Madhugiri Fort trek

Madhugiri is a hamlet near Tumkur district, around 2 hours drive from Bangalore and 137 km transverse. I got to know about this place when I was skimming the internet for my next trek. Eventually, I found this place overtopped with a fort, which has an elevation of around 1200m.

Well, this much of information was enough for me to trigger my enthusiasm for wandering to this scary place. Yup, this place was a little hazy and scary too, that you will come to know a little later.

I promptly contacted my one friend, who I know that- he could not resist to this adventure and with no time he agreed. That's what I like about this guy.

After doing much of the research of this place, we moved on to our resource checklist,

That's how our checklist! goes...

snacks, check!

water bottles, check!

cameras, check!

ride, check!

enthusiasm, check!

(One thing I learned that when you are travelling in a group, make sure that every folk is enthusiastic or excited for the trip, don't force anyone, otherwise, they will nag your trip and make it miserable).

We headed towards the endpoint at 4 o'clock in the dawn. The roads were flawless, we were dancing because my companion Adi got disco lights in his Tiago, which look pretty amazing at night while driving.

We were quite frightened when we reached the destination point because first, we had no idea where is the starting point as the sky was too much gloomy & hazy and second the town was like one of those Bollywood scary movies, which portrays the people of the town don't like to talk to the strangers and ignore them when asked for any help.

Finally, we got down from the car and headed towards a shopkeeper selling tea in the early morning, he cleared all our sceptical doubts and shows us the path of the monolithic stone.

(Here is the quick tip for travelling to Madhugiri fort, if you start your journey from Bangalore to the fort please depart at 5' o clock. Don't depart in a rush or harass your sleep because the fort opens at around 6:30 a.m. the road is good and you will reach the destination in no time.)

Since we reached the place at 5:30 a.m. So we killed time by lingering around the town, talking to strangers about the popularity of the place and waited till the fort opens.

We were waiting in the parking lot when a person came out in his lungi (traditional Indian pants tied to the waist) and signalled green. We commenced our trek watching the peak, marking the end point, small rocks passing by each steps engulfing new thoughts and ideas.

On our way, we captured some landscapes, distinctive birds, I was learning photography too from Adi, as he is great in that field. The start was amazing but as we rise, it began to scare us a little because of small steps and with limited support in the second level of the trek. It was a bit daunting at that level, we have to balance our body, weighing the resources and at the same time, we have to watch our steps too but with the support of the handles plummeted around the steps, were extremely helpful.

We made an amazing friend too while trekking uphill, his name was Ganesh working in an I.T. firm, he was trekking alone, so we invited him to our small gang. Knowing him was inspirational because while working, he didn't forget his passion to travel, that too solo.

Solo travelling is one of those fears which is inevitable and habitat in most of us. It needs guts to travel solo and explore the world.

When we reached the end of the second level, there comes one of the most hilarious parts of the trek. In that stage, we have to trek sideways without any support, there was a single rope tied to both the ends of the handles, which was of no use to me. Travelling to that course was the hardest task because if we lost that flow, we would be trenched down to half a mountain which we inclined (so, please be extremely careful at that part).

As we completed the second level, we took a halt and thought of- how we will cross that path again as there was only one way of going up and down of the mountain. We drank water and refreshed ourselves to chase the third level of the mountain, as the level increased, elevation increased and small amount of fear also cooked some place in my heart because our trek was becoming harder, the mounting slowly straightening its peak and literally I was crawling at that peak, there was no support and steps built in the mountain were minuscule. You cannot see the peak point from the down, as we rise, we can see a new peak point every time like it was a never-ending process.

Crawling for almost 10 minutes uphill, we found some steps again and walked through it, unknown of the fact that- second hilarious point of the hill was approaching towards us. When we reached the fourth and last stage of the trek, there were steps but it was at the extreme corner of the hill, without any support, which means that, if we plunge from that point, it will take us to the ground level and then we will bounce back towards the heavenly God. (Please acknowledge those steps very carefully).

Accomplishing the last stage and walking towards the peak point was the most simple and delightful task. But when you see the fort, I think you will be quite disappointed because the fort is not really in a good shape. Its all wrecked up but believe me the view from the top was worth the trekking.

We were almost at 1200m elevation, spotting some of the small mountains nearby, thinking of parasailing from the top but unfortunately, there was no such service available.

The Fort

Resting at the top of the hill was heaven, we opened our treasure bag full of snacks and drinks. The thankful part of the trek was the climate, the wind was breezing cool and fortuitously there was no sign of the sun, it was all cloudy and frosty. We all ate our snacks, Ganesh bhai offered us some chocolates which were lovely, Adi brought yummy wafers and I brought nothing. Luckily saved by the other two companions.

After satisfying the stomach, we explored the other glimpse of the mountains, snapped photos and took a small nap. Spending one and a half hours upstairs, the sun glared its rays towards our heads and reminded us that we have to climb down to Earth also. And I was not ready for that.

Climbing down was harder than mounting up the hill because while trekking down, the toes are pressurised and we have to face the legit trench also, which was frightening. While un-mounting we saw some localities teenagers, they were sliding fearless on those daunting hills, like a pool of water is awaiting down for them. But thanks to them as they gave us a lot of courage to us, to climb down. Somehow we did that daunting travel and reached the ground level.

That was it, I glared again to the top and satisfied my hunch of travelling.

Adi and I exchanged pleasantries with Ganesh and on that very moment, my second hunch called me for driving. I shamelessly asked Adi for the keys.

(When it comes to driving, I am very shameless, I can ask anyone for his keys.)

We departed from the place, gathering uncountable memories and saying bye to the lungi man.

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