Savandurga, June 28-29, 2008




Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Savandurga trek turned out to be completely different experience for 20 chennai trekkers, 7 of whom joined from Bangalore. After 6 hours comfortable overnight train journey we reached bangalore early morning where we were greeted by Ramki. We waited for about half hour and our Swaraj Mazda which was arranged in advance by ramki came directly to the station to pick us all up from station. On the way we stopped for breakfast and also joined by few more participants. It took us about 2 hours by bus from our breakfast point to reach the base of Savandurga. Looking at the beast now we understood why it was tagged one of the largest monoliths in the world in wikipedia, definitely the largest in India.

It was just one huge piece of solid rock without any trace of even grass. Ramki started leading majority of the group through an easy to walk path. some of the others couldn't resist climbing it so much that they started climbing the shortest way up! Only after climbing about 50 feet did they realize that its not as easy as it looks and so they started coming down again and joined the other group which was still walking on the easier side of the rock and cheering them and of course also enjoying the show looking at them struggling to get grip steep on rock.

Soon all were in a group following the same path to the top. Well there isn't actually any path in particular just a less steep access route to the top. it took us about 2 to 3 hours to reach the top. We actually took quite steep way up and only after reaching did we realized that there was an easier route too which we took to come back.

The top was somewhat flat and due to presence of soil had some plants and trees. There were some ruins of some old fort or building of some kind where we spent quite some time taking photos. There was a small temple on top which was also the highest point of the mountain. We relaxed and simply enjoyed the beautiful weather.The weather gods couldn't be more favourable to us. the hide and seek game between clouds and sun continued all day long. From the top we could see the dense forest all around us and a beautiful river.

We decided to find a way to the river through the dense vegetation as soon as we reached the bottom. After we had relaxed enough in the strong winds that kept blowing continuously on top and taken group photos we decided to start so that we will have enough time to find the river and play in it. The way back took another one and a half hour and we consumed all had theplas which ramki had brought from bangalore for lunch.

With no more time to waste after lunch, we started heading to direction of the river which was visible from top. We followed a path through the forest but were soon confused after travelling few hundred meters about direction to go to. some kids who were followed us decided to become our guides and told us that they knew the path to the river and so we followed them, and after about 2 to 3 kilometers through the forest, we finally found the beautiful river.

As always with chennai trekkers seeing the beautiful water no one could resist jumping in and almost all of us jumped in it. We played in it for another hour and then started heading back to the base of the hill where our van was waiting for us.We reached the van in perfect time just before sunset and before the rain started pouring down.

With a combination of rock climbing, walking through forest for few kilometers and swimming in a beautiful river and not to forget the great weather we had all day long it was definitely a very enjoyable experience for all the trekkers most of whom were first timers. The trek turned out to be just perfect for first timers and all of them had great time.

Image Library:

Best Photos
Simon>
Karthick
Ramki
Ravisekhar
Mukund

Participants: Ramakrishnan, nandikesh, subhakant, Mukund, Vivek, Hitesh, Anala, Bhyrapura, karthick, simon, Vinay, Srinivas, Vijay, kamesh, Nagarajan, Yaseen, Prashant, Paneesh, Ravi Sekhar, Dhanasekar, Krishnan

Vivek.

0 comments:

 

Copyright © 2015 • The Chennai Trekking Club