98) Channarayanadurga Trek: (27/7/2014)

Place: Channarayandurga.Distance:  100 x 2 = 200kmsDirections: Bengaluru – Dobbaspete – Koratgere - Channarayandurga.Particiapants: Ashok(Momz) > Datta(Dattu) > Deepak(Deefu) >Karthik (Sp).Bikes: Enfield > Pulsar.Previous visit: Maddur & Kanva!
IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:Alright, this was, I must say an intense chapter. I mean, the trek itself ain’t that easy but the lines we got into on this particular one made it even more harder (but nevertheless interesting heh!) There were situations, where a slip would have spelt disaster but guess we’re alive & still kicking some mighty ass! :PINTRO & PLAN:Okay, it was about a week since our previous trip to Maddur & Kanva. This chapter was more about the reunion of school friends (Oh yeah!  13+years!) This chapter was planned for a Sunday, so a place unknown to most had to be chosen. So Channarayandurga was decided upon by Deefu & me. Dattu & Momz were on the confirmed list.  TIME: 22:00 (26/7/2014)ASSEMBLE & LEAVE:Oh yeah woke up at 05:00, did a few push-ups & sit-ups, had a sip of coffee & was all set to go! The meet up was scheduled at Dattu’s place at 06:30. So went down, wiped my bike and vroomed it a little and took off with the cold icy wind. After about 30mins of slow riding & umm I must say some loud singing (Hehe) reached Dattu’s place, but this time I had strictly told him to be waiting for outside, reason being the cops trouble near his place (Still guess what happened?)
 Once I reached Dattu’s place, thankfully he was waiting outside. Then, there came those cops again… This time I didn’t wait, I myself said hi and told them we were going out again, the cops looked puzzled and went away swearing at us :PAnyway,  the clock had struck 07:00, still no sign of the other two. Then at about 07:45 they came… as usual pointing a finger at each other blaming each other for the delay :P. We had a good laugh and decided it was time we left the city. (By the way, Momz had got his Bullet :P)TIME: 07:45RIDE 1: (Bangalore – Dobbaspete - Channarayandurga)

Ride to Channarayandurga is about 100kms. But the first 50kms or so is on the NH-4, so yeah, basically not much to worry. So, we left Bangalore and 4 of us being well known since years, we always had something to speak about (or rather someone to pick upon haha:P) Once we spotted the mighty Shivgange standing tall in all her glory, I looked at Deefu and asked about breakfast. Oh yeah, our regular hotel was the choice and we pulled ove to munch on some tasty Idly, Vada with the amazing Sambar :PTIME: 08:30

Okay with our tummies at peace, we came outside holding the tea cups. We caught up on each other’s lives and its own progresses. After the tea we left the hotel. As the sun was up, the ride was a little tiring, but soon we entered the country roads post Dobbaspete. The road conditions weren’t that good, but nevertheless we rode on at a decent pace until Koratagere. Going further about 15-20kms we could spot our hillock – The mighty Channarayandurga.TIME: 10:15

ASCENSION:

Okay, Channarayandurga, what can I say about this hillock. This will always remain a special place the Deefu & Me. Back on Dec 2nd, 2012 we had come like crazy goats here and just conquered it for which we had paid our own prices (I still remember, next day was my first day at job hehe:P) This time it took about 1h45mins due to a few problems few had to come across. Generally, a good 1h should be sufficient for the ascension.  

Anyway, I have divided the ascension into the following stages, so keep up with here all, cause this time we goofed up big time in one of the stretches (any guesses? read on!) :

i) Initial Stretchii) Lost Paradiseiii) Layoutsiv) Last StrechOnce we parked our bikes in the town, we checked on our resources. With all in places, we awakened the wild fiery goat’s spirit within us and we were all set to conquer this baby once again.TIME: 10:30

  
i) Initial stretch:Oh yeah, this part trust me will be the hardest one. it is steep and slippery at the same time. So basically a tricky one, but damn fun to ascend. This trust me, like always took a toll on us. We were gasping for breath right away. We did slip a few times, but the crazy part is how we four worked it out:Dattu – Everything is a morning walk for him, he just kept asking what next!Ashok – So lost,  he made it across the toughest stretch, then turns back, scratches his head wondering how he made it, all of  a sudden feels tired and sits down :PDeefu & Sp: Calculated carefully and kept a close eye on the other two hehe !TIME:11:00
ii) Lost Paradise:Okay, once we were though the initial stretch, firstly we made sure we spot the tricky door on the fort wall. It is pretty nicely designed, rather misleading  (it is a fort for a reason, you see :P) We entered the gate way and made it into the dark passages of the fort. It was creepy as usual. Then this lead to the beautiful paradise on top. A small lake, filled with icy cold waters. We did spend quite some time here, to basically get our energies back to stable grounds. TIME:11:15
iii) Layouts:Okay, this was the stretch where we goofed up big time. After crossing the pond, we missed a turn which would have lead us to an easy pathway to the gateways to follow. But the we couldn’t spot it. We ended up at a places which I must say were quite dangerous and scary man! (One slip, that’s all dammar!) We finally found ourselves stuck in front of a vertical fort wall, and we couldn’t back either. So, we had some decisions to make. Then Deefu & me decided to climb it up first and then we decided to drag the others over it. We did make it on top. Then we saw below the easy walk path way hehe:PTIME:12:00
 

iii) Last Stretch:The last stretch consist of two path ways, one slightly round about walk way and well the second one is the straight through one, but we a crawl through a lot of thorny shrubs. And we chose the obvious one. Hehe, trust me it was damn fun and we enjoyed it a lot, even though we ended up having a few bruises on our hands :PTIME:12:15

TOP:

Once we reached the top, we kept our bags down, had a sip of water. Took of our jackets and felt the cool breeze. We explored the top for a few minutes and then finally settled down chatting. We spoke for about a  10-15mins (topics being college, friends, work, school life, 100^th Trip etc,) then we decided to take a nap for next 20-30mins and then take off before it could rain.After spending about an hour on top we decided to climb down. Trust me, we didn’t want to get stuck on the initial stretch with the rains coming down. Hmm, that would spell disaster. TIME:13:00
  
TREK BACK:It took us about an hour to find ourselves back to the base. The Final stretch & the Layouts were completed in no time. This time we found the correct route & made sure it was well embedded in our heads for the next time we come. As we were about he reach the Lost Pradise, we took a small deviation like the last time and explored the buildings in the vicinity. Whew, these were some scary stuff. Smelt of bat crap throughout, and these buildings didn’t have doors but only a window about 8-10 feet of the ground.

After the exploration, we decided to push on. We washed our faces in the cold waters of the pond and started descend on the steep initial stretch. No other routes were tried this time, unlike the last. Cautiously taking one step at a time, we made it down to the town.TIME: 14:00

  

RIDE 2: (Channarayandurga – Chandu Dhaba – Bangalore)Ok, this was a 100kms ride back to home. To start things off, we had some water in the town where we had parked our bikes. Then we started off slow, allowing the winds to cool us down. (Oh yeah we were burning up) We rode till Koratgere, from there we decided to head straight and join at Tumkur rather than Dobbaspete. 

  

Once we reached the highway near Tumkur, the rain came crashing down & this made us even more happy. We rode at a slow pace on the highway enjoying the rains. We pulled over at Chandu Dhaba, Nelamangala for some food & drinks.TIME: 17:00We spent a good 1hour or so at the dhaba munching & drinking nicely. After which we rode back afloat to reach Dattu’s place. We thanked each other for making it & left to our respective homes.TIME: 19:30

  
CONCLUSION:“ Alright, this chapter did see few risks, but what’s the point if you don’t take them right? It was over all a fun, and intense trip. There were a few instances like – Damn, what have we got ourselves into? But we important part is to we stayed calm and got ourselves out of it “Until next time Ta-da Cia \m/
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