67) Channarayana Durga trek: (2/12/2012)

Place: Channarayanadurga Trek.
Distance: 100 x 2 = 200kms.
Directions: Bengaluru – Dobbaspete - Koratagere - Channarayanadurga.
Participants: Deepak(Deefu) > Karthik (Sp).
Bikes: Pulsar.
Previous visit: Shivanasamudra - Razor back.

IN LESS THAN 50 WORDS:
This had to be one our best treks till date. Channarayanadurga standing at about 3800 feet, was no easy mission to complete. This hillock is hardly known to people i can say confidently as we were the only ones climbing it (on a Sunday). This chapter was more about exploration so time was not a constraint. And by the way, first day at job was next day hehe!

INTRO & PLAN:
I had heard about this place about a year back, but never had the full details. December 1st, made up my mind to go & conquer this ancient piece of beauty. Deefu(the wild goat) was the only one on the confirmed list.

ASSEMBLE:
Yeah i was up at about 05:00, did a few push-ups & sit-ups, had a light breakfast & left my home at 06:30. Rode on the ORR at a snail’s pace to reach Malleswaram to pick up Deefu.
TIME: 07:00

 

RIDE 1: (Bengaluru - Dobbaspete - Channarayanadurga)
This was about a 100kms stretch, with one breakfast stop. As we started, we rode at a decent pace on the smooth NH-4 until both of us started feeling a little hungry. So we pulled over for a light breakfast.
After the breakfast, we reached Dobbaspete & took the deviation which lead towards Madhugiri. Initially the roads were terrific with great scenery all around us, but as we continued the roads turned patchy.

We reached the Sidarabetta/Channarayanadurga deviation, we met another group heading in full force as we had pulled over for a small break. They went zooming past us, giving us all eyes, once they passed the Channarayandurga board & continued towards Sidarabetta we looked at each other and shook our heads “kids these days, Damn!!”  Anyway we took the deviation before Siddarabetta & reached Channarayanadurga.

CHANNARAYANADURGA:

Well we got the first glimpse of this huge hillock way back, a few kilometers back. Trust me i had not expected this to be so huge. We were awestruck, with jaws dropped on the floor we were wondering how we could have missed such a wonderful place all these years. Parking our bikes at the town’s bakery & with the Astral goat’s Spirit wide awake within us, we were ready to conquer.

Stages of trek:
i) Initial stretch.
ii) Fort Stage 1 - Lost Paradise.
iii) Fort Stage 2 - Layouts.
iv) Fort Stage 3 - The Top.

ASCENSION:
We took about an hour to reach the top. But yeah with lot of exploration to along with it. So here are the stretches you gotta watch out for,

i) Initial Stretch:

We began the stretch at about 10:00 with the sun high up in the plain blue sky. The trek to the first fort wall was no easy shit, trust me. The inclination was one of the steepest i’ve climbed so far. And to make matters worse, it was damn slippery. But with Deefu’s experience & my... well um... non-stop talking we traversed a zigzag path to reach the first fortification.

 

As we entered the first fort wall, we entered into a completely different & ancient world. Old dark fort passages with trees hanging down them, stones of the fort wall fallen here & there. (Prince of Persia kinda...)
TIME: 10:20

ii) Lost paradise: 

Once we got out of the pathways we came across a few temples. And then when we looked around we found a pond. The water was icy cold, so washed our faces and head to cool down. We went around the pond amidst a region of tall grass to reach the other side and get a clear picture of the 2nd & 3rd fortifications. Then we realized that every fort stage had two paths one wrong & the the other right one. We were so hoping that we would go for the wrong one so that we could always come back & explore more :)

 

iii) The Layouts:

The 2nd stage was basically a flat land with lots of ruined buildings. Grinding stones, pillars, sit-outs, few blocks etc., Once we left the 2nd stage we chose a path to the next stage (thankfully the wrong one). It lead us to a dark passage, this had to be the mother of all dark passages, the entire passage was in ruins & the darkness was just superb. As we continued slowly & steadily through a few doors, we stopped before a human sized “Hanuman carving”. Down we were able to see another path which we decided to take on our way down.

 

iv) The Top:

As we reached the last stage, we looked around to spot many hillocks. But the most distinct & prominent had to be Madhugiri, because of it’s unique shape. We also found a few caves & ruined buildings. Without wasting any time we made our to the last door where we could spot the top, but the entire passage was filled with thorny bushes. So had to crawl and by the time we reached the top, a few cuts had shown up on our fingers and hands.   
TIME: 11:30

 

TOP:
We spent a good 30 mins on the top resting. We could clearly see the first two stages including the icy pond. We spoke all kinds of shit non-stop (atleast i did :P) and finally after a good nap we decided to leave.
TIME: 11:45

DESCENSION:

The descension this time was an unusual one as we took a different route and got lost :P Time taken for the decension was twice as that of ascension. 

 

So.. as we began climbing down at a fairly good pace to reach back the 2nd stage of fortification. We found an insane place, about 15-20 feet in height, no entries except a small window about 8 feet up. So we took a small run up and got into the window. The inside of the building was divided into two parts by a mud wall. As it was  real creepy we didn’t want to disturb the balance that existed there and got back to the “Hanuman carving” through the pond temple. From here all hell broke loose !!

v) The New Route:

This route was crazier than we thought, there were tall grass, tall as our head around us. So that made the ground hardly visible. I slipped about 10 times and fell hard on my butt (Ouch!) And that was just the beginning, the nice tall grass turned into a thorn filled mine. Our pants were filled with thorns, few of the thorns actually went into my hand and fingers (got it removed once i got back home). Deepu’s hand started to bleed & i twisted my right ankle. And worst of all we realized we were dead opposite side of the mountain.

 

So we stopped going further and started navigating round about that is circulating until we reach the right route. Our feet were literally at 45 degree throughout this part, ankles began to wear out rapidly. After about 20-30mins we spotted the pond which we had marked earlier. Once we found the right route we carefully descended the steep terrain to reach back town.
TIME: 13:30

RIDE 2: (Channarayanadurga - Koratagere - Bangalore)
As we reached back base, we requested the bakery guy to give us some water as no water bottles were available for sale. Once we were rehydrated, we took off to a pond quite a few kilometers away & turned back had one last glimpse of the magnificent fort. We pulled over at Koratagere for some heavy, i mean real heavy “mudde oota” & not to forget the “goli soda” (damn it had been ages since i had drank one of those).
TIME: 15:15

After a heavy lunch we both were little dizzy, so rode at a consistent pace to reach back NH-4. After which it was smooth sailing to reach Bangalore. Dropped Deepu to his place & rode back yawning & trying to get the thorns of my socks to reach back home.
TIME: 17:00

 

“ … socks filled with atleast 15 thorns, pricking my leg throughout, few thorns buried deep inside my hand, butt in pain, knee joints slightly shattered, Ah yeah our heaven :) ...”

Until next time Cia \m/

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