalapur to the same hotel for some light lunch (as we had other plans!). TIME: 16:00After munching down on some light lunch (exception Madhu who belted a full meal!) we called momz, Dattu to White horse. And the ride back was a decent one the traffic was thin until the Hebbal junction. After which it became dense and horrible. I asked Madhu if he really wanted to crash at WH as I didn’t want to get caught in rain and he said (confidently!) it won’t rain. So taking the interior route we ended up at WH for some light drinks.TIME: 17:30 After about 1.5h of nice talks we left WH when a big droplet of rain fell right on my head. No I didn’t look down, nope I didn’t look up, (hoped it was not bird shit for a moment though) looked straight at Madhu’s face. As we left Malleswaram, down came the rains pretty mercilessly. The roads were flooded about 65 trees fell for the day. It was dangerous ride back, but we didn’t want to get caught up in the after rain ride, when people ride like maniacs. I felt it was better to ride in the rain slowly, its much safer. Dropped Madhu to his home and reached mine dripping wet.TIME: 21:00CONCLUSION:“An awesome new find, 2017 well… 9 chapters and 8 new places pretty much tells you how my year is going. Pretty solid and sweet! It was nice to mix the school and college spheres with common motto to have fun ”Until next time, Cia \m/MAPS:ALL PHOTOS: