SAVANDURGA

SAVANDURGA TREKKING. KARNATAKA.



Savan durga is a monolithic hill located around 60KM from Bangalore, it is located near Magadi road.The hill is considered to be one among the largest monolithic in the world and it rises to 1226 meters above sea level. The place is easily accessible from Bangalore and is easy to drive down.

The place gets a lot of visitors almost all the seasons. There are two three temples on the way to the hill and one right below the hill. People usually visit the temple before starting the trek.Reach the location early morning as the sun rises it will be difficult to hike.
People of all age group and gender are found to be hiking to the hill but only few gets to the peak.
The place would be slippery during rain and trekking is not advisable during the rainy season.

A View from half the way.

           We a group of eight members started our journey on a Saturday early morning from Marathalli and took the road toward Mysore road and took right on to the Dodda aladhamara road after Kengeri and proceeded towards Manchinbele dam and passed through the Savandurga forest and reached the destination around 7 am, we were late by an hour than the schedule as one of the bike in our group lost the way and others had to wait for them to join back. We started the hike around 8 am after  visiting the temple and having a tender coconut. Carry your breakfast and water as its hard to get any thing to eat nearby.

The rock looks small from the bottom but there are multiple elevations on top of the main rock that we see from the bottom. It takes around 1.30 - 2 hours if you are hiking slowly. The rocks are slippery so you should be climbing in the direction that the other trekkers are taking.There are few places where the rock is too steep to climb, at such places they have made foot hols for the grip.

As you climb up a bit high the panoramic view will amaze you, there is so much of greenery around and you can see the river Arkavathy flowing at a distance. There are few remains of a fort wall on the way up, hope there were forts built by the rulers in the previous centuries.

As I said earlier there are multiple stages for this hike, we were on an intention that once we climb the first hill we are are on top of it, but once we reached the top of the first stage of the hill we could see there is much more to climb and the same repeated twice more.

Finally after a lot of sweating, we reached on top of the hill after around 2 hours slow hike, enjoying the view and taking pics. There were a lot of people including ladies and children when we started our climb but could see only 3-4 people on the top.There is a small Ganapathi statue on top of the hill and the view from here is fantastic. It is dangerous to go to the edge of the peak as there is no fencing at the edges. Be careful while taking selfies.

 Its a good place to plan for a days trekking from Bangalore. Staying there is not advisable as there are no proper hotels near by. Start trekking early morning and enjoy sunrise from Hill top.

We pulled back after spending around 30 mins on top of the hill glancing at the beautiful view.
There were no hotels nearby so we had to drive back hungry stomach till Kanakapura and from there we filled our stomach and headed to Bangalore.

Carry at least some biscuits for breakfast,else you may have to starve till afternoon.


Click here to see map

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THADIYANDAMOL TREKKING,COORG

Thadiyandamol:-

              

                 Thadiyandamol is the tallest peak in kodagu(Coorg) dist, and the third highest peak of Karnataka.It is part of the western ghats range. Kodagu dist has a chill climate as that of ooty. The place has a lot of hills and its almost fully green through out the year. The hills are almost covered with coffee and spices plantations.The place has to be visited during the winter season.

Thadiyandamol

How to reach:-

Thadiyandamol is situated at a place known as Kakkabe, which is around 25 KM from Virajpet.

One visiting from Bangalore can head straight to Virajpet or Madikri. It is around 35km from madikeri to kakkabe.

We a group of 5 people headed to Virajpet from bangalore in KSRTC bus and reached Virajpet early morning. We had already arranged for home-stay at Cauvery homestay which is at Kabbinakadu.

 We took a bus from Virajpet which is going towards Kakkabe and gotoff at Maradhadi school stop. Cauvery Homestay is a budget homestay with reasonable rate, Muthappa/Harish(9738199731) can be contacted for booking.

They have a homestay adjacent to Harish's house and you will get nice home made Coorg food, this is ideal for couples too. They also have another home-stay on top of the an hill adjacent to this place, this would be ideal for camp-fire and partying. The road to this place is very steep and only the Jeeps would go up till the top.Hareesh would drop you on top of the hill in his jeep and he would charge around 500rps for this and its worth giving.

We took a room at the home stay adjacent to Harish's house and freshened up, had breakfast from there and packed the food for afternoon and headed toward Thadiayandamol in his jeep. Only four wheel powered Jeeps can reach at least half the way up to the hill. There is an Old palace known as Aramane palace on the way to Thadiyandamol,you can visit this place too.

Harish dropped us half the way to the hill and  charged 1000rps in bulk. We started our hike from a point after the Aramane palace. The place was little dry so there was no leeches at this time.It would take around 3-3.5 hours to climb till top of the hill. The cold strong wind may slow you down at times.Carry glucose,water and if you are planning start hike in the morning pack your lunch too.

View from peak 

There is long way to climb, the best time to visit is during Aug - Dec where the climate would be good and there will not be much leeches, anyway carry salt as a precaution.
We had started our hike at 12 in the noon and reached on top at around 3.30. The view from top of the peak is heavenly, one may loose them self in  scenic beauty and the fresh air that blows.

View from top of Thadiyandamol

 We had planned to tent on top of the hill and had taken tents with us. Unlucky us , 2-3 days prior to our visit there was a wild fire that happened and the forest guards did not let any one tent on top of the hill. Great time disappointed we climbed down and the night had fallen.

Hareesh picked us near to the Aramane palace and  took us to his home stay on top of another hill (Not sure about the name of the Hill).This place has a dormitory which can accommodate 20-25 people and another room with can accommodate around 4-5 people. We did not take a room any ways, as we know Muthappa personally, he allowed us to put a tent in front of the home-stay.
We put on the camp fire and enjoyed a dinner sitting around it.

One can start trekking to Thadiyandamol from here too, this route is known as Honey valley route, this route is more scenic but the distance is more. One can reach the home stay at night and then start trekking early morning. Carry sweaters and blankets,climate will be very chill.

Cauvery homestay (on top of hill)

Chelavara Falls:- 

This is a water fall of 100 feet height which attracts a lot of tourists,The water here is dangerous hence a police guard is deployed to stop people from getting in to water.This place is around 4 km inside from the Virajpet to Kakabe main road. Finding a public transport to this place is very difficult. We had to walk for around 2 hours to reach the fall from the home stay and from the fall again there was 4 km to reach main road, luckily got a carrier Jeep and we could reach main road in that. Local people here would help you with the route. .

Chelavara Falls

Route from bangalore:-

1) Bangalore --100Kms--> Mandya --26Kms--> Srirangapattana --20Kms--> Elivala--31Kms--> Hunsuru--45Kms--> Gonikoppa l--16Kms--> Virajpet--26Kms--> Kakkabe.

2) Bangalore--->Mandya--->Srirangapattana--->Mysore-->Hunsuru-->Kushalnagar-->Madikeri-->Kakabe.

There are two ways to do trekking to  Thadiyandamol.

1. The most preferred is the Aramane palace route.

2. Honey valley route , this route start from the top of the hill that Cauvery homestay is located.

Caution:- 

Carry proper cold clothings and blankets, Its good to carry salt as a precaution for leeches.

Carry enough food and water while hiking. 

Do not visit during monsoon, the place would be very slippery and there would be lot of leeches.

Route map:-  

Click here

JENKAL BETTA TREKKING, SAKLESHPUR

Jenkal betta.

Jenkal betta is a mountain range that is part of the western ghats. It is located at Sakleshpur dis. of  Karnataka. The mountain is always green covered as Sakleshpur receives high rainfall throughout the year.

This is a paradise for trekkers as there is a huge range of mountains with many high peaks. Few of the famous peaks are Ompathu gudda, Deepakallu,Ettina Bhuja, Jenkal Betta. etc.

Jenkal betta

How to reach:-

The nearby City is Bangalore and is at a distance of approx 230 KM,
We a group of 8 members from Bangalore travelled to Hassan by KSRTC bus, as we reached Hassan the pre scheduled taxi was waiting for us in the bus stand. The very helpful driver took us to Sakleshpur town.
Sakleshpur town is a small place where we can find budget rooms and food .We booked a room for 2 hours ,freshened up and started journey towards the destn post breakfast from a nearby restaurant.

It is advisable to parcel the lunch and start hiking in the morning itself.
It took around 20 mins to reach Hanbal from sakleshpur town and from there we took a diversion toward Hodachalli.

There are buses available from Sakleshpur to Hanbal and from there you can take a jeep to reach the Bettadha bhaireshwara temple. Trekking starts from the temple.
There is jeep path that leads you half the way to the hill and later you can follow the small foot track to reach till the top of the hill.

There are a range of mountains available to trek, its advisable to take a guide if you are planing for a long trek.We could make out the route easily as there was proper foot track available till the top of the mountain that we hiked.

Route from Bangalore:-

Bangalore - Nelamangala - Kunigal - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Hanbal - Hodachalli - Jenkal Betta.

Bettadha Bhaireshwara temple

The heavenly view from top of the hill is an unforgettable one, you will be greeted with slight showers and  it gets foggy at times as the mist flows with wind.

Caution:-

Carry enough food and water as the place is humid and there is no shops available after Hanabal.
There will be lot of leeches during rain and its good to carry enough salt, alternately tobacco powder mixed with oil can be applied all over your legs.

We had carried tents with us but had to drop our plan due to heavy rain and leeches.

Avoid trekking during monsoon time as the hill will be slippery and leaches will be more.Best time to visit is during Sep - June.

Expenditure:-

If you are planning for a budget trip it would cost you  around 2000rps - 3000rps per head.

MAP to reach Hanbal:- Click here