Madhugiri

Date: 8 July 2017

Total distance: 227 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:45 am

Return Time:  19:30 pm

With: -

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala - Madhugiri - Koramangala

Madhugiri is the second largest monolith in Asia, with Savandurga being the largest. I had been to Savandurga and wanted to visit Madhugiri, however the distance had been a deterrent. Further, it is a grueling climb and I was not confident of being able to ride back after climbing the hill. I read a few blogs about the Madhugiri trek and budgeted 4 hours to complete the trek. I checked on the route map and decided to take the shortest route which was to ride to Madhugiri through Dabbaspet rather than through Tumkur. It was about 110 kilometers one way and I had done similar distances in the past, however the trek that followed was not as strenuous as this one was expected to be. I wanted to give myself as much of a buffer as possible and planned to start the ride at 3:30 am, similar to the previous week so that I can make it back by 7:00 pm.

Although I had purchased the Trek Alpha 1.5 I was not very keen to ride it to Madhugiri as I was concerned about the safety of the cycle when I would be doing the trek. I had decided to ride the Triban 3, however a chat with Rajkumar changed the decision. He said that the chances of the cycle being stolen/tampered is minute in the rural areas and that I should ride the Trek. The risk of the cycles being stolen is high in the city and as such I did not have to worry about the cycles safety. This changed things and I decided to ride the Trek, I did not prep the cycle the previous night and left it for the morning.

The alarm rang at 2:00 am. I switched it off and wanted to get a few more minutes of sleep. It was 5:00 am when I woke up. I was late, however I did not want to cancel the ride as I knew that I will not be able to ride on Sunday and did not want to miss out on riding this week. It will be my 6th straight weekend ride, nothing to write about, however it's a first in my case that I have been able to sustain the weekend rides over the past 1.5 months.

I got ready, prepped the cycle and started the ride at 5:45 am. It was still dark which was surprising given that it was day break around 5:30 am over the past couple of weeks. Not that I was complaining since I like to cover as much distance as possible before daylight. Mentally the ride starts only at day break. I braced myself for a difficult day on the saddle as I expected it to be a windy day and since I had started 2.5 hours late, I expected to be riding 2.5 additional hours in wind as the wind picks up after day break.

The ride through the city was uneventful and was spent familiarising myself with the cycle. Did not shift the gears a lot, just a couple to get into a comfortable pedaling zone. The late start was rankling me and I did have strong thoughts to turn back and cancel the ride. I did not want to add time pressure and decided to ride till Dabbaspet before taking a call on the destination. As it's a familiar route till Dabbaspet, it was about reaching familiar milestones and pushing ahead from there. I did keep a check on the time and made sure that I was not riding very slow and was meeting the 20kmph requirement. Before long I had reached Nelamangala and the speed increased in the rolling terrain towards Dabbaspet I was beginning to enjoy the ride.

Pretty soon the Shiva Ganga hill was visible, this is a marker for Dabbaspet and every pedal stroke took me closer to Dabbaspet. When I got to Dabbaspet, it was 8:30 am. It was an in between time as I was not very hungry, however I was not sure if I would get anything to eat before reaching Madhugiri. However, considering that it was downhill to Madhugiri and with just 30 kilometers to ride I would be there by 10:00 am and could push myself till then. I took the turn to Madhugiri and saw a huge sign board with distance which showed the distance to Madhugiri as 54 kilometers. I was taken aback as I had thought that distance was in the 30 kilometer range. It was 8:30 am and 54 kilometers would take 2.5 hours pushing the expected arrival time at Madhugiri to 11:00 am. I would have to trek in peak heat and also cycle back in peak heat. This was unnerving and I began to have doubts about riding to Madhugiri.

There was a lot of destinations close by which was making me re-consider. Shiva Ganga and Devarayandurga were within 10 kilometers and were tempting options. The main reason for the re-consideration was that I had budgeted 4 hours for the trek based on the write-ups in the blogs, based on my present timing I would be getting back to Dabbaspet only by 6:00 pm if I took 4 hours for the climb. I realised that 6:00 pm was not too bad as I would be back to familiar territory by night fall and did not have to worry on the route front. Now that I was clear about the destination and all other temptations had been blocked I was able to enjoy the ride.

I was in hill territory, by hill territory I do not mean that I was climbing or descending a hill, I was surrounded by hills and the view kept getting better with each turn. Photo opportunities were limited with the view being blotched by the electricity poles running beside the road. Even though I was enjoying the view I noticed that it was a downhill gradient and I would have a tough time on the return.

By the time I got close to Devaranyandurga I was enjoying the ride. The road was good and as it was downhill I was gaining time. I was tempted to ride to Devaranyadurga and then to Madhugiri. I decided to keep the focus firmly on Madhugiri and kept Devaranyadurga for another day since I had to climb the hill.

I was passing a lot of villages on the route. I was probably hitting a village every 3-4 kilometers. The flip side of so many villages were the road humps. It was a series of 4-5 small humps which forced me to slow down and get over the humps rather than trying to carry speed over them. The slowing down was frustrating since it led to additional effort to get the cycle back to speed.

As I got closer to Korategere I began to see lakes/water bodies. The sight of water is refreshing and the view of a lake surrounded by hills in serene. Although I wanted to stop by the lake it would mean that I would have to go off road for a bit, which was only going to be time lost. As time was at a premium, I did not stop other than a quick stop for a pic. I continued riding and reached Korategere.

The road from Tumkur to Madhugiri merges at Korategere, as I rode out of town the road began to climb towards Madhugiri. There was 19 kilometers to get to Madhugiri and the ride slowed down a little. The Sun hiding behind the clouds helped as it was not hot and it was a slow breeze which kept me cool. I had made it about 3 kilometers out of town, the road was a two lane road and with road work in progress there was very little space available. I could hear a bus blaring its horn behind me, as I was on the road bike I did not venture off the road. As there was traffic coming from the opposite side the bus could not go past me and had to slow down. This ticked the bus driver off and he made it a point to push me off the road when he eventually went past me by swerving into my path. I vented out my frustration with a few expletives, and did feel the urge to chase him down and vent my frustration, however I realised that there would be no difference between me and him if I did that. The thought did occur that these people should not be allowed to drive as they were ready to hurt a person just because they had been slowed down.

The progress was a little slow, however I was still able to keep up with the average speed. As I got closer I got my first sighter of the monolith. The energy levels were beginning to drop as hunger was catching up, a few sips of water to keep the hunger at bay. With the hill in sight, I pushed harder as the target was in sight. A few more kilometers and a couple of long climbs later I was in Madhugiri town. Within a kilometer of entering the town I was at the fort entrance. It was 10:45 am. The excitement to start the trek was pushing me to the base of the hill to start the climb before having breakfast. I calmed down and headed to a restaurant to have Puliyogare and was back at the base at 11:00 am. I locked the cycle to a pole and packed the accessories into the back pack and I started the trek.

I entered the first doorway. Looked above and saw that it was a long climb. Not like last week when I knew that it was a short climb. There is a flight of stairs, some carved in the rocks which leads up the hill; uneven height steps which adds to the effort. I saw the first fort wall and could see that the place has been abused by tourists as they had engraved their names into the fort wall. A few more steps and I reached the next fort wall and saw that the entire wall had names engraved on it. It was shocking to see that people had no respect for the property and derived pleasure from spoiling the beauty of the place. There was a clear demarcated path which led to a flight of stairs adjacent to the fort wall. Just as I reached the stairs there was a group of 4 tourists who started their climb. We climbed up the stairs and followed the path and reached a dead end. I headed back, by which time the other group found the path. I turned back again and saw that we had taken the wrong route as there was another flight of steps which led to what seemed like the main doorway at this fort.

Enter the doorway and we begin to see the outposts. One outpost stands out as it is built atop a boulder and is distinctly visible from the higher reaches of the fort. Getting to the outpost is an exercise in itself as it is a short steep climb followed by a small steep flight of stairs. The outpost walls are high and we have to either climb the gaps in the wall or look at the view through the small holes built in the wall which were probably meant for rifles/guns. If climbing up to the outpost was an experience, getting down from it was another experience as it is a steep descent and the stones are slippery. Although it is a very small descent, I had to get down gradually.

There is a step well which is dry and as I passed by it I reached the next door which leads to the next level of the hill. This is where the climb begins to get steep and is pretty much similar to the climb to the outpost. The climb to the outpost is 10 meters, but the climb up the hill is almost a kilometer. Steps are carved in the hill and a railing has been fixed for support. In spite of the support the gradient of the climb is difficult. Initially I tried to climb two steps at a time since the height of the step is small, however, I was beginning to tire and decided to take small steps to reduce the stress on the legs and save it up for the return journey.

I passed by another doorway and another flight of steps led me to the part which is considered dangerous in the Madhugiri trek. The climb takes a deviation and for about 20 meters there is just steps carved in the rock for support as the route climbs diagonally. Railings have not been fixed here and there is a rope for support, just in case. It is not a difficult section, however it is the height, slippery surface and the wind which throws caution to the wind and we begin to have doubts about being able to cross it. When I reached this section there was a family which was crossing. There were 3 children, the mother and father and another person in the group. Couple of kids were below 10 years and the father had to make three trips across to take the kids and the mother across. I was stuck behind and had to wait for them to cross till I could cross this section. It was only a 10 minute delay, but under the circumstances it looked like a lot.

I made it to the next doorway and from here there are no railings, the hill is steep and steps are carved into the rock again. The direction to the top is painted on the rocks and I followed the arrows to get to the top. I ascended steadily, the aim was to take small steps and keep moving rather than to take large steps and then having to stop for rest. A few people were coming downhill and as I made it past them I was the only one on this part of the hill. I had left the other climbers behind and was happy that I had the hill to myself. I made steady progress and there was a part where the arrow pointed to crawling under a boulder, I climbed around the boulder rather than crawling under it. The next door is close to the ledge and getting here we are very close to the edge of the hill. A slight slip can get us down the hill very quickly.

I went past this door and started another ascent. This section was not very steep. I could see the ruins at the top of the hill and knew that I had made it to the top. I had taken an hour to climb the hill. The place reminded me of a miniature version of a Scottish palace in ruins. The ruin is supposed to be a temple and also the place where the king held his court. The dome shaped granaries are at the back.  I walked around and saw the view from the top. The place is surrounded by hills and other than that it is barren with one side being occupied by the Madhugiri town.

I started the descent and was careful getting down and realised that getting down was more difficult than climbing. Since the stone surface does not have any grip the constant fear of slipping was making it difficult until I realised that there was sufficient grip and that I could increase the speed. I broke into a slow jog/fast walk and was able to reduce the pressure on the legs with this method of descending. I saw that the family group was making progress, however the mother was not too excited about the climb and was trying to dissuade the rest of the members from going further. As I got down further I saw other tourists taking rest stops and had to answer questions of how much of the climb is left.

I got past the difficult sections and as I got lower it got easier. It took 40 minutes to descend and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the cycle was still in the same place where I had parked it. Quickly fixed the accessories onto the cycle, answered the questions of inquisitive locals about the ride and headed into town and stopped to have coconut water.

It was 1 pm when I started the return. It was lunch time, however as I had breakfast at 10:45 am I was not hungry. I could push for another hour at least and decided to stop at Korategere for lunch. I started slowly just to get a feeler of the condition of the legs. There was no sign of cramps and as the confidence grew on the physical front I began to increase the pace. It helped that it was downhill and I covered the distance quickly till the gradient began to climb. I made it to Korategere town at 1:45 pm, 20 kilometers covered in 45 minutes and wanted to ride further as I was not hungry. I was out of water and knew that if I did not make the stop here then I would have to get to Dabbaspet which is two hours away for lunch. I stopped for water and bought biscuits as a filler to keep me going till Dabbaspet.

I hopped back onto the saddle and got ready to ride to Dabbaspet which was the difficult part of today's ride since it was uphill and I was doing it after the trek. To my surprise I was able to sustain an average speed of 20 kmph. It helped that the Sun was still hiding behind the clouds. As I got closer to Devarayandurga I was getting hungry and as I had a lake beside, I opted to take a break. I pushed the cycle off the road and through the field and sat on a rock and as I munched on biscuits I enjoyed the view of the lake. About 5 minutes in a couple of crows came close in the hope of snatching the biscuit packet and were not going away in spite of me shooing them. Took a couple of pebbles to chase one crow, however the other one kept coming back. I had no option but to beat a hasty retreat from the place.

It was 2:45 pm when I restarted the ride and I was into the climb almost immediately. Made decent progress and realised that the climb was not as difficult as I had expected. I went past Devarayandurga and as I got closer to Dabbaspet hunger was beginning to kick in again. I had decided to ride to Kamat hotel just after Dabbaspet for lunch. As I got closer, the Shiva Ganga hill became visible and served as a marker for Dabbaspet town. The ride got easier as I got closer to Dabbaspet and before long I made it to Kamat restaurant.

I had a sumptuous south Indian meal, watermelon juice and refilled the water bottle. I had over eaten and was apprehensive if I would come down with a stomach cramp again. I packed the phone into a zip lock cover since it looked like it was going to rain. I took 45 minutes for lunch and started the ride at 4:30 pm.

There were a few droplets of rain, however, I did not want to wait and started the ride. In a few minutes I had made it past the rain clouds and into dry weather. For the first time I was hoping that there would not be a tail wind since the wind would bring the rain clouds into my route. I was happy with the present situation, Sun behind the clouds, slight cross wind and no tail wind. The weather was not hot which allowed me to ride quickly. Since it was rolling terrain I was able to ride quickly and made it to Nelamagala earlier than expected.

The quick ride motivated me to keep pushing. I was feeling tired but with the city within sight I was able to ride quickly. When I got to the Peenya flyover I was not able to get onto it as I was pushed to take the road under by the traffic. This cost me a lot of time as I was stuck at every traffic signal under the flyover and each signal lasted over 3 minutes. It was frustrating to break the rhythm and as I got into the city the blaring horns were getting on my nerves. All signs that I was tired and feeling the effect of the days ride and trek. I had a traffic filled ride through the city and managed to get home at 7:30 pm.