“Beep beep” sound of phone woke me up. I saw with my not-so-willing-to-open eyes that it was still dark outside. Watch read 5:45 AM. I checked my phone, LCD panel read “1 message received.” Message content was, “Get ready Sreenath”. Sreenath is our Boss and and I realised that we had a plan to go for trekking to Savandurga.
I made a quick dip-tea for myself and had a few cookies. By 6:20 AM, my colleague Kanchan Joshi was at my place. And we went together to our meeting point, M G Road, Bangalore, on his Apache bike.
Indraneel & Amul were already at M G Road. We met them and had some chit-chat before our boss Sreenath came along with Praveen, another colleague of ours, in his Red color Tata Indica. We all left our bike at M G Road and were on-board car. It was around 6:45 AM when we started off to Savandurga.
We passed by Vittal Mallaya Hospital, Kasturba Road to Town Hall and soon on Mysore road. It was 7:45 AM and we had already crossed 40 KM. We took a break then for breakfast and went to a place called Woodlands. We ordered all kind of dosa’s and idly. Alas! Breakfast wasn’t that good. Not a perfect start to trek.
After a break of 30 minutes, we again hit the road. One needs to take right from Ramanagaram on Mysore to reach Savandurga. This place is approximately 25 KM from Ramanagaram. Road was good all through the while except a few unwanted spead-braker (read speed-stopper) on the way. Also, last 2 KM of road wasn’t that good also.
During this 25 KM drive, most of us felt a little sleepy. Indro took a quick nap, Amul put on his iPod and we all lazied on the back seat of Tata Indica. Ya ya, we four were packed on the back seat. 9:10 AM, we could see a big monolithic rock right next to us. Within 10 minutes, we put our first step on the mighty rock of Savandurga and the fun began.
Sun was moderate and we had plenty of water with us. Ascent was not so steep and initial 200 meters was just a cake walk to us. We had first break then to have a breather. Kanchan was ecstatic and was trying to capture as much in his camera. He has taken some wonderful shots. All the photos on this blog are from his camera and we must thank him for that. Very soon we resumed our march to victory. But even sooner we released that “dilli abhi door hai [Delhi is far away]”. There was fun talk on the way, each of us sharing some of their experiences. The frequency of breaks increased and distance travelled between breaks reduced. Sun was no more soothing and we all were sweating profusely. Nonetheless, it was fun climbing a rock.
Around 11:00 AM, We were almost mid-way to our destination. There were a few trekkers ahead of us and a few others starting their journey. There was a small fort-wall like structure on the way to top. The air was really fresh and clean at that height. It was scenic sight. Beautiful hill covered with patches of green and an azure sky to cover all.
My Nokia 6610 FM player was on and entertaining us (or this is just my assumption) on the way. Not to mention the pleasure we were having by being not in home on our weekend. On the way up to the peak, we came across a water body. It must be 15 by 25 meters in size. There was a shed very close by to it and we all stopped by to relax some more. This time we took a long break. In fact, we talked and rested for more than 30 minutes there. Actually, shed was really comforting and we were somewhat tired by then.
We resumed again and soon were on the top of the Savandurga rock. The top is marked by a temple with a hanging bell. It was indeed good feeling up there. A vast view was waiting for us. It was as if the world was beneath us. We could spot few other small rocks nearby. Through out the way, Kanchan and Praveen were taking some nice shots. We had a group photo here. Sreenath takes climbing Savandurga as his health measurement. He comes here every year and this time also he was happy to find that he could still climb Savandurga.
It was 12:50 PM, when we started back. If ascent was a test for calf and thigh muscles then descent was for knees. However, climbing down was relatively less strenuous and easy. Within few minutes, we lost all the height attained through our hard work and was at ‘Ground Zero’.
Around 1:25 PM, We started back our journey to Bangalore. After the days hard work, we were really hungry and was waiting for food to hog on. On Mysore road, we stopped by a road side restaurant to have food. I don’t really remember the name of this place but this was the only place we found worth having lunch. We had a sumptuous lunch and a lot of talking. It started drizzling when we resumed back to Bangalore. We reached M.G. Road around 5:00 PM. It was very pleasant weather then as it had rained. Soon, we dispersed to our respective ways. I had a lot of fun on this trip. Thanks to all the fellow trekker and especially to Sreenath for conceiving the idea of this trip.
I made a quick dip-tea for myself and had a few cookies. By 6:20 AM, my colleague Kanchan Joshi was at my place. And we went together to our meeting point, M G Road, Bangalore, on his Apache bike.
Indraneel & Amul were already at M G Road. We met them and had some chit-chat before our boss Sreenath came along with Praveen, another colleague of ours, in his Red color Tata Indica. We all left our bike at M G Road and were on-board car. It was around 6:45 AM when we started off to Savandurga.
We passed by Vittal Mallaya Hospital, Kasturba Road to Town Hall and soon on Mysore road. It was 7:45 AM and we had already crossed 40 KM. We took a break then for breakfast and went to a place called Woodlands. We ordered all kind of dosa’s and idly. Alas! Breakfast wasn’t that good. Not a perfect start to trek.
After a break of 30 minutes, we again hit the road. One needs to take right from Ramanagaram on Mysore to reach Savandurga. This place is approximately 25 KM from Ramanagaram. Road was good all through the while except a few unwanted spead-braker (read speed-stopper) on the way. Also, last 2 KM of road wasn’t that good also.
During this 25 KM drive, most of us felt a little sleepy. Indro took a quick nap, Amul put on his iPod and we all lazied on the back seat of Tata Indica. Ya ya, we four were packed on the back seat. 9:10 AM, we could see a big monolithic rock right next to us. Within 10 minutes, we put our first step on the mighty rock of Savandurga and the fun began.
Sun was moderate and we had plenty of water with us. Ascent was not so steep and initial 200 meters was just a cake walk to us. We had first break then to have a breather. Kanchan was ecstatic and was trying to capture as much in his camera. He has taken some wonderful shots. All the photos on this blog are from his camera and we must thank him for that. Very soon we resumed our march to victory. But even sooner we released that “dilli abhi door hai [Delhi is far away]”. There was fun talk on the way, each of us sharing some of their experiences. The frequency of breaks increased and distance travelled between breaks reduced. Sun was no more soothing and we all were sweating profusely. Nonetheless, it was fun climbing a rock.
Around 11:00 AM, We were almost mid-way to our destination. There were a few trekkers ahead of us and a few others starting their journey. There was a small fort-wall like structure on the way to top. The air was really fresh and clean at that height. It was scenic sight. Beautiful hill covered with patches of green and an azure sky to cover all.
My Nokia 6610 FM player was on and entertaining us (or this is just my assumption) on the way. Not to mention the pleasure we were having by being not in home on our weekend. On the way up to the peak, we came across a water body. It must be 15 by 25 meters in size. There was a shed very close by to it and we all stopped by to relax some more. This time we took a long break. In fact, we talked and rested for more than 30 minutes there. Actually, shed was really comforting and we were somewhat tired by then.
We resumed again and soon were on the top of the Savandurga rock. The top is marked by a temple with a hanging bell. It was indeed good feeling up there. A vast view was waiting for us. It was as if the world was beneath us. We could spot few other small rocks nearby. Through out the way, Kanchan and Praveen were taking some nice shots. We had a group photo here. Sreenath takes climbing Savandurga as his health measurement. He comes here every year and this time also he was happy to find that he could still climb Savandurga.
It was 12:50 PM, when we started back. If ascent was a test for calf and thigh muscles then descent was for knees. However, climbing down was relatively less strenuous and easy. Within few minutes, we lost all the height attained through our hard work and was at ‘Ground Zero’.
Around 1:25 PM, We started back our journey to Bangalore. After the days hard work, we were really hungry and was waiting for food to hog on. On Mysore road, we stopped by a road side restaurant to have food. I don’t really remember the name of this place but this was the only place we found worth having lunch. We had a sumptuous lunch and a lot of talking. It started drizzling when we resumed back to Bangalore. We reached M.G. Road around 5:00 PM. It was very pleasant weather then as it had rained. Soon, we dispersed to our respective ways. I had a lot of fun on this trip. Thanks to all the fellow trekker and especially to Sreenath for conceiving the idea of this trip.
3 comments:
Great insight into all that we did on that day!
Thanks for archiving it into the ubiquitous world of web.
It may sound wee bit paradoxical, but what used to be fortress of death once, is rejuvenating now!
No brownie points to you for this blog though....not after knowing that you did not find me competent enough to savor dip-tea and cookies.
@Joshi: I really wish if you had come a little earlier. Remember, i was waiting down the lane when came in. Don't give points but you can still offer some brownie !!!
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