Trek to Savana Durga | Weekend Trip to Savanadurga from Bangalore

Trip to savandurga

What a Thursday evening! After so long we had finally got a ‘4 day’ holiday! It was Varamahalakshmi the next day. So, we had a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and a Monday! It was really great. On this occasion, I didn’t do anything but sit on my “WMCCFM” (GUESS THE FULL FORM!) and watch TV.

The next day, I woke up ruthlessly and already had my day planned. My friend had invited me to her place for the celebrations of Varamahalakshmi. So, I was booked the whole afternoon and evening. The next day, I was too lazy to work. I passed the whole day whiling away. And I even had a nerve twisted in my feet which refused me to walk.

My father felt that we could go somewhere in these small small holidays. The next day, I was as usual as before. My parents were having a deep discussion which I did not dare to interrupt. I switched on my mobile and started chatting. It had been hours together but they never came out!  What could they be doing?

After a while, my father burst out of the room as if he had won a lottery, followed by a worry-filled mother. He said that we had our plans till now and decided that we are going on a trek on SAVANDURGA!  I barely believed them as it was already too late to start for a trek, it was 10am! Yet, after all, I had to. I got ready first and sat in our car waiting for them. We left our house at around 11:30am.

You know what!!, I love car journeys! Especially our car journey. I can rule in the behind seat. I can watch my favorite shows on YouTube for hours, play games and enjoy the scenery outside with some chips.

 How interesting! Our journey was for two hours, or should I say was supposed to be two hours. On the way, we had to pass through a very famous place called ‘Dodd Alada Mara’ which in English is ‘the Big Banyan tree’.

Big Banyan tree is a giant 400 year old banyan tree, which is located in Mysore road. I heard that this tree covers almost 3 acres.

 At first, I thought it couldn’t be so special and didn’t give notice. But when we reached there, my jaw dropped. Not because of its size, but because of its connections everywhere. When we entered, there were strands of branches surrounding us. Maybe they were pneumatophores. The surprising thing was that there was only one main tree in this whole place and they were scattered everywhere.

 We went closer to them and took some selfies. It was really cool. Later, we took around and there was a small temple too. We even visited it. We saw a bunch of baby monkeys playing with the branches. How funny! (if you haven’t been there yet, let me tell u there are a lot of monkeys ).

Afterward, we decided to visit the Manchinbele dam. When we neared it, we could see the water of the dam. We were on a height that’s why we could see it. We took some pictures and were ready to see the dam closely. Suddenly, there was a crowd of people who informed us that they were not able to see a thing. The others were sent back too. So, instead, we continued our journey. Before leaving, professor mom had found out that there were no good restaurants nearby. So, we packed some food. While having lunch, we saw a cow and its master passing by. We gave some food to the cow and had fun.

After a while, we finally reached. There was a temple next to a tunnel with a muddy road. After parking our car, we went through this lane. Pretty soon, we were standing on a huge piece of rock. It was the starting edge of Savandurga!! It was humongous!  The surprising thing was that many people were trying to climb it. So, we had company. The special thing was there were no steps to climb on. It was pure rock! And if you slip, don’t ask me.

We started our climb with a hoot and followed the yellow-mid-white arrows painted on the rocks. It wasn’t easy, as it had already been afternoon; the sun sucked our energy to the depths. Oh how we had to rest after every 10 minutes! In the middle, we found some slippery cases which weren’t easy to climb. The water came from underneath the rocks. How amazing!

It wasn’t easy at all, but it was made easy by the cooling winds and the nerve-calming view. You could do many things there- walk casually if you want to have a broken tooth or go super careful and take steps like a blind rhino. I say, roam, walk, climb, have fun, realize the beauty of Mother Nature and meet someone who you never met in our city life. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to be careful.

After half an hour, the challenge began. It was steeper and steeper.  Although I had really bad leg pain, I couldn’t give up, that wouldn’t be me! So, we climbed and climbed and finally reached a fort, a ruined fort. We sorted our breaths and waited for a while. Soon, we started climbing again. It wasn’t hard after this as we had some energy stops and the savanna encouraging us.

It wasn’t long after this that we reached a hilltop with a whisker-licking view. On the top of the hill we can see ruins of the fort which is built by Kempegouda.

 ‘This was it! We had reached!’- What I thought. But my happiness was ceased when there was another hilltop with a Nandi on it. That was supposed to be the Savan Durga top! Still, a mountain to go! Nooooooooo…….

I had no other choice but to pick up my courage and finish this trek. There was nothing that I can’t do when I have a mindset firm and stern. We climbed up and down through strange bushes, cactus plants; even we passed through cave-like passages and climbed some rocky steps to reach the top of the largest monolith in Asia. 

This was a bit tricky, yet we completed our mission! The beautiful Nandi welcomed us with hushing wind and bright sky. Ohhh! What a panoramic view!!!  I finally had a seat beside the Nandi. I don’t know what happened, but somehow, the hills knew that I had a tough time coming there and needed a breeze of good wind. Suddenly, there was a blast of wind that almost blew me away! How interesting! How amazing!

For the next fifteen to twenty minutes, I could barely move. The gust of wind was too harsh for an expert flyer in the sky like a sparrow too. After they calmed down, I ran next to my parents who were mesmerized by the view. We stayed there for a while, like an hour and started to climb down.

Somewhere I heard going to the top is optional, but going down is mandatory….  We started nearly at 5:03 pm. While we were gliding down (I used ‘gliding’ cause it is easier to climb DOWN than climb up, unless you are scared), we met a lady in pink and a man trying to get down. We started conversing with them and found out that she was here on her first trek. While talking with them, we came down another lane.

This was the steepest part that we climbed. It didn’t look familiar to me until we found out that this wasn't the root we climbed up from! However, there were two other people who had just finished getting down it. They told that there was an easy way down. The lady next to me was pretty scared but we found the easy way. There was a huge crack made by the waters that flow there. It extended until the end of this steep path. We crawled down easily as we got the support of the four sides. Slowly slowly, everyone got down. Now, we were in a troop. Four men and three girls. This was awesome! Very soon, we were reaching the bottom. The two guys went forward. By the time we reached there, we saw no one. There were three trails which looked familiar. My mom, the lady and the men and I went on the first trail. My father went on the second one and the other people went on the third trail. At first, I doubted this one, but it was proved that we were correct. My father joined us by that slippery one and I did not see the others anywhere.

After a while, we saw them coming out of that trail and enter the first one. While climbing down, we noticed some scratches on the second man’s hand. When questioned, he told his horrifying story. As the both of them were on the wrong path, they lost their way. when they were searching for directions, he(the man hurt) saw two rocks on a ridge and jumped on them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t go down any further. He was stuck down on a rock where he sees down a dark area with creaking noises and he was way too down to go up again! Gasping geckoes! It was too dark and steep in there to jump with those demoralizing noises and too difficult to climb up with those shoes! Somehow, his friend tried giving him a hand but it was too far. Next to him, there was a cactus bush that reached his friend. So, he grabbed on and jumped up, finally reaching his friend. Those thorns on that bush must have hurt him. Goodness gracious! What an escape! I am sure this man must have seen his death and touched it too.

Warning: so if you want to be safe and don’t want to end up in scratches, then you better follow the arrows 

After that horrification story, it began to rain. It was dark too! At the same time, the Troup of her office guys came and the lady and her friend got some company. We headed forward leaving them. I was a bit spooked by their story (hey, didn’t I tell you that I’m a fraidy mouse) and so it was getting darker and spookier and all sort of strange sounds of animals were heard.

I must tell you, I am not so okay with night trekking and believe me, so won’t you (if you are a lot like me, no offence). It had grown so dark that we could barely see what’s underneath us! Slippery rocks, growing darkness, bear-like scary sounds and a whole lot of raining!! What could be worse?

So learning from this experience is start trekking early.

Now, we had to on our torches through the tough and skiddy rocks. After a while, I was back to normal as I could see the temple. My wings of joy spread and touched me to the skies! After that long trek, we finally reached down. It took us almost two hours to come down (for you, it might just take one,J). We thought of visiting the temple at last. It was a really good darshan I felt that God was waiting to give Darshana to us, as we are the last ones to visit, and finally out. By the time we had a talk with …, the others came down too and were already in their vehicles to leave. After saying goodbye to them, we headed back to our beloved car. Once I reached, I collapsed on the back seat with badly aching foot. But it was an unbelievable adventure!

But really, this is one of my favorite adventures. It was DAMALASTIC!!!

Okay, it’s time to say goodbye to you, but don’t worry we will meet again sooner  with an amazing story for you to enjoy. Till then take care..  bye bye!!!

 Things To Know:

 Distance from Bangalore: 50km

Google Map:  Bangalore - Big Banyan Tree - Manchanbele Dam - Savana Durga

Things to Carry: Water, Hat

Advice: Leave early it will be easy to climb and you can be back by early evening.

Difficulty level: High