

ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:Yeah I was up at 04:30, did a few push ups & situps, had a cup of coffee and sat back listening to some Thin Lizzy. After which called Deefu after an hour and asked his call, I was 75% sure that the plan wouldn’t materialize. But Deefu said, “Lets go!” Charged me up completely and I took off from my home cruising on the ORR made it Malleswaram where Deefu joined. After which we departed Bangalore.
TIME: 07:30
RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Nelamangala - Dobbaspete - Kuddur)This was a 70kms ride more or less very smooth. As we left Bangalore it took us some time to get synched to each other’s pace in middle of the heavy traffic. But in 30mins or so, we pulled over at our regular hotel for some tasty breakfast.TIME: 08:00

After the breakfast, we walked out for some light tea and discussed what the plans for the 150th trip and also about the recent happenings in each other’s life. After which we rode non-stop to Dobbaspete taking a left turn we proceeded towards Shivagange. Enquiring with the locals about the directions to Kuddur we proceeded to the actual place of Shivagange. We could see a lot kids and even aunties wearing tracks and all set to climb. Waving them all a very good bye we proceeded to reach Kuddur.TIME:09:15I spotted Bhairavadurga few kilometres back. Asking the locals again for direction we found the right deviation, proceeding on narrow roads we reached the base of the hill. Parking the bikes and awakening the lizard within, we were all set for the hike.TIME: 09:30




Like they say, don’t ever be sure of a rock face until you rub noses with her. This was the case, even though it looked promising, it proved to be one insanely tough cookie. As I began scaling up the rock face, I realised it was steeper than anticipated and cracks to hold on to were scarce. But there was no going back now, I made it up a few feet and settled into a nice dug out and gave Deefu a thumbs up. Deefu too made it up cautiously. We tightened up our shoe laces as we knew the next phase would be insane.


We decided to head diagonally as it would be less tiring and would give a better sense of balance. But we got stuck in a spot where we couldn’t finding a proper footing nor a proper crack to pull ourselves up. Deefu made it up and then was watching me, I almost slipped but pushed myself and grabbed a bunch of grass and pulled myself up. Whew! Then again we found ourselves stuck with in between trees and bushes. We decided to explore the perimeters. Pulling ourselves ontop of a fort wall we made it to the final tier. Even the last bit offered us a steepness, it was we who were scaling up the wrong side of the mighty hillock. Lastly, we decided to climb up this one using what we coined “controlled momentum” it was more 4 legged crawl. Finally we climbed up the final fort wall to reach the top. A cool breeze greeted us! We could see Shivagange afar, we waved back her too! TIME: 10:00


DESCENSION:The climb down proved to be trickier than we anticipated. It took us nearly 1.5hrs to get back to our bikes. We took the actual route to start things off with. The trail ran into the forest and to our surprise it continued through shrubs and bushes narrowing itself down. It was simply amazing and putting ourselves in the shoes of the soldiers back then we marched on further. Soon, we found out that a lot trails began to meet the main one. It was not long before we took a wrong turn and ended up deeper into the forest. We realised that we were lost and also figured out there was no point in tracing back. So we decided to keep heading down until we hit flat ground and then begin the search for our bikes. This forest is well known for its wild bears, so yes, took my knife and put across my waist just in case. The forest came with this deadly silence, even though it was peaceful it was spooky at the same time.


Both us had pretty much grown accustomed to getting lost in forests and hills, so there was no panic and it was hardly noon. Figuring out ways, switching leads and enjoying the challenge we finally made it out of the forest and into somebody’s farmland.Then we looked back at the hillock. Good thing we had taken a look when we parked our bikes. We started going around the hillock though various houses and farmlands until we locked onto the picture which we thought was familiar. We asked the locals some water and enquired about the direction to the temple. Another 1+km we walked to find the route and then we continued further to reach our bikes. Taking a deep breath, very satisfied with the trek we left the premises.TIME:12:30

CONCLUSION:
"Overall i must say it was a fantastic hike. It turned out to be pretty crazy and merciless! And the it gave us pretty worn out hands and feet, the pain we kinda enjoy... No shit!"Until next time Cia \m/

