Trek to Savandurga

This is my 2nd backlog which I had not updated in my blog.

Savandurga is a hill 33 km west of Bangalore (Karnataka, India) off the Magadi road 12°55′11″N 77°17′34″E / 12.919654°N 77.292881°E / 12.919654; 77.292881, in India. The hill is famous for a temple and is also believed to be among the largest monolith hills in the world. The hill rises to 1226 m above mean sea level and forms a part of the Deccan plateau. It consists of peninsular gneiss, granites, basic dykes and laterites. The Arkavathi river passes nearby through the Thippagondanahalli reservoir and on towards Manchanabele dam. Ok, This is from Wiki ...

We started early in the morning at around 5 30 AM and hit Magadi road. No need of directions, its off Magadi road. We parked the car near a big tree and started our trek towards the hill. My first impression was that we could just walk on the hill and reach the top within a few minutes. I climbed a few steps and looked back Oh Man!!! I was just scared and my heart was beating faster than ever. One slip could send me down the uphill. I started back very slowly and we took the regular path.

Misleading direct path

Regular path

The hills

This was a tougher trek considering the steepness of the hill. We reached the fort which can be assumed base 1 :). The journey from just below the fort upto the fort was very tough as the hill was very steep.

The fort

From Base 1, only 2 of us started to the peak spot. There is a
N A N D I on the peak. There we shooted some pics and started our descent back.

Nandi in the peak

Me at the peak

View from the peak

Considering the energy, this was a very easy trek, but considering the steepness, this was tougher. We started our descent back and climbed down the hill.

On the way back

Another one

Different pose

How it really looks

We left to Bangalore as early as 1 PM and reached Bangalore at
2 30 PM. This trek can be covered in half a day. One more backlog is Trek to Shivagange and then there is big one coming up :).

Trip to Kodaikanal way back in 2006

This was a weekend getaway to Kodaikanal in 2006. It was just a refreshing trip than anything else. We came to Madurai from Chennai and some of our friends joined us from Bangalore.
We finished "N I T H Y A K A R M A" in railway station and got into local transport to reach Kodaikanal.

Oh and there, we just stayed in some hotel recommended by a cabbie.

Our Hotel

DAY 1: We visited Dolphin’s Nose located about eight km from the lake, which is a flat projecting rock from where one can have a breathtaking view of the yawning chasm below. Oh yes, only one place and we went back to the hotel and there had very good dinner and some of the friends boozed and all of us slept tight for the day :)

On the way back from the spot

Near the spot - 1

Near the spot - 2

Day 2: We started off the day cycling around the lake. The scenic beauty was fantastic. The weather was sunny. And then we went around boating in the lake. By then, it was afternoon.
We had good lunch in a D H A B A and packed and started back to Madurai.

Cycling around the lake

Boating - 1

Boating - 2

Back in Madurai, we visited the famous Madurai Meenakshi temple and then had dinner and started our journey back to
C H E N N A I. This completes my one of a few backlogs which I will be updating soon :).