Place: Madakasira Fort Trek
Distance: 150kms x 2 = 300kms
Directions: Bangalore > Dobbaspete >
Madhugiri > Madakasira
Krew: Gowrish (Gori) > Karthik (Sp)
Bikes:
Pulsar
Previous Visit: Ratnagiri Fort Trek.
Budget: Rs 500/head
IN LESS THAN
50 WORDS:
An amazing fort trek to this ancient and pretty well
heard of place amongst people of previous generation. Today’s trekkies hardly
know this place. It was an unexpected fun filled exploring kinda trek. The fort is
well preserved and belongs to the Vijayanagara dynasty. This fort is situated
in Andhra Pradesh. This was the third trip for the month of January 2017 and
all new places. Felt just great!
INTRO &
PLAN:
It was 4 days since our wonderful visit to RatnagiriFort & Medigeshi. I knew January was the time we began conquering Andhra.
So as 26th of Jan was a holiday on account of republic day, I
decided to get Madakasira in the bag as well. Gowrish was the only on the
confirmed list.
TIME: 13:00 (25/1/2017)
ASSEMBLE &
LEAVE:
Oh yeah woke up at 04:00, did a few push-ups &
sit-ups, had a sip of coffee & was all set to go! Woke up Gorisha and asked
him to leave a little early as we wanted to avoid the morning traffic. Gow
reached my place at 6:30 on his new beast Desert Storm. But it would be
advisable if we left his bike back at my place and went to Madakasira on my
bike.
TIME: 07:00
RIDE 1:
(Bangalore – Dobbaspete – Madhugiri – Madakasira Fort)
This was 150kms ride on good road but with lot of
speed breakers. As we departed Bangalore we could see a lot of geared up bikers
(serial sets on body kind off ;P) all set to ride out as well. We cracked up
within and continued at a good pace. The air was real cold and surprisingly
none of the hillocks was visible due to the fog. We pulled over at our regular
hotel for some tasty breakfast.
TIME: 07:30
After some yummy breakfast, we rode into Dobbaspete
and took the road towards Madhugiri. The roads were freshly laid but the amount
of speed breakers was little too much. But nevertheless we had enough topics to
chat about, so chatting away our time enjoying the cool morning breeze we
reached Koratgere in about 30mins. After which we proceeded further I could
spot Channarayanadurga but Madhugiri was covered in a veil of mist and only her
outline was visible. This made her look even more scary and dark. Once we were
out of Madhugiri we pulled over for our first break with Madakasira just 35kms
away.
We stretched out a little had some chocolates and
carried on further. Once we spotted Medegishi we knew Madakasira was just
around the corner. We crossed the Karnataka-AP border and as we proceeded
towards Madakasira we spotted the hillock and it was bigger than I
expected. Asking the locals in Telugu we
rode through narrow lanes in between houses and found the starting of the
trial. We parked our bikes and requested an old lady to keep our helmets until
we trek back down from the hill.
TIME: 10:30
MADAKASIRA
FORT TREK:
It took us about an hour to ascend the fort. The
weather was pleasant and light drizzle made it peaceful but scary as well in
few situations. The whole could be divided into three stages
i) Initial
Climb
ii) The
Brown Fortress
iii) The
Bell Stretch
So, try keeping up with me on this one. Here goes:
i) Initial Climb:
The initial climb in on stairs and this took a pretty
good toll on our knees (hate stairs). But the stairs alongside a fort wall and
made us feel like the invading soldiers. There were lots of trees and shrubs
which made the climb peaceful. As we ascended we found lots of gateways and the
real beauty of the fort climb began to reveal. There were 2-3 gateways through
which we had to walk and as we ascended the town below began to move farther
away. Finally after crossing the initial
climb we had entered the curvy fort on top.
ii) The Brown
Fortress:
This I must say is pretty much the core of the trek. For
a fort on top of a hill it is pretty huge per se. And it is pretty well preserved.
We enjoyed the exploration the fort offered us. There were so many misleading
directions and alternate path ways. There is a temple in the middle of the fort
otherwise it was more or less like a maze designed to confuse the invading
enemies. Trust me it did a pretty good number on us as well. We also got a view
of the end point of the trek from the fort wall and it was at some distance.
iii) The Bell
Stretch:
This was the last stretch of the climb up Madakasira.
As we left he fort hill what stood before was another hillock pretty crude
compared to the previous two stages. We knew it would be tricky to get to the
top. We began to ascend the crude part of the climb. The steps had begun to
fade and I felt better and more comfortable. But the dark clouds hovering the
skies and told us clear that it would shower any moment. This stretch has two
places where it gets pretty tricky and we found it joyful to use some of our
rock climbing stuff finally hehe. After getting past the two nice spots we
reached what seemed like a dark cave and as we made it past the cave we could
see the final end of the trek.
TIME: 12:00
TOP:
We rang the bell loud thrice and sat in the Mantapa enjoying the cool drizzle flooded breeze. It was just an awe experience. And as
we sat in calmness and stillness we realised that the light drizzle had
converted into a shower wetting the rocks. We relaxed on top of the hill for a
good 45mins munching on some chocolates and sipping on some water.
TIME: 12:45
TREK DOWN:
Well, the trek down took us only 30mins but it had few
intense moments. As we left the showers had picked up pace and the surface felt
slippery. Few kids were making their way uphill yelling at the top of their
voices to drive their fellow friends. The first of the tricky spots we got down
with ease the second one was pretty steep and I volunteered to go first. And as
I began, I slipped down and slid down but could hold my feet firm and hands
pushed against the rock. Then Gow followed the same fate but I was down to
prevent him from falling off. After this we took a breather and continued down
in full pace taking few pits stops now and then to relax.
It was not long
before we began to wonder if we could get back to the same lane where we had
parked our bike hehe. (We also had plan of action in case we missed out. Gow
covers every lane of the town from left to right and I would come from the
opposite side hehe!) Anyway we straightaway found our bike and took back our
helmets from the old lady thanking her for looking after it. It was finally
time to say Sayanora to Madakasira.
TIME: 13:00
RIDE 2:
(Madakasira – Kottu Stop – Madhugiri – Dobbaspete – Chandu Dhaba – Bangalore)
This was a 150kms ride back home. So, to start things
off we cruised at a slow pace looking out for any juice shops on road side. We
had spotted one on our way to Madakasira itself (pro-active approach always better than reactive approach :P) and we
pulled over at that very same place and purchased the needed. After which we
came across this beautiful lake and we decided it was a good place to chill out
on the boulders beside the lake. We sat for about an hour drifting in the
drizzle and enjoying the magnificent lake that stood before us.
TIME: 14:00
After a good 1 hour sitting we decided to have lunch at
Chandu Dhaba. As we left the lake it was a pleasant ride till Madhugiri. After
which the drizzle turned into showers and the roads turned wet. We enjoyed the
rain ride and reminded us both of the Melukote trip in 2015. As we reached
Doabbaspete we turned up the throttle and cruised into Chandu Dhaba at
Nelamangala for some second round and yummy lunch.
TIME: 15:30
We spent about an hour belting some good lunch at the
dhaba. Once we were done we had some pan and left the place. We took the NICE
road from Tumkur road and cruised peacefully on the butter smooth link to reach
back my home. Gow took out his Desert Storm and headed back towards his home.
TIME: 17:30
CONCLUSION:
“Amazing Amazing
trek and to be frank we were a little overwhelmed as our expectations were
little less. Getting Gow back on track and exploring this new fort hill felt
f’n awesome!! It was a ruthless beginning to 2017. Three new places to start
off., Hell F'n Yeah \m/”
Until next time, Cia \m/
MAPS:
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