Savandurga trek

We were 5 people on 3 bikes who went for the Savan Durga trek. Savan Durga was known to be one of the largest monolith rocks in Asia. How did it matter, if we walked on many rocks or a single one?

I was on my bike and we had to go through the terrible city traffic of Bangalore to reach Magadi road. We realized that we had missed the NICE road (a major highway) that could have saved us the trouble.

After taking the Magadi road, we were in for a nice riding experience as there were major curves on the road. We reached Savan Durga by 1:15 and started trekking by about 1:30 pm. I was leading the group, and was fast climbing up. I started with the wrong route and climbed a little too steep slope which I abandoned soon. Then when I was ahead of others, I couldn't see them and I had to figure out the way. I again took the wrong route, tried climbing a steep slope and was thrown down by the rock. I realized my folly, and moved back to the trail.

Follow the electric lines, the locals had said. I tried doing that literally, and ended up climbing lots of rocks. I thought that I couldn't have gone the wrong way since there were rocks there, which made the climb easy. Plus I was following the Electric lines. But I was greatly mistaken. There was a steep climb on rocks, and I soon hit a difficult climb. I had to climb a height 6 feet, in a single step. I managed, but then I hit a big dead end. There were steps that were going directly into the fort wall with an opening for a cannon at a height. I guess in olden times, soldiers would have climbed that way just to find a cannon sitting above them that would have blown them to pieces. Lucky for me, there was no cannon. But unluckily, I was stuck at the wrong place. The path was very steep on either sides and I had no footholds. I tried to climb up against the fort wall, but it was no use. I was panting heavily and trying to find out what to do. I took a short break and regained my breath. I found a small step on the rock and put my foot on it. There was nothing more, so I had to think hard before I could continue. Then realizing, that going back was not an option for me, I used my knees to climb the steep rock. I lay on the rock, climbing bit by bit on my knees. The trick worked though it left my knees quite bruised. Finally, I got up and saw that what horrible trail I had climbed and I also found the right trail.

After that, I met 3 guys coming down and they were sort of surprised to see me alone. They told me to be careful since it was a difficult path ahead. I smiled. With what I had just climbed, whatever's ahead must be a cakewalk. I climbed up within a short time and I was on the summit after a gruelling climb of 1 hr 15 minutes.

I sat peacefully, enjoyed the quiet and waited for my friends to turn up. I saw them waving at a large distance, and they soon came to the top to join me. We had lunch, spent some more time talking, listening to music and then climbed down without any difficulty.

This time we took the NICE road, and we were at home soon. It was a nice trek, certainly a bit challenging, but not at all a difficult one. Being a monolith rock, it certainly gets a bit difficult climbing since its a single rock to climb up and it gets a bit steep at times. Good thing is, people have cut footsteps in the monolith for making the climb much easier. But if you are like me who lost his way, then you are going to find it difficult to climb. So you are advised, if you are doing Savandurga for the first time, stick to the trail and leave all the adventurous, off-the-beaten-path climbing for the subsequent attempts.